Fwd: [LiteracyForAll] an "unsparing review" of Reading First

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

WOW! Please write to Miller <george.miller@mail.house.gov> and Kennedy <action@tedkennedy.com>, the Dems who pushed No Corporation Left Behind and tell them to put these crooks in jail. Including Bush.
Susan

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Stephen Krashen <skrashen@yahoo.com>
> Date: Fri Sep 22, 2006  12:12:23 PM US/Pacific
> To: literacyForAll@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [LiteracyForAll] an "unsparing review" of Reading First
> Reply-To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com
>
> Audit finds Education Dept. missteps
>
> By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer 51 minutes ago
>
> A scorching internal review of the Bush
> administration's reading program says the Education
> Department ignored the law and ethical standards to
> steer money how it wanted.
>
> The government audit is unsparing in its review of how
> Reading First, a billion-dollar program each year,
> that it says has been beset by conflicts of interest
> and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department
> broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum
> schools must use.
>
> It also depicts a program in which review panels were
> stacked with people who shared the director's views
> and in which only favored publishers of reading
> curricula could get money.
>
> In one e-mail, the director told a staff member to
> come down hard on a company he didn't support,
> according to the report released Friday by the
> department's inspector general.
>
> "They are trying to crash our party and we need to
> beat the (expletive deleted) out of them in front of
> all the other would-be party crashers who are standing
> on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these
> dirtbags," the Reading First director wrote, according
> to the report.
>
> That official, Chris Doherty, is resigning in the
> coming days, department spokeswoman Katherine McLane
> said Friday. Asked if his quitting was in response to
> the report, she said only that Doherty is returning to
> the private sector after five years at the agency.
>
> Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, in a
> statement, pledged to swiftly adopt all of the audit's
> recommendations. She also pledged a review of every
> Reading First grant.
>
> "I am concerned about these actions and committed to
> addressing and resolving them," she said.
>
> Reading First aims to help young children read through
> scientifically-proven programs, and the department
> considers it a jewel of No Child Left Behind, Bush's
> education law. Just this week, a separate review found
> that the effort is helping schools raise achievement.
>
> But from the start, the program has also been dogged
> by accusations of impropriety, leading to several
> ongoing audits. The new report from the Office of
> Inspector General — an independent arm of the
> Education Department — calls into question basic
> matters of credibility.
>
> When the department fails to follow the law and its
> own guidance, the report says, "it can only serve to
> undermine the public's confidence in the department."
>
> The ranking Democrat on the House education committee
> was furious.
>
> "They should fire everyone who was involved in this,"
> said Rep. George Miller (news, bio, voting record),
> D-Calif. "This was not an accident, this was not an
> oversight. This was an intentional effort to corrupt
> the process."
>
> About 1,500 school districts have received $4.8
> billion in Reading First grants.
>
>
>
>
>
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