(UPDATE: See below). Over the weekend, the Florida Legislature decided to make Gov. Rick Scott's proposal to distribute one-time $2,500 bonuses to all public school teachers merit-based, which has the head of the state's biggest teacher's union hopping mad.
In one of the more surprising public policy announcements of Scott's tenure, he announced prior to the 2013 legislative session that he wanted to reward public school teachers who have not had raises for more than six years (as has been the case with other state employees) by giving them a one-time $2,500 bonus.
Considering the intensive effort over two legislative sessions that GOP lawmakers engaged in to pass a teacher merit bill that ties the evaluation and salary of public school teachers to their students' performance on standardized exams, it's no surprise that those same lawmakers would balk at distributing bonuses in a different manner.
This article appears in Apr 18-24, 2013.