Show American Federation of Teachers calls for teacher incentives National President of the American Federation of Teachers AFT Albert Shanker said in a recent conference conference conference con con- ference in Washington DC D.C. that President B Bushs Bush's sh's million Merit Schools Proposal was a waste of of- money that will encourage more of the same old thing rather than a desperately needed wide system-wide change in public education The conference hosted jointly by the AFT and QuEST Quality Education Standards in Teaching brought teachers and educators from around the nation to discuss current problems in education education education tion and to seek viable According to Shanker the consequences of failing to deal with what he terms a crisis situation could be grave Unless we turn our system around and dramatically dramatically dramatically cally improve student learning learning learning learn learn- ing he pointed out we face the destruction of our public education system AFT's solution is not simply simp simp- ly a matter of a budget budge increase increase increase in in- crease but provides incentives for the total school faculty These incentives would prom prompt pt teachers to work together as a unit instead of the present system of incentives incentives incentives tives which encourages teachers individually but fails to encourage them to work together as a unit Ken State Director of AFT's Utah Project and a participant in the QuEST Conference Conference Conference Con Con- ference said Shanker suggested suggested suggested sug sug- that merit schools would avoid all of the pit falls of individual merit pay and effectively join cooperation with competition explained how the new system would provide productive results in tion Merit schools would provide provid a collective collaborative collaborative collaborative col col- col- col effort by the total school faculty to move for- for ward and achieve goals usually usually usually usual usual- ly supported and reached by individual teachers in isolated efforts Merit schools would pave the way for school-based school m management and shared- shared decision making one of the he imperatives of school turing At the root of the problem according to lies a f failure of our educational system system system tem to exploit the greatest asset it has the teacher Bright articulate individualistic individualistic individualistic in in- teachers arc are the key element to successful public education and teachers must be given the key of decision making and with that prerogative elevate schools to their highest potential poten poten- |