The Investigation of an Ethical Issue - Essay Example

Even while acknowledging the validity of a number of the ethical concerns raised, the fact is that not only are they resolvable but the merit scheme is a meritorious strategy. As school populations increase, teacher populations decrease. While the obvious solution to the problems associated with public school teacher shortages is the recruitment and employment of more teachers, Cornett and Gaines (2002) quite rightly maintain that this is a non-solution insofar as public teachers’ wage and benefit packages dissuade potential recruits from joining the public school system.

Added to that, both federal and state resources are simply insufficient to meet the demand for across the board pay increases. Needless to say, long working hours and intense levels of on the job-stress versus low pay and unattractive benefits, de-motivates teachers and discourages a significant percentage from investing and dedicating themselves to their work (Cornett and Gaines, 2002). There is, however, a sizeable percentage of public school teachers who do dedicate themselves to their job, put in the extra hours their students by need and, indeed, invest themselves in their teaching.

The merit scheme, according to Cornett and Gaines (2002) arose in response to the two points mentioned: low salaries and differentiations in teachers’ performances. Merit pay is designed to compensate the deserving for low salaries while, at the same time, encourage and reward the latter group of educators. Merit pay, when perceived of in the terms outlined in the preceding, does not simply emerge as a solution to the identified problems but as a meritorious concept insofar as it is fundamentally based on rewarding the deserving.

As Johnson (2000) maintains, however, merit pay has been critiqued by many as fundamentally flawed and, ultimately, unethical. To this end, Johnson (2000) quotes Olsen (1987, p. 2) as saying that merit