There's an old song by the Canton Spiritual with the refrain, “…I gotta clean up, what I messed up…” Surely, Gov. Bush has heard this song, because that’s exactly what he aims to do with a new $52.2 million proposal to address the recent decline in minority enrollment at Florida’s universities.In 1999, before Bush championed his “One Florida” plan to eliminate affirmative action in university admissions Black students made up 18.1 percent of the freshman accepted at state universities. In October 2005, Black students accounted for 13.7 percent of the freshman class (86.4 percent of whom attend Florida A&M).
Asked whether his new plan is an acknowledgement that “One Florida” had failed, Bush said, “Not at all. This is about the future of our state. This is a going-forward proposal. It’s not a looking-back proposal.”
State Senator Les Miller, D-Tampa, sharply disagreed. “The governor can’t seem to grasp reality. It reminds me of the president’s praise for the FEMA director as the people of New Orleans suffered.”
Interestingly enough, Mr. Bush, who campaigned on the promise to overhaul Florida’s education system, finds himself scrambling in his final year in office to preserve his image as Florida’s “education governor.”
Sort of make you wonder if One Florida, FCAT, and the FAMU Trustees were all a part of Jeb's "devious plan"?