Jeb Bush Hates Public School Teachers

Shocking news: Jeb Bush comes out in favor of the New York lawsuit to end teacher tenure.

“There will be no equality in education until we transition to a system that prioritizes academic achievement for children over job security for adults. Teachers have a tremendous impact on the lives of students, particularly the most disadvantaged. When ineffective teachers are allowed to remain in the classroom because of union protections and antiquated laws, it is not only a disservice to students but also to the many wonderful teachers dedicated to excellence in education.

“The effort to end this injustice now moves to New York, where seven families are following in the footsteps of their California peers by demanding access to high quality teachers. I admire their courage in this historic undertaking, and have the deepest appreciation for Campbell Brown in assisting them. Ultimately, I am hopeful that a growing consensus for reform policies that reward and incentivize quality teaching will make the need to seek judicial relief unnecessary in the future.”

Former CNN anchor Campbell Brown organized seven New York families to file this lawsuit. Brown's husband, Dan Senor, is a member of the board of the New York affiliate of StudentsFirst. The organization StudentsFirst is run by Michelle Rhee. One of the goals of StudentsFirst is to destroy teachers unions.

“The problem to date has been that you’ve had these incredibly powerful teachers unions that have lots of resources, and they use those resources to have influence on the political process,” Rhee said last year during an interview at the Commonwealth Club of California. Rhee said StudentsFirst is the first education-oriented national interest group to seriously challenge the unions.

Since leaving Washington, Rhee has backed legislation curbing collective bargaining rights in several states. In the 18 states where the group is active, StudentsFirst has fought to eliminate “last in, first out” provisions in teachers’ contracts and to increase the role that quantitative evaluations play in teachers’ job security.

The StudentsFirst website calls for the end of teacher tenure.

Tenure in K–12 education today means that teachers (and, in many cases, principals) are granted a "job for life" after a relatively short time in the classroom — usually without any serious attempt to evaluate the teacher's effectiveness. In most states, tenure is essentially automatic after two or three years, barring criminal or extreme misconduct. Once granted, the rules and regulations accompanying tenure or permanent contracts make removing even the most unmotivated and ineffective teachers nearly impossible. These policies do nothing to advance the interests of students, but instead serve only to protect adult jobs.

If tenure merely protected teachers from being fired for arbitrary or capricious reasons, StudentsFirst would support it. Professionals should never be concerned they might lose their jobs because of their age, sex, religion, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Similarly, we support professionals' rights to fight back if they are wrongfully terminated. Fortunately, well-established federal and state policies allow teachers to challenge wrongful actions and prevent discriminatory firing in public education. Tenure is simply not needed to protect such rights.

To serve the interest of students, tenure must be eliminated so that teachers feel best protected by the quality of their work and the role they play on the teaching team.

Grover Norquist, in a moment of candor, admitted that the GOP wants to bust teachers unions to help Republicans win elections.

GROVER NORQUIST: "We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012. And rather than negotiate with the teachers' unions' and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them."

Under Bush, Florida had the lowest high school graduation rate two years straight. The bipartisan the Constitutional Accountability Commission found that Bush failed to meet the Florida constitutional requirement of providing a high quality education.

Former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, and former Comptroller Bob Milligan, a Republican, chaired the commission and were on hand Tuesday to suggest that more money be spent on schools. They also urged creation of a system that compares Florida's performance to other states.

If Florida does nothing, it will remain vulnerable to a court challenge, the commission suggests.

"The last thing we want to have happen is for the educational system of this state to be put under court order or declared unconstitutional as it has in some other states," Butterworth said.

Bush's education record as Governor is horrible. Bush isn't interested in improving education. Bush does hate teachers unions. This quote is from Bush's speech at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

We can’t just outsource public education to bureaucracies and public education unions and hope for the best.

We certainly can't expect the best education results from Jeb Bush.