Polls like this one and this one suggest teachers really, really like the idea of getting paid more for working in schools that struggle more. So why is it that few Florida districts (Hillsborough aside) have even attempted meaningful programs that do that?
State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, whose notions on differential pay sparked today's story in the St. Petersburg Times, offered this anecdote: Last year, an HR director in one district asked him if there are any penalties for ignoring the Legislature's 2006 directive, buried in the A++ plan, that requires every district to come up with a differential pay plan. The answer: No.
So the HR director continued: "If I try to get a differentiated pay system, I have to go into the valley of the shadow of the union. And I have all kinds of other things I have to worry about."
Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the state teachers union, said the obstacle to differential pay isn't the union, it's financial constraints and middling teacher salaries. "Teachers in Florida get paid way less (than many states)," he said. "That's a factor in it for sure."
- Ron Matus, state education reporter
Get inside the world of Florida education with St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and the rest of the Times education reporting team. We'll bring you up-to-date information about the latest education trends, fads and news and dig deep into Tampa Bay area school issues.
Differential pay for teachers at struggling schools is a joke, because in reality no school district could afford to pay teachers the salary it would take to keep them in those schools.
If parents actually gave two you-know-whats about their children's education and didn't make the schools raise their children, we'd have a lot less struggling schools and this would be a non-issue.
Posted by: Teacher who lives in Reality | September 17, 2008 at 08:48 PM
The real problem with differential pay is the same problem with performance pay. The Legislature cannot create a long term plan that they will stick to for the long term. Instead, they change the rules every year. Accountability was supposed to be about "regulating outputs instead of inputs." Well, how teachers get paid is an "input." Inputs or process related issues were supposed to be handled by the districts and local schools instead of at the state level. Oh well, with term limits, no one remembers anyway. By the way, my son is running for the Speaker of the House in 2036. He is 8 years old right now, but he figured that there was no reason to wait to be elected to the House first or to even be old enough to vote. Given the current trends, I figured that he was right.
Posted by: | September 17, 2008 at 03:26 PM