How Florida Can Move Forward With Reform � The Quick and the Ed

How Florida Can Move Forward With Reform � The Quick and the Ed

How Florida Can Move Forward With Reform

by Bill Tucker

There’s one local education agency (LEA) in Florida that has actually been operating for years with many of the reforms contained in the now-vetoed SB6: no teacher tenure, annual contracts, and merit pay. That same LEA has had no trouble attracting students (it’s the fastest growing in the state) or strong teachers (it has low teacher turnover, receives many applications for each opening, boasts a high number of national board certified teachers, and grew its full-time teaching force from just over 100 in 2005 to over 700 by 2009).
Ironically, the same Florida legislature that passed SB6 cut that LEA’s funding more than an