Dear Governor DeSantis

Thank you for calling for the overhaul of the Best and Brightest teacher program. We agree that it never made sense to tie teacher bonuses to their high school SAT/ACT scores. In 2015, “Best and Brightest” was called “worst bill of the year” and passed despite never having a hearing in the Florida Senate. Per State Sen. Nancy Detert, they “refused to hear it because it’s stupid.” We agree, it was pretty dumb. We needed a better way to recruit and retain teachers.

We have concerns regarding your new plan:

• Free market economics will tell you that best way to recruit and retain good teachers during a critical teacher shortage is to pay them more. Bonuses are not raises. They only temporarily improve a teacher’s pay. Teacher’s need raises if they are to qualify for mortgages, afford to rent in high cost areas, or have a secure retirement.
• By limiting the bonus to teachers whose schools earn at least 1 percent more in points in its school grading calculation, you will increase the high stakes attached to testing and increase a school’s incentive to “teach to the test.” School Grades, as you must know, are almost entirely calculated on student achievement on state Math and Reading assessments. When schools focus on math and reading scores, they become the “big standardized testing machine” that just last week you said you wanted to avoid.
• We applaud your decision to offer loan repayment to new teachers who commit to working in the state for five years. We assume this means you will work to repeal f.s.1012.335. Since the passage of SB736 in 2011, ALL teachers have been limited to an annual contract. The annual contract mandate makes it impossible for districts to reward their best teachers with an extended contract and job security. Repealing f.s.1012.335 and the rest of the SB736 provisions would be a great step towards improving morale and reversing the teacher shortage.

Please consider our concerns. Our teachers need raises and job security, not bandaids on a failed program.