The Florida House’s Prek-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee filed its version of a teacher quality bill that has been approved by two Senate committees so far.
The bill is a revamped version of last year’s teacher merit pay proposal that angered teachers so much that they inundated lawmakers’ offices with letters, e-mails and phone calls protesting the measure, which former Gov. Charlie Crist ultimately vetoed.
Like the Senate version, the bill would force school districts to partially base teacher salary raises on student test data. The Florida Department of Education will be charged with developing criteria to measure student growth on the state’s standardized exams and is allowed to consider student attendance, a developmental disability or English as a second language status. It cannot consider gender, race or socioeconomic status.
The bill would also abolish long term contracts, known as professional contracts, and put teachers on one-year contracts, meaning their employment could be terminated at the end of each school year.
PreK-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee Chair Erik Fresen and House Education Chair Bill Proctor released a joint statement, saying they looked forward to input from teachers, parents and administrators.
“This proposed committee bill is another step toward meaningful education reform that will serve to further improve our state’s education system by implementing a performance pay plan that is grounded in student learning growth that will result in the ability to reward the most effective teachers,” the two said via a press release.
The News Service of Florida
