It is 2015 and the whole world will soon be going bat crap crazy with all the pundits calling this candidate and that as the new “Messiah” for whichever party they represent…….
Hillary is a given but what about the GOP…..Cruz, Rubio, Huckabee, Santorum or maybe Jeb Bush……good question, right?
Seems Jeb maybe getting ready for a hat toss……..
One more sign that when Jeb Bush says he is “actively exploring” a presidential run in 2016, it means the formal announcement is just a matter of time: He has resigned from all his boards and continues to “shed business interests” ahead of a primary fight, reports the Washington Post. “This is a natural next step that will allow him to focus his time on gauging interest for a potential run,” says his spokeswoman.
The Post singles out one business connection in particular that opponents might have seized upon to sully his image as an education reformer: He had been a paid adviser for Academic Partnerships, a for-profit education firm that sells online courses to public universities. As the Post writes, “some faculty members say it siphons money from the schools while asserting too much control over academic decisions.” Meanwhile, Bush also rejected an invitation from Rep. Steve King to speak at the Iowa Freedom Summit later this month. Bush cited a scheduling conflict, though the AP notes it could have been politically dicey: King is a vocal critic of immigration reform, while Bush is an advocate.
What say you….will it be Jeb?
I doubt it. I think he is – god help us – too moderate for the party and has forgotten what a campaign actually is after x years away. I expect he will get butt kicked.
You may be right in the primaries….but with the batch of losers wanting to run he may have a good chance in a general…..chuq
I think it will be Jeb, Rand Paul, or…..Romney.
Marco Rubio could be a good choice, but Republicans are too ignorant to see it….
Romney is a proven loser…Paul may get a nod but I do not believe he can do it because the M-IC does not want an isolationist as prez…..
Hope you had a good holiday season….chuq
Jeb and education: Taught high school history 33 years in Miami Dade Country . Only the staunchest of conservative Republicans approved of his record. Most teachers here democrats and most teachers here of ethnic minorities(but they are the majority)also democrats and he was hated for his education initiatives. The attributions to him as an education Messiah are not merited. Here’s why:
They raised the bar of expectations for mastery and performance and increased testing. Well that worked for the college bound-they got smarter. But the expectations are set for college track and majority of kids not at that proficiency. Their performance was not raised and this increased the drop out rate enormously. If they’re getting D’s and F’s in classes they won’t have a 2.0 to graduate and are unable to pass the state test in 10th grade to graduate. The standards destroy the will of kids to even try.
Now of course the effort in the first place is to raise their proficiency. Let’s take math for example. Kids here are expected to have mastered algebra I leaving the 8th grade. Whether they have or not the progression starts with algebra II, geometry, trigonometry and pre calculus. Not everyone has the mental acuity for these subjects. It is a special talent like music, art, athletics and so forth and the Bushites never understood that. Neither do present administrators. I have two BA’s and 2 MA’s and can’t do 8th grade algebra I. Yet I will blow you away at almost every other subject. My IQ measured at 147 but I cannot do algebra I. It is said Einstein could not balance a check book. Whether that is true or not is immaterial as it merely illustrates a point. I barely graduated college because of horrible grades in math and foreign language but I have achieved and excelled in many areas for the abilities I do have along with my education.
Miami schools are 80% minority and over 50% foreign born. The tests are based on a standard white culture’s expectations. Does not fit here. If autumn is an answer the kids will get it wrong as they have never heard of it. The term here is fall. Caribbean English uses the subjective case for all pronouns. There is no objective case or possessive case. It is “I gave the book to he” not him. It is “she book” not her book. So they get all those answers wrong. If the answer is wrench they get that wrong because in Caribbean English a wrench is a spinner.
For the majority here English is the secondary language so that certainly skews the test scores down.
I wrote Jeb Bush, 6 state senators and 12 state representatives and well as school and local officials to make book keeping and accounting math credits which would keep many in school and prepare them for jobs. I received one answer only from the math coordinator of the Miami Dade County’s math division. She said my understandings were ridiculous as students must be prepared to help the country compete in the world’s marketplace and scientific areas. The dopey woman thinks all kids are going to go to work for NASA.
Your story is a good one….that seems to be the problem everywhere…..education decision made from a political perspective….thanx for the comment Carl…..do you still teach?
2006, heart attacks and really burned out and exhausted. It was time to go.
Understand…I myself tired of lecturing and such…..time to do something for myself….