Oh, Senator Thrasher, how misguided you are...

So today, the witch hunt officially comes to a climatic end. At some time this afternoon, a group of non-educators will determine the future of the career that I have dedicated the past sixteen years of my life to. With a simple yea or nay a group of uninformed and illogical people hundreds of miles away will decide that a group of tweens should be responsible for my livelihood. With a total disregard for the accountability of the people who brought these children into the world in the first place, and a complete lack of knowledge of what actually needs to take place in a classroom, Senator Thrasher and his cohorts are going to effectively kill public education and replace it with a glorified test preparation service. How does this make sense? All we as teachers hear, day in and day out, year in and year out, is the mantra from those above us, “Don’t teach to the test, don’t teach to the test…” Will that mantra change? How can it not? Now it will be, “Don’t teach to the test, don’t teach to the test…but 50% of your salary and your ability to pay your mortgage will be based on the results…but don’t teach to the test…”


And let’s not forget about the indictment that this bill makes on the entire system of higher education in this country. Don’t think that the colleges and universities are leaving this travesty unscathed. Apparently, the graduate schools that I attended and the in-depth programs that I successfully navigated through are bogus. That’s right. According to this bill, my Masters and Specialist degrees count for nothing. Maybe I should hold those institutions responsible for my lack of knowledge gained in the field of education. Where’s the accountability? After all, this bill is stating that my graduate degrees have no relevance in the classroom. Nor does my National Board certification (though it holds teachers to national standards that are far more rigorous than anything the state has ever put together), or the sixteen years of experience that I bring into my classroom every day.

In fact, I think that Senator Thrasher makes a good point regarding graduate degrees. How does an advanced degree really show ability? Therefore, I am calling on Senator Thrasher to be disbarred from the Florida Bar. After all, he received his Juris Doctor degree from Florida State in order to become an attorney. If we throw out graduate degrees, as apparently is the new precedent in Florida, why stop with teachers? Fair is fair. Plus, he got his graduate degree back in 1972—38 years ago! Shouldn’t we assume that he has gained no experience in that time period? Shouldn’t logic lead us to believe that he, in fact, is the same level of attorney that he was back before the days of disco?

Actually, I hope that Senator Thrasher remains an attorney for a while because, quite frankly, I may need one in the future. Not because of any criminal transgressions, but because I plan to sue every parent whose child fails to show significant learning gains on the FCAT. That’s right. If I feel that a parent was negligent in any way, shape, or form in their parenting duties, I’m going to sue them. I’m pretty certain that I can sue someone for interfering with my ability to earn a living. If accountability is going to be enforced, it needs to be enforced on every entity that has an effect—positive or negative—on the abilities of a child to succeed in education. Seem irrational? Maybe. But no more than linking my livelihood to the whims of a pre-teen who, quite honestly, is more interested in texting than testing.

On a side (and less sarcastic) note, I fear that the worst aspect of Senate Bill 6 will come to fruition with its passing. Uneducated children. This bill will force teachers to focus only on items covered by the test. No more teaching to the whole child, no more sharing of life experiences or real world situations. No more arts or vocational education. No more hands on labs, no more field trips. Just test prep. Education without emotion. And that might be the worst part of this entire ordeal.

Senate Bill 6: Put Up or Shut Up, Senator Thrasher

It should not surprise anyone that I, a public school teacher, am adamantly against the new education bill, Senate Bill 6, currently being debated in Tallahassee. Its sponsor, State Senator John Thrasher, believes that by eliminating incentives and bonuses for highly qualified teachers and by basing 50% of all teachers’ salaries on the test scores of children that he will be able to bring public education in Florida to utopian levels. As a logical person, I disagree.


Mind you, I don’t disagree with accountability. Not in the least bit. In fact, let’s forget about SB6 eliminating funding for National Board teachers in Florida—a group of teachers that this same legislative body acknowledged in state statute 1012.72 that, “The Legislature finds that the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has established high and rigorous standards for accomplished teaching and has developed a national voluntary system for assessing and certifying teachers who demonstrate teaching excellence by meeting those standards.” And let’s forget about districts being forced to eliminate incentives for teachers with graduate degrees. And let’s forget about educating the whole child rather than merely serving as a test prep service. Let’s forget all that for a moment and focus on accountability.

I believe that all people who receive their salaries from taxpayer dollars must be held accountable for their jobs. As a teacher, I fall into that category. As a State Senator, so does John Thrasher. Apparently, my salary should be tied to my areas of accountability (student safety, learning gains, writing ability), and Mr. Thrasher’s salary should likewise be tied to his areas of accountability (unemployment, state economy, beach erosion). Now I know that some people will scoff at the idea of a politician being accountable for unemployment and the state economy and beach erosion because there are many outside contributing factors to each of those issues. Surely, Mr. Thrasher could not have foreseen the recession that swamped the state and forced thousands of residents to lose their jobs. Nor could he have predicted the crash of the housing market in Florida that sent the economy of the state tumbling. And he certainly could not have prevented myriad storms that relentlessly ate away at the golden sands of our glorious beaches. I mean those are mitigating factors that are completely out of the good senator’s hands. Variables, if you will.

But as a teacher, my variables are ignored by Mr. Thrasher. He ignores the fact that as a middle school language arts teacher I see an individual child for 53 minutes a day. That’s 4.2% of that child’s day if you round up the time to an hour. Leaving 95.8% of his or her day left to outside variables. I have no control over the child’s diet, bed time, amount of time in front of a television, enforcement of homework activities, time on the streets, truancy, or family vacations taken for weeks at a time in the middle of the school year. I have no control over whether that child will stay out until three in the morning the night before the FCAT, or spend hours in an ER due to an abusive parent. I certainly cannot control the fact that the FCAT Writing test takes place in February, a mere 96 full school days into the year. Nor can I control the subjective nature of the grading of this exam or the mood of the single individual who will be grading it.

These are my variables, and I cannot control them any more than a politician can control the economic environment or the amount of sand on our beaches. But that’s alright. Accountability is the name of the game and I’m willing to play, variables and all. How about you, Mr. Thrasher? Are you willing to play? I hope so. After all, fair is fair when it comes to taxpayer money, and you and I have the same employer. Shouldn’t we be held to the same standards?