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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Does the FLDOE Work for Jeb Bush’s Foundation? | Scathing Purple Musings

Does the FLDOE Work for Jeb Bush’s Foundation? | Scathing Purple Musings:


Does the FLDOE Work for Jeb Bush’s Foundation?

Today’s release of emails from a DC watchdog indeed provided some troubling revelations. Among these were arranging travel and reimbursements for FLDOE staffers and examples of clear advocacies for their corporate donors. But more than anything else, the sheer volume of emails between multiple Foundation for Excellence in Education staffers and state employees at the Florida Department of Education made the two appear almost co-dependent. But so many policy questions and requests for data were made by FEE staffers to numerous FLDOE staff that one would more likely be left with the impression that the later worked for the former.
Most disturbing of these involved attempts to dictate policy and legislation. This from In the Public Interest:
In addition to sending an invitation to the state board of education to attend a press conference in support of parent trigger legislation, FEE staff was very much involved in legislation affecting the state’s school turnaround procedures, which include converting some neighborhood schools to charter schools. (Education Commissioner Gerard) Robinson emailed (CEO Patricia )Levesque in