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Facing blowback, LePage administration quietly dissolved ties with Jeb Bush’s education foundation
Source: Portland Press Herald
A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation shows how links to Jeb Bush's education reform foundation – once central to Gov. Paul LePage's policy goals – evaporated after key events in 2013.
A couple of weeks before Christmas 2012, two mid-level staffers from the Foundation for Excellence in Education – a Florida-based education reform organization founded and chaired by Jeb Bush – were preparing to fly up to Maine for meetings with state education officials here.
It was awkward timing, as Gov. Paul LePage’s administration was under fire after revelations that it had allowed foundation officials to ghost-write many of the state’s virtual charter school policies – including draft legislation, strategic policy goals, and the text of one of LePage’s executive orders – even though their organization was deeply entwined with many of the companies that stood to cash in on the proposed changes.
.....
Jeb Bush, now running for the Republican presidential nomination, has made education reform the centerpiece of his political career. As governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, he championed what became known as the “Florida model,” featuring vigorous testing, school vouchers, and creation of taxpayer-financed for-profit, nonprofit and virtual charter schools. He created the foundation in 2007 and used it to promote the Florida model in other states.
At the height of its influence in Maine in 2012 and early 2013, the foundation shaped large portions of LePage’s education agenda, including the successful introduction of virtual charter schools and the “A-F” grading of public schools.
Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/16/education-agenda-in-maine-shifts-abruptly-and-ties-to-bush-model-go-cold/
I daresay that Jeb Bush's corrosive influence on public education might give him problems in his presidential campaign.
Here, I am adding the following historical information in support of the notion that mucking around with America's public education in pursuit of private profiteering will be Jeb Bush's Waterloo.
In early 2007, Jeb had just left the Florida governor's office. As we saw, and continue to see, 'The Micromanager' went to work early after leaving office, to push his 'education reform' zealotry into other states, as well as continuing to run things in Florida from just offstage..
July 22, 2007:
Jeb Bush agenda to resurrect school vouchers and repeal small classes re-emerges, despite unfavorable Florida Supreme Court rulings against him, and the undisputed will of the voters at the ballot box.
August 17, 2007:
Jeb Bush heads to Maine to push controversial conservative reforms, especially in 'education'.
September 1, 2012:
Special Report: The profit motive behind virtual schools in Maine (This is a must-read to grasp fully the insidious nature of Jeb Bush's zealotry into Maine's educational system, with the intent of remaking the public school system into a profit-making venture for himself and the Bush family, as well as corporations who stand to profit handsomely in the destruction of public education. Jeb Bush has doggedly pursued this agenda nationwide since leaving office in 2007.)
A clip from the above investigative piece, from 2012:
Documents expose the flow of money and influence from corporations that stand to profit from state leaders' efforts to expand and deregulate digital education.
Maine’s education commissioner (Stephen Bowen) had just returned to his Augusta office last October after a three-day trip to San Francisco where he attended a summit of conservative education reformers convened by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, which had paid for the trip.
He’d heard presentations on the merits of full-time virtual public schools — ones without classrooms, playgrounds or in-person teachers — and watched as Bush unveiled the “first ever” report card praising the states that had given online schools the widest leeway.
But what had Bowen especially enthusiastic was his meeting with Bush’s top education aide, Patricia Levesque, who runs the foundation but is paid through her private firm, which lobbies Florida officials on behalf of online education companies.
Bowen was preparing an aggressive reform drive on initiatives intended to dramatically expand and deregulate online education in Maine, but he felt overwhelmed.
“I have no ‘political’ staff who I can work with to move this stuff through the process,” he emailed her from his office.
Levesque replied not to worry; her staff in Florida would be happy to suggest policies, write laws and gubernatorial decrees, and develop strategies to ensure they were implemented.
“When you suggested there might be a way for us to get some policy help, it was all I could do not to jump for joy,” Bowen wrote Levesque from his office.
“Let us help,” she responded.
So was a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.
In the months that followed, according to more than 1,000 pages of emails obtained by a public records request, the commissioner would rely on the foundation to provide him with key portions of his education agenda. These included draft laws, the content of the administration’s digital education strategy and the text of Gov. Paul LePage’s Feb. 1 executive order on digital education.
A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.
He’d heard presentations on the merits of full-time virtual public schools — ones without classrooms, playgrounds or in-person teachers — and watched as Bush unveiled the “first ever” report card praising the states that had given online schools the widest leeway.
But what had Bowen especially enthusiastic was his meeting with Bush’s top education aide, Patricia Levesque, who runs the foundation but is paid through her private firm, which lobbies Florida officials on behalf of online education companies.
Bowen was preparing an aggressive reform drive on initiatives intended to dramatically expand and deregulate online education in Maine, but he felt overwhelmed.
“I have no ‘political’ staff who I can work with to move this stuff through the process,” he emailed her from his office.
Levesque replied not to worry; her staff in Florida would be happy to suggest policies, write laws and gubernatorial decrees, and develop strategies to ensure they were implemented.
“When you suggested there might be a way for us to get some policy help, it was all I could do not to jump for joy,” Bowen wrote Levesque from his office.
“Let us help,” she responded.
So was a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.
In the months that followed, according to more than 1,000 pages of emails obtained by a public records request, the commissioner would rely on the foundation to provide him with key portions of his education agenda. These included draft laws, the content of the administration’s digital education strategy and the text of Gov. Paul LePage’s Feb. 1 executive order on digital education.
A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.
(via Press Herald)
Note who is at the center of the graphic.
March 7, 2013:
LePage to host Florida education reformers
March 18, 2013:
Jeb Bush Will Bring Tale of “Florida Miracle” to Maine
On March 22, Governor Paul LePage will host an event for Jeb Bush and his merry team of market-model crusaders in Augusta, Maine.
Bush will present the full range of ALEC-inspired “reforms” guaranteed to bring privatization and for-profit entrepreneurs to Maine, while demoralizing Maine’s teachers and principals.
How clever to present the rightwing agenda as “reform,” and at the same time advertising Jeb’s Presidential run in 2016.
Bush will present the full range of ALEC-inspired “reforms” guaranteed to bring privatization and for-profit entrepreneurs to Maine, while demoralizing Maine’s teachers and principals.
How clever to present the rightwing agenda as “reform,” and at the same time advertising Jeb’s Presidential run in 2016.
RE The "Florida Miracle":
Florida is Jeb Bush's petri dish for all of his grandiose, self-enriching experiments for 'reform'.
Once again, Jeb Bush's legacy of educational failure slaps Florida in the face., June 19, 2009
FL legislature likely to consider "education savings accounts", says Jeb Bush operative Patricia Levesque, March 2, 2011
I've often wondered, whenever Jeb Bush elbowed his way in front of multiple state legislatures to tout his "education miracles in Florida", why he didn't get his backside handed to him on a platter. Then again, most of those compliant legislatures and governors were GOP-controlled, large and in charge.
Oct 15, 2013:
IRS Complaint Filed Against Jeb Bush's Ed Reform Foundation
This week, as Bush is back in the limelight in Boston kicking off his foundation's annual education reform summit, a New Mexico advocacy group, ProgressNowNM, has filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that Bush's foundation has failed to publicly disclose on its 990 tax forms thousands of dollars it paid to bring public school superintendents, education officials and lawmakers to foundation events where they had private "VIP" meetings with the foundation's for-profit sponsors. Nonprofits are required to disclose payments for public officials' travel and entertainment if it exceeds $1,000. Public records unearthed by the New Mexico group show payments for travel exceeding that amount for several state education officials whose travel wasn't reported on FEE's 990 form.
The complaint alleges that Bush's foundation disguised travel payments for officials as "scholarships" to hide the fact that the nonprofit was basically facilitating lobbying between big corporations and public officials who control local tax dollars. The complaint notes:
The complaint alleges that Bush's foundation disguised travel payments for officials as "scholarships" to hide the fact that the nonprofit was basically facilitating lobbying between big corporations and public officials who control local tax dollars. The complaint notes:
The unorthodox manner of these scholarships—and the fact that they are used as a vehicle to meet with for-profit education corporations—further raises suspicions around the Foundation's failure to properly disclose payment of travel expenses in 2010 and 2011. Additionally, it is possible these unreported payments to the government officials may be deemed to provide a private inurement in violation of IRS regulations.
After May 2014, correspondence between (Bush's) foundation and the (Maine Education) department quickly dwindled to the receipt of mass mailings and short, infrequent exchanges of policy accomplishments and news releases.
August 16, 2015:
Bush resigned from the foundation late last year in preparation for his presidential run, turning the reins over to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had served on its board since January 2013.
January 24, 2015:
Condi Rice taking reins of Jeb Bush’s education foundation
If Jeb Bush is shoehorned into the nomination by The Establishment, mark my words, this person will be on the ticket with him.
10 replies
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Jeb Bush and the Florida Enron scandal ($335 million loss in state pension funds)
Joe Conason: Jeb Bush's enormous political baggage 'might well horrify the national electorate today.'
Bush Family Value$
George W. Bush
Jeb Bush's Administration Steered Florida Pension Money to George W. Bush’s Fundraisers, April 14, 2015
Lehman Brothers
Jeb Bush's private investments in fracking dovetail with public advocacy
The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals, UK Guardian, 1 December 2002
Interactive profile of Jeb Bush, Tampa Bay Times
When Jeb Bush speaks, people cringe (And it ain't just because he calls himself a wonk.)
Jeb, Inc.
Facing blowback, LePage administration quietly dissolved ties with Jeb Bush’s education foundation
#twimg
By the way, here is the info listed by Bloomberg for 'Jeb Bush and Associates', one of his numerous shadowy business entities:
Jeb Bush says there’s no ‘Bush baggage.’ (2012)
This guy, so far, has skated from any appreciable mainstream media scrutiny of his dealings. That's how con men keep 'doing business', i.e. sticking it to regular people. Sunlight. We need sunlight. Hell, we need a thousand suns.
Again, I hope every single person in America is gearing up to run this guy out of town on a rail. And a side trip to prison would be acceptable on the way, for his supportive role as a PNAC signatory, prior to his brother's criminal aggression against Iraq.
That he presents himself as a candidate for the presidency in 2016 spurts a cursed and foul stench into our air.
Joe Conason: Jeb Bush's enormous political baggage 'might well horrify the national electorate today.'
Bush Family Value$
George W. Bush
Jeb Bush's Administration Steered Florida Pension Money to George W. Bush’s Fundraisers, April 14, 2015
Lehman Brothers
Jeb Bush's private investments in fracking dovetail with public advocacy
The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals, UK Guardian, 1 December 2002
Interactive profile of Jeb Bush, Tampa Bay Times
When Jeb Bush speaks, people cringe (And it ain't just because he calls himself a wonk.)
Jeb, Inc.
Facing blowback, LePage administration quietly dissolved ties with Jeb Bush’s education foundation
#twimg
By the way, here is the info listed by Bloomberg for 'Jeb Bush and Associates', one of his numerous shadowy business entities:
Professional Services
Company Overview of Jeb Bush & Associates LLC
Key Executives for Jeb Bush & Associates LLC
Name Board Relationships Title Age
There is no Key Executives data available.
Jeb Bush & Associates LLC Board Members*
Name Board Relationships Primary Company Age
There is no Board Members data available.
Jeb Bush & Associates LLC Executive Committees*
Committee Name Chairperson Board Relationships Members
There is no committee data available.
Jeb Bush says there’s no ‘Bush baggage.’ (2012)
“I don’t think there’s any Bush baggage at all. I love my brother. I’m proud of his accomplishments. I love my dad. I’m proud to be a Bush and if I run for president it’s not because of something in my DNA that compels me to do it,” Bush said on “Fox News Sunday” after host Chris Wallace cited a poll showing the former president with a 49 percent unfavorable rating.
This guy, so far, has skated from any appreciable mainstream media scrutiny of his dealings. That's how con men keep 'doing business', i.e. sticking it to regular people. Sunlight. We need sunlight. Hell, we need a thousand suns.
Again, I hope every single person in America is gearing up to run this guy out of town on a rail. And a side trip to prison would be acceptable on the way, for his supportive role as a PNAC signatory, prior to his brother's criminal aggression against Iraq.
That he presents himself as a candidate for the presidency in 2016 spurts a cursed and foul stench into our air.
