Politico.com asks whether Jeb Bush will be politically wounded by his punitive, privatizing education reform.
It is not just Common Core, which is under fire by many Republican governors and education activists and is slipping in the polls. It is also Bush’s love of high-stakes testing, his simplistic and punitive A-F school-grading system, and his coziness with profit-seeking corporations.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What bigger albatross can he have than that of the legacy of his brother?
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He is showing himself quite capable of creating a record of incompetence all on his own.
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Not incompetence–criminality.
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Gordon, I couldn’t have said it better! 3 Bushes in the White House is just too much for the American people to take. My husband and I were just talking about Jeb Bush this morning actually. We both agreed that if the Republicans are crazy enough to run Jeb Bush, plan on a Democratic victory! Jeb Bush has a lot of crazy over the top beliefs, but there are actually Republicans who just love him to death. Let them run him. He will not win.
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People tell me I have good political sense and this sense is telling me that Bush, Cuomo and other “reformers” will find out that their political goals have been derailed by their foolish educational policies and their disrespect for the nation’s teachers.
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We can only hope!
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Rhetorically asking – how the eff did Jeb Bush become such an education guru that every politician is clamoring to do his and his foundation for stupidity’s bidding? Everywhere across the nation, we get Jeb Bush reforms or versions thereof? I understand the corporate money is going to both sides of the political base, but seriously – how are non-educators appointed/anointed and supposed to be believed with the non-sense that has been debunked time and again that comes out of their mouths? I don’t get it. The politicians can be bought, but we the people cannot be bought (excepting the Vergara plaintiffs, et. al.) Anyone know the status of Alma “Campbell” Brown’s lawsuit these days? Isn’t her lead attorney rather busy with real work?
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Have you forgotten that his crooked brother Neal of Silverado fame, is a text book publisher? Must have gotten his ‘insight’s’ by osmosis, or maybe from his mommy who felt that the New Orleans inner city citizens were best off living in the squalor of the superdome during their flooding crisis. Barbie said then it was the best they had ever lived. This is not an intellectual family despite that papa ran the CIA. and mama dropped out of Smith.
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And yes, Donna, Boies is on cases all over the place it would seem.
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I dunno. Not being a teacher, I don’t hang around with too many teachers. I hang out with lawyers and other law firm denizens. Not to say my experience is any more reflective of the general population than anyone else’s experience, but among many of my daily associates, there is a lot of buy in to the idea that teachers need more “accountability”, that unions (especially public sector unions and most especially teachers unions) are bad, that our public education system is bad and getting worse, etc. And I live in the bluest part of true blue Illinois.
The thing is that the neoliberals (Bush is a neocon, which is just the flip side of the same coin) have captured the narrative and they’ve made their version of the world sound so “commonsensical”. I think many, very likely most, people buy into it. I see few people outside the teaching ranks and those closely associated with teachers who get it. There’s the far left flank among the “liberals”, but we’ve been pretty effectively marginalized, especially by the Democrats. I just think that a large percentage of both sides of the political aisle nod in agreement rather than seethe with anger or even sigh in exasperation when Bush (and others, both Democrats and Republicans) bash public education and teachers. I have no faith that Bush will be punished for anything he’s ever said about education.
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There is a theme in the public conscientiousness that public schools have failed and that unions have protected teachers and their incompetence. The monied class that wants us to believe this have bought the media and have been peddling this narrative. Even my own brother, a retired business executive, whose successful children are public school graduates, has dared to confront me with this bogus message. Public schools and teachers must continue work to counter this poisoned narrative. The perception is the result of brainwashing.
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The deformers have captured the media, and Shrub 2 has their ear. His statements on education will not cause him any problem so long as they control the message.
If we can win back the message, he will suffer for it. If we can’t, it will benefit him.
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I am a lawyer (over 20 years in criminal defense) and now a public school teacher (over 5 years). I address fellow lawyers in this fashion: As lawyers, especially criminal defense lawyers, we have to work with the facts as they exist. Some are better than others. Some lawyers only take the “good” fact cases. Others of us feel a moral obligation to provide citizens with representation despite the outcome. If your performance was judged solely by your “wins” (not guilty verdicts; lessers don’t count, just like the VAM), would you be as inclined to support “accountability?” If your performance was judged solely by your “wins,” would you avoid taking the tough and many times precedent-setting cases? Lastly, when a jury or judge rules against you, does this mean you are ineffective or that you did the best anyone could do under the circumstances? I tell my doctor friends, should you be judged by the outcome of your procedures, even when they are risky and might not work? In all cases, the professional uses the best skills they possess, but are limited by others (juries, judges, patients and students). Yet, teachers are held accountable for students over whom they have no control even for the couple of hours they are seen in a day. I have had students who have lived out of car, had parents die, had to wake up early- 4:00 am- to help a parent work, suffered from hunger, were drug addicts, were physically and mentally abused, had parents in jail and prison, who are plagued by serious mental health issues. Many of my students do not have access to health care. If they do, the medications they need are erratic as it is solely dependent on whether a parent has the money that month. I thought the criminal justice system was a great wake up call to my sheltered world, until I entered education.
The ultimate motive here is not teacher accountability. It is privatization (greed). Follow the money, if you can. Most of these entities are shielded behind so many corporate entities, starting with not-for profits owned by for-profits, that the ownership chain is difficult to trace. The politicians are right there in the food chain- waiting to slurp up their fair share. It frightens me that this has persisted and is only getting worse.
Incidentally, the unions are a joke. They are trying to preserve their jobs, so will make extraordinary compromises and collaborate with administrators to our detriment.
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Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.
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How about Wall Street accountability?
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That never happens because the politicians are the recipients of their “largesse.”
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The Gulen (Concept, Harmony, etc.) charter schools could be a problem if the media would acknowlege the connection. Yesterday there was coverage of Turkey’s arrest warrant for Fetullah Gulen, just not much mention of the 130 some charter schools in the U.S., FBI raids on the schools, etc.
Public media brag that they cover the difficult issues in depth, but have been basically silent. Guess npr and pbs want to keep their Walton school choice funding. I used to donate to pbs, but no more.
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Surely, the state of Florida won’t be supporting Jeb. They’ve had to live with his disasterous reform education policies for the longest.
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He’s a crook who should have gone to prison for trying to rig his state for his brother’s benefit in 2000.
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Hopefully Chiefs for Change will be remembered and Bush’s support for Indiana’s wonderful contribution to the reform cesspool, one Tony Bennett will enter the discussion once again! OMG! Everything these clowns touch turns to excrement!
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No
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