Local schools may get pass on teacher pay law

Hillsborough County would be the only school district in the state exempted from a proposed law that ties teacher pay to student performance on end-of-year assessment tests.

The surprise announcement came as the legislation, commonly known as the teacher tenure bill, was debated Friday afternoon at the state Senate Policy Committee on Ways and Means. The bill would base 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation each year on student learning gains. The rest of the evaluation would rely on a performance appraisal by the school principal.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, introduced a late amendment that said Hillsborough County would be exempted from the bill's provisions if it became law. The reason, Thrasher said, is that Hillsborough received a $100 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. To receive the grant, Hillsborough school leaders promised to work toward increased teacher effectiveness.

"I've been working with their staff, as well as their superintendent and others, to make sure the implementation of our legislation does not conflict with what they have so well done in respect to achieving that grant," Thrasher said.

Democrats on the committee, who were universally opposed to Thrasher's bill, objected to the exemption, but the amendment and the bill passed out of the committee on a party-line vote. It now goes to the Senate floor, where it is likely to pass and then be accepted by the House.

Hillsborough schools spokesman Steve Hegarty said the district has been talking to legislators in both chambers about exempting the school system from provisions of the bill, including one that would reduce state funding by 5 percent for districts that don't adopt the new teacher performance measures. The districts would have to raise property taxes to fill the gap in state funding.

Hegarty said Hillsborough is working on a plan similar to Thrasher's, except that it would base 40 percent of a teacher's pay on achievement gains. The rest would be based on evaluations by the principal and a peer appraiser.

"That's what we're moving toward, but it's all subject to negotiations with the (teachers) union," Hegarty said.

The Florida Education Association, which represents 140,000 teachers and other school employees, opposes the bill. Union leaders say it would do away with the limited job security teachers enjoy through contracts with school boards and replace it with yearly make-or-break evaluations. That would hurt the state's ability to attract better teachers, they say.

Opponents also say the bill's tough evaluation methods penalize teachers who have students with emotional, behavioral and developmental problems.

Jennifer Barnhill, a Tallahassee teacher with 14 years' experience and a master's degree, told the committee her class includes children with attention deficit problems and a teenager who must take care of his brother while their father is in jail.

"My kids always make gains," Barnhill said, "but this year, with everything they've been through from all the outside influences, I don't know if they will make those gains this year. And I'll be penalized for that."

Ron Meyer, an attorney for the teacher's union, said most teachers are dedicated and work hard. The union would welcome ideas on how to reward good teachers and weed out the mediocre and lazy members of the profession, Meyer said.

"We want them out as bad as anybody else wants them out," he said. "They're a blight on the profession that should be dealt with if they're not performing."

But Thrasher replied that more than 95 percent of Florida teachers last year received a "satisfactory" on their evaluations.

The bill would create a teacher performance fund for districts to reward effective teachers whose students make learning gains. However, the performance grant would be funded with 5 percent of the money the state now gives school districts for operations.