The Edgakashun Gub'nah

I am happy to see the legislators in Florida exhibiting a little common sense. The Thing of Ugly is Jeb Bush, whose "signature issue" is education. The question is -- which side?

"Two of Mr. Bush's education priorities were voted down by the Legislature last week at the end of this year's session. The constitutional amendments would have reversed a State Supreme Court decision invalidating school vouchers and loosened strict limits on class size." (From the New York Times.)

The people of Florida (what do they know?) approved a ballot initiative to cut classes to 18 students in K-3, 22 students in 4-8, and 25 in 9-12. Mr. Bush apparently made eradicating this initiative a central issue to his re-election platform, and has repeatedly tried to eliminate it since. Rather than working to improve the public school system, Bush would like vouchers for private schools. Vouchers would divert tax money from the public school system so parents could send their children to private school.

Again, from the New York Times article: "State Senator Dennis L. Jones, Republican of Seminole, was one of the Republicans who broke with his party on the issue. During the debate, he pointed out that voters have opposed vouchers in referendums in Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon and Washington State. 'Quit using public money to send our kids to private schools,' Mr. Jones said, as reported by The Tallahassee Democrat."

Interestingly, a recent study showed that education in private and charter schools is no better, and in some cases worse, than public school education. If this seems counter-intuitive because of all the bright bulbs you've seen come out of private schools, remember that private schools generally have better raw material to work with. Parents who value education enough to find a way to send their kids to private school are generally more intelligent themselves, and are going to encourage good study habits in the home. Children who get in on scholarship are, well, scholars. And while they all seem to have enrolled a percentage of rich dumbasses (hey, somebody's father has to pay for the new gym), many people who are wealthy enough to easily send their kids to private school got to be wealthy because of their brains, which they passed on to their kids.

But I don't want to lose focus on our Thing Of Ugly here. Jeb Bush clearly wants to hamstring the public school system in Florida, and he's lost the support of members of his own party. A grade of F for you, Gub'nah Bush.