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Following the Money: Buying COWs From Neil Bush

The president's brother Neil is peddling portable learning centers (he calls them COWs for Curriculum on Wheels) at $3,800 apiece. Neil says they help disadvantaged kids achieve higher test scores, an objective that might have motivated 13 school districts to use No Child Left Behind money to purchase the learning centers. But No Child Left Behind focuses on reading and math, while Neil's company, Ignite! Learning, doesn't offer reading instruction, and the COWs won't teach math until next year.

Why, then, would school districts want to buy from the president's brother? Follow the money:

Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product.

In addition to federal or state funds, foundations and corporations have helped buy Ignite products. The Washington Times Foundation, backed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the South Korea-based Unification Church, has peppered classrooms throughout Virginia with Ignite's COWs under a $1-million grant.

Oil companies and Middle East interests with long political ties to the Bush family have made similar bequests. Aramco Services Co., an arm of the Saudi-owned oil company, has donated COWs to schools, as have Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.

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    Re: Following the Money: Buying COWs From Neil Bu (1.00 / 0) (#1)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Oct 22, 2006 at 06:31:12 PM EST
    Why did Jimmy Carter's brother want to have a beer named after him???

    Or Clinton's brother be involved in drugs??

    Re: Following the Money: Buying COWs From Neil Bu (none / 0) (#2)
    by aw on Sun Oct 22, 2006 at 09:59:48 PM EST
    Why don't you start your own blog and call it the Wit and Wisdom of PPJ?

    Parent
    Re: Following the Money: Buying COWs From Neil Bu (1.00 / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Oct 23, 2006 at 08:34:45 AM EST
    aw - I note you don't deny the point.

    Re: Following the Money: Buying COWs From Neil Bu (none / 0) (#4)
    by rwb on Mon Oct 23, 2006 at 12:13:38 PM EST
    Presidential offspring and siblings are often sources of malicious fun--Billy Carter was a classic. But Neil Bush is the black sheep of the family that keeps on giving--from Silverado Savings and Loan to Asian hookers paid for by Chinese business interests now to Ignite! and the no-bid educational goldmine Neil has captained... He only has two more years to get involved with yet another shady embarrassing business scheme--but I have total faith in him! He won't let us down!