THE WORD OBAMA DIDN'T SAY.

All the major papers are celebrating Obama's education speech this morning as a bold call for "merit" pay. I need to make the following point: The word "merit" did not appear anywhere in the address. Instead, Obama talked about "recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers." This is code-speak for performance pay, which is understood as distinct from merit pay, as it is not primarily calibrated according to student test scores. The president promised, "Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools."

The Times' David Stout and Jeff Zeleny write that Obama's rhetoric "implicitly [laid] down a challenge to unions." But actually, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, made almost identical points in a November speech in front of the National Press Club. Supporting performance pay, here is what Weingarten said in that speech:

...teachers are the first to say, 'Let's get incompetent teachers out of the classroom." So let's talk about creating a tenure process that both promotes excellence and ensures fairness. This summer, the AFT national convention called upon our local unions to make the process more rigorous. Through peer assistance and review, master teachers can help new colleagues learn their job, help struggling colleagues to do better, and counsel unsuccessful colleagues out of the profession.

There are certainly tensions within the Democratic coalition on education policy. But they shouldn't be over-hyped.

--Dana Goldstein