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Jeb Bush at the Iowa GOP's Lincoln Dinner earlier this year.
(Photo: Dave Davidson)
If Elected, Jeb Bush Will Privatize Public Education
Matthew Pulver, writing at Salon.com, describes Jeb Bush's dangerous belief in privatization and free markets in education.
Jun 17, 2015
Matthew Pulver, writing at Salon.com, describes Jeb Bush's dangerous belief in privatization and free markets in education.
It is not so much a belief as an ideology, one impervious to evidence. Many studies show that privately managed charters do not get higher test scores than public schools that do not register with Jeb. The number of charters that open with grand promises and soon lose their doors with big debts does not affect his belief system. He is a zealot for school choice, period.
Not even the failure of the charter school he founded in Liberty City, a poor black neighborhood, dampens his passion for charters and vouchers.
Writes Pulver:
There's nothing else as large in all of society. Not the military--nothing--is bigger.
That's how Randy Best, Jeb Bush's business partner, sees public education, as an untapped market where untold billions are to be made when kids and their families become educational customers. Touting his impressive assault on public education while Florida governor in yesterday's announcement of his 2016 candidacy, Bush may become the loudest proponent yet of turning public education into a for-profit enterprise.
Before getting into Bush's record and financial interests in for-profit education, a full understanding of the dystopian horrors of for-profit, privatized education is necessary. Bush offers it with a handful of Milton Friedman-esque catchwords and focus-grouped slogans, and it may be that the proposals sound innocuous and vaguely innovative until the slightest scrutiny is applied to the ideas -- at which point, it's difficult to imagine much worse than public education turned into a for-profit market. Because the most basic and collectively understood truisms about markets, when applied to children, take on a horrifying character."
It should be noted that Bush's partner, Randy Best, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Reading First, the ill-fated program enacted as part of NCLB but eventually discontinued because of sweetheart deals and conflicts of interest. Best, an entrepreneur, not an educator, created a commercial reading company (Voyager Learning), which he later sold for $360 million. Best admits that he can't read, that he is acutely dyslexic. But he knows how to make money.
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Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University. Her most recent book is "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools." Her previous books and articles about American education include: "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education," "Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform," (Simon & Schuster, 2000); "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn" (Knopf, 2003); "The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know" (Oxford, 2006), which she edited with her son Michael Ravitch. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
conflicts of interestdiane ravitcheducationelection 2016fundraiserjeb bushmilton friedmanprivatizationpublic schoolsschool choicepublic education
Matthew Pulver, writing at Salon.com, describes Jeb Bush's dangerous belief in privatization and free markets in education.
It is not so much a belief as an ideology, one impervious to evidence. Many studies show that privately managed charters do not get higher test scores than public schools that do not register with Jeb. The number of charters that open with grand promises and soon lose their doors with big debts does not affect his belief system. He is a zealot for school choice, period.
Not even the failure of the charter school he founded in Liberty City, a poor black neighborhood, dampens his passion for charters and vouchers.
Writes Pulver:
There's nothing else as large in all of society. Not the military--nothing--is bigger.
That's how Randy Best, Jeb Bush's business partner, sees public education, as an untapped market where untold billions are to be made when kids and their families become educational customers. Touting his impressive assault on public education while Florida governor in yesterday's announcement of his 2016 candidacy, Bush may become the loudest proponent yet of turning public education into a for-profit enterprise.
Before getting into Bush's record and financial interests in for-profit education, a full understanding of the dystopian horrors of for-profit, privatized education is necessary. Bush offers it with a handful of Milton Friedman-esque catchwords and focus-grouped slogans, and it may be that the proposals sound innocuous and vaguely innovative until the slightest scrutiny is applied to the ideas -- at which point, it's difficult to imagine much worse than public education turned into a for-profit market. Because the most basic and collectively understood truisms about markets, when applied to children, take on a horrifying character."
It should be noted that Bush's partner, Randy Best, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Reading First, the ill-fated program enacted as part of NCLB but eventually discontinued because of sweetheart deals and conflicts of interest. Best, an entrepreneur, not an educator, created a commercial reading company (Voyager Learning), which he later sold for $360 million. Best admits that he can't read, that he is acutely dyslexic. But he knows how to make money.
Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University. Her most recent book is "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools." Her previous books and articles about American education include: "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education," "Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform," (Simon & Schuster, 2000); "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn" (Knopf, 2003); "The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know" (Oxford, 2006), which she edited with her son Michael Ravitch. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Matthew Pulver, writing at Salon.com, describes Jeb Bush's dangerous belief in privatization and free markets in education.
It is not so much a belief as an ideology, one impervious to evidence. Many studies show that privately managed charters do not get higher test scores than public schools that do not register with Jeb. The number of charters that open with grand promises and soon lose their doors with big debts does not affect his belief system. He is a zealot for school choice, period.
Not even the failure of the charter school he founded in Liberty City, a poor black neighborhood, dampens his passion for charters and vouchers.
Writes Pulver:
There's nothing else as large in all of society. Not the military--nothing--is bigger.
That's how Randy Best, Jeb Bush's business partner, sees public education, as an untapped market where untold billions are to be made when kids and their families become educational customers. Touting his impressive assault on public education while Florida governor in yesterday's announcement of his 2016 candidacy, Bush may become the loudest proponent yet of turning public education into a for-profit enterprise.
Before getting into Bush's record and financial interests in for-profit education, a full understanding of the dystopian horrors of for-profit, privatized education is necessary. Bush offers it with a handful of Milton Friedman-esque catchwords and focus-grouped slogans, and it may be that the proposals sound innocuous and vaguely innovative until the slightest scrutiny is applied to the ideas -- at which point, it's difficult to imagine much worse than public education turned into a for-profit market. Because the most basic and collectively understood truisms about markets, when applied to children, take on a horrifying character."
It should be noted that Bush's partner, Randy Best, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Reading First, the ill-fated program enacted as part of NCLB but eventually discontinued because of sweetheart deals and conflicts of interest. Best, an entrepreneur, not an educator, created a commercial reading company (Voyager Learning), which he later sold for $360 million. Best admits that he can't read, that he is acutely dyslexic. But he knows how to make money.
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