THOUGHTS OF A LAKEPORT CRACKER Originally published on May 21, 2011 - Updated on March 25, 2014 WHAT ABOUT JEB? EdNote: Be sure to read all the way to the end When Jeb Bush left the Florida’s governor’s office, he hardly rode into the sunset as his brother did in 2009. Bush has developed a self-promoting national reputation as an education reformer powerhouse. He is the champion of vouchers and charter schools and his latest recognition, the Bradley Foundation, is a conservative group that claims it “shies away from lauding politicians.” Jeb’s influence with the Republican-dominated Florida legislature remains strong and has gone far beyond Tallahassee. State capitols from New Jersey to Oregon have elected new lawmakers eager to embrace his education reforms. But as a result, there are many within the compassionate conservative ranks of the Republican Party who are worried about the impact this radical educational philosophy may have on the working class Americans who are struggling and can’t afford a privatized education system. Some would like to draft Jeb as the Republican presidential candidate of 2012. And as Gingrich, Trump, Palin, Christie, Walker, Bachmann, etc. all continue to make fools of themselves, the TEA PARTY movement may actually split the GOP which would almost guarantee Obama a second term. What about JEB? Is he a qualified Republican under the Ultra-Right classification? So far, Jeb hasn’t been convicted of anything. So far, no “love children” have been revealed. So far, he seems blessed with the intelligence of his father. The question may be how far left he can stay from the TEA PARTY and still remain a force within the mainline GOP. This platform didn’t work for his father when the party split in 1992 and Bush #41 was ousted from the White House. And there may still be a problem with image. When Florida Governor Scott and Jeb visit schools, they are always either private or charter schools where the kids wear uniforms and politely raise their hands to ask questions. But I challenge anyone who visits a private school; look at the curriculum and materials they use, and ask yourself this question. Why aren’t the public schools doing this? Speaking a public school elementary school teacher for the past 17 years (I retired in January 2011), this question is easy to answer. If Governor Bush hadn’t worked so hard to under-fund the public schools, they would be as good as or better than the private schools he touts as outstanding in his publications. Jeb Bush knows there is big money to be made by taking the “public” out of public education. He realized there’s even bigger money to be made in testing and he’s seen personal advantages with advocating the ULTRA-RIGHT WING Republican agenda by helping to destroy unions and the working middle class. But this concept isn’t new! The assault on working Americans and public education began with Reagan when more power was given to corporations and less to workers. Job security and income started to dwindle. In order for the working Middle Class to realize the American Dream, both parents went to work, sometimes holding 2 or 3 jobs (as my wife and I did). We worked longer hours for less pay (got no raises while prices for everything skyrocketed). Parents came home exhausted and the age of “latch key kids” entered the school systems. Does any of this sound familiar? Today’s teachers TEACH under the legislative directive of “pay for performance.” Emphasis is not on the innovation and quality of teaching; it lies primarily with student test performance. And guess who controls the testing in Florida? Jeb Bush claims that Florida schools have made remarkable gains but critics are wondering why the last two standardized tests their second graders took were nearly identical. Could it be that in order to make scores higher, the test questions have been “dummied” down? Critics also claim that the gains seen in elementary school won’t be replicated at the high school level under the present testing philosophy. Bush says his critics are moving the goal posts. He first predicted “the world was going to come to an end” but when that didn’t happen, he now questions high school student performance and the high school teachers. “It’s a long process and along the way, you learn and you try to advocate reforms that will continue the process.” Meanwhile, he and his ultra-right wing consorts have dumped teachers into the “lazy and uncaring” categories. Thanks to his control of the press, teachers are seen by the public as “whiny, overpaid under-worked complainers who only want more money and less accountability.” But consider this fact. These lazy, worthless public school teachers are the ones buying supplies for your kids out of their own pockets because of the funding that Bush and now Scott have cut. Perhaps this altered old saying might be appropriate for the Bush and upcoming Scott administrations in Florida. “Those who can teach; those who cannot teach pass laws about teaching.” OBSERVATION VIEWPOINT - MARCH 25, 2014 Almost half the potential electorate says it would never vote for another Bush under any circumstance. Yet, if the GOP wants to win the presidential election in 2016, only somebody of Jeb’s stature has a chance — particularly against the Hillary juggernaut. Jeb, through his sheer personal presence, is capable of wresting the GOP away from many of the extremist positions that could be its Achilles’ heel come 2016. I can only wonder how differently history might have turned out had Lawton Chiles not defeated John Ellis Bush in the 1994 Florida gubernatorial election. By the time Jeb finally ascended to the governorship in early 1999, the Republican money machine was already humming away to nominate the more politically successful Bush heir apparent, the governor of Texas. If the “smarter” brother had run and won instead, Dick Cheney might not have acquired his influence, there might have been no protracted wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, and the Great Recession of 2008 might have amounted to no more than an economic hiccup. Something to ponder…
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 13:58:13 +0000
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