By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida’s pioneering merit pay law survived a major legal challenge on Thursday when a circuit court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state’s largest teachers union.

The Florida Education Association’s lawsuit argued that awarding higher raises to teachers who produce greater levels of student learning violated the pay provisions of individual teacher union contracts throughout the state.

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But Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled that while the 2011 merit pay law has implications for “mandatory subjects of collective bargaining,” it doesn’t “prohibit collective bargaining over any of the subjects embraced in the provisions,” according to Tallahassee.com.

In other words, the lawmakers’ decision to reward Florida’s top teachers with extra pay does not cancel out educators’ collective bargaining rights, as found in the Florida Constitution.

Under the terms of Florida’s merit pay law, teacher evaluations are partially linked to their students’ academic growth, as measured by test-score data, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Basing a teacher’s job review on the “value” he or she added to students’ overall learning is considered more objective than rating a educator’s performance on little more than the occasional classroom observations of a principal.

The subjective evaluations used in the past typically resulted in glowing reviews for teachers. While that’s a nicer system for the teachers, it simply doesn’t match the reality that too many high school graduates are leaving the classroom unprepared for college or the workaday world.

Joe Follick, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Education, praised the decision, saying that the merit pay law creates “an atmosphere where the best educators in the country can thrive.”

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Follick’s enthusiasm is understandable, but it’s all a tad premature. Despite Thursday’s ruling, the merit pay law is far from being a settled matter.

Not only are union officials considering an appeal to Thursday’s ruling, but they recently filed a federal lawsuit that claims the merit pay law violates “the equal-protection and due-process clauses of the U.S. Constitution,” the Orlando Sentinel reports.

In its zeal to protect ineffective teachers from the consequences of objective evaluations, the union is perpetuating the ridiculous myth that teachers are little more than indistinguishable and interchangeable assembly-line workers.

That kind of thinking doesn’t belong in America’s classrooms.

Kudos to Gov. Rick Scott and state lawmakers for bringing Florida’s public education system into the 21^st century where it belongs.