“Our fellow Floridians will not tolerate clever sophistry, or arcane argument,” Senate President Jeff Atwater said. “They want clear and unambiguous responses from their elected officials; responses upon which confidence, faith and trust can be rebuilt and restored.”  After that the Senate released the slap-in-every-teachers-face-bill. SB 6 is a bill riddled with contradictions and without a trace of anything we can trust.

Within hours of the 2010 legislative session opening ceremonies, FEA was already fighting two bad bills: SJR 2 Class Size Amendment and SB 6 – the bill that would change the way every teacher is evaluated, paid and employed. The news of this assault-against-public-education bill spread to teachers across the state in record time. And they are fighting mad … and they should be.  Our teachers have jumped through every hoop, crossed every ‘T’ dotted every ‘i’, dealt with all the paperwork and hare-brained schemes the Legislature and the DOE has shoved into the classroom.  They have had the rug pulled out from under them when political whims or funding shortages emerge.  Through all that they keep teaching, and their students keep learning.  And Jeb Bush takes all the credit for their hard work.  Sadly, none if it has anything to do with giving students individual attention to determine what they need to learn.  It’s about politics.

This week the Senate released SB 6 by Sen. John Thrasher (R-Jacksonville) – called “An act relating to education personnel.”  The bill has impacts on so much of education policy in Florida it is difficult to know where to begin. It is important to note that FEA is in discussions with the bill sponsor and the Senate president along with other education stakeholders to try to “fix” the bill.  SB 6 is scheduled to be heard in committee Wednesday, March 10, in the Senate PreK-12 Committee.

Currently, the bill has 38 sections that include everything from a punitive millage tirade that districts would have to publish if they don’t abide by the edict, to a disembowelment of local control and collective bargaining agreements.

The 61-page bill would:

Every Republican on the Senate Education Committee is listed as a sponsor of the bill. Also disturbing is that the bill was only referred to two Senate committees:  Education PreK-12 and the Policy and Steering Committee on Ways and Means. This is an indication that Republican leaders intend to move the bill through the process quickly.

Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) presented SJR 2 Class Size Requirements for Public Schools to the Senate Ways and Means committee — its last stop before going to the full Senate. The bill passed by a vote of 15 to 8. Gaetz told the committee that enough progress on class size has been made and they should no longer need to have a “slavish devotion” to final implementation. The lone Democrat voting for the bill was Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando.

FEA was pointed out as the lone holdout in its opposition to the bill: school boards, administrators and superintendents all spoke in support of the bill.  But we know parent groups and the PTA aren’t on board either.

The proposed amendment would keep class-size caps at the school average and then allow schools to add three extra students in the kindergarten to 3rd grade level and five extra students at grades four through 12th grade.

Speaking on behalf of FEA, attorney Ron Meyer pointed out the following:

In 2002-03  Pre-K-3 averaged 23 Students. Now 16 students.  If the amendment passes classes may have 21 Students.

In 2002-03 Grade 4–8 averaged 24 Student. Now 19 students. If the amendment passes classes may have 27 Students.

In 2002-03 Grade 8-12 averaged 24 Students. Now 22 students. If the amendment passes classes may have 30 Students.

That moves past the sought-after “flexibility” right on over to “gutting” the class-size provisions voters approved eight years ago.

The House version is HB 7039 has yet to be referred to committees.

SB 1058 by Sen. Dave Aronberg (D- Greenacres)  known as the “Bus Driver Notification” bill passed the Senate Criminal Justice committee but not without a bit of bedlam. Just when it looked as if the bill would cruise right through the committee, legislative gadfly Brian Pitts of Justice4Jesus spoke against the bill during public comment.  Suddenly the meeting turned chaotic, an amendment was hastily handwritten and we all held our breath as the votes were counted. The bill passed the committee by a vote of 7 to 1 with the lone no vote cast by Sen. Frederica Wilson (D-Miami).

Current law addresses notification procedures to public schools after a child has been formally charged with a felony or act that would be classified as a felony if he/she were an adult.  The child’s classroom teacher must be notified by the principal. The intent of this notification is to aid in the protection of the other children in the classroom in addition to the safety of the teacher.

The bill adds the director of transportation to the list of entities required to be notified by the school superintendent. In addition, they would be required to immediately notify the student’s assigned bus driver, and any other school personnel whose duties include direct supervision of the student.

The next stop for this bill will be the Senate PreK-12 Education Committee.  The House version – HB 603 by Rep Darren Soto (D-Orlando) – has not yet been placed on committee agenda.

We give Laurels to the many Senate and House Democrats this week – they spoke eloquently on the issues of class size and teacher contracts. There are too many to list here.

We could send a Dart the way of many of the Republicans, especially the sponsors of SB 6 – their time may come, and a couple Democrats are Dart deserving this week. And the DOE qualifies a Dart for presenting faulty numbers on teachers receiving unsatisfactory evaluations to the House. But this week the Dart goes to the research from the National Center on Teacher Quality (not to be confused with Center for Teaching Quality).  Specifically, the dart goes to the woman who presented NCTQ’s power point and her misrepresentation of Florida’s due process provisions … and a Laurel to Rep. Mia Jones who called her on it.

We welcomed back former FEA lobbyist Marshall Ogletree who journeyed from Pinellas CTA to join us for a few days in the Capitol along with PCTA President Kim Black.  Also joining us were UTD President Karen Aronowitz, her staff members Joe Minor and Karyn Cunningham, DTU President Terrie Brady, VTO President Andrew Spar and HCTA staff member Chuck Kiker. Welcome back!

Our intrepid FEA Frontline TV anchor and producer, Tina Dunbar-Walker was in the field and on the road helping with organizing projects this week. In her absence tape rolled in anticipation of her return to Tallahassee this weekend. Next week she will dice, splice and toss in some special effects for your viewing pleasure.  We’ll drop you a line as soon as it is posted on FEAweb.org.