THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CULTURE OF CORRUPTION

The not-to-be believed letter sent by U.S. Education Department to Ohio

How did ‘less than stellar' high school student Jared Kushner get into Harvard? Donald Trump's son-in-law was accepted into the Ivy League university in the wake of a $2.5m pledge made by his parents. "His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it" The rich buy their underachieving children's way into elite universities with massive, tax-deductible donations. It reported that New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner had pledged $2.5m to Harvard University not long before his son Jared was admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school, which at the time accepted about one of every nine applicants.
The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges--and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates BY Daniel Golden exposes the corrupt admissions practices that favor the wealthy, the powerful, and the famous.

Hillary's emails reveal lucrative ties to for-profit colleges Bill Clinton makes $4 million a year ("honorary chancellor") at a diploma mill. While Hillary loves to rail against shady for-profit colleges on the campaign trail, she does have some financial ties to them that are likely to shape whether or not she holds them accountable for ripping students off.

2016 Wouldn't you expect someone in the federal government considering giving millions of dollars to Ohio for charter schools to have read the June 2015 coverage in the Akron Beacon Journal which said:
No sector — not local governments, school districts, court systems, public universities or hospitals — misspends tax dollars like charter schools in Ohio.
When the Ohio charter award was announced last month, Republicans and Democrats alike shouted their concerns. Education Department officials defended the award. But Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) asked Education Secretary Arne Duncan to restrict release of the grant and review grant application documentation. Why? Because the man responsible for writing the application for the federal grant was David Hansen, a senior official at the Ohio Education Department who resigned last July after it was discovered he manipulated performance statistics to favor some charters.

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren asks Chairman Bernanke

2016 A Whistle Was Blown on ITT; 17 Years Later, It Collapsed

incentive compensation practices

Education Department officials began softening their stance on incentive compensation. And in the fall of 2002, department officials loosened the restrictions written into the law.

What had taken the government so long. After all, it has been 17 years since Mr. Graves and another former ITT employee brought a suit alleging that the company had systematically violated the law governing compensation of sales representatives.“It was an institutional failure by the government and a complete abdication of responsibility to enforce the Higher Education Act” taxpayers were liable for billions of dollars in defaulted loans made over the period while thousands of students were left with a mountain of undischargeable debt and few job prospects.

President Elect Trump nearing settlement in Trump University fraud cases the settlement would eliminate the possibility that Trump would be called to testify in court in the midst of his presidential transition. Settlement terms under negotiation could result in a payment from Trump in the range of $20 million to former customers of the business who have claimed they were defrauded. Attorney General Schneiderman called the real estate program “a fraud from beginning to end.” [Donald Trump said his ‘university' was about education. Actually, it was about ‘sell, sell, sell!']

2016 Lamar Alexander, who chairs the Senate committee on education, is considering introducing a resolution that would overturn the so-called "Borrower Defense" rule. see https://twitter.com/0debtzone

Investigating Charter Schools Fraud In Philadelphia - What Happens when Charter Schools Fail?

Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching

HOW TO EMPLOY A CONVICT THAT TAKES JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICANS

12/4/14 FBI Seizes 20 Boxes Of Documents Related To Los Angeles School District's $1.3 Billion iPad Program
The allegedly crooked superintendent behind the iPad/Pearson partnership has since resigned and only 91,000 of the 650,000 iPads destined for students and teachers have actually been purchased. The district is now giving schools the option of picking up cheaper Chromebooks, which would have been a great idea if only the district hadn't previously spent money purchasing laptops that were than the $768 iPads (which also come bundled with $200 worth of Pearson software -- software found to be mostly useless by evaluators, who noted that one classroom in the 245 surveyed was actually using it for daily work

2010 Nearly 1/2 of the world's top branded computers are made by Foxconn.
The company also makes mobile phone for Nokia and Motorola; it makes playstations, laptops, and LCD TVs for Sony; and it makes iPods, iPhones, iPads for Apple. Steve Jobs has a net worth of $6.1 billion.
In China, the average employment income per person, per year, is $4,325. Foxconn exported usd 48 billion products from only 1 factory in Shenzhen. The low-end iPad sells for $499. If it were built by Americans, it would have to cost $14,970. No one would buy an iPad for $14,970. No one would buy a mid-level laptop for $23,970. No one would buy a smartphone for $5,970.
Apple could just as easily pay slave labor wages to American Prisoners to make his products instead of paying the Chinese slave labor working for Foxconn.

Example: New York State provides $5.7 billion for K-12 education annually.
States are going broke. They are closing schools, eliminating all funding for athletics and activities, going to a four-day academic week.

 

WHY The Federal Department of Education must be Redesigned!

America's system of public schools is a bedrock of the Republic whose mission is to serve the commons for the good of the country not private enterprise and the corporation.

We show you why the Federal Department of Education needs to redesigned, which of course means all State Departments of Education would fall inline which they do now. No one seems to understand what these institutions are really set up to do' and that what they do is not in our interest - our public interest - the common interest for the common good of the country - but in the interest of business. Unless this is explained in simple understandable language no one can talk about it.

We are furious about it, that is why we put all this information in one place.

It's Your Turn

Link to this website. Tweet about it. Friend us.

Show them you agree - Make them nervous.

You can be just like James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down. 1939

THERE IS NO PROOF THAT FOR PROFIT
K12 VIRTUAL CHARTER SCHOOLS
GET BETTER RESULTS THAN YOUR LOCAL DISTRICT SCHOOL

CALL TO ACTION!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

YOU CAN

SPEAK TRUTH

TO POWER

"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
~ Bill Vaughan"

Call your Representative
Call your Congress Person
Call your News Station

To find your Congressional Representatives, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 1-202-225-3121.

CLICK to REDESIGN THE DEPT OF ED

@TWEETCONGRESS:
CLICK to Enter your zip code or a representative's name to see if your local representative is on Twitter.
We the Tweeple of the United States, in order to form a more perfect government, establish communication, and promote transparency do hereby tweet the Congress of the United States of America.

Tweet @govtwit
"there are at least 3 U.S.-based wikis of @opengov and @gov20 resources"
@ppolitics: E-Democracy.org @OpenCongress wiki & @CivComs

WRITE YOUR GOVERNOR

Call Your Senator - Phone Numbers

Online Congressional Directory

If you want to discuss this with your representative, you can be connected to his or her office directly. You can also find out who your Congressional Representative is and send an e-mail letter by accessing the web site www.house.gov. IDENTIFY THE EDUCATION LOBBIESTS PUSHING THE AGENDA TAKING YOUR MONEY

STOP officials from giving your money away to their friends.

ED-07-CO-0079 WESTAT, INC. $130,221,085.00 see TESTING
9/27/2007 9/26/2012 IES Supports the NAEP sample selection, preparation of sampling weights, administer assessments and collect data for pilot and field tests, operational assessments, and special studies and send completed scoring materials to scoring contractor.

D-07-CO-0109 NCS PEARSON, INC. $59,306,567.00 9/27/2007 - 9/26/2012 IES Supports the preparation and packaging of all assessment and auxiliary materials; the distribution of assessment booklets and materials to the test administrators for each school, develops scoring and training materials and scores all assessments see ASSESSMENTS

ED-07-CO-0107 EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE $46,806,591.00
9/26/2012 Supports the coordination among the alliance contractors as well as other duties pertaining to design, analysis, and reporting contract.

ED-07-CO-0074 NON PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL SERVICES, INC. $ no report $ http://www.nesieducation.org/articles/our_management_team
We operate for-profit business units and a non-profit service unit. NESI is the nation's oldest provider of remedial tutoring services to students attending nonpublic schools under Title I.
see Pear$on eCollege and NonPublic Educational $ervices, Inc. (NESI) Partner to Increase K12 Online Education Opportunities. NonPublic Educational $ervices, Inc. to Use Pear$on eCollege to Enter New Online Market$

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY $5,655,281.00
To create a History Education Clearinghouse to provide easy, one-stop access to information and resources that will assist the field in improving the teaching of American history.

ED-05-CO-0053 AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH IN THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES $26,011,841.00 9/30/2005 - 9/30/2010
NCES/NAEP EDUCATION STATISTICS SERVICE-STATISTICS SUPPORT

ED-06-CO-0056/0001 COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS, INCORPORATED $13,116,387.60
9/29/2006 - 9/28/2010
ADMINISTRATIVE DATA IMPROVEMENT

• ED-06-CO-0016 EDUCATION NORTHWEST $24,409,511.55
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Northwestern 2/1/2006 - 1/31/2011
  
• ED-06-CO-0017 EDVANCE RESEARCH, INC. $37,458,873.30
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Southwestern 3/15/2006 - 3/14/2011
• ED-06-CO-0019 LEARNING POINT ASSOCIATES $38,808,425.60
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Midwestern 3/9/2006 - 1/31/2011
• ED-06-CO-0021 CNA CORPORATION
  $26,405,251.81
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories- Appalachian region 2/6/2006 - 3/15/2011
• ED-06-CO-0023 MID-CONTINENT RESEARCH FOR EDUCATION AND LEARNING $25,760,423.00
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories-Central 1/20/2006 - 1/19/2011
• ED-06-CO-0024 PACIFIC RESOURCES FOR EDUCATION AND LEARNING $20,522,021.81
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Pacific 3/16/2006 - 3/15/2011
• ED-06-CO-0025 EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTER, INC. $41,192,630.84
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Northeastern 3/15/2006 - 3/14/2011
• ED-06-CO-0028 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO $28,901,680.12
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Southeastern 2/24/2006 - 3/15/2011
• ED-06-CO-0029 PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, $34,497,466.19
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Regional Educational Laboratories Mid-Atlantic 3/23/2006 - 3/15/2011

Is your company strategy inline with the republican teaparty notion that the department of education should be dismantled?

• Justice Clarence Thomas — whose wife, Tea Party Organizer Virginia Thomas,
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  stumped at Tea Party rallies helped create the Tea Party organization Liberty Central and agrees with Skousen's ideas. W. Cleon Skousen constitutional guru of the Tea Party movement. Remember Monsanto?
  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/magazine/28FOB-idealab-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
• Republican Linda McMahon' would consider voting to eliminate the Department of Education
• Republican Tim Walberg “I see no place for the federal government in education,” Walberg has also said he supports dismantling the federal Department of Education.
• Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul and fellow Tea Party movement conservatives to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.
• Andrew Coulson, director of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute's Center for Education Freedom, estimates that abolishing the Department of Education and its related programs would save $150 billion.
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
  Secret Contributions of the Koch Brothers
• Dismantling the Department of Education also would be a herculean and politically unpopular task, said Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
• Laurene Powell Jobs
  Ms. Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and chair of the Emerson Collective, an organization that works with a range of entrepreneurs to advance domestic and international social reform efforts. The Collective primarily focuses on achieving scalable solutions to improve academic outcomes for under-resourced students in America's public schools and has made strategic investments in a number of results-driven education reform ventures. Additionally, the organization brings together individuals working on innovative solutions to pressing social problems and provides a venue for dialogue with members of the broader community. Ms. Powell Jobs also serves as president of the board of College Track, an after-school program she founded in 1997 to prepare underserved high school students for success in college. Started in East Palo Alto, College Track has expanded to serve students in Oakland, San Francisco and New Orleans. The program's intensive academic and extracurricular program is designed to ensure admittance to and graduation from college. All of the program's graduates have completed their secondary education and gone on to college. In addition to her work with the Emerson Collective and College Track, she serves on the boards of directors of Teach For America, Stand for Children, New America Foundation and Conservation International. She also serves on the White House Council for Community Solutions. Ms. Powell Jobs holds a BA and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Earlier in her career, she spent several years working in investment banking and later co-founded a natural foods company in California.
  FAIL: NO ACCOUNTABILITY ! !
• Republican Senator Mike Lee who is a Mormon and a social conservative proposed to dismantle, on constitutional grounds, the federal Department of Education. Many of the positions Lee outlined on the campaign trail appear to be inspired by the constitutional guru of the Tea Party movement, W. Cleon Skousen.
  
• Paul Skousen, W. Cleon Skousen's son agrees with his daddy's views. Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWork agrees. Joe Walker, a Tea Party activist is also a Skousen enthusiast.
• Glenn Beck loves Skousen's ideas
• "The dismantle the U.S. department of education Petition to U.S. congress was created by and written by Sean McNally (seanmcnally@my.tridenttech.edu)
  www.petitiononline.com/ttc1/petition.html

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Al Haskvitz Teacher of the Year