Please continue to contact members of the Florida Senate and ask them to vote “no” on Senate Bill 6.

The bill is on the floor of the senate this morning for "final" senate vote. Last night the House version of the bill became public. The House bill – as of yet un-numbered but noticed on the agenda as “PKP2”– is scheduled to be heard in the House PreK-12 Policy Committee Meeting at 9 am on Thursday, March 25. So far, the bills look very similar.

We expect that PKP2 will be on a fast track. Now, the focus of our work to stop this bill will move to the House. Stay tuned…

SENATE BILL 6

Still an Assault on Public School Teachers

Senate Bill 6 was considered on special order in the Florida Senate today and will be debated and voted on by the Florida Senate during either Wednesday’s (if they get to it) or Thursday’s Session. Unfortunately, today the Senate, along party lines, rejected efforts (discussed below) to make the bill more palatable.

Pertinent amendments which were proposed are as follows:

1.Amendment by Senator Al Lawson which, if enacted, would have tied continued employment to effective teacher performance based on student learning gains.

Although the Senate Republican leadership gives lip service to tying decision-making to effective teaching as measured by student learning gains, they rejected giving teachers who perform effectively an additional year of employment.

Effect of Rejection: Every teacher hired after July 1, 2010, will serve his or her entire career on an annual contract which may be non-renewed for any reason or no reason without legal recourse; termination from employment may be entirely unrelated to student learning gains.

2. Amendment by Senator Al Lawson which, if enacted, would have removed the language in SB 6 which requires a teacher to prove student learning gains in 4 of 5 years as a condition to renew his or her certificate.

Effect of Rejection: A teacher will not only lose his or her employment, but also his or her teaching certificate if they have more than a year in which student learning gains aren’t achieved. Loss of a certificate in Florida means that the person will not be able to obtain a certificate in any other state; lack of student learning gains will result in the end of teaching careers.

3. Amendment by Senator David Aronberg which, if enacted, would have established a task force to study and develop an effective, well thought out system of performance pay and delayed until July 1, 2012, the implementation statewide of a new performance pay system.

Effect of Rejection: Rather than permitting the reasoned development of a performance pay plan based upon stakeholder involvement and research, rejection of this amendment means SB 6's ill-conceived provisions will be continued.

4. Amendment by Senator Thad Altman which, if enacted, would have required that the a performance pay and appraisal system in SB 6 take into account factors totally outside of a teacher’s control (such as natural disasters, socioeconomic factors, age, home environment, students coming and going during the school year) so that teachers are not punished for factors outside of their control. In the face of Republican opposition, Senator Altman, himself a Republican, withdrew his amendment rather than having it voted down.

Effect of Withdrawal: SB 6 does not require an accommodation for factors totally outside of a teacher’s control in determining performance pay, employment decisions and appraisals of the teacher.

5. Amendment by Senator John Thrasher was adopted to partially reinstate National Board Certification Program, but only for teachers who have qualified prior to July 1, 2010. Moreover, currently there is no funding to pay the program incentives to teachers.

Effect of Amendment: SB 6 now gives the appearance of supporting National Board Certification, but is limited to current participants and is unfunded.

6. Amendment by Senators Lawson, Bullard, Hill, Joyner, Siplin, Smith and Wilson to reinstate SB 6's deletion of a program at state universities and community colleges to encourage promising minority students to prepare for a career in education. The amendment was defeated along party lines.

Effect of Rejection: The authorization for the program is deleted from Florida Statutes.

We would like to thank Senators Lawson, Bullard, Hill, Joyner, Siplin, Smith, Wilson, Aronberg and Altman for their efforts to make this bad bill more acceptable through the amendatory process. Senators Gelber, Sobel and Justice also deserve our thanks for their passionate debate on the issues. In the end, it was not effective in improving the bill.

As it stands now, SB 6 will still do the following:

1. Takes 5 percent of all operating funds from each school district (estimated to be in the 900- 950 million dollar range) to be used to develop the tests which will be used to measure student learning gains and then to pay any performance pay benefits required by the bill. In essence, all teachers are paying for the cost of test development and performance awards which may become due under SB 6.

2. Places all new teachers on annual contracts for the duration of their teaching careers and the contracts may be non-renewed for any reason or no reason without recourse.

3. Requires 50 percent of performance appraisals to be based on student learning gains based upon end of course tests which don’t yet exist.

4. Removes local decision-making by elected school boards or through collective bargaining on matters which relate to wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment.

5. Prohibits recognition of years of service or advanced degrees in determining teacher salaries.

6. Permits non-renewal of a teaching certificate if a teacher cannot demonstrate student learning gains in 4 of the preceding 5 years.

7. Carves out Hillsborough County from having to comply with the requirements of SB 6 because it has received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Please continue to contact members of the Florida Senate and ask them to vote “no” on Senate Bill 6.