Obama Praises Jeb Bush On Education
Politico reports:
MIAMI – Seeking support for increasing the country’s investment in education, President Barack Obama appeared at a high school here on Friday with an unlikely ally he described as a “champion of education reform” - Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida.
Obama chose Central Miami Senior High School at Bush’s suggestion for a rare moment of bipartisan collaboration on an education agenda that, at least in general terms, the two can agree on.
“I decided to come here to Miami Central to kick off education month, because you’re doing what I challenged states to do shortly after I took office and that is turning America’s lowest performing schools around,” Obama said.
Obama said Bush “is someone who championed reform when he was in office, someone who is now championing reform as a private citizen.” And he called for a bipartisan effort to end to the “status quo” in education, using the example that he and Bush set in their appearance together.
“I believe the status quo is unacceptable, it’s time to change,” Obama said. “It is time for us to work together, just like Jeb and I are doing—coming from different parties, but we came together not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans.”
Obama sought to put aside his political differences with Bush in favor of focusing on their shared desire to turn around public education, and made a joke about about his older brother - former President George W. Bush - without actually naming him.
“Aside from being a former governor of this state, Jeb is best known as the brother of….Marvin Bush,” Obama joked in his remarks. “Apparently the rest of the family also did some work back in Washington…back in the day.”
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