I am exhausted. This is the most sustained anger I have ever felt in my life, and it has lasted three and a half weeks. We are well past the home stretch. I need a hot bath and twelve hours of sleep.
First, let me give you the update from the front lines.
The Florida Teachers are still overwhelming the Jeb Bush corporate lobbyists and their Republican lackeys. This state has never seen anything like this.
From the Orlando Sentinel:
The deadline for Gov. Charlie Crist to decide the future of a landmark teacher merit-pay bill ends in just days – and the push to convince him to sign or veto the legislation is in full frenzy mode.
Crist said the reaction is unprecedented, even surpassing the Terri Schiavo debate from 2005.
"I've never seen it this intense."
You should see how intense it is in the trenches. Some Miami schools had only 8 teachers report to work yesterday out of 50. We cannot let up. If SB6 is signed into law, there will be a mass exodus of educators from Florida in the coming years. Our public schools will be left in ruins.
Please sign Alex Sink's petition right now. She will deliver it to the Governor tomorrow, currently with well over 12,000 signatures in 3 days.
Please call Charlie Crist at (850) 488-4441 or write him an email at charlie.crist@myflorida.com to tell him how destructive Senate Bill 6 will be for the children of Florida and America.
Please read Kendrick Meek's letter to the Governor:
Governor Crist:
I appeal to you today, both as a citizen of the state of Florida and as a parent to withhold your signature from and, instead, to veto SB 6. You know better than most my undying support for improving our public schools. But, current events during this legislative session show that not everyone in Tallahassee shares in that support.
This past Thursday, April 8, 2010, leadership in the Florida legislature took out their aggression on Florida’s public school students, teachers, and parents by putting the issue of class size back on the ballot. It has been less than eight short years since Florida’s citizens were clear that they wanted smaller class sizes. In each of the seven years since the implementation of the class size amendment, our students have made improvements in their scores, and teachers have cited more satisfaction in their work environment and their ability to reach the children under their charge. While I was disappointed to read of your recent support of the proposed amendment, I have little doubt that come November, voters will beat back this latest on a long list of attempts to undermine their wishes and play a game of bait-and-switch as to the actual size of their children’s classrooms.
On the very next day, in yet another swipe at the Florida Constitution, the legislature passed SB 6 and sent it to your desk. This bill seizes control of educational decision making from the local governments as directed by the Florida Constitution and gives Tallahassee control over local school budgets and teacher evaluations. The blame-the-teacher tone of SB 6 does nothing to improve the conditions of Florida’s schools, but instead, will make recruitment and retention of teachers an impassable obstacle.
I believe that much of what we describe as a teacher shortage in Florida is more accurately described as high attrition and poor retention rates of teachers. We lose many or our teachers within the first three years of hire and over 40% resign by their fifth year according to Florida DOE statistics. A vast majority of those who leave cite poor pay, poor working conditions, and poor teaching conditions as the reason they leave. Teachers today are faced with increasingly high standards for student performance, while faced with an ever-growing list of challenges and demands from a less compliant and more troubled population of students.
Now, SB 6 says that a teacher’s salary will be based partly on the learning gains of their students based on yet another set of time-consuming and stressful standardized tests. Yet, there are few if any researchers who believe that standardized tests are accurate indicators of whether a child is learning. Further, the bill eliminates due process and places all new teachers on annual contracts which may be non-renewed for any reason, including those which have nothing to do with classroom performance, and without recourse. The bill prohibits recognition for years of service or advanced degrees in determining teachers’ salaries, and all incentives for teachers to receive advanced degrees or advanced certification are eliminated.
Not only is this bill lacking in actual attention to meritorious work by our teachers, it provides a disincentive to go the extra mile for students who need the most help. There is little to no incentive for teachers to seek out the students who may have the most difficulty succeeding in the classroom, as it could likely cost them their job under SB 6.
Equally disturbing, however, and a major reason that I urge that you issue a strong veto to SB 6, is the terrible message it sends. The message of SB 6 is that rather than collaboratively looking to improve education, Florida’s legislature chooses to cast blame on its teachers for the failure of all stakeholders to prioritize education. Instead of building systems of support for our school communities, and providing its teachers and administrators with the tools they need to be affective, legislative leadership in Florida has chosen to watch our class sizes rise, while stripping away basic worker protections and burdening schools with more testing and paperwork.
SB 6 is the wrong message to send to Floridians, the wrong way to show undying support for providing a world-class education as an investment in Florida’s future.
I strongly urge you to send the right message by vetoing SB 6.
Sincerely,
KENDRICK B. MEEK
Member of Congress
This will have national implications. If this bill is passed, our public schools will be decimated. Humanity will be dead, since creativity cannot be measured by a standardized test. And standardized tests will be the only measure of humanity.
This will swing the Florida elections in November. Our cause is fully embraced by both Democrats and Republicans. The passion and solidarity is flooding Little Havana and Lakeland alike.
This will leave Marco Rubio on the wrong side of the anger.
U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio has dubbed his first bus trip the "take a stand" tour, though he seemed to be waffling on the controversial teacher pay bill in the Florida Legislature. A campaign consultant said he was "absolutely" in favor of it; in another interview, Rubio said it needs to be fixed.
Today he clarified his position: "I think it should be signed. I have a lot of teachers in my family and they think there's some things in the bill that need to be fixed, and if that's so I'm sure they can be fixed, but I think the bill should be signed.''
Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/...
There is no waffle big enough for that snake to hide under. He will always lie on the Jeb side of the bed. And we will make sure everyone in the Sunshine State gets some good exposure of the fact that he would have signed this bill into law.
If this bill gets signed into law, there will be some MAJOR anger to deal with in Florida. The teachers in Miami proved how serious they were yesterday, and they were pulling punches. I don't think Charlie Crist has any choice.
He comes from a family of educators. His father said yesterday that Charlie would "do the right thing". He has gotten over 20,000 phone calls from parents, students, and teachers telling him to veto SB6. He has gotten less than 100 phone calls from supporters.
I don't think Charlie Crist has any choice, but I am taking no chances.
Please sign Alex Sink's petition right now. She will deliver it to the Governor tomorrow, currently with well over 12,000 signatures in 3 days.
Please call Charlie Crist at (850) 488-4441 or write him an email at charlie.crist@myflorida.com to tell him how destructive Senate Bill 6 will be for the children of Florida and America.
I am exhausted. This is the most sustained anger I have ever felt in my life, and it has lasted three and a half weeks. We are well past the home stretch. I need a hot bath and twelve hours of sleep.