The program, which many state officials, educators, and taxpayers see as an unworkable governmental boondoggle, came under attack again with the announcement that the Justice Department is investigating a key component of No Child Left Behind- the Reading First program:
The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.
"That sounds like a criminal enterprise to me," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, which held a five-hour investigative hearing. "You don't get to override the law," he angrily told a panel of Reading First officials. "But the fact of the matter is that you did."
It seems to be a pattern developing at both the state and federal level for officials to implement laws and then to allow their cronies and sometimes even themselves benefit from the legislation.
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