Education reform sunset in the Sunshine State?

The success of the Florida teachers union in securing today’s veto says a lot about what that union really thinks of its members. After all, does the Florida Education Association truly have such little regard for, or such little confidence in, its members? Many FEA members—the many good teachers in Florida—would have been richly rewarded by the bill that was vetoed today, rewarded not just with money, but with the knowledge that if you work hard, that work is celebrated, and if you don’t work hard, you’re asked to move on.

When I’ve met with teachers, they’ve told me, quite literally, that they’d “work their asses off” to meet benchmarks tied to student performance…and many of these teachers are confident that they’d succeed and be rewarded. In truth, the silent majority of teachers who work hard and perform effectively—but are held down by the inadequacies of their peers—are not represented by the union’s “one size fits all,” straightjacket-like contract rules.

We’ve always known that teachers unions don’t represent children. But today proves another important point—that teachers unions don’t effectively represent great teachers, either, even if those teachers pay union dues. Teachers unions play to the lowest common denominator—the teachers who aren’t enthusiastic, confident, or student-focused and the teachers who’d likely lose their jobs if true performance-based evaluation were to enter the mix.

Long term job security for teachers—collectively—should rely on a teacher workforce that gets the job done for students.

To accomplish this goal, we need leaders who will recognize this vision and run with it—not bow to the pressure of narrow-minded interest groups that don’t even prize their most laudable members. We need more governors like Jeb Bush, not Charlie Crist.

Jeanne Allen is the President of the Center for Education Reform (CER), a Washington, D.C.-based organization driving the creation of better educational opportunities for all children by leading parents, policymakers and the media in boldly advocating for school choice, advancing the charter school movement, and challenging the education establishment.