Bill Gates & Eli Broad contribute millions to Jeb Bush's influential Ed Deform non-profit

[Hannah Bell]

With the dust settling on legislative sessions around the country, 2011 is shaping up as one of the most consequential years in memory for changes in the way schools are run.

The new (education) policies have many champions, but a little-known common denominator behind sweeping measures in nearly a dozen states is Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, who has re-emerged as an adviser to governors and lawmakers, mostly Republicans, who are interested in imitating what he calls “the Florida formula” for education.

Mr. Bush, for example, has been closely involved in new education bills and laws in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah. One out of five state school superintendents have joined a group that his national foundation created... He came to support measures introduced after 30 Minnesota lawmakers, mostly freshmen Republicans, had attended a Washington summit meeting in December organized by Mr. Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.

The nonprofit group received contributions of $2.9 million in 2009, from the foundations of Bill Gates and Eli Broad, among others...The most complete adoption of Mr. Bush’s approach has been in Indiana, where Gov. Mitch Daniels’s education talking points in his State of the State speech closely echoed a mission statement of Mr. Bush’s foundation...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/education/27bush.html?_r=1

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. They should try the Maryland education formula instead

[loudsue]

2. And this is one reason I'll never buy another microsoft product.

I'm fed up with the billions spent on screwing up this country.

[aquart]

3. These men are insufficiently taxed.

[DCKit]

4. "...who are interested in imitating what he calls “the Florida formula” for education."

Why do they hate America and her children?

[madrchsod]

5. ......who have the backing of our good friends arnie and barack.