To improve public schools, Florida needs to make it easier to fire bad teachers and reward the effective ones. But the Republican-led Legislature needs to tread carefully as it looks to overhaul teacher tenure. An approach that focuses on punitive measures for both districts and teachers, more than on incentives and reasonableness, could easily backfire and drive even good teachers away.

A better strategy is taking shape in Hillsborough County, where a $100 million, seven-year grant from the Gates Foundation has enabled district and union officials to work together. They are structuring a new compensation system that will include performance pay and more rigorous tenure standards, but that also provides extensive teacher support along the way.

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