12 Protestors and Jesse Jackson dog Rick Scott

From: Naked Politics

Protestors in his Tallahassee office, protestors at his Miami-Dade press conferences – Gov. Rick Scott is facing a state of opposition after the George Zimmerman verdict.

On Wednesday, as protestors gathered inside and out, Scott made a quick exit from a Kendall Walmart media event touting new school-supply debit cards of teachers and the upcoming school-supply sales-tax.

The protestors, mostly young Hispanic and African-Americans, want a special legislative session to address the Stand Your Ground self-defense law implicated in Zimmerman’s shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year. Zimmerman, acquitted July 13, didn't plead a Stand Your Ground defense, but was covered by its protections, which appeared in the jury instructions.

“Special session! Special session!” a group of 12 chanted from a sidewalk as Scott left out a backdoor.

Earlier, during the press conference, three demonstrators sat down on the floor inside the store. One held up a sign that said “Bad Apples?” In the back of the press conference stood Miami Democratic Sen. Dwight Bullard, who called for the resignation of Florida’s education commissioner in a grade-fixing flap (more here)

Scott has refused.

Meantime, inside the halls of the governor’s office in Tallahassee, a group of college-aged minority students known as the Dream Defenders are calling for a special session as well.

Yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson met with the students, called for a boycott of Florida. He has likened Florida to an Old South-style “apartheid state."

Scott said he was outraged.

“He ought to apologize to every Floridian,” Scott said. “We have nearly 20 million people, we’ve got 5 million multi-lingual speakers, we’re in a 42-year low in our crime rate. We care about people all across our state.”

Scott said he wants to keep the Stand Your Ground and has noted that a task force he appointed called for the law to largely stay intact.

The task force, though, did recommend that the Legislature consider examining some aspects of self-defense law and recommended that the state fund a study “of the correlation and causation to include variables such as race, ethnicity, gender, application and fairness of the law in regards to the expansion of self defense laws in the State of Florida, including a statistical comparison with other states.”

Asked if the state should heed that finding, Scott didn’t comment, but suggested he was open to the idea.

“As you know, the speaker said he was going to hold hearings during committee week to look into this,” Scott said. 

Contrary to Jackson's claims, a Tampa Bay Times analysis could find no clear racial inequities with the law. It found that those who plead Stand Your Ground in cases where a black person was killed or injured are more likely, by 14 percentage points, to "walk free." But one reason for that: African-Americans who were shot were more likely than Caucasians to be involved with a crime or armed -- thereby lending credence to a self-defense claim by the shooter.

When the victim was black in fatal cases, 22 percent of suspects were convicted while 78 were found to use justifiable force. When the victim was white, 43 percent of suspects were convicted while 57 were found to use justifiable force.

For blacks pleading Stand Your Ground fatality cases, 31 percent were convicted while 69 percent of the killings were found to be justified. For whites pleading Stand Your Ground fatality cases, 38 percent were convicted and 62 percent were justified. The overall conviction rate: 35 percent. Overall justification rate: 65 percent.

But there was no time to get into all that with Scott on Wednesday.

While talking about Stand Your Ground, the protesors found him at a side entrace. They started chanting. At least one person had a bull horn.

Staff hastened to remove Scott, who also took two more questions about another controversy: Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett. When the AP broke the story, Scott didn’t have much to say about it yesterday.

So how about now?

“Everything I wanted to get done this session, Tony Bennett has been a big help getting it done – whether it’s the teacher pay raise, the $1.2 billion for K-12, the performance measurements for state colleges, the debit cards we talked about today,” Scott said. “Tony’s a hard worker. He believes in accountability. He’s a big help.”

Have you spoken to him about the situation in Indiana and what are your thoughts?

“I’m not familiar with the details. Probably the best thing to do is call Tony,” Scott said.

Palm Beach County sheriff gets $1 million for violence prevention unit

From: Palm Beach Post

Florida House and Senate budget leaders have awarded Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw $1 million for a new violence prevention unit aimed at preventing tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., from occurring on his turf.

Bradshaw plans to use the extra $1 million to launch “prevention intervention” units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers. The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed.

The goal will be avoiding crime — and making sure law enforcement knows about potential powder kegs before tragedies occur, Bradshaw said. But the earmark, which is a one-time-only funding provision, provoked a debate Monday among mental health advocates and providers about the balance between civil liberties, privacy and protecting the public.

Bradshaw said his proposal is a first-of-its-kind in the nation, and he hopes it will become a model for the rest of the state like his gang prevention and pill-mill units.

“Every single incident, whether it’s Newtown, that movie theater, or the guy who spouts off at work and then goes home and kills his wife and two kids — in every single case, there were people who said they knew ahead of time that there was a problem,” Bradshaw said. “If the neighbor of the mom in Newtown had called somebody, this might have saved 25 kids’ lives.”

Bradshaw is readying a hotline and is planning public service announcements to encourage local citizens to report their neighbors, friends or family members if they fear they could harm themselves or others.

The goal won’t be to arrest troubled people but to get them help before there’s violence, Bradshaw said. As a side benefit, law enforcement will have needed information to keep a close eye on things.

“We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him,” Bradshaw said. “What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’ ”

That’s enough for Senate budget chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who helped push through the funding last weekend.

He said he met with Bradshaw about the program and “got assurances from the sheriff that this is going to be done in a way that respects people’s autonomy and privacy, and that he makes sure to protect against people making false claims.”

Mental health advocates, however, worry about a potential new source of stigma, and the potential for erosion of the civil rights of people with mental illnesses.

“How are they possibly going to watch everybody who makes a comment like that? It’s subjective,” said Liz Downey, executive director of the Palm Beach County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “We don’t want to take away people’s civil liberties just because people aren’t behaving the way we think they should be.”

Bradshaw acknowledged the risk that anyone in a messy divorce or in a dispute with a neighbor could abuse the hotline. But, he said, he’s confident that his trained professionals will know how to sort out fact from fiction.

“We know how to sift through frivolous complaints,” he said.

The proposal still needs the blessing of Gov. Rick Scott, who has line-item veto authority.

But if it goes forward, Palm Beach County’s already stretched mental health and substance abuse providers could find themselves even busier. There is no ready source of funds once the $1 million runs its course, as there hasn’t been an increase to community mental health funding in many years.

“Our community agencies throughout the state don’t have the funds to meet the needs they have currently,” said Bob Sharpe, CEO of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health. “It sounds like it could work, but with no new funding we’d have to find it within existing resources.”

If Bradshaw’s teams can keep people out of crisis units and promote early intervention, that has the potential to save money, said Ann Berner, CEO of the Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network, which manages mental health care payments for the state.

To be successful, however, there will have to be close coordination with the mental health providers, she said. For example, the county already pays for mobile crisis response teams at two nonprofit mental health providers, a service that includes a 24-hour crisis call center. They, too, are trained to de-escalate conflicts and refer troubled people to care. Which ones will respond when there’s a call from a school or a home? That will have to be clarified.

Also, after troubled people are identified by Bradshaw’s teams, then what? Who will pay for their care? The state? Medicaid? The county? The Palm Beach County Public Defender has a good program to ensure qualified people apply for the Social Security and Medicaid benefits they may need, she said. Some high-level conversations have started, but more are needed, Berner added.

“I think that would be an area we really need to collaborate on, and soon,” she said.

The $1 million Bradshaw won represents a third of what he had sought from the Legislature, but it’s a 10-fold bump from what was originally earmarked before House and Senate budget leaders finalized the state’s $74 billion budget over the weekend.

Fla. Gov. Rick Scott weighs in on 'Jesus' stomping incident at Florida Atlantic University

From: McClatchy

Florida Atlantic University has apologized for a controversial classroom lesson that led critics to accuse the school of religious intolerance. But that didn’t stop Gov. Rick Scott for stepping into the fray on Tuesday.

Scott penned a letter to State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan demanding an investigation. “I am requesting a report of the incident, how it was handled and a statement of the university’s policies to ensure this type of ‘lesson’ will not occur again,” Scott wrote.

Earlier this month, FAU instructor Deandre Poole told students in an intercultural communications class to write the word “Jesus” on a piece of paper, throw it on the floor and stomp on it. Ryan Rotela, a junior at FAU’s Davie campus, later complained he was thrown out of class when he refused to participate.


“Anytime you stomp on something it shows that you believe that something has no value. So if you were to stomp on the word Jesus, it says that the word has no value,” Rotela told CBS12, a West Palm Beach television station.

Rotela, who describes himself as a devout Mormon, went to Poole’s supervisor two days later to discuss the incident.

FAU officials defended the professor last week, but Rotela told The Palm Beach Post that he and an attorney from the Texas-based Liberty Institute met with FAU Dean of Students Cory King at the school’s Boca Raton campus on Monday and received an apology and a pledge that the disciplinary charges against him would be dropped.

“He apologized in person for what happened and how everything went out of control,” Rotela, 21, who lives in Coral Springs, told the newspaper.

He takes classes part-time at FAU, while working for a landscaping service.

FAU officials did not respond to The Miami Herald about Scott’s letter, but had issued a statement about the incident to The Palm Beach Post.

“This exercise will not be used again,” the statement said. “The University holds dear its core values.

We sincerely apologize for any offense this caused. Florida Atlantic University respects all religions and welcomes people of all faiths, backgrounds and beliefs.”

Said Kim Wilmath, a spokeswoman for the State University System of Florida: “The State University System prides itself not only on its commitment to academic freedom, but at the same time, its awesome responsibility to the people it serves.

“We are gratified to know that FAU has apologized for any offense the exercise has caused and has pledged never to use this exercise again. Clearly, there were things the university could have done differently by its own acknowledgement.”


The incident became fodder on blogs and among conservatives who questioned whether such liberties would have been taken with other religions.

In his letter, Scott makes clear he wants more than merely an apology.

“Whether the student was reprimanded or whether an apology was given is in many ways inconsequential to the larger issue of a professor’s poor judgment,” Scott wrote.

“The professor’s lesson was offensive, and even intolerant, to Christians and those of all faiths who deserve to be respected as Americans entitled to religious freedom.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/27/187044/fla-gov-scott-weighs-in-on-jesus.html#storylink=cpy

Florida legislature rejects ObamaCare Medicaid expansion

From: Conservative News

Reuters reports a hitch in Governor Rick Scott’s plans to expand Medicaid coverage, as directed by the ObamaCare plan he once vowed to oppose:

On the eve of convening of the 2013 session, the House Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rejected the expansion. A Senate counterpart committee postponed consideration of the issue, which is sure to be one of the biggest controversies of the session.

Scott, a Republican who bitterly fought President Barack Obama’s national healthcare plan as a candidate and in his first two years as governor, stunned conservative supporters on February 20 when he endorsed a three-year expansion of Medicaid, provided the federal government picks up the full cost for the first three years as promised.

“There’s definitely a fight between the governor and the (state) legislature over this. The Republicans in the legislature are much more fiscally conservative than his actions have shown him to be,” said Susan MacManus, a Tampa-based political scientist at the University of South Florida.

Republican legislative leaders have been openly hostile toward the plan, emphasizing that state lawmakers will make the final decision in drawing up a budget for next fiscal year.

The conservative James Madison institute released a statement partly quoted by Reuters, but reproduced here in full:

The House made the right decision today to not draft a committee bill expanding Medicaid under PPACA provisions. Many Members expressed valid concerns that this could hurt the people that it is aimed at helping. State leaders should focus on providing more access to quality care — expanding a program that is inefficient in this effort is not a way to do that.

Additionally, in our recent poll of 600 registered Florida voters more than 63 percent said they are wary that the federal government would keep the funding level promises made, and clearly many House Members share this worry. If history is any indicator, costs of such programs are often underestimated and there has been examples of the federal government going back on their promise before. These issues cannot be ignored.

Well, those issues shouldn’t be ignored, but a lot of people seem intent on doing so, with eyes firmly fixed on that pot of federal subsidy gold.  In a previous policy brief on Medicaid expansion, the James Madison Institute expressed skepticism that promises of 100 percent federal funding for three years, followed by 90 percent indefinitely, will stand the test of time: “Of course, all of these projections are based on the assumption that the federal government — currently plagued by record deficits and alarm over the growing national debt — will keep its pledges with regard to matching funds.”

Fueling this skepticism is the Institute’s description of Medicaid programs across the nation as “plagued by bureaucracy, ballooning expenditures, poor access, and low quality care.”  And that could lead to a pointedly counter-productive outcome:

As Medicaid costs explode, regulators and legislators at- tempt to restrict costs by reimbursing providers less and less. Low reimbursements severely impede the access of Medicaid beneficiaries to timely and appropriate high quality care. Some studies even suggest that Medicaid patients receive worse care than the uninsured.

A costly expansion of means-tested eligibility for Medicaid will not rectify the deeply-rooted problems with the program. In fact expanding the program will not only expand these problems and impact more people, but it will likely put more strain on the system and could very possibly worsen the already grave access problems and poor quality care that Medicaid patients encounter.

That sounds like a much more likely outcome than the government that can’t stand a 2.3 percent spending cut happily ladling out billions of dollars to cover cost overruns, long into a future where mandatory entitlement spending and debt service will soon consume the entire current budget baseline.

Rick Scott Talks Voter Fraud

Feds to Florida: halt non-citizen voter purge

From: Miami Herald.com

The Justice Department ordered Florida’s elections division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state’s voter rolls of noncitizen voters.

Florida’s effort appears to violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities, and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act – which governs voter purges – T. Christian Herren Jr., the Justice Department’s lead civil rights lawyer, wrote in a detailed two-page letter sent late Thursday night.

State officials said they were reviewing the letter. But they indicated they might fight DOJ over its interpretation of federal law and expressed frustration that President Barack Obama’s administration has stonewalled the state’s noncitizen voter hunt for nine months.

“We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot,” said Chris Cate, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who was ordered by Gov. Rick Scott to conduct the search for potentially ineligible voters.

DOJ’s written demand came hours after the agency refused to comment on the matter to The Miami Herald. It also followed a federal court ruling Thursday that struck down a Republican voter-registration law that a judge found too onerous.

So far, Florida has flagged 2,700 potential noncitizen voters and sent the list to county elections supervisors, who have found the data and methodology to be flawed and problematic. The list of potential noncitizen voters – many of whom have turned out to be lawful citizens and voters – disproportionately hits minorities, especially Hispanics.

About 58 percent of those flagged as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, a Miami Herald analysis found. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters.

Independent voters and Democrats are the most likely to face being purged from the rolls. Republicans and non-Hispanic whites are the least likely.

Under the Voting Rights Act, Florida needs federal approval before it makes changes to voting because five Florida counties – Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry – had minority-voting troubles decades ago

"Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the Attorney General for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act," Herren wrote.

"Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the Attorney General for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group under Section 5."

He gave the state until next Wednesday to inform the Justice Department of its planned course of action.

“Specifically, please advise whether the State intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the Department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary,” Herren wrote.

Herren also said that the National Voter Registration Act bans Florida’s effort because it says “a State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.”

Florida elections officials have repeatedly said that their efforts comply with all federal laws, which aren’t clearly written. The also say there’s nothing discriminatory or partisan about the effort. It’s simply trying to remove ineligible voters: felons, dead people and noncitizens.

To spot noncitizens, though, the state began comparing voter rolls with a Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle database that contains some citizenship information that the agency collects when people get a state ID such as a driver’s license.

But the citizenship data in many cases is out of date. That is, many people become citizens after they get their ID and then register to vote. But the highway safety database isn’t updated.

As a result, the state has performed its own checking and double-checking and winnowed down a pool of 180,000 potential noncitizens to a list of about 2,700. It is asking the counties to contact the voters by mail. Those who don’t respond within about two months of being contacted could be stricken from the rolls.

A coalition of liberal-leaning civil rights groups complained to the Justice Department and the state about the process, pointing out that it burdens citizens instead of the government.

Cate, the state elections spokesman, said the state will have a full response soon. The agency also seemed to express frustration with the lack of help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which maintains citizenship data but won’t share its database with Florida.

Detzner asked again for DHS help on Thursday.

“We provided information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security today in hopes that the federal government would help us identify ineligible voters,” Cate said. “While this isn’t a response from DHS as to why they haven’t provided us access to their data, at least we know the federal government knows we take ineligible voters on the voter rolls seriously. We hope the federal government will recognize the importance of accurate voter rolls and support our efforts.”

Governor Rick Scott Announces September 2011 Job Creation Numbers

From: Governor Rick Scott

Governor Rick Scott Announces

September 2011 Job Creation Numbers

Today we learned that Florida’s unemployment rate for September is 10.6 percent, down 1.3 percentage points since I took office. This puts our unemployment rates over the last five months at the lowest in two years while the national unemployment rate has gone up 0.1 percentage point during the same time period.

I am even more pleased by our job creation numbers. Florida has gained 110,300 private sector jobs while shrinking the size of government. That’s a net gain of 23,300 jobs in September alone, and a total net gain of 92,400 jobs since January.

Perhaps most significantly, Florida’s 12-month job growth percentage rate (+1.3 percent) has outpaced the nation’s (+1.1 percent) for the first time in three-and-a-half years (since February 2007).*

I cannot take full credit for this positive news. Florida is on the right track, thanks to the collaborative effort of the Florida Legislature, who last session passed business tax cuts and shared my vision for making Florida the best state in the country to do business, and to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, city and county governments, who along with the state provide incentives for companies to create jobs here, and to everyone in my administration who has played a role in growing jobs. Most importantly we must recognize the businesses who are actually taking risks to create jobs in Florida every day.

Florida is trending in the right direction, but we know that with many Floridians still out of work, there is still a long road ahead, and we could face tougher times before our actions to turn the state around begin to have a lasting impact.

This month I unveiled my job creation and economic growth agenda for the coming year. I will continue to prioritize our efforts to streamline regulations, provide tax relief, and work with the Legislature and our other state leaders to do what it takes to create the jobs needed to get Floridians back to work.

Over the next several days I will be meeting with Brazilian tourism officials and companies to attract more visitors and business to our state. I am joined by 180 delegates from Florida, representing more than 115 business organizations and we are looking forward to a great trip. Florida means business. I mean business, and together we are getting our state back to work.

Scott ripped for SunRail OK

Rick Scott ripped for SunRail OK:

"Gov. Rick Scott's approval Friday of an Orlando-area commuter rail project drew blistering rebukes from both his tea party base and supporters of the high-speed rail project that Scott scuttled earlier this year."

The governor endorsed the $1.28 billion, 61-mile SunRail commuter project that will cost the state more than a half-billion dollars.

The project has the backing of Orlando-area elected and business officials and U.S. Rep John Mica, R-Winter Park, who is deciding whether to approve $75 million in dredging funds Scott has sought for the Port of Miami.

In February, Scott rejected a $2.4 billion federal allocation to launch a statewide high-speed rail project at no cost to Florida, disagreeing with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and state transportation officials who said the federal government, the private sector and passenger revenue would pay for the Tampa-Orlando segment.

"These are two totally different projects; it's like comparing apples to oranges," Scott said at a media luncheon in St. Petersburg following the SunRail announcement that he delegated earlier in the day to his transportation secretary in Tallahassee.

"If you take the high-speed project, that was a federal project that they decided they wanted to put here, and they were not going to fund all the parts of it," he said.

That was a reference to about $300 million required to complete funding the high-speed project, which private companies said they would provide if they won the contract. Scott scuttled the project before putting it out to bid.

But Florida taxpayers will pay $651.6 million for SunRail.

The state will pay:

•$432 million to purchase the CSX track the commuter trains will use during the day and to improve an alternate CSX route between Ocala and Lakeland to remove daytime freight operations from the commuter tracks.
•$153.75 million for its 25 percent share of capital costs. Five local governments will chip in another 25 percent, while the federal government will pay 50 percent of the design-build costs for SunRail.
•$65.85 million to operate and maintain SunRail for its first seven years of operation, after which city and county jurisdictions will take over funding.

Although former Republican Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist were advocates for SunRail, the Legislature initially rejected it following critical news accounts of the project.

Lawmakers endorsed the project after Mica said state SunRail funding would be required for Florida to get federal high-speed rail money.

SunRail is expected to carry 4,300 weekday passengers on conventional train cars when it opens by May 2014. It will carry 7,400 passengers by 2030, 15 years after the system is expanded from its initial 31-mile segment.

It will not serve the Orlando attractions or Orlando International Airport. (By contrast, the light-rail system Hillsborough County voters rejected in November was projected to carry 21,250 daily passengers on a 28-mile route, with no state funding.)

"I don't know that I would have made the decision to go forward with this if I had been around three or four years ago, but I walked in with this passed," Scott said.

That didn't satisfy supporters of the high-speed rail project that Scott rejected or tea party advocates.
Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland, who supported high-speed rail but opposed SunRail, said in her blog that Scott betrayed the trust of the conservative electorate by moving forward with the least cost-efficient commuter rail project in the nation.

"This decision has completed the governor's transformation from businessman to political insider," Dockery said.

"It is unclear if, when making the decision, the governor had a change of heart, if he simply succumbed to the desires of the big money special interests, or if he has a severe case of amnesia and thought that he was supposed to be representing CSX instead of Florida's taxpayers."

Karen Jaroch, chairwoman of the Tampa 912 Project and a tea party advocate, said now that the decision has been made, she hopes SunRail bucks the trend and does not follow in the footsteps of "subsidy-laden" Amtrak and Tri-Rail.

"We will not give a pass to the governor on this, nor will we overlook the myriad politicians who told us privately that SunRail is a boondoggle but wouldn't stand up for Floridians by coming out publicly for fear of standing up to corporate interests and political elites," Jaroch said.

Doug Guetzloe, founder of Orlando-based Ax The Tax, said Scott abandoned the taxpayers of Florida who will respond in kind.

"He's fired as an advocate for taxpayers," Guetzloe said.

Democrats were predictably critical.

"Governor Scott used all the right arguments to green light the wrong rail project," state Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa said. "It had everything to do with hypocrisy and allegiance to his Republican brethren."

Teacher pay bill passes In Florida

From: Fox 13 Tampa

Evaluations based on FCAT and principal's input

TALLAHASSEE - Florida public school teachers would lose job security but could make more money if their students do well on standardized tests under a trailblazing bill that went to Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday after a party-line vote in the Republican-controlled state House.

The legislation will establish a statewide teacher evaluation and merit pay system in 2014 and do away with tenure for new teachers hired after July 1 this year. It also chips away at teachers' due process and collective bargaining rights.

Scott has made the bill a priority and it's the first legislation sent to the Republican governor since he took office in January.

It's similar to legislation his predecessor, Republican-turned independent Charlie Crist, vetoed last year after statewide protests by teachers and their supporters.

Teacher's success determined by student testing
The measure is the latest in a series of steps Florida has taken to instill accountability into its education system by relying heavily on student testing to measure success and failure.

That includes a grading system to reward top schools and sanction those that fall short. Those changes were instigated by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

"All of us know that measurement works," Scott said at a news conference with GOP legislative leaders shortly after final passage. "We measure students. We know that works."

The bill passed the House 80-39. It cleared the Senate in a largely partisan 26-12 roll call, last week.
Democrats acknowledged the bill is less objectionable than last year's version but said it still has problems, including the lack of funding source for the merit pay.

They predicted that would lead either to tax increases or layoffs and reductions in the base pay.

Evaluation system to rely on FCAT, principals
Determinations of which teachers will get merit pay and which will face termination will be made according to an evaluation system. Half of each teacher's evaluation will depend on how much progress their students have made on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) or other exams over a three-year period.
The other half would rely on principals' assessments and other factors, including advanced degrees—but only if they are in the teacher's subject area.

"It is a very objective way of evaluating teachers," said Rep. Ana Logan, a Miami Republican who's been a teacher, administrator and school board member. "There are many teachers who can put on a dog and pony show, a very good dog and pony show, but are not very good teachers."

Florida teachers already face pay, benefit reductions
Florida teachers already rank near the bottom nationally and are facing pay and benefit reductions in the next budget year as part of spending cuts designed to avoid a potential $3.6 billion shortfall.

"It's amazing to me that the members in this chamber see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the plumbing care of their toilets," said Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando. "Until we pay teachers a livable wage, there's no need to talk about this bill."

Republicans argued that merit pay is a way to attract and retain top teachers while other provisions in the bill will make it easier to get rid of bad ones.

"This is pro-teacher," said Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-New Port Richey. ""They want to be measured. They want to be recognized for their excellence."

Democratic Rep. Elaine Schwartz, though, said merit pay "is just a euphemism for killing unions" and part of a national movement to diminish public employees' collective bargaining rights.

"This process is a way of making unions useless in the school environment," said the Hollywood lawmaker.

Proponents say this bill is better than previous versions
Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, said the legislation is fatally flawed.

"We've looked closely at plenty of scientifically sound, peer-reviewed research out there that shows this is the wrong approach to take to implement performance pay and to revamp evaluations," Ford said in a statement.
New teachers who cannot get tenure will face the prospect of being terminated without cause at the end of each school year even if they get top ratings.. School officials will not even be required to let them know why they are being let go.

The bill in many respects mirrors Florida's plan for using a $700 million federal Race to the Top grant. Crist created a diverse panel that included state and local school officials and teachers union representatives to develop that plan after he vetoed last year's bill.

Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, acknowledged that some criticism of that legislation was deserved.

"Last year, they said that we rushed the bill through and we probably did. Last year they said that we didn't listen to teachers enough and we probably didn't," Weatherford said. "We have listened, we have learned and we have made this a better