9-27-11
Iowalive spokesman, Mr. Richard Fredericks, has filed a formal ethics complaint to Megan Tooker, executive director and legal counsel of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, regarding Dept. of Education Director Jason Glass' all expense paid trip to Brazil. It should be noted that the Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial board, and one of its columnists, also complained about Glass' unethical behavior.
The following is an excerpt from the complaint, some of which was contributed by the Des Moines Register and Cedar Rapids Gazette.
This complaint alleges that Jason Glass violated the requirements of 68B.22 Gifts accepted or received , of Iowa Code Chapter 68B.
Jason Glass, director of the Iowa Department of Education, was one of 12 state school chiefs to participate in the mid-September trip, sponsored by the Council of Chief School State Officers and funded through a grant from the Pearson Foundation, the nonprofit side of one of the world’s largest developers of educational assessments.
Pearson, which has offices worldwide including in Iowa City, has $4.8 million in contracts with the Iowa education department, according to state figures. The firm could potentially collect millions if it lands a deal to create a test that aligns with new national Common Core standards.
Iowa is part of a consortium of states working to develop the assessment. Iowa would likely pilot and possibly adopt the assessment as its yearly measure of student progress, Glass said.
Glass, and the other state school chiefs given the free trip, will be heavily involved in deciding if Pearson wins the competitive contract to create the test. If Pearson wins the award, the losers could certainly claim Glass was unethically influenced by the free trip. In addition, such Glass behavior undermines and sets a bad example for his leadership to improve Iowa’s public schools.
There is no evidence that Pearson provided such costly free trips to anyone not doing business with Pearson. Advertisers routinely give free prizes and other freebies to entice people to buy their products. Advertisers make this expenditure because they know it pays for them to do so. This is no different than what Pearson did for Glass—except Glass got at least a $6,000 free trip and Pearson could gain at least $10 million worth of business, if Glass and the other free trip takers select Pearson as the winner of the competition. The stakes are very high. Those free trip takers, like Glass, are the Directors of the Departments of education in a total of 12 states. Glass is entrusted with the education of our kids. His bad judgment disqualifies him for this trust.
Brazil is not the highest performing education country in the world, as Glass claimed. Glass cited no specific purpose for the trip, nor how he intended to effectively use what he leaned. It was an unethical trip—at best.
Glass refused to invite Judy Hintz, owner of Educational Recourses Associates in West Des Moines, to speak at the Education Summit. Judy raises student math and reading skills by several grades, with but several training sessions, as stated in her attached Guest Column printed in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Glass was advised of Judy’s performance in an Iowalive email. Judy made several guest appearances on WHO radio as well.
JUDY HINTZ GUEST COLUMN CARRIED IN 8-21-11 C. R. GAZETTE
Make funding competitive for all schools
It
was very disappointing to observe the recent Iowa Education Summit. The
educational bureaucracy reacted to 'reform' with dollar signs in their eyes and
a rehashing of funding for preschool education. In other words, maintaining the
status quo.
Past attempts to raise the educational standards - Head Start, No Child Left
Behind, English as a Second Language and Special Education - have been miserable
failures. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates spent $5 billion in educational reforms
all over the United States. He admits to little improvement in these
undertakings.
The Iowa Report Card recently revealed Iowa has finally returned to a No. 1
position - and it is not what you think! Our state ranked No. 1 with the largest
discrepancy between the performance of special education students and the
population of non-special education.
What a travesty for the nearly 14 percent of Iowa children. Unfortunately, this
highly funded program has done nothing but ruin the lives of the last generation
of Iowa students.
It is time to choose true, effective and speedy educational recovery - not more
money, summits, teacher training, teacher collaborations, preschool or even
crossing your fingers and hoping.
Iowa needs to step into a system of consumer driven education that results in
public funding of private school, charter schools, learning centers, online
teaching and home schooling. It is time for us to intensively pursue state tax
money going to the parents of the students. This will in turn encourage more
competition among all schools.
Hopefully, when public education officials realize they must compete for
dollars, they will soon delete everything destructive about current educational
practices.
What can private education deliver?
Educational Resource Associates is a facility most often funded by
parent/private tuition. In the past 31 years, my staff and I have served more
than 30,000 students from ages 2 to adult. The total cost of these services is
more than $20 million, far less than public education.
While it would be difficult to calculate grade level improvement cost, I can
cite some examples.
We frequently serve students (often special education) who are five to six years
behind in reading, math and written language. I have developed a remedial system
in which students receive two to three hours of daily one-on-one instruction,
plus homework programmed to reinforce daily teaching. These students average two
to three years above grade level when they complete two 5½ week intensive
training sessions.
Total cost for this onetime placement ranges from $6,000 to $9,000.
Compare this to the yearly costs of special education students, whose education
gaps increase year after year.
College and adult students are increasingly a large part of our clientele. They
can achieve reading gains of three to six years grade-level improvement in just
27 to 54 hours of instruction.
Admittedly, there are many diagnostic and teaching strategies specific to my
clinic, but my point is: It can be done.
What is our secret?
We must be competitive with public education and all other services.
It is herein complained that if Glass took his wife or companion on the trip, for free, it adds to the level of ethics violation. In addition, it is questioned if he had vacation time available, since he had worked for the state far less than 1 year when he took the trip.
This complaint is about violation of common ethics—not the law. That is why the issue is before the Ethics Board rather than the Attorney General. Beyond that, the attached 9-29-11 Todd Dorman column in Addendum 1 to the attachments, adds further evidence of the ethics violations Glass committed. Just as bad, it also expresses serious concern there will be no significant consequences for what he did.
That is obviously why at the Sept. 25th and 26 th administrators leadership meeting, we understand Glass referred to the Ethics Board’s concern about his lack of ethics, as a mere “annoyance”, as if he knew the Governor and Lt. Governor would pressure the ethics board to gloss over his unethical behavior—as the Lt. Governor has already done, as the Board of Ethics is well aware . At the same meeting, we understand the Des Moines School superintendent jokingly welcomed Glass to the front page of the Des Moines Register, where his unethical behavior was reported.
Glass defiantly said he would do the same thing again, as previously reported in the complaint attachments. He has no respect for ethics and his behavior proves it.
If Glass gets away with such behavior, without major consequences, he will feel free to continue such behavior, regardless of the impacts on his performance and any contracts let under his influence, no matter how slight. Just as bad, anything good he tries to achieve for students will be tainted and weakened by his unethical behavior.
There is also concern that any business losing a competitive bid to Pearson, will file a complaint because of Glass’ behavior. Such a complaint would cause delays that would be detrimental to Iowa school kids and others.
CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE EDITORIAL 9-25-11
What's going wrong
APPEARANCES COUNT : Iowa's Jason Glass and at least a dozen other states' education directors attended an international education conference in Brazil this month. Their expenses were paid by the Pearson Foundation, tied to the Pearson corporation that has multi-million-dollar contracts with many state governments, including Iowa's. Glass likely didn't do anything illegal by accepting the foundation's dime, says the Iowa ethics board director. But it's best for a public official to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Here is the 9-29-11 Todd Dorman Cedar Rapids Gazette column
9-29-11
Glass' trip not worth it
It's
become clearer than a shot of cachaca that Jason Glass' recent trip to Brazil
was a mistake. The state's education department director jetted to Rio de
Janeiro earlier this month for a conference sponsored by the Council of Chief
School Officers and underwritten by the Pearson Foundation. The foundation is an
arm of Pearson, a big testing assessment company that does millions of dollars
worth of business with the state. Should top state officials go on spendy trips
sponsored, even indirectly, by companies that stand to gain mightily from state
contracts?
Of course not. Glass may strenuously protest, but this is ethics 101.
The 'chief learner,' as Glass calls himself, could learn a big lesson by reading
the news for, I don't know, 30 seconds. Flash - Americans don't trust
government. They think bureaucrats are only slightly more trustworthy than
three-card monte dealers in an alley. Glass can defiantly explain his thirst for
knowledge and proclaim his driven-snow purity, but fed up folks just don't want
to hear it.
And unless he hiked into the Brazilian mountains, turned over a rock and found
the lost secret of high-performing schools, this trip wasn't worth it. A guy who
will play a critical role selling school reform at the Statehouse just burned
precious political capital he'll need over the next seven months on seven days
in South America.
Cedar Rapids Community Schools Superintendent Dave Benson pointed out recently
that the dramatic change Glass and Gov. Terry Branstad want to make in teacher
pay, etc., probably means making 'significant' changes to collective bargaining
laws in Iowa.
Opening up Chapter 20, where those laws are kept, would be an epic battle.
And now, the lead generals in that fight are governor double-dip and director de
Janeiro. Too harsh? I guess maybe you expect school reform to be won by paddy
cakes on the playground. For another view, see Christie, Gov. Chris.
Still, I don't expect the formal ethics complaint leveled at Glass to go far.
Being an elected official in Iowa accused of an ethical lapse is sort of like
getting a parking ticket. Except the parking ticket carries a penalty.
I suspect Glass will get a strongly worded letter urging him to be more careful
in the future.
So he'll have to skip the next big Hawaiian conference on high-performing
teachers who drink Kona coffee, or the Versailles Palace symposium on school
infrastructure, or maybe the big school lunch exposition in Bologna, Italy.
Ciao.
Glass will need to stay grounded. No worries.
There will still be plenty of turbulence.
■ Comments: (319) 398-8452;
todd.dorman@sourcemedia.net