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.

To Hell With Vouchers

Jeb Bush crony Patricia Levesque is attempting to revive Florida's voucher program. The program would have to be approved by 17 members of the Tax and Budget Reform Commission. The proposal will then need enough signatures to a constitutional ballot. 60 percent voter approval is needed to override the Florida Supreme Court ruling.

Fun facts about vouchers: past voucher money went to a school co-founded by Sami Al-Arian. Many Christian schools under the program teached that all non-Christians go to hell.

The voucher program, under Bush, was run incompetently. Students in the Opportunity Scholarships program scored an an F on the FCAT. Florida's poor national education ratings are prove that Jeb's big education ideas have been a failure.

Levesque manages Jeb Bush's Foundation For Florida's Future. She graduated from the unaccredited and racist Bob Jones University. The Bushies sure love finding loyalists from embarrassing schools.

The Horrible Jeb Education Legacy Lives

Like Jason or Freddy Kruger, conservatives try to keep the failed education policies of Dear Leader Jeb Bush alive. He was denied an honorary degree by the UF facilty. That isn't stopping Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives from attempting to name a UF school after Jeb.

The House Schools and Learning Council voted Tuesday to name UF's College of Education the "Jeb Bush College of Education.''

The amendment came from Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, who admitted he was irked by the faculty's decision last month to deny Bush the honorary degree.

"This amendment may demonstrate to some folks around the state and around the country that the office of the governor of Florida is a very prestigious and honorable office and is certainly deserving of an honorary degree,'' Rivera said.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Opportunity Scholarship Program voucher program was unconstitutional because it diverted money from public schools. Republicans are trying to get around that with the nutty idea of businesses funding the voucher program.

A Senate committee on Tuesday approved a plan that would expand a current system that gives businesses tax breaks if they pay for private school tuition. Currently, the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship plan is open only to low-income students.

The bill, approved by the Senate education committee, would expand the program to any student attending a public school that has received an "F'' grade in two of the last four years.

I'm always fascinated how Republican policy ideas pander both to big business and the Christian Right. That takes talent.

The voucher program was such a bomb that only 700 students participated in 2006. Bush pushed the voucher program aggressively and parents responded apatheticly. It's hard to sell people a program that is filled with corruption.

The Dyslexia Research Institute was under the OSP. That didn't stop them from charging parents $5,000.

"That's horrible. That's nothing short of rape," said Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who served with school director Patricia Hardman on a Senate task force studying reported abuses in the program. "It turns out that this school is a poster child for why we need accountability."

The director of DRI, Patricia Hardman, turned out to be a fraud.

Judge P. Michael Ruff cited testimony from other experts when he decided that it wasn't proven that any such malady exists. Ruff then criticized Hardman's credentials: "Dr. Hardman does not have a degree in psychology, is not certified or licensed in Florida or any other state as a psychologist, is not currently certified as a teacher in Florida or any other state, and holds no certificate in the area of special education in Florida or any other state."

The stake needs to be put into Jeb's education policies. The more painful the death the better. I want Republican so embarrassed for pushing this shit on the public that they never dare float these ideas again.

Stanton explained announced his decision on Larry King Live.

STANTON: Yes, at this point that's appropriate. And everybody is worried about being sued and that's been a big concern. Everybody is always focusing on litigation these days.

KING: Are you going to sue?

DOERING: We advised Steve what his options were. We looked at the law and it's very clear what the city of Largo did is illegal. You cannot fire somebody just because they announce that they're going to transition from male to female. That's absolutely clear that that's what they did in the city of Largo.

So what we did was we laid out the options for Steve, and had real heart to heart about what litigation really looks like. It'll probably go on for years. And we talked about some other possibilities. And then we left it up to him to decide whether or not he wants to sue the city of Largo. KING: You have decided yet?

STANTON: Absolutely. I decided the first night.

KING: You're going to sue?

STANTON: Of course not.

KING: Not sue?

STANTON: Of course not.

Karen Doering, attorney for the National Center of Lesbian Rights told Stanton he had a strong case and he still couldn't find it in his heart to sue. To any Stanton critics that think this was about personal vengence and money; that is clearly not the case. He merely wanted to keep the job he had for years and be accepted for who he really is. Regaldless, of whether that is Steve or Susan.

Stanton may have made the legal wrong decision. The City of Largo City Council has become a national symbol for intolerance. The Council allowed themselve to side with hate monger Rev. Ron Sanders:

During the City Commission meeting on March 20, the Rev. Ron Sanders, pastor of the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Largo, said God has protected Largo over the years from killer hurricanes because of the abundance of prayers.

But, he warned, “The Lord wants me to say some things.”

“God’s wrath is on America right now,” Sanders said.

He pointed to the 911 terrorist attacks and the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

Sanders said the gay, lesbian and transgender lifestyle is “an abomination against God.” He said if the city allows Stanton to stay in office, “He will be a hero to all of those weirdos from New Orleans who are looking for a new home.”

Sanders is saying that the 9/11 and Katrina victims deserved the death and destruction that was forced upon them. The fact that the City of Largo are worried about a transgender and have remained silent about Sanders comments says much about their leadership.