Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a sweeping education bill Monday, even as the focus on Florida schools is being largely overtaken by a battle between the governor and legislative leaders over teacher pay.

Flanked by university presidents, lawmakers and other education leaders, Scott signed SB 1076, which would overhaul high school and higher education.

The legislation  creates two designations for high school degrees, each with different requirements. One is aimed at encouraging students to work toward industry certification.

The bill would also set out standards for universities to be recognized as “preeminent universities,” with one of those schools positioned to run an online institute to encourage internet-based education, a priority of House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

Weatherford called the legislation “transformational.” Scott also praised the measure for helping connect students to the state’s evolving economy.

“We should all be proud of how this will help children get jobs when they finish their education,” Scott said.

But House and Senate budget negotiators have darkened one of Scott’s top priorities: $2,500 pay raises for teachers. While the proposed budget being hammered on now settles on the $480 million Scott needs to achieve that goal, lawmakers want to broaden the pool of potential recipients and tie the raises to merit.

Including guidance counselors, librarians and other non-teachers in the eligible pool would potentially shrink the amount of individual raises.

Since there isn’t a plan in place to enact merit-pay raises, that also could delay getting the money into teachers’ hands, critics said.

“Despite the fact that teachers in Florida make $10,000 less than the national average, much-needed pay raises for next year will be based on a system that doesn’t make a lick of sense,” said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

“Pay raises for other state workers like law-enforcement officers and firefighters aren’t tied to a ridiculous evaluation system,” Ford concluded.

Senate Education budget chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said negotiators are still refining how the merit raises would be distributed. But he said it would not be difficult for the state and school boards to devise a system.

“I don’t think that’s a legitimate concern,” Galvano said.

Scott, though, after signing the education bill into law, said he was not bending on the $2,500 raise.

“I have my priorities, the House and Senate have their priorities,” Scott said. “We have two weeks left in session. We’ll see how well each of us get our priorities…I believ we’re going to have a great session.”

He added, “Our K-12 school system is doing a great job…The right thing to do is reward our teachers with a $2,500 pay raise.”

History was the garnish to plates of grouper served Friday night at the Governor’s Mansion, when Republican Gov. Rick Scott had dinner with a half-dozen representatives of the state’s largest teachers’ union.

Both sides said the closed-door dinner meeting went well, being the first of its kind since Scott took office in January 2011. Florida Education Association President Andy Ford is expected to return for a meeting with Scott next week — this time a more traditional business huddle likely slated for Wednesday in the governor’s office, both sides said.

“I think we can always find opportunity to improve what’s on the books — especially with merit pay,” Ford said, adding, “Tonight was a good first step toward having some dialogue that probably should have happened a long time ago.”  

Scott railed against the teachers’ union during his election campaign two years ago, when the FEA was a heavy backer of Scott’s rival, vanquished Democratic gubernatorial nominee Alex Sink.

 The relationship didn’t get any warmer.

The first bill Scott signed into law as governor recast the way teachers were evaluated — making reviews more dependent on student performance. The legislation has been challenged by the union. The same session, Scott approved a measure that extracted 3 percent payments from public employees in the Florida Retirement System, the bulk of them teachers and other school board employees.

The first state budget Scott signed cut public school funding by $1.3 billion. The second spending plan restored $1 billion — but most school districts have eliminated scores of jobs.

Much of the discussion Friday pivoted around how the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is deployed both for gauging students and teachers, along with Scott and the Republican-ruled Legislature’s push to expand virtual education. The possibility of private school vouchers returning — after they were ruled unconstitutional in 2006 by the Florida Supreme Court — wasn’t on the table, Scott said.

“I’m working on this job,” Scott said, when asked why it’s taken so long to meet with FEA representatives. “Remember, as a lawyer, you’re always practicing.”

The Friday night dinner capped a week in which Scott traveled the state on a “listening tour,” meeting with parents, teachers, school superintendents and principals to discuss how Florida can improve its education system.  He was in Boca Raton on Tuesday and plans to complete his tour next week in Fort Walton Beach.

“I believe parents ought to have choice, I believe that’s good for them,” Scott said. “I believe in the public school system. I grew up in the public school system. It was good for me. The teachers had a dramatic, positive impact on the my life….Is choice good? Yeah. But let’s make sure we do it the right way. Is competition good? Sure, but let’s make sure we do it the right way.”

After bidding goodnight to Scott at the mansion door, Ford acknowledged he was “shocked” by the reachout from the governor. But he said he welcomed the dialogue. Still, he told reporters, some issues are not up for discussion.

Vouchers? “Not for us. End of story,” Ford said.

Gov. Rick Scott signed into law Tuesday a $70 billion state budget, while vetoing $142.7 million in spending and warning universities against seeking 15 percent tuition hikes next fall.

The budget for the year beginning July 1 includes a $1 billion increase for Florida classrooms. Scott signed the budget at the ‘A’ -rated Cunningham Creek Elementary School in the St. Augustine-area to underscore his newfound commitment to public schools.

A year ago, Scott signed a budget which cut $1.3 billion from schools. But on Tuesday, Scott called education, “the lifeblood of our state.”

But Scott’s urging universities to rein-in spending may set him at odds with Florida’s 11 public universities, which face a $300 million reduction in state funding this year. Scott let stand a budget item that allows Florida’s 28 colleges to raise tuition by 5 percent this year, but suggested Tuesday that universities should go no higher.

The State University System’s Board of Governors will decide tuition rates in June.

The $142.7 million in vetoes is a sharp dropoff from last year, when Scott vetoed a record $615 million. A year ago, Scott clashed with lawmakers through most of the session. But this year, legislators aimed early on at the $1 billion boost for schools that he called for in releasing his budget recommendation in January.

“Over the last year I have traveled the state to hear from Floridians what issues they care about most,” Scott said Tuesday. “That’s why this budget should be known as an education budget. The two issues that Floridians care most about are jobs and education, and the two go hand-in-hand since a good education is critical to getting a good job.”

School officials say they welcome the $1  billion increase. But they acknowledge it doesn’t bring per-pupil funding back to levels of even two years ago. The state’s largest teachers’ union, which had supported Scott opponent, Democrat Alex Sink, in the 2010 governor’s race, was especially critical.

Florida Education Association President Andy Ford said Scott and the Republican-led Legislature are still shorting schools, even with the new money.

“At the same time the governor and lawmakers doled out more tax giveaways for corporations, more money for unaccountable voucher schools and more support and autonomy to for-profit charter schools, our public schools are given a budget nowhere close to adequate and light years away from a true investment in our children,” Ford said.

Palm Beach County didn’t have too many favored projects in the budget. But Scott vetoed most Tuesday, including $250,000 to reimburse local law enforcement agencies and others for security costs related to a presidential debate this fall at Boca Raton’s Lynn University; $50,000 toward developing a master plan for the Glades’ Torry Island; and $1 million for water treatment work in the Glades area.

But Scott allowed $500,000 in state funds to go toward roadwork on Riviera Beach’s 13th Street, which local officials said was needed to help link the Port of Palm Beach with nearby industrial sites.

The fate of the Legislature’s push to make government workers in the Florida Retirement System contribute 3 percent to their pensions likely rests with the Florida Supreme Court, after an appellate court Friday certified the case to justices.

A Leon Circuit Court judge last week ruled the contribution requirement violated the state’s constitution. The state is appealing the ruling, which casts an ominous cloud over the state’s finances. The Legislature used the $1 billion in pension payments to help cover holes in both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 budgets.

The Florida Education Association, among several public employees’ unions which challenged the pension contributions, said it welcomed Supreme Court review. The First District Court of Appeal chose not to act on the case.

““We’re pleased that this case will move more quickly toward its final resolution,” said FEA President Andy Ford. “This could help hundreds of thousands of middle-class Florida families who have seen their incomes tumble while the governor and legislative leaders handed out tax giveaways to corporations.”

The state’s largest teachers’ union, which has already sued Gov. Rick Scott over the new law requiring payroll contributions to the Florida Retirement System, went a little more public Tuesday with its criticism of the Republican governor.

About 250 Florida Education Association members wore ‘Pink Slip Rick’ t-shirts on the convention floor at the National Education Association’s annual meeting  in Chicago.

“Rick Scott wants to protect Wall Street over Main Street with his plan to dole out tax breaks to CEOs while handing pink slips to middle class Floridians,” said FEA President Andy Ford.

The FEA last week absorbed a setback in the lawsuit it is leading on behalf of public employee unions, when a Leon County circuit judge refused to order the state to set aside potentially millions of dollars pending the outcome of the legal challenge. FEA had sought the temporary injunction while the lawsuit over the constitutionality of the pension law proceeds.