Tallahassee, Florida - Florida teachers are angered by Florida's new merit pay plan for them and they're suing the state to try to block the new law.
Senate Bill 736 ties teachers' pay to students' performance on tests and eliminates tenure.
Under the new law, 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation is based on students' scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and other tests.
New teachers get one-year contracts and are eligible for raises if they're rated effective or highly effective. Existing teachers can keep their salaries and contracts but can be fired more easily.
Now the statewide teachers' union has filed suit, arguing the law is unconstitutional because it takes away the right of teachers to negotiate their wages, contracts, evaluations and promotions with collective bargaining.
Florida Education Association attorney Ron Meyer says that right is protected by Florida's constitution and state lawmakers cannot make such a sweeping change unilaterally. Meyer says the issue should have been worked out between teachers and their own school boards.
"This should be done at the local level. This should not be the state micromanaging the local school districts. That's why we have elected school boards. It strains credulity to believe the people in Tallahassee over at the Capitol building know better than the people on the ground in the school districts as to what the needs are for public education."
Teachers are also mad they were not included in the discussion to create a merit pay plan in Florida.
Middle school teacher Cory Williams of Sarasota County says teachers have no other option but to go to court.
"The provisions of Senate Bill 736 radically transform the teaching profession and not for the better. The expertise and knowledge of teachers have been ignored throughout this process and our constitutional rights have been trampled."
Teacher Vicki Hall of Osceola Elementary School in St. Augustine says she's been in education for more than 30 years and changes from Tallahassee like the merit pay plan make her "more than a little angry."
"Senate Bill 736 requires more of teachers and gives them less. This bill places all responsibility for improving student achievement on the shoulders of teachers but does not reward them, unless of course, they give up their professional services contract and their due process rights."
A spokesman for Gov. Scott says regular working folks don't have tenure, so why should bad teachers.
Lane Wright says the governor is looking out for students by trying to get the best teachers in the classroom, while the teachers union is looking out for bad teachers who pay their union dues.
The Florida Education Association is also suing the state over two other measures passed in the legislature last spring.
The union filed a lawsuit against the new three percent pension contribution for public employees in Florida. Plus, it sued to try to kick Amendment 7 off the 2012 election ballot. That measure asks voters to repeal a provision in the state Constitution that bans tax dollars from being used to support religious institutions.
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