Politico reports that Jeb Bush won’t back down on Common Core, choice–vouchers, charters, online charters–and the rest of corporate reform that offers huge opportunities for entrepreneurs. It was his conference, and he offered a line-up of star speakers, including Condoleeza Rice, a newly minted education expert who promotes charters and vouchers, and Amanda Ripley.
Rice apparently doesn’t know that vouchers have produced no academic gains in Milwaukee, Cleveland, or D.C.
“- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio concluded the conference on Thursday night with a wide-ranging discussion about education reform. Rice said the public school system is in and of itself unequal, and defenders of the “status quo are on the defensive.” Critics of school choice like to say that it’s taking money away from public schools, she said. “Well, what can they do? They can get better,” she said to applause. Wealthier families are already sending their children to private school and disadvantaged families are trapped in failing schools, she said. “We need to give parents that wouldn’t otherwise have the means to send their children to a school system that works for them,” Rice said.
– The national summit continues today with a lineup of guests including OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher, New Mexico state education chief Hanna Skandera, Louisiana Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard and author Amanda Ripley. The agenda: http://bit.ly/1zDYtjJ Watch live: http://bit.ly/1F4X74r”
Will Bush’s full-throated support of Common Core hurt him in Republican primaries? Will choice mean anything if every school has the same standards and the same tests?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Definition of a good politician — One who stays bought.
Jeb Bush is a very good politician.
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From Politico:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/jeb-bush-troops-education-reform-113060.html
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Since the GOP is the party of Business and that means holding workers accountable for the through put and quality of their work I would venture to say this will not hurt him in the least bit.
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Wow. A whole conference of luminaries declaring “public schools suck!”
Now there’s some bold leadership for you. Speak truth to power! All the problems in this country stem from local public schools and the middle class people who work in them. That certainly lets all these “leaders” off the hook for any accountability, doesn’t it?
How many politicians will get elected next cycle using public schools as political punching bags? Don’t people who get paid by the public have some duty to actually work on behalf of public schools, despite their clear preference for private and charter schools?
I get that public schools are unfashionable in policy circles, but one would think they’d at least try to pretend they’re not openly hostile to our schools.
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Were public schools discussed at all at this conference? Other than to use them as punching bags to promote the careers of these politicians and pundits?
Jeb Bush is aware that the same public schools he travels the country bashing are working very hard to put in the newest ed reform mandate, the Common Core, right?
In most states they’re doing ti with less money, too, because ed reform leaders are none too keen on FUNDING public schools, although they are very, very good at SCOLDING public schools.
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John Kasich in Ohio is a fan of the Common Core too. I love how the entire focus of the Common Core promotion crew is whether Republican politicians will be protected from political damage re: the Common Core. Priorities!
Tens of millions of public school will be lining up for another ed reform experiment here shortly, and all I read about is grave concern for the political fortunes of Jeb Bush and John Kasich.
Kasich doesn’t seem to be aware of the Common Core testing coming up. Why would he be? His kids go to private schools and his entire policy focus is on charters and vouchers. At best, public schools are an afterthought.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/11/19/kasich-at-the-rga.html
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“We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud” — Condoleeza Rice on why we should invade Iraq
“Of Mushrooms, Smoke and Mirrors”
“We don’t want the smoking gun
To be a mushroom cloud”
Condoleeza was the one
Who said it very loud
We don’t want the public school
To be a mushroom crowd
Condoleeza is the tool
Who says it very loud
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make that
“We don’t want our children’s school
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Hey take it easy on me. I have taught for ZERO years, I know what I’m talking about!
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What we need is a backfire to burn the Bushes out of U.S. politics forever.
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Lloyd, I think you are on to something. Fighting fire with fire, as they say, should work. You are a man of words. This is a war of words with very little substance – truths – behind it…..? Well, ….
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Do you think the resistance should lie and cherry pick facts the same way the fake reformers are doing? Do we really need to do that, because all of the facts are on our side?
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No, we do not and should not do exactly what “they” have done. You are right, the truth is on our side. The truth has to be told in a way that people can understand it. The alternative needs to be offered in a way the people can understand. The resistance movement needs to move into new territory. Reclaim the language of reform; reclaim the ideas; reclaim the schools.
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Lloyd, look at Ron’s question.
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Iraq was a pretty big backfire but the Bushes are still around.
If the common core actually taught critical thinking, people would start thinking critically and get rid of it!
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Molly Ivins, departed but not forgotten Texas journalist, called most of the Bush children “shrubs.”
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I was thinking that a tumbleweed might be more appropriate—or Anacardiacea and Toxicodendron
:o)
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Jeb Bush is interested in making a profit through his many investments in charters and virtual schools. His “Florida Miracle” is another example of a claim that has been found to be bogus. His letter rating system for schools is currently under fire as well. Of course, he stands behind the Common Core. It is a rigged system to discredit public schools so he and his pals can pick the bones of the educational system while the taxpayers foot the bill.
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This is amazing. They sold the for-profit, rip-off Corinthian College chain to a student loan company. With the full approval of the US Dept of Education:
“ECMC has no experience operating a higher education institution. Its higher education experience is in the field of collecting unpaid student loans, and a report this year in the New York Times described ECMC’s approach to student debt collection as “ruthless.” As the Times reported, a panel of bankruptcy appeal judges in 2012 said that the agency’s collection activities — trying to collect on a debt that had, in fact, already been paid in full — “constituted an abuse of the bankruptcy process and defiance of the court’s authority.” The article quoted Emory Law Professor and bankruptcy expert Rafael Pardo as saying, “we should be outraged when a student-loan creditor like ECMC can use bulldog tactics to scare away someone who has a legitimate claim for relief.” A separate report by Bloomberg noted that per-debt collection commissions helped one ECMC collector make $454,000 in one year, while the then-CEO got $1.1 million and a generous benefits package.”
Let’s just hang it up. It’s corruption and capture all the way down.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/ecmc-ceo-explains-deal-to_b_6193088.html
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I’m having trouble finding some context for Rice’s remarks. What exactly is the “status quo”? Six years of Arne Duncan? Or 13 years of “No Child Left Behind”? Or the rapid rise in charters and testing? Isn’t that the status quo?
What is her experience as a national security expert and Stanford researcher understanding the educational status quo? Her biography notes that she’s been working with The Boys and Girls clubs for 23 years, is that part of the status quo that she wants to change?
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Ron, If you look at my conversation with Lloyd and your question here, this is exactly what I mean by reclaiming the reform conversation. This is how I defined “status quo.” http://thecrucialvoice.com/2012/09/18/the-status-quo-of-reform/
No one person can be on all sites to defend and redefine the words for readers but together, if we were all on the same page….think about it. It is exactly how their “feat” was accomplished only theirs were only catch phrases – ours are the truth….#TruthBeTold
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When Rice refers to “the status quo,” she means public schools
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So it is time to go on the offense. Don’t let them talk about the status quo; it is – “you mean the status quo of education reform which is test prep education for way too many needy children.” That is the truth. Truth is our biggest sword. Let’s sharpen the blade…together.
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“Bush-whacked” yet again.
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A smart opponent will seize on this. Elections are won or lost on very, very narrow margins.
Ed deformers interact with one another in a hermetically sealed parallel universe. They have no clue how strongly people oppose testing mania and the usurpation of authority over their kids, teachers, and schools by the centralized Common Core Curriculum Commissariat.
They are like George Bush, Sr., years ago, marveling that there were automatic checkout lanes in grocery stores. They are like Romney talking in private to donors and writing off 47 percent of the population. They are like George Bush, Jr., speaking to the Bilderberg Conference about how great it was to be “back among my people.” Out of touch.
What they depend upon is an apathetic, know-nothing populous, for there is on issue after issue a wide gap between the opinions and policies of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate and the opinions of the people. But on this issue it is highly likely that the people will NOT be apathetic. The next presidential election will take place AFTER the first round of new Common Core College and Career Ready Assessment Program (C.C.C.C.R.A.P.) tests from PARCC, AIR, Smarter Balanced, etc. The ed deformers’ own predictions are that 70 percent of U.S. students will fail those. 70 percent of parents are going to be told that their students, their kids’ teachers, and their schools are failures.
That could result in an unprecedented policy supernova. Look for politicians hewing the deformer line to be booed a lot in public.
The smarter folks on the right recognize this, and so they are trying to put the brakes on the high-stakes tests for a bit. But they are not being successful. Their own juggernaut will continue to roll over kids and parents, and people are not going to be happy about that come election day.
This could well become THE issue in the 2016 race.
I could write Jeb’s opponents’ commercials on this right now. And those would be most certainly as effective as was Johnson’s daisies commercial and Bush Sr.’s infamous Willie Horton commercial.
If Jeb persists in this, and how could he do other, he hasn’t a chance.
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cx: I could write Jeb’s opponents’ commercials on this right now. And those would be most certainly as effective as were Johnson’s daisies commercial and Bush Sr.’s infamous Willie Horton commercial.
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FYI, The older Bush is G Herbert Walker Bush; the one better suited for Baseball Commissioner is G Walker Bush. They aren’t Sr, Jr.
Wonder if twin daughter Barbara Bush will run for office in NY State.
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It is fairly “amusing” that those who support “choice” seem to support CC … but for the choice schools? As you said … if everyone does the same things, how is this “choice”? And, how this a guarantee of equality for all students? It gets more and more sickening.
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The era of school districts dictating where poor kids go to school is coming to an end.
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Nowadays in Newark, NJ, a secret algorithm is dictating where students go to school while a state-appointed superintendent who had never run an elementary or secondary school or been responsible for K-12 curriculum doesn’t plan safe/adequate transportation when she closes schools. Is this what you mean?
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Oh, and the spiffy One Newark plan has both a federal investigation by USDoE and a NJ lawsuit re discrimination. Do the rabid reform-types want to replicate that?
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