SB6 and Teachers

By Friday April 16, Florida Governor Charlie Crist must make a decision on SB 6 - a bill passed by the Florida Legislature which would require merit based pay raises for teachers. One of the largest problems with this bill is the lack of accountability for school administration. Why should teachers who make every effort to do their job, who send disruptive children to the office for disciplanary reasons - where the kids are often rewarded for misbehaving by being given chocolate and other treats once they promise to behave - be held solely accountable for student performance when it's clear that parents, administrators and school boards are not.

My wife is a teacher and as she puts it, there are 4 kinds of students - Those who can do the work and will, those who can do the work but won't, those who cannot do the work but try and those who cannot and will not do the work - sadly many in the last category are students who were in special education when I went to elementary school and are now "mainstreamed" despite the obvious disruption they create in the classroom. The sad part is the kids who can but won't often have parents who blame the school and the teachers for their own inability to parent. Having a child in school makes it your responsibility to help them learn by assisting with homework, making sure the kid is fed and gets to bed at a reasonable hour. It is not nor should it ever be solely the teachers responsibility to ensure the child gets through school.

It seems that if the governor decides to pass this bill we have but one choice - pass an amendment to the Florida constitution that would require every pay raise for state officials to be put to a vote by the people. In fact, done correctly we could set a starting wage for Senators and House members and then based on what they do or don't accomplish in a given term vote on whether or not they deserve a pay raise. I can only imagine the outcry if suddenly every state senator had to work for the $30,000/year (or less) that teachers make and then found they couldn't just vote themselves a raise after passing poorly thought out legislation like SB 6.