St. Augustine Rep. Bill Proctor clueless or really clueless about education

From Scathing Purple Musings

by Bob Sykes

Florida voters only need to listen to one of its republican legislators talk about education policy to become frightened. St. Augustine Rep. Bill Proctor – the chairman of the House Education committee – took his turn yesterday in the St. Augustine Record. Lets start with this:

According to Proctor, representatives of several educational disciplines spoke in favor of SB 736 at public hearings.

He seemed to hint that he didn’t need the support of the education community, adding that as long as the Speaker of the House, Senate President and the governor stood firm behind it, it would work.

However, Proctor acknowledged, the Legislature hasn’t the money to provide for teacher merit pay that the bill requires.

Merit pay provisions go into effect only if the state has the money, he said.

If anyone is aware of a real ”education discipline” which spoke in favor of SB736, I’d like to know who it was. As Proctor is apparently conceding that there is no money to pay for merit pay, justification for the spirit in which it was imposed does not exist. But then again, it didn’t matter. Proctor didn’t need the support of educators as “that as long as the Speaker of the House, Senate President and the governor stood firm behind it, it would work.”

Just because they say so.

More from Proctor. First this:

“Right now, 50 percent of Florida students leaving high school cannot read at grade level, and grade level isn’t that difficult,” Proctor said. “We’ll see which teachers affect learning in their students.

And this:

Proctor said the vast majority of Florida’s teachers are in the effective or highly effective categories.

“Only 1.6 percent should not be teaching,” he said.

Only 1.6 percent? Where on earth does that number come from. So we’re doing all this to get rid of maybe 3 teachers in 200? And if, as Proctor says, 50 percent of kids are graduating without reading at grade level, how can the vast majority of the’s state’s teachers be effective or highly effective?

Proctors flippant use of numbers that couldn’t stand up to a follow-up question from a high-school newspaper reporter fully illustrates the thoughtless zeal with which republicans rammed SB736 home last year. Such clear demonstration of flawed and incomplete reasoning ought to give pause to voters for the rest of their education policy agenda as well.

http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/the-arrogance-hubris-and-dangerous-naivete-which-drives-florida-education-policy-in-florida/?mid=570