can she persuade them?

This is an interesting PBS piece on Michelle Rhee's drive to institute merit pay in the DC schools, along with ending tenure:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec08/dcschools_09-18.html

However, the comments of George Parker, the Union chief, suggest that he's not that interested. And given that the straw vote of teachers was 2 to 1 against the new 2-tier merit/no-tenure system, the prospects are not promising.

Fundamentally, I think this is the wrong way to go about it. Pay for performance is almost impossible to implement. I know of hardly any schools that pull it off. That's because there are lots of ways to be a good teacher, and boosting test scores is only one measure. Look at what independent schools do: they let principals make the decision.

So if I were Rhee, I would be taking the extra pot of cash that she has and telling teachers that they can get roughly a 20% boost in pay, if they give up their tenure. If they agree, then the principal gets control of the school budget. I think if you put that offer on the table, there would be a lot of pressure from teachers to sign on to that.