Former Governor Jeb Bush traverses the nation, especially the red states, bringing news of the Florida miracle. After the debacle of the “Texas miracle,” which thrust NCLB on the nation, Mr. Bush would be well-advised to pick another issue.
The Palm Beach Post wrote a scathing editorial taking down the myth of the Florida miracle (which Bush’s former deputy Hannah Skandera is now selling in New Mexico).
The editorial says:
“Former Gov. Jeb Bush has an undeserved reputation as an education reformer. Florida’s recent education progress has come not from implementing Mr. Bush’s policies but from cleaning up after them.
“Mr. Bush has been visiting legislators in Tallahassee to talk about education policy. Get out the mops and buckets. Taxpayers also should reach for their wallets, since the former governor’s new big ideas involve transferring more public dollars to the for-profit companies behind him.”
And the editorial goes into detail on the disaster of Florida’s testing and accountability system.
It concludes:
“Now Mr. Bush heads several foundations pushing for a rapid expansion of charter schools and virtual schools. His Foundation for Excellence in Education accepts donations from private companies that would profit from lax new laws that Florida and other states are rushing to enact. The sort of careless “reform” Jeb Bush advocates will end up with taxpayers fleeced and students and parents cheated. He has a reputation for reform. He has a record of making messes.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Modern day “Rape of Europa”. Fleecing the tax payers.
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The education advocacy community should demand that the “not-for-profit” (can you believe that?) testing indu$try members such as SAT, ACT, and others) eveal how many of their top management employees (some of them in charge of “legislative affairs”) and BOD members were directly involved, as per President Bush’s request, in the No Child Left Behind “concoction.” You would be amazed (or maybe not).
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Do you think the average American would be comfortable knowing their tax dollars are being siphoned towards for profit organizations? How do we educate the masses when it is difficult educating the young?
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I think the “average American” has been conditioned to equate the private sector with “choice” and “efficiency” and “service” and all the other wonderful things that are supposed to come from competition, unlike the entrenched bureaucracy of, say, the DMV that comes with “the government”, which we’ve been told is the problem.
For what it’s worth, I’ll take the “DMV” (in Illinois, the Secretary of State’s office) over Wal-Mart any day – in the past 10 to 15 years, the SoS has become very modern, streamlined and professional. I’m always in and out in minutes and the staff are all helpful and polite. Nothing against Wal-Mart workers, but it’s pretty clear that they’re all minimum wage workers doing the best they can because they have to survive somehow.
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I honestly don’t think they know how their tax dollars are being used. The news media should pound away at this over and over again, but they don’t. If they knew they would be outraged. They just hear the constant message that charters are somehow better and not the absolute rip-off that they are.
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I don’t know if this bill is based off of Florida, but it might be. Look at the bill that’s being currently debated in the Utah State Legislature. It’s a real winner. It would publish all teachers’ test scores (not VAM–just raw scores) so that parents can choose the “best” teachers. Disgusting.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55930879-78/data-teachers-parents-education.html.csp
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Absolutely outstanding editorial. Three cheers to the editor for this article. It puts things is simple terms. It paints the reformers and for-profit rip-off artists as doing nothing but harm in our schools. I can’t believe that politicians are such cowards that they don’t even stand up for the taxpayers but do the bidding of people like Jeb Bush -who only sees power and money. Yes, people of Florida-HOLD ON TO YOUR WALLETS. The reformers are ready to rob you blind.
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They are panthers, not bears.
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