Speakers say education fixes not easy
Ex-Fla. Gov. Bush warns resistance will be fierce
“There was no ‘kumbaya’ moment in Florida. This is a decade-long struggle.” Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida
Ensuring the state has effective teachers and more school choices are two of the keys to improving public schools in Louisiana but both efforts will also spark fierce political resistance, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday.
“Put on your Kevlar,” Bush said, a reference to the material used in bulletproof vests.
Bush made his comments to an unusual gathering of about 800 educators and others during a day-long gathering touted as way to launch a new “school reform” push, including sweeping changes in the state’s roughly 1,500 public schools.
House Education Committee Chairman Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, organized the event, which he called a way to hear first-hand about education improvement efforts elsewhere.
The meeting, called “Leadership for Change,” included Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu praising each other’s bids to improve schools and national speakers spelling out what it took to forge changes in their states.
Bush, who was Florida governor from 1999 to 2007, made it clear that Florida’s push to improve student achievement took place amid furious opposition from teacher unions and others.
He said his state’s decision to give public schools traditional letter grades — Louisiana started doing so last year — was considered a radical idea.
“It is a radical idea if you haven’t done it before,” Bush said.
While 44 percent of public schools in Louisiana got a “D” or “F” last year, Bush said a majority of schools in Florida got the same grades in 1999.
“But, over time, there was dramatic improvement,” he said, adding later that Florida’s high school graduation rate is at the national average now after being 50th in the nation in 2000.
Bush noted that Jindal is proposing major changes aimed at making sure that every classroom has an effective teacher, including a form of merit pay that could end across-the-board pay raises and revamping teacher job protection rules, which are called tenure.
“It will be hard,” Bush said. “People feel threatened. It is not an easy thing to do.”
But he said the push is based on the idea that some teachers do a top-notch job and should be paid more than those who fail to perform.
Bush also praised school choice — another key item on Jindal’s 2012 public school agenda — and said such options both empower parents and often result in formerly troubled schools getting better.
“This is controversial, trust me,” he said.
“There was no ‘kumbaya’ moment in Florida,” Bush said. “This is a decade-long struggle.”
Louisiana’s two largest teacher unions have criticized some of Jindal’s key public school proposals, which they say could do serious harm to traditional public schools.
Landrieu, who said the gathering could provide a “tipping point” toward major school improvements, complimented Jindal’s willingness to launch a major push to improve public schools at the start of his second term.
She also said she plans to be involved in this year’s state education debate, and has been in contact with the governor’s staff.
But Landrieu said that, while she backs school choice, Jindal’s proposal to let low-income students in schools given a “C,” “D” or “F” get state aid to attend private or parochial schools faces practical problems because it would apply to 380,000 of Louisiana’s roughly 700,000 public school students.
“Let’s just get real about this issue of choice and what it means,” she said.
Jindal touted his school choice plans, in part because he said the state is spending $1 billion per year on failing public schools.
“That’s not good government,” he said.
In a meeting with reporters later, Jindal stopped short of calling for the resignation of Michael Walker-Jones, who is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators, one of the state’s two largest teacher unions.
Jindal has criticized as arrogant a comment by Jones-Walker last week in which he was quoted as saying that some parents may not have the time or information to make a decision on their child’s education.
Walker-Jones said last week that he tried to say that parents are owed more information about their schools than they are getting.
He declined comment on Monday night.
Howard Fuller, the founder of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, said revamping public schools is difficult.
“I have concluded that most people in America want change if nothing changes,” Fuller told the group.
He said new school approaches are needed because children’s lives are being affected by two giant problems.
“In Louisiana and in America, race matters and class matters,” Fuller said.