Court rules against unions on teacher performance pay

By News Service of Florida

June 22, 2016

A South Florida appeals court Wednesday sided with the Broward County School Board in a dispute with unions about carrying out a 2011 law that called for performance-based pay for teachers.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected arguments by the Broward Teachers Union, the Florida Education Association and other labor groups in a case stemming from the controversial "Student Success Act." The law required teachers on annual contracts to be placed on a performance-based salary schedule, though other teachers were "grandfathered" so that they continued with an earlier salary structure, according to the ruling.

The key issue in the case was determining which teachers were subject to the performance-pay requirement. The unions argued it applied to teachers hired on or after July 1, 2014, which was when performance-pay changes took effect. But the ruling said, in part, that teachers hired on or after July 1, 2011, were placed on annual contracts.

As a result, the Broward County School Board said the number of teachers subject to the performance-pay requirement was larger than what the union argued. The appeals court issued a 10-page ruling that upheld a circuit judge's decision in favor of the School Board.

"The Legislature's value judgment was that students would be best served by being taught by teachers who are paid based on their performance," said Wednesday's ruling, written by Judge Robert Gross and joined by judges Alan Forst and Mark Klingensmith. "To construe the statute to exclude a significant number of existing teachers from performance based evaluation criteria would undermine the expressed legislative intent."