Florida Governor Bucks G.O.P. on Teacher Pay Bill, The New York Times, Fri Apr 16 2010. Trip Gabriel and Damien Cave; Gary Fineout

[excerpts for space] MIAMI -- Gov. Charlie Crist … deluged with 120,000 messages. Passions have not run so high in Florida, the governor said, since the controversy over ending the life of Terry Schiavo in 2005.

This time, the point of contention was eliminating tenure for Florida public school teachers and tying their pay and job security to how well their students were learning.

On Thursday, Mr. Crist picked a side, vetoing a bill passed last week by the Florida Legislature….Mr. Crist …. cited "the incredible outpouring of opposition by teachers, parents, students, superintendents, school boards and legislators."

The bill was supported by the Florida Department of Education and statewide business groups, …. saying that teachers should be held more accountable.

But the governor, announcing his veto in the Capitol in Tallahassee, said the changes envisioned would put "teachers in jeopardy of losing their jobs and teaching certificates, without a clear understanding of how gains will be measured."
….. Reformers have tried to draft policies that allow student-achievement data to be used to reward good teachers and identify poor ones.

When Florida proposed strict accountability measures, teachers, parents and administrators pushed back. They argued that the proposed system -- basing renewal of teacher contracts and at least half their raises on how well students did on standardized tests -- would hold them responsible for factors in students' lives beyond their control.

"I am not a puppet master; I can't pull strings and make them perform," said Amy Horr, a second-grade teacher in the Miami-Dade School District who attended a rally on Monday. "I can't even make them come to school."
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