Former Governor Of Florida Jeb Bush And Studentsfirst’s Michelle Rhee To Discuss Education Reform Issues
Thursday, June 16, 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
The Four Seasons Hotel
1435 Brickell Avenue
Miami, FL 33131
RSVP Info: www.marcoislandacademy.com / 239.404.3622
Ticket: General Admission – $150 per person
Benefactor Ticket – $750 per couple (Includes priority seating and private champagne reception with speakers from 11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)
Table Sponsor – $1,250 (Table seats 10 people)
The Power of Two: Influential Education Reform Leaders Make a Difference by Putting Education First
Former Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee, Founder and CEO of StudentsFirst, a movement dedicated to transforming public education throughout the United States.
Two education reformers, Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee will have a bipartisan discussion to elevate the need to work collaboratively on improving the nation’s public education system. Guests will enjoy a beautiful luncheon while listening to key speakers discuss important issues in today’s education. All proceeds will go to benefit education reform.
Michelle Rhee is the Founder and CEO of StudentsFirst. She has been working for the last 18 years to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world. From adding instructional time after school and visiting students’ homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students’ voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, she has always been guided by one core principle: put students first.
In 1997 Rhee founded The New Teacher Project (TNTP) to attract qualified and motivated teachers to more classrooms across the country. Under her leadership, TNTP became a leader in understanding and developing innovative solutions to the challenges of new teacher hiring. As its Chief Executive Officer and President, Rhee partnered with school districts, state education agencies, non-profit organizations and unions to transform the way schools and other organizations recruit, select and train highly qualified teachers in difficult-to-staff schools. Under her leadership, TNTP implemented widespread reform in teacher hiring practices, improving outcomes in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland and Philadelphia.
In 2007, Rhee was appointed to lead the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), a school district serving more than 47,000 students in 123 schools. These were among the worst performing schools in the country. Rhee’s efforts resulted in the D.C. school system becoming the only major city system in America to see double-digit growth in both reading and math scores.
Michelle Rhee currently serves on advisory boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality, the National Center for Alternative Certification, and Project REACH of the University of Phoenix’s School of Education.
Jeb Bush is Founder, Chairman of the Board and President of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. He served as the 43rd Governor of Florida, from 1999 through 2007.
During his two terms, Bush championed major reform of education. Florida raised academic standards, required accountability in public schools and created the most ambitious school choice program in the nation. The transformation is underway and the progress is measurable. More students are reading, writing and doing math and science on or above grade level. More high school seniors are earning a diploma and fewer students are dropping out. Florida’s third through 10th grade students are outscoring 60-70 percent of their peers in all other states in both reading and math.
Under his leadership in the late 1990s, the Foundation for Florida’s Future joined forces with the Greater Miami Urban League to establish the state’s first charter school, Liberty City Charter School, in one of the most underserved parts of Miami-Dade County. He also co-authored Profiles in Character, a book profiling 14 of Florida’s civic heroes—people making a difference without claiming a single news headline.
Bush took time out from his successful business career to serve as Florida’s secretary of commerce under Bob Martinez, Florida’s 40th governor, where he promoted the state worldwide. Bush earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Bush and his wife Columba live in Miami and have three grown children. Bush is the son of President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush.
