NJ Teacher of the Year speaks out against merit pay

When Maryann Woods-Murphy saw a Star-Ledger editorial calling on good teachers to “speak up for merit pay,” she took up the challenge. But New Jersey’s current Teacher of the Year has a very different perspective on the issue. “I don’t need to be paid extra to do my job better,” wrote Woods-Murphy in a Star Ledger guest editorial in which she called merit pay “the wrong thing for our students, our schools and our profession.”

“We don’t need another reform gimmick. We just need the support and resources to do the job we love,” wrote Woods-Murphy, in a spirited defense of her New Jersey teaching colleagues. “That is why this good teacher will never argue for merit pay.”