Matt Yglesias on Teacher Compensation
Matt has responded to my post and he’s uncertain where it is that we disagree:
What I said in my post is that if you take the idea that teaching matters seriously, then you can’t seriously think that the Last In, First Out layoff policies and seniority-based compensation schemes that are mandated by most teaching collective bargaining agreements are a good idea.
Well that’s one point of disagreement right there. Last In, First Out (LIFO) and seniority may not be the most ideal way to determine who keeps their job, but the alternatives proposed by most reformers are no better, and sometimes they strike me as much worse.
For instance, imagine you are a cash-strapped state government with a governor like Scott Walker as executive. LIFO and seniority policies mean that the most senior teachers, who cost the state the most money, are protected from layoffs – regardless of quality. So you use that last point – quality, even though most of the
