Governor DeSantis’s teacher salary proposal has put Florida’s K-12 schools and the most important component of those schools – the teacher corps – at the forefront of the agenda for the 2020 session of the Legislature.
But there are even bigger questions than teacher salaries in play for our policy-makers and education leaders: What is the mission of our K-12 schools? Is it just to make sure every student can read at the middle school level and answer rote questions about the US Constitution before graduating from high school? Or should Florida’s schools provide every student, regardless of socioeconomic background, the opportunity to fulfill her or his potential? Should the state’s schools do this even if it means giving every student access to strong math and science teachers all the way through high school?
2020 may be the year when Florida gives its final answers to these questions. If so, next year will be the inflection point for the development of Florida’s K-12 schools and for the future of all of the state’s residents.
What legislators and education leaders decide to do about Florida’s teacher corps has everything to do with the mission of the K-12 schools. If policy-makers choose a lowest-common-denominator definition of success – declaring victory when every student is at basic (or better) reading level in 8th grade (or even just 4th grade) and being able to pass a multiple choice citizenship test in high school – then they can recruit a teacher corps with a relatively narrow set of skills, teaching reading. That is a much cheaper undertaking than recruiting (and retaining) the array of educators skilled in advanced mathematics, the physical sciences, music performance, the social sciences, reading and writing literature and other fields that would be required to allow every student to advance as far as talent and character would take her or him.
The recurring discussion about NAEP reading scores – especially the 4th grade scores but also the 8th grade scores – and the relative lack of interest in the math scores (Florida actually improved a bit on 8th grade math – although by a statistically insignificant amount) provides a flashing yellow light signaling a dumbed-down focus on low-level reading for our public schools. An opinion piece in the conservative-leaning web site Florida Politics last spring argued that we are already spending enough money on public schools because Florida’s 4th graders can read better than their contemporaries in the neighboring states.
Fortunately, not every Republican leader has bought into the idea of a basic-reading-only mission for Florida’s public schools. Florida GOP Chair Joe Gruters expressed concern about the availability of physics courses in the state’s high schools in an op-ed published in October. And of course, regardless of whether one likes the Governor’s emphasis on new and early career teachers, the proposed investment of $600 million in teacher salaries is a significant statement that he acknowledges that the profession is not presently attracting the new talent it needs to provide students with the learning opportunities they deserve.
But apparently the Speaker of the House, Jose Oliva, is on the other side of the issue. He is skeptical about a new investment in teacher salaries. Without such an investment, Florida’s public schools will continue to slide backward toward a basic-only model.
There has been little progress made on the teacher salary issue during pre-legislative session committee meetings. So the debate about the future of Florida’s teacher corps and the opportunities that will be available to the state’s students will take place entirely during the heat of the 60-day legislative session. The outcome of that debate may determine the mission of the state’s public schools – and the capabilities of the state’s workforce – for many years to come.
Bridge to Tomorrow 