Recently, the Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE), created by Jeb Bush, has come under fire for mixing its programming with the financial interests of its backers while serving as a vehicle for Bush’s 2016 presidential ambitions.
The Tampa Tribune ran a scathing article that pointed out problematic practices:
“Lobbyists are not allowed to finance perks like trips for state officials, but those at the Foundation for Excellence in Education get around that ban by being registered to another foundation run by Jeb Bush.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s nonprofit, education reform foundation is taking heat for using donations from for-profit companies to lobby for state education laws that could benefit those companies.
Among the activities of Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education that have come in for criticism: It pays for state officials and legislators to go to conferences where they meet with the company’s donors, including officials of corporations who stand to gain from the policymakers’ decisions.”
The article points out that:
“Normally, it’s illegal for lobbyists or lobbying organizations to provide benefits such as free trips to Florida legislators or top executive branch officials. But the Foundation for Excellence in Education escapes that prohibition because lobbyists on its staff are registered to another, closely related Bush foundation – even though the two share key staff members and even their Tallahassee address.”
Among the corporate sponsors of the FEE, the article says:
- Pearson, a $9 billion-a-year media conglomerate which has a $250 million, four-year contract to administer the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. In the last few years, the company has been fined $14 million by the state for delayed test score results and criticized for its grading of writing tests.
- Amplify, the education division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which sells classroom and curriculum software.
- Charter Schools USA, a Fort Lauderdale-based for-profit company that manages charter schools under contract.
- IQity, which sells online learning materials.
The foundation sponsors conferences where the top stars of the corporate reform movement appear to praise the virtues of vouchers, charters, and online learning. For example, last years’ summit in Washington, D.C.”
“….included “strategy sessions” on such topics as “Reaching more students with vouchers and tax-credit scholarships” and banquets with speeches by Bush, Condoleeza Rice and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
“The 2011 conference at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco – one of the city’s most luxurious, with rooms starting at $350 per night –featured a speech by Murdoch.
It also included a fundraiser hosted by Bush for Tony Bennett, then running for re-election as Indiana education superintendent and a champion of the kind of conservative education reform advocated by the foundation – more charter schools, tax-paid tuition vouchers, more emphasis on testing, mandatory on-line courses and “virtual schools.”
Please read the article. It raises so many important questions about the push for privatization, the blend of philanthropy and profit-making, and one other important question: Why was Arne Duncan addressing a summit of rightwing cheerleaders for privatization and profit?
Link broken?
The story was taken down from the website
Wonder why?
You know why. We all know why.
In fact, it appears as though the article has totally disappeared from The Tampa Tribune website. I reckon we know why.
In fact, the article has disappeared from the Tribune website. I reckon we know why.
Does anyone know how to find the story on Goggle’s cache?
I’m glad Diane has found this information! Here in Florida, Jeb Bush is my biggest obstacle in getting senators to step outside that box of aligning with him and doing the research to see how CCSS is going to be detrimental to the children of our country. We need to stand up and fight against Jeb Bush. The Bush family needs to be taken down!
FEE is a perfect acronym for an organization that is out for profit
Hello, Diane – the link to the Tampa Tribune article does not work, FYI.
Dexter, the article disappeared from website
“Ethics” and “Jeb Bush Foundation” don’t belong in the same sentence. Or the same universe, for that matter.
GREAT comment and so true.
You may recall that I cited Pearson in my article on testing. They have become bigger and more insidious since then.
And do we really need another Bush in charge of education?
I should be sending the op-ed on metal detectors this afternoon.
The Bush family has never cared about anyone but themselves. Is it any wonder they are who they are? Prescott Bush even supported the Nazi’s. They are huge in the military industrial complex. Bush 1 was with Bin Laden’s brother during 9-11 at the Watergate waiting for a meeting of the Carlyle Group, large investors in the military industrial complex. Now they are after education. They even have education contracts with Saudi Arabia. Who and what do you really think they are?
” The Florida House approved the controversial parent-trigger proposal Thursday, setting the stage for a showdown in the Senate”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/04/3324049/parent-trigger-bill-approved-by.html#storylink=cpy
Wow. I love the belief in liberty and “freedom of the press”. Why would an upstanding political figure want to block the freedom of the press?? I’m befuddled.
http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/article/critics-rap-actions-jeb-bushs-education-foundation
The Tampa Tribune article was reprinted by Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/jeb-bush-education-foundation_n_2802536.html
The nuts are out in force. The Tampa Tribue like every other newspaper online periodically removes all articles or they would have billions of pages to maintain on their websites. Do a search for articles from 2012 and tell me how many you find online at any newspaper – Tampa, New York Times, whatever.