Opinion
Education Letter to the Editor

If Merit Pay Is So Good, Use It on Federal Workers

October 16, 2007 1 min read
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To the Editor:

Regarding your recent article concerning the federal push to “reform” teacher salary structures by linking pay to increases in test scores or other agreed-upon targets, such as holding school leadership positions (“Teacher-Pay Experiments Mounting Amid Debate,” Oct. 3, 2007):

Perhaps the feds should attempt this experiment in their own ranks. As a U.S. Army veteran, I still have the distinct bad taste of remembering how hard I worked as a Specialist 4 for a limited wage, while federal workers at the Department of the Army with grades of GS 10 to GS 12 felt perfectly comfortable doing the bare minimum to draw a wage that was triple my own. If performance-pay research demonstrates positive results, let the government reform the civil service system first—maybe then we can wipe out the federal deficit.

Bea DeRego

Kaneohe, Hawaii

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A version of this article appeared in the October 17, 2007 edition of Education Week as If Merit Pay Is So Good, Use It on Federal Workers

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