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Nancy Smith

FEA's Race to Mediocrity

March 6, 2010 - 6:00pm

While most state lawmakers cheer Florida education's "race to the top," the state teachers union is engaged in a "race to mediocrity."

Why do I say that?

Because -- except for the colossally expensive class-size amendment -- the Florida Education Association hasn't been on board for a single significant reform since the mid-1990s, when education in the Sunshine State ranked in the nation's bottom quartile.

The three prongs of Gov. Jeb Bush's A-Plus Plan, remember? High standards, accountability and choice. The three measures that improved a troubled system and continue to lift Florida's education today. The FEA fought all three, tooth and nail.

And now the union wants to keep bad teachers in the classroom. It chooses to fight SB 6, a proposed bill from Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, which would base teachers' salaries on how well students do on standardized tests.

Under conditions in the bill, tenure would be abolished starting July 2010. (Tenure is when teachers and administrators are given virtually a lifetime contract.) In July, new teachers would be on probation for five years. After that, they would become eligible only for annual contracts and would face more stringent evaluations and testing.

School districts that fail to comply would have to levy an added tax and, as an additional penalty, forgo matching state-revenue dollars.

Never mind that many Florida teachers would be eligible to make more money based on their students' performance. Never mind that Thrasher's bill falls in line with the reforms inherent in President Barack Obama's Race to the Top criteria for state school systems across the country. Or that Florida is a finalist among 16 states vying for the $4.5 billion "race" grant.

The Florida Education Association doesn't like Thrasher's bill.

It gives the union another opportunity to kick reform in the gut.

For the past 32 years -- through all kinds of local struggles, especially -- I listened as Florida teachers told me how their union had let them down. Teachers, they said, know how important they are in their students' lives, in the structure of their communities and in the future of this great state. Teachers unions drive a wedge between themselves and their families and the important work done in a classroom, they said.

They were hardest on their colleagues who didn't belong in teaching. They wanted, and deserved, respect. And while few liked teaching to a test -- as in the case of FCAT -- the majority admitted that reform during the Jeb Bush years had brought about the steady gains in Florida education over the past decade. A fact to which their union could never admit.

Florida can't afford its naysaying teachers union's "race to mediocrity."

Reach Executive Editor Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at 850-583-1823.

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