FEA Frontline Report

FEA Frontline Report

Interim Committee Meeting Week

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January 28, 2013

“What exactly are we trying to fix here?”¾ Rep. Irv Slosberg asked during discussions of overhauling the state retirement plans.

The official start of the 2013 Legislative Session is March 5, but interim committee meetings have been ongoing since December.  Little reportable activity has occurred thus far – although this week things began to pick up.  They have now outlined their plans for the Florida Retirement System, started talking about on-line education, and were updated by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) regarding the progress of implementation of SB 736 (which passed during the 2011 Session).

We hope each year the legislature will just leave education alone; that public education can don the cloak of invisibility and successfully hide this one out – no more new crazy schemes and ‘reforms’,  no more ‘help’ -  just let our people teach and work.  No such luck.  Education reform continues to be a hot political topic.

Remember this: at the core of the education reform debate is not so much a disagreement over ideology but rather whether education policy decisions should be made on sound teaching practice and research on learning - or on business plan objectives.  The disagreement boils down to who profits: corporations and their CEOs or our students.

That is the legislative reality we face once again.  Welcome back!

·         Bill Update

Last Friday was the last day legislators are allowed submit their concepts for 2013 bills into bill drafting. That means no other legislative member bills can be submitted for the upcoming session.  Keep in mind, this is not the “filing” deadline but rather the “drafting” deadline.  Final bills must be “filed” and therefore released to the public no later than March 5 at noon.  Committee bills are another story; we’ll talk more about those as Committees begin their work in earnest.  They can be very scary.

At the time this report was compiled, 525 bills had been numbered and filed.  FEA is currently tracking 82 education related bills.  Not all of these bills will ever see daylight.  We will provide more detailed information as bills begin to be placed on Committee agendas.

·         The Implementation of SB 736

This week the House K-12 Subcommittee heard a presentation by the FLDOE regarding the personnel evaluation systems and implementation of the Student Success Act (aka SB 736). The law is slated for full implementation in the 2014-15 school year - the same year Florida fully transitions to Common Core standards.

Some legislators have publicly expressed concerns that the rushed implementation schedule of SB 736, Common Core statewide assessments and increased graduation requirements is a recipe for disaster. Yet, the DOE presentation glossed over the implementation issues and unresolved problems with the various moving parts of the assessment and evaluation systems.  And no one mentioned paying for it all.

FLDOE reported that all 67 school districts have requirements to follow, but they have a lot of flexibility in choosing how to evaluate teachers.  They presented charts and graphs indicating how well VAM was working: “just as we had hoped” (click here to see the report).

The rosy report prompted Rep. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) to gleefully announce, “Those who say it can’t be done need to get out of the way of those who are doing it. This has come a mighty long way and a lot of undoables are being done here ... seeing what gets measured and what gets done is tremendous.”

Yet, other committee members were skeptical. Rep. Ronald Renuart (R- Ponte Vedra Beach) asked whether the measurements developed so far take into account whether the teacher works in an “F” or an “A” school. He asked for data showing what happened to a teacher’s value-added score when a teacher with an unsatisfactory evaluation in a low-performing school is transferred to a high-performing school. DOE indicated that since the state has just one year of data, it is not yet able to assess the impact.

According to the Florida Current, Renuart later said he wants to ensure the system is fair to teachers.

“I want to make sure a teacher gets a fair assessment if it is going to affect their livelihood,” said Renuart.  Although impressed with the presentation he remarked, “I’m sure once I get back to my district I’ll be hearing some other sides to this.”

Rep. Karen Castor-Dentel (D-Maitland) ¾ one of two actual public school teachers sitting on the committee ¾ questioned the use of VAM to evaluate teachers who do not teach FCAT subjects.  FLDOE responded that the districts had the flexibility to decide what measure to use.

This is just the beginning of conversations around the implementation of SB 736 and other education proposals. Bills are being drafted to make changes to the current law including:

·         A bill (HB 377) to delay implementation of SB 736 has been filed by Rep. Mike Clelland (D-Lake Mary).  We believe a similar bill will be filed in the Senate by Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D-Orlando).

·         A bill to change the requirements of SB 736 for evaluation of non-FCAT teachers and non-classroom instructional personnel is in bill drafting by Sen. Audrey Gibson (D-Jacksonville) and Rep. Dwayne Taylor (D-Daytona Beach).  This is the same bill we worked on last year but it was never placed on the committee agenda. No bill numbers have been assigned at this time.

·         A bill to create a “wrap-around services” pilot program has been entered in bill drafting by Rep. Ricardo Rangel (D-Kissimmee).  No bill number has been assigned at this time.

Other FEA legislative priorities will be in the works through the amendatory process. 

·         Start of the 2013-2014 Budget Process

The governor is required to submit a budget proposal each year prior to the legislative session.  Last year he rolled out his ONE BILLION DOLLARS for education plan.  This year the PR gimmick is a $2,500 raise for every public school teacher. Remember – the legislature writes and passes the budget.  The governor’s budget is just a suggestion – the legislature may or may not go along with all or part of it. 

A $2,500 increase in pay would certainly be welcome, but it’s important to put it in its proper context. Starting in July 2011, teachers and ESPs – as well as law-enforcement officers, firefighters and other workers who are in the Florida Retirement System – had 3 percent of their salaries taken away so that the state could balance the budget. In addition, on January 1 of this year, a temporary federal tax break on Social Security and Medicare ended after two years – resulting in more than 2 percent disappearing from the paychecks of teachers and ESPs.

While the governor may propose an across-the-board pay increase, it’s still subject to collective bargaining and districts have to deal with plenty of unfunded mandates and cost increases. The governor has indicated he wants to dedicate money for a teacher pay increase by carving out a special category for it in his proposed budget.

Scott has also indicated that he will make a future announcement regarding pay for ESPs and other proposals, including one that would put more money in the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP).

·         House Workshop on ‘State-worker Pension Reform’

NOTE: There is no bill at this time. The House Government Operations Subcommittee discussed a proposal that would shift all future state employees to a 401(k)-style retirement plan.  Committee chairman Rep. Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford) indicated the measure's future could depend on studies of the proposal's financial impact. The committee is waiting for an actuarial assessment that will indicate the long-term impact of reduced contributions going into the FRS Pension Plan before moving forward with the plan.

Rep. Ritch Workman (R-Melbourne), who spearheaded the 2011 changes, said during the 2011 debates that the existing retirement system needed to be fully funded before moving to a 401(k)-style plan. But House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel) has said he thinks the state needs to make the switch. And Brodeur said that the state's budget situation is now strong enough to consider the changes.

Brodeur stressed that current employees would not be affected.

The current proposal would:

·         Place all state employees hired after Jan. 1, 2014 would be placed in a defined-contribution plan (Investment or sometimes referred to as 401(K) plans) instead of the defined-benefit plan that most state workers currently join.    

·         Close the Senior Management Optional Annuity Program effective Jan. 1, 2014 (only 30 enrollees statewide)

·         Expand investment options to include an employee directed option (brokerage account)

·         Eliminate the option to apply for disability benefits under the pension plan for new enrollees effective January 1, 2014.

Opponents of the proposal argued that the state's pension plan is one of the best performing in the nation and is financially sound. In fact, FEA and other critics of the measure testified the proposal could cost state taxpayers additional money to set up and fund a defined contribution plan, beginning with $150 million next year and escalating to $450 million within three years.

"What exactly are we trying to fix here?" asked Rep. Irv Slosberg (D-Boca Raton).

As you well know, this is a remnant of the fight two years ago between public employees and mostly Republican supporters of overhauling the state retirement plans. At that time legislators voted to require employees to contribute 3 percent of their income to the retirement plan, but shied away from Gov. Rick Scott's insistence that workers should eventually be shifted to a 401(K) type plan.

"If the study comes back, and it is not where we thought it was going to be, I don't know how much appetite members are going to have to do something like that," Broduer said.

Thanks to Pat Dix for her contributions to this report.

The next committee week begins February 4.