• HB 1191 Parent Empowerment in Education (aka Parent Trigger) passed the House Rulemaking and Regulation Committee by a vote of 8 to 6 — ALMOST along party lines. The committee heard and passed the “delete everything” (aka strike-all) amendment. There are significant problems with this version. The bill in its current form would: – Allow parents [...]
Florida Plans to Evaluate Teachers on FCAT Scores of Students They Never Taught?
Call and email SENATOR STEPHEN WISE and tell him to hear SENATE BILL 1380 to stop unfair teacher evaluations!
At the request of Florida Education Association members, Senator Audrey Gibson has proposed Senate Bill 1380 and Representative Dwayne Taylor has proposed House Bill 1067. These bills would repeal an unfair requirement in SB 736 that impacts teacher evaluations, pay and job security.
The bills would remove provisions in the law that require that non-FCAT teachers’ and non-classroom instructional personnel performance evaluations be based in part on upon the FCAT scores.
Civil War Festival Next Weekend
Renninger’s Twin Markets will be home to a live Civil War Re-enactment, living history exhibits, folk music, weaponry demonstration, authentic camps and sutlers, full-scale artillery, cavalry and soldiers in period dress and weaponry, a Civil War era Dress Ball and more this weekend. When you hear the boom every hour or so remember it’s not [...]
Proposed HB 543 to Rate Parents
This bill would require that school districts inform parents of its expectations regarding parental responsiveness to teacher requests for communication, such as accurate contact, emergency and medical information and oversight of their child’s school attendance, completion of homework and preparation for tests. They can use existing guides or checklists or new formats to communicate but would require parents to acknowledge, in writing, the receipt of that information.
3 Reasons Teachers Hate Rick Scott
His ridiculous merit pay plan – an unfunded mandate signed at a charter school no less. The legislation will establish a statewide teacher evaluation and merit pay system in 2014 and do away with tenure for new teachers hired after July 1 this year. It also chips away at teachers’ due process and collective bargaining. The measure is the latest in a series of steps Florida has taken to instill accountability into its education system by relying heavily on student testing to measure success and failure. That includes a grading system to reward top schools and sanction those that fall short. Those changes were instigated by former Gov. Jeb Bush. No teacher with any sense supports this legislation.
Scott’s not sweating the “pension tax” lawsuit
A total of 556,296 public workers, including teachers, is suing the state of Florida saying that the new required pension contribution without a pay raise is really a pay cut for hundreds of thousands of state, county and city employees. Florida educators are suing the state on behalf of all public employees in the state retirement system.
FEA suing state over pay cuts to for pension contribution
“This pay cut was used by legislative leadership to make up a budget shortfall on the backs of teachers, law-enforcement officers, firefighters and other state workers,” said FEA President Andy Ford. “It is essentially an income tax levied only on workers belonging to the Florida Retirement System. It’s unfair – and it breaks promises made to these employees when they chose to work to improve our state.
“While the state of Florida may make the policy decision to ask future employees to contribute to their retirement, it may not unilaterally change the covenant it made with current employees,” Ford said.
So what are Florida Govt’s Doing with Pension Savings?
Almost all local governments will use their pension-saving windfall next year to fill budget holes. The agencies will get the money thanks to changes in the state’s pension plan contribution formula. The changes start July 1 when employees have to begin contributing 3 percent into the Florida Retirement System and the governments begin contributing less.
FRS Rules for 300,000 Change July 1st
“A number of districts have seen the number of teachers retiring nearly doubling so far,” said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association. He attributed the spike to many factors, the changes to DROP among them, but also the merit-pay bill passed and signed into law that ends teacher tenure and bases performance evaluations in large part on standardized tests.
A week ago, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law the pension bill passed by the Legislature. Most of the changes will take years to make a difference and apply only to employees who go to work in an FRS-eligible job after July 1.
Gary Siplin’s “Pants on the Ground” Bill Passed
Students [wearing baggy pants] could be punished with removal from extracurricular activities and in-school suspension. Siplin said he pushed the measure in an effort to make sure students understood how to dress well and improve their employment prospects after they graduated.
