Richard Cohen wrote in the Washington Post yesterday that, as it turns out, phoney statistics were used ti Texas to justify Dubya's claimed education reforms.
But some of the numbers were bogus. Worse, they were plain unbelievable. Schools simply concocted numbers to please headquarters. Dropout rates went down to zero; every high school student was heading off to college, even those in schools where most of the students failed to take the SATs or, when they did, scored dismally. Everything in Houston worked perfectly. The records said so
That should have Floridians worried. After all, on August 16, 2003, the Sun Sentinel reported that a "Texas Company To Evaluate Florida Public Schools". (The article is no longer available online.) More specifically:
Undeterred by the controversy over school testing, Gov. Jeb Bush has asked a politically connected Texas company to do a computer analysis on the state's FCAT scores and suggest more changes to Florida schools.
"I love it," Bush said, when asked about the computer analysis program known as Just for the Kids. "They're a little bit different twist on our grading system, but it's very similar."
Bush met privately last week with the program's founder and head, Tom Luce, a Dallas attorney with strong Republican ties. Luce began the program when Bush's brother, George W. Bush, was governor.
No wonder "Jeb!" loves it - the "politically connected Texas company" run by a man with "strong Republican ties" is guaranteed to reach the right result.
Foley To Drop Out Of Senate Race - "Foley dropping out of Senate race, wants new House term, sources say". This leaves the GOP race to the nutball wing of the Republican Party (not that Foley was much of a "moderate"). The GOP detritus includes : speaker of the state house of representatives, Johnnie Byrd; state Sen. Dan Webster; former Rep. Bill McCollum and Rep. Dave Weldon.
The Miami Herald reports today that "Rep. Mark Foley intends to drop out of the race for the Republican Senate nomination from Florida [Bob Graham's seat] for family reasons and will instead seek reelection to the House, party sources said Thursday night. These sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the lawmaker was expected to announce his plans within a day or two.". See "Foley dropping out of Senate race, wants new House term, sources say".
This leaves the Florida GOP with a handful of candidates from the right wing of the party: speaker of the state house of representatives, Johnnie Byrd; state Sen. Dan Webster; former Rep. Bill McCollum and Rep. Dave Weldon. Foley had been posturing himself as a moderate, and was considered the GOP frontrunner. "The Senate seat in Florida is one of four Southern races that the Republicans have targeted to increase their slim majority", according to the Heradd piece.
Foley has been dogged by rumours that he is gay. In May, Foley held a "news conference to denounce what he says are rumors spread by his political opponents that he is gay. But the fifth-term congressman from West Palm Beach refused to answer questions about whether he is a homosexual, saying his sexual preference had no bearing on his duties as a lawmaker." See "Foley denounces reports that he is gay".
GOP allies on the extreme right were critical of Foley. Consider this from the Concerned Women for Americs: "'. . . Foley could be, if he were to come out, the first openly gay senator of any party in United States history.' That is precisely the fear of some conservatives who don’t want the first 'openly gay' senator on Capitol Hill—whether he runs as a homosexual now or is 'outed' later—to be a Republican."
Tell Us Something We Don't Know -
While virtually everyone agrees Florida's economy -- long dependent on tourism, trade and real estate -- should be more diversified, developing new industries would take political and economic resources that the state has not been willing to expend.
That was the message delivered to members of Gov. Jeb Bush's economic diversification team, who held the Southeast Regional Strategic Planning Meeting on Thursday at the Deerfield Beach Hilton.
. . .
Nationally, unemployment has been rising and the country has lost some 3 million jobs since the brief recession of 2001. A new national unemployment report is due out today.
Meanwhile, new research suggests Florida's much-vaunted job growth in the 1990s did little to improve living standards for millions of workers here. Bruce Nissen, a labor market researcher at Florida International University, released a study last week that found the state's average wage is only 87 percent of the national average, and that nearly 40 percent of the Florida workforce earns less than $9 per hour.
What the panelists were told, repeatedly, was that Florida's historic reliance on visitor and hospitality industries has rendered the state overly dependent on low-income jobs. Yet, the state's tepid support of education and checkered record on infrastructure improvements has made it difficult to nurture or recruit higher-paying industries, who are turned off by inadequate schools, poorly trained workers or difficulties negotiating South Florida traffic.