A scorching internal review of the Bush administration’s billion-dollar-a-year 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 view that the Reading First program 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 program director wrote…
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.
The audit found the department:
# Botched the way it picked a panel to review grant applications, raising questions over whether grants were approved as the law requires.
# Screened grant reviewers for conflicts of interest, but then failed to identify six who had a clear conflict based on their industry connections.
# Did not let states see the comments of experts who reviewed their applications.
# Required states to meet conditions that weren’t part of the law.
# Tried to downplay elements of the law it didn’t like when working with states.
If you have a program like Reading First that produces decent results — even when it’s run by the corrupt and greedy, imagine what you could achieve with old-fashioned management standards like honesty and integrity.
Isn’t this about the hundredth instance of corruption, greed and/or incompetence under this administration? Is anyone even surprised anymore? One thing I will say about this current Republican empire-builders, they are businesslike about their corruption.
Wait a moment…isn’t this simply more trickle down educational benefits ? Kinda like the trickle- tickle we’ve been getting all along from our marvelous Corporate world we’ve been “asked” to build by the Republicans ? I like the tickle part..makes feel good about the trickle.
Gee mom..where’d all the supporters go ?? One comment in here ?
I wonder if the near constant barrage of internal audits/reports regarding our current administrators is getting to be a tad noxious for folks ?
It is the endless news items like this which make me believe that the MANY warnings prior to 911 were missed because of the Bush Administration’s INCOMPETENCE rather than some conspiracy.
BUNGLING AND NEGLECT fit the patter of Bush & Co. more than a grand conspiracy.
Frankly, I don’t think Bush & Co. ARE CAPABLE of pulling off something as complicated as a conspiracy of the 911 scale. They tried to pull a scam to get us in Iraq — and it worked — but it was unmasked pretty quickly.
Why am I not surprised.
The HUD Secretary, Alphonso Jackson, is also a real airhead. He told a group of contractors that they needed to support Bush if they wanted contract with his department. It is illegal to grant or deny a government contract solely on political views.
“He didn’t get the contract,” Jackson continued. “Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don’t get the contract. That’s the way I believe.”
http://tinyurl.com/joq2j
Later, Jackson claimed he had made it up. Either Jackson broke the law and then lied about it, or he lied that he had broken the law. Which of those actions makes him fit to be secretary of housing and urban development? (Washington Post)
Which of those actions makes him fit to be secretary of housing and urban development?
Based on the history of HUD, I’d say both.
(That’s how you troll, son.)
Which of those actions makes him fit to be secretary of housing and urban development?
Based on the history of HUD, I’d say both.
(That’s how you troll, son.)
Comment by James Hill — 9/24/2006 @ 7:08 am
Both qualify him as Presidential spokesperson.
Big government, by it’s very nature, cannot be other than grossly inefficient. History books recount the demise and fall of numerous mighty civilizations back through the misty corridors of time, and anyone who feels that the US is somehow excluded from all this is delusional. In an off the top assessment I would venture that the unity and focus of the World and Cold wars helped us ride our wave a bit further, then the computer revolution gave us a bit more of a boost. But the wave is beginning to crest, and in time we will take our place with the rest of the sunsetted empires. Hopefully we’ll have the grace to accept this without nuking the planet.
Good thing they’re going to put all government contracts up for public view. That should probably save tens of billions a year. Don’t know why you think this is Bush’s fault. That’s what happend when you spend lots of other people’s money. Do you really think Clinton’s administration was immune from this? Remember the Travel Office firings?
>Gee mom..where’d all the supporters go ??
That’s the difference between conservatives and Republicans, like I pointed out about Goldberg and Ponnuru before. The difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals think new leadership will change things, while conservatives and Cubs fans are forever pessimistic.