But this is just ridiculous.
Pardon me; there is a rant that needs to be let out before I hurt someone.
- Quote :
- "In a major shift, the salaries of Florida's 167,000 teachers could soon be tied to student test scores, rather than seniority and education level.
The state Senate on Wednesday approved on a controversial bill on a 21-17 vote to dismantle teacher tenure, a decades-old system in which educators' pay is based on years of experience and whether they earn upper-level degrees.
New teachers hired after July 1 would work on one-year contracts and face dismissal if their students did not show learning gains on end-of-year exams for two years in any five-year period. For them, job security would be based soley on two factors: standardized scores and job reviews by principals. Existing teachers would have future pay raises tied to student scores and reviews but would keep their current job security.
'It takes a sledgehammer to the teaching profession,' Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said Wednesday.
...
Teachers unions are up in arms about the proposal. Robert Dow, president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association, called the new pay plan "draconian and devastating to public education in Florida." The union, he said, has been urging members to tell legislators the bill is 'wildly misdirected, cowardly, punitive and vengeful.'"
Click for source.
I can't really make it clear how utterly unfair this is - as it is, teachers are already just teaching so we can take tests, not so students learn anything. Now, if students don't improve on their standardized test scores (personal matters aside - who cares if something's going on at home, or if the child has learning disabilities? All the state cares about is those stupid comprehensive tests), teachers are going to lose their jobs.
SO many teachers are angry because of this. Their salaries, meager as it is, are at stake here.
"1. We now have a system that shows kids can take tests...not that they have learned.
2. We now have a system that will not reward teachers for learning and bettering themselves.
3. No tenure means no security. Teachers will head out in droves in a field that is short staffed already.
4. Teachers are our biggest financial asset...they handle our childrens' minds and should be payed as such!
5. You get what you pay for. So in the future we will be getting the lowest possibly educated student, taught by the lowest paid person we can find.
6.These new teachers will stay at the minimums required and do as little as possible.
7. Our children in the future will not have learned much but will recognize the best guess in a multiple guess question about 70% of the time!"
Yeah. So. That's just my bit. >.<
The government sucks. And so does the School Board. It's honestly, absolutely ridiculous. Not just this - so many other things are entirely screwed up in the schools around here.
3 more years until I'm out of high school...just three more years...
