Pearson Co. joins Duncan, Obama at WH education summit. Just paid 7.7 mil fine for breaking law. [View all]

[madfloridian]

That's odd to me. Pearson is making huge profits off their education reform ventures. It seems that even when they break the rules to the tune of millions they are still welcome in high places.

From the PR memo from Pearson this month:

Pearson Joins President and Mrs. Obama, Education Secretary Duncan for White House Higher Education Summit

Pearson today joined President and Mrs. Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and leaders from across higher education to share best practices and explore additional ways to support more low-income students in achieving college readiness and success. As part of today’s summit, Pearson has committed, over three years, to help 50 higher education institutions analyze how low-income and remedial students learn and where they struggle.

“Pearson’s mission is to help students of all ages to make progress in their lives through learning. We are honored to join President and Mrs. Obama, and Secretary Duncan, for this important discussion about how the entire higher education community can help more low-income students achieve their educational goals. Working together, we will find new and more innovative solutions to overcome this challenge and, in the process, reinforce the ideals that are the bedrock of our great country,” said Greg Tobin, Managing Director of College Foundations at Pearson North America, who represented Pearson at the event.

Here's more about their fine paid in New York City:

From December 2013 New York Times:

Educational Publisher’s Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions

The Pearson Foundation, the charitable arm of one of the nation’s largest educational publishers, will pay $7.7 million to settle accusations that it repeatedly broke New York State law by assisting in for-profit ventures.

An inquiry by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, found that the foundation had helped develop products for its corporate parent, including course materials and software. The investigation also showed that the foundation had helped woo clients to Pearson’s business side by paying their way to education conferences that were attended by its employees.

....“The fact is that Pearson is a for-profit corporation, and they are prohibited by law from using charitable funds to promote and develop for-profit products,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “I’m pleased that this settlement will direct millions of dollars back to where they belong.”

Pearson and their associates have huge power in the new education "reforms". Here are some examples from a Daily Kos thread.

Scrutinize those who write and grade the tests that judge teachers, students, schools.

In the summer of 2010, Lu Young, the superintendent of schools in Jessamine County, a Lexington, Ky., suburb, took a trip to Australia paid for by the Pearson Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Pearson, the nation’s largest educational publisher. Ten school superintendents went on the trip.

.... Six months later, in Frankfort, Ky., Ms. Young sat on a committee interviewing executives from three companies bidding to run the state’s testing program. While CTB/McGraw-Hill submitted the lowest bid, by $2.5 million, Ms. Young and the other committee members recommended Pearson.

..."For several weeks, New York State’s attorney general has been investigating similar trips involving two dozen education officials from around the country who traveled to Singapore; London; Helsinki, Finland; China and Rio de Janeiro as guests of the Pearson Foundation. The trips, and the fact that most of these officials come from states that have multimillion contracts with Pearson, were the subject of two of my columns this fall.

Last month, the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, issued subpoenas to the Manhattan offices of the Pearson Foundation and Pearson Education. Mr. Schneiderman is looking into whether the nonprofit, tax-exempt foundation, which is prohibited by state law from undisclosed lobbying, was used to benefit Pearson Education, a profit-making company that publishes standardized tests, curriculums and textbooks, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

I give myself permission to quote more paragraphs from that thread, since it is mine and since it is from a different article:

Pearson was fined about 15 million in 2010 for late scores on the FCAT. That is the state test of Florida which is being phased out....only to be followed by more tests also contracted out to Pearson.

Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith told Pearson he expects the damages to be paid by Aug. 6.

"Pearson's usage of unproven technology systems this year has caused great turmoil for our parents, teachers, administrators and other education stakeholders and I remain committed to holding the company fully accountable for these disruptions," Smith said in a written statement.

"It is our intent to make good on our previously stated commitment to reimburse the department and Florida districts for substantiated, unexpected costs due to the delay in reporting FCAT scores," Pearson spokesman Adam Gaber said in response.

Again this has proved to be true....accountability is only for public school teachers. Everyone else gets a pass.