Here is the statement on merit pay from the Obama website: "Obama and Biden will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well."
'With' is not the same as 'by'. Who will be working with the teachers? Their school districts, which would certainly include school boards, principles, and concerned citizens groups (if anyone knows of a way to exclude concerned citizens, they have certainly kept it a secret from beleaguered school principles).
One can read here plainly that Obama's idea is not to let teachers unilaterally measure their own merit. Rather, he recognizes that a merit pay system imposed by fiat without input from the professionals being evaluated will be DOA. There is nothing unusual or suspicious in this. After all, we are constantly reminded by Republicans that industry regulators must work in cooperation with the industries they regulate, since industry representatives have the inside scoop that regulators cannot do without.
Mr. Sowell's real problem is that he has little respect for public education or public school teachers. He would like to indulge in the fantasy that some hard-headed bosses can make everything alright by imposing their will on teachers, like a shift manager at a burger joint, cracking the whip over those who are not scurrying around fast enough, and giving all the overtime to his pet ass-kissers. This works well enough if you are delivering fast food, but would anyone want their children to spend the day with disgruntled wage slaves in paper hats?
Mr. Sowell can continue to nurse his fury and pretend that schools are factories which can be adjusted by some CEO until the 'products' come out better, or he can put his considerable talents to work on finding ways to make classrooms work as classrooms. Of course, that assumes that he is genuinely concerned about this issue, and not just making a dime on cheap liberal bashing.