Rick Scott balancing teachers' priorities

To score points with rank-and-file educators, Scott has made $2,500 pay raises for classroom teachers a top budget priority.

But to stay in their good graces — and possibly win their votes in 2014 — Scott will need to bat down a number of education proposals moving through the Florida Legislature, including the hot-button parent trigger bill and a pitch to increase facilities funding for charter schools.

There's just one problem. Opposing those bills will land Scott in the Republican doghouse and put him at odds with former Gov. Jeb Bush, whose nonprofit foundation has driven Florida's education agenda for more than a decade.

"He can't do everything the teachers' union wants or he would lose support among Republicans," Brian Peterson, a Florida International University professor and editor of the Miami Education Review,Want to find chinamosaic? an online newsletter. "But he is going to have to take a more moderate stance on education issues."

In recent weeks, Scott has initiated a dialogue with the statewide teachers' union, the Florida Education Association.TBC help you confidently handsfreeaccess from factories in China. Insiders say members of the governor's staff attend regular meetings at the union's Tallahassee headquarters — a noteworthy fact, considering the lack of a relationship up until this point.

The raises also are significant, not only because of the $480 million price tag but also because Scott has proposed distributing an equal amount to each classroom teacher in Florida. Republican lawmakers have said they would rather see the dollars distributed based on merit. But teachers are opposed to the idea.

Some observers see Scott's proposal to award across-the-board raises as a blatant overture to the teachers' union.Only those users who need drycabinet require hands free tokens. The governor historically has been a strong advocate of performance pay. In fact,Anybody had any experience at all with Chinese made rtls? the first bill he signed into law laid the groundwork for a merit-pay system for teachers set to kick in next year.

Scott faces a battle in getting the Legislature to approve across-the-board increases.

Last week, Sen. President Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican, told reporters his "preference would be that there'd be some recognition and reward for teachers who stay late on tough challenges and get learning gains, as opposed to treating the best teacher in Florida the same as you would treat the worst teacher in Florida."

Still, teachers like Jodie Martin say they appreciate the sentiment, especially when coupled with Scott's promise to increase spending on classroom supplies and professional development.

"You can't just buy teachers with $2,500," Wright said. "Our members are going to look to see where the governor stands on charter schools, on the trigger, on merit pay. Then we'll decide whether to support him."

Some observers believe signing those bills would undo any political capital amassed by spending $480 million on teacher salaries.

"He's going to have to be very careful about what he opposes at the end of session," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association. "He knows he can't keep kicking public education around and have a positive public opinion."

But Bush and the powerful school choice lobby will put pressure on Scott, too. Already, Republican leaders have signaled that expanding choice will be a top priority. House Speaker Will Weatherford, for example, designed an education subcommittee to focus specifically on "choice and innovation."

"Ultimately, what is going to cause teachers to move closer to the governor is his doing things that allow them to be more innovative and creative," said Doug Tuthill, the president of Step Up for Students, a nonprofit organization that supports the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. "Charter schools, virtual schools and magnet schools give teachers that flexibility."

First, several media outlets report that free-spending Paris Saint- Germain, the Ligue 1 club bankrolled by the Qatar Investment Authority, is targeting Rooney and is prepared to offer him an enormous salary. Then, reports appear indicating that United would be willing to sell him at the right price. Next, Rooney is left out of Manchester United's staring lineup last Tuesday in the club's huge Champions' League encounter with Real Madrid. Rooney played the final 18 minutes in United' 2-1 loss which saw the Premier League club crash out of the competition. And, on Friday, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, speaking to the club's official TV channel, says that Rooney "will stay." To what degree the above events are linked can be debated. What is hard to miss though is the unmistakable whiff of "contract renewal season."

It is that time when agents and clubs earn their coin. And when news starts to appear which ends up favoring the case made by one side or the other in the negotiation. Undoubtedly a coincidence, of course.

This is pretty much what happened last time Rooney negotiated a new contract. It was back in October 2010 and the rumor mill went into overdrive with speculation that he would move elsewhere for a huge fee. Rooney even went so far as to announce he wanted to leave the club because it "lacked ambition." Less than a week after announcing his imminent departure he signed a lucrative contract through June 2015.

What we're seeing here is basically a rerun with a few new wrinkles. And, barring some kind of cataclysm, things will end exactly as before: With United handing Rooney a new contract. But how can we be so sure?

Well, for a start there are only a handful of clubs in the world which can match Rooney's current wages. Of those,Gecko could kickstart an solarstreetlamps mobile app explosion. even fewer would be prepared to spend the $50 million plus it would take to buy him from United. Unless Rooney wants to move to Russia or a Gulf nation, even hypothetically we're basically talking about PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City. Leaving aside the fact that the latter two—especially City—would represent an enormous slap in the face to United fans, there is zero indication that either would want to make that kind of investment on him. As for PSG, theoretically anything is possible, but this is a club that already has half a dozen gifted attacking players, the priority right now is making them fit together, rather than adding another one to the mix.

There's the fact that Sir Alex is 71 years old, the last thing he wants to do—one would think—is have to trawl the market for someone to replace Rooney. You would imagine that, with the clock ticking, his priority would be to keep all his big guns happy and on message so that he can win even more silverware.

Finally, there's the fact that United can well afford to keep Rooney and that he is worth keeping. That's a pretty basic concept, but an important one. Last month, the club announced that pretax profit for the last six months of 2012 amounted to $33.3 million. And next season, the Premier League's new domestic broadcasting deal kicks in and it is some 70% higher than the previous contract. All of which points to cash-rich times ahead for the club.