Today, Jeb Bush tried to relaunch his struggling campaign with a new slogan, “Jeb Can Fix It.” The irony is almost too much. Jeb says that he “can fix it” because he’s “done it,” but throughout his time as governor, many of the things Jeb claims to have fixed turned out more like his campaign – broken.
“From Florida’s economy to school vouchers and affirmative action, Jeb Bush’s record as Florida’s governor is filled with more broken pieces and missing parts than actual accomplishments,” said Adrienne Watson, communications director at Correct The Record. “If past experiences tell us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t expect much fixing from Jeb’s new campaign.”
Bush’s Broken Florida
Economy
Washington Post’s Wonkblog: “A housing bubble made Jeb Bush look great — and then it tanked Florida’s economy.” “A significant amount of Florida’s economic and job growth in the Bush era was driven by a massive run-up in housing prices — which peaked in Bush’s last year in office, then plunged the state into a worse recession than the nation as a whole. When you account for the role of housing, Bush’s economic record looks a lot more mixed. Almost all of the gains he talks up today, including three-fifths of the job creation, were wiped out in the four years after he left office, once the bubble burst.” [Washington Post, 6/16/15]
School Vouchers
Jeb Bush’s voucher programs were the subject of multiple investigations. “Four new investigations have been launched into Florida’s troubled school-choice programs, focusing on at least two private schools, a voucher-awarding agency and the new virtual-school initiative, the state’s chief financial officer announced Thursday. CFO Tom Gallagher released the results of his audits of the three tuition-voucher programs designed to help poor kids, disabled kids and children from failing public schools attend private school for free.” [Orlando Sentinel, 12/12/03]
- FL Education Commissioner Tom Gallahger: Jeb Bush’s Department of Education failed “to assign leadership,” created “a lack of accountability,” and paved the way for “possible criminal activity” in his school voucher program. “‘Overall, the Department of Education’s failure to assign leadership to this program . . . has created a lack of accountability and has put the success of these vital school choice programs at risk,’ Gallagher said in a letter to Phil Handy, chairman of the state Board of Education. He said the lack of state oversight paves the way for ‘potential abuse or possible criminal activity.’ Among his complaints: Some students are getting money from two voucher programs at the same time. Agencies that give out vouchers do not now have to demonstrate fiscal soundness. There often is no verification that a child receiving a voucher is attending school.” [Orlando Sentinel, 12/12/03]
Affirmative Action
Jeb Bush’s “One Florida” plan dismantled Florida’s affirmative action program for college admissions. “As he courts Republicans across the country, Jeb Bush boasts that an executive order he signed that ended race-based college admissions in Florida upheld conservative principles while helping minorities. […] Bush enacted his One Florida Initiative in 2000 as anti-affirmative-action activist Ward Connerly was gathering signatures to place a state constitutional amendment on Florida’s ballot.” [Washington Post, 4/6/15]
- Jeb Bush’s “One Florida” plan led to a sharp decline in African American enrollment at Florida’s flagship public universities. “But at Florida’s two premier universities, black enrollment is shrinking. At the University of Florida in Gainesville and at Florida State University in Tallahassee, administrators say they worry that the trend risks diminishing their standing as world-class universities and hurts the college experience. The black share of the UF freshman class, for instance, plunged to 6 percent in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available. That is down from 9 percent in 2011. ‘If we don’t address this in the next two or three years, I think we’re going to have a problem,’ said Brandon Bowden, assistant vice president for student affairs at Florida State, which had a 15 percent drop in the number of black freshmen enrolled between 2000 and 2009. ‘There will be so few black students on our campus that prospective students [who are black] will choose not to come here because they see no one who looks like them.’” [Washington Post, 4/6/15]
- Sun-Sentinel Editorial: “Bush’s most grievous blunder came with the enactment of One Florida.” “Perhaps Bush’s most grievous blunder came with the enactment of One Florida, a plan to end affirmative-action preferences for minorities in university admissions and state contracting. It sparked a sit-in by two black legislators in the governor’s executive suite — and hundreds of black college students in the hallway outside his office — and the largest ever protest-march, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, on the state Capitol in 2000.” [Editorial – Sun-Sentinel, 12/31/06]