No one believes South Carolina teachers have more thankless jobs than I do. But this so-called “Measurable Growth” bonus plan? Whoever cooked it up must’ve scribbled it on a Waffle House napkin at 2 a.m. between a cold waffle and a bad idea.
I’ve spent years fighting for them. I know how thankless their job is, how heavy the load is, and how thin the patience can get when you’re teaching on fumes. If anyone wants to stand at the top of the State House and shout that teachers deserve better pay, better support, and better respect, I’ll hold the microphone.
But this plan? This plan wandered out of a policy meeting and straight into the Twilight Zone.
A $5 Million Experiment Nobody Asked For
Let’s start with the basics: We took $5 million of state-funded money and devised a bonus system that picks a tiny handful of under-performing, high-poverty schools. Then — and here’s where the plot twists — we reward only the Math and ELA teachers whose students jump a grade level.
Only Math and ELA.
Only the teachers who produce growth in a very specific, very test-centric way.
Meanwhile, the Science teacher who kept kids curious?
The social studies teacher who made them think?
The art and music teachers who kept children grounded, confident, expressive, regulated, and actually capable of learning anything at all?
They get a pat on the head and a “better luck next year.”
No bonus. No recognition. No slice of the pie they helped bake.This isn’t “measurable growth.” This is measurable tunnel vision.
The Bonus Breakdown Heard Around the School
Then comes the pièce de resistance of bureaucratic brilliance. They gathered the entire staff — every teacher, aide, specialist, mentor, custodian, and saint in human form — into a single room. And, without a hint of foresight, they announced everyone’s bonus amounts out loud.
From $33,500to $20,000-something
to $6,000
to $0.00.
If you listened closely, you could probably hear morale shattering like dropped glass.
Truly, who thought this was the moment for public scorekeeping?
Who said, “Yes, let’s create instant resentment between co-workers who rely on each other every single day?”
Let’s be honest: schools operate on teamwork, not Hunger Games theatrics.
The Fallout No One Considered
It doesn’t take a degree in psychology — or even common sense — to see what happens next. Teachers who got nothing feel undervalued. Teachers who did receive bonuses feel awkward or guilty. Teachers in non-tested subjects start questioning whether their work even counts in the eyes of the people holding the purse strings. You want to talk about “measurable growth”? Well, morale just grew in one direction — down.
Fast.
When educators feel slighted, demeaned, or ignored, students feel it too. Kids can sense the weather in a building, and this decision created a storm front.
A Rock Star Idea Without the Sound Check
Whoever invented this system needs a pause button.A moment to take a breath. A long reflective walk. Maybe even a cup of coffee and a conversation with an actual teacher. Because this wasn’t a bad idea born of malice — it was a bad idea born of not thinking it through. Of designing a program in theory, instead of in practice. Of forgetting that teachers are human beings, not data points.
Rewarding excellence is good. Targeting need is good. Supporting students in high-poverty schools is essential…But the way you do those things matters.
The delivery matters.
The fairness matters.
The ripple effects matter.
This plan tried to create incentives but ended up creating silos. It tried to lift teachers but ended up pushing some of them aside. It tried to motivate improvement but instead highlighted inequity.
Teachers Deserve Better — All of Them
At the end of the school day, here’s the truth; Every teacher contributes to a child’s growth. Every teacher keeps the wheels turning. Every teacher in a school plays a role in whether a student succeeds or struggles.
When we treat some teachers as “bonus-worthy” and others as “background noise,” we don’t just insult professionals.We misunderstand education itself.
If we want measurable growth in South Carolina, let’s start with a plan that doesn’t divide teachers into winners and losers. Let’s build a system that rewards teamwork, not competition. One that values the whole school, not a narrow slice of it.
We can do better.
We must do better.
Our teachers aren’t commodities — they’re the backbone of our future and every last one of them deserves more than a napkin-sketched, midnight-special, morale-crushing “Rock Star Idea.”
While I Breathe I Hope
WHILE I BREATHE 