{"id":15366,"date":"2012-12-04T13:10:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T18:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=15366"},"modified":"2012-12-04T13:13:45","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T18:13:45","slug":"education-foundation-blogger-defends-jeb-bushs-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/12\/04\/education-foundation-blogger-defends-jeb-bushs-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Foundation Blogger Defends Jeb Bush’s Record"},"content":{"rendered":"
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yuan2003 \/ Flickr<\/p>

A blogger with the Foundation for Excellence in Education is playing tenacious D over a Reuters story critical of former Gov. Jeb Bush.<\/p><\/div>\n

Remember that Reuters story last week which took a longer look at claims that Florida schools have improved under former Gov. Jeb Bush’s leadership<\/a>?<\/p>\n

A blogger for the Foundation for Excellence in Education — one of two foundations Bush started to support his education agenda — has responded. Mike Thomas counts the Reuters piece among stories “crafted to reach a pre-ordained conclusion.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas cites a list of examples where he feels the story’s author cherry-picking contrary data or just ignored evidence entirely. This includes improving test scores from black and Hispanic students; expanding access to Advanced Placement courses; increasing the percentage of students taking the SAT — and earning higher scores.<\/p>\n

He also faults the story for attributing school improvement to a constitutional amendment limiting class sizes, when the amendment was not fully phased in until after Florida schools had started showing improvement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thomas argues that Bush deserves scrutiny, but that the facts are nuanced<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Of course Florida isn\u2019t going to record the kind of academic scores you see in Massachusetts. Florida has a 56 percent minority student population, with 57 percent of students on free-and-reduce lunches. Florida has a much greater percentage of students who speak English as a second language. The Great Recession hit Florida much harder than other states. Yet the state has moved the needle in a meaningful way. Does Florida have a very long way to go? Absolutely. Is everything Florida does perfect? No. Did Florida gains backslide a bit in 2011 after more than 10 years of solid gains. Yes.<\/p>\n

Does digital education, still in its DOS phase, have a ways to go? Yes. But digital education has unlimited potential for customizing education for each student. I understand there are for-profit companies involved in digital ed. And to that, I say that the best software companies in the world are for-profit. Please, let them compete over the business of educating kids instead of just entertaining them.<\/p>\n

Should Jeb Bush be scrutinized? Definitely.<\/p>\n

But a news operation with Reuters\u2019 reputation has a responsibility to present a balanced view of major issues like education. That certainly was not the case here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We expect you’ll see a lot more stories taking a second look at Bush’s education record as the 2016 Republican primary draws nearer. You’ll also see supporters circling the wagons to defend his record both in and out of office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember that Reuters story last week which took a longer look at claims that Florida schools have improved under former Gov. Jeb Bush’s leadership? A blogger for the Foundation for Excellence in Education — one of two foundations Bush started to support his education agenda — has responded. Mike Thomas counts the Reuters piece among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":15367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[67,1026,19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15373,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15366\/revisions\/15373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}