Blueprint for education board sticks to Republican principles during economic crisis
By LAURA GREEN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
It reads like a prescription from Florida's Republican platform: Jettison the class-size amendment, stop paying teachers based on seniority or giving them raises for earning advanced degrees, expand school choice options, such as charter schools, and continue the FCAT and add more rigorous assessments.
The report, called Sustaining Progress in Times of Fiscal Crisis, was commissioned by the state Board of Education as Florida's new blueprint for improving academic performance amidst a budget crisis.
But critics call it a politically motivated document designed to take advantage of bad budget times.
"There is a saying that 'a crisis is a terrible thing to waste' and the political motives of those championing this report are transparent," said Andy Ford, president of the state teachers' union, in a statement.
He said the report seeks to provide an "academic validation" for "a purely partisan attempt to undermine the foundation of Florida's public education system."
The report's authors, all Ivy League researchers who have extensively studied education policy, are affiliated with the conservative think tank, the Hoover Institute. One of the researchers, Paul Peterson, advised Mitt Romney on education during his presidential campaign.
Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for former Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future, also described the researchers as informal advisers to Bush during his tenure. ...
In Florida's current climate, it's unclear if several of the recommendations are practical or legal.
Legislators can delay the mandate that no classroom exceed student caps until next year and continue to take the average class size by school. But to substantially change the class size amendment, such as increasing the caps, applying them only to certain grades or doing away with it altogether, as the authors recommend, voters would have to approve another constitutional amendment.
In Palm Beach County, voters 2 to 1 supported the original amendment. The program is still popular with parents and teachers. ...
The report's recommendations also took on deeply ingrained practices in teacher pay and layoff procedures.
The researchers suggested shifting to a system that rewards teachers based on students' performance, which could be even more difficult politically than undoing the class size amendment. Teachers' pay is governed by contracts negotiated by school districts and unions representing teachers. Unions have typically sought to award pay based on seniority and fought efforts to even add performance as a factor in pay.
West told state board members this week that research showed that there is no difference in the effectiveness of a teacher with three years of experience or 30.
West also suggested dropping seniority as the determining factor in deciding who to layoff in tough fiscal times.
"Getting rid of teachers who you're paying a lot to and allowing you to keep teachers who are making relatively (less) and doing that in a way that has no consequences on classroom effectiveness is a win-win option," he said.
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