On The Payroll, In The Pocket
Frances Spelling, Secretary of the Department of Education, had better be a speed reader. She is scheduled to appear today before a congressional committee looking into the multiple conflicts of interests in her department, and a new report detailing more such conflicts has just issued. From an AP report in yesterday's Sacramento Bee:
Officials who gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy under a federal reading program had deep financial ties to publishers, according to a congressional report Wednesday.
The report, compiled by Senate Education Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., details how officials contracted by the government to help run the program were at the same time drawing pay from publishers that benefited from the reading initiative. ...
-Edward Kame'enui, who headed the western technical assistance center based at the University of Oregon. Between 2002 and 2004, while holding positions in which he was evaluating Reading First assessment programs and giving state education agencies technical assistance, Kame'enui entered into three different contracts with the publisher Pearson/Scott Foresman, the report said. ...
-Douglas Carnine, who replaced Kame'enui as the western center's director in 2005, when Kame'enui left to take up his federal position. Previously Carnine had other roles related to Reading First.
Even as he headed the western center, Carnine worked with and continues to work with numerous publishers, the report said. He earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from publishers that did well under Reading First, such as Houghton Mifflin Company from 2002 to 2006. ...
-Joseph Torgesen, who directed the eastern regional district at Florida State University from 2003 until the present. Torgesen is co-author of a McGraw Hill reading program that can be used under Reading First. The study found that from 2002 to 2006, Torgesen earned thousands of dollars in royalties and other payments from companies such as McGraw Hill and Pearson and Sopris West, which later was acquired by Cambium Learning. ...
-Sharon Vaughn headed the central technical assistance center at the University of Texas-Austin from 2003 to 2005. She received tens of thousands of dollars in royalties from Pearson Education Inc. and "other income" from Voyager Expanded learning, two programs used under Reading First. [Emphasis added]
While Ms. Spelling has indicated that the department will look into these matters, she also defended the hiring of these people because the department needed the "expertise" that each had. It's pretty clear that all of these individuals were quite expert in making money for themselves, but I'm not certain that's what is needed for the positions held by them.
Apparently Ms. Spelling needs some education on the meaning of conflict of interest.
Officials who gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy under a federal reading program had deep financial ties to publishers, according to a congressional report Wednesday.
The report, compiled by Senate Education Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., details how officials contracted by the government to help run the program were at the same time drawing pay from publishers that benefited from the reading initiative. ...
-Edward Kame'enui, who headed the western technical assistance center based at the University of Oregon. Between 2002 and 2004, while holding positions in which he was evaluating Reading First assessment programs and giving state education agencies technical assistance, Kame'enui entered into three different contracts with the publisher Pearson/Scott Foresman, the report said. ...
-Douglas Carnine, who replaced Kame'enui as the western center's director in 2005, when Kame'enui left to take up his federal position. Previously Carnine had other roles related to Reading First.
Even as he headed the western center, Carnine worked with and continues to work with numerous publishers, the report said. He earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from publishers that did well under Reading First, such as Houghton Mifflin Company from 2002 to 2006. ...
-Joseph Torgesen, who directed the eastern regional district at Florida State University from 2003 until the present. Torgesen is co-author of a McGraw Hill reading program that can be used under Reading First. The study found that from 2002 to 2006, Torgesen earned thousands of dollars in royalties and other payments from companies such as McGraw Hill and Pearson and Sopris West, which later was acquired by Cambium Learning. ...
-Sharon Vaughn headed the central technical assistance center at the University of Texas-Austin from 2003 to 2005. She received tens of thousands of dollars in royalties from Pearson Education Inc. and "other income" from Voyager Expanded learning, two programs used under Reading First. [Emphasis added]
While Ms. Spelling has indicated that the department will look into these matters, she also defended the hiring of these people because the department needed the "expertise" that each had. It's pretty clear that all of these individuals were quite expert in making money for themselves, but I'm not certain that's what is needed for the positions held by them.
Apparently Ms. Spelling needs some education on the meaning of conflict of interest.
Labels: Education Department
posted by Diane at 3:41 AM
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