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I have asked the following question at least a dozen times in
columns during the last five years: How many Florida politicians
care about the welfare of the state's public school teachers? The
answer is always the same: precious few.
State Rep. Ken Littlefield, for example, had the unmitigated gall to
write a letter to the St. Petersburg Times castigating Florida
teachers, some of the lowest paid in the nation, for lobbying the
Legislature for more money during the last session. Is Littlefield living on
another planet? Or is he simply contemptuous of public school teachers?
Like Littlefield, few politicians, including governors, ever propose the one
thing that could change the face of teaching and, subsequently,
improve the quality of public education overnight: substantially raise teachers
salaries. Instead of doing the right thing, however, generation after generation of officials
blame teachers almost exclusively for the woes of our schools and devise schemes
to avoid treating teachers like real professionals.
Thus far, Governor Jeb Bush is following suit. On Monday, after signing into law
the nation's first statewide voucher program, Bush declared, "I think we're
in for a renaissance in public education."
Perhaps.
When Bush was elected, he had an opportunity to help teachers in a way that none of his
predecessors enjoyed. Thanks to Florida's settlement with tobacco companies,
a booming economy and a windfall in federal bucks, he was blessed with more than $4-billion
extra to spend. Bush made good use of some of the money,
but he ignored teachers' salaries. Think of what a well-thought-out
salary plan could have done to make up for years of neglect.
The $47 that goes to each household and the $1,600 that goes to the average business under
the $1.008-billion tax cut could have been earmarked for paying teachers, especially
for attracting new teachers. But, no, Bush and the Legislature chose to go the symbolic
route at a time when the state is beginning to suffer a serious teacher shortage.
A recent Times articcle indicates that Hillsborough county must hire 600 teachers before classes resume in August;
Pinellas, 350 to 400; Pasco, 160. Bush has not said how he plans to help districts avert
these shortages, except perhaps by giving students vouchers to attend private schools and
laying off public school teachers.
Our man in Washington, Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa, has come up with another scheme that
will limit success if his colleagues approve. He has proposed a bill that would give non-teaching professionals,
such as ex-service personnel, with bachelor degrees up to $5,000 for training and courses required
for certification.
On its face, the idea may sound like a good one. Like everything else that skirts
the money issure, however, it casts teaching not as a profession but as low-wage
public service. "The bill represents an effort to attract people to teaching who
are not primarily motivated by salaries," Davis said. "This is public service. You've got
to really love kids."
As Florida Education Association/United President Pat Tornillo wrote in a letter, "Beginning teachers
in some Florida counties are paid so poorly that they qualify for food stamps."
Does anyone, including Bush, care? What about Tornillo"s point that the average salary for a teacher
in Florida, one of the most populous states in the nation, is nearly $5,000 below the
national average, that teacher pay here ranks 28th nationwide.
Given our great wealth and impending needs, we need to stop playing cheap with our
teachers. ...
What must teachers do in Florida to get the salaries they deserve? Again, Tornilo has it right whe he writes
that "quality schools begin with quality teachers" and the "quality teachers deserve competitive, professinal salaries."
Until the governor and the Legislature understand this common-sense truism,
Florida will continue to have a tough time recruiting teachers and retaining it superstars.
We will continue to place unqualified bodies in front of our math and science classes. We
will continue to cheat our students. Time will tell, of course, if vouchers are the
answers. I am will to bet that they are not. One real answer is giving our best
and brightest college students economic incentives, along with a sense of professionalism,
for becoming a public school teacher.
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