Bush's reading program raises questions for lawmakers...illegal influence

Reading program raises questions for lawmakers
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY


A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants a Congressional investigation of President Bush's $1 billion national reading program, saying top advisers may have illegally influenced what books schools buy to teach reading.

Lawmakers, including the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate education committee, are meeting this week with officials from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Committee chairman Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and three others want to know whether several publishers got preferential treatment because Reading First advisers also consulted for them, for and in some cases wrote materials. They also are asking whether states were pressured to buy the materials in order to get federal dollars.

...

Education Department investigators are already looking into Reading First, one of Bush's key education initiatives. They expect to probe contracts in, among other places, New York City — which in 2002 adopted a reading program whose then-owner had direct ties to Bush — and in Georgia, where a small publisher says her books were improperly rejected.

...

The American Association of Publishers and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., have complained to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings about apparent conflicts of interest among Reading First officials who have also consulted for textbook companies, and in some cases have even written their textbooks.

(more)http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-09-reading-program_x.htm


This cronyism appears to be embedded at every level of this government. I am so sick of this BS. Can't they just do something the right way for once?? :mad:

try to find one fucking program in this whole rotten administration that isn't blatantly corrupt, run by incompetents or cronies, and actually does something to better the life of average Americans. .................... I'm waiting................

children.

ago (in another state) when I was a teacher, and I learned the truth concerning the textbooks our children use. Yes, cronyism played a big part in the final selections.

I can only speak for that particular state :eyes: (but there's a great amount of money to be made in the educational textbook business).