julieturkewitzVerified account

72,000 students will be affected, some of whom have exited their classrooms and are now marching with their teachers.

At issue: A pay-for-performance system that was once hailed as an innovative part of education reform.

Teachers say it has failed them, delivering erratic bonuses while base pay stagnates.

One teacher I spoke with, Amber Wilson, was once an evangelist for this pay-for-performance system. She said it had morphed into “a monster of unintended consequences.”

As someone who does not typically report on education, I was also astounded by the teacher stories that I heard in my interviews.

An example: Rebecca Lovvorn, 32, is a teacher who uses food banks to feed her kids. She lives in a friend's basement with her three children, outside of the school district, because Denver has become too expensive.