The Foundation for Excellence in Education announced the return of its founder, ready to fight for privatization, high-stakes testing, and the end of the teaching profession.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 24, 2016 Contact: Press Office
850-391-4090
PressShop@excelined.org
JEB BUSH TO SERVE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) today announced the election of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush as Chairman and President of its Board of Directors. Governor Bush replaces Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who has served as Chair since January 2015 and remains a member of the Board of Directors.
“One of the greatest challenges and opportunities we have in America today is to create a 21st century education system that ensures all students have the skills, teachers and educational options they need to succeed in life,” said Governor Bush. “Too many children right now are failed by a deeply flawed bureaucratic system, but I’m optimistic about the future because I’ve seen the great results produced by states across the country. It is an honor to rejoin ExcelinEd as we continue to support states in bringing choice, innovation and accountability to the classroom. I am thankful to Dr. Rice and this exceptional board for their leadership over the past year.”
Since 2008, ExcelinEd has worked in 48 states across the country to champion state-driven, proven transformational education reform policies that lead to rising student achievement. Because of these reforms and hard work by state leaders and educators, students have achieved remarkable academic success. Last year, as a result of active engagement by ExcelinEd and ExcelinEd in Action, 43 education laws were adopted in 15 states to improve or enact new reform policies.
Governor Bush also has been elected to the Board of Directors of Excellence in Education in Action (ExcelinEd in Action). The sister 501(c)(4) organization to the Foundation for Excellence in Education, ExcelinEd in Action helps advance legislation at the state level to improve the quality of education for every child. Governor Bush launched ExcelinEd in Action in 2014 and will serve as the organization’s Chairman and President.
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BIOGRAPHY: Governor Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush was elected the 43rd governor of the state of Florida on November 3, 1998, and was re-elected by a wide margin in 2002. His second term as governor ended in January 2007.
Jeb earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and moved to Florida in 1981. With partner Armando Codina, he started a small real estate development company, which grew to become the largest, full-service commercial real estate company in South Florida.
Jeb served as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce under Bob Martinez, Florida’s 40th governor. As Secretary of Commerce, he promoted Florida’s business climate worldwide. Following an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1994, Jeb founded the nonprofit Foundation for Florida’s Future, which joined forces with the Urban League of Greater Miami to establish one of the state’s first charter schools. He also co-authored Profiles in Character, a book profiling 14 of Florida’s civic heroes–people making a difference without claiming a single news headline.
After his election in 1998, Governor Bush focused on reforming education. Florida students have made the greatest gains in achievement, and Florida is one of a handful of states that have narrowed the achievement gap. In addition, he cut taxes every year during his tenure as governor, and Florida led the nation in job growth seven out of eight years. Governor Bush put Florida on the forefront of consumer healthcare advances by signing Medicaid reform legislation “Empowered Care” in June 2006.
Before launching a run for the Republican presidential nomination in June of 2015, Governor Bush led his own successful consulting business, Jeb Bush and Associates, whose clients ranged from small technology start-ups to well-known Fortune 500 companies. He also served as the chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education; co-chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy; and chair of the National Constitution Center.
He is the co-author of Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution (2013) and author of Reply All (2015).
Governor Bush is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush. He lives in Miami with his wife, Columba. They have three children and four grandchildren.
For more on the ExcelinEd Board of Directors, visit: http://www.ExcelinEd.org/board-corner/board-of-directors/. For more on ExcelinEd in Action, visit http://www.ExcelinEdInAction.org.
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The Foundation for Excellence in Education is igniting a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education for the 21st century economy by working with lawmakers, policymakers, educators and parents to advance education reform across America. Learn more at ExcelinEd.org.
CONTACT US
P.O. Box 10691
Tallahassee, Florida
32302-2691
850.391.4090
info@excelined.org
Copyright © 2015
Foundation For Excellence in Education
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So he can get elected dog catcher after all …
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From their web page:
“To build an American education system that equips every child to achieve his or her God-given potential.”
Non-Christians have no potential?
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That traditional patriotic phrase has had a hard time recently.
“God-given” is best read by non-believers as a legitimate metaphor for “a higher view of life than a mere animal.” It’s not specifically Christian, much less sectarian.
All philosophers, whether secular or religious, assume that humans are a species set apart with a higher ‘potential’ than animals. Cats and monkey’s don’t, by nature, come up with C^2=A^2 + B^2 or E=mc^2, but ‘humans’ do and have, or with a universally valid ethics such as “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you,” or with The Magic Flute, or the Winged Victory, or with King Lear, or with the ‘exceptional’ perhaps unique US Constitution.
However, considering the damage the Bush family has done to the society in so many ways and in education in particular, I can understand why you might not want to cut him ANY slack in his new role. At least pay deference to the Declaration of Independence.
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Ooops: “monkeys”
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From the “Reformer Toolbox” tab on their home page:
“To build your Reformer Toolbox, begin by logging in to your account, or by creating a new account. Once logged into your account, you can select a state or specific reform policy using the search function. You’ll find corresponding model legislation, white papers, videos, news articles and more in our vast database.
You can also visit the State of Reform page to search for policies signed into law in a specific state. Once you’ve chosen a state, click the heart next to the item you’d like to save to your Toolbox.”
ALEC II?
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From their Policy Team link:
“Neil serves as Director, Next Generation for the Foundation. Neil previously worked as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Education Elements, an education technology company that helps schools design and implement personalized learning solutions. Neil also served at the U.S. Department of Education as a Special Assistant and later Chief of Staff in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development where he focused on the Department’s budget formulation and planning. Neil came to the Department as part of The Broad Residency in Education after receiving his MBA from Vanderbilt University and working at The Boston Consulting Group.”
I do believe Neil just about covers all the bases there. DOE, Tech company, Broad, and The Boston Consulting Group.
No surprise what their policies will be like.
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Our Guiding Principles:
“All children should learn at least a year’s worth of knowledge in a year’s time.”
What does that even mean?
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Typical Bushspeak.
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Jeb Bush has done nothing to improve education in Florida. He has tampered and he has meddled, but he has done nothing to improve education. His alphabet ranking system is a joke. Like others of his ilk, he is biased against public schools. His main goal is to make schools a source of revenue for him and his cronies. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/15/heres-what-jeb-bush-really-did-to-public-education-in-florida/
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Jeb’s policies have been a disaster for education in Florida. Teachers are disheartened and students are bored. Instead of learning, they are testing and retesting constantly. I attended one meeting where i was told that the reason private school students did not have to take the state tests was because private school parents know how their children are doing in school and public school parents do not. This is about destroying public education not about helping students learn.
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Here is John Kirtley (Step Up For Students) saying that
“Another aspect I am very interested in is whether states that demand private schools taking scholarship kids be tested under common core,whether states are willing to fund the technology upgrades it is going to take to do the assessment”
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I am very relieved that we will not be having the third Bush presidency.
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Oh, God. Is he ever getting a real job ? How long does he plan to ride on that stint as governor?
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3/4’s of them are government retreads. They just go in and out the revolving door for life. They even found a spot for Eric Cantor.
http://www.excelined.org/board-corner/board-of-directors/
Did a single one of these people 1. attend a public school or 2.send their children to a public school?
This entire “movement” is run by multi-millionaires. It’s ridiculous.
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Multi-millionaire or billionaires that are opportunists knowing how to exploit the laws created to garner them tax credits and allowing them to use public funds to enrich themselves. Then, they hide the profits due to lack of regulation and accountability.
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Eric Cantor is bad by even the incredibly low ethical standards of our political class.
Voters threw him because they thought he was captured and he immediately proved them right:
“On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor will soon start work at Moelis & Co, an investment bank. Cantor—whose experience prior to becoming a professional politician largely consisted of working in the family real estate development business—will earn a hefty salary for his lack of expertise: According to Business Insider, he’s set to make $3.4 million from the investment firm. “Mr. Moelis said he is hiring Mr. Cantor for his “judgment and experience” and ability to open doors—and not just for help navigating regulatory and political waters in Washington,” the Journal reported.”
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Jeb Bush and his cronies were huge supporters of “online learning”
Let’s travel to Ohio and see what they accomplished!
“While ECOT may account for 5% of Ohio’s high school graduates, it accounts for more students who don’t graduate than (drumroll please) all Ohio school districts combined! If ECOT were the 610th Ohio school district (under Ohio law, charters are treated as districts), it would account for more than 1/2 of all non-graduating seniors in this state.”
Not to be deterred, Ohio lawmakers are getting ready to lower the standards but just for charter schools. They planned to do this quietly in the “lame duck” but they got caught so now they have to stall for a while until the heat is off.
http://www.10thperiod.com/2016/05/ecot-fails-to-graduate-more-students.html
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dreaadful thought. In order to build party unity, Trump appoints Jeb Bush Secretary of Education. In any case that press release is a campaign-for-some-office pitch, not just being out to make all states as terrible for teacher and students as Florida.
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What a horrible thought.
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Let’s hope this endeavor is as successful as his run for the presidency.
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I think since JEB! has all the answers, he needs to put his money where his mouth is. How about a 1 year stint teaching in an “F” rated Florida school? That way he can show us all his best practices. He will not get any more support than a teacher in “his school” gets. NO entourage. He is subjected to all the whims of governement. THEN after he shows us how it is done we can all adopt his ideas, and the problems of the world will disappear. This is the perfect plan. JEB!………are you game? JEB? (turn on crickets chirping)
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Based on what we saw of Jeb’s performance in the debates, I think he would have trouble finding the classroom. He looked like he was semi-sedated.
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At least he won’t be POTUS.
J. H. Underhill
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“Too many children right now are failed by a deeply flawed bureaucratic system. . . ”
Let’s see there are over 13,000 different, separate public school districts and as far as the Jibster is concerned that equals “A (meaning one) deeply flawed bureaucratic system”. I wish I was doing the types of hallucinogens that he’s doing to come up with that “irreality”
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Jeb has plenty of help here in Florida’s state legislature.
Here in Pinellas County, we have been dealing with a scandal involving Newpoint Education Partners. They operated four schools similarly to the ones they received the indictments for in Escambia County.
Now, a group of rag tag parents, with absolutely no experience want to be given the chance to run two of the schools, Windsor Preparatory Academy, and East Windsor Middle Academy, themselves, and they have a champion in Senator Jeff Brandes.
Previously Sen Brandes has supported and sponsored very pro-charter legislation.
Now he is also in favor of allowing people who have never opened or run a school to take another 6 million of Florida tax payers dollars and try running it themselves for a year.
I find myself wondering how cozy he is with Joseph Rauenhurst who owns the company that owns this, and many charter school properties in Florida, as they still stand to make a fortune off the schools lease.
When I tried to contact his office, they told me he wasn’t supporting them, but rather was just hearing them out. Yet his Facebook page shows he supports them, and has multiple posts left by Winddsor parents that he has “liked”.
Funnily enough, my post questioning his involvement was deleted three times and now I am barred from posting or replying to any comments/posts on his page.
Guess not every voter/constituent gets to be heard in Charter School lover land.
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This is a wonderful (2012) investigatory series on Jeb Bush’s organization and their work in Maine. The reporter won an award for uncovering what was going on behind the scenes.
“A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.
K12 Inc. of Herndon, Va., and Connections Education, the Baltimore-based subsidiary of education publishing giant Pearson, are both seeking to expand online offerings and to open full-time virtual charter schools in Maine, with taxpayers paying the tuition for the students who use the services.
At stake is the future of thousands of Maine schoolchildren who would enroll in the full-time virtual schools and, if the companies had their way, the future of tens of thousands more who would be legally required to take online courses at their public high schools in order to receive their diplomas.”
They pushed cheap online courses to replace teachers in the name of “equity” – it’s hugely profitable and of course it won’t be forced into higher income schools- only low and middle income schools will get this garbage.
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This is hysterical:
“So was a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.
In the months that followed, according to more than 1,000 pages of emails obtained by a public records request, the commissioner would rely on the foundation to provide him with key portions of his education agenda. These included draft laws, the content of the administration’s digital education strategy and the text of Gov. Paul LePage’s Feb. 1 executive order on digital education.”
He’s too lazy and corrupt to draft his own executive order. He used Bush’s. We’re paying these people for this “work” 🙂
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Same arrangement with ALEC model legislation, ready to use, off the shelf, no need to think. One legislator put an ALEC template in the hopper for state legislators to consider, and forgot to fill in the template requiring the name of the state.
Now there is baby ALEC–the American City County Exchange–that offers up templates for business friendly, no gov’ment regulation ordinances for municipalities. Among these is an emergency right to work ordinance, and one prohibiting any ordinances restricting types of carry out containers, cartons, bottles, or fees for the disposable of these. The new model legislation is often focused on preemption actions of this kind–no legislative action is permitted on ——-.
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“Gee, I missed out on the presidency. What can I do to be a headliner again? Oh, let’s jump back on the anti public ed bandwagon. I’ll be in the news again as a winner! And it’ll keep the dollars flowing in from my corporate cronies. Perfect!”
For him, anyway…
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