Investigate Neil Bush's Company Ignite !, Watchdog Group Says

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is an independent watchdog group and today they have asked the Department of Education's Inspector General to launch an investigation in a company called Ignite! Learning, which is a company founded and headed by Neil Bush, younger brother of the president. They want them to look into why No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is being used to buy products from them.

They state that Mr. Bush has no education background and the company has no proven track record.

CREW says that their research shows that the product produced by Ignite ! do not meet the very strict standards that Congress has set and all the products that are purchased with NCLB funds must meet. They say that there is no data in support of the just how effective Ignite!'s products area.

In the course of their three month long investigation, they determined that hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent, some of the money coming from NCLB funds on one of Ignite!'s products called Curriculum on Wheels, or COW for short. It consists of a cart with a video projector mounted on it. It comes with a year's worth of either social studies, science or math lessons, that are also produced by Ignite !.

The price ranges from $3,800 to $4,200. Not cheap by any means. There is also a $1,000 licensing fee if the school wants to use the COW for more than one year.

According to Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, COW is an unproven product and the taxpayer's money should not be spent on such a product. If Ignite! wants to continue getting funds from the federal government, they should be held to the same conditions and regulations as any other company.