Jeb Bush Throws His Weight Around: Opposes States Rights In Education

08-10-2011 • blogs.edweek.org/edweek

In this space, we've been telling you about a few efforts in state legislatures to complicate adoption or implementation of common standards (See an earlier blog post for the most recent update). A move that had the potential to involve many states unfolded last week in New Orleans, but was stopped in its tracks. And none other than former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush, revered by many conservatives, was involved in stopping it. Apparently, at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the education subcommittee was slated to consider model legislation to forbid adoption or implementation of common standards. (Hat tip to Kris Amundson, by the way, who brought us this news in Education Sector's blog.) Such a model could be used by state lawmakers to move ahead in their own states. ALEC, a conservative-leaning organization that includes state lawmakers and private-sector members, has created a wide variety of model legislation, not only in education, but in other areas as well. As best I can gather so far, common-core advocates got wind of the model legislation before the New Orleans gathering and sought to delay consideration of it. Among them was Bush, who wrote a letter to the subcommittee declaring support for the common standards and urging them to table the legislative package.