Duncan Stresses Merit Pay to Teachers Union

Asked where the union might compromise on the issue of merit-based pay, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel deflected to the local level.

"I have no problem with [Duncan] raising that issue, but where it's going to be decided is in local school districts," he told ABC News. "And where we support it is, if our local association bargains an alternative compensation system, we're going to support them. But the idea that somebody on the outside is going to say, 'Here's what you all ought to do,' I mean that's not going to work.

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"What's important to us, and what we like, is that the issue of compensation has been heightened," Van Roekel added. "We need to change the compensation of educators in America. We're not going to be successful at recruiting the number and quality we need in the years ahead, so the idea that we have more focus on compensation and the need for higher salaries, we need that."

Others were not as kind.

"Quite frankly, merit pay is union-busting," said one delegate in the audience, to applause.

Duncan also urged teachers' unions to rework tenure and seniority provisions.

"I believe that teacher unions are at a crossroads," he said. "These policies were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers, but they have produced an industrial, factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets.

"When inflexible seniority and rigid tenure rules that we designed put adults ahead of children, then we are not only putting kids at risk, we're putting the entire education system at risk," he added. "We're inviting the attack of parents and the public, and that is not good for any of us."

While the Obama administration has emphasized performance-based pay in the past, Duncan seemingly acknowledged he is entering sensitive territory for the teachers' unions, joking halfway through his remarks that, "You can boo, but just don't throw any shoes, please."

Duncan's speech was the fourth and final to outline the reform strategies that states must address under the American recovery and Reinvestment Act and the criteria to compete for a portion of the $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" funds to improve education quality.

The secretary's previous speeches addressed the use of data to inform instruction and education policy decisions, the need for standards and assessments, and the role of charter schools in turning around low-performing schools.