“….Already Lawmakers are Climbing Back in the Sack with Charter School Business Interests”
Here’s a bit from this morning’s column by the Tampa Bay Times John Romano:
Do Florida Lawmakers Revere or Fear Jeb Bush?
Theoretically, the role of a state legislator is simple.
You are in Tallahassee to look out for the people back home. Special interest groups, lobbyists, political parties? In a perfect world, that’s just drama and noise.
And yet here we are, just about a week before the Legislature is in session, and already lawmakers are climbing back in the sack with charter school business interests.
We are told we need more charter schools. We need to make it easier to create charter schools
Do Florida Lawmakers Revere or Fear Jeb Bush?
Few pundits have been willing to say publicly that the current chaos of Florida’s education accountability systems is of Jeb Bush’s doing. But Palm Beach Post writer Jac Versteeg has done just that this morning.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush has an undeserved reputation as an education reformer. Florida’s recent education progress has come not from implementing Mr. Bush’s policies but from cleaning up after them.
Mr. Bush has been visiting legislators in Tallahassee to talk about education policy. Get out the mops and buckets. Taxpayers also should reach for their wallets, since the former governor’s new big ideas involve transferring more public dollars to the for-profit companies behind him.
Mr. Bush’s biggest idea, enacted immediately after taking office in 1999, was to give each school an A-to-F grade based on student scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. That