Unelected Baron Bill Gates Opines on His Views of "Great Teachers"

Mike Klonsky in his SmallTalk Blog has a contribution on how Harvard College drop-out who benefited from his connections and his daddy's largesse thinks about quality teachers, the Common Core, and politics which he says gets in the way of the Common Core.
[Just read what Leonie Haimson says about where Gates sends his children; and EdNotes about the college-look-alike Lakeside School, with an average class size of 16, where Gates went to school. Now, how is he an authority on public schools?]
Now, Mike Klonsky's original post:
"Gates ponders how teachers should be paid in his 'new universe'."

But as long as we spend the time and money to get each element right; as long as we don’t let politics block the common core; as long as we let teachers use new technology in the classroom, this could be the educational equivalent of the Big Bang – creating a new universe of learning and discovery for our teachers and students. -- Bill Gates, master of the "new universe."

Bill Gates hasn't made up his mind quite yet about merit pay. Even though the world's second richest man (behind Mexico's Carlos Slim) considers himself to be an education expert, he and his gaggle of consultants are having a difficult time figuring out exactly how teachers should be paid. All this, while Gates-funded school districts, teacher unions, anxious teacher families, and Arne Duncan's DOE await his decision with bated breath.
At a recent speech to the Education Commission of the States conference in Atlanta, Gates, employed the wisdom of Solomon, to solve his dilemma.

Now, let me just say that at this time, we don’t have a point of view on the right approach to teacher compensation. We’re leaving that for later. In my view, if you pay more for better performance before you have a proven system to measure and improve performance, that pay system won’t be fair – and it will trigger a lot of mistrust. So before we get into that, we want to make sure teachers get the feedback they need to keep getting better.

How thoughtful. How wise.
Link to original for the above article at Mike Klonsky Small Talk Blog.