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Senate Approves Teacher Merit Pay, Cuts Tenure
March 11, 2011
The Florida Senate approved a major change to how public school teachers are paid on Thursday, amid questions from the statewide teachers’ union and Democratic legislators as to how the financially beleaguered state could afford to develop the new tests and pay increases the bill promises.
After nearly two hours of debate, the Florida Senate voted to approve Senate Bill 736, a measure that establishes a system in which 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is based on student test scores. The long-standing tradition of basing salary on seniority also ends, with new teachers working under one-year contracts.
The 26-12 vote came mostly down party lines. An attempt to amend it to take into account socioeconomic status of students when evaluating teachers was defeated. Sen. Greg Evers, who represents the North Escambia area, voted in favor of the bill.
Republicans in the Legislature tout the bill as a way to provide an incentive to educators to do a better job and allow school districts to more easily fire bad teachers.
Sen. Bill Montford, a Democrat from Tallahassee who was a school superintendent, said many school supervisors approve of the bill. But he said similar attempts at merit pay have failed in the past.
“What concerns me the most is how we are going to fund this initiative,” Montford said. “I’m afraid it will collapse under its own weight because of funding.” School districts statewide are facing cuts in spending. Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed budget spends $16.5 billion on K-12 education, which cuts per-student spending by $703 to $6,196.
One of two Republicans who voted against the proposed merit pay system, Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, also said she doesn’t believe the state will end up finding the money.
“My major concern is we have not paid for this program,” Dockery said. “Some people estimate it will cost $2 billion, but we don’t know how much it will cost to implement it.”
The bill sponsor, Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, said some of the cost would come from the federal Race to the Top grant that Florida received.
The other Republican who opposed the measure was Sen. Dennis Jones of Treasure Island.
The measure’s quick passage was widely expected. A similar bill was approved by the Legislature last year and vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist after thousands of teachers called and wrote to object. This year the bill was changed slightly, giving school districts more control over how teachers are evaluated.
Florida Department of Education Commissioner Eric Smith said in a statement he was pleased about the bill’s progress in the Senate. He called it “groundbreaking legislation” that requires a “fair and accurate evaluation of our teachers that links their performance to the academic achievement of their students.”
A similar measure (HB 7019) also progressed quickly Thursday in the Florida House of Representatives.
The House Education Committee approved HB 7019 in a 12-6 vote after nearly four hours of testimony and debate.
Like its Senate companion, the House bill does away with traditional teacher tenure for new employees and ties teachers pay more closely to student performance. “Excellent teachers know they don’t need tenure,” said Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna. “Excellent teachers don’t fear this bill.”
Republicans on the panel rejected a series of Democratic amendments to bolster protections for highly effective teachers by requiring their retention or giving a specific reason for their dismissal. Another unsuccessful amendment based a portion of a teacher’s evaluation on a student’s portfolio of work throughout the year.
Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, said without the amendments, the bill puts teachers in the position of being without a contract at the end of each year, a lack of job security that will make it harder to recruit good teachers to the state and make even effective teachers vulnerable to the whims of their bosses.
“What this bill does now is allows you to be dismissed with no justification at the end of your year, not based on the performance of your students, not based on how effectively you teach, but simply based on the fact that the year is done,” Bullard said.
By Michael Peltier and Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida
Comments
17 Responses to “Senate Approves Teacher Merit Pay, Cuts Tenure”
I truly agree with the fact that parents are more than backing down from their responsibilities in the school system. As a parent of 2, When I hear one of mine are not doing what i know they can do in school, its gonna be “old school” at home. Granted there are a few teachers who really dont seem to give it their all. But, I truly believe that if the schools had more parent involvement and concern with their children and their academics, it would be different. Don’t wait to show up when the principal calls you and says little “johnny” is in their office in trouble. Support your teachers and take care of these kids at home. Check school work and make your children do their homework instead of sitting in front of games and computers all day. And parents who say they dont have time to keep up with their children’s school work or what goes on at their school, need to be at home so they can find time.
When our representatives make these decisions one can know they have never been in a teaching position. Gregg Evers nor Rick Scott will ever get my vote.
Does the public know that just because a teacher has tenure does not mean they can not be let go. Everthing just has to be documented. Tenure does not guanrantee a bad teacher a job, it just requires a little paperwork…..
Sorry I voted for Evers! My 12 yr old could differentiate the right and wrong in this poor decision….just sayin.
GREG EVERS JUSt VOTED HIS SELF OUT OF OFFICE. I WISH I HAD NOT VOTED FOR HIM. LET HIM TRY TO GET HIGH SCORES ON CHILDREN IN SCHOOL THREE OUT OF FIVE DAYS.HOW IS THIS FAIR TO A TEACHER?
I am in no way saying this is the ONLY answer. I am saying that there has to be a better way than what we had. I see way too many bad teachers that are on cruise control. I am not a teacher nor am I in sales. But I am a college graduate in a professional career. And I do have a boss that evaluates me on my perfomance. And believe me, if I don’t do my job, I will be unemployed. However, my evaluation does not have anything to do with anyone but me.
Now, how do you evaluate teachers? I think we can all agree there are teachers that aren’t up to standards. Some teachers don’t even care whether the kids show up for class. So where do you measure a teacher? How do you seperate the good and the bad? I think you have to use the students scores in the equation somewhere. I’m just saying the system is broke and I like that our leaders are taking a shot at changing it.
I think we can also agree there could also be alot of changes in their studies. I have watched my kids have very strong abilities in totally different areas. Instead of focusing on making them be good at all subjects, why not evaluate where they excel (say 7th or 8th grade) and then focus on their talents. I understand you need to be well rounded but there has to be a happy medium. Times have changed. Now you have subject areas that you didn’t have 20 years ago. We all can’t be doctors and business managers. There is creative occupations that include technology and arts. Things that are left out of today’s curriculm. So, I agree with some of what you say.
At one time we were on a merit system, and believe me the merit system is the ultimate good old boy system. If you’re liked by the person or persons doing the evaluations, you get a good raise no matter how you do your job, in fact you get your raise and part of another person’s raise that might be a better employee if that person isn’t buddies with the person in charge of the evaluations. Been there and seen it in the first person.
To ThePowerMan: Please don’t become a teacher. You have no idea what goes on in a classroom! And you have no idea what good teachers go through in order to teach today’s children. Education is always changing and we as teachers are always looking for new ways to reach children. But paying a teacher based on standardized test scores is ludicrous. If there was another method of assessment being used to determine a student’s performance then I would reconsider my opinion on merit pay. Talk about stone age – now that is how I refer to standardized testing.
Quote: Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, said without the amendments, the bill puts teachers in the position of being without a contract at the end of each year, a lack of job security that will make it harder to recruit good teachers to the state and make even effective teachers vulnerable to the whims of their bosses.
Welcome to the real world!!!!!!! Heck, atleast they get a year contract. Most workers are on a day to day contract. It’s kinda like being paid on commission. You show up for work and are effective and you get paid. You lay out of work and don’t do your job….you don’t get paid. If sales are bad because of the economy, you come up with a unique stategy to get the sale. If kids aren’t learning, you come up with a unique strategy to help them learn.
Life is always changing. Kids are different than they were 10 years ago. The strategies to teach should be different, too. The guy who invented the horse carriage was put out of business when the automobile was invented. We all should continue to adapt to change. That, in my opinion, is why some teachers are not effective anymore. They think they should continue to teach like they always have simply because they were a great teacher 5-10 years ago.
Thumbs Up for Florida. I think the Leg and Sen spoke for the majority.
One more comment…if we based some of our politicians pay on performance they would be struggling to make ends meet.
You know, it’s a shame Greg Evers does not have the backbone to stand up for those of us who sent him to Tallahassee to begin with. I’ll remember this Evers! Thanks for nothing!
This is ridiculous! There are too many children out there that do not have responsible enough parents to work with them at home on their behavior. If the parent at home does not care enough to control them at home, how in the world can the teachers teach them when they are dealing with behavioral problems. And, when they are dealing with the “problem” child, they are not spending that valuable time teaching those that want to learn. Our Government is pitiful! If this is going to be the way it is, there should also be some kind of accountability to the parents. God, please deal with this situation as only you can!
Is this bill really a good idea? Will the state of Florida be able to draw good teachers from other states? I am not so sure it is or it will. Teaching to a test is not what teaching is about. Legislation throughout this country seems to thrive on stifling a teacher’s ability to teach and enjoy such a wonderful profession. I have been teaching for 10 years in another state and I find teaching “not so fun anymore” because of all the “requirements” handed down by government officials. And I personally would never consider moving to a state that offers merit pay. Why would I want to go to a state and teach my heart out and be the best teacher in the school only to be fired because my students didn’t do well on a test? I would not teach in that situation if it was the last teaching job in the world. Some students just don’t want to learn and could care less about their education. “You can a lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” A teacher can provide all the necessary means for a student to be successful but if the student doesn’t put forth the effort, it should not be blamed on the teacher.
Did these government officials go to college and earn a degree in education? I don’t think so! So, what gives them the right to make decisions about something they really know nothing about? Education is not all about money. I am not naive enough to think that money is not important but it is not the end all be all when it comes to making decisions about education.
I sincerely hope that this system works the way it is planned and that students and teachers don’t suffer from it. Consider the cost…is it really going to be worth it?
Sad day in the state of Florida!
I am an educator in Alabama. All I have to say is you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Some students honestly just do not care about academics whatsoever. As a teacher, I try my hardest to break through to each student and teach each student as best I can, as I know other fellow teachers do. I am not saying that evaluations should not be done. I do know that there are teachers out there that have settled into a comfortable routine that is not always effective, however this bill is not the way to go about handling that situation. I think that all of these politicians should have to teach for about a month. Then they would know what teaching is really all about.
Art: as a teacher myself that was born and raised in Florida, I left and went to GA to teach since Florida doesn’t pay near what other nearby states do. To add THIS on top of, you will see a mass exit. You can’t hold a teacher accountable for something that is not totally in their control. It’s scary. Glad I left from the beginning!
So a teacher would get paid with a score on childrens test that are absent two to three days a week? How can this be fair? Flordia will loose all the great teachers to other states.
until we give teachers the freedom to teach reading writing and arithmetic instead of being nothing more than glorified babysitters that prepare children for tests, our kiddos will continue to receive less than what these teachers have to offer. this concept may work well for manual laborers, but when it comes to inspiring and motivating professionals that utilize higher cognitive skills, nothing works better than autonomy.