From Ron Littlepage: Heaven knows I’ve been critical of Gov. Charlie Crist in this column when I’ve disagreed with his actions.
But what Crist did last week when he vetoed Sen. John Thrasher’s ill-conceived teacher merit-pay bill was right on.
I’ll take Crist at his word that he vetoed the bill because it was deeply flawed. It was.
First, Thrasher bullied the bill through the Senate and the House in near record speed.
Second, the bill was more anti-union than it was about improving the state’s public schools.
As Crist said, some of the ideas included in the bill, such as linking a teacher’s pay to student progress and making it less cumbersome to remove bad teachers from classrooms, have merit.
But there are nuances involved, which Thrasher would have known if he had bothered to include educators in the conversation.
Instead, Thrasher went with what even he called the “hammer” approach.
That was a bad idea. He’s the one who got hammered. Continue reading here.
