Nation watches Florida push for merit pay
Many teachers watched with horror last week as Florida lawmakers passed what may be the most controversial and sweeping education overhaul in the history of the state, with changes that will tie their pay to student performance and eliminate long-term contracts.
Having lost a bitter fight against Republicans pushing the legislation, many teachers now have pinned their hopes on a veto from Gov. Charlie Crist.
But teachers aren't the only ones monitoring the state's political leaders.
Florida is at the center of a budding national movement to pay teachers for how much their students learn, and to fire them if students don't learn enough.
One reason the action in Tallahassee is getting so much attention: No one really knows whether merit pay works, and few states have gone as far and as fast as Florida did Thursday night and early Friday in an emotionally charged marathon House session. One legislator opposed to the measure called it "Frankenstein's monster."
"The state is getting ahead of itself. The science isn't there. The data isn't there," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center for Education Policy, a nonprofit organization in Washington that