Thursday, December 1, 2011

Pearson Foundation: Please answer simple question

This is our fourth request to The Pearson Foundation to answer one, very simple question:  
How many trips did our past superintendent [Jerry Weast] take that were paid for by The Pearson Foundation?


We asked that question on our blog after Mark Nieker, President and CEO of The Pearson Foundation posted a comment on our blog.  His comment was in response to the posting of two New York Times (NYT) articles by education reporter Mike Winerip on the funding of international trips for state school superintendents by The Pearson Foundation. 




The NYT articles are here and here
We then followed up with an e-mail to The Pearson Foundation on October 18, 2011, and then again on November 15, 2011, asking the same question.  
We also asked that if there were any trips taken by our past superintendent, did the superintendent's spouse also travel?  If so, who paid for the spouse's travel? 

Easy questions for a foundation that believes there is no problem with superintendents taking trips paid for by their organization, right?
As of today, we have had no response to our very simple question to The Pearson Foundation.
We think the public deserves an answer to this question.  We hope The Pearson Foundation will respond. 
But, if The Pearson Foundation does not answer the question by Monday, December 5, 2011, then we will post what we have learned.


As a reminder, Pearson Education, Inc. is a supplier of education products to MCPS and, the Board of Education entered into a surprise agreement in 2010 to sell curriculum to Pearson. 
Some of the past MCPS payments to Pearson companies:  
FY 2010
Pearson Education Inc $1,039,217

Pearson Learning Group $33,984


FY 2011
Pearson Education Inc $ 774,702


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