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Monday, January 2, 2012

New York Times on Jerry Weast's trip to Australia

NYT:  New Questions About Trips Sponsored by Education Publisher

By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: January 1, 2012
In the summer of 2010, Lu Young, the superintendent of schools in Jessamine County, a Lexington, Ky., suburb, took a trip to Australia paid for by the Pearson Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Pearson, the nation’s largest educational publisher.
Ten school superintendents went on the trip, which cost Pearson $60,000... 
...Were the trips an effort by the foundation to influence government officials so the company would obtain a lucrative state contract?...

3 comments:

  1. Too lazy to click through to the article? Here's the interesting part:

    ""In Montgomery County, Md., the now-retired superintendent, Jerry Weast, approved an unusual contract in June 2010, in which Pearson paid the district $2.5 million to produce curriculum materials that the company would then sell worldwide.

    Two months later he was on the plane to Australia.""

    ReplyDelete
  2. And it was actually one month later, not two.

    Don't you imagine that the tickets and reservations were already booked when the Pearson deal was signed in June? The trip was in July.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mon dieu, Mr. Weast.

    ReplyDelete

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