Jeb Bush on Education Republican FL Governor; V.P. prospect

Sub-sections under Education:
• Florida Education
• Other issues under Education

Feds should not be involved with creation of content

BUSH: No, I don't. And I don't believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum or content. It is clearly a state responsibility. I'm for higher standards measured in an intellectually honest way, with abundant school choice, ending social promotion. As governor of Florida, we had rising student achievement across the board, because high standards, robust accountability, ending social promotion in 3rd grade, real school choice across the board, challenging the teachers union and beating them is the way to go. And Florida's low income kids had the greatest gains inside the country. Our graduation rate improved by 50%. That's what I'm for.

Allow opt-out of Common Core if states define standards

RUBIO: The Department of Education, like every federal agency, will never be satisfied. They will not stop with it being a suggestion. They will turn it into a mandate. They will use Common Core or any other requirements that exists nationally to force it down the throats of our people in our states.

BUSH: I think the states ought to create these standards. And if states want to opt out of Common Core, fine. Just make sure your standards are high Because today in America, a third of our kids, after we spend more per student than any country in the world other than a couple rounding errors, to be honest with you, 30% are college- and/or career-ready. If we are going to compete in this world we're in today, there is no possible way we can do it with lowering expectations and dumbing down everything. Children are going to suffer and families' hearts are going to be broken that their kids won't be able to get a job in the 21st Century.

Stop school districts that value money over learning

Parental choice in preschool, both public and private

• Preschool: "States that are considering investing in pre-K should learn the four lessons that Florida did:
  1. Give parents choice in preschool, both public and private;
  2. ensure a focus on early literacy;
  3. measure and report on the effectiveness of the programs; and
  4. focus on outcomes, not inputs. With these steps, states can create programs that will show results."
• School choice: "Choice rewards success and weeds out stagnation, inefficiency, and failure. This is why school choice is critical to the education reform movement."
• Raising expectations in education: "Some in the education community complain that every time they achieve the results expected of them, we raise expectations, and school grades drop as a result. That was our goal. We have learned that students and teachers rise to the new challenge, and the school grades go back up because everyone rises to the challenge. This formula is how you drive success in any endeavor."

Class-size reduction does not improve student achievement

Class size: "Harvard Kennedy School researchers analyzed the impact of the class-size amendment in 2010 and found it did not improve student achievement. Reform is about creating a more efficient, more effective education system that meets the needs of children. The class-size amendment has been a hugely expensive diversion from that goal. For example, we are breaking up kindergarten classes with 19 or 20 kids to reach some artificial threshold that has no bearing on student achievement. We have spent billions of dollars on more buildings and for more teachers with no evidence this policy produced better results."
• Teacher pay: "It's too bad we can't use the money we are wasting on meeting arbitrary numbers and divert it to where it will do more good, such as rewarding our best teachers with the pay they deserve: a reform that actually will produce results."

Minority achievement gap intolerable morally & economically

Federal government should create choices, not standards

Common Core is not a federal takeover

On the political ticking bomb of Common Core, Bush answered that "Common is not a federal takeover." "What we should say in the reauthorization of the K-12 law is that the federal government has no role in the curriculum," Bush said. The political rift has grown so wide between the moderate Republican and the rest of the conservative base that some CPAC members planned a "walkout" of Bush. About a few dozen protesters, many of them wearing Rand Paul shirts, left at the beginning of Bush's segment, following a "Don't Tread on Me" flag.

In a closing "lightning"-style round of questions, Bush was asked what type of conservative he considered himself to be. His answer only proved the point: "A practicing reform-minded conservative," Bush said.

I won't run from Common Core, even if GOP does

"We need to elect candidates that have a vision that is bigger and broader, and candidates that are organized around winning the election, not making a point," Bush told an audience at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. "Campaigns ought to be about listening and learning and getting better. I do think we've lost our way." He added, "I'm not being critical of my party, but campaigns themselves are reflective of this new America."

He made clear he would not shrink from views scorned by the dominant wing of the party. He defended his commitment to the so-called Common Core set of educational standards. "I just don't feel compelled to run for cover when I think this is the right thing to do for our country," he said.

13,000 politicized unionized monopolies isn't the best model

Common Core is the right thing to do for our country

"I guess I've been out of office for a while," Bush told Fox News this week. "So the idea that something I support that people are opposed to, it means that I have to stop supporting it if there's not any reason based on fact to do that? I just--maybe it's stubbornness, but I just don't seem compelled to run for cover when I think this is the right thing to do for our country."

Advocate for Common Core education standards

No Child Left Behind got states to start reforms

BUSH: I think "No Child Left Behind" pushed states that refused to begin the process of reform into the arena. So now every state is on the journey. Some really slow and some far more advanced. But ultimately this is a state-driven kind of enterprise. But the jump start for a lot of states that refused to use accountability and testing and a focus on early literacy and all the things that began with "No Child Left Behind" wouldn't have happened. So I think it served a useful purpose.

Q: How bad is the current system?

BUSH: If you measure it by outcomes, 25% of kids pass all of the four segments of the ACT test which means that they're college-ready or career-ready. And about 20% don't graduate at all. That's failure.

Common core lets 1,000 different curriculum flowers bloom

BUSH: Well I think higher standards is really the element of this that's most important. So if you dumb down the standards, everybody feels good. Little Johnny's going to get a piece of paper that says he's graduated from high school. But this massive remediation that's necessary to access higher education is evidence that we're not benchmarking ourselves to college readiness. So higher standards matter. The commonality of them--in this case 45 states--voluntarily creating them.

Q: The common core?

BUSH: The common core standards in language arts and math is important because curriculum is developed in this kind of system where there's common expectations. You'll have one thousand different flowers blooming as it relates to curriculum. It won't be homogenized, it will be diverse and alive which is what we need.

Q: But a lot of conservatives, certainly Tea Party movement, are very suspicious of this process.

BUSH: Sure.

We test too much; focus on accountability instead

BUSH: Right.

Q: We study to the test. Do you agree with that? Do we test too much?

BUSH: I think we do test too much. You could have fewer tests and achieve the desired results of transparency and accountability for sure.

Q: It's hard to fire bad teachers. It's hard to reward good teachers. This has been a complaint in education reform circles for decades.

BUSH: Right.

Q: Has the system gotten any better?

BUSH: It has. In states like Florida we've eliminated tenure for new teachers. It's clear that we have to do this. But great teachers need to be rewarded more. Bad teachers, they should get out of the classroom. And those in the middle, there ought to be teacher development to help them enhance their skills. It's hard to do that in a system where collective bargaining based on longevity of service for all employees in school districts, not just for teachers, is the organizing principle.

More STEM grads, to maintain global technology leadership

Civics & government for high school graduation

Even as we strengthen the immigration examination to ensure that newcomers understand American ideals and mechanisms for civic participation, we think in recent years, our education policy increasingly has recognized the importance of mastering subjects like math, science, and English. And yet we treat civics as a distant relative.

Full immersion for English learners

Education savings accounts: Fund students instead of schools

Restore schools via standards for teachers instead of tenure

Bush won election in 1998 with a campaign for overhauling education, rewarding high-performing schools with added state funding. It was enacted into law, and is similar to a "No Child Left Behind" law that Pres. Bush pursued in Washington, requiring school testing and holding schools accountable for showing yearly progress.

Only a national commitment to educational progress can reverse a trend in which 1/3 of students drop out of high school, Bush said; "I would suggest to you that high standards is the first step," he said, calling for a national system of common student measurements and teacher evaluations based on professional skills, not union membership or tenure.

Let's give every parent in America a choice about schools

The sad truth is that equality of opportunity doesn't exist in many of our schools. We give some kids a chance, but not all. That failure is the great moral and economic issue of our time. And it's hurting all of America.

I believe we can meet this challenge. We need to set high standards for students and teachers and provide students and their parents the choices they deserve.

We must stop excusing failure in our schools and start rewarding improvement and success. We must have high academic standards that are benchmarked to the best in the world.

Education is hard work, but if you follow some core principles, & you challenge the status quo, you get great results. So let's give every parent in America a choice about where their child attends school.

School choice is about unions versus kids

I have a simple message for these masters of delay and deferral: Choose. You can either help the politically powerful unions. Or you can help the kids. Now, I know it's hard to take on the unions. They fund campaigns. But you and I know who deserves a choice.

Don't restrict creationism discussion, but don't require it

Huh? The state's Sunshine State Standards for science are actually quite clear about evolution. High school students are expected to understand how genetic mutations occur and "natural selection"--the two fundamental concepts underlying evolutionary biology.

When I pointed this out to Jeb, he claimed that he had been told by his education commissioner that the standards did not include evolution--not a terribly likely scenario given that his commissioner, a former science teacher, had been part of the education bureaucracy in Florida for a dozen years.

So then Jeb said: "I like what we have right now. And I don't think there needs to be any changes. I don't think we need to restrict discussion, but it doesn't need to be required, either."

School prayer OK if prayers are voluntary and student-led

The measure is virtually identical to a bill that made it through the Legislature in 1996 but was killed by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat who vowed to veto any future school-prayer legislation that crossed his desk. In Gov. Jeb Bush, though, the Legislature now at least has a willing ear. Bush has said he would consider school-prayer legislation if the prayers were voluntary and student-led.

Grade inflation breeds culture of falsely perceived success

The justification for this high grading curve is apparently part self-esteem and part fear of competition. Many schools in the upper echelon now inflate their grading curves so that their students will have an advantage in the job market. As other schools get wise to this grade inflation, they too inflate their grading curves, breeding a culture of perceived successes and abhorrence to failre.

I created the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd voucher program in America

1994: cut Department of Education from 2,000 to 50 staff

Ed reform: reading scores improved; parents got more choices

800,000 FL parents selected schools, not district zoning

All parents should be empowered to choose the best schools for their children, and in Florida school choice is widespread. Last year in Florida, nearly 800,000 students attended schools selected by their parents, not by district zoning laws. More than 200,000 students attend public charter schools. About 25,000 special-needs children attend private schools using scholarships. Almost 50,000 students from low-income families receive scholarships funded by tax credits to attend the schools that best fit them.

Teacher bonuses for students passing AP courses

Florida Formula: schools graded A-to-F; extra funding for A

• Grade schools on an A-to-F scale, based mostly on student scores and growth on standardized tests. Give students in poorly ranked schools vouchers to attend private and religious schools.
• Hold back 8-year-olds who can't pass a state reading test rather than promote them to fourth grade.
• Expand access to online classes and charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed, sometimes for profit.
• In Florida, Bush paired his tough-love measures with generous support. Schools that improved their grade or got an "A" received extra funding. Teachers got bonuses for successes like getting more kids to pass Advanced Placement tests. And students required to repeat third grade got intensive help at free summer reading camps.

Pushed 1st statewide voucher program & school testing

Guarantee college admission for top 20% of high school grads

Catholic Conference sought more voucher accountability

Governor Bush's voucher programs also encountered the kinds of accountability problems other privatization projects faced, but he would take no action to correct them even when the Florida Catholic Conference, a major beneficiary of vouchers, pushed for accountability standards, and the Florida Senate and the state auditor general specifically criticized the McKay Voucher Program for failure to screen and monitor the types of schools being awarded the funds involved and for allowing operators who did not have the capability to provide proper educational services to enroll students in their schools.

60% of FCAT-passed schools failed to meet NCLB standards

1. grading public school reading, writing and mathematics performance on an A-F scale; and
2. annual reporting of these grades to the public.

One national education organization claimed that the FCAT reflects "modest expectation." In 2006, 60% of the schools that scored either A or B on the state FCAT test failed to meet the standards for the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

OpEd: Stacked Board of Regents with Republican donors

Jeb's tampering with the higher education system so ticked off Bob Graham, then a Senator and a former governor, that Graham led a petition drive that successfully pushed a constitutional amendment essentially recreating the Board of Regents under a new name.

Repeal class size limit state constitutional amendment

Co-founded a charter school in poor Miami neighborhood

But is he interested in really learning about education? That's not clear. He doesn't have much rapport with teachers, except with those who happen to agree with his idea about schooling. He knows that all children can learn, and that no child should be left behind, but doesn't want to hear from people who might agree with those noble concepts yet who believe that schools need more money and more teachers to accomplish them. And he definitely does not want to hear that an annual high-stakes test that consumes months of a school's effort is not the best thing for actual learning.

Make school plan more punitive and more vouchers

1997: Smaller schools are better schools, but also cost more

Voluntary universal Pre-K: fund 9,600 pre-school teachers

Next year, we'll add voluntary universal Pre-K, and I urge you to provide the resources we need to train 9,600 pre-school professionals this year, and to create the framework for a comprehensive high-quality program focused on critical early literacy skills. As we increase the number of children ready to learn when they enter kindergarten, we decrease the number who will struggle, be retained, and require remedial help in higher grades.

A+ Plan: Make "F" schools disappear; make more "A" schools

But look what happens to the "F" schools in the two years since we implemented the A+ Plan. They are gone. They have disappeared.

In 1999, only 21% of our schools were high-performing "A" and "B" schools. Now there are twice as many high-performing schools, 41% in all. With the A+ Plan, we have nearly doubled the number of high-performing schools in Florida. We have provided a first-rate education for hundreds of thousands more students.

To help build on the successes of the A+ Plan, we must continue to increase funding for our schools. This includes--in the K-12 system--an 18 percent, $2 billion increase in student funding for Florida's public schools over the last three years. We should continue this trend, and so this year I am proposing we greatly increase total K-20 funding.

Push for gains among minority and disadvantaged students

But now is not the time to grow complacent. School grades will now measure the annual learning gains of students, which was part of the original vision of the A+ Plan. Now, in addition to tougher standards in reading and math, schools will be held accountable as well as rewarded for the progress of their lowest performing students. We must continue to push the envelope.

Social promotion doesn't do our kids any favors

I propose we give the social promotion language some teeth so that school districts won't give up on teaching our kids how to read. The best solution, of course, is to remediate struggling readers during the school year, to get them the extra help they need to stay on track. But for school districts that continue to circumvent the intent of the law, there should be consequences, perhaps including the withholding of administrative funds.

Restrict grade inflation by imposing minimum standards

In response to these practices, Senate Bill 842 limits district grade forgiveness policies to replacing “D” or “F” grades in required courses with a “C” or higher earned in the same or comparable course. Any course grade not replaced according to a school district forgiveness policy would be included in the calculation of the cumulative grade point average required for graduation.

I believe that without some kind of minimum standard, many school districts will continue to implement overly-liberal policies that artificially inflate grade point averages. Therefore, I have decided to sign Senate Bill 842, and work towards strengthening this law.

Instituted school voucher plan

In his first 100 days, Bush’s legislative agenda met with stunning success. He passed a school voucher plan, got longer prison terms for gun-toting criminals, and instituted a $1 billion tax break.

More funding for schools; merit pay for teachers

Supports the following principles concerning schools:
• Increase state funds for professional development of public school teachers and administrators.
• Increase state funds for school construction and facility maintenance.
• Grant merit pay raises each year to teachers who excel.
• Encourage private or corporate investment in public school programs.

Focus on abstinence; end social promotion

Supports the following principles concerning social issues in schools:
• Support sex education programs which stress abstinence.
• Bush says, “End social promotion, improve school safety and discipline.”

Supports charter schools & vouchers

Supports the following principles concerning school choice:
• Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any participating school (public, private, religious).
• Favor charter schools where independent groups receive state authorization and funding to establish new schools.
• Bush says, “Our education proposal would allow vouchers for children in chronically failing schools so that they could attend another public or private school.”