Emails Expose Jeb Bush Foundation’s Role in Shaping State Education Policy
Emails concerning Florida, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Rhode Island can be found here.
Washington, D.C. – As Jeb Bush moves closer to a run for President, he continues to gain attention for a history of using his power to shape state education policy to benefit his corporate allies. Today, the Washington Post looked back at a series of emails that show how the organization that Bush led after he left the Florida governor’s office played a role in state policymaking that was disturbingly similar to that of the controversial American Legislative Exchange (ALEC).
“The exchanges, revealed in e-mails, from 2011 and 2012, illustrate the leading role Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education has played in many states since its creation in 2008, following Bush’s two terms as governor of Florida,” writes Lyndsey Layton.
The emails, obtained through public records requests and published by In the Public Interest (ITPI), a comprehensive resource center on privatization and responsible contracting, show the foundation was involved in writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders.
“Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business so if companies want to go and directly lobby officials they should go do that and not hide behind a misleading 501(c) 3 designations” said ITPI Executive Director Donald Cohen. “If Jeb Bush wants to present himself as a leader in transparency, leadership, and educational reform he will need to fully explain why his organization did this.”
The emails reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations, and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s financial backers. Bush has been referred to as the “godfather” of Chiefs for Change, an alliance of conservative state superintendents and education department directors with significant authority over purchasing and policy in their states.
The emails conclusively reveal that FEE staff acted to promote their corporate funders' priorities, and demonstrate the dangerous role that corporate money plays in shaping our education policy. Correspondence in Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Louisiana paint a troubling picture of corporate money distorting democracy.
For more information about the emails or to speak with an expert on education privatization, government contracting and oversight, contact Mark McCullough at mark@newpartners.com or (202) 724-6983.
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