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Florida House Approves Teacher Merit Pay Bill

March 17, 2011 | WMFE - The Florida House of Representatives approved a bill Wednesday to link part of public school teacher compensation to student test scores. The state Senate passed a version of the proposal last week and it's now on its way to Governor Rick Scott who has said he will sign it into law immediately.

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The House passed the bill on an 80-39 vote with Democrats unanimously opposed.

The passage comes after a year of conversations between lawmakers, education advocates, teachers and others.

The proposal ties half of a teacher’s evaluation to student learning gains and those evaluations will be used to determine how much a teacher gets paid. Democratic Minority Leader Franklin Sands of Plantation described the bill as deceptive, “There was a joke in the 19th century when one boss was asking the other about how he motivated his employees” Sands said “If the employee does his job really well, we’ll let him keep it. This bill doesn’t even do that.”

Meanwhile, Republicans are celebrating the proposal, which also eliminates tenure, or long-term contracts, for teachers hired after July 1st, 2011.

Last year a similar measure squeaked by in the state Legislature only to be met with a veto by former Governor Charlie Crist.  Wednesday, a visibly happy House Speaker Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican, didn’t hesitate to take a swipe at the former governor. “It is a refreshing change, Governor Scott, to have a governor celebrating the passage of this bill instead of vetoing it.” Cannon said. “So thank you very much Governor Scott.”

Supporters of the bill have found a friend in the state’s new governor who said he’ll sign the bill as soon as it gets to his desk. “This bill is going to help us because it’s going to make sure we have absolutely the best workforce in the country.” Scott said. “We will be the winners. And that’s what’s going to happen.”

Passage of the bill comes after the state received a $700 million dollar grant from the federal government to improve the quality of teachers in public schools. That grant, from the federal “Race to the Top” program, been a focal point of President Barack Obama’s education agenda. 

 

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