Frauds, Liars and Bullies-Part 1

Exposing this group is part of my profile and I've been a little lax in that department. Let me start with this. Last year Classroom Inc. was brought to PS20 for our 6th graders. It was a freebie, provided by Estee Lauder. It had a heavy tech component and would require a great deal of use of our computer lab. I didn't want it, because I thought I could do better than a canned program. My colleague welcomed it, since it would relieve him of planning-it was all scripted. I also didn't know he was being schtupped a couple of hundred of bucks on the side for his trouble. The program was boring to many kids and its tech simulations were dated. "Classroom, Inc. is a non-profit corporation of education specialists who develop computer-based workplace simulations to be integrated into school environments at the middle and high school levels. The simulations involve students in interactive learning experiences which help develop skills that foster a successful transition to the mainstream of adult life." The top exponent group was especially saturated with the program and because these kids were also well behaved they didn't revolt against the assignments as most "normal" kids would. When I did some investigating of this program I found it had a one star charity rating (see pic attached). It was supported heavily by Bloomberg and Estee Lauder. Since Estee Lauder was giving Christmas presents to all our kids, using the program was considered a favor to them and it was expected that classroom inc. would be accepted well and evaluated well (schtupping also helped). It's CEO was a former DOE literacy chair who was making 165K a year in what I guess was a golden parachute job. The organization was also awarded $300,000 in DOE contracts for summer school programs. Why? "Professional development Very Good Program Plan, Very Good Organizational Capacity and Very Good Demonstrated Effectiveness. $300,000.00" I guess they don't read the charity evaluation site. BTW Estee Lauder and its chair Ronald support the most reactionary components in our government and in Israel's. The suspected injustice here is manifold. The program is crap and it is paid for by tax write off charity dollars that could have gone to more deserved programs. This goes on all over especially with well connected non-profit foundation heads.