Florida education commissioner called to Crist’s office, can’t help supporters push back on merit pay bill
by Michael C. Bender | April 13th, 2010Supporters of the controversial bill to overhaul how teacher contracts and salaries are negotiated attempted to win back Gov. Charlie Crist’s support with a press conference this morning where they insisted the changes would make Florida a world leader in education.
“The Senate Bill 6 is about rewarding high quality teachers, paying them more, getting better teachers into our low income schools and making sure every single child has a high quality teacher in the classroom,” Foundation for Florida’s Future President Patricia Levesque said. “We’re thankful that Gov. Crist has supported these issues in the past and we’re really looking forward to his support this week.”
Levesque and others dismissed the outcry from the education community, saying teachers have been ginned up by a union campaign of misinformation.
“I’m frankly a little surprised that out of about 144,000 union members that there’s only about 30,000 that are up in arms about this,” Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson said. “What’s happening is they’re getting e-mails, they’re getting phone calls, they’re getting rhetoric about what this bill does not do.”
Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith and state Public Schools Chancellor Frances Haithcock were supposed to join supporters of the bill. But both were last-minute scratches when Crist’s staff asked for meeting to go over the bill again. With Crist seemingly leaning toward a veto, the timing of the meeting was interesting.
Tags: Charlie Crist, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Foundation for Florida's Future, merit pay
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April 13th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Well lets see where Mr. Crist goes with
this. He keeps asking for e-mails,phone
calls etc but we all know that Choo Choo
is stalling. He is in a no win situation. He trails Marco Rubio in the
polls and this is his last stand. The
way it looks-no matter which way he turns-he’s in trouble. Think long and
hard Choo Choo. Personally, Florida will
not keep its good teachers with this move and those looking toward teaching
will look elsewhere to teach-Florida
loses with his bill.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Florida loses big time with this bill. But, when it’s taken with the push to end the spereration between church and state I hope intelligent people will see where it is all headed.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
If registered Democrats…teachers, firefighters and police officiers and other hard-working voters switched their status to Republican, they could vote in the primary to be sure Crist not Rubio would win the nomination for Senator. That would send a message that Gov. Crist is listening to the people. Maybe then we could purpose a plan for education reform that would actually benefit the students and not line the pockets of private corporations. This bill is not really about teacher pay and tenure it is about spending 900 million dollars of the taxpayers money to private corporations to develop more tests. Just like the failed FCAT. Who profits?
April 13th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Governor Crist… Please veto this very bad bill. Jeb and his cronies have done enough damage to the Education system in this state. Do what is right for the Children, Teachers and all Floridians and put your veto pen to work on this Jeb/Neil Bush fiasco!
April 13th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Governor Crist, please pass SB6. This bill would finally do something to fairly evaluate teachers and reward teachers with students with learning gains. It will bring more, better quality teachers to the state of Florida.
April 13th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
GOVERNOR CRIST, PLEASE VETO SB6. BE REALISTIC, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO COME TEACH IN FLORIDA. JEB BUSH DESTROYED THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN FL AND IT SEEMS HE HASN’T FINISHED. PLEASE DON’T DO THE SAME THING. WHAT DOES THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE KNOW ABOUT EDUCATING SOMEONE?
April 13th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Governor Crist please DO NOT veto this bill. For too long now the unions have controlled our teachers with their self serving principles. That have made it impossible for us to rid ourselves of those teachers that are less than helpful to the educational goals needed to compete in the market today. This bill will take away that power and we will finally have an opportunity to see true educational reform. For those teachers that oppose this bill they either belong to the unions or know that they aren’t cutting the mustard in the profession or both. I say goodbye. we need to be more concerned about the education of our children and less concerned about keeping bad teachers on the payroll indefinitely.
April 13th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
I’m a registered life-long Republican who refuses to drink the SB 6 Kool-Aid. Where did our thinking of less government, local control go? Is this any different than the health care fiasco we didn’t like shoved in our face and down our throat? The elite Repubs in Tally are acting mighty Reidish and Pelosish!
April 14th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
To the posters who claim that those teachers against SB 6 must either belong to unions or know they aren’t “cutting the mustard”…where do you get off? I’ve never paid a penny to my union because the union is utterly powerless. No raises in 3 years – if the union was so powerful, would that be true? The bottom line is I refuse to be judged based upon how my students do on ONE test given on ONE day, some of which (FCAT Science in particular) DOESN’T even count for their own graduation. Would you take a test seriously if you knew it had zero bearing on your future/grade/graduation? I doubt it, yet it will be the primary guide for MY evaluation? Why? Why are there no provisions in SB 6 for considering student absenteeism or truancy? Students can be absent for 20-50 school days, yet still be counted against the teacher? There are plenty of provisions in the law for removing inadequate teachers – but it takes a dutiful administrator to observe their staff and many don’t bother. Place the blame where it belongs…
April 14th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
“I’m frankly a little surprised that out of about 144,000 union members that there’s only about 30,000 that are up in arms about this,”
Gee, that is funny! The last time I checked there are over 200,000 PARENTS and teachers on FB pages AGAINST this bill.
April 14th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
““What’s happening is they’re getting e-mails, they’re getting phone calls, they’re getting rhetoric about what this bill does not do.”
I really hate dishonesty! The ONLY emails I have received are from those pushing this bill including emails from the DOE on our school email which I do not belive should be used to push for political agendas!
Face the facts, JEB, teachers are not sheep. We hav minds of our own and we very clearly see that this bill is bad for education in Florida.
April 14th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Who is fooling who ?? This bill is all about Race to the Top$$ and greed by florida legislators. While it may have seemed like RTTT would offer incentive to teachers it is instead forcing states to do things that maybe they would not have in order to appear compliant with RTTT criteria. Not the presidents intention I am sure. Education should not be about money, it should be about learning and achieving. SB 6 / HB 7189 will force more teaching to the test and it will hurt the kids who need the most help low performing students. Our good teachers will have to leave our state and go elsewhere for more respect and better pay. This Senate bill is bad all the way around because it will not serve to make florida a leader in education. It will only dumb down education here. Please Veto SB6/HB 7189 Thank You
April 14th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
umm Kenny the union in Florida is not powerful at all, so I do not know what you are talking about?? There are not that many teachers who belong to it and our teachers have not had a raise in years!! this bill is a terrible Idea!! Teachers do not object to being evaluated because they are evaluated all the time!! Please Veto SB6/HB 7189 Governor Crist !! Thousands upon thousands of parents, teachers and students need you to dump this thing in the trash and start over this time with collaboration not the bullying tactics that Senator Thrasher uses to try and get his way!! Thank You