Private Interests First [Updated]

This morning’s newspapers bring news of a searing Inspector General report on the most unseemly and corrupt conduct by officials at the US Department of Education, who used the NCLB law and DOE oversight power to promote one particular reading program, SRA/McGraw Hill’s Direct Instruction [DI], at the expense of others. The New York Times account is here.

While Bush DOE officials connected to its Reading First initiative were publicly proclaiming that they were acting in the best interests of America’s school children by promoting only scientifically proven reading programs, they were overstepping the mandates of NCLB and stacking review panels, ensuring that only DI would pass muster. Interestingly, the report was undertaken not in response to objections of ‘whole language’ advocates, but from a complaint from the founder of a phonics based reading program, Success for All.

When a Baltimore school district complained to the DOE that their review panel was stacked with DI partisans, the following e-mail exchange took place among DOE officials, including the director of Reading First.

“Funny that [the Baltimore City Public Schools official] calls *me* to inform that there may be some pro-DI folks on *my* panel!!! Too rich!”

The panelist then asked, “Does he know who you are? Past and present?”

The Reading First Director replied, “That’s the funniest part – yes! You know the line from Casablanca, ‘I am SHOCKED that there is gambling going on in this establishment!’ Well, ‘I am SHOCKED that there are pro-DI people on this panel!’”

A media inquiry set off another e-mail exchange . A DOE employee inquired of the Reading First director:

“The question is…are we going to ‘stack the panel’ so programs like Reading Recovery don’t get a fair shake[?]”

The Reading First Director responded, “‘Stack the panel?’…I have never *heard* of such a thing… (harumph, harumph).[.]”

The e-mails are quite revealing, as Bush DOE officials carry on like they were a street gang defending their turf. In a e-mail to DOE staff, the Reading First director writes:

Beat the [expletive deleted] out of them in a way that will stand up to any level of legal and [whole language] apologist scrutiny. Hit them over and over with definitive evidence that they are not SBRR, never have been and never will be. 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 forwarded the above e-mail to Reid Lyon, the chief arcitect of Reading First and a prominent advocate of phonics based instruction. Lyon responded that he would obtain the information the DOE wanted, and added, “I like your style.”

“Oh man, I’m mortified,” Lyon told the New York Times after the report was made public. “To see the facts that were presented today was very disappointing, because it’s an outstanding program.”

In a pathetic effort at damage control, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings washed her hands of the mess, and wrote it off as individual mistakes. “Some of the actions taken by department officials and described in the inspector general’s report reflect individual mistakes,” Spellings statement read. “Although these events occurred before I became secretary of education, I am concerned about these actions and committed to addressing and resolving them.”

And the report was issued on a Friday, although some remember Spellings promising never to do that again, after the US DOE was embarassed by its attempts this summer to bury another report by issuing it on a Friday. [That was the report that showed public school students outperforming private school students, once one controlled for demographics.]

The DOE also announced that the director of the Reading First initiative, Chris Doherty, is “returning” to the “private sector.”

But in truth Doherty never left the private sector. The problem with the Bush DOE, in both its Paige and its Spellings incarnations, is that it treats the distinction between the public and private sectors as an inconvenience, an obstacle that one has to overcome in the pursuit of private interests. It does not know the meaning of holding the public trust.

And that is why they can not leave public office soon enough.

UPDATE:

“They should fire everyone who was involved in this,” said Rep. George Miller, ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee. “This was not an accident, this was not an oversight. This was an intentional effort to corrupt the process.”

Tagged: Bush, New York Times, reading

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