This scares the hell out of me. After experiencing what Jebbie has done to the educational system in my state, there is no way he can be allowed
to take it national through that dithering dolt McCain. There is even a rumor that he would make Jebbie Secretary of Education.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday that he has turned to former Gov. Jeb Bush for advice on education policy and will continue to do so if he wins the November election.
McCain said he's met with Bush for "a couple of years" on education policy and enthusiastically said he would seek his help if elected. The Arizona senator made the remarks after being asked how Bush will help the campaign.
"He has offered to do whatever he says he can, and I appreciate it. On the education issue, he is already helping out," McCain said. "He's very well-respected on many issues, but education is probably one where I think he has a nationwide reputation."
Bush's first priority when taking office in 1999 was an overhaul of the state's school system, which included using standardized testing to grade schools. Schools were then rewarded or punished based on their grades. He also put in place the first statewide voucher program, which was later ruled unconstitutional, and expanded reading and mentoring programs. Whether schools improved under Bush is a continuing debate.
For those not familiar with the disastrous policies of Jebbie, here's a brief review of the sordid situation in my state. The main two policies of Jebbie are high stakes testing and vouchers. His primary goal is to destroy public education.
Jeb elevated the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test to a pass or fail level. If kids don't pass it they are left behind. If schools don't pass it they don't receive bonus money. If a school fails two years in a row, the students could become eligible for vouchers to attend private schools including religious schools (Fortunately the FL Supreme Court struck down this provision). Our state wastes 40 million dollars a year on this test. It is one of the most contentious portions of
Jebbie's devious plans.
The test has a history of errors. Here are but a few of them. Schools that pass under the state
FCAT fail under the No Child bill. It is graded by private company that used
temp workers with no knowledge of the subject they were grading.
An error in the test resulted in a large jump in scores one year. Before they finally instituted a science FCAT, elementary schools were dropping science classes to spend more time teaching to the test. They've revised this test and their scoring method so often that the year to year results are practically meaningless. Schools have resorted to bribing students to get them to perform better on the FCAT. All in all it's worked to significantly degrade the education system here in Florida.
Three voucher programs were created under Jebbie. The McKay scholarships were created to give voucher money to students that had some sort of disability so that they could attend specialty private schools. The dollar amounts can be up to $12,000 per student. His other program, fortunately quashed by the Fl Supreme court, was to give vouchers to students in failing schools. The third program allows Florida companies to receive a tax credit by giving the money to a private voucher program. All three of these programs directly or indirectly remove money from Florida's public education budget.
Like the FCAT, these voucher programs are fraught with fraud and failure. He put in place minimal oversight and no public testing for the schools receiving this voucher money. There've been people
raking in millions from the McKay vouchers while establishing fly by night schools (BTW, the state did not press charges against the couple mentioned in the story.) There's been
missing funds in other programs and vouchers provided to Sami Al Arian's Islamic school (Quite embarrassing for the Bushies with all the poo they flung at Al Arian). These are just a few examples of the damage to our educational system that resulted from Jebbie's voucher program.
While I focused on these two major points of his programs, Jebbie has damaged Florida public education in several other ways. He tried to subvert the voter's will on our class size amendment. He has grossly under funded the schools. His supporters back teaching creationism in science classes. They've also put
an amendment on the ballot to remove the separation of church and state clause in Florida's constitution. He's continuing the destruction of our state's educational system even though he's no longer in office.
I could ramble on for pages with further details regarding Jebbie's horrific educational policies (and have done so numerous times in the past), but y'all get the point. Even if you ignore the Iraq war, tax cuts, and heath care reform as reasons to vote against McSame, the risk of Jebbie's educational policies going national should be enough to whole heartily support our nominee.
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