MERIT PAY WILL BE FRONT AND CENTER IN NOVEMBER ELECTIONS

The Florida gubernatorial race is shaping up as a referendum on merit pay for teachers.

Both of the leading Republican candidates, Bill McCollum and Rick Scott, have come out in favor of education reform, including restrictions on tenure and teacher pay based on student performance. Both said they would sign legislation similar to SB 6, which passed both houses earlier this year but was vetoed by Governor Crist.

Alex Sink, the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, said if elected she would veto any reincarnation of SB 6. Independent Bud Chiles also opposes merit pay, instead favoring more training and education of teachers as a way to improve their performance.

So the battle lines are drawn. It should come as no surprise that education reform is being politicized. Powerful unions oppose anything that threatens the employment of teachers, whether the teachers are effective or not. Ratings based on administrative review or student test scores are anathema to the unions, and the unions overwhelmingly support Democrats.

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the National Education Association gave 92% of its campaign contributions to Democrats from 1989-2010, and the American Federation of Teachers gave 98% to Democratic candidates during that period.

What about education reform? What happens in those few districts that use student performance instead of teacher longevity to rate teachers?

Washington D.C. is one of those districts. It recently abolished tenure and began evaluating teachers based on their effectiveness in the classroom. The outcome? The District of Columbia was finally able to shed some under-performers, firing 6% of its 4,300 teachers. Another 16% were put on notice. In 2007, by comparison, with tenure in place and grading based on years of service, 95% of the teachers were rated excellent and none was terminated for poor performance. All the while, D.C. students languished and were pegged among the worst in the nation.

D.C. isn't the only place that rewarded teachers while students were failing. According to the WSJ, the New Teacher Project studied 12 districts around the country and reported that half didn't dismiss a single teacher during the 2003-2008 period.

Admittedly, Florida isn't Washington D.C. The Education Foundation of Collier County just reported that Education Week ranked Florida 8th in the country in public school education. Not bad.

But that won't make merit pay go away. Supported by as disparate a group as President Barack Obama and the Florida business community, merit pay will be front and center in November. Its surrogate will be the Republican candidate for governor.