WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said during an interview on Thurs. that while the Obama administration has waived some No Child Left Behind Act standards to 10 states for developing educational initiatives that include additional resources for at risk children and provisions to enhance educational outcomes for African-American students, teacher merit pay plans like the one proposed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson in an effort to dismantle teacher tenure are not something required for Ohio and other states to qualify.
"That is not a requirement," said Duncan to the question posed by The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com and Cleveland Urban News.Com.
Jackson and Kasich are working hand in hand as a Democratic mayor and Republican governor to ditch teacher tenure and seniority and institute a merit pay system for Cleveland schools through their request for state legislation to seal the deal, though Black state legislators from Cleveland said that the mayor of the predominantly Black major metropolitan city, who controls the largely Black city schools via state law, had not discussed his plan with them.