"At about 2:30 this morning, after hours of debate, the House passed SB 6 by a vote of 64-55 (all Democrats and 11 Republicans voted against the bill). It now will go to the Governor." (Civic Concern)
But before the House convened, it was obvious to everyone that the bill would pass with a Republican majority House. Now the future of Florida's public school children lies in the hands of Governor Crist who has seven days to decide whether or not to pass this bill. Although he showed support for it from the beginning, as of a week ago it appears that the Governor is rethinking his position. He was quoted as saying,
“I had a conversation with a friend of mine for many years. He was concerned about the provisions of the bill that require progress. And he’s like, `How can my son have progress?’ ” Crist said. “It’s very challenging, and that’s weighing on me heavily.”
It would seem that anyone who hears such a comment should be a bit concerned about our dear governor having the power to sign off on a bill that he does not seem to be adequately informed about. If that was a comment made by one person with one of the concerns of this bill, imagine how "weighing" it would be if he listened to a couple of teachers, or more public school parents. I don't know, I'm just saying.
Let me back up a bit. What exactly is SB6 (Senate Bill 6) and what is the problem with it? For now SB6 does not have a name, but it is an education bill meant to close the achievement gap on student learning outcomes and is a furthering of teacher accountability. Sounds good right?? Of course it does. We have the responsibility t make sure that our children receive quality education, as a matter of fact, it is part of the Florida Constitution: "The purpose of the Florida K-20 Education Code is to provide by law for a state system of schools, courses, classes, and educational institutions and services adequate to allow, for all Florida's students, the opportunity to obtain a high quality education." (Title XLVIIII, CHapter 1000, Section 3)
But the reality is there are bad teachers. I'm sure you can list a few of those who didn't teach you anything, who didn't care if you passed, who were obviously miserable with their jobs and took out on their students. Do teachers need to be held accountable? Of course. Do we need to get rid of all those teachers who don't care about their job or their students and who are not doing their job up to par. Heck, yeah! Is testing students the way to prove that they are doing their jobs to the best of their abilities? I guess it is if we are evaluating how well our teachers can teach kids test taking strategies that leave no room or time for teaching students how to THINK. Gee, imagine that, teaching children to think. Hmmm, now that's an ingenious concept; thank you very much. :)
Ok so let's take a look at what some of this bill proposes (if you want to read the entire thing click here):
(info acquired from the United Teachers of Dade website; yes it is a bit bias)
· The majority of a teacher’s evaluation would be based on student test scores.
·A teacher’s certification would ‘expire’ if the teacher fails to achieve ‘effective performance’ based only on student’s test scores. The bill contains no definition of ‘effective performance’.
· More than 50% of a teacher’s salary would be determined by student test scores. Teachers would have no idea what their salaries would be from year to year, making them completely unable to make long term financial decisions for their family, such as buying a home. Teachers who currently own homes may not be able to afford them under this irresponsible system.
· Newly hired teachers would remain on probation for 5 years and then on an annual contract for the remainder of their career, leaving them with absolutely no job security.
· Experience would no longer be a component of the salary schedule.
· Advanced degrees and professional credentials would not be a component of a teacher’s salary.
· Teacher lay-offs would be determined by students’ performance on tests.
· Teacher evaluations would be developed and controlled by the Florida DOE, not by the local school district that now negotiates these working conditions with their teacher unions.
· This bill mandates more testing for students AND teachers, which takes away more of our children’s precious instructional time.
· Thousands of new tests would need to be created from the district’s operating budget. The new tests will cost millions of dollars during this time when school funding in Florida is slashed.
· Teachers could be moved from school to school without warning to fill gaps created by arbitrary terminations.
· National Board Certified Teachers will no longer receive supplemental pay. The Dale Hickman Act would be repealed.
· This bill is a disincentive for teachers to work in low performing schools or with our most fragile children.
· Teacher salary schedules would be set by the Florida DOE.
· This bill contains absolutely nothing that is research based to have shown increased performance in our students. It contains no additional funding for increased instructional time, or funding to decrease class size. On the contrary it is full of red-herrings and pseudoscience that will harm student achievement.
· By making teachers itinerant, the current senate bill will devastate professional teaching in Florida and harm our children’s chance to get a high quality public education.
So what does this all mean in a nutshell? Well, let's see, more tests (because we all know how great it is to test children and stress them out, but hey now we can tell them, well if you do really bad you can get your teacher fired....hmmm, kid thinks about this idea, looks at his teacher, "I really don't like her" he thinks to himself...), it doesn't matter how much education you have (because we all know how cheap it is to continuing going to school for a Master's degree for a whopping $4000 teacher raise), your pay will be based on how well your students do (regardless of the fact that your class is full of special needs children, or you teach in a low income school where just getting them to school in the first place is a huge achievement?), lots and lots of money to be spent on creating these oh so wonderful tests (because we just have that kind of money floating around while some of our schools are falling apart) and let's not forget about the fact that now all the teachers, at least the ones that decide to stay in Florida, will not want to teach in the failing schools (also known as the "bad" schools) and those children will suffer.
At least there's still hope. Crist has a few days to make up his mind and perhaps educate himself a bit more and after all he said it himself: “Shame on any public servant who doesn’t listen to the people.” (then again, he is running for Senator so he has to secure those vote!)
So if you notice an unusually large amount of people walking around dressed in all black, you'll know that they are attending a funeral: "The Death of The Florida Teachers." :)
If you're interested in supporting opposition to this bill, that is of course, after you have educated yourself on it and made up your own mind, there are a few Facebook pages you can follow like:
Stop Senate Bill 6
Florida Teachers Against Pay for Performance Salary/Pay Scales
The following is a little FYI:
A Little Political Information (although it would seem that politics has no place in education, right?)
Many opposed to SB6 claim that the Principal foundations of SB6 come from "the Bush handbook" (Jeb Bush that is) and that they are being pushed through in same manner as Bush's A-plus plan of '99 was by the same legislator John Thrasher. Hmmmm. Taking a closer look at Thrasher we learn that Thrasher was supported for the GOP leadership position by former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, who consequently appointed Mr. Thrasher to the Clay County Board of County Commissioners, year 2007-2008.
At the moment Thrasher is the chair of the Florida Republican Party. This would appear to some as a conflict of interest.
Another interesting tid bit of information is that brother Neil Bush financially benefited from the legislation that his ex-governor brother produced and resulted in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. How did he he benefit? Well, turns out he co-founded a company called "Ignite! Learning" that created software used in Florida for students to study for FCAT.
