Bush's Brother Neil To Make Millions Off GOP's “No Child Left Behind” Act

[republicansarewhores]

No Bush Left Behind
The President's brother Neil is making hay from school reform

Across the country, some teachers complain that President George W. Bush's makeover of public education promotes "teaching to the test." The President's younger brother Neil takes a different tack: He's selling to the test. The No Child Left Behind Act compels schools to prove students' mastery of certain facts by means of standardized exams. Pressure to perform has energized the $1.9 billion-a-year instructional software industry.

Now, after five years of development and backing by investors like Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and onetime junk-bond king Michael R. Milken, Neil Bush aims to roll his high-tech teacher's helpers into classrooms nationwide. He calls them "curriculum on wheels," or COWs. The $3,800 purple plug-and-play computer/projectors display lively videos and cartoons: the XYZ Affair of the late 1790s as operetta, the 1828 Tariff of Abominations as horror flick. The device plays songs that are supposed to aid the memorization of the 22 rivers of Texas or other facts that might crop up in state tests of "essential knowledge."

Bush's Ignite! Inc. has sold 1,700 COWs since 2005, mainly in Texas, where Bush lives and his brother was once governor. In August, Houston's school board authorized expenditures of up to $200,000 for COWs. The company expects 2006 revenue of $5 million. Says Bush about the impact of his name: "I'm not saying it hasn't opened any doors. It may have helped with some sales." (In September, the U.S. Education Dept.'s inspector general accused the agency of improperly favoring at least five publishers, including The McGraw-Hill Companies, which owns BusinessWeek. A company spokesman says: "Our reading programs have been successful in advancing student achievement for decades; that's why educators hold them in such high regard.")

More:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005059.htm

HAD ENOUGH?

RAW

[Ecumenist]

1. I've known about this for years...

Welcome to DU, BTW:hi:

[JI7]

2. Neil Bush is the one with herpes he got from having unsafe sex

with underage girls in Thailand. Bill O'Reilly did the same.

Neil Bush/Mark Foley 2008 might be the Republican Presidential ticket.

[indepat]

3. Now isn't that special: every 'puke initiative enriches some of their own

for enrichment of the entitled was the purpose of the exercise from the git-go. :grr:

[zeemike]

4. Only one of the goals was to enrich his friends

The other was to undermined public education so that it could be privatize and enrich them even more.

[redphish]

5. No surprise there.

To anyone connected to the folks occupying the Whitehouse, our government is one giant business opportunity. They define "conflict of interest" is as long as their interests are being served, there is no conflict, and to hell with the rest of us.

[Hubert Flottz]

6. The New Hitler Youth Propaganda Dispensers Are Ready...

And The Bush Klan Will Make The Taxpayers Pay For The Brainwashing Of Their Own Children...

[soup]

8. What really makes me angry

is they probably sleep at night.

Posted this article (and others related to it) Friday night/yesterday morning here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x5974

[spanone]

7. Let's christen a kayak for Neil.This family should be in shackles & chains

[C_U_L8R]

9. A big fat cash cow

feeding off our children.

The Bush family represents greed gluttony arrogance envy and wrath.
5 out of seven is pretty bad. Lust and sloth are surely in there as well.
A truly evil family.

[Sadie5]

10. Neil and Katrina

Didn't Babs contribute a large sum of money to the Katrina victims and specify that the donation must be used to buy Neilsey's software?

[C_U_L8R]

11. yup

they are very skilled at money laundering and tax evasion

[elehhhhna]

12. Yep. Tax deducrable family funding. Must be nice to be a criminal.

[soup]

13. She sure did.

Barbara Bush earmarked hurricane donation for son's company
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-24-bush-earmark_x.htm

She's an investor in the co., too.
>For the last several years, Bush's main business interest has been Ignite!, the educational software company he co-founded in 1999. To fund Ignite!, Bush has raised $23 million from U.S. investors (including his parents), as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35297-2003Dec27?language=printer

They're all pond scum.

[blogslut]

14. COWS

That is insulting on so many levels.

[iamahaingttta]

15. Here's a little family history...

http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm#Table

They should ALL be removed from polite society forever.

[starroute]

16. Alwaleed Bin Talal

Interesting name to come up in this context. Bin Talal is the world's 4th or 5th richest man, depending on who you ask. Someone was suggesting here last month that he might be involved with the Path to 9/11, since he owns a fair-sized chunk of Disney and is also tight with the Bushes.

Since Neil Bush has also been peddling his educational software for years in the United Arab Emirates, I can't help thinking here's more going on here than a cynical attempt to make money. (Not that there isn't that, too.) One way or another, Bushes plus Arab oil billionaires plus the possibility of domestic propaganda equals trouble.

[radwriter0555]

17. Neil Bush, the other child sex predator. He had sex with 12 year old

chinese prostitutes a few years back....

Caught herpes, gave it to his lovely wife, Sharon.

Then filed for divorce from her after getting his then-married mistress pregnant.

Genuine republican family values.

[Joanne98]

18. I'm surprised this hasn't been a bigger issue!

[Initech]

19. These people have no shame, do they?

:grr: