Joanne McCall: Rick Scott should veto flawed teacher bonus scheme

In Florida, 68,000 teachers carry an evaluation that rates them as “highly effective.” They’re the best of the best. Yet only a small percentage of these top teachers qualified for bonuses this year under Florida’s Best and Brightest bonus scheme.

But 820 first-year teachers – on the job for only a few months without ever receiving a performance evaluation — each received nearly $8,500 in bonuses. Under the program, teachers with no experience only needed to show SAT or ACT test results in the upper 20th percentile to qualify for the bonus.

The SAT and ACT tests are college admission exams. They were never meant to be used to measure teacher performance or to grant salary bonuses. There is no evidence that good test-takers make good teachers.

The Best and Brightest program excludes some instructional employees who have helped students increase rankings on the international measures of achievement. These are results that legislators and other education reformers like to brag about, including reading coaches, media specialists and other school employees.

It also ignores thousands of veteran teachers, immigrant teachers, members of the armed services and those who attended community and state colleges that do not require these scores — yet nearly 100 employees listed by the Florida Department of Education as part-time or temporary employees were among the list of bonus winners.

Florida’s teachers are underpaid and they should not have to jump through hoops to earn a salary that is considerably less than the national average.

This controversial bonus scheme, called “unnecessary” and “the worst bill all session” by Republican members of the Senate, managed to survive another year during the recently concluded legislative session without a vote in that chamber.

Even after an overwhelming backlash from teachers, parents and community members, legislative leaders managed to sneak the controversial $49 million bonus program into proviso and implementing language, the bill that encompasses the budget priorities of the Legislature.

This is a roundabout way to avoid a full discussion and vote on the merits of policy. Legislative leaders knew that as a stand-alone bill, Best and Brightest did not have enough votes to pass in the Senate. Instead, they quietly tucked it into the budget, extending the program for one more year.

The public should be outraged and legislative leaders should be ashamed because this flies in the face of democratic principles. The point of bills, committees and votes is so that policy that affects Floridians can be thoroughly vetted and scrutinized. This is not Florida in the sunshine; it is Florida in a smoky back room.

And if this wasn’t enough, the bonuses are discriminatory. The Florida Education Association has filed charges with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Florida Commission on Human Relations because the bonus program discriminates against minority teachers and teachers who are older than 40.

While this questionable program was being funded, proven programs that actually attract and retain great teachers — such as loan forgiveness and scholarships for aspiring teachers, teacher residencies, strong mentoring, peer assistance and review and National Board certification — are not being funded.

The teachers and education staff professionals of Florida’s public schools are thankful to those legislators who stood up on their behalf against the Best and Brightest mess. We hope Gov. Rick Scott will stand up for public education and veto the program when he receives the budget.

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Joanne McCall is the president of the 140,000-member Florida Education Association. Column courtesy of Context Florida.