GOV. JEB BUSH PLAYS A BETTER TEACHER ON TV

TALLAHASSEE -- You'll have seen the campaign ad by now. There's a
beautifully furnished, American-flagged, not remotely overcrowded classroom
full of rosy-cheeked, well-fed children. There's Gov. Jeb Bush: beautifully
coiffed, rosy-cheeked and well-fed himself, calling on various Norman
Rockwellesque tykes as they thrust their small hands in the air, eager to
learn. And he is eager to help them learn: Indeed, the ad implies he is
singlehandedly leading Florida to the sunny uplands of enlightenment and
economic growth usually associated with states that actually spend money on
educating their young.

It's like one of those old Soviet propaganda posters: the Glorious Leader
taking the Happy Workers to the Socialist Paradise.

There's always a gulf between salty reality and the pablum politicians
expect you to swallow. But now the disconnect is gargantuan. Even as the
governor plays teacher on TV, he's attacking a citizen initiative to limit
the number of students in a public school class. Even as he smiles regally
down on a Utopian gaggle of cute kids, too many actual Florida
schoolchildren are packed like battery-farm pullets into paint-peeling
classrooms stocked with out-of-date textbooks.

The Legislature has followed the governor's lead like so many sheep.
Florida ranks down at the bottom with Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi in
per capita education funding. Some calculations have the state 42nd in the
nation, some 46th and some 49th. Cuba has a higher literacy rate than we
do. Yet the Legislature has just presented Florida corporations with a tax
break worth $262-million -- which the governor pushed for.

An obvious point, but worth making once more: Think what an extra couple
hundred million could do for schools in Florida. Or, for that matter,
indigent care or drug treatment programs. But children, poor people and
junkies don't give campaign contributions. They don't even vote much.

The other week, Jeb Bush broke down in tears, talking about his daughter
Noelle. She got caught writing her own tranquilizer prescriptions. He's
obviously hurting for his troubled child. Yet the governor remains
committed to locking up drug offenders -- the ones not related to him --
instead of treating them. Most young people with a controlled substance
problem end up in jail, not rehab. Who among the powerful will cry for the
ones who can't afford a good lawyer?

Another obvious point: How much money you have determines how the criminal
justice system deals with you. Same with social services. When was the last
time anyone misplaced a 5-year-old from a rich family? But here's little
Rilya, lost; the state apparently defrauded by its own Department of
Children and Families, and the governor responding by appointing a "blue
ribbon panel" -- another one -- to look into the matter.

In 1998, Jeb Bush campaigned on fixing an agency that had long been a
byword for dysfunction, piously opining, "It is no wonder that people lose
faith in their government when the state can't account for the safety of
abused children." Quite.

That minority of you who have lived in Florida longer than five minutes
know better than to expect what this administration and its legislative
minions say to remotely match what they do. They say they want to protect
kids in state care, but have so far refused to set aside $12-million to pay
more advocates for children (there's a chance that money may be set aside
for this in the budget they'll vote on today, what with bad publicity over
Rilya snowballing). They say they want to address overcrowded schools but
have been hostile to allowing a citizen-driven demand for smaller classes
to be placed on November's ballot.

Jeb Bush hasn't dared speak overtly against the amendment but he has backed
a measure to require that citizen initiatives come with a "cost to the
taxpayer" (estimated by people who are on the state payroll and just might
have an agenda).

You might wonder what it cost poorer taxpayers to absorb the cuts to
wealthier taxpayers the Bush administration has pushed over the last couple
of years. You might wonder what an undereducated, underachieving population
of young people costs the taxpayers in terms of keeping a lot of them in
prison.

There's been a capital hissy fit over a ballpark number for what the
smaller-class amendment might cost. Mark Herron, a lawyer associated with
the Coalition to Reduce Class Size, has mentioned a figure of $8- to
$12-billion. The Florida School Boards Association floats a lower number --
$4- to $5-billion. No, it's not cheap. Yes, we may have to raise taxes. But
fully 75 percent of voters in a St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll said
they'd support higher taxes to get 21st century schooling for Florida's
children.

This ain't rocket science, y'all: If we want an educated populace fit for
more than selling overpriced hotdogs at Disney or bulldozing trees when St.
Joe Paper Co. gets around to paving the "great northwest" of the state,
then we have to suck it up and pay.

Maybe the next time the governor rolls up his sleeves and "teaches" a
class, he can tell the children about social responsibility. About
sacrifice to build a decent society. About how words should match deeds.
That would be a good lesson for them -- and him -- to learn.