Former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may be moderating his tone now that he’s running for president, but he was bold in his statements on the racial politics of school reform early in his political career.
Bush said in 1995 that school voucher opponents use a “racist message” to scare wealthy parents into thinking that “black students” will invade their childrens’ superior schools.
Bush has been a career-long advocate for school reform. In, October 1995, about a year after he lost his first Florida gubernatorial election and three years before he ended up winning the office, Bush spoke at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, where he discussed his thoughts on school vouchers in the question-and-answer segment.
In the video below, unearthed by The Daily Caller, Bush defended school vouchers against “racist” attacks.
“Immediately people can scare, the other side can scare parents that believe their children go to good schools into thinking that somehow…normally what happens is, there’s an underlying racist message, which is troubling, that ‘all the poor students i.e. black students will come to the good schools where my kids go and so vouchers are bad.’ That’s the underlying campaign to attack education reform.”
Watch Here (5:20 Mark)