What is the Bush/Brogan A+ Plan for Education?

The Bush/Brogan Assistance Plus Plan - also called the Florida A+ Plan - is the State of Florida's education plan. It was written by Governor Jeb Bush and Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan and passed in 1999. It consisted of 3 major parts:

Accountability and improving student learning -- This part of the A+ Plan will be achieved by revising state education goals, measuring annual student learning, closing the education gap, grading schools and reporting their progress, eliminating social promotion, rewarding schools for achievement and improvement, providing help to failing schools and giving parents more choices over their child's education.
Commitment to higher professional standards for educators -- Currently, there is little accountability for teacher preparation programs in Florida. The A+ Plan raises standards for professional educators, rates colleges of education on performance, raises standards for admission to colleges of education, rewards high-performing educators, and focuses and improves teacher training.
Commitment to safer schools -- A school with a safe environment offers children the best opportunity to learn. To foster this environment, the A+ Plan will invest more in school safety, expand second chance schools for disruptive and violent youth, and prepare teachers to handle classroom discipline.

To transform Florida's schools and to ensure that children receive the best education possible, the A+ Plan increased funding for Florida's public schools by $750 million in order to grade all schools on an A to F scale, expand the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) to all third through tenth graders, reward successful and improving schools, provide unprecedented support and change to improve failing schools, eliminate social promotion, dramatically increase funding for remediation efforts and school safety programs, raise teacher standards, increase parental choices and encourage innovation by providing Opportunity Scholarships to children in chronically failing schools, and provide financial rewards for superior teachers.

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