FSU center spent public money to tout feds' policies

[teach1st]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2005/02/02/m1a_FSUCENTER_0202.html

Palm Beach Post
Wednesday, February 02, 2005

A Florida State University center has used more than a half-million in education tax dollars to put a positive spin on President Bush's key school policies, including hiring a public relations firm to teach charter schools to be more media-savvy.

Despite conflicting studies on the success of charter schools and other alternative education programs, the School Choice Center at FSU touts them as ways to "increase student achievement, increase parental involvement, promote school improvement through constructive competition, and accomplish racial and ethnic diversity."

In recent weeks, federal agencies have acknowledged using tax dollars to pay columnists to push Bush policies, including the No Child Left Behind Act. Critics argue that using public money for media campaigns could be considered illegal.

Since 2003, taxpayers have given the center $627,567 as part of a 5-year, $1.2 million federal grant made available through the No Child Left Behind Act, which promotes school choice as a fix for failing public schools.

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[cthrumatrix]

1. I'm surprised ...Jeb's Florida school pushing his brothers propaganda

I bet they talk about his deficits and and trade policies...and
bankrupting soc sec by giving tax breaks to the top 1%

[annabanana]

2. I believe that Florida is completely compromised.

I wonder if Randi R. will mention this tidbit in her show? She had a front row seat to the selling of Fla. for years.

[MSgt213]

3. Scandals are just no fun in this adminstration. If there were Clinton,

man we would have the Repubs going insane of TV and in print. Special Prosecutors and congressional hearings.

[Massachusetts]

4. Aw Jeb, now look what you gone and did! Shucks

At this point I can only hope that the Bu$h name goes down as THE WORST political family in OUR nations history.

[agates]

6. It is already there in my book

How much more of this crap can we take????

[Al-CIAda]

5. Damn -send this to Media Matters and other news sources

Where does it end?!

[Ruby Romaine]

7. Don't forget Neil Bush is making big bucks from NCLB

for his software co. Ignite.

[alfredo]

8. Just so happens that there is an article about

Neil and Ignite There is, as there always is with the bush's, a Saudi Arabia connection.

http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20020308tony3.asp

Here's the rap on Neil Bush's educational software

Friday, March 08, 2002


Sometimes a man can be so overwhelmed by feelings of self-loathing that he has no choice but to march himself into the nearest alley for a series of self-administered and well-deserved slaps. Cynicism can be such an evil taskmaster. It reduces even good-hearted people like me to the level of the folks I'm often forced to mock.

Biting into my knuckles while reading The New York Times yesterday, I nearly fainted from an adrenaline rush of nastiness. There, on Page A-16, was a story that left even the most sainted among us smirking from ear to ear. The headline gave only the barest hint of the story's absurdity: "Bush Brother Pushes Education on Sales Campaign Trail."

Apparently, Neil Bush, the president's 47-year-old brother, is no longer haunted by his involvement in a failed savings and loan association in the early 1990s. Consistent with the expectation that there's plenty of room for second acts in America, Neil Bush is now an education reformer pushing history curriculum software to school systems in the nation's biggest states for $30 a student.

[Zebulon]

9. When, exactly,

did we start using tax dollars to propagandize for administration policies?

Has this ever happened under previous presidents?