Tom Harkin: “the Education Department's inspector general released a blistering report last week about a program called Reading…”

“the Education Department's inspector general released a blistering report last week about a program called Reading First. The inspector general reported that Education Department officials, one, mismanaged the program; two, steered school contracts to publishers they favor and away from others; three, flagrantly ignored Federal laws on maintaining local and State control of school curricula. These are serious findings by the inspector general. Reading First is one of the largest programs in the Education Department. Congress has appropriated about $5 billion, or about a billion dollars for each of the past 5 years. So when we learn that a program of this size is being mismanaged, that laws are being broken, we need to take pause and investigate further. Soon after Reading First was created, a number of publishers, researchers, and local school officials complained that the Department favored certain reading programs over others. They claimed that the Department pressured States and local school districts--sometimes subtly and sometimes bluntly--to purchase its preferred programs and reject others. These kinds of activities are illegal.…”