Jeb Bush Campaign Press Release - We Can End Unjust Barriers to Success for Urban Communities

When Governor Bush took office, the state was one of the worst ranked in the country in K-12 education outcomes. Almost half the state's fourth graders were functionally illiterate and the high school graduation rate hovered around 50 percent. The situation was particularly alarming for African American children with only 37 percent of Black third graders reading at or above grade level in 2001. Clearly, Florida's students were struggling. Governor Bush was deeply concerned by these statistics.

During that time two men saw firsthand the reforms Governor Bush put into place, and the impact they had on the children of Florida.

T. Willard Fair

President and CEO, Urban League of Greater Miami

Willard Fair has served as a Trustee of Miami Dade College and the Florida State Board of Education. He has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Greater Miami for more than five decades.

"Before Governor Bush became the governor that we love, the status of schools in Florida was bad. The status of schools in the community that I'm concerned about were the worst in the state. Clearly, anyone who wanted to deliver to the children understood that you had to fix the education delivery system in order to get that done. When Jeb Bush began to talk about education, it excited my heart.

"The schools were bad in my community simply because of the fact that no one believed that my children could learn. Since they believed that my children could not learn, they gave us resources that we did not need. They gave us nothing. They gave us the worst teachers. They give us the worst maintenance programs. They gave us the worst programs.

"Bush was an unlikely ally because of my experiences in the system over the years had conditioned me to believe that if you're white, I can't trust you. If you are aligned with my attitudes, beliefs, and values, then I hold you suspect. So, I was a little concerned about this guy that I had never met before who all of a sudden was saying the same things that I wanted everybody to say.

"The first day I met him, my attitude about change of Jeb Bush began to take place, and I learned a lesson for the first time with Jeb Bush. It is unfair for me to condemn people before I know them and I got a chance to know Jeb Bush. In my first meeting, I thought it was going to last for 15 minutes. It lasted for an hour-and-a-half, and twenty years later, we're still having that wonderful meeting.

"I've been around a lot of folks who are not for real, so I knew that Jeb Bush was for real when we began to have our conversation. In that hour-and-a-half, I had an opportunity to dispel all of my myths about this guy called Jeb Bush.

"I believe that at the end of the day, those persons, collectively or individually, who understand that you rise in America no longer because of the color of your skin, but you rise in America because of your academic achievement. Jeb believes that. I believe that. That makes us brothers.

"Jeb Bush is special to me because you can take his work to the bank. I'm probably the only black person in Liberty City who did not vote for Barack Obama. I tell people that I said, 'Because I don't trust him. I trust Jeb Bush. That's why I would vote for him.

"Jeb Bush keeps his word.

"He is a man of faith. He believes that there's something greater than him that guides him and protects him. He loves his family. Nothing comes before his family. He is honest, full of integrity. You couldn't ask for a better friend."

Don Gaetz

Former Superintendent of Okaloosa County School District (1994-2006)

Florida Republican State Senator Don Gaetz (District 1) was Superintendent of the Okaloosa County School District when Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida. The two met when Jeb was researching what was wrong with Florida's public schools.

"When Jeb Bush was running for Governor of Florida, before he ran, he went all over the State to listen before he led, to listen to what teachers said and what parents said and spent a lot of time with students.

"When he came to my county, he sat in a café that didn't have anybody in it except Jeb Bush and me and our congressmen. He sat there with me for an hour, just listening to what I, as a candidate for school board, was hearing from students and teachers and parents. He took copious notes and he promised me: 'I'll be back; I'll be back as Governor. We'll do the right thing. Our students will do better. Our schools will soar and Don, I'm going to hold you accountable.' And he did.

"I was one of the adults running a school system, and elected superintendent, and I had to face the tough realities that, even in our school system, which we thought was pretty good, it really wasn't so good.

"We had to make significant changes in our curriculum. We had to lash our curriculum to the realities of the economy. We had to listen to what parents wanted and then try to re-raft and re-architecture our schools around what would make students successful. It was Jeb Bush, leading from the front, pushing us along, inspiring us, providing the resources, but never ever giving up, especially on children who needed more help to learn.

"Jeb Bush is always the happy warrior. He always goes into every fight with a grin on his face, because he is just that kind of a guy. But the only times that I've really ever seen him angry, to see his eyes turn tight, it's when somebody says that a poor kid or a minority kid can't learn, or that a disabled child has to be relegated over to the side.

"Those were the students that Jeb Bush cared about first. Jeb Bush had no patience for people who would push kids off to the side just because they had socio-economic challenges. Those were the ones he wanted to help first and part of it was making sure we had high standards and effective teaching.

"Florida started out with only 21% of schools that were high performing, given either an A or a B. By the time he left office, it was up to 74%: almost 3/4 of the state's schools were high performing.

"There are a lot of people running for president, good people, I'm sure, and you know, a lot of politicians when they run for office talk about problems. Jeb Bush is somebody who doesn't just talk about problems, he seizes opportunities and uses conservative leadership to create real solutions. That what he did for education in Florida."