The Gainesville Sun summarizes where things stand on the corporate voucher scam:
Accountability in education has been a buzzword in Tallahassee since Gov. Jeb Bush arrived in 1999, but it hasn't applied to schools using state voucher money.
Thanks mainly to the reporting of The Palm Beach Post, the public now knows just how lax state regulation over the corporate income tax credit voucher program has been.
The newspaper revealed that the state doesn't know which students or schools participate in the program; that an Islamic school founded by Sami Al-Arian, who has been accused of funding terrorists, got $350,000 of voucher money; and that home-schooling consultants were receiving McKay vouchers meant for disabled children even though the Legislature didn't intend for that to happen.
Recently, the same newspaper reported that "the bankrupt officer of an Ocala correspondence school had collected a few hundred thousand dollars in tax-credit money after winning state approval to operate as a scholarship funding organization, or SFO." . . .
Vouchers are a basic element in the prevailing neoconservative agenda enthusiastically pursued by Gov. Bush. But it's amazing that the governor and his allies in the Legislature could have been so indifferent to the need for making sure the state's tax money is used for the purposes intended. . . .
Earlier in August, Horne and Bush announced they would require that schools receiving voucher funds fill out questionnaires that would give the state a list - for the first time - of the institutions benefiting from the program. Critics - mostly Democrats but some Republicans as well - said the changes don't go far enough. . . .
It's unclear why Bush, who is FCAT's strongest supporter, has been unwilling to extend it to the voucher schools. Without it, how can the state know whether the voucher students are getting an equal or better education than they could have gotten in the public schools?
The immediate danger is that Bush and Horne will try to rush their modest reforms through the Legislature in a special session in October, and then block a more comprehensive review next spring.
Gov. Jeb Bush introduced his brother to the 720 donors in attendance as "a courageous man of integrity, someone who has a vision for this country." The governor also said the money raised was a Republican record for an event in Broward County.
"I know this is supposed to be a Democratic stronghold, but it doesn't look it tonight, does it," the governor said. "I'm real excited about this."
This was the president's 16th visit to Florida, third only to Texas and Pennsylvania as his most-visited states.
Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, has called Florida "ground zero" in next year's race.
"I'm going to need your help," Bush told people at his $2,000-a-plate fund-raiser in the stadium's East Club.
The Democrats, however, have skewered Bush for 3 million lost jobs and difficulties managing the occupation of Iraq. The president's poll numbers have dipped and he said fund-raising events like yesterday's are necessary for him to run a credible campaign.
With that backdrop and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, beside him, the president hit boosters with even more of a stump speech than some expected.
"There's a lot of talk about politics these days. And I'm loosening up. I'm getting ready," Bush said before outlining his domestic and foreign policy goals.
All told, the Republican president has raised more than $62.6 million to keep the White House, a staggering figure to his Democratic Party competitors.
A Zogby International poll last week showed the president's job approval dropping to 45 percent, its worst since his inauguration after the divisive 2000 recount.
Has The Florida Times Union Already Endorsed Dubya? Get this editorial headline about Dubya in the alleged newspaper in Jax: "Still work to do". And they are not referring to work that must be done to make this country better, but rather to work that must be done to ensure Dubya is elected in 2004. Incredible.
Dubya Has 13-Year-Old Vote Locked Up -
Only a handful of Bush supporters joined the protest, led by 13-year-old Pinecrest student Mackenzie Malcolm, whose parents, Jack and Lisa Malcolm, watched their eighth-grader proudly. Their 16-year-old son, Andrew was a volunteer worker inside the hotel. Younger sister Mackenzie was so disturbed by some of the protest signs that she ran back to her nearby home to draw her own ''We Support Bush'' sign on neon-pink poster board.
Fundraising Trip In Part On Taxpayers' Tab . . . "Minutes after pulling in $1.7 million for his re-election account, President Bush delivered a bare-bones education speech Tuesday, touting a school measure where 'every child can learn.'" See "Bush works campaign trail".
While "Jeb!" Raises Money For Bro . . .In Florida, . . . education officials said "adequate yearly progress" last year meant 31 percent of students should be able to read on grade level. Those same officials begrudgingly announced last month that an eye-popping 88 percent of schools failed to meet that standard. "U.S. education law nets mishmash of results".
A key South Florida Water Management District employee was demoted and had his pay cut [by Henry Dean, the district's executive director] for telling a reporter that a key project is behind schedule. Does the area's most important government agency care more about image or getting the work done? . . .
There are patterns here. In 1999, under Mr. Dean's predecessor, the district fired its research director for remarks he made at a conference. In 2000, the district forced out its land-buying specialist because a newspaper reported that he disputed Gov. Bush's opinion of a land purchase. At a key time for acquiring land for the restoration, the district went without a successor for 18 months. And in 1998, as director of the St. Johns Water Management District, Mr. Dean fired the agency's spokesman for suggesting that a section of Jacksonville had flooded because the city had allowed houses on a floodplain.
Squeezed by fast-rising health-care costs, employers are again requiring their workers to shoulder more of the burden for medical expenses this year and aren't likely to let up anytime soon, according to a study released Tuesday.
Three Texas legislators visited South Florida on Monday to say Republicans have shown a "national pattern of abuse of power" by trying to scrap Democratic congressional districts and overturn elections the GOP lost.
Claiming that supervisors will get more money than "frontline troops," the union representing most state workers Monday threatened to file a legal challenge against a pay-raise plan for Florida's beleaguered child-protection workers. 5:21 AM
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