Payment by results: rewarding teachers in Washington DC

It was interesting to read in last week’s Economist of plans in Washington DC to improve failing schools by rewarding teachers better and flexibly:

Starting salaries would leap from about $40,000 to $78,000, and wages for the best performers would double to about $130,000 a year. In return, teachers would lose tenure and be paid according to merit, measured in part by their students’ results. Current teachers would have a choice: they could join the new system or stay in the old one. New hires would have to join the new system.

I wonder if it could happen here?