Word: systemic
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...maybe you did and didn't care; you imagined yourself impervious. You slipped past regulators. You fooled your family, friends and customers. You fooled yourself. You are perhaps the final symbol of our times - greed at any cost, even at that of your own life, that of our entire system. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama announced a series of major reforms to the American public education system. In an address to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he proposed increased spending for the hiring of new teachers as well as greater funding for Head Start and other early childhood education programs. Especially promising, his plan would institute merit pay for teachers in up to 150 school districts, lift the limits on charter schools that exist in some states, and make it easier for schools to fire underperforming teachers. We are encouraged by President Obama’s commitment...
...wisely identified teachers’ pay scale as a main determinant of teacher quality. Currently, teachers’ compensation is largely based on their seniority. After teachers gain tenure at a school, their salary steadily increases over time, and they become nearly impossible for administrators to dismiss. This system discourages teacher effort by removing the financial incentive to work harder. Furthermore, college graduates who might otherwise pursue a career in education are discouraged by the fact that greater effort does not result in a commensurate reward. This accommodation pleases teachers’ unions and their members, but at the expense...
...Merit pay would go a long way toward correcting this imbalance. Under the system President Obama has proposed, teachers whose students show significant improvement would be eligible for performance-based bonuses. This is only fair: A higher quality of work should be rewarded with greater pay, just as it is in nearly every other career. Merit pay incentivizes greater teacher effort, encourages high-achieving college graduates to become teachers, and makes it easier to identify the worst teachers and fire them. This improves overall teacher quality and benefits students...
...Aitzaz Ahsan, a leading attorney and member of the PPP who opposes Zardari's crackdown, counters that the lawyers are merely fighting for an independent judiciary that will fortify democracy in Pakistan. "We don't want military intervention; we want to strengthen parliament and the democratic system," he told TIME, also speaking by cell phone from an undisclosed location to evade arrest. "Existing examples of democratic government are testament to the fact that you can't have a stable parliament without an independent judiciary - it's a sine qua non. A democratic system will remain weak if there are timorous...