Editorial: Scandals mar federal education programs

It’s not surprising anymore to hear scandal and
controversy from President Bush’s education initiatives.

The latest scandal to surface includes evidence of conflict of
interest in the Reading First Program, which administers $6 billion
in grants so districts can buy the materials necessary to ensure
that all low-income children learn to read.

Sounds good on paper, right?

However, when the people choosing which materials meet the
program’s criteria have a stake in acquiring the grants for
themselves, all accountability is lost.

One textbook author took in as much as $250,000 a year in
royalties while serving as head of one of Oregon’s consulting
centers on how to run the program and which books to buy.

One reading-kit producer from Georgia found out that her
company’s materials were never even evaluated before Reading
First rejected her program.

The Department of Education’s investigation, created in
the wake of complaints about the program, has condemned Reading
First as suffering from a “lack of integrity and ethical
values.”

In a country with so many problems that can be linked back to
insufficiencies in K-12 education, it is shameful that time and
time again our federal government, under the proclaimed auspices of
leaving no child behind in learning, are using public education as
a way to selectively pad pocketbooks.