Honestly. There is something that Jeb Bush has lacked on his staff for too long now: The Crusty Old Friend. He needs a C.O.F., probably as general counsel, who could take him into a private room and call him a (bleeping) (bleep).

But, no. If the governor is petulant, the staff is petulant too. How unfair that the voters passed Amendment 9! They must be taught a lesson. If it takes smelly clams and throwing out Andrew Jackson’s long johns, so be it.

Simon Says . . . say that the governor is always right!

No Dickensian caricature could produce words as sniveling as those of Ken Detzner, the fill-in secretary of state, who was assigned the duty of defending the library’s destruction. The man would have served well at Alexandria. Detzner tackled the task with Ron Ziegler-esque zeal in a series of letters to the editor.

But the state’s librarians stood up to Jeb and won.

After months of controversy that included thousands of
e-mails, petition signatures and hundreds of picketers at the State Capitol,
the Florida House voted Friday to ditch Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to give the
biggest collection at the century-old State Library to Nova Southeastern
University.

Here in Florida, Jeb Bush may have finally left Tallahassee, but his education “legacy” (many teachers and students think “curse” would be a better word) lives on in the new rule that high schoolers must choose majors. The FCAT still rules our schools, trampling imagination under its Godzillan tread, though Gov. Charlie Crist has indicated he might make some welcome changes in it. Still, the former governor’s constant exhortations to universities that they should shape their curricula to the current “needs” of business has created a climate in which learning is ancillary to commerce. You pay the money, pass the exams and get the degree. Your education is only as good as the market says it is.

“It’s not about liberal education and critical thinking,” says Dennis Baron, a former columnist for the Chronicle of Higher Education and commentator on education policy. “It’s about training a docile work force.”

Once again we are left to wonder with Diane Roberts how a president married to a librarian could not have been directed to read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War or Melville’s Moby Dick.

No wonder the Bush brothers and the GOP push lock-step testing to suppress critical thinking.

And while the Bush brothers are at that, they find a way to practice crony capitalism:

A scorching internal review of the Bush administration’s reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money the way it wanted.The government audit is unsparing in its review of how the billion-dollar-a-year Reading First program has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum the schools must use.

Another reason for Villalobos’ win: The unprecedented negative advertising blitz targeting him backfired on Bolaños and his supporters, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and an education lobby group, All Children Matter, that was miffed that he voted against a Bush school-voucher plan.

The group, All Children Matter, supports candidates nationwide who favor using public voucher money to send poor children to private schools. Also contribued was $10,000 from Betsy DeVos, whose family built the marketing company Amway and owns the Orlando Magic. The families have long been active in the school-choice movement.

[Frank Bolaños is one of the Miami-Dade School Board members who voted to censor a book about Cuba].

The New York Times reports on 8/27/2006: ‘A federal study showing that fourth graders in charter schools score worse in reading and math than their public school counterparts should cause some soul-searching in Congress. Too many lawmakers seem to believe that the only thing wrong with American education is the public school system, and that converting lagging schools to charter schools would cause them to magically improve.’

In Florida, under Jeb Bush, many charter schools–an idea he has aggressively pushed– have become part of a corporate mentality. The Florida Supreme Court ensured that Bush did lose his drive to enact the country’s first state-wide voucher program- in Bush v. Holmes.
People for the American Way report that on August 16, 2004, the Florida Court of Appeal upheld the circuit court’s ruling in a 2-1 decision. As the majority held, the “no aid” provision of the Florida Constitution clearly prohibits the state from using public funds directly or indirectly to aid religious institutions, as happens under the voucher program. In an 8-6 en banc ruling issued on November 12, 2004, the majority of the full Court of Appeals similarly held that the voucher law violates the “no aid” provision on the state Constitution. The court certified the case to the Florida Supreme Court as one involving a question of “great public importance.” The state appealed to the Florida Supreme Court on January 5, 2006. That Court, in a 5-2 ruling, struck down the voucher law on the ground that it violates the Education Clause of the Florida Constitution.

Charter schools are just another way for Barbara Bush and her son Neil Bush to use the public good for their own financial betterment. Mrs. Bush I donated to her son Neil’s company for software for a charter school as her idea of “hurricane relief.” The motives behind charetr schools may have been pure to some participants but the politicians ramming them through had many less pure motives…like Mrs. Bush I lining Neil Bush’s pockets. There is just no bottom to the Bush family’s greed.

Jeb Bush vetoed library finding in 2006. As part of an unprecedented $448.7-million line-item veto of state funding, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slashed a total of $5.8 million in grants to public libraries, pilot projects for library homework help and web-based high-school texts, and funding for a joint-use library in Tampa.

Jeb Bush with the support of his appointee Judy Ring tried to close the state library of Florida in 2003.

One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control over knowledge. By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking….

So, as part of an education bill signed into law by Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida has declared that “American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed.”

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Well, it won’t be the first time Jeb Bush has tried to repress critical inquiry. He tried to erase Florida’s past (but failed).

Jeb Bush has made many poor judgments as governor of Florida. He failed in closing Florida’s State Library and when he was beaten by the legislature and the people of the state he showed his mean-spiritedness by cutting library funds. [Public libraries cut for sixth year]

P.S. His brother, George, makes the same kind of mistakes:

Bush Taps Kerik to Head Homeland Security

A year and a half after his Homeland Security nomination sank over ethics questions, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik pleaded guilty Friday to charges of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts while he was a top city official.
Former White House adviser Claude Allen is in negotiations with prosecutors to avoid trial

Enron, in case anyone forgot, was Bush’s biggest Lone Star political contributor.

“A federal jury found former White House aide David H. Safavian guilty yesterday of lying and obstructing justice, making him the highest-ranking government official to be convicted in the spreading scandal involving disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.”

Libraries Puzzled at Veto In Light of Service to Floridians.

May 25, 2006.

Contacts: Ruth O’Donnell Executive Director, FLA (850) 668-6911 flaexecutivedirector@comcast.net

TALLAHASSEE – Today Florida Governor Jeb Bush vetoed a $2.2 million supplemental library appropriation for Florida public libraries. State funding for Florida’s public libraries has decreased by $1.6 million dollars (from $33.4 million to $31.8 million) in recent years. The vetoed appropriation would have helped make up for inflation and the cost of serving millions of new residents. “We do not understand why the Governor would veto funding for Florida’s public libraries,” said Sol Hirsch, President of the Florida Library Association. “Libraries work hard to support the Governor’s priorities, state agencies, and programs. We had no indication from the Governor’s Office that there were problems all session and frankly we were surprised. We want to thank the many legislators who worked hard for this appropriation and we look forward to working with them next year.” Public libraries support the Governor’s priorities and state programs in a number of ways, including the following.

Early Child Learning – Libraries work with parents, very young children, and care providers to ensure that young children begin the process of learning to read at an early age and are ready to learn when they reach school.

Reading – Public libraries circulate over 95 million items annually and actively support statewide reading initiatives.

Education – Public libraries provide information resources and assistance to students in the state’s schools, home schooled children, individuals enrolled in higher education, and adults engaged in lifelong learning.

Emergency Operations – Library staff are active participants in local government emergency operations, supporting hurricane and emergency recovery efforts.

Department of Children and Families – When DCF closed regional offices, residents needing help were directed to public libraries where staff help them use library computers to sign up for services online.

Early Voting Sites – Public libraries will play a major role in early voting this fall since only public libraries, city halls and supervisors of elections offices can be used as early voting sites. Floridians love to use their public libraries as the following statistics demonstrate.

Library card holders – 8.7 million

Library visits – 70,233,253 million or 3.98 per capita

Items circulated – 95 million – 23.9 million by youth

Programs – 2.9 million youth attended 97,358 programs

Computers provided – 8,344  Computer users – Almost 14 million

Computer users trained – 1.3 million

Visits to library websites – 51 million Statistics from 2005 Florida Library Directory With Statistics (covers 2003-04) ~ ~ ~

Jeb Bush with Katherine Harris, former Sec. of State and formerly over the State Library of Florida and George Bush prior to May 2006 fundraising.

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Continuing his efforts to cuts undercut Florida’s libraries Jeb Bush cut much library support in the state’s budget.

Bush also trumpeted nearly $300 million in tax cuts accounted for in the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, particularly noting the elimination of a tax on stock and bond holdings, which he called an “evil, insidious tax.”