FL private school: No accreditation; run by headmaster with felony record; siphoning public money

[seafan]

This is your state on the Jeb Bush "Bold Education Reform" Plan.


You know, the plan he's bigfooting around the country to preach, that privatizes public education, pushes out teachers, strips them of their tenure and salary, forces standardized annual testing of students, pushes virtual learning via computers at home, and funnels all that delicious state money into the pockets of dirty-fisted thieves and felons.




Exclusive: State looks into parents' Edison Prep complaints

By Melanie Payne
News-Press

June 7, 2011

A private Fort Myers high school, operating on city property without legitimate accreditation and owned by a headmaster with a felony record, received almost 25 percent of its tuition fees last year from a taxpayer-funded state scholarship program.

A News-Press investigation of Edison Preparatory School in the Fort Myers Skatium has found:

• The school, for hockey players and figure skaters, received more than $52,000 from the state's McKay Scholarship program.

• The school's state scholarship compliance documents were signed by a part-time, volunteer administrator not involved in Edison Prep's day-to-day operations.

• Students transferring from Edison Prep to Lee public schools must repeat grades and/or course work because courses at Edison Prep don't transfer.

• Edison Prep graduates are unable to be admitted to some state universities and must take additional testing for admission to others.

Parents' allegations and The News-Press inquiries prompted a review of Edison Preparatory School by the Florida Department of Education.

In a letter sent to Edison Prep on Thursday, the DOE asked for additional documentation proving the school is in compliance, including evidence of criminal background checks.

.....

I'm sure Jeb is too busy to comment on this, the inevitable direction of his grand plans to privatize public education.

Besides, he just got back from selling his snake oil in Michigan last week. Part of his nationwide "tour", you see.



Here's some feedback from Jeb's visit in Michigan:

.....

Doug Pratt, Communications Director of Michigan Education Association, in an email to the Michigan Messenger said adopting merit pay would be futile in attempting to increase student achievement, saying research shows no correlation between the two.

“Jeb’s ideas are designed to dismantle and privatize our system of public education,” Pratt said.

Bush also talked about how the role of teachers would change when Michigan moved toward a more technology and online based learning environment.

“It makes the teaching experience different, less focused on world class content and more focused on managing the learning experience that could be unique for each child,” said Bush. “That may sound like some weird notion but that’s how life works in America and across the world today and it could easily work in education with structural changes.”

But not everyone was convinced. Rep. Brown questioned Bush and Levesque about their success with college entrance exams, pointing out that, even after the Bush reforms in Florida, Michigan’s college bound students outperformed Florida students in the ACT. Michigan students, she said, average a score of 19 on the ACT, while Florida students averaged 16.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Jeb Bush



Meanwhile, back in Jeb!'s Florida:


More than 7,000 Florida FCAT exams flagged for possible cheating

Valerie Strauss writes:

June 18, 2011

.....

But now we have teachers (and even principals) who are allegedly helping them cheat because of the new trend to evaluate educators on the basis of how well their students do on these tests. It’s not a fair way to evaluate teachers (hungry, sick, anxious and uninterested kids probably won’t do well on a test, and teachers can’t necessarily address all those problems), but that hasn’t stopped state after state from adopting the approach, with the blessing of the Obama administration.

If the repeated cheating scandals don’t serve as some kind of warning to those who support using these tests as the heart of school accountability, I’m not sure what will.

Bush still has most Fla. Dems wearing dunce caps

This, including the headline is from the AP.

June 14, 2011

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Former Gov. Jeb Bush's annual legislative "report card" still has most Democrats wearing dunce caps and Republicans getting gold stars.

Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future issued the legislative grades Monday.

The grades are based on how legislators voted on education measures favored by Bush, a Republican.

They include a new law that eliminates tenure for new teachers. It also calls for merit pay that rewards teachers based heavily on student test results.

Bush also favored measures to expand vouchers and charter schools.

Only two Democrats earned A's: Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando and Rep. Leonard Bembry of Greenville.

Most other Democrats got F's while nearly all Republican's got A's.

via Miami New Times


Once again, Jeb Bush's legacy of educational failure slaps Florida in the face.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[Tatiana]

2. Jeb Bush and those supporting his "reforms" are nothing but crooks in my book.

They don't have the best interests of children at heart whatsoever. They want to make profits for their buddies and corporate cronies. To achieve this, they must bust the teachers' unions and privatize as much of "public education" as they can via vouchers and charter schools.

This is a disgrace and a betrayal of the principles of public education most Americans hold dear. Unfortunately, the masses are allowing themselves to be brainwashed by the gimmicks and smart-sounding slogans of the education deformers. At this rate, we won't have much of a public education system to bequeath to the future generations. Education will return to being a privilege reserved for the wealthy and connected.

[Generic Other]

3. Another Bush failure....perfectly captured by the founding wizard at plimouth plantation

Gees, could the man look more undignified???

[hootinholler]

4. NCLB =

No Child Left Behind in a public school.

-Hoot