The Florida “merit pay” bill, SB 736, to be signed by Gov.
Rick Scott, is an attack on workers’ rights. It will establish a merit pay
system in 2014 based on evaluations and the success of students on standardized
tests. The bill eliminates tenure (job security) and weakens collective
bargaining rights.
Teachers are already facing pay and benefit cuts, as Scott
is proposing a budget that slashes away at health, social services and
education.
“We’ve looked closely at plenty of scientifically
sound, peer-reviewed research out there that shows this is the wrong approach
to take to implement performance pay and to revamp evaluations,” said Andy
Ford, president of the Florida Education Association.
Last year, Scott’s predecessor, Charlie Christ, vetoed a
similar bill after teachers organized statewide protests.
Scott, who has turned to his Tea Party supporters to
announce his state budget and cuts, has prioritized this attack on teachers—but
the push to pass the egislation smacks of racism, as well.
The Orange County School District in Central Florida, now
the nation’s 10th largest, was sued in 1962 for running separate schools and
has been under federal oversight for nearly five decades—it was only in 2010
that a judge ordered the end of the desegregation case.
A 2005 study showed that nearly half of Florida school
districts have undergone litigation with respect to desegregation. For example,
the Broward County School District has become increasingly segregated since the
1970s.
The vast majority of research shows that Black and other
non-white students perform poorly in standardized tests, like the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test, in schools that are more segregated. These
districts also have overcrowded classrooms, general lack of resources and
family incomes right at or below the poverty line.
Scott’s merit pay law punishes teachers who work in the
poorest schools in nationally oppressed communities—firing the flames of
racism.
The Florida economy has come to a standstill as nearly a
half a million homes sit empty, the construction industry has collapsed,
double-digit unemployment continues unabated and, for the first time since the
early 1900s, the population of the state is decreasing (with the exception of
post-WWII population shifts as military bases closed down).
Attacks on teachers and unions and the promotion of
institutional racism in schools can only be turned around by a larger workers’
fightback. It was the struggles in the late 1930s and early 1940s that forged
unity in the struggle to win tenure, union rights and academic freedom and to
fight racism—it will be these ingredients that lead teachers to victory today.
