{"id":24038,"date":"2015-10-13T15:11:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=24038"},"modified":"2015-10-13T15:11:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:11:33","slug":"veteran-florida-teachers-wonder-if-new-bonuses-are-meant-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/10\/13\/veteran-florida-teachers-wonder-if-new-bonuses-are-meant-for-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Florida Teachers Wonder If New Bonuses Are Meant For Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Teacher<\/a>

401(k) 2012 \/ Flickr<\/p>

Teacher think lawmakers might have ulterior motives when they created a $44 million bonus program.<\/p><\/div>\n

“Who are these bonuses for?”<\/p>\n

It’s a question we heard from teachers over and over again while reporting on the new Best and Brightest Scholarships.<\/a> They’re not actually scholarships — they’re bonuses worth up to $10,000 for teachers who scored in the top 20 percent of students when they took the SAT or ACT and earned the state’s top rating, “highly effective.”<\/p>\n

Miami Republican Rep. Erik Fresen proposed the $44 million program during the legislative session. He’s said he was inspired by Amanda Ripley’s book “The Smartest Kids In the World.” In the book, Ripley found top students wanted to become teachers in Finland, South Korea and other top-performing nations. That isn’t always the case in the U.S<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fresen’s bill went nowhere, but he managed to get the money added to the state budget despite objections from the Senate.<\/p>\n

For many teachers, qualifying for the bonus meant tracking down decades-old test scores from the two testing companies or from the college they attended. Many teachers said they couldn’t get the records before the October 1st deadline.<\/p>\n

It’s why many veteran teachers don’t think they bonuses were meant for them. They think they were intended for young teachers. More recent graduates can get their test scores online and first-year teachers are exempt from the “highly effective” requirement.<\/p>\n