{"id":8071,"date":"2012-05-30T14:46:49","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T18:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=8071"},"modified":"2012-05-30T16:14:40","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T20:14:40","slug":"merit-pay-at-the-top-of-florida-teachers-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/05\/30\/merit-pay-at-the-top-of-florida-teachers-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Merit Pay At The Top Of Florida Teachers’ Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joe Raedle \/ Getty News Images<\/p>

Teachers protest budget cuts and Senate bill 736 -- the law establishing merit pay -- in Miami in 2011.<\/p><\/div>\n

What if you threw a party, but no one who was invited appreciated your hospitality?<\/p>\n

That’s what happened with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which recently sponsored a teacher town hall meeting as part of the American Graduate project. A group of Hillsborough County teachers boarded a bus to Jacksonville for the event.<\/p>\n

The teachers were there to talk about their concerns. But when WUSF reporter Sarah Pusateri gave them an open mic, it was Hillsborough County’s pay-for-performance plan that bugged them most.<\/p>\n\n

You know — the same merit pay plan funded with a $100 million grant from the Gates Foundation. Hillsborough County is in the second year of the three-year project.<\/p>\n

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Teachers felt merit pay was unfair. The system would not reward the best teachers, they said, just the teachers with the best students.<\/p>\n

Listen to Sarah’s story above, and here’s a video she produced from the trip:<\/p>\n