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A teacher: Why I am not going to keep my bonus

This may not be a popular opinion, but it is one that is a matter of principle to me.

I will be receiving $2,000 in bonuses this year for having a certain number of students pass the AP English Language and Composition Exam for the 2015-16. Many of you may think that it will somewhat ameliorate tensions with public school teachers like me. I do not think it will at all. I feel that it just exacerbates the real problem:

Lack of respect for all public school teachers.

I am not going to keep my bonus. To me it’s just academic “blood money.”

I read about this provision of bonus money frequently over the summer as the budget moved through the legislative process. According to an article by reporter Lynn Bonner in the News & Observer, “the bonuses are capped at $2,000 per teacher per year. Scores from 2015-16 and 2016-17 will be used. Bonuses are to be paid in January 2017 and January 2018. Teachers whose students earn approved industry certifications or credentials will win bonuses of $25 or $50 per student, depending on the value of the credential as determined by the state Department of Commerce.”

In fact, I would receive more money in bonuses if there was no cap. But unlike class sizes, the bonuses are capped.

But, as I said, I will not keep the bonus. Part of it will be taxed. The state will get some of it back. The feds will get some of it. Some of what the feds will get may be paying for Medicaid in other states, which is ironic because we didn’t expand it here in North Carolina. None of it will go to my retirement plan.

The rest I will give back to my school. And don’t think I do not need the money. I do — two kids, car payment, mortgage, therapy for a special needs child, etc.

But I can’t make it this way, especially when I know why the bonus is given and the fact that it doesn’t really belong to me because so many more people at my school helped my students pass my particular AP test, one that does not even have any influence on their transcript.

I know that there are other teachers I know well who will receive bonuses for their students passing AP tests. If they keep that money, that’s their business. They need the money. They have families and needs. I will not in any way ask them what they will do with it.

But here is why I can’t keep the bonus:

1. I do not need a carrot stick. If getting a bonus to get students to perform better really works, then this should have been done a long time ago. But it does not. I do not perform better because of a bonus. I am not selling anything. I would like my students and parents to think that I work just as hard for all of my students in all of my classes because I am a teacher.

2. This creates an atmosphere of competition. I did not get into teaching so that I could compete with my fellow teachers and see who makes more money, but rather collaborate with them. Giving some teachers a chance to make bonuses and not others is a dangerous precedent.

3. I did not take those tests. The students took the tests. Sometimes I wish that I could take the tests for them, but if you are paying me more money to have students become more motivated, then that is just misplaced priorities. These students are young adults. Some vote; most drive; many have jobs; many pay taxes. They need to be able to harness their own motivation, and hopefully I can couple it with my motivation.

But many of these students are taking eight classes, participating in extracurricular activities, and helping families. Plus, all the testing we put on students that takes away from actual instructional time is staggering. Sometimes, I am amazed at what our students actually accomplish in light of the gravity they are placed under.

4. I was not the only person who taught them. To say that the success of my students on the AP English Language and Composition Test solely rested on my performance is ludicrous. While the cliché’ “It takes a village” might be overused, I do believe that the entire schools’ faculty and staff has something to do with not only my students’ success, but my own. The content, study skills, time management, and discipline that students must exercise to pass the AP test certainly did not all come from me. Everyone on staff, every coach, and every PTSA volunteer has helped to remove obstacles for students so they could achieve.

5. Bonus pay does not work. It’s like merit pay. There is really no evidence that it helps public schools. Remember the ABCs from the late 1990s and the early 2000s? Yep, I do too.

6. The state does not have a reputation of fully funding their initiatives. Again, remember the ABCs? I still do. Those bonuses dried up because they were not fully funded. And after the bonuses are taken away (which they probably will be), will the expectations of student performance be lessened? History says that it will not.

7. My class is not more important than others. If some subjects matter more than others, then why do schools weigh all classes the same on a transcript? If some subjects matter more than others, then why do we teach all of those subjects? I certainly feel that, as an English teacher, the need to teach reading and writing skills is imperative to success in any endeavor a student wishes to pursue after graduation. In fact, what teachers in any subject area are trained to do is to not just impart knowledge, but treat every student as an individual with unique learning styles, abilities, and aptitudes in a manner that lets each student grow as a person — one who can create and make his/her own choices.

8. This sets a dangerous precedent in measuring students and teachers. Effective public schools are collaborative communities, not buildings full of contractors who are determined to outperform others for the sake of money. And when teachers are forced to focus on the results of test scores, teaching ceases from being a dynamic relationship between student and teacher, but becomes a transaction driven by a carrot on an extended stick. Furthermore, student growth is different than student test scores. When some of our colleagues deal with students who experience more poverty, health issues, and other factors, how can you say those teachers do not “grow” those students when an arbitrary test score is all that is used to measure students?

9. This is a reward, but far from showing respect. It’s an election year. Many teachers got a raise, but again, that is an “average” raise. Bonuses in this case seem more like “hush money” and a means for politicians to brag that they seem to care about teacher compensation. But if they really respected teachers, they would do more for them than give “bonuses” to a few. You would reward them with salaries comparable to the rest of the nation. You would restore due-process rights for new teachers, you would give back graduate degree pay, you would stop measuring schools with a defeatist model, and you would restore longevity pay.

10. It’s pure electioneering. There is uncontrolled charter school growth. There are loosened sanctions on for-profit virtual schools. There are massive amounts of money going to Opportunity Grants which will no doubt fill the coffers of schools that do not even teach the same curriculum as those teachers you want to “reward” with these bonuses. There is HB2, HB3/TABOR, and an ASD district. All of this affects the very schools that you think a bonus will help to hide.

These bonuses are not part of the solution. They are a symptom of a bigger problem. And while I will defend each person who receives this bonus and his/her right to keep it and spend it any way he/she chooses, I plan to give mine to my school, one of many that are not fully resourced.

Stuart Egan

Stuart Egan is an English teacher at West Forsyth High School in Winston Salem, North Carolina.