As expected, the Florida Senate yesterday voted to put class size limits on the November ballot. The House is expected to follow suit soon.
That vote was the 3rd in a series this week that have angered teachers and the teachers union. The most incendiary has been SB 6, the John Thrasher sponsored measure that does a number of things that St. Petersburg House Democrat Bill Heller told CL earlier this week were "anti-teacher,"; the legislation would make it easier to to fire teachers, links their pay increases to student test scores, and would also add more testing for students. The Senate also passed a measure that would boost school vouchers.
But it's SB 6 that has ignited strong passions among the teaching profession. The St. Petersburg Times Christina Silva reports that yesterday,
more than 1,000 Miami-Dade teachers protested outside seven local lawmakers' offices. The largest crowd of about 300 assembled outside state Sen. Rudy Garcia's office in Hialeah and demanded the bill be stopped.
But that is unlikely, because unlike the current situation in Washington D.C., Tallahassee is GOP country, and the Republican legislature wants this bill to pass. A companion bill to SB 6 in the House, sponsored by Port Richey Republican John Legg, began moving through the House PreK-12 Policy Committee.
