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Monday, January 30, 2012

Jeb Bush Takes His Ed Privatization Show on the Road Again | Scathing Purple Musings

Jeb Bush Takes His Ed Privatization Show on the Road Again | Scathing Purple Musings:

Jeb Bush Takes His Ed Privatization Show on the Road Again

Former governor Jeb Bush continues his US tour that’s bankrolled by education corporations and billionaires toLouisiana today and New Jersey on Thursday. Whether or not Bush receives speaking fees is not known. He’s never asked about that or who pays for his travel. Bush prefers to be seen as a pure reformer whose vision is based on data accountability, but his foundation has developed a pattern in supporting legislation in Florida which slowly shifts public schools to private:

  • Private school vouchers – including those for religious schools
  • Mandatory online education
  • Charter school legislation which includes provisions that local school boards can be overruled by political

Rick Scott’s FCAT Rankings Release a Propoganda Ploy

Writing in the Pensacola News Journal, Escambia county school board member Jeff Bergosh writes:

……..but according to the press portrayals of this FDOE data, one could easily reason that the higher the district ranking, the better the school district, period.

And therein lies the problem.

The release of data like this without thoughtfully conceived disclaimers, explanations and footnotes can and does lead to incorrect and negative public perceptions. This is because data alone does not tell the whole story. And Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s five-second blurb about