Does anyone know the political leanings of McGraw Hill?

[Dover]

I need to know because I want to check out a recent piece of information put out by their new acquisition, J.D. Power.

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The McGraw-Hill Companies Completes Acquisition of J.D. Power and Associates

NEW YORK, April 1, 2005—The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of J.D. Power and Associates, a leading provider of marketing information to consumers and businesses worldwide. Terms were not disclosed.

"J.D. Power and Associates is an excellent fit with The McGraw-Hill Companies and will enhance the growth prospects of our business information platforms," said Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies. "J.D. Power will benefit from our broad global presence, while providing a new direct link to consumers and creating new collaborative opportunities with our existing platforms in financial services, construction, energy and aviation."

J.D. Power and Associates, founded in 1968 by J.D. Power III, is the leading provider of marketing information services for the global automotive industry and has established a strong and growing presence in several other important industries, including finance and insurance, healthcare, home building, telecommunications and energy. Its customer satisfaction ratings and market research are recognized worldwide as benchmarks for quality.

J.D. Power III, the founder, will remain actively involved in the strategic direction of the operation, and Stephen Goodall will continue to serve as J.D. Power and Associates president, with responsibility for day-to-day operations. The company, which includes the Power Information Network, LLC, has 787 employees, operates globally in 12 locations and will maintain its Westlake Village, California, headquarters as well as its other regional offices

[greekspeak]

1. I do not personally know much about it except it publishes a lot of books

In my field, the publishers our experts use are smaller, less well known. Many of them publish only scholarly books on the study of religion. Many other of our books are published by school presses. I am sure in the survey courses I took as an undergrad that McGraw Hill published some. I think they do a lot of high school books too.

[The Blue Flower]

2. I once edited for them

I edited a high school health textbook for McGraw Hill/Glencoe. The book was revised to please the school boards of whatever political leaning. Just keeping the customer happy.

[Lucille]

4. I did too

in the College Division, around twenty years ago. It's hard to say. I worked during a couple of the Reagan years in Science, Education, and Nursing. There was some discussion about how to avoid alienating creationists, can you imagine? How do you do that in the sciences? I also remember being given a copy of "A Nation at Risk," and being told to study it. But this could have been simply a business accommodating political realities.

In fact, I think you could safely say that at that time McGraw-Hill regarded textbooks as a product, and weren't governed by any ideology other than the almighty dollar. They often aimed for big textbook adoptions in the big state systems, but our division often had to settle for smaller markets. At the "school" level, though, I believe that the content of their "product" was influenced by the politics of those states where the State Dept of Education controls textbook adoptions. IIRC, I believe this is the case in TX, OK, OH, and CA. Therefore, these states carry a lot of clout in determining the content of public school textbooks. I shudder to think if this is still the case.

McGraw-Hill also publishes Business Week and numerous trade publications. Standard & Poors is theirs as well.

[anarch]

3. friends of the family...

According to a couple articles I've seen here and there, Harold McGraw is pretty tight with asshat* and family.

I know for sure that McGraw Hill as a company has made out like bandits thanks to the No Child Left Behind testing program and all that...since they control such a huge part of the "educational testing" market, schools are practically mandated to give them money.

[Dover]

5. Well, it was this article that has led me to ponder their associations...>

GM, Ford shine in quality survey
In J.D. Power dependability survey, GM tops the most categories. Lexus is still best overall.
June 29, 2005; Posted: 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 GMT)


NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - General Motors and Ford earned a record number of awards while Lexus ranked highest in long-term dependability for the 11th consecutive year, according to J.D. Power and Associate's latest Vehicle Dependability Study.

Overall, the auto industry recorded substantial improvements in long-term vehicle quality in 2005, according to the survey.

Toyota's Lexus brand had the fewest number of reported problems with 139 problems per 100 vehicles. (The average number of reported problems across the industry is 237 problems per 100 cars.)

Porsche ranked No. 2 after making the greatest improvement from last year, while Hyundai, while still coming in below average, had the biggest decrease in problems compared to 2004.

General Motors and Ford Motor Co. topped a record number of vehicle categories in the study, with eight and five respectively.

"Our studies consistently show that long-term durability is a tremendously important factor for consumers," Chance Parker, executive director of product research analysis at J.D. Power and Associates, said in a statement...cont'd

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/06/29/jdpower_depend/index.html

[Lecky]

6. LOL, when I first read the title of this thread...

...I thought you were referring to Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

Just thought I'd share.