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Author

Denisha Merriweather

Denisha Merriweather
Denisha Merriweather

Denisha Merriweather, a former intern at Step Up For Students, now serves as director of family engagement at the American Federation for Children in Washington, D.C. A Florida tax credit scholarship graduate, she received a master's degree in social work from the University of South Florida.

ArchivEDEducation and Public PolicyEducation PoliticsParent EmpowermentPodcastSchool ChoiceVouchers

archivED: Revisiting a podcast with Jeb Bush

Denisha Merriweather November 16, 2019
Denisha Merriweather

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush spoke with former Step Up For Students intern Denisha Merriweather in June  2016 about school choice, parent empowerment and the politics of education.

Editor’s note: Each Saturday in November, redefinED is reprising a podcast from our archives, reminding readers that we have a wealth of audio content to complement our written blog posts. Today, we revisit a June 2016 interview with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush conducted by former Step Up For Students intern Denisha Merriweather.

When it comes to politics, I’m not alone. Many members of my generation don’t align with either major political party. Our views don’t always fit the traditional left-right mold. But we also aren’t tied to the status quo. We are willing to break from tradition to make a difference.

Our willingness to embrace change is one cause for optimism that Jeb Bush said he found in this crazy political season. In a new interview, we talked about education politics, the importance of creating new educational options, and what politicians might learn if they spent more time in the classroom.

The former Florida governor says that on the campaign trail, he saw a backlash against some aspects of education reform. The solution, he said, is to use a bottom-up approach that puts more power in the hands of parents by giving them more choices and better information.

“If you start with the premise that this about educating children, and families are the most important political jurisdiction for their child – to be nerdy about it – the money would follow the child, not the school system,” he said.

One promising way to do that, he said, is to give parents education savings accounts, which will allow them to send their children to public schools or private schools, or to teach their children at home, or hire tutors and therapists, or even (my favorite) save for college.

While running for president, he released a plan that would have allowed states to create ESAs that could help parents pay for every stage of their child’s education, from preschool to grad school. And it would have given low-income parents direct control of federal Title I dollars that would have gone to their child’s school.

As I think about my own student loans, the notion that ESAs could be used to save for higher ed certainly piques my interest.

Bush has returned to his role as chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and he said one of the organization’s top priorities is identifying states that are prepared to be “bold” about creating ESA programs. Scholars were talking in the late 1970s about an idea that sounded a lot like education savings accounts, but nothing came of it. Fortunately, this new iteration of the concept does not seem to be lying dormant.

Some opponents of school choice have implied low-income parents don’t know enough to pick the best school for their child. All too often, people who oppose giving them options have a patronizing attitude.

Educators need to respect the ability of low-income parents to decide what’s best for their children, Bush said.

“The government doesn’t trust people near or at the poverty level,” he said. “For some reason they think they are stupid. They’re just poor. ”

To make those decisions, he said, all parents need better information, like a report card on the schools in their area, and detailed information on how their own children are progressing, so they’ll know which schools might be a good fit. This isn’t exactly a radical new invention. But for most parents, that simply doesn’t exist, and it should.

Parents need to be informed of the options that exist around them. If they don’t have that information, they’ll probably send their kids to the school that’s right around the corner, the one the bus goes to, even if they may be better off somewhere else – like I was.

Bush said that when he was governor, he sat in courtrooms hearing family law cases to learn about problems in the state’s child welfare system. To learn about education, he visited hundreds of schools around the state. He joined principals knocking on the doors of children who were chronically absent, and spent time in teachers’ lounges.

“They thought I had horns because I was for vouchers, but I learned a lot from them,” he said of the educators he met in public schools. “They’re not the problem. It’s the system that’s not working.”

Everybody has their plan or their theory or their own advice to give, but many times, politicians don’t actually have first-hand knowledge when they make decisions that can change children’s lives. If they spent more time in schools, or talking to low-income families about their kids, that might help pull education out of the ugly vortex that’s consuming national politics.

“Don’t you think that there should be a left-right coalition for reform, when you’re empowering low-income families?” Bush asked during our interview. “I don’t think that has to be a Democrat issue or a Republican issue.”

Gov. Bush has been advocating for school choice for more than 20 years now, and his zeal doesn’t seem to be fading.

https://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Jeb-Bush-Podcast.mp3
November 16, 2019 0 comment
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Education PoliticsPodcastPolicy WonksSchool Choice

It’s about the child, not the system: Jeb Bush, podcastED

Denisha Merriweather June 20, 2016
Denisha Merriweather
Jeb Bush and Denisha Merriweather screenshot

Denisha Merriweather interviews former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on school choice, parent empowerment and the politics of education.

When it comes to politics, I’m not alone. Many members of my generation don’t align with either major political party. Our views don’t always fit the traditional left-right mold. But we also aren’t tied to the status quo. We are willing to break from tradition to make a difference.

Our willingness to embrace change is one cause for optimism that Jeb Bush said he found in this crazy political season. In a new interview, we talked about education politics, the importance of creating new educational options, and what politicians might learn if they spent more time in the classroom.

The former Florida governor says that on the campaign trail, he saw a backlash against some aspects of education reform. The solution, he said, is to use a bottom-up approach that puts more power in the hands of parents by giving them more choices and better information.

“If you start with the premise that this about educating children, and families are the most important political jurisdiction for their child – to be nerdy about it – the money would follow the child, not the school system,” he said.redefinED-podcast-logo1

One promising way to do that, he said, is to give parents education savings accounts, which will allow them to send their children to public schools or private schools, or to teach their children at home, or hire tutors and therapists, or even (my favorite) save for college.

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http://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Jeb-Bush-Podcast.mp3

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June 20, 2016 5 comments
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Blog GuestEducation LegislationSchool ChoiceTax Credit Scholarships

A school choice graduate goes to Washington

Denisha Merriweather March 23, 2016
Denisha Merriweather

by Denisha Merriweather

As a school choice graduate turned education advocate, I’ve shared my experience with legislators before, but never in the halls of Congress. That changed last month, when I had the honor of traveling to Washington to tell the story of my academic turnaround.

Denisha Merriweather testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee during a hearing on school choice.

Denisha Merriweather testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee during a hearing on school choice.

At the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill, I gave a piece of myself to the 30 members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce who had set a hearing to discuss school choice.

Just a couple months after passing the Every Student Succeeds Act, federal lawmakers are exploring the prospect of creating more options for students across the country. As Chairman John Kline noted in his introduction, “The committee has worked to improve K-12 education and has been guided by the belief that every child, regardless of where they come from or how much money their parents make, should receive an excellent education.”

Kline encouraged his colleagues to ask how they can support efforts in state capitols and local school districts to help more children receive the education they deserve. One member, Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina, asked what I think is the crucial question: “How much work would have to be done to truly give all students and their families choice?”

Many members of the committee didn’t doubt that students needed options, and if they had criticisms of school choice, they focused on the importance of holding charter and private schools accountable.

I was listening for someone to outline a vision. How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?

In 1990, Milwaukee enacted its pioneering school choice program. Now, 22 states offer some variation of private school choice, and more could soon join the ranks. Meanwhile, Congress is preparing to decide the future of another program, the one it controls directly: The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

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March 23, 2016 0 comment
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