Video: Amy Mercado speaks out against SB 6, the teacher tenure abolition bill

After the Florida Senate passed the highly dispute Senate Bill 6 (but before Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed it), Amy Mercado, the Democrat opponent facing Speaker-elect Dean Cannon for House 35, released this reaction video. According to a blog written by Jerry Waxman, a candidate for the Orange County School Board, Mercado joined protesters outside Rep. Cannon’s office on March 30. She was calling voters to tell their House representatives and Gov. Charlie that they oppose the bill affecting teachers’ performances and paychecks.

According to a Pensacola News Journal article, the bill would reward teachers’ whose students performed with pay raises. It would also use “low student learning gains” as grounds to be fired. Supporters say the bill would have served as a reward system for good teachers, while weeding out the bad ones. One opponent, however, said in a News Herald article that it would “‘ostracize’ struggling students because teachers won’t want to have low-performing students in their classes.”

– Christina McGinley

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