blah, blah, blah...

So the legislature passed SB6/HB 7189 (knew they would) by only a 10 vote margin. I stayed up until 2:30 am watching them "debate" before voting. What an eye opener! The debate was farcical ...is that even a word?!?... politicians laughing, wandering around chambers, and more interested in whatever was on their laptop screens the vast majority of the time. Maybe they were facebooking it or something....I don't know. LOL

To watch and listen to many of them get up and admit the bill was flawed, yet still needed passing was amazing. To watch and listen as many trashed the teaching profession was hurtful to say the least. To punish all of us for a few bad apples is wrong. Though the whole merit pay thing concerns me because it is ill-defined and unfunded, the biggest kick to the gut is the removal of all protection for a teacher in the classroom. Heaven forbid if you should disagree with your administration in the future as they will now be able to fire you at will. Heaven forbid if you should tick one too many parents off who thinks their little Johnny or Susie is the angel and you are the big bad wolf. Heaven forbid if you should complain over working conditions such as no bathroom breaks or being jipped out of your lunch period. If you make too many waves, you are now opening yourself up to being fired at will. You are opened up to being fired at will for things that have no direct bearing on the classroom or so-called student performance. This is the largest insult that our legislature poured on us with this bill. Make no mistake, these things happen far more often than the general public knows or wants to admit.

Now the bill goes to the governor who can veto it and send it back to the House. Will Charlie Crist have the decency to take into consideration the hundreds of thousand of phone calls and emails that have bombarded his office? Will Charlie Crist pay attention to the hundreds of protests that have been staged around the state? Will Charlie Crist have the political backbone to stand against his party and stand up for teachers? I'm not holding my breath.