There Are No Jeb Bush Education Accomplishments

In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court ruled against Opportunity Scholarships vouchers.

Using the same term, “adequate provision,” article IX, section 1(a) further states: “Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools.” For reasons expressed more fully below, we find that the OSP violates this language. It diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools that are the sole means set out in the Constitution for the state to provide for the education of Florida’s children. This diversion not only reduces money available to the free schools, but also funds private schools that are not “uniform” when compared with each other or the public system. Many standards imposed by law on the public schools are inapplicable to the private schools receiving public monies. In sum, through the OSP the state is fostering plural, nonuniform systems of education in direct violation of the constitutional mandate for a uniform system of free public schools.

A Palm Beach Post found students in the Opportunity Scholarship program scored in an F in FACT testing. Palm Beach schools got around the problem by letting voucher students graduate without taking the FCAT. Palm Beach voucher students are required to take an online FCAT. The course is based in Pennsylvania.

"Florida's nationally recognized accountability system, as established by the Florida Legislature, works to ensure that all students have the same opportunity to achieve at higher levels," a DOE spokeswoman told Ms. Green. "By circumventing Florida's prerequisites for a state-sanctioned diploma, districts do a disservice to our students and to our state as a whole."

Republican lawmakers have no idea how voucher students are doing on the FCAT. The FCAT was designed to flunk public schools. If Jeb Bush was truly interested in FCAt results, he would have required private schools receiving state money to take the FCAT. "What I saw was that 90 percent of the energy went to undermining our public schools with vouchers and charters," said former K-12 education chancellor Jim Warford.

Under Bush, Florida led the country two years with the lowest graduation rate. Bush's education legacy is a joke. Bush will sell his bogus education accomplishments to Newsmax and the Wall Street Journal. Bush would not dare make the same claims to the New York Times or Washington Post. It is hard to be an education maverick when Florida's national education rankings are shameful. Bush had two terms to boost education rankings. He chose to underfund schools and attempt to sabotage the class-size amendment.

Crist Considers Warford

Former Florida public schools chancellor Jim Warford lays into Jeb Bush.

Mr. Warford said former Gov. Bush's A-Plus Plus plan requiring eighth-graders to pick a major was "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" and would do little to solve the problems that keep so many high-schoolers from graduating.

He has criticized the state's "relentless focus on the FCAT" and said it is "intellectually indefensible" to take children out of public schools and put them into charter schools that have little oversight.

He lamented that Gov. Bush focused on the "low-hanging fruit" of improving standardized scores in elementary grades while skating over harder-to-fix problems in high schools.

Overall, Mr. Warford described Gov. Bush's view of education this way: "If your only tool is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail, and that's been their approach."

Charlie Crist is considering Warford for education commissioner. This is a strong sign Crist is moving away from Bush's education policies. Which explains why John Winn quit as education commissioner. Winn was picked for the job by Bush.

Crist's firing T. Willard Fair and Phil Handy from the Board of Education was another sign that Crist doesn't support Bush's education policies or appointees. The fact he is considering hiring someone so outspoken against Bush says much.

An Education In Government Appointments

Buried in the story of Charlie Crist rescinding all 283 of Jeb Bush's final appointments is this nugget.

One top administration official said privately that Crist also had been troubled by what the official called the "arrogance" of T. Willard Fair and Phil Handy.

"I think there is some justice in this world," said Jim Warford, the former K-12 schools chancellor who was forced from his job after questioning the validity of Bush's school grading system. "I applaud our new governor."

You may remember Jim Warford. He made this quote about Bush's true intents for public education.

"What I saw was that 90 percent of the energy went to undermining our public schools with vouchers and charters."

Getting rid of Fair and Handy gives Crist enough votes to boot Education Commissioner John Winn. The Commissioner's main accomplishments have been defending Florida's poor national education rankings and ducking the issue of intelligent design.

The Florida Board of Education set themselves up for a fall. Handy and Fair were set to end their terms December 31, 2006. Bush reappointed them both. The board then made Fair chairman and Handy vice-chairman. Fair also told Bush, "In my judgment, there is no greater person on this Earth than you. I love you." Brokeback Mountain jokes aside, that kind of ass kissing certainly didn't hurt getting the chairman post. The only problem was they kissed the wrong Governor's ass. Now they are left to check out the classifieds.

Quote of the Day

"What I saw was that 90 percent of the energy went to undermining our public schools with vouchers and charters."

Jim Warford, former K-12 education for Jeb Bush