Eliot Cutler on Merit Pay

I asked independent candidate for Governor Eliot Cutler to respond to my earlier post about merit pay, which made the point, among others, that the candidates needed to go beyond easily misunderstood terms like "merit pay" and help voters understand what that would mean for Maine's students, parents and teachers. His response, below, addresses several of the issues that entry raised. While there is still time for other candidates to develop education platforms as practical, clear and thoughtful, as of now, Mr. Cutler is the only candidate who has done so.

I believe that educators and teams of educators who demonstrate their ability to improve student achievement ought to be rewarded for their efforts. Recognition for growth in student success should not look only to student test scores nor should rewards be limited to pay. My plan will reward successful collaboration and support opportunities for school leadership and targeted professional development.


The present system, a simplistic seniority based system, which makes no distinction between those who lead and teach effectively and those who do not, is not serving either children or the public well and does not drive school improvement based on teacher collaboration and effective mentoring.

I am a believer in looking at growth and gain and how much a student is improving each year based on a variety of indicators and on the efforts of a variety of educators. Where we can identify student success, we should reward those individual educators, the teams and the schools responsible for accelerating student progress and shine a spotlight on and most importantly learn from and replicate that success.

We are a state with a lot of rural schools, many of which are in need of qualified teachers in a wide range of fields. Without doubt, Maine’s over-reliance on a lock-step salary schedule for all teachers hurts our state in efforts to recruit and retain top-level teaching talent, not only in our urban areas but also in the northern part of Maine. With one-third of our teachers expected to retire in the near future, Maine must consider alternative compensation systems and move beyond a lock step salary schedule to attract the best and the brightest.

The statements above should not be controversial. I spoke yesterday to a Maine teacher's union leader who agrees in principle with everything Mr. Cutler says. As I wrote earlier, the key in any such approach is that it accomplishes what it sets out to - not an easy thing. I also heard the Executive Director of that union, Mark Gray, say on Maine Public Broadcasting that "merit pay" does not work. He's right in some ways too, though the example he used - a twenty year old attempt in Cape Elizabeth when we knew far less about links between certain incentives and outcomes - was not terribly relevant, and also illustrated why making policy via sound bites is a bad idea.

I firmly believe the MEA not only can be a part of the solution, but as the most visible organization representing teachers in Maine should take the lead on developing a common sense approach that all the candidates can endorse. Whether "performance assessment,"(a much more accurate and less polarizing term than "merit pay") rises above the distractions and misinformation of campaign season remains to be seen.

But it will be a factor after November - and it can be done well or done poorly. Kudos to Mr. Cutler for leading with an issue that opens him up to a pot shot or two. Advocating for quality teaching should be seen as a teacher-friendly position, regardless of how others portray it, and we need a governor willing to engage in the hard work of making sure every student in Maine has the best possible opportunity for quality teaching.