The New Vouchers?

TAP’s Dana Goldstein seems to be on board with the performance-pay as the new vouchers meme.  She’s right that any alleged silver bullet should be regarded with caution substantively and politically.  But beyond the silliness of litmus test education reform, is that really the issue here?  Is anyone saying that differentiating teacher pay along more dimensions than just years of service and degrees is a sufficient education reform?   What makes transformative educational reform a challenge is that a host of complicated and contentious changes need to happen somewhat in tandem for the country to see real progress.   Changes in how teachers are paid, and human capital reform in education more generally (pdf), is one vital aspect of that but not the only one.   I guess the political debate might have trouble multitasking but that’s not news.