Speaking in Washington on Thursday, former presidential candidate Jeb Bush said the country needs to redefine “public education.”
“If knowledge was the priority of public education … we would be redefining public education as educating students,” Bush said at the National Summit on Education Reform. “Not focused on the system, but focusing on customizing the learning experience for each and every child.”
Bush spoke favorably of Betsy DeVos, President-elect Trump’s choice to serve as secretary of education. “President-elect Trump made an extraordinary choice,” he said. “I don’t have to give her advice, I know exactly what she believes.”
Bush said he hoped the new administration and Congress would bring “wholesale disruption” to education. “They can start by lifting the federal government’s heavy hand in setting education policy. The real place for change is in the states, and the real power should be with parents,” Bush said. “I hope they’re bold about this.”
Bush didn’t mention the controversial Common Core education standards by name. He did call for high standards and accountability in education, but seemed to suggest the federal government shouldn’t have a role in those standards when he decried the strings that come attached to federal education funding.
For example, Bush recalled his time as governor of Florida, when 80 percent of the state department of education’s employees had to work solely to make sure the state complied with federal rules, even though only 10 percent of state education funding came from the federal government.
Bush said he hoped more federal dollars would flow into public charter schools, “or any school where teachers are succeeding.”
Bush closed with a simple case for bottom-up education funding. “Top-down funding empowers institutions and enables the status quo,” Bush said. “Grassroots funding empowers people, and the good Lord knows that we need to start empowering people a lot more in the world we’re in.”
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
