Despite a whopping eight-hour Educational Policy Council meeting Monday, the House committee came roaring back for more Wednesday -- including a lengthy discussion on teacher performance pay.
Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, tried to keep the focus on questioning and hold off debate until Thursday.
There has been lots of, lets just say, confusion about this bill, said Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, who introduced the performance pay measure in the House.
Legg said the bill will not force local governments to raise taxes or gut teacher retirements or terminate gifted programs. Noting that his email inbox was full of questions and comments about this bill, Legg said that many of the concerns being expressed were not correct.
There is a lot of purposeful miscommunication about the bill that is frightening a lot of people, he said.
Focusing on what the bill did, Legg recited the details of what the bill contained to an unusually subdued House covering performance appraisals, pay and end-of-course assessments.
It creates more opportunities for effective teachers, said Legg. It rewards our teachers for what they do, including those who take on additional challenges in their schools.
Legg led a team of Republicans in answering questions from the Democrats on what the performance pay bill would do.
Responding to a question by Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, Legg said that the measure included graduate degrees when calculating a teachers salary. Legg said that the bill would include graduate degrees in salary calculations when the degree was relevant.
Advanced degrees are effective when correlated to the content area of the advanced degree, he said.
One aspect of the bill would have new standardized exams set up for the 2013-14 school year at the start and the end of the school year as one way of gauging teacher effectiveness. Republicans stressed that school districts were instructed in 1999 to create end-of-course tests but that most school districts have not implemented these exams.
Fifteen years is what weve given these school districts, said Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami. At some point, the rubber has to hit the road.
House Republican staffers expect the measure to pass on Thursday in spite of GOP defections. Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, and Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, have already come out in opposition to the measure. Rep. Ed Homan, R-Tampa, expressed some doubts during the question period.
While the measure appears likely to pass the House, its ultimate fate remains uncertain. While Gov. Charlie Crist initially backed the measure, Wednesday he said that he was still weighing his support of it. Republicans in the Legislature said in private they thought there was a strong possibility the governor would veto the bill.
The House also moved other educational bills along, paving the way for a vote on them Thursday.
Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, saw some movement on his legislation for Floridians to vote on a constitutional revision to the class-size amendment passed in 2002. Weatherfords proposal would remove firm caps established by the earlier measure and allow schools to use the average of the entire school. If the measure passes, it would still require 60 percent of Floridians voting in favor for the measure to become law.
We are not repealing the class size amendment, but we are adding flexibility, said Weatherford.
Reforms to the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, including added accountability measures, sponsored by Weatherford sailed through questioning and will be headed to a final vote in the House on Thursday.
A measure phasing out FCAT testing in math and science and replacing it with other tests also progressed through the House and now will be headed towards a final vote.
The House also backed changing the names of four community colleges that now offer bachelor's degrees. Palm Beach Community College will be renamed Palm Beach State College and Seminole Community College becomes Seminole State College of Florida. Lake City Community College will be renamed Florida Gateway College. Central Florida Community College will now be the College of Central Florida.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or (850) 727-0859.
