Education Funding

Bush Gift for School Technology Raises Ethical Questions

By Rhea R. Borja — April 11, 2006 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A charitable donation by former first lady Barbara Bush to buy products from her son’s educational software company has cast a spotlight on the ethical questions for schools that can accompany contributions from high-profile benefactors.

At issue is a recently publicized $25,000 donation that the Bush family matriarch made to a local Hurricane Katrina relief fund in Houston—on the condition that most of the money be spent on products from Austin, Texas-based Ignite Learning Inc., founded and chaired by her son Neil. Eight schools spread across the Houston, Alvin, Pearland, Katy, and Spring school districts in Texas accepted the social studies or science product, called Curriculum on Wheels.

The donation came to light in the Houston Chronicle late last month, when Fleming Middle School in Houston held an event to thank Mrs. Bush for her donation. The school band played, a regional superintendent from the district gave a plaque to the former first lady, and several students displaced by Katrina spoke of how they enjoyed using the Ignite Learning software.

But Mrs. Bush’s donation and the subsequent school rally have left some educators and philanthropy experts concerned. They see Mrs. Bush’s action as opportunistic, and the districts’ acceptance of the products as reflecting questionable judgment.

Following the Money

The trajectory of a charitable gift by a former first lady has raised ethical questions for schools that benefited.

SOURCE: Education Week

BRIC ARCHIVE

Propriety Questioned

As businesses and schools increasingly work together, educators need to put in place guidelines on what donations to accept and under what conditions, said William T. Hartman, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. And if districts already have such policies, they must follow them, said Mr. Hartman, the author of the 2005 book Ethics for School Business Officials.

“The first problem is when these donations dictate important educational decisions that are the province of the school district, the administration, and the teachers,” he said.

Mr. Hartman also questioned the Houston district’s “activity in promoting a company product, which presumably has competitors,” during Mrs. Bush’s visit to the school.

HISD policy prohibits schools from promoting “the merit of a brand name or trademarked products.” Fleming Middle School’s event did not violate that policy, according to a district spokeswoman.

The 210,300-student Houston school system is no stranger to Ignite Learning. The district piloted the product in five schools in 2002 and put them in another 17 schools in 2003.

Curriculum on Wheels, or COW, as it’s commonly called, is a stand-alone hardware and software system. It includes a projector and speakers and contains science or social studies curriculum materials, or both, for elementary or middle schools. The devices cost from $3,500 to $4,200.

Kenneth Leonard, the president of Ignite Learning, said last week that neither the company, which Neil Bush started in 1999, nor Mrs. Bush had done anything improper. He added that had the person making the donation been less well-known, no one would have questioned it.

“The transparency and the method of how the donation was conducted stands up to really any arm’s-length measure of normal philanthropic purposes,” he said. “People will rush in to conclude that, ‘My gosh, there must be something wrong with this,’ and in actuality, there wasn’t.”

Daniel Borochoff, the president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a Chicago-based charity-watchdog group, warned against donations with strings attached.

“Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s a green light to accept it,” he said. “It can cost you more.”

Mrs. Bush donated the money to the Bush-Clinton Houston Hurricane Relief Fund last fall, according to Jim McGrath, a spokesman for her and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush. The fund is a local spinoff of a national relief fund launched under the aegis of Mr. Bush and former President Bill Clinton after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August.

The former first lady stipulated that the donation primarily pay for COW equipment, which would then be given to Houston-area schools with large numbers of students displaced by the hurricane.

“She was aware of the good work being done using the COW. …[The donation] would go towards these machines to help kids learn,” Mr. McGrath said.

‘Doing a Good Thing’

The Greater Houston Community Foundation, which administers the Bush-Clinton Houston Hurricane Relief Fund, channeled Mrs. Bush’s donation to the Scottish Space School Foundation USA, a small Houston-based nonprofit organization, according to Stephen D. Maislin, the president and chief executive officer of the community foundation. He said she made the donation to the local hurricane-relief initiative, which has raised almost $1 million to date, to “get publicity” for that fund.

Tom Deliganis, Ignite Learning’s vice president of school sales and results, suggested the the Scottish Space School Foundation as the recipient of Mrs. Bush’s donation, said Hyang Lloyd, the founder of the school foundation. The group has loose ties to the Glasgow, Scotland-based organization of the same name, which encourages student interest in math and science careers. Mr. Deliganis has mentored some students involved with the program, according to Ms. Lloyd and Mr. Leonard.

Ms. Lloyd agreed because she would be helping disadvantaged students, she said, and because Mr. Deliganis said the modestly funded SSFU could retain roughly $900 of the donation in exchange for its participation. The SSFU then purchased the Ignite Learning product for the eight area schools.

“We thought we were doing a good thing,” Ms. Lloyd said. “I saw no harm in any form or fashion.”

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the April 12, 2006 edition of Education Week as Bush Gift for School Technology Raises Ethical Questions

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Education Dept. Sees Small Cut in Funding Package That Averted Government Shutdown
The Education Department will see a reduction even as the funding package provides for small increases to key K-12 programs.
3 min read
President Joe Biden delivers a speech about healthcare at an event in Raleigh, N.C., on March 26, 2024.
President Joe Biden delivers a speech about health care at an event in Raleigh, N.C., on March 26. Biden signed a funding package into law over the weekend that keeps the federal government open through September but includes a slight decrease in the Education Department's budget.
Matt Kelley/AP
Education Funding Biden's Budget Proposes Smaller Bump to Education Spending
The president requested increases to Title I and IDEA, and funding to expand preschool access in his 2025 budget proposal.
7 min read
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on lowering prices for American families during an event at the YMCA Allard Center on March 11, 2024, in Goffstown, N.H.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on lowering prices for American families during an event at the YMCA Allard Center on March 11, 2024, in Goffstown, N.H. Biden's administration released its 2025 budget proposal, which includes a modest spending increase for the Education Department.
Evan Vucci/AP
Education Funding States Are Pulling Back on K-12 Spending. How Hard Will Schools Get Hit?
Some states are trimming education investments as financial forecasts suggest boom times may be over.
6 min read
Collage illustration of California state house and U.S. currency background.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Funding Using AI to Guide School Funding: 4 Takeaways
One state is using AI to help guide school funding decisions. Will others follow?
5 min read
 Illustration of a robot hand drawing a graph line leading to budget and finalcial spending.
iStock/Getty