Forty percent of D.C. Public Schools teachers rejected the thousands of dollars in bonuses offered to them for being “highly effective” educators under the evaluation system introduced last year. It wasn’t out of humility, but because teachers would have to sign away some of their job security to accept the cash, the union chief said.

Of 636 teachers rated highly effective on evaluations, 254 turned down their bonuses. The smaller the bonus, the more likely teachers were to reject it: 43 percent of the 354 teachers offered less than $10,000 rejected the money, while nine of the 12 teachers offered $20,000 accepted their bonus. Both teachers offered the maximum $25,000 award accepted.