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Putting Our Students on the Path to Success As an elected state official, I have worked ardently to provide a first class education system for the teachers, parents and children of this state. By calling for improvements based on accountability, higher standards, and increased funding, Florida has created a learning environment that is most beneficial to our students; a learning environment that gets results.
Building a Foundation With the foundation of the A+ Plan in place, the state finally focused on the basic educational building blocks of reading, writing and mathematics. Common sense reforms — such as the development of charter schools that encourage innovation, student performance and parental choice — soon followed, and our education system was finally on the right track. Groundbreaking scholarship opportunities such as the McKay Scholarship Program for students with disabilities and the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarships in the educational system were not far behind. Respecting our Educators Understanding that education begins in the classroom and that a student's success heavily depends on the educator, we also focused on scholarships and forgivable loans to recruit more teachers with monetary incentives and bonuses for teacher excellence. School safety policies were brought to fruition when we implemented a zero-tolerance policy for weapons in school and protections against sexual predators. Money alone cannot create a perfect education system. However, we put our money where our mouth is with historic education funding increases, moving Florida's education budget from $13 billion to more than $23 billion — the largest increase in state history. We knew that in order to make a real investment in the education of Florida's children, we had to carry this quest for excellence into higher education. With the expansion of the Bright Futures Scholarships from $75 million in 1997 to $346.3 million in 2006 to assist Florida's students pursuing higher education, and with a 107 percent increase in funding for community colleges and 43.7 percent for state universities, we continued to make good on our promise that education is “priority number one” in Florida. However, as history has taught us, words and clever sound bites are not as important as proven results. Consider these telling statistics, which serve us as a hallmark for excellence in public education:
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By challenging the status quo and making education a top priority, the Florida Legislature and Governor Jeb Bush ushered in historical initiatives such as the A+ Plan, which quickly became the cornerstone of a new Florida education system. The A+ plan promoted accountability and higher standards for students and teachers, encouraged discipline and safety in the classroom and promoted student achievement and future success.
