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It was a striking scene Wednesday as a predominantly black crowd outside of the Capitol cheered as white, millionaire politicians promoted the voucher plan as an antidote to class and racial inequalities.

"In Florida and the United States today, if you've got money, you can make a choice," said Gov. Jeb Bush. "What about the children whose parents don't have the ability based on income to make that choice? Don't they have the same dreams? God gives every child the ability to learn. God does that."

Bush and other speakers invoked the civil rights movement, both in substance and style as lawmakers like House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, engaged the audience in some oldfashioned call-and-response cheerleading.

"This is a fundamental right, this is a civil right, this is American as apple pie," Bush told the crowd.

Wednesday's rally was similar to one last year that was held outside the Florida Supreme Court before oral arguments on the case. Most attendees wore black T-shirts with "Save Our Students" emblazoned on the front. Hundreds of children got the day off of school to attend the rally, which was paid for by John Kirtley, the Tampa millionaire who launched one of the state's other voucher programs -- the Corporate Scholarship Program that gives businesses a tax credit in exchange for paying a low-income child's tuition at a private school.

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In a stock market prospectus uncovered by education author Jonathan Kozol, the Montgomery Securities group explains to Corporate America the lure of privatizing education. Kozol writes:

“The education industry,” according to these analysts, “represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control” that have either voluntarily opened or, they note in pointed terms, have “been forced” to open up to private enterprise. Indeed, they write, “the education industry represents the largest market opportunity” since health-care services were privatized during the 1970’s.... From the point of view of private profit, one of these analysts enthusiastically observes, “The K–12 market is the Big Enchilada.”1

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But many of the original small schools have largely been dismantled. They have collapsed or been taken apart under the pressure of the enormous weight of standardization pushed since No Child Left Behind. Many have also been gobbled up by the corporate sector.

An important book by Michael and Susan Klonsky, early participants in Chicago’s small schools movement, Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets the Ownership Society, tells an important story. The Klonskys, longtime advocates of small and autonomous schools, chronicle in great detail how the concept of “autonomy”—which the pioneers had hoped would mean democracy—turned into privatization when it crashed into the slick and well-funded strategists of the “Ownership Society.”

The first decentralizing wave of Chicago school reform was decimated by the 1995 mayoral takeover that saw many of the leaders of the small schools movement recruited into the district administration, charter school organization, or the foundations. Others were encouraged to become charter school operators themselves—and did. Surviving small schools were pressured to give up many of their innovations and conform to standardized, and even scripted, modes of instruction and assessment.6

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If we recognize the rapid acceleration of corporate-style charters, and admit that progressive forces are dwarfed by the billions of dollars invested in this movement by the private sector, we should try to group our forces around a completely different movement with a different vision rather than trying to recapture the charter movement (if it were ever ours).

Charter schools are, according to Kozol, a bridge toward vouchers:

In the long run, charter schools are being strategically used to pave the way for vouchers. The voucher advocates, who are very powerful and funded by right-wing foundations and families, recognize that the word “voucher” has been successfully discredited.... They have now shrewdly decided the best way to break down resistance to vouchers is by supporting charters, which represents a halfway step in the same direction. One of the intentions of this, by creating selective institutions, usually with extra forms of funding, is to discredit the entire public enterprise in America. We already have the privatization of the military, as we’ve seen with the private military contractors in Iraq; we’ve seen the privatization of the prison system. Well, the next step is the privatization of public schools. It’s a matter of ideology. .....

A public relations firm and former Gov. Jeb Bush’s education organization helped the state craft a message that would explain this year’s low FCAT scores to the public

Gov. Rick Scott’s office also weighed in, suggesting the Florida Department of Education should make it clear FCAT scores are expected to drop because the state has raised academic standards.

This “FCAT messaging” help is described in emails between DOE and the Governor’s staff available on Scott’s new “sunburst” website. The emails suggest Bush’s groups were in the thick of the discussions on how to publicly discuss lower FCAT scores — a fact that won’t surprise too many Florida education watchers.

In one email, the legislative director for a Bush foundation (there are two) sent a message about a conference call in which the pr firm, GMMB (one that does a lot of work for the Gates Foundation), “will explain the communication strategy to all of you and will provide (initial) key messages and tough Q & A for us to share.”

That message was sent to key DOE and Scott staff but also to influential business groups, like Florida Realtors and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, as well as state education associations (but no, not the Florida Education Association).

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The messaging work looks to continue, as an email meeting alert sent to DOE, Scot and Bush folks notes there’s to be another “FCAT Communications Meeting” on May 30.

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I have heard not a word from Jeb Bush and this newsworthy item is absent from his other FB foundation page as of my last look. However, Ms. Levesque did add her words on the other foundation's FB page and they aroused my curiosity.

Ms. Levesque, the (Writing) test has asked for minimal skills for years. Punctuation, grammar, and capitalization may not matter to you but to Florida's children's future, they may be a must. What future did you envision for (students) who spelled and wrote poorly? You speak of "God-given potential" and asked not that Florida's students spell or wrote properly. Was that beyond their "God-given potential"? How did you determine that?

When did Florida's gifted lose their potential? I didn't consult with God on the topic, just data. What did he/she tell you? I wish he/she would have told me as well. Did God suggest they sit in classes and review previously mastered material ad nauseum so they could score well on a test which many could have passed years earlier? I am not blaming a higher being. I doubt they are in the education business. I am asking you why it took Florida's legislature so many years to pass a bill and why, when it did pass, it had to contain a provision where money would be refunded to the state for failed EOC courses? Why do they still access a test which may be beneath their (instructional) level? I am likely to hold you and Jeb (accountable) for this foolishness. I sat on the first statewide Gifted (Advisory) Committee due (to) the data I generated..and God was not a participant. The gifted in Florida need all the help they can get..please send God to their aid.

What future do you envision for the many students who attend school for 12 years and leave without a hope of a future, having been denied a meaningful (diploma) or vocational licensure?

Have they committed a heinous crime? No, they failed to score as desired on a test. So, am I right that you envisioned deleting the futures of many Floridian students? Have you paved a pathway from high school to poverty? Don't tell me God was in on that one.

How do you find the 2009 NAEP results indicative of Florida's students accessing a bright future when our Seniors scored below the national average in both Reading and Math? Of the 11 participating states, only two other states performed so dismally. Those students in Florida had many years of exposure to the (strategies) you advertise. Do you supply them with the fact I noted? Do you wish students in other states the same (outcome)? I am confused.

The Writing fiasco served as a lightning (strike), illuminating the illusion and lack of credibility of Florida's success. I do figuratively think God may have been in on that, not because a higher being is into education but wishfully, because a major wakeup call was needed to end the harm to Florida's children and their futures.

Where are the words of Jeb? Should not he be held accountable for the failure of the A+ Plan?

Be careful what you set your heart upon--for it will surely be yours.

When he wrote the above line the great James Baldwin, who’s A Talk to Teachers should be required reading in every school of education, was doing a riff on the age-old warning to be careful what you wish for because you might just get it.

Jeb Bush has dreamed his whole political life of plunging a dagger in the heart of public education. His fond hopes were probably best confessed in his second inaugural address as Florida's governor in 2003. Bush told the rapt crowd gathered to hail him, "There will be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers; as silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill." Bush could already see it in his mind’s eye. Yes, school buildings empty of teachers, monuments to an abandoned American crusade for universal public education.

On April 9, 2010 at 2:26 a.m., the Florida House of Representatives voted Jeb Bush closer to his life’s dream than he has ever been. At the very same moment they destroyed it. Jeb Bush, like Icarus, has finally flown too close to the sun. A sleeping giant has been roused.

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It was a striking scene Wednesday as a predominantly black crowd outside of the Capitol cheered as white, millionaire politicians promoted the voucher plan as an antidote to class and racial inequalities.

"In Florida and the United States today, if you've got money, you can make a choice," said Gov. Jeb Bush.
.....

During the campaign Bush was asked by reporters what his administration might do for Black Floridians. He made a tactical blunder. He gave an honest answer.


He said, "Probably nothing."