Monday, May 3, 2010
Transcript with Seminole Elementary Teacher Donna Blackburn
Transcript from the Interview with Donna Blackburn
ALEXIS: Hi, I’m reporter Alexis Morgado reporting live from Seminole Elementary. Today I will be speaking with 4th grade teacher Donna Blackburn asking her opinion on Senate Bill 6.
Donna, as you recently know Senate Bill 6 was just vetoed; share with me your original reactions when the bill was first introduced.
DONNA: Well my first reaction was anger. Being a teacher for 25 years and knowing how the system has been and being close to retirement, there were a lot of things in the bill that really upset me quite a bit because a lot of the testing, that goes on with the children, is depending on what the “baggage” that is in their home life. We can’t rely on just one test to base on how well our students are doing. So I would say that my very first reaction was anger.
ALEXIS: Now, share with me your feelings when you heard that the bill was vetoed recently by Governor Crist.
DONNA: When it was vetoed, I was overjoyed. Several of us teachers were screaming when we heard the news. Our Assistant Principal came around and peaked his head in the door and said “Its been vetoed, Its been vetoed!” There were screams throughout the campus because it made us feel like: yes we are professionals and he did listen to us as professionals and he does understand education as a whole.
ALEXIS: I’m sure as you know, a lot of teachers participated in protests around the state. What did you do to voice your opinion?
DONNA: From my family background, I know a lot of the Senators and so what I did was is the people that are in…..the Congress, I wrote letter to them, emailed them; to the ones that I knew personally. I told and reminded them of who I was a teacher for 25 years and how my personal feelings were and how it was affecting me.
ALEXIS: And if Senate Bill 6 would have been passed, how would that have affected your retirement plan and your salary?
DONNA: It would have affected me greatly because it would go back that it would not be based on my best years. Because right now, what happens is that you have your highest years. Well if they would have gone into the retirement system, that I understood it, they would go back to my very first years of teaching when I was working with the [school] system and only making $3,000. And they would have considered that it and that’s just not fair.
ALEXIS: I’m Alexis Morgado reporting from Seminole Elementary.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Transcript of interview with Chris Fulton, Tarpon Springs High School
Chris Fulton is an english teacher at Tarpon Springs High School.
Q: What is your opinion of the SB6?
A: SB6, while misguided in some respects, also contained admirable elements, albeit elements that were unrealistic in terms of timeframe and funding. As broad and sweeping as the legislation was as proposed, it also lacked the essential ingredient of teacher/parent buy in. Hopefully, it was lesson learned as far as attempting to shove a bill of this magnitude down the public’s collective throat.
Q: What was your reaction to Crist's veto?
A: Crist is, above all else, a populist politician, and he recognized that it was both in the state’s best interest and his own to veto it. As such, his senate campaign lives on.
Q: What are your suggestions to resolve this issue?
A: Send a select group of teachers, administrators, and union and legislative leaders on a week-long retreat to discuss pragmatic reform.
Q: What does the state need to do now?
A: Take a breath and move slowly and surely forward with bipartisan leadership.
Q: What is the main problem with Florida education and how can it be fixed?
A: Get rid of the ‘bad’ teachers with the guidelines already in place. Get the union on board and compel administrators to do their jobs.
Q: What is your opinion of the SB6?
A: SB6, while misguided in some respects, also contained admirable elements, albeit elements that were unrealistic in terms of timeframe and funding. As broad and sweeping as the legislation was as proposed, it also lacked the essential ingredient of teacher/parent buy in. Hopefully, it was lesson learned as far as attempting to shove a bill of this magnitude down the public’s collective throat.
Q: What was your reaction to Crist's veto?
A: Crist is, above all else, a populist politician, and he recognized that it was both in the state’s best interest and his own to veto it. As such, his senate campaign lives on.
Q: What are your suggestions to resolve this issue?
A: Send a select group of teachers, administrators, and union and legislative leaders on a week-long retreat to discuss pragmatic reform.
Q: What does the state need to do now?
A: Take a breath and move slowly and surely forward with bipartisan leadership.
Q: What is the main problem with Florida education and how can it be fixed?
A: Get rid of the ‘bad’ teachers with the guidelines already in place. Get the union on board and compel administrators to do their jobs.
Monday, April 26, 2010
High school teacher vents to The Times: He doesn't hold back
Chris Fulton is an English teacher at Tarpon Springs High School. He wrote this e-mail to the St. Petersburg Times prior to the bill's legislative passage and subsequent veto by Gov. Crist:
DEAR PARENTS: YOUR KID’S A LOSER
As a teacher, spring break is usually a time for me to kick back and relax before entering the homestretch of the school year. Not this time around.
The’09-’10 school year brought an additional class of students for me to teach thanks to a six-of-seven-period day — good for the kids, according to the irrational logic of the Pinellas County School Board, even better for the district’s bottom-line — plus I’ve had my pay effectively cut. Again. (Don’t get me started.)
And now this?
New bully-on-the-block John Thrasher wastes no time in shoving his already infamous Bill 6 through the state senate, former education advocate Charlie Crist jovially announces he’ll give it gubernatorial approval, and reclusive mastermind Jed Bush wrings his hands and chuckles. Teachers, meantime, are understandably and justifiably angry. I mean really angry. Teachers are so mad that they’re ready to strike, except that they can’t here in Florida, which, of course, just angers them all the more.
If you’re looking for a true nailbiter of a read, pull up Senate Bill 6 [www.flsenate.gov] and have at it. Too much stupefying jargon for you? The St. Pete Times website [www.tampabay.com] will provide you with a condensed — and comprehensible — outline.
Everybody finished?
Okay, raise your hand if you think the imposition of Senate Bill 6 is a good idea. Uh-huh. Now raise your hand if you think it’s a truly awful idea? That’s what I thought. Now, can anyone tell me what in the world they’re thinking — or not — in good ol’ Tallahassee? Anyone? Anyone?
No doubt — bad teachers need to be forced out of the classroom; eliminating tenure, however, for all teachers, as called for in Senate Bill 6, is a dumb way to go about it. Tenure is designed to protect good teachers from selective persecution, which most certainly is a good thing. Lackadaisical administrators and tenacious union lawyers are the reasons bad teachers aren’t summarily fired in Florida — not tenure — and it’s disingenuous to claim otherwise.
The idea of basing teacher pay on student performance, on the other hand, is a reasonable one. Unfortunately, nobody anywhere has figured out how to do it in a reasonable manner that’s both fair and equitable. Senate Bill 6 envisions a viable pay-for-performance plan to magically be in place statewide within the next couple of years. Based upon the past performance of Florida’s educational hierarchy, I’m not at all confident. And where, then, will that leave us?
Senate Bill 6 mandates that school districts no longer provide slightly higher salaries to teachers who hold advanced degrees. Because having teachers running around with Masters and PhD’s is a bad thing. New York State requires that all of its tenured teachers have at least a Masters degree; Florida, apparently, is looking to set its proverbial bar even lower by discouraging teachers to better themselves for the benefit of their students.
While I’m in the midst of wiping saliva off my face, let me add that there’s another inane bill floating around the legislature which seeks to cut pension benefits to teachers because, well, it would save the state some money. Nice.
By most accounts, Florida’s national ranking in terms of recent student test scores has improved, in some cases markedly, yet our esteemed lawmakers see fit to take teachers to task for . . . what, exactly? If things are slowly but surely getting better, why initiate a massive, contentious overhaul that’s bound to result in numerous, costly legal challenges?
Yep, it’s a puzzler, all right, and if I sound bitter it’s only because I am. Misery loves company, and from my perspective there’s no lack of either. And trust me when I tell you that pervasive teacher angst does not bode well for students. Nor does Senate Bill 6’s call for more standardized testing, which will only serve to further repress discourse, engagement, and creative/critical thinking in the classroom.
Teachers are the obvious losers here, but students will ultimately suffer the consequences of Senate Bill 6. That’s right, mom and dad, through no fault of their own, it seems your kid is destined to become a loser.
Your kid — our future.
Too bad.
DEAR PARENTS: YOUR KID’S A LOSER
As a teacher, spring break is usually a time for me to kick back and relax before entering the homestretch of the school year. Not this time around.
The’09-’10 school year brought an additional class of students for me to teach thanks to a six-of-seven-period day — good for the kids, according to the irrational logic of the Pinellas County School Board, even better for the district’s bottom-line — plus I’ve had my pay effectively cut. Again. (Don’t get me started.)
And now this?
New bully-on-the-block John Thrasher wastes no time in shoving his already infamous Bill 6 through the state senate, former education advocate Charlie Crist jovially announces he’ll give it gubernatorial approval, and reclusive mastermind Jed Bush wrings his hands and chuckles. Teachers, meantime, are understandably and justifiably angry. I mean really angry. Teachers are so mad that they’re ready to strike, except that they can’t here in Florida, which, of course, just angers them all the more.
If you’re looking for a true nailbiter of a read, pull up Senate Bill 6 [www.flsenate.gov] and have at it. Too much stupefying jargon for you? The St. Pete Times website [www.tampabay.com] will provide you with a condensed — and comprehensible — outline.
Everybody finished?
Okay, raise your hand if you think the imposition of Senate Bill 6 is a good idea. Uh-huh. Now raise your hand if you think it’s a truly awful idea? That’s what I thought. Now, can anyone tell me what in the world they’re thinking — or not — in good ol’ Tallahassee? Anyone? Anyone?
No doubt — bad teachers need to be forced out of the classroom; eliminating tenure, however, for all teachers, as called for in Senate Bill 6, is a dumb way to go about it. Tenure is designed to protect good teachers from selective persecution, which most certainly is a good thing. Lackadaisical administrators and tenacious union lawyers are the reasons bad teachers aren’t summarily fired in Florida — not tenure — and it’s disingenuous to claim otherwise.
The idea of basing teacher pay on student performance, on the other hand, is a reasonable one. Unfortunately, nobody anywhere has figured out how to do it in a reasonable manner that’s both fair and equitable. Senate Bill 6 envisions a viable pay-for-performance plan to magically be in place statewide within the next couple of years. Based upon the past performance of Florida’s educational hierarchy, I’m not at all confident. And where, then, will that leave us?
Senate Bill 6 mandates that school districts no longer provide slightly higher salaries to teachers who hold advanced degrees. Because having teachers running around with Masters and PhD’s is a bad thing. New York State requires that all of its tenured teachers have at least a Masters degree; Florida, apparently, is looking to set its proverbial bar even lower by discouraging teachers to better themselves for the benefit of their students.
While I’m in the midst of wiping saliva off my face, let me add that there’s another inane bill floating around the legislature which seeks to cut pension benefits to teachers because, well, it would save the state some money. Nice.
By most accounts, Florida’s national ranking in terms of recent student test scores has improved, in some cases markedly, yet our esteemed lawmakers see fit to take teachers to task for . . . what, exactly? If things are slowly but surely getting better, why initiate a massive, contentious overhaul that’s bound to result in numerous, costly legal challenges?
Yep, it’s a puzzler, all right, and if I sound bitter it’s only because I am. Misery loves company, and from my perspective there’s no lack of either. And trust me when I tell you that pervasive teacher angst does not bode well for students. Nor does Senate Bill 6’s call for more standardized testing, which will only serve to further repress discourse, engagement, and creative/critical thinking in the classroom.
Teachers are the obvious losers here, but students will ultimately suffer the consequences of Senate Bill 6. That’s right, mom and dad, through no fault of their own, it seems your kid is destined to become a loser.
Your kid — our future.
Too bad.
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