Florida Senate Bill 6, a controversial bill dubbed "The Hammer" by author Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine. Bill 6 would overhaul the way teachers are paid was passed the Florida Senate floor Wednesday morning. The vote was 21-17. A house committee will examine a companion bill today.

 "I think we can all agree that high-performing teachers deserve a bonus for their outstanding work," Sen. Mike Haridopolos said in an e-mail to FLORIDA TODAY. "The bill will allow those teachers to be rewarded for their contribution to our kids. Under the bill, the more students learn, the more teachers earn." 

Under the bill Florida school districts would have to deny teachers raises or let them go, based on student performance on standardized tests, regardless of any other evaluation criteria.

Unions have universally decried the bill as unfair to teachers, yet were surprisingly ineffective in organizing to stop the bill in the Florida Senate. The bill, if it becomes law will likely rapidly be implemented as school boards that refuse to follow the bill would be stripped of state funding.  

This raises a few very good questions:

1. Should teacher pay be tied directly to standardized test performance?

2. Is too much emphasis put on standardized tests?

3. Why weren't teachers unions effective in stopping Bill 6?