New York needs to adopt a new system of merit appointment after vetting by a screening panel.
The most controversial provision proposed to replace across-the-board pay increases with a system of merit pay.
Choosing judges in partisan elections, rather than through a system of merit selection, can create a serious problem of quality control.
Mr. Vance, joined over the years by like-minded reformers, also tried to persuade the State Legislature to replace the state's highly politicized system of electing lower state court judges with a more rational system of merit selection.
But in already-bitter contract talks that began in November, the teachers oppose the mayor's system of merit pay, which would be tied to student performance on standardized tests.
Iowa's system of merit appointment of judges followed by up-or-down retention elections is meant to allow for the removal of corrupt or incompetent judges, not to facilitate partisan manipulation and judicial intimidation.
His victory is yet one more reminder that choosing judges in partisan elections, rather than through a system of merit selection, can create a serious problem of quality control.
Sadly, the most important reform -- a state constitutional amendment replacing New York's system of sham elections with a system of merit selection of State Civil and Supreme Court judges, seems as elusive today as it did back in the days of Benjamin Cardozo's dad.
A Teacher Contract Much as he pushed through ending tenure for school principals, Mr. Giuliani would like to leave office as the first mayor to achieve some system of merit pay for the city's 78,000 public school teachers, a change he would cite as one of his major education reforms in any future political campaign.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani inflamed these fears when he balked at the initial agreement, saying that he wanted an all-cash plan, no signing bonuses and a cascading system of merit bonuses that would reach only the most experienced teachers and those who met as yet unspecified performance benchmarks.
