by Deb Cupples | Writing for Forbes Magazine, Peter Robinson states:
"In January 2007, when Jeb Bush stepped down after two terms as governor of Florida, he had cut taxes, enacted the most extensive public school reform in any state, restructured health care and, after dealing with some three dozen hurricanes and tropical storms, earned high marks for crisis management."
Mr. Robinson seems to think that Jeb Bush did a bunch of good things for the state. Apparently, Mr. Robinson's opinion is unburdened by facts. Below are a few examples.
Jeb was not particularly good in the fiscal sense. Oh, he talked a good line about cutting the size of government and efficiency and all that.
Then he went on a privatization spree that wasted tons of our tax dollars. A 2001 Miami Herald article gives us just a few concrete examples of consequences that Florida's taxpayers suffered due to the first couple years of Jeb's privatization efforts:
"Privatization has cost Florida taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars:
- Unisys won an $86 million state contract to
administer health-insurance plans for more than 100,000 state
employees, retirees and their dependents. For two years, state
employees and retirees put up with a health-care insurance system that didn't work. Taxpayers covered a $200 million deficit created by the fiasco.
-
The state hired Lockheed Martin and Maximus to streamline records and
collect child support from ``deadbeat'' parents. The contractors
received a $4.5 million contract to collect $104 million in child support. Only $207,000 was collected.
-
In 1993 the Legislature, mistrusting the Department of Corrections,
established the Correctional Privatization Commission to send convicts
to private prisons. The commission has been wracked with scandals, and
the private corporations (Wackenhut and the Corrections Corp. of
America), which contributed heavily to political campaigns, haven't provided the cheaper, higher-quality services they promised.
-
The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability
found that start-up costs at the privately run prison in Lake City were
excessive. Counselors came and went. The substance-abuse program was
un- licensed, and instructor jobs stayed vacant for months. The
Legislature required that private prisons produce a 7 percent savings
compared with public prisons. Private prisons aren't providing the projected savings.
- Taxpayers lost $96 million
in lottery dollars that could have gone to education coffers because
the state failed to fine a private vendor, Automated Wagering
International, for failing to meet terms of its contract.
There was nothing fiscally sound about Jeb's privatization frenzy -- at least not for us taxpayers. In many cases, we ended up spending more for private contractors' services, and the services weren't any better: in some cases, the services were worse.
Yet, Jeb bizarrely continued to insist on funneling tax dollars to private contractors.
About education: after the first six years of Jeb Bush's "reforms," our state's education system still ranked near the bottom among the 50 states. Yes, Florida is the fourth largest state and a pretty wealthy state (i.e., with money to spend on education).
As governor, Jeb insisted on using the FCAT test as the be all and end all of K-12 education -- despite repeated protests from teachers, parents, and even many school boards. The test was designed to be merely a diagnostic tool, but Mr. Bush made it so high-stakes that teachers spent most of their time simply teaching to the test, which left students with a very narrow education.
It gets worse. Jeb's little brother Neil (the one involved in the savings and loan scandal of the '80s) got involved with a company called Ignite -- which sold software to help kids study for the FCAT. Neil's company got government funds for a pilot program in Orange County, one of Florida's largest school districts. I suspect, but don't know, that Neil's company branched out and took even more tax dollars.
Then there's the Department of Children and Families (DCF) scandals that happened under Jeb Bush's stewardship. Here's what the St. Pete Times said about a few of them:
April 2002: DCF officials admit they cannot find 5-year-old Rilya Wilson. Her DCF-approved caregiver is later charged with killing the girl.
May 2002: DCF says it can't locate 515 children in its care, but says most are runaways.
August 2002: Journalists locate nine of the missing children using public records. DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney resigns and Bush names former Oklahoma social services head Jerry Regier to replace her.
August 2004: Regier resigns after an inspector general's investigation shows he and two of his top technology employees accepted favors from lobbyists or contractors.
December 2004: Lucy Hadi, a 30-year career DCF official, is named to replace Regier.
December 2006: Hadi is fined $80,000 on a contempt of court charge for failing to remove mentally ill inmates from a jail as required by law. She announces her intention to resign.
I could go on and on with examples of the havoc that Jeb Bush wreaked upon the state of Florida, but my point is this: affable as he is, he wasn't a particularly good governor.
Forbes' credibility would be well served if Forbes' editors insisted that their writers do actual research before trying to sell candidates for public office to Forbes' readership.
Memeorandum has commentary.
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