Is this all they’ve got?

by David Safier

So. The Goldwater Institute brings Jeb Bush out to talk to members of the legislature's out-of-session education committees and, I suppose, anyone else who wants to listen. Friend of the blog Matthew Ladner is good buds with Jeb. Ladner wrote a book about the miracle of Florida education, and Jeb Bush wrote the preface. Al Melvin, among other Rs, sing the praises of Florida's education miracle, though I don't think Cap'n Al has a clue what he's talking about.

Ready for a big, carefully orchestrated dog and pony show to pump up Rs to do . . . I don't know . . . something? I certainly was.

From what I've read about the event, our Republican legislators think we can really, really make Arizona education better if we . . . drum roll, please . . . if we replace the current school ratings of "underperforming," "performing" and "excelling" with A-F letter grades.

I swear, I'm not making this up. The only place I've read it in Arizona is in the Phoenix New Times, but I've also seen it in an AP story in a few Florida papers.

It could have been worse. They could have come up with something that was destructive. This is just another example of the Party that Can't Shoot Straight Do Anything Right.

Maybe we'll see more in the papers tomorrow. But right now, that's all they've got.