The Party's Over, by Charlie Crist: on Education


Charlie Crist: Supports charter schools and standardized testing

[As State Education Commissioner,] I got some solid support in the governor's office. Jeb Bush had made education reform a top priority of his administration. We both wanted results. Jeb was pushing charter schools and standardized testing, concepts I generally supported. I was working on making teachers more accountable and getting the good ones paid well. Working together, we made some genuine progress. Reading scores improved. Parents got more choices about the schools their children attended. The legislature got a little less stingy about paying the bills.
Source: The Party's Over, by Charlie Crist, p. 53 Feb 4, 2014

Charlie Crist: Some public school teachers should earn $100,000

[As Education Commissioner of Florida], some of my fellow Republicans thought I pushed the cause of public education too hard. "Some teachers in our school systems should earn $100,000 a year," I said one day, unapologetically.

"The teachers' unions aren't exactly friends of ours," I was reminded more than once. "Republicans are more interested in private and religious schools."

None of this seemed complicated to me. If we wanted good teachers, we should pay them decently. When it came to public education, I had the benefit of personal experience. My 3 sisters and I all went to public schools. Two of my sisters became educators. My mom and dad both went to Penn State. I'd finished college at Florida State. I always have--and always will--fight for public education.

Source: The Party's Over, by Charlie Crist, p. 53 Feb 4, 2014

Charlie Crist: National testing mostly favors for-profit testing firms

Senate Bill 6 was loaded down with amendments from extreme-conservative legislators who didn't seem to like the whole idea of public schools. The tone of the bill began to shift from rewarding teachers to punishing them.

The Republican legislators probably should have renamed it the Teacher Punishment Act. That would have been a whole lot closer to what the bill's conservative backers really had in mind.

Newer teachers could be fired for any cause or no cause at all. Local school systems were forbidden from paying teachers based on their experience or advanced degrees. The bill took away a teacher's incentive to earn National Board Certification. And it raised a rash of extra complications for Special-Ed teachers.

There was one other wrinkle that seemed relevant to me. The people who really stood to make out here were the for-profit, national testing firms. If Senate Bill 6 became law, they could expect some fat new Florida contracts.

Source: The Party's Over, by Charlie Crist, p.223-225 Feb 4, 2014

Jeb Bush: Ed reform: reading scores improved; parents got more choices

Jeb Bush had made education reform a top priority of his administration. So [as Education Commissioner of Florida], I got some solid support in the governor's office. We both wanted results. Jeb was pushing charter schools and standardized testing, concepts I generally supported. I was working on making teachers more accountable and getting the good ones paid well. Working together, we made some genuine progress. Reading scores improved. Parents got more choices about the schools their children attended. The legislature got a little less stingy about paying the bills.
Source: The Party's Over, by Charlie Crist, p. 53 Feb 4, 2014

  • The above quotations are from The Party's Over:
    How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat
    by Charlie Crist.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Education.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Charlie Crist on Education.
Candidates and political leaders on Education:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Feb 20, 2019