There's something odd about the Ignite Learning software company owned by Neil Bush, the presidential brother infamous for his role in the Silverado swindle. Thanks to "No Child Left Behind," Ignite has received some very lucrative contracts to place their software in Florida and Texas.
1. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Ignite has received big contracts as part of the Katrina rebuilding effort. This, at a time when homeless Katrina victims are being evicted from shelters. There's no money for them, but plenty of bucks for the brother of the prez.
That's a huge scandal right there. Yet no-one is talking about it!
2. Neil has been pushing the same software in former Soviet states. His partner in that effort is a tough-guy Russian tycoon and accused criminal named Boris Berezovsky, who is said to have plotted a coup against Putin.
3. NB also went to Dubai to hunt for investors for Ignite.
4. He also got investors from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait and the British Virgin Islands -- not to mention some $23 million from stateside venture capitalists.
5. NB has also formed a strange partnership with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. And with the Scientologists.
Rarely has the acronym "WTF" been so applicable. With his brother in the Oval Office, and with those fat nepotistical contracts under his belt, Neil should have no need to head off to Dubai (of all places!) for investment capital. Why does the history of an educational software firm read like the script of a James Bond movie?
There must be a hidden story here.
Incidentally, many teachers have accused Ignite of "dumbing down" education. For example, the Constitution is reduced to a rap song.
Ask not "Is our children learning?" Ask "What is our children learning?"
As I understand it Berzovosky is wanted (for essentially political crimes) in Russia, so they've been selling their products in Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics other than Russia.
ReplyDeletehey, joe....
ReplyDeletei don't know tax law, but it sure seems to me that the IRS would not smile on any attempt by the likes of you or me to, say, deduct a huge donation to, say, the southern baptists and, say, specify that those funds must be dedicated to the purchase of, say, books that, say, my son has written.
if this is done, then hey howdy, what a glorious loophole we can start exploiting!
if this is NOT done, then has demonic dame bush committed a tax crime?
Another strange WTF aspect of Neil's business dealings reveal a lot about the reality of the politics and economics of China. Neil was paid $2 million to sit on the board of a Chinese semiconductor chip manufacturer, Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing. The bizarre part, though, is who the principals of that firm are: Jiang Mianheng, the son of former President of the mainland PRC Jiang Zemin; and bizarrely, Winston Wong, the son of the richest man in Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteConsider that: the brother of the president of the US, the son of the president of China and the son of the richest man in Taiwan. This just gives lie to the notion, fed to the masses, that Taiwan is some kind of heroic little country staving of the communist hords. Talk about nepotistic business.
BTW, I was shocked when I used to travel to Beijing regularly by some of my chats with visiting officials from Taiwan. The way the Chinese see it is that they all want to reunify; the only question is on what terms
HamdenRice from DU
Thanks, Hamden. I had just started to research the Chinese angle, and I still don't know what to make of Wong. During the Clinton administration , there was an instance where he paid 50,000 bucks (in essence) for the privilege of having a little face time with the presidnet. The right went NUTS. Now, the same guy gives this hand-out to Neil -- and do right-wingers ever mention it?
ReplyDeleteThe Ignite COW system looks to me like some sort of overblown...well "scam" may be too strong a word. But I've yet to see independent tests indicating that this approach works any better than do traditional teaching methods. And I can't understand why Neil would need to go around the world getting so many millions of dollars in seed money, when he already had those nepotistical contracts lined up.
So in other words you believe that a small bunch of fundamentalist ragheads with boxcutter outsmarted our entire intelligence community and the millitary and brought down two 110 story skyscrapers along with other smaller buildings with a kerosene fireball!?
ReplyDeleteAmazing!
http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/911smokingguns.html
I watched a few of Ignite's sample videos (http://www.ignitelearning.com/media.shtml). I wonder if the folks in Texas, where most of this stuff is going, know that it treats evolution as fact and says the solar system is billions of years old. As far as I can tell, that is actually ILLEGAL in Texas (see http://www.texscience.org/files/censorship-texas/).
ReplyDeleteI checked out the Ignite website and found the website amateurish at best. Furthermore the "COW" system seems very strange. Why buy a rinky dink looking piece of equipment when software played on a standard computer (Mac or PC) would accomplish the same thing without having a (expensive I bet!) piece of extra equipment around which has only one use. The strangest thing, however, is that there is no attribution for the authors of the curriculum or the software designers. I know Neil Bush didn't write the software or the curriculum, so who did? And why are their identities concealed? Most educational/curriculum tools trumpet the names of the authors and their credentials. What are the credentials of Neil's partners in this affair?
ReplyDeleteKMSOR, Oregon