To: The New York State House, The New York State Senate, and Governor Andrew Cuomo

Parents opposed to Governor Cuomo's "merit pay" for "highly effective" Teachers

As parents who are residents of the state of New York, we strongly oppose Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposal to give merit pay for teachers rated "highly effective" on the state's flawed teacher evaluation system.

We stand with our teachers, so very many of whom were already truly highly effective before the implementation of the new APPR standards. We insist that you do not impose this merit pay upon our teachers and our school districts.

As parents, this is our commitment to our children and to our teachers.

Why is this important?

We parents value excellence in our teachers. We value their ability to effectively teach and to inspire our children to learn and develop myriad types of success throughout their lives.

Our teachers should never need to compete with each other in this way; they should work together for the good of all of our children. This competition for “merit” pay will also lead to an increased emphasis on testing and teaching to those tests – rather than on teaching our children how to learn and how to develop their best talents and abilities. It will discriminate against teachers who work with ELL students, Special Needs students and students who live in poverty, and lead to an exodus of experienced teachers from high poverty districts.