As one of Stephen Colbert’s first Late Show guests this week, presidential candidate Jeb Bush invoked the now-familiar story of how he reformed education in Florida.
“The government plays a useful role, but it ought to be reformed,” Bush told his host. “That’s why when I was governor of the state of Florida, I turned the system upside-down. I disrupted the old order, particularly with schools. In Florida, we went from the very bottom to have the greatest learning gains of any state.”
The Florida model, as it’s known across the nation, has always been identified as Bush’s signature accomplishment. But lost in that narrative is the fact that Bush’s model has been overhauled since he left office, and arguably no one has had a larger role in that process than state Sen. John Legg.
