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.