Max,

You say performance pay “was rejected by teachers who don’t want to have to compete with each other for the top classes in order to maximise their chances of getting some monetary bonus”, that teachers “want to work collegiately” and that performance pay is “Unpopular with the profession”.

Evidence from the performance pay era under the Liberals in Victoria in the 1990s says you are wrong. I was the only Leading Teacher I know of who refused to sign on to the unprofessional performance bonus system, for which I was threatened with not having my position rolled over, a threat exceeded in the end by the principal abolishing the position completely so I could not even apply for it.

There have always been large numbers of teachers who have no commitment to their profession. They break strikes, take performance bonuses, sign individual contracts, undermine conditions agreements, supervise Teach for Australia pretend teachers, etc. If performance bonuses come in, there will be a rush of these people to grab the money. If performance pay was genuinely opposed by the profession, no one in it would have anything to do with it, and the system would collapse.