Comments on: Gaetz Backs Merit Pay For Teacher Salary Increases, Not Scott’s $2,500

By: tbpcola

tbpcola — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:57:51 +0000

It would be a better situation if the system took individual teacher evaluations (made by the administration) into account versus actual student performance. The administrators have a much better knowledge of how each teacher functions as an instructor. Student performance is not a reliable basis for determining teacher effectiveness.

By: My2Cents

My2Cents — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:07:14 +0000

DONNA & NEWIDEAS couldn’t agree with you more! My son’s education is my highest priority and I do help the teachers when I am able without hesitation. Because the teachers that truly care about education dig into their own pockets.

DONNA, teachers as yourself are far, few, and in between. I am not sure what kind of program could be put in place, but one does need to be to reward the teachers who are deserving of their hard word and effort. Not all teachers deserve a raise of that magnitude or a raise at all.

NEWIDEAS, I would agree that if the pay is to be based on merit so should ALL the politicians positions. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander! And DONNA couldn’t be more correct on her statement “Merit pay for politicians sounds like the perfect solution to this discussion! If that were the case, all the financial woes in Washington would be corrected overnight!”

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:08:04 +0000

Merit pay for politicians sounds like the perfect solution to this discussion!!!!!! If that were the case, all the financial woes in Washington would be corrected overnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: H.T.

H.T. — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:34:29 +0000

Tell me what do you mean “bad teacher”? Ten poeple would give ten different answers. A huge majority work hard, take their work home and then some.

What has happened over the last 30 years is that politicans have taken control of the schools. By the way, how are you doing with that. Strange how the generation of the past put man on the moon using mostly a slide rule.

Politics may not be the oldest profession but the results are the same.

AND IT WILL NOT CHANGE!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:43:54 +0000

I’m with Donna!!! Not across the board raises, but they have to come up with a way to reward the teachers that are teaching and not just drawing a paycheck!! Just because a teacher has students that are failing does not make her/him a bad teacher you have to look at everything, some students may be having trouble at home and their head is not in school. All these dang Meth Labs that we have been hearing about with children in the homes could be a big part of the problem. We never know what is going on with a child at home and I’d say 99% of that reflects on the child at school!!! That’s my two cents…

By: ha-ha

ha-ha — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:38:32 +0000

To walnut hill roy
Im not a teacher, im in construction, i have friends that are teachers.
i leave my job at 5:00 every day, how many teachers leave there work at school
the truth be know very few, so you take the hours they put in divided by there
salaries an you have less than minimum wage…. i thank my teacher for teaching me
my trade.

By: fred

fred — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:09:22 +0000

I completely agree with Newideas. I hadn’t thought of grading legislators, though. Just thinking about it makes me shake my head. How do you effectively rate a teacher’s performance? Wouldn’t it be based upon personal observation of teaching in a classroom setting? A review of class plans and curriculum delivered? How about the number of parent conferences (and let’s not forget the ones that parents set and fail to keep)? And, the overtime talking to parents from home after sitting up late grading papers at the dinner table? I’m not a teacher, so I don’t know much about how to evaluate their performance, but one thing is certain, it’s not a simple process. A great teacher might work wonders with a class of low functioning students, just getting them to read a few words and write their own names. That doesn’t sound very impressive on the floor of the state senate, but it brings hope to a parent who desperately wants that child to be capable of doing something in life. Yes, there are poor teachers – I had a few growing up. Every industry has goldbricks and poor performers, but I believe measuring their performance is more complicated than an FCAT test.

By: Newideas

Newideas — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:26:43 +0000

Donna has some good ideas, My2cents doesn’t have aclue.(My opinion). First of all teachers shouldn’t be paid based upon merit until legislators are paid based on merit. Are all the legislators equal in how they run the government of Florida? I don’t think so. If we were to subject them to the same silly judgements that teachers are now subjected to this merit pay stuff would go away so fast you wouldn’t believe. One example, grade(for lack of a better word) the legislators on something they have no control over. Just like a teacher has no control over how prepared a student is for a stupid FCAT test. Grade them on a bill that they don’t like just because it passed in another committee. Just like teachers are graded on students that they never taught in a class. So Mr. Merit Pay Gaetz get out of Jeb Bush’s back pocket and his so called reform and come up with real soultions for education problems in Florida. You folks in Florida better start paying attention or you will paying a high price for what these folks in Tallahassee are doing to the school system.

By: thetruth

thetruth — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:52:05 +0000

Merit Pay, the way that the lawmakers have drawn it up, is not the best option. That punishes the teachers at lower level schools and rewards the teachers that are lucky enough to get at the A schools. Teacher A from PHS or Escambia might be a better teacher than Teacher B from Tate of West Florida, but teacher B would benefit more from merit pay because of the students at Tate and West Florida. Especially with the tests that the State has drawn up for the statewide testing. Dont be naive enough to think that just because a teacher is from Tate of West Florida that they have earned their way to those schools and are the better teachers. Especially at Tate its all about who you know, not what you have done. The teacher of the year for Escambia County but if you had her on merit pay based off of the school grade she would be a bad teacher on that scale. Step 1 was taking away tenure, unfourtunately alot of bad teachers are still on tenure because they were granted tenure before it was elimintated. In 10-15 years you will see the results of tenure being eliminated, because the teachers coming up will really have to be ahead of the game because they will never get tenure and have to earn their jobs every year anyways. In the old days once you recieved tenure you were set so you could take your foot off the gas and put it on cruise control. They need to find a happy medium between just giving money and basing the money off the statewide testing.

By: My2Cents

My2Cents — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:10:39 +0000

I couldn’t agree MORE with Senate President Don Gaetz about giving raises based on MERIT. Teachers do deserve a raise, but it should be based on performance alone, not how long they have been teaching. In order to base it on merit there should be a test put in motion to determine just how much knowledge they have gained over the years in teaching methods, behavioral issues, and etc. Then the raise should be based on a percentage not a dollar amount.