Florida House Approves Ending Tenure for New Teachers

MIAMI — A bill to end tenure for new teachers and link their job security and pay to how well students perform on assessment tests cleared the Florida House of Representatives on Wednesday and now goes to the new governor, Rick Scott, a Republican who strongly supports the measure.

Taking on the teachers’ union, House Republicans used their supermajority to handily approve the legislation, which will dramatically change the way teachers in Florida are hired, fired and rewarded. This was a sharp departure from last year when a slightly tougher version of the bill prompted large demonstrations by Florida teachers and was ultimately vetoed by Mr. Scott’s predecessor, Charlie Crist, who said educators had been excluded from the process.

“This has ushered in a new era in education reform and will be a national model,” said Representative Erik Fresen, a Miami Republican and the sponsor of the bill. “This law is going to correct a system that is flying blind, a system that has no form of knowledge to go on in terms of which teachers are highly effective and which ones aren’t.”

The legislation, which positions Florida as a leader in the teacher tenure battle, would require new teachers to work under one-year contracts beginning in July, effectively ending tenure. As of 2014, contracts would be renewed based on evaluations, half of which would be tied to how students perform on assessment tests. The evaluations could lead to raises, or dismissals if teachers perform poorly two out of three years. Tenured teachers could opt into the merit pay system, but they would face the possibility of dismissal because of unsatisfactory evaluations regardless.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/us/17florida.html

Fuck those bastards.

:eyes:

The culture in Florida is nasty and mean.

You are right, it is really. I don't think it really caught hold until Bush ran, but I may be wrong.

The checks and balances are gone. I can't tell you how many friends we have who are teachers and are putting in for immediate retirement.

is best left to the teachers that can't cut it elsewhere. sigh No teacher worth their degree is going to work on a year to year basis in Florida when they can go to other states and earn a place that is more secure. No smart young person in their right mind is going to go into teaching right now unless they are doing it because they love it,have another source of income to support themselves. In about 10 years there will be a severe teacher shortage in Florida (if not in all 50 states) but by then it will be too late for a generation of students. Florida's weather isn't that good that someone would screw themselves to live in it.

Having had 4 family members that were/are teachers in Florida I feel for the 1 still teaching. Two have recently retired because of the BS, one just up and quit because she wouldn't sign federal forms for money her kids never got (ES) and the one left has a unique teaching job that actually pays for itself but she still worries about what they will do next.

Madfloridian has posted it for quite a while. Basically, "tenure" (continuing contracts) does not give a teacher a lifetime job. It simply requires due process to fire them. about 3000 teachers every year have contracts non-renewed.

This is about an attempt to take government dollars and give them to private companies. Whether vouchers or charters or performance pay or any other manipulation; the end result is to take down PUBLIC institutions: schools are the largest target, but prisons and every other service are on the list.

The merit pay system is going to be a joke also. It has been tried. My wife has received a few hundred at her school for high test scores, but there will never be enough "merit money" to be serious or a system that is fair based on test scores.

and you're out without tensure to ensure due process.

A fourth grade student once came up to me as a substitute teacher and told me his mother was on the Board of Education and I'd never work in the school system again.

Perhaps it's time to say that there's enough BS already. Can we get back to the democratic ideals?

Primary and secondary teachers don't do research or publish (generally) so the academic freedom argument never really made any sense. Though even the name fix doesn't work: unions for the most part don't work without a seniority system, but that's the part of organized labor that the public finds the most distasteful.

I see that won't be changing any time soon! It's too bad, because it's not lack of dedication on the teachers part that does it.