Good for Charlie
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Hyde Parke
Members Posts: 2,573 ✭✭✭
Good for him, wont be long b4 he's and independant.
Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday killed the bill that prompted sickouts, sit-ins, street protests and a flood of opposition throughout the state as Republican lawmakers vowed to try again next year -- if not sooner.
Calling it ``significantly flawed,'' Crist decried the bill -- which would link teacher pay to student test scores and eliminate tenure for all new hires -- as both overreaching and too vague.
``We must start over,'' he said.
The measure's main sponsor, Republican Sen. John Thrasher, said he did not think the bill would see a resurrection this spring.
``That would be hard to do,'' said Thrasher, of St. Augustine. ``Major legislation like this sometimes takes years to pass. This is not done overnight.''
But for Rep. John Legg, the Port Richey Republican who sponsored the bill in the House, education reform efforts are not over. He said he intends to find ways to toughen existing laws that require using student performance to evaluate teachers and that require schools to have an ``evaluation mechanism'' for every course.
``Obviously, that does not happen now,'' Legg said.
Although he initially voiced support for the bill, Crist had distanced himself as protests mounted. He insisted his decision was not influenced by his faltering primary race for the U.S. Senate.
The governor's office has received nearly 120,000 messages about the bill. Though about 51,000 were still unread, almost 65,000 of the logged messages opposed the bill. Just 3,000 supported the bill.
``This bill has deeply and negatively affected the morale of our teachers, our parents and our students,'' Crist said. ``They are not confident in our system because they do not believe their voices were heard.''
Under the bill, half of a teacher's evaluation would depend on their students' learning gains. Good gains would equal positive evaluations and pay raises, which teachers said failed to factor the work that doesn't show up on tests -- and ignores other forces that affect kids.
Tenure would have been out of the question for new teachers, which Crist highlighted in his problems with the bill.
The measure was a session priority for Republican party leaders, who rammed the legislation through committees and floor debates as public outcry grew.
It first passed in the Senate in a tight 21-17 vote. House leaders made a no-amendment rule to avoid a second vote in the more moderate Senate. The bill passed in the House 64-55.
The strategy aimed at ensuring the bill's passage, but may have backfired. Crist criticized the process Thursday, saying the legislation was ``sped through without meaningful input.''
Response from lawmakers was swift and mostly split along party lines.
``Disappointed'' was the word of the day for many Republican supporters. ``Gloating'' was the choice for many of the bill's opponents -- from both parties.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who lobbied hard for the bill, was one of the many disheartened Republicans.
``By taking this action, Gov. Crist has jeopardized the ability of Florida to build on the progress of the last decade,'' said Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Florida's Future, in a statement.
``Obviously, it's a victory,'' said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
``But I'm not uncorking champagne because, frankly, it's really a sad statement that we had to fight this hard to stop something so wrong-headed.''
Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday killed the bill that prompted sickouts, sit-ins, street protests and a flood of opposition throughout the state as Republican lawmakers vowed to try again next year -- if not sooner.
Calling it ``significantly flawed,'' Crist decried the bill -- which would link teacher pay to student test scores and eliminate tenure for all new hires -- as both overreaching and too vague.
``We must start over,'' he said.
The measure's main sponsor, Republican Sen. John Thrasher, said he did not think the bill would see a resurrection this spring.
``That would be hard to do,'' said Thrasher, of St. Augustine. ``Major legislation like this sometimes takes years to pass. This is not done overnight.''
But for Rep. John Legg, the Port Richey Republican who sponsored the bill in the House, education reform efforts are not over. He said he intends to find ways to toughen existing laws that require using student performance to evaluate teachers and that require schools to have an ``evaluation mechanism'' for every course.
``Obviously, that does not happen now,'' Legg said.
Although he initially voiced support for the bill, Crist had distanced himself as protests mounted. He insisted his decision was not influenced by his faltering primary race for the U.S. Senate.
The governor's office has received nearly 120,000 messages about the bill. Though about 51,000 were still unread, almost 65,000 of the logged messages opposed the bill. Just 3,000 supported the bill.
``This bill has deeply and negatively affected the morale of our teachers, our parents and our students,'' Crist said. ``They are not confident in our system because they do not believe their voices were heard.''
Under the bill, half of a teacher's evaluation would depend on their students' learning gains. Good gains would equal positive evaluations and pay raises, which teachers said failed to factor the work that doesn't show up on tests -- and ignores other forces that affect kids.
Tenure would have been out of the question for new teachers, which Crist highlighted in his problems with the bill.
The measure was a session priority for Republican party leaders, who rammed the legislation through committees and floor debates as public outcry grew.
It first passed in the Senate in a tight 21-17 vote. House leaders made a no-amendment rule to avoid a second vote in the more moderate Senate. The bill passed in the House 64-55.
The strategy aimed at ensuring the bill's passage, but may have backfired. Crist criticized the process Thursday, saying the legislation was ``sped through without meaningful input.''
Response from lawmakers was swift and mostly split along party lines.
``Disappointed'' was the word of the day for many Republican supporters. ``Gloating'' was the choice for many of the bill's opponents -- from both parties.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who lobbied hard for the bill, was one of the many disheartened Republicans.
``By taking this action, Gov. Crist has jeopardized the ability of Florida to build on the progress of the last decade,'' said Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Florida's Future, in a statement.
``Obviously, it's a victory,'' said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
``But I'm not uncorking champagne because, frankly, it's really a sad statement that we had to fight this hard to stop something so wrong-headed.''
Comments
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Good. Test scores as a means of merit pay is not a good idea.
Want to raise test scores? Throw out non achieving students as opposed to actually teaching, which unfortunately most teachers don't do anymore.
Academic Standards have fallen for teachers and students. -
Yeah it was good to hear this.
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This bill caused a pretty big uproar in Florida and had every teacher (and ALOT of parents) in the Sunshine State goin' HARD.
