As governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, Jeb Bush championed school choice. His first year in office he created a program that offered vouchers to students in failing schools. The program successfully boosted student achievement until it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2006. Two other Bush-supported programs — one that offers tax credits to business that help send low-income kids to private schools and another that gives vouchers to disabled students — survived the high-court ruling. Bush also expanded the Florida Virtual School, a national model for online public education.
Since leaving office, Bush has promoted his reform agenda in other states. He founded the Foundation for Excellence in Education and serves as co-chair of the Digital Learning Council.
Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Bush at the National Summit on Education Reform in Washington, D.C., to talk about how information technology can help break the education monopoly.
This interview is part of National School Choice Week, an initiative to raise awareness of how competition and choice can transform public education.
Approximately 6.30 minutes. Filmed by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg, and edited by Epstein.
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For more on the potential for online learning to transform K-12 education, read Katherine Mangu-Ward’s “Teachers Unions vs. Online Education” from Reason Magazine‘s August-September 2010 issue.