Bush's Family Profits from NCLB

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

BUSH'S FAMILY PROFITS FROM "NO CHILD" ACT
Los Angeles Times -- October 22, 2006
by Walter F. Roche, Jr.

A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his 
parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars 
targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left 
Behind Act.

With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and 
other backers, Neil Bush's company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its 
products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market 
internationally.

At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available 
through the president's signature education reform, the No Child Left 
Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite's portable learning centers at $3,800 
apiece.

The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve 
disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in 
reading and math.

But Ignite does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will 
not be available until next year.

The federal Department of Education does not monitor individual school 
district expenditures under the No Child program, but sets guidelines 
that the states are expected to enforce, spokesman Chad Colby said.

Ignite executive Tom Deliganis said that "some districts seem to feel 
OK" about using No Child money for the Ignite purchases, "and others do 
not."

Neil Bush said in an e-mail to The Times that Ignite's program had 
demonstrated success in improving the test scores of economically 
disadvantaged children. He also said political influence had not played 
a role in Ignite's rapid growth.

"As our business matures in the USA we have plans to expand overseas and 
to work with many distinguished individuals in Asia, Europe, the Middle 
East and Africa," he wrote. "Not one of these associates by the way has 
ever asked for any access to either of my political brothers, not one 
White House tour, not one autographed photo, and not one Lincoln bedroom 
overnight stay."

Funding laws unclear

Interviews and a review of school district documents obtained under the 
Freedom of Information Act found that educators and legal experts were 
sharply divided over whether Ignite's products were worth their cost or 
qualified under the No Child law.

The federal law requires schools to show they are meeting educational 
standards, or risk losing critical funding. If students fail to meet 
annual performance goals in reading and math tests, schools must 
supplement their educational offerings with tutoring and other special 
programs.

Leigh Manasevit, a Washington attorney who specializes in federal 
education funding, said that districts using the No Child funds to buy 
products like Ignite's would have to meet "very strict" student 
eligibility requirements and ensure that the Ignite services were 
supplemental to existing programs.

Known as COW, for Curriculum on Wheels (the portable learning centers 
resemble cows on wheels), Ignite's product line is geared toward middle 
school social studies, history and science. The company says it has 
developed a social studies program that meets curriculum requirements in 
seven states. Its science program meets requirements in six states.

Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source 
contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly 
involved in marketing the product.

In addition to federal or state funds, foundations and corporations have 
helped buy Ignite products. The Washington Times Foundation, backed by 
the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the South Korea-based Unification 
Church, has peppered classrooms throughout Virginia with Ignite's COWs 
under a $1-million grant.

Oil companies and Middle East interests with long political ties to the 
Bush family have made similar bequests. Aramco Services Co., an arm of 
the Saudi-owned oil company, has donated COWs to schools, as have Apache 
Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.

Neil Bush said he is a businessman who does not attempt to exert 
political influence, and he called The Times' inquiries about his 
venture — made just before the election — "entirely political."

Big supporters

Bush's parents joined Neil as Ignite investors in 1999, according to 
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents. By 2003, the records 
show, Neil Bush had raised about $23 million from more than a dozen 
outside investors, including Mohammed Al Saddah, the head of a Kuwaiti 
company, and Winston Wong, the head of a Chinese computer firm.

Most recently he signed up Russian fugitive business tycoon Boris A. 
Berezovsky and Berezovsky's partner Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Barbara Bush has enthusiastically supported Ignite. In January 2004, she 
and Neil Bush were guests of honor at a $1,000-atable fundraiser in 
Oklahoma City organized by a foundation supporting the Western Heights 
School District. Proceeds were earmarked for the purchase of Ignite 
products.

Organizer Mary Blankenship Pointer said she planned the event because 
district students were "utilizing Ignite courseware and experiencing 
great results. Our students were thriving."

However, Western Heights school Supt. Joe Kitchens said the district 
eventually dropped its use of Ignite because it disagreed with changes 
Ignite had made in its products. "Our interest waned in it," he said.

The former first lady spurred controversy recently when she contributed 
to a Hurricane Katrina relief foundation for storm victims who had 
relocated to Texas. Her donation carried one stipulation: It had to be 
used by local schools for purchases of COWs.

Texas accounts for 75% of Ignite's business, which is expanding rapidly 
in other states, Deliganis said.

The company also has COWs deployed in North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada, 
California, the District of Columbia, Georgia and Florida, he said.

COWs recently showed up at Hill Classical Middle School in California's 
Long Beach Unified School District. A San Jose middle school also bought 
Ignite's products but has since closed.

Neil Bush said Ignite has more than 1,700 COWs in classrooms.

Shift in strategy

But Ignite's educational strategy has changed dramatically, and some are 
critical of its new approach. Shortly after Ignite was formed in Austin, 
Texas, in 1999, it bought the software developed by another small Austin 
firm, Adaptive Learning Technology.

Adaptive Learning founder Mary Schenck-Ross said the software's 
interactive lessons allowed teachers "to get away from the 
mass-treatment approach" to education. When a student typed in a 
response to a question, the software was designed to react and provide a 
customized learning path.

"The original concept was to avoid 'one size fits all.' That was the 
point," said Catherine Malloy, who worked on the software development.

Two years ago, however, Ignite dropped the individualized learning 
approach. Working with artists and illustrators, it created a large 
purple COW that could be wheeled from classroom to classroom and plugged 
in, offering lessons that could be played to a roomful of students.

The COWs enticed students with catchy jingles and videos featuring 
cartoon characters like Mr. Bighead and Norman Einstein. On Ignite's 
website, a collection of teachers endorsed the COW, saying that it 
eliminated the need for lesson planning. The COW does it for them.

The developers of Adaptive Learning's software complain that Ignite 
replaced individualized instruction with a gimmick.

"It breaks my heart what they have done. The concept was totally 
perverted," Schenck-Ross said.

Nevertheless, Ignite found many receptive school districts. In Texas, 30 
districts use COWs.

In Houston, where Neil Bush and his parents live, the district has used 
various funding sources to acquire $400,000 in Ignite products. An 
additional $240,000 in purchases has been authorized in the last six months.

Correspondence obtained by The Times shows that Neil Bush met with top 
Houston officials, sent e-mails and left voice mail messages urging 
bigger and faster allocations. An e-mail from a school procurement 
official to colleagues said Bush had made it clear that he had a "good 
working relationship" with a school board member.

Another Ignite official asked a Texas state education official to 
endorse the company. In an e-mail, Neil Bush's partner Ken Leonard asked 
Michelle Ungurait, state director of social studies programs, to tell 
Houston officials her "positive impressions of our content, system and 
approach."

Ungurait, identified in another Leonard e-mail as "our good friend" at 
the state office, told her superiors in response to The Times' inquiry 
that she never acted on Leonard's request.

Leonard said he did not ask Ungurait to do anything that would be improper.

Houston school officials gave Ignite's products "high" ratings in eight 
categories and recommended approval.

Some in Houston's schools question the expenditures, however. Jon Dansby 
was teaching at Houston's Fleming Middle School when Ignite products 
arrived.

"You can't even get basics like paper and scissors, and we went out and 
bought them. I just see red," he said.

In Las Vegas, the schools have approved more than $300,000 in Ignite 
purchases. Records show the board recommended spending $150,000 in No 
Child funding on Ignite products.

Sources familiar with the Las Vegas purchases said pressure to buy 
Ignite products came from Sig Rogich, an influential local figure and 
prominent Republican whose fundraising of more than $200,000 for 
President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign qualified him as a "Bush Ranger."

Rogich, who chairs a foundation that supports local schools, said he 
applied no pressure but became interested in COWs after Neil Bush 
contacted him. Rogich donated $6,000 to purchase two COWs for a middle 
school named after him.

Christy Falba, the former Clark County school official who oversaw the 
contracts, said she and her husband attended a dinner with Neil Bush to 
discuss the products. She said Rogich encouraged the district "to look 
at the Ignite program" but applied no pressure.

Mixed reviews

Few independent studies have been done to assess the effectiveness of 
Ignite's teaching strategies. Neil Bush said the company had gotten 
"great feedback" from educators and planned to conduct a "major 
scientifically valid study" to assess the COW's impact. The results 
should be in by next summer, he said.

Though Ignite's products get generally rave reviews from Texas 
educators, the opinion is not universal.

The Tornillo, Texas, Independent School District no longer uses the 
Ignite programs it purchased several years ago for $43,000.

"I wouldn't advise anyone else to use it," said Supt. Paul Vranish. 
"Nobody wanted to use it, and the principal who bought it is no longer 
here."

Ignite's website features glowing videotaped testimonials from teachers, 
administrators, students and parents.

Many of the videos were shot at Del Valle Junior High School near 
Austin, where school district officials allowed Ignite to film 
facilities and students.

In the video, a student named India says: "I was feeling bad about my 
grades. I didn't know what my teacher was talking about." The COW 
changed everything, the girl's father says on the video.

Lori, a woman identified as India's teacher, says the child was not 
paying attention until the COW was brought in.

The woman, however, is not India's teacher, but Lori Anderson, a former 
teacher and now Ignite's marketing director. Ignite says Anderson was 
simply role-playing.

In return for use of its students and facilities, a district spokeswoman 
said Ignite donated a free COW. Five others were purchased with district 
funds.

District spokeswoman Celina Bley acknowledged that regulations bar 
school officials from endorsing products. But she said that restriction 
did not apply to the videos.

"It is illegal for individuals to make an endorsement, but this was a 
districtwide endorsement," Bley said in an e-mail.

http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-na-ignite22oct22,1,4882017.story?coll=la-news-learning