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Posted on 05/17/2002 10:37:04 AM PDT by summer

FL Gov Jeb Bush accepts a grateful hug from a young student
at a FL public school, Wimauma Elementary - where 85% of students are
children of migrant workers, yet: rising student achievement caused the school
to improve its grade from a "D" to an "A" in just two years.

Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Associated Press

Governor's campaign goes to school catering to migrant families

By Vickie Chachere

WIMAUMA, Fla. (AP) _ Gov. Jeb Bush took his run for re-election Tuesday to an elementary school that turned its academic fortunes around despite its transient population of migrant families and children who barely speak English.

At Wimauma Elementary School, Bush chatted with children in Spanish and shared a song with 5-year-olds learning how to read and write. In a poignant moment, the governor asked one fourth grader working on a writing assignment what her story was about _ the girl replied it was about her mother who died in August.

Despite the challenges of a school population where nearly all the 700 children depend on free or reduced lunches and 85 percent are the children of migrant workers with limited English skills, Wimauma Elementary earned an ''A'' in last year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The school has lower-than-usual student-teacher ratios _ one teacher for every 20 students in kindergarten through third grades, one to 25 for the older students _ and has been given the flexibility to teach classes in English and Spanish.

Bilingual teacher-aides help out those teachers who don't speak Spanish, and about 100 volunteers from nearby Sun City, a retirement community, provide even more help.

The school's principal said the accountability demands set by the Bush administration also helps.

''FCAT [FL test] is the propeller of this school,'' said Principal Carol DeAgazio. ''It gets the school going. We don't want to be on the bottom rung.''

The event came on the second day of Bush's newly intensified campaign. The governor had limited his re-election activities until after lawmakers finished with the state budget during a special session that ended Monday.

Bush said he is pleased with lawmakers' work, which includes a 6 percent per-student increase for Florida's public schools.

''I believe this is a state in its ascension, not in decline,'' Bush said.

Bush's campaign was taking him to Orlando later Tuesday for a town hall meeting with high school students.


Gov. Bush sees things eye-to-eye with FL's Wimauma elementary students.

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