A comprehensive bill to overhaul Florida’s education system, at the center of which is teachers’ merit pay, is on its way to the floor of the House on Wednesday.
Over the objection of thousands of teachers across the state, some of whom showed up in Tallahassee yesterday, the House Education Policy Council approved the bill (HB 7189) along party lines, 12-5, reports the News Service of Florida.
Those opposed to the proposal, which would base teachers’ pay on student performance on standardized tests, say it would be unfair to those who teach in lower-income schools. They maintain that these students perform less well than those in high income income schools for a variety of reasons outside their control. The merit pay bill, they believe, would have unintended consequences.
But backers of the bill maintain that while teacher quality reform is a difficult thing to implement, the proposal will boost quality teachers and weed out poor-performing ones.
Although the Department of Education is still to determine the particular testing mechanisms and ways to measure learning gains, the bill seems set to gain passage in the Republican-controlled House.
While several business organizations are in support of the bill, the state teachers’ union says the legislation is heading down a slippery slope.
