Teachers’ union president calls merit pay naive and short-sighted | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

Teachers’ union president calls merit pay naive and short-sighted | The Lookout - Yahoo! News:

Teachers’ union president calls merit pay naive and short-sighted

By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – 2 hrs 42 mins ago

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Van Roekel (NEA.org)

The Lookout sat down with the president of the nation's largest teacher's union, Dennis Van Roekel, Monday to ask him about a hot topic in education reform right now--teacher compensation.

Van Roekel is attending NBC's "Education Nation" summit in New York, which has focused on the need to boost teachers' salaries. The network hosted the premiere of "American Teacher," a new documentary last night. Teachers and experts profiled in the documentary spoke of the need for the country's teaching force to be treated and compensated like other college-educated professionals.

Van Roekel, a former high school math teacher from Phoenix, pushed back against education reformers who say the best way to increase teacher compensation is by handing out cash bonus