E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials

[csziggy]

This may have been posted already, but it's worth re-posting.

E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials

Posted by Valerie Strauss on January 30, 2013 at 4:47 pm

A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders.

A call to the foundation has not been returned.

The e-mails are between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) and a group Bush set up called Chiefs for Change, whose members are current and former state education commissioners who support Bush’s agenda of school reform, which includes school choice, online education, retention of third-graders who can’t read and school accountability systems based on standardized tests. That includes evaluating teachers based on student test scores and grading schools A-F based on test scores. John White of Louisiana is a current member, as is Tony Bennett, the new commissioner of Florida who got the job after Indiana voters rejected his Bush-style reforms last November and tossed him out of office.

Donald Cohen, chair of the nonprofit In the Public Interest, a resource center on privatization and responsible for contracting in the public sector, said the e-mails show how education companies that have been known to contribute to the foundation are using the organization “to move an education agenda that may or not be in our interests but are in theirs.”

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/30/e-mails-link-bush-foundation-corporations-and-education-officials/

Link to emails: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2747

[snot]

1. K&R'd.

[Reader Rabbit]

2. Everone has their fingers in the pie.

Education reform is a scam for the usual suspects to make a mint off of taxpayer dollars.

[msongs]

3. race to the top..... nt

[Ian David]

4. They're a bunch of thieving vultures. Remember this?

Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush's software program

Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.

Since then, the Ignite Learning program has been given to eight area schools that took in substantial numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

"Mrs. Bush wanted to do something specifically for education and specifically for the thousands of students flooding into the Houston schools," said Jean Becker, former President Bush's chief of staff. "She knew that HISD was using this software program, and she's very excited about this program, so she wanted to make it possible for them to expand the use of this program."

The former first lady plans to visit a Houston Independent School District campus using the Ignite program today to call on local business leaders to support schools and education.

The trip to Fleming Middle School is intended to showcase Bush's commitment to education for both Houston-area and New Orleans evacuee students, according to a press release issued Wednesday by Ignite.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/hurricanes/article/Katrina-funds-earmarked-to-pay-for-Neil-Bush-s-1626048.php

[Dragonfli]

6. Thanks, I was confused about the Barbara Bush charity scam, I knew it had

to do with her son's publishing outfit and I am glad you reminded me of the details.

[Dragonfli]

5. Jeb has been profiting from this for years, they really are a disgusting family

I remember when mamma Bush made a big deal about a large charitable donation for education improvement, in the fine print she stipulated every dime had to be spent buying books from her son's publishing operation.

I just wish there was someone in government that would oppose these NCLB and RTTT educational deform scams. I see no one in power doing anything but enabling them.

[HiPointDem]

7. The education deform world is small and highly incestuous. And bipartisan.

[condoleeza]

8. The whole family should be in jail n/t

[lexw]

9. What the hell is wrong with the Bush family? They sicken me with every turn.

[Kurovski]

10. They are sick like hoarders are sick. It's never enough.

Just piling up more and more and more.

[lexw]

11. That's the part I can't figure out! These mega-rich folks want IT ALL. It's never enough.

[Blue Owl]

12. Privatizin' trumps Educatin'

Just like money trumps peace.