'Merit pay' for principals -- really, Rahm?

I imagine J.C. Brizard telling the mayor, "Rahm, there's no research to support 'merit pay' for teachers, principals, students, or anyone else who isn't doing piece work. It's been a failure in New York and everywhere else it's been tried." I see the  mayor looking back at Brizard with that inimitable f#@k-you grin and telling his hand-picked CEO, "Great, just do it."

You see, Rahm doesn't give a rat's ass about ed research. He knows that with a mere $5 million in private funds in his pocket (tip money for billionaire pals like Penny Pritzker and Bruce Rauner) he can dictate school policy without having to negotiate anything with anyone -- including the teachers union or the principals' association.

The announcement blind-sided Chicago Principals Association president Clarice Berry, who was not given advance notice of the plan, and won outright rejection from Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. Both pointed to research — and past Chicago experience — indicating merit pay in education hasn’t proven effective. However, Emanuel said his principal merit pay program will be unique in that it will include training principals to a set of expectations outlined in a new “principal performance contract’’ that is still being drafted. -- Sun-Times

The Sun-Times names the four "merit" pay funding families:

Venture capitalist Bruce Rauner and his wife, Diana, contributed $2 million to the pot. Rauner encouraged Stand for Children to come to Illinois, where it pushed through a new school reform bill that makes it more difficult for Chicago teachers to strike and allows CPS to unilaterally impose a longer school day and year.

Putting in $1 million each were Groupon co-founder and executive chairman Eric Lefkofsky and his wife, Liz; Chicago School Board member Penny Pritzker and her husband, Chicago Park Board President Bryan Traubert; and Paul Finnegan, co-founder of Madison Dearborn Partners, and his wife, Mary.