Bush Admin's view of how education should be run

[RightIsWrong]

Hold the institutions hostage to the whims of your desires and/or whacked out views or they don't get any federal funds.

A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's 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 review of how Reading First, a billion-dollar program each year, that it says 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.

Of course, if they don't play along, they have to be made an example of a la former admin members who speak out (O'Neill), consultants who are critical of the administration (Wilson/Plame) or those that won't spread the "good word" that Bush is the man to elect (All Saints' Episcopal Church).

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 Reading First director wrote, according to the report.

But of course, the person in charge doesn't have any blame:

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.

But of course, as is most things with this Orwellian administration, it is a beacon of what is right with our education system:

Reading First aims to help young children read through scientifically-proven programs, and the department considers it a jewel of No Child Left Behind, Bush's education law. Just this week, a separate review found that the effort is helping schools raise achievement.

But from the start, the program has also been dogged by accusations of impropriety, leading to several ongoing audits. The new report from the Office of Inspector General - an independent arm of the Education Department - calls into question basic matters of credibility.

When the department fails to follow the law and its own guidance, the report says, "it can only serve to undermine the public's confidence in the department."

Queue the political, election year feigning of astonishment from the Dems:

The ranking Democrat on the House education committee was furious.

"They should fire everyone who was involved in this," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. "This was not an accident, this was not an oversight. This was an intentional effort to corrupt the process."

Just another day in the new and improved United States of America, LLC.

Source

Why does NIN come to mind....."Bow down before the one you serve, you're gonna get what you deserve"?