Jeb BUSH — ANOTHER FLY OVER EDUCATION EXPERT

by George Batten

Jeb Bush was on television pontificating his views and plans for education in America. Of course with the teacher strike going on in Chicago, The teachers were branded as greedy and thinking only about their self interests. Teachers were, basically, selling out their students. His solutions were Charter Schools, increased privatization of the school system, hiring and firing of teachers would be completely in the hands of the principal, and teacher evaluations and future employment would rely on test scores. The basic premise being, that a teacher’s students must show significant improvement or have high test scores to be deemed a good teacher. As Jeb spoke, What he said seemed logical. A well balanced plan for improving education. Education should be about high test scores, right?

If what Mr. Bush was saying about education sounded right, why was my blood pressure going up? Why was my stomach churning and my heart racing? Could it be because, here was another politician that had formed his opinions about education and solutions for education as he flew over the problem at 30,000 feet. I realized that Jeb Bush most likely formed his opinions and solutions as he flew from one highly pompous educator’s conference to another highly pompous educator’s conference. He had never walked into a school and walked in a teacher’s shoes. That is the problem, everything looks different at 30.,000 feet. How can we get Jeb Bush to see and understand what happens at ground level. Maybe if a story is created where governors faced the same situation that teachers face, he would have an epiphany about teachers and education.

The Year is 2020. A new president has been elected, who is eager to put into effect the edicts of the 2016 election and National Referendum on Education. The National Referendum had decreed that the 5 states with the lowest test scores would immediately fire their governor. A new election process would occur immediately with the fired governor ineligible to participate.

Jeb Bush had been reelect to be Governor of Florida in 2016. He had worked extremely hard to raise test scores in the state of Florida. Despite all of his efforts the state of Florida had only gone from 49th to 48th in test scores.

Jeb Bush became extremely upset and somewhat angry, when other governors and the new president called him a bad governor. Not only were they calling him a bad governor, they were referring to him as lazy, inept, uncaring, and not entitled to the high paychecks of good governors. Why were they judging him and rating him based on test results? Could they not see or understand what was happening in Florida?

The entitlement charge had truly enraged him. These governors and new President seemed unable to see the problems Florida had faced. Florida students were traditionally one or two school years behind Northern States in achievement levels. The Race To The Top program had left Florida terribly behind the other states. The category 5 hurricane of 2018 had devastated the Caribbean Islands, Cuba, Haiti, And half of Florida. The hurricane had destroyed a third of the schools in Florida. One third of the students were going to schools in old warehouses and half destroyed strip malls. Students in Florida were competing with students from other states with limited resources, old computers,old books, and no air-conditioning.

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Jeb BUSH — ANOTHER FLY OVER EDUCATION EXPERT | School Discipline Made Easy