The Bush Cash "COW"

The Bush Cash "COW"
16 Sep 2007

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) requested that the Department of Education’s Inspector General (IG) investigate why federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) funds are being spent on educational products sold by Ignite! Learning, a company founded and headed by Neil Bush, President Bush’s younger brother.

Neil Bush, who has no education background, is best known for his role in the failure of Silverado Savings and Loan, which cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. CREW is asking the IG to discover why federal money is being funneled to a company with no proven track record of effectiveness, but so happens to be run by the president’s brother.

Congress has set rigorous standards for the types of educational approaches and products on which NCLB funds can be spent, but CREW’s research shows that Ignite! products do not meet those criteria. In fact, there is no scientific data, as defined by NCLB, supporting the effectiveness of Ignite!’s products.

CREW’s three-month investigation revealed that school districts are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, including NCLB funds, on Ignite!’s Curriculum on Wheels (COW), a cart-mounted video projector and hard drive loaded with a year’s supply of Ignite!’s social studies, science, or math curricula. At a standard price of $3,800-$4,200 per unit, the COW is a very expensive device with limited use.

Adding to the initial expense, schools must pay an annual $1,000 licensing, upkeep and upgrade fee in order to retain the COW for more than one year.

In Houston, Barbara Bush donated money to a hurricane Katrina relief fund, but mandated the money be used to buy her son’s Ignite! program for schools.

Ask yourself (and your government) why schools would invest money in this product?

References:

The Raw Story

chron.com

campaignwatch.org

austinchronicle.com

mediatransparency.org

businessweek.com/magazine/

Americanfreepress.net/

washingtonpost.com

motherjones.com

associatedcontent.com

citizensforethics.org

Ignite Learning

Wikipedia

Why Is Bush's Kid Brother Neil Getting Federal Funding? Posted by Liliana Segura at 12:06 PM on September 13, 2007. Alternet

Back to School Tax Break

Wondering how you’ll pay for the mounting school supplies, band uniforms, and shoes your kids seem to need each year?

Thanks to North Carolina Democrats shoppers will get a weekend pass on state and local sales taxes on clothing, computers, and other school supplies. The state’s sixth annual sales tax holiday starts at 12:01 a.m. on Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

The sales tax holiday was enacted by the Democratic General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mike Easley in 2001.

For more information on the sales tax holiday or for an all-inclusive list of items that qualify as “school supplies” for the purposes of the sales tax holiday, go to the state Department of Revenue’s Web site at: http://www.dornc.com/taxes/sales/salestax_holiday.html

List of Items Exempt During the Sales Tax Holiday

College Cost Reduction Act of 2007

The College Democrats of America applauded House Democrats for standing up to President Bush’s irresponsible veto threat and passing the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 [HR 2669]. After promising last year to make college more accessible and affordable, Democrats kept that promise by passing the Reduction Act, which would increase the size of Pell grants for poor students, cut interest rates for student loans, cap monthly loan payments at 15 percent of a student’s discretionary income, and slash subsidies for the scandal-plagued student loan industry by $19 billion. [New York Times, 7/11/07]

Instead of joining Democrats in helping make college more affordable for more Americans, President Bush and Republicans in Congress continue to put their special interest friends first and stand in the way of long-overdue reform.

“Democrats today kept their promise to help make college more accessible and affordable for millions of students, but the Bush Republicans continue to stand in the way,” said CDA President Lauren Wolfe. “Making sure young Americans have every opportunity to attend college is not a partisan or political issue, it is a pressing national issue. America’s young people expect and deserve leaders who understand that expanding education is the key to a stronger America.

“Instead of joining Democrats in helping students and their families find urgently-needed financial aid, the Bush Republicans continue to put their special interest friends in the student loan industry first. Considering how important the youth vote will be in 2008, Republicans who stand in the way of college opportunity for young people should expect to pay a heavy price in 2008. Instead of threatening to veto this bill, President Bush should join Democrats in expanding educational opportunities for millions of aspiring, hard-working students.”

CDA has consistently supported efforts to help students and would-be students attend college. During the 2006 election cycle, CDA mobilized students across the country by demonstrating that President Bush and the Republican Congress refused to combat skyrocketing student loan rates. The Reduction Act would cut loan rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. At its upcoming National Convention on July 26-29 in Columbia, South Carolina, CDA will train thousands of college students from around American in how to hold their members of Congress accountable.

The Senate will soon consider its companion bill, the Higher Education Access Act (as yet unnumbered). Both bills will overhaul the student aid and debt relief system and make college more affordable for students and their parents. Also, the Senate is considering the Higher Education Amendments (S. 1642), which would reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

Write or call Sen. Dole
Write or call Sen. Richard Burr

Write or call President Bush today and ask him not to veto this

comments@whitehouse.gov.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461