Florida's education reform bills would mean more money -- not less -- for public-school teachers, says Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey.
"This bill (HB7189) does not affect retirement, it does not cut salaries, it does not eliminate tenure for current teachers," Legg told a packed meeting of the House Education Policy Council on Monday.
Instead, Legg said, a new performance-based pay program would bring "value-added" components to setting salaries.
Effective July 1, 2014, school districts would be required to reward "effective" or "highly effective" teachers "on top of base pay," Legg said. Half of those ratings would be based on student learning gains, with the remaining 50 percent tied to other factors, subject to collective bargaining agreements.
Since 1999, districts have been under orders from the state Department of Education to implement pay scales "primarily" linked to academic performance. The reform bills define "primarily" as 50 percent and order districts to earmark 5 percent of funding for performance pay. Statewide, that 5 percent share currently amounts to $900 million annually.
"Fourteen years ought to be long enough," Legg said.
He added that teachers, under his bill, could also benefit financially by receiving "differential pay" for working in "high-priority areas" and "critical teacher-shortage areas," or for performing additional academic duties.
Legg noted that differential pay has been on the books for years, and that his bill would penalize districts for non-compliance.
The education establishment, led by the Florida Education Association, packed Monday's meeting with scores of teachers speaking out against the reform package, including companion measure Senate Bill 6, authored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville.
The FEA released results of a statewide survey it commissioned of 600 registered Republican voters.
Nearly three quarters of voters believe we should keep the current system of evaluating teachers, said David Beattie, the pollster who conducted the survey. Across the board, voters are less likely to support the reforms upon hearing, It takes away power of local school districts to make decisions and give it to the state Legislature.
Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Boards Association, said, "I'm not sure you can implement (the reform agenda). You can't even fix it, it's so bad."
Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University and a former Department of Education official in the George H.W. Bush administration, denounced "pay-for-scores schemes."
"Standardized tests are intended to evaluate whether students have learned what they were taught," Ravitch said in a statement released Monday. "They are not designed to assess teacher effectiveness or teacher quality."
"The more that teachers focus on these measures, the more they rob children of time for instruction and for the activities that engage children in their education and promote comprehension."
Teachers charged that Republican leaders did not reach out to educators to produce mutually agreeable legislation.
Legg replied that "multiple" town-hall meetings were conducted across the state.
Business groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida have expressed support for the measures. A representative from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce characterized the legislation as "very much in the mainstream" of national educational policy, as promoted by the Obama administration.
Critics of Florida's reform package noted that the state failed to win federal funding from the Race to the Top Fund.
Legg countered that the reform bills are designed to "implement a system" needed to garner such grants.
"This bill puts us in the driver's seat" for the next round of federal funding, which could total some $700 million, Legg said.
Delaware and Tennessee, winners of first-round funding from Washington, have introduced teacher-evaluation systems similar to those targeted by Florida legislation.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or (772) 559-4719.
