Class attendance will count. A students socioeconomic status wont. Students with disabilities and gifted students will be a factor. But race and gender will not.

Thats a glimpse of the new test-based teacher evaluation formula the state is set to approve on Wednesday. As part of the requirements of the new teacher merit pay law and the mandates of the $700 million Race to the Top federal grant, the state and school districts are preparing for a major overhaul of how teachers are rated and paid.

WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump's pathological political exhibitionism has ended, Newt Gingrich has incinerated himself with an incoherent retraction tour, Mitt Romney has reaffirmed his enthusiasm for his Massachusetts health care law, rendering himself incapable of articulating the case against Obamacare and the entitlement state generally, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels, aware of the axiom that anyone who will do what must be done to become president should not be allowed to be president, are out.

While a national confidence index showed Americans worried about gas prices, the job market and the ongoing housing slump, University of Florida researchers say Floridians have a different concern: the state budget.

Nationally, the Conference Boards Consumer Confidence Index fell in May to 61, the lowest reading since November and down 30 points since late 2007.

During the 2011 legislative session, Florida lawmakers had to contend with plenty of the heavy stuff -- a comprehensive Medicaid reform package, a teacher merit pay bill, state worker pension reform and far more -- all while cutting spending by nearly $4 billion in order to balance the budget.

Yet, as they do in almost every session, legislators somehow found the time and the will to move their oddball agenda -- this year in the form of a trio of bills that each attracted national attention for a different reason:

For Californias high-speed rail boosters, including their chief cheerleader, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the month of May was a month from hell.

First came a scathing report by the California Legislatures fiscal watchdog, the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office (LAO), questioning the rail authoritys unrealistic cost estimates and its decision to build the first $5.5 billion segment in the sparsely populated Central Valley between Borden and Corcoran.

Gov. Rick Scott will never win any popularity contests with the liberals at Florida's teacher union. Now, his curious call to shift budget savings back to education threatens to undermine his conservative base, as well.