Florida teachers union wins as Crist vetoes SB6.

Florida's public school system is broken and this bill while not great would have address the biggest problems especially the ability to fire crap teachers and improve the system by tightening/raising standards.

The union is not totally stupid to the reputations of the system and teachers say they want a merit based system.....

While that may yet be another epic struggle, educators think they've taught legislators a big lesson: Include teachers, parents and school officials when drafting bills that affect their futures.

"We're ready to play ball," said Robert Dow, president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association. "There's no one who dislikes an ineffective teacher more than other teachers because they ruin the reputations of the teachers who struggle so hard."

Union officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties said they understand the need to discuss a merit-pay plan and changes to teacher contracts.

"The myth that teachers have a job for life is exactly that," said Broward Teachers Union spokesman John Ristow. "I don't know of a single education professional who likes to work with ‘bad employees.'"

The union says it's open to pay-for-performance as long as it is based on more than a single, high-stakes test. In addition to student test scores, merit-pay plans should include classroom observation and portfolios, the union said.

The simple translations is yes to merit pay but the union and teachers will put as many obstacles in allowing a teacher to be judged before anything happens to them. No union is going to agree to an actual honest merit pay system.

As the suck that is the Florida System lives on.