No Crony Left Behind »
Posted by: Radiofreeeuropa 1 year, 4 months ago136 Comments Report this Story
he Bush Administration has been using the Reading First program to reward political cronies and ideological allies, ignoring a legal mandate to make funding decisions that reflect "scientifically based research," according to federal investigators. These and other findings are detailed in a report by the Inspector General of the U.S. Depa
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 4 months ago
So far Reading First has dumped almost $5 billion into these programs that have primarily benefited contributors, cronies, and insider hacks of the education industry complex.
The Reading First program has been used to direct federal grants, and mandated state and local dollars into the chain gang reading programs approved by "scientific reading" quack, Reid Lyon and Doug Carnine.
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jordan111 year, 4 months ago
Miller asked the Justice Department to initiate a criminal investigation.>>>>
That's the first problem. Only the Justice Dept. can deal with this. And as it was brought out in 2005, & the 'injustice' dept. did nothing, I think it's clear that they will do nothing, or make motions that get nowhere.
Margaret Spelling, The Secretary of Education, said she will look into "individual mistakes", but says this all happened before her watch. She was given the job in 2004, & I guess didn't hear in 2005 & 2006 that there was something wrong. She's a good little CON. Suuure. She'll look into it.
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
Gonzo's Justice Department also stonewalled every reported case of contractor fraud aand abuse from Iraq and Afghanistan too! What can you expect from a guy who defines torture as only that which kills (no complainers then), and allows hearsay and no habeas corpus for the possibly innocent at Gitmo?
Dubya also paid $425,000 of our taxpayer monies to the pundit Williams to sell No Child Left Behind too! Impeach now!
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NelsonR1 year, 4 months ago
Referring to the Justice Department, I still fail to see why that Department cannot and should be separate from the whims of our politicals parties. Most will agree that corruption in government is a norm but I hear many excuses from bloggers why this is a bad idea. I cannot understand why keeping the Fox out of the chicken coop is detrimental to our government.
If you give the power of investigations to the political party in power, power corrupts.
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DEMONSLAYAR1 year, 4 months ago
In case you have not noticed, republicans just hate aemrica for its freedom. and the best way to enslave people is to reduce thier education. Mission accomplished. In the 1960s when i went to public school we had around 24 students to a class room now its closer to 40...gee i wonder why public education is having problems? could it be the defunding that started with reagan? Nahhhhhhhh must be something else lol
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
Reagan vetoed the truth in Telecommunications Act too! Heaven forbid news organizations be required to present both sides of an argument and take more air time to do so. This veto unleashed the likes of Faux Fox Facts, part of the long term corrupt Republican plan to control? Just shows the continuos corruption from Nixon's Watergate and Reagan's Iran Contra to the present, of the Republican Party!
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
Impeachment? Not until those hard core, deluded Senate and House Republicans are convinced by middle America that their continued blind support of this corrupt president will find them without a government job after the next election. Middle America needs a guaranteed 60 votes to overcome the Bush veto and pursue viable impeachment! Oh, and add Joe Lieberman to this list of fools!
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jordan111 year, 4 months ago
Not until those hard core, deluded Senate and House Republicans are convinced by middle America that their continued blind support of this corrupt president will find them without a government job after the next election. Middle America needs a guaranteed 60 votes to overcome the Bush veto and pursue viable impeachment! Oh, and add Joe Lieberman to this list of fools!>>>>
Maybe instead of writing lawmakers, people should be writing the editors of the newspapers in those 'red' states, telling those fools who elected them to wake the hell up, or we're sending them the bill!
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Amazing11 year, 4 months ago
According to my cousin who is on the school board in a small town in Maine, the whole thing is set up to skew statistics. On test days, children with learning disabilities are pressured to be absent so that their test scores will not lower the "progress" being shown.
Instead of "No Child Left Behind" we need a "Bush Left Behind" program. Instead of "Reading First" we need "Impeachment First."
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icono11 year, 4 months ago
A retired teacher friend of mine that taught in the Jeff. Co. Ky. school system told me that Ky. does the same thing. Reason being that if they, the schools, do not 'achieve' certain scores then funding (state and govt(?)) will be cut and schools can be 'taken over' by the State. ( I assume that in Ky, if a school is 'taken over' by the state, then the school district does not receive funding and or certain administrator's will be in some serious hot water.)
Also mentioned was that 'certain students' where encouraged to stay home during testing to help 'prop up' the over-all scores.
Illegal or not,from what I've been told, education is 'about the money' and not actual educational progress.
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MonkeyBiz1 year, 4 months ago
In Texas, the number of students classified as learning disabled has risen dramatically in order to keep them from taking the tests and dropping the overall school averages.
The stakes are so high that teachers and schools have little choice but to teach to the tests.
Educational policy should be left to professional educators, not professional politicians and ideologues.
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Macondo1 year, 4 months ago
Good teachers are underpaid, many programs like music, art etc. are underfunded.
Monies diverted to the corrupted deals, cut down funding.
Many prospective excellent teachers have to go into other professions.
Meanwhile the corporations friendly to the administration, and or political machinery, of the president feast on
the booty.
Vultures perching on the shoulders of modern pirates !>/
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super-sunshine1 year, 4 months ago
The sad thing about all this, is that they use a good cause to hide behind. Not to say that education companies shouldn't be making money, but it should go to the best not the friends of. Furthermore, there should be more money going directly to the people who are teaching our children. I think it say big things about Americans when our teachers are making less then some folks with little education. I was reading somewhere that a person that works at Cosco serving samples will make around $43000.00, plus great benefits and bonus after five years with the company. I know here in Texas it takes more then five years on average to ever get to the 40000.00 income on average for Teachers.
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
Libs must really like living in the state that gave us Dubya. Let's see, Texas threw out Dubya's faith based initiatives when they found out that abuse in the church day cares was ten times the norm. Dubya has only taken his corruption and ignorance of good science to the national level to the greater demise of all America.
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MonkeyBiz1 year, 4 months ago
There is still an element in Texas politics that push the same "God, guns, and big bidness" policies. The latest outrage is making its way through the legislative process that will REQUIRE (yep, thats require as in MANDATORY) all Texas public high schools to offer bible study classes. It actually stands a pretty fair chance of passage, after all, no one in Texas politics wants to be seen as anti-religious, and most citizens just roll their eyes and say "Oh, them 'ol boys there in Austin! Ain't they a hoot?!?"
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OnlyTheTruth1 year, 4 months ago
Edinburg - sounds like the sort of thing I would expect from SUCK.
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mcgrievysr1 year, 4 months ago
Edinbug----""ah, yet another completely classless comment by a completely classless a5shole. But what else could you expect from a moron like yourself. You should try taking up the reading program. You illiterates need it.""
I get crap from SuckaLib too. He's/She's good for a laugh. Despite the fact that he/she is uninformed or misinformed, that doesn't keep him/her from turning up the volume full blast. If the postings were more accurate, they'd be annoying. As it is, they have high comedic value.:-)
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
Libssuck,
You don't know it all. Teachers here in Ky must go back to school and get a masters degree within 5 years of their first teaching job, then advance toward a PhD after that. Do you think that college is free? Apparently you do if you think 40,000 a year is a lot of money to live on and go to college too.
Maybe you should try going to college in these days, see for yourself the expense of an education.
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Watchemoket1 year, 4 months ago
Right - and maybe learn something in the real world?
Ahh ... ummm ... WHAT WAS I THINKING???? Suck's never going to change.
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MonkeyBiz1 year, 4 months ago
Libssuck - Are you seriously suggesting that Texas teachers have it made financially? With killer benefits? They are only paid better on average than teachers in Mississippi. Regular pay increases? Where does that take place? Not in my local school district.
They work long hours and some work holidays doing paperwork for both TAKS and NCLB. Most buy their own classroom supplies and all have to continue their education without assistance from their employers.
Teaching is one of the most important jobs necessary for the future of our nation, yet teachers in my town earn less than the garbage collectors. And I have never heard of a teacher that could afford to NOT take a job over the summer in order to make ends meet.
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hamy1 year, 4 months ago
You are not very well informed. Here in Chicago, the poverty level for assistance from the government for a single person is $39,000 per year. Many teachers, especially new teachers make much less than this.
You are so blinded by your political attachment to this administration that you cannot see the forest for the trees.
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
libs, you really need to quit posting, more and more your ignorance is showing. I know a lot of people who have quit teaching and taken jobs in factories etc, because that so called cushy job you portray it to be isn't enough to feed their families. My whole family was teachers, how many do you have in your family, or did you bother to go to school?
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MonkeyBiz1 year, 4 months ago
"NO TEACHER ANYWHERE is living below the poverty level. What a joke."
YOU are the joke! A starting salary for a fully accredited and qualified elementary teacher in our local school district is $22,000 per year. If that teacher has a family of two adults and two children, the teacher is below the federal poverty level.
If you factor in the repayment of student loans to get the degree necessary to become a teacher, the need to purchase all class rooom supplies and the continuing tuition for required "professional development" courses, the income is unquestionably poverty level and below.
For comparative purposes, the garbage collector crews have a starting salary of $37,500.
As usual suck, you are on the wrong side, for the wrong reasons.
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wtagg1 year, 4 months ago
http://www.aft.org/presscenter/releases/2007/sa...
Look for yourself. In many states, it is pretty sad. The stats are an average for each state, geographically-speaking. Most give an average starting salary and average salary for the state. The Dakotas are usually the states bringing up the rear. About $25,000 to start. To be fair, there are benefits including the amount of time off. Would probably be good for someone single or retired from another job that can either subsidize or don't need income during the down time. Not so good if trying to raise a family. Isn't one of the parties suppose to be about *family values*?
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lfergie8121 year, 4 months ago
And the beat goes on. It seems like their is no place in our government that this corruption has not reached with their attitude of money first and the American people last. How many children are now going to leave school with an insufficient education?
Thanks Radiofreeeurope for sharing this with us.
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
...part of the unitary executive that Gonzo supports to make all of he bureaucracy reflect Dubya's corruption. Judge those who will have a diminished education and lesser hopes by the increase of those in poverty under this administration too.
Good, long term lawyers left the Justice Department in protest to Gonzo's torture memo too! Libs doesn't accept these realities though - in her own deluded, little, myopic world!
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Xaos1 year, 4 months ago
And I thought the last administration was bad. Where will this end? Our government has went from "We the people" to "We the corporations". Each successive administration is more and more wrought with corruption. Republican or democrat, it does not seem to matter any more. We need a big change, time to elect a third party to our important offices. Don't think it will work, it has in the past. We need reform, and a separation of business and state.
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
The third party people don't have the money behind them to do all the campaignig (and lieing) that the dems and repubs do, hence they are shoved into the corner with little to no attention paid to their policies. Big corps are the ones funding these 30 million dollar campaigns, therefore they expect to get it back in spades, and they do!!
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Watchemoket1 year, 4 months ago
Check out 'unity08.com' - it's not exactly a 'third party' but it may be able to offer a viable alternative to 'bidness as usual' at the federal level.
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quillyregnold1 year, 4 months ago
Great Article Radiofreeeurope!!! Is anyone really suprised by what the Crooks do anymore?? It's so mind-boggling what these guys pull, it would be funny if it were not true.
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zaph221 year, 4 months ago
If a million was diverted, that is bad, if a crime was commttted, prosecute it! But my question is this, considering what appears to be poor quality of educaion in many of our schools, what happened to the rest of the five billion that wasn't diverted from it's intended purpose? Why does it seem to be having little to no effect on the quality of education?
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
...poor management, sole source contracts without being properly audited, contracts to cronies not competent to get the contracts, priority to creationism versus good science, wasting money on faith based initiatives, science and education appointed positions in the government to Bush sycophants not necessarily qualified, funding cuts... and more, take your pick. Take all these aspects and education improvement has no chance at all!
No different than the mismanagement Bush has shown in all his endeavors!
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Watchemoket1 year, 4 months ago
The American People could pump half their taxes into investigations and it wouldn't be enough to fully investigate and prosecute all of the corruption and graft in this administration. It has become - apparently from close to the beginning of his first term - Standard Operating Procedure to find every possible way to use government programs to line the pockets of favored mega-corps and b/millionaires.
It is just so sickening and outrageous, and I am soooo tired of hearing more and more each day. It will never end. Years after the Shrub is out of office, our grandchildren will be digging up more scandalous corruption and cronyism.
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
Good question zaph, and a question i would like an answer to is, "If there was so much money put into the no child left behind program, why does my sister, who is a teacher, have to buy her school supplies out of her own pocket?" She and the other teachers here have been told that there is no budget for supplies.
What happens to the children whose parents either can't afford their children's supplies, or who just don't care if their children has supplies or not? I know what my sister does, she buys them for the children herself, and teachers don't make a lot of money.
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UBCONFUSE1 year, 4 months ago
All politicians do this. It is called implementing your program. It only looks like something bad when the smear mongers of the Democratic left turn normal activities into criminal acts by alleging anything and everything about Republicans. This is nothing but spin, spin, spin. Same goes for the fired US Attorneys, it is all spin.
I wish Liberman would walk over to Reid's office and say, "either you retract your statement of America's defeat in Iraq or I will switch parties" Enough of this crap from the left
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
...and Watergate, Iran Contra, Contract to America lies, Newt's resignation, DeLay's resignation, no Repug ethics changes to the Foley/Abramoff scandals, unaudited/sole source contracts, and Iraq war lies never happened. Facts are that the Republican party at the national level has a track record unequaled for continued corruption!
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NelsonR1 year, 4 months ago
That hypocrtie Lieberman should for once be honest and agree to become Republican. He is a despicable human cloaked in Democratic principals but conversely a hawk conservative that would perpetuate deaths of Americans for the Republican agenda.
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quackpot1 year, 4 months ago
When "implementing your program" means daily corruption at every level the "program" that is bein implemented needs some re-thinking.
The Bush administration has taken his tax breaks to the wealthy, gifts to the big corporations, Rx to the pharmaceutical industry and look-the-other-way corruption gifts to his friend's personal pockets to hieghts that other administrations hadn't even immagined.
Reports on the corruption in this adiminstration are comming too often too big and from too many sources to be spin.
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Watchemoket1 year, 4 months ago
UBCONFUSE - you ARE confuseD. Although I have to agree to a limited extent that neither party is immune from corruption, graft and cronyism, this administration has taken all of that to an entirely new level - it has become a dirty, filthy artform for the Bushies and their cronies.
... "crap from the left" ... You really just don't get it, do you? This isn't even a 'right vs left' thing any more. There are Republicans who are expressing shock at the level of absolute crap being perpetrated on the American public by this administration.
Please, before you embarrass yourself any more than you already have, Get A Clue!
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
Of course Neil is involved. He and Dubya were coke buddies at Camp David during Big Daddy's term in office, gotta keep his brother in drug money!!
Don't you just love your tax dollars going toward the Bush family drug usage, and rehab?
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spkguy1 year, 4 months ago
Fake titles for Neil Bush's software company, Ignite! Learning
On March 23, 2006, I wrote about Neil Bush's educational software company, Ignite! Learning, and about the company's shady investors, which include scions of the Chinese ruling class, United Arab Emirate royalty, and a Russian gazillionaire wanted on criminal charges for allegedly plotting to overthrow Boris Vladimir Putin. Neil's mother, Barbara Bush, is also a big beleiver in Neil's company -- her donation to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund was specifically earmarked for her son's company. (Here's a Houstin Chronicle article with more details.)
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/03/24/fake_title...
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Twistoflex1 year, 4 months ago
Neil was a director for Grace Electronics, a Chinese company exploiting Neil's family connections to secure semiconductor technology that could be used in missile guidance systems.
His messy divorce proceedings exposed his escapades with prostitutes in Hong Kong.
As you pointed out, there's the Dubai connection. These "emirates" camped with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to George Tenet, who offered this as a rationalization for why the CIA did not execute Clinton's orders to take out bin Laden. As you may recall, these are the same people the Dumbya dictatorship wanted to hand the nation's ports to.
... then there's that tie to the Russian-Israeli mafia. Neil's got his hand in a lot of pies ... just like the other brother-in-crime, Marvin.
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
The Title of this article says it all. There is nothing done by this administration that doesn't render a payoff to them in some way.
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NelsonR1 year, 4 months ago
The Justice Department is regulated by the power that is in office. So do you really expect any investigation into acts detrimental to America?
If you want to reduce corruption the Justice Department MUST be a separate entity from the powers who serve.
It is common sense to prevent the party in power the authority of investigations into political corruption. If you disagree then get a fox to keep guard over your chicken coop.
Four Branches of Government with oversight would lessen the present evil within our present Republic.
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not2needy1 year, 4 months ago
LOL, KelLuv,
One would think they would tire of the daily scandal and just leave. But again the big bucks they are making makes it all worth while.
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skyking2p1 year, 4 months ago
George knows how stupid he really is,so he has to make sure all those around him are loyal "bushies" so they won't make fun of him on TV. Take our country back. Impeachment now!!!
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simonsez1 year, 4 months ago
The waste and politics in our government schools is way beyond Bush and will not be solved when Bush is gone. It has been there for 30 years and will be there well after the next election no matter who wins.
There is enough money to educate our kids if they use it to educate our kids! But they won't do that, will they!!
We waste billions and nothing changes. Bush tried to make them act responsibly, but they will not let that happen.
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bgibbs071 year, 4 months ago
"to educate our kids if they use it to educate our kids"
The kids have to want to be educated, as having the best teachers with the best courses does nothing if the kids refuse to learn and/or come to class. That said, the NCLB is a horrible program, that forces teachers to teach by the test if they want their school to get funding.
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donald511 year, 4 months ago
Bush responsibility: almost 20,000 earmarks signed into law without a Bush blink of sole source unaudited contracts like the bridges to nowhere in Alaska last year. Talk about irresponsibility! Simon is Rove really telling you simonsez...? Sure appears so! I feel sorry for your deluded plight Simon!
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