Indiana leaders call in Jeb Bush to reform their schools.

madfloridian

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Tue Sep-08-09 07:06 PM
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Indiana leaders call in Jeb Bush to reform their schools.

He's left Florida scrambling for accountability, left behind an odd mixture of schools in various stages of productivity. He is now in Indiana with the governor to save their schools like he did ours.

Indiana leaders fall hard for Jeb-style education reforms

Photo from the Indianapolis Star

Jeb Bush hasn't been Florida governor for nearly three years now. Yet the stamp he placed on Florida's education system has been indelible — so much so that other states still bring him in to talk about what he did and how they can do it, too.

This week, Jeb headed to Indianapolis, where he spoke to state leaders about school grading, charter schools, third-grade promotion requirements and several other things he brought to Florida's public schools.

They ate it up.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels "would like to adopt everything Bush described — and more." State superintendent of public instruction Tony Bennett was equally enthusiastic, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

"There is nothing off the table in the areas of freedom, competition and accountability," Bennett told the Courier-Journal.

Just as many in Florida are rethinking some of the changes here, they are being praised by other states.

From the Chicago Tribune:

New model for Indiana school accountability discussed

NDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Department of Education wants to change the way school accountability is evaluated, with more emphasis on how students improve over the years instead of focusing mostly on how schools perform on a yearly basis.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett discussed in vague terms an outline of a model Wednesday before the Indiana Education Roundtable, an advisory group that includes lawmakers, educators and business leaders.

Gov. Mitch Daniels co-chaired the meeting, and said Indiana should adopt some major educational changes that were pushed through in Florida under its former Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush detailed some of the changes during the meeting, including a new accountability system that places more emphasis on struggling students, more charter schools and requiring most third-graders to read before they can move to the fourth grade.

It also gives schools letter grades from A to F, which those behind the system say is easier for the public and schools to understand and has increased community involvement in many failing schools.

The A to F grades are decided on how well students test, which in turn judges how well teachers teach, which in turn grades the schools. Schools are then closed and turned into something else after a certain time, usually charter schools.

Meanwhile Florida is cracking down on charter schools for nepotism and lax financial controls.

Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, would no longer be able to hire and do business with relatives, and they would be forced to communicate students' academic performance even when the state does not give the schools a letter grade. The bill (SB 278) would also authorize school districts and other charter sponsors to terminate a school's contract if its administrators do not correct financial deficiencies.

The measure now heads to the House, where similar legislation failed last year after unanimously passing the Senate. Proponents say this year's version stands a better chance of passing, with support from the charter-school industry and a coalition of House members.

..."The series of articles found a disproportionate number of charter operations were among the worst-performing schools in the state. More than half of all charters reported operating at a loss, and nearly half had financial arrangements with insiders that would not be allowed in regular schools. Some of the schools performed dismally year after year without raising any alarm or any push for change. The state's controls were so few that a Pensacola-area charter rented out its teens for road work for five years.

Jeb's group for pushing education reform is called the Foundation for Excellence in Education

His partners and patrons are listed at the site. That list has tripled since I last saw it a couple of years ago. He has been a busy fellow.

He and Newt Gingrich are seeing their dreams come true.