By The Times/Ledger
To almost no one's surprise, the American Federation of Teachers voted nearly unanimously last week at its conference in Philadelphia to reject the concept of merit pay for public school teachers. Merit pay would reward teachers based on their performance.
The AFT and other opponents of merit pay argue that it would penalize teachers who are willing to take on the most difficult students and that, in extreme cases, it would encourage teachers to cheat when grading tests and assigning grades. If this sounds far-fetched, consider that there is a poster in virtually every public school in New York City encouraging teachers to report any fellow teacher who they believe is cheating.
The teachers
