Jeb Bush has been all over the national media of late. Much of it is part of the multi-faceted game plan to showcase him as the Republican presidential alternative to those not ready for post-primary prime time.
And some of it, of course, is unflattering. A recent New Yorker piece qualifies as the latter. Everything from Jeb being a paid advisor to Lehman Brothers just before the financial meltdown to the most problematic aspects of “McCharters.”
Two quotes are illustrative. Says former Republican state-senate majority leader Alex Villalobos: “If the issue is you have failing public schools, then how is taking more money away from public education and giving it to private entities that are not accountable going to help public schools?”
Andy Ford, the president of the Florida Education Association, characterized Bush’s push on behalf of for-profit charters as creating “a closed circuit of people making a lot of money on so-called ‘reform.'” And more.
It’s another reminder that it’s more than “Common Core” that is an educational hurdle for Bush. Everything done in the disingenuous name of “accountability”–such as FCATs–won’t be a winner.