Former House Rep. Sharon Merchant, locked in a Republican state Senate primary with Lizbeth Benacquisto, is shopping an op-ed piece in which she urges Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the controversial plan that would eliminate teacher tenure and use student performance to determine pay raises.

Merchant’s position is noteworthy in that it sets her apart from the Republican majority in Tallahassee, including Senate President Jeff Atwater, who is driving the bill and who has supported Benacquito’s campaign.

Merchant writes (full piece after the jump):

As a conservative, I find it troubling that our party would lock out of the debate those most affected by this legislation. As a conservative, I am troubled by the fiscal irresponsibility of this legislation. As a conservative, I am troubled by the fundamental unfairness of this legislation.

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The video is from Gov. Charlie Crist’s press conference this morning. Some background here, here and here.

UPDATE: Gov. Charlie Crist reconsidering his support for the controversial bill.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush stepped his efforts today to rewrite the way public school teachers are paid with a recorded phone call urging Floridians to call their local lawmaker. (Thanks to our partners at WOKV for the tip).

Listen to the call here.

In the 55-second message, Bush says the bill will improve education in Florida, but the its the target of “a massive misinformation campaign.”

Bush says the bill will “close the achievement gap once and for all” and tells the listeners to call their lawmaker and tell them to support the bill, which will be discussed on the House floor today and receive a final vote tomorrow.

The proposal has ignited a political food fight between some of the heaviest names in the Florida Capitol: The AFL-CIO & the Florida Education Association on one side (see their television ad here) and Jeb Bush and the Florida Chamber of Commerce on the other (see their ads here and here.).

The spot, released today, is from Foundation for Florida’s Future, the education group former Gov. Jeb Bush formed after leaving office. The ad is at least partly in response to this commercial, which hammers Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, for pushing the measure.

UPDATE: Republicans voted down all nine Democratic amendments, most along party lines. Rep. Faye Culp, R-Tampa, joined Democrats on two amendments that would have let districts base pay raises on advanced degrees and length of service.

For background, here’s our story after the merit pay proposal passed the Florida Senate last month.

UPDATE: Folks connected to the ad say its running in the West Palm Beach and Tallahassee markets.

The ad is from No Tallahassee Takeover Inc., a group registered to teachers union attorney Ron Meyer. It’s in response to a merit-pay plan approved by Jeff Atwater‘s chamber last week — the same plan that forced House Speaker Larry Cretul’s office to add extra phone lines to handle all the calls coming in from irate teachers.

So many angry teachers called House Speaker Larry Cretul’s office late last week his staff had to add four additional telephone lines and four workers to field the complaints, Cretul spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said.

The Speaker’s office received more than 5,500 phone calls on Thursday and Friday about SB 6, the measure approved by the Senate last week that would revamp teacher salaries and job security by basing educators’ pay on how well their students perform on standardized tests.

Most of the calls objected to the proposal, Chamberlin said.

“It’s hard to generalize, but many people did not seem to know what the bill does (they thought it would reduce current teacher pay—it won’t) (they thought it would affect current teacher retirement and benefits—it won’t, etc.) and many thought we were taking a poll (which we were not.) It is certainly possible that some people didn’t get through or got voice mail—considering the volume,” Chamberlin said in an e-mail.

UPDATE: Sen. John Thrasher, the St. Augustine Republican pushing the merit pay plan, says the state can fund his proposal without the federal grant money: “It would have been nice, but the bill is not predicated on whether we got Race to the Top,” he said. “This policy is based on what we think is the right thing to do for the state of Florida.”

Florida came up short in the first round of awards from a $4 billion in federal education fund, but Gov. Charlie Crist said he was encouraged after a conversation today with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

“We’re disappointed, but not deterred,” Crist said. “It’s on to round two.”

Florida Board of Education Chairman T. Williard Fair told the St. Petersburg Times that missing out on the cash was “the biggest shock of my professional career.”

State lawmakers were also anticipating the money. The Senate approved a plan last week to base teacher raises on student performance. The $900 million proposal was to supposed to be paid for with money from the federal “Race to the Top” fund.

But Crist said he was encouraged by Florida’s #4 ranking out of 41 states. “It bodes very well for the second round. We’re pressing forward and we’re not giving up,” he said.

Crist brought an entourage of state education officials to Washington D. C. two weeks ago for an intense interview with federal education officials over the state’s application for $1 billion out of the $4.35 billion available in the fund. The total awards for Delaware and Tennessee announced today were a combined $600 million.

The Senate passed a measure that would have a far-reaching impact on teachers’ salaries and job security after a heated debate by Democratic opponents and an angry defense of the bill by Republicans.

Four Republicans – Sens. Charlie Dean of Inverness, Paula Dockery of Lakeland, Dennis Jones of Seminole and Alex Villalobos of Miami – joined Democrats on the losing side of the 21-17 vote.

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