In between all those Joe the Plumber references, the DC Public Schools got some play in last night’s presidential debate. One of the few things Obama and McCain agreed on was that DCPS sucks. Here’s the relevant clip - DCPS pops up around 2:30.

McCain argues that D.C. is proof that vouchers work. Obama responds, “We’ve got a wonderful new superintendent there who’s working very hard with the young mayor there” and that they actually support charter schools. So what’s the truth?
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In the midst of contract negotiations between DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Washington Teachers’ Union, a group of area business people have taken matters into their own hands by hiring teachers to lobby their fellow educators in favor of Rhee’s plan. Rhee’s green tier/red tier system, which would allow teachers to forgo tenure in favor of merit-based pay raises, was contentious enough without help from this new lobbying group, Strong Schools DC.It makes sense that DC’s business community would want to push for measures that will raise standardized test scores, presumably because better public schools will have a positive effect on property values. But there’s no guarantee that Rhee’s plan will actually raise scores, and it’s sketchy that teachers are being paid to lobby for Rhee because it calls their feelings about the plan into question.

The worst part, though, is Rhee’s evasive not-quite-denial of involvement with the organization:

Through her spokeswoman, Mafara Hobson, Rhee said she can recall no communications with her staff about Strong Schools or with the organization directly.

I know she’s a busy woman, but not being able to recall something is pretty different from being sure you didn’t do it, and if Rhee is at all involved in paying teachers to push her plan, DCPS is in even worse shape than I thought.

Michelle Rhee’s tiered pay plan would allow DC school teachers to trade their tenure and scheduled pay raises in exchange for merit bonuses. Seems fair, but Nathan Saunders of the Washington Teacher’s Union is on WAMU right now saying that new teachers would automatically enter the merit bonus tier–effectively eliminating teacher tenure as tenured teachers leave the system.

This would create a backdoor for making the DC schools system performance-based. Performance-based pay might be a good idea, and the tier system is a good idea if it truly allows choice. Rhee shouldn’t be using the tier system, though, to impose performance pay on all teachers.

Saunders sounds like a crank, and pretty much is, but this looks like just another example of the Fenty administration avoiding fair processes in its rush to change the city.