Another take-down of the Jeb Bush/Matthew Ladner team

by David Safier

Goldwater Institute's Matthew Ladner has moved on to work with Jeb Bush promoting the "Florida Education Miracle" full time. The two have once again been called on their "research findings" by the National Education Policy Center.

The Bush/Ladner duo have a PowerPoint dog and pony show they're taking around the country, based on the same cherry-picking of data and the same skewing of Florida's educational reforms Ladner has been trading in for years.

Ladner isn't fond of mentioning, for instance, that Florida increased its ed funding and lowered its class sizes, as well as creating a more intensive reading and reading tutoring program in the early grades. He likes to stick to the A-F school grading system and the retention of third graders with low reading scores as the only changes in Florida.

Ladner also ignores evidence that any gains by the students retained in the third grade are short lived, fading within four years.

NEPC has noticed Ladner in the past. In fact, Ladner was one of the recipients of its 2010 Education Bunkum Awards.