9486 in the collection
Blame (Jeb) Bush
A state bonus spending plan for Florida public schools underscores how farcical this politically inspired incentive program has become.
This year, the nasty fights that have erupted at Florida public schools over how to spend state bonus money will end much more quickly. Why? Because the Legislature has so decreed, as a matter of state law.
The new deadline, Nov. 1, for submitting "school recognition" spending plans is supposed to make the process more orderly. Instead, it tends only to underscore how farcical this politically inspired incentive program has become. Schools receiving tens of thousands of dollars for reasons that are not entirely clear or necessarily related to performance must now spend them more quickly -- or the state will spend for them.
Thank Gov. Jeb Bush for this mess. He is so intent on applying his business approach to education, with punishments and rewards, that he seems uninterested in whether it actually works.
Under the A+ Education Plan, the theory of "school recognition" is that the bonuses provide an incentive for teachers at each school to work harder. The reality is that the governor doesn't know -- and can't know -- which of the state's 153,390 teachers are doing the best work. So he uses political shorthand. He gives each school a standardized test in the spring and awards cash to various schools based on the results.
The recognition plan is one of the fastest growing parts of a dwindling state education budget. Since Bush was first elected, the annual awards have jumped from $5.4-million to $121.1-million. They are large enough, at this point, to skew the education funding formula over which lawmakers wrestle each year. For example, Seminole County received $4.9-million this year, almost twice as much as the $2.7-million awarded to Polk -- yet Seminole has a fourth fewer students. Seven counties got no money at all.
Within school districts, the money has created more resentment than encouragement. Teachers who work hard at schools with low-achieving students see the teachers at accelerated-academic schools get money simply because students there are smarter already. At the schools that do receive bonuses, faculty sometimes argue among themselves, or with support staff, or with the principal or parent groups. Should the school buy books or equipment or give teachers bonuses? Even pay bonuses pose problems in distribution. Should a new teacher get a bonus that is theoretically based on the previous year's performance? What of the teacher who left?
"It's a terrible process," Mary Cunningham, assistant principal, at Ballast Point Elementary School in Tampa, told the Times. "The only thing we learned was get it over with fast."
Given the dire finances facing Florida schools, lawmakers may want to examine whether this $121-million "recognition" is truly providing an incentive for educators. That the state is having to set a deadline for spending the money should provide a clue
— editorial board
School Bonus Battles
St Petersburg Times
Jan. 3, 2003
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/01/03/Opinion/School_bonus_battles.shtml
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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