A bill to change the way Florida hires, retains and pays teachers sprawls all over the education map. It offers a few improvements — such as giving school officials access to records they need to prevent child abuse — but the overwhelming aim in its 60-plus pages is to punish and discourage teachers.
And when it's not doing that, Senate Bill 6, sponsored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, seeks to punish local taxpayers of any school district that doesn't bully teachers.
The heart of the legislation is this: School districts may not base teacher or administrator pay "in whole or in part … on the number of years worked or degrees held." We agree that an English Ph.D who has done little more in 30 years than hold down a desk is not worth keeping, particularly at an inflated salary. But if Florida's schools are riddled with such specimens, how has the state made the spectacular gains cited by everyone from Jeb Bush to Charlie Crist?
Florida's application for federal Race to the Top stimulus money brags that state teachers rank fourth in the nation. No aspect of the state's educational system — including its damaging FCAT-based accountability — ranked higher nationally than teachers in the latest Quality Counts survey by Education Week.
If longevity and degrees don't count, what does? SB 6 says that at least half of any teacher's assessment must be on "student learning gains." Other factors would include agreeing to teach at an underperforming school and teaching a subject, such as math, which is short of qualified teachers. None of those would be a problem except that "student learning gains," for the present, primarily means results on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
The FCAT, given in writing, reading, math and science, has its uses. But the Legislature already relies too much on the FCAT for school grades and teacher bonuses. How can that be valid when, for