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Bush family
voucher legacy
By William Phillis
Jeb Bush is enmeshed in the crusade to privatize public education.
While serving as Governor of Florida, he zealously pushed the
voucher/privatization agenda. He essentially declared war on public
education in Florida.
As a private citizen, he is continuing his battle against public
education. It may be in his DNA. His father, as President, made a
speech in Columbus on November 25, 1991 in which he advocated a voucher
for every Ohio student. His brother's No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
signature legislation, embraced and emboldened by the Obama/Duncan duo,
hasn't been advantageous to the great American common school system.
A piece in the November 4, 2014 Voice of Reason publication provides a
perspective on Jeb Bush's rage against public education.
Jeb Bush vs. Public Education
On November 20 Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and a possible 2016
presidential aspirant, delivered a speech in Washington, D.C., at a
meeting of the Foundation for Excel–lence in Education, a group he
founded in 2007 to promote his education agenda nationally.
Bush's speech, accessible online, was a sustained attack on American
public schools, on our 13,000 diverse school boards responsible to
local voters and taxpayers, and on teachers and teacher unions. His
prescription for improving schools in–cludes vouchers for private
schools, charter schools, home schooling, and schooling by computer
("virtual schools," an idea that is widely regarded as a failure.)
Bush said not a word about what real educators know is needed to
improve our schools: adequate and more equitably distributed funding,
smaller classes (which is why exclusive private schools are attractive
to people with lots of money), enriched curricula, wraparound medical
and social services, and serious efforts to reduce economic inequality
and the poverty that afflicts a quarter of our kids.
The former Florida chief executive uttered not a word about the fact
that Florida voters in 2012 rejected his signature school voucher plan
by 55% to 45%. Not a word about the fact that millions of voters from
coast to coast have rejected vouchers or their variants in 28 state
referenda (including on November 4 in Hawaii) by an average 2 to 1
margin, a fact bolstered by the 2014 Gallup/PDK poll showing the very
same level of oppo–sition. Not a word about religious liberty, which
includes the right of every taxpayer not to be compelled by government
to support religious institutions not of their own choosing.
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
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