Today the Washington Post followed the money from Jeb Bush’s
corporate donors to legislation he pushed to make them money. To read the whole
piece check out the link below but before then this is how his corporate
cronies benefited from his policies in Florida.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/30/e-mails-link-bush-foundation-corporations-and-education-officials/
• FEE staff sought
legislation that would count the state test, known as FCAT, as more than 50% of
the state’s school accountability measure. FEE staffer Patricia Levesque wrote
to a state official that she had negotiated the related language with state
legislators, who were now “asking for the following, which the Foundation
completely supports: FCAT shall be ‘at least 50%, but no more than 60%’ of a
high school’s grade.” Pearson, the company that holds the $250 million FCAT
contract and sponsors FEE through its foundation, has an obvious financial
stake in ensuring that FCAT continues to be at the center of Florida’s
education system.
• Levesque writes, “I think we need to add a sec onto this bill to give you/the
department authority to set a state‐approved list of
charter operators or private providers so districts can’t pick poor performers to implement turnaround.” At least one FEE donor, the for-profit Florida-based Charter
Schools USA, could benefit from being placed on such a state-approved list.
•
Charter Schools USA also could benefit from a “parent trigger” law, the passage
of which, as Nadia Hagberg of FEE wrote, was the goal of a partnership between
Bush’s Florida-based organization (the Foundation for Florida’s Future) and
Parent Revolution: “The Foundation for Florida’s Future worked closely with
[Parent Revolution] throughout the process in Florida and they proved to be an
invaluable asset.” Parent trigger, which failed to pass during Florida’s last
legislative session, is a mechanism to convert neighborhood schools to charter
schools.
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