Bush and friends loot federal reading program

The Bush administration has demonstrated its incompetence in its response to Hurricane Katrina, and in the administration of reconstruction in Iraq ("Imperial Life in the Emerald City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, )2006.

Now, they have once again demonstrated their incompetence and venal ways.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/10/04/
In the Reading First initiative they looted the federal treasury and money directed toward school improvement to hire young, inexperienced, political operatives and to pass money on to their family friends and associates .
Duane Campbell

Report finds Education Department improperly backed aspects of reading program

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Education Department officials and their contractors appear to have improperly backed certain types of instruction in administering a $1 billion-a-year reading program, congressional investigators found.

The Government Accountability Office report supports assertions by the inspector general of the Education Department, who has released several reports in recent months into the Reading First program.

The program is a key part of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law. It offers intensive reading help for low-income and struggling schools.

The GAO, Congress' investigative and auditing arm, surveyed states to get their views on the program.

In a report due out Friday and obtained by The Associated Press, the GAO states that some states said they received suggestions from federal officials or contractors to adopt or eliminate certain programs or tests.

Federal law prohibits the department from requiring certain curricula or directing states to use specific programs.