From an article on WUSF:

Florida was the surprise loser in today’s announcement of federal "Race to the Top" money – and a lack of buy-in by teacher unions is partially to blame. Florida, once considered the top contender, came in fourth. And there was "a significant gap" between it and the two winners, Delaware and Tennessee, according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Both of those states had the support of most teacher union chapters – 100 percent in Delaware and 93 percent in Tennessee. By contrast, only 8 percent of Florida’s local chapters signed on to the grant application. State education officials in Florida admit the lack of union buy-in probably hurt the application. And relations have gotten worse since Florida submitted its application in January. Republicans are pushing through a bill that would eliminate teacher tenure and base the certification and raises on how their students perform on standardized tests.

Time for a metaphor. The Obama Administration's Education Reform system is making each state submit a project, like a Science Fair. One of the criteria? Cooperation with teacher's unions when building the project.

Florida Republicans refused to do that. Then they blamed the poor grade they received on the teacher's unions, after refusing to allow us to help create the project.

They failed the test. Following Senate Bill 6, that means they should not receive 50% of their salary.

From the Conducive Chronicle.

Florida Senate Bill 6–innocuously titled Relating to Education Personnel–is the type of legislation that if passed, is a voter coalition-builder of the Most Certain to Vote: Florida’s educators. As summarized by Florida Today , the bill is "...a measure that would gradually do away with tenure and eventually put teachers on an annual contract that would not be automatically renewed. The legislation would create an evaluation system that would tie teacher pay to gains in student test scores." Teaching Moment #1: What do teacher tenure and the dodo bird have in common? Here in Brevard County, new Florida teachers are contracted annually for the first three years of employment. A professional contract is subsequently offered and is subject to review every two years. Professional contract holders cannot work towards continuing contract. Continuing contract–commonly referred to as tenure and tossed about as a code word by many a state legislator, guaranteed to get the goat of those who feel educators have a cushy, part-time, guarantee of a job–has not been offered to educators for many years and is fast going the way of the dodo bird, as those who hold such contracts age out and retire from the profession. It is most neatly and completely extinct. Which could prove a similar fate to those state legislators who voted yea to SB-6. Here at home, those state Senators include Mike Haridopolos (R-District 26) and Thad Altman (R-District 24). (Peruse the March 24 Roll Call vote here).

This is the most amazing time to be politically aware in Florida. Our state is turning Blue like a snow-cone that just got drowned in azure sugar syrup. Seriously, you should see this.

The Facebook pages of Charlie Crist, John Thrasher, and the Repulican State Congress are totally plastered with angry teachers. More than half of them are disillusioned Republican voters.

Seriously, you have got to see this:

The Florida Senate Majority Office on Facebook. They are being destroyed.

Watch the polls for Fl-Sen in the coming weeks. Tell me if I am overreacting then. I feel it, this state is flipping fast.

Charlie Crist lied to the TV. A report in West Palm Beach quoted his office saying they had only gotten 400 emails in protest for Senate Bill 6. Guess what? We have 20,000 active Facebookers who took that personally. Now we are sending our emails with copies to all the news stations as proof.

And then there is Marco Rubio. The tape is around here somewhere on DailyKosTV. He threatened to kill Social Security, in a state chock full of retirees.

By rewarding the only two states who worked with their teacher's unions in Race to the Top funding, the Obama Administration redeemed itself. By bungling the entire process so completely that they are threatening their own electoral prospects, the Florida Republicans destroyed their chances in November.

I gotta say it was a good day.