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Go Big Or Go Home: Bush Encourages Large Scale Education Projects

Former Gov. Jeb Bush speaking at the Foundation for Excellence in Education summit.
ExcellinEd webstream

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is pushing for major changes in the country’s education system.  He’s urging activists to take big swings under the incoming administration.

Shortly after leaving the governor’s mansion, Jeb Bush started the foundation for excellence in education.  The think tank based in Tallahassee advocates for school choice, performance funding, and higher standards.  But with a chairman fresh from a failed presidential bid the election hung over Bush’s keynote address.

“It is good to be here at the ninth annual summit, I actually planned not to be here this year,” Bush said to polite laugher.  “I hoped to be pursuing another kind of public service.”

Still, Bush sees a silver lining. 

President elect Donald Trump’s choice for education secretary is a former ExellinEd board member.  And with Republicans in control of numerous state governments, the legislature and the presidency, Bush believes the time could be ripe for disruptive change.  He urges summit attendees to aim for big projects that can survive on their own momentum.

“There are many states that have begun to implement ESAs or vouchers for example for children with learning disabilities and they have 400 kids,” Bush says.  “You know in a state of any kind of size that’s not scale, and so that program could wither away because there isn’t a constituency for it.” 

“What you need to do is build a constituency so people can’t turn back.”

Dismantling big programs, Bush says, results in big political blowback.  For example, he notes with a hundred thousand kids taking advantage of Florida’s corporate tax scholarships, a court ruling abolishing the program would outrage thousands of voters.  

Nick Evans came to Tallahassee to pursue a masters in communications at Florida State University. He graduated in 2014, but not before picking up an internship at WFSU. While he worked on his degree Nick moved from intern, to part-timer, to full-time reporter. Before moving to Tallahassee, Nick lived in and around the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years. He listens to far too many podcasts and is a die-hard 49ers football fan. When Nick’s not at work he likes to cook, play music and read.