Miami will see a most unusual joint appearance Friday: President Barack Obama and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, an oft-mentioned future GOP presidential nominee, will appear at Miami Central High School to discuss how to improve the level of U.S. public education.
Bush and Obama will join Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the school. The visit will give the president another opportunity to discuss “education investments” — a euphemism for spending more tax dollars. Obama says such programs are a key part of his plan to “win the future” by enhancing America’s global competitiveness.
The Bush-Obama appearance is another indication of Jeb Bush’s success in improving Florida’s educational performance, which has elevated his stature on the national stage.
“I look forward to sharing Florida’s model for student success with President Obama and Secretary Duncan,” Bush told the Miami Herald.
The Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry blog noted: “Obama and Duncan should take away an important lesson from their visit with Bush: Florida’s educational successes have come in spite of — not because of — federal intervention.”
It notes that between 1998 and 2009, the average reading score for black students in the United States rose 12 points. In Florida during that span, those scores rose by an average of 25 points.
“Yet Obama and Duncan — despite decades of federal failure — will likely once again try to dictate education policy from Washington,” The Foundry blog stated.
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