Union: Board certified teachers "among the elite"

Evidently responding to comments in last week's St. Petersburg Times, Florida Education Association President Andy Ford (left) immediately fired back at lawmakers who say national board certified teachers might have to jump through another hoop – perhaps some measure of student achievement - to prove they deserve hefty bonuses. (See the Times story here.)

"This argument exasperates me," Ford said in a press release. "The teachers who earn National Board Certification put in hundreds of hours of effort, over and above what they regularly do in their classrooms to earn this honor. Their work is judged by highly qualified examiners and it often takes teachers more than a year to earn this distinction."

Ford continued: "I always hear political leaders say they want the best teachers for the children of Florida. Well, National Board Certified Teachers are among the elite. We should be celebrating their successes and encouraging other outstanding teachers to participate instead of questioning the validity and value of a program that is seen as the gold standard of the teaching profession."

As the Times story noted, as the number of board certified teachers in Florida has grown rapidly in recent years, so too has the price tag for the bonus program - which topped $70 million last year - and so too has the scrutiny from politicians and education researchers. Next year's rocky budget forecast makes it all the more likely that the program will get a close look from lawmakers. Stay tuned.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Comments

bright futures is not successful. the kids drop out at an alarming rate.

Please explain where in the Constitution the wiggle room exists for CSR. A quote from the document would be useful.

I would also like your over/under for the number of additional property tax plans that will be endorsed by Rubio before November. I think it will be four more totally different and competing plans myself.

[terminator]

2:03
well thanks for the info on the trust fund. I would look for the legislature to reign in the annual outlay as it pertains to national board.
yes we have plenty of NBCTs in our ranks and they are a vociferous bunch.
they should get the bonus but the mentor stipend should be curtailed or eliminated in my opinion (not the unions).
I would always advocate for a member professionally these are just my own personal political views.
As far as CSR there's wiggle room in the event of a catastrophic economic meltdown (which could be coming).
Andy was open to compromise during Jeb's next to last year in office (when he wanted to raise the minimum state starting salary to $35K). Jeb proved he wasn't earnest so Andy took a walk.
Marco's still doing a heck of alot more on cutting taxes and fighting for the property owner than the tan man.
Face it, Marco's a guy who will be reckoned with whether you like it or not!

Well, terminator, it looks like it is time to teach you something about . . . your JOB.

You see, the Legislature created a property right for teachers who received the credential and performed the mentoring for 10 years. They can decouple the future rules for bonuses for those that JOIN the program in the future, but it is unconstitutional to pass a law with retroactive application. The law said that teachers would get the bonuses for the credential and the mentoring, so the Legislature must pay for it. To get around the restriction on binding a future Legislature to an appropriation, a trust fund was created and funded with the full cost of the 10 years for each new applicant.

Your job (if you decide to ever do it instead of wiping Marco's butt all the time) is to defend the rights of the actual members of your stinking union. So, quit leaching off the dues of members (and nonmembers who are required to pay the union for their "collective bargaining" expenses) and start working to protect their rights.

I would note that you have now agreed with Ken Pruitt exactly one time in the past year. The good news is that you and I will never agree until you admit that CSR will destroy high school as we know it. Oh, and it will be the students that will suffer because of the failures of CSR advocates and the Legislature to fund the costs of the amendment.

[terminator]

2:27
put down your crack pipe jerkweed.

the Bright Futures scholarship program is probably the most successful education program ever implemented in the history of the state of Florida.

it's strictly merit based meaning: if you work for it and achieve then you will receive it. it's not a handout for minority children who couldn't cut the muster and they're looking for the socialist state to throw them a bone since they're so "disadvantaged" they can't study and get a 3.0 GPA in Florida's mediocre public high schools

Don't agree with Andy on this one. Just because one has the national board doesn't necessarily make them a better teacher or translate to increased student achievement.

National Board should be scrutinized and correlations empirically researched before getting any more bonuses.

Why isn't DOE doing anything on this?

Let me guess because the state was sold a bill of goods by hometown favorite Betty Castrator?

This program is overexposed and needs to be reined in. It's ripe for cuts in a down budget year.

[Seekers of a Bigger Share are Wrong]

If Legislators want to find a big waste of money and put it to good use, they would look at the Bright Futures Program. Hundreds of millions in this program subsidize college for those who can MOST AFFORD TO GO while shortchanging opportunities for increasing university tuition at the public institutions which would actually improve the quality of the education provided.

All they need to do is to decouple the amount of the scholarship from 100% of tuition. If they linked it to a set amount of money, the current annual increases to this item would more than cover the normal increases for the NBPTS. Where is any study data showing a positive impact for Bright Futures Senator? Do students perform better because of that multi-hundred million dollar program? No. The rich get subsidized while the poor cannot afford to go and the quality of the universities is currently being REALLY shortchanged.