Some Alachua County teachers are cheering Gov. Charlie Crist’s decision to veto the hotly contested Senate Bill 6 last week.
According to Dan Boyd, superintendent of Alachua County public schools, the bill would have greatly demoralized teachers, which would have been something the county would not have been prepared to deal with.
Supporters of Senate Bill 6 wanted teachers’ salaries to be based on student performances on standardized testing, such as the FCAT. The percentage of a teacher’s students who passed would determine whether that teacher is performing at a high enough standard.
Boyd said the legislature gave teachers no input in the bill and would have been an added expense at the end of the school year, when teachers have to develop courses and lesson plans for the following school year.
Boyd added Crist’s decision made him a “good Floridian.”
“I would hope I would have the courage to do what the governor did,” Boyd said.
Although Crist listened to pleas from the majority in Alachua County and the rest of Florida, Democratic officials are weary to say whether this single decision will attract voters to the still-Republican governor, who is quickly losing ground to his U.S. Senate competitor, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.
“I think he will be more attractive than the other Republican, but he is still a Republican. And that means something,” said Jon Reiskind, Alachua County Democratic Party chairman.
Stafford Jones, chairman of the Alachua County Republican Party, said there was a mixed reaction from the veto among party members, and it’s hard to tell how much it will affect Crist in the upcoming election.
Jones said there could be a possibility that Republicans will try to get the bill passed next year.
Jones, although noting the bill’s unpopular qualities of linking teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests, stressed that some people still supported the bill.
