SB856/HB373: Bills to be Entitled “Ensuring the Teacher Shortage”

There is a teacher shortage crisis in Florida. We believe that the “Teacher Shortage Should Come as No Surprise” and that the “solution for today’s teaching shortage crisis may lie in the repeal of the portions of SB736 that created the crisis in the first place.”

SB736, passed in 2011, rewrote the way teachers were paid and retained across the state. The bill made a number of sweeping, statewide changes (read more at State Impact Florida) including tying teacher evaluations to student test scores, establishing a merit pay system and eliminating long term contracts and job security. SB736 required that all new hires receive annual contracts, requiring them to be rehired on an annual basis. We believe that the current teacher shortage crisis is directly related to SB736’s failed policies.

Apparently some Florida legislators have different ideas. Rather than repeal SB736, Senator Doug Broxson (R-District 1) and Representative Michael Grant (R-District 75) have introduced legislation that doubles down on the failed policies of SB736.

SB856 and HB373 will prohibit local school boards from awarding contracts longer than 1 year to even their highest performing teachers:

1012.335 Contracts with instructional personnel hired on or after July 1, 2011.—

(2) EMPLOYMENT.—

(d)A district school board may not:

1. Award an annual contract on the basis of any contingency or condition not expressly authorized in this section; or

2. Alter or limit its authority to award or not award an annual contract as provided in this section.

[For comparison, Senator Broxson’s term is 4 years and Representative Grant’s is 2 years.]

When teachers have annual contracts, they are constantly looking for their “next job” or planning for what they will do if they are not hired back.  Annual contracts make it difficult to qualify for a mortgage or make plans for the future. Some districts let teachers go in the spring and then hire them back just before school starts, saving the district from having to pay for their employee benefits during the summer months. It is no way to treat a professional. It is no wonder that teachers leave for more stable jobs.

At a time when districts are scrambling to fill empty positions, it seems ill advised to further hamstring a local district’s ability to negotiate a long term contract with their finest teachers. During a time when teachers are leaving the profession in droves, longer term contracts might allow a district to stop the exodus.  Read more about the bills here.

SB856 is particularly surprising because during the 1/25/17 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on PreK-12 Education, Senator Broxson seemed to understand  the problem (watch at 1:28:00). Senator Broxson told the panel that he has family members who are educators and they feel that Florida schools are over-testing, teachers are overworked and they are “uncertain about the future.”

It is precisely the annual contracts, not knowing if you will be rehired from year to year, that cause teachers to be uncertain about their future!

With an estimated 6,000 teaching positions available across the state, what is to be gained by preventing districts from providing there most effective teachers a little more job security?

Here is the response to SB856 from a Florida teacher on Facebook:

“And this is why, after 26 years as a teacher, I am discouraging my own child from majoring in education. I love what I do, but I would not want the uncertainty and constant putdowns that now come with being a teacher. What will happen to our future children when there are no teachers left???”

SB856/HB373 are bad bills. They are a clear attack on teachers and should be referred to as the “Ensuring the Teacher Shortage” bills. Rather than solve the teacher shortage, they will exacerbate it. Legislators need to start thinking of policies that will bring teachers back to the field, not further encourage them to leave. Please speak out against these bad bills.