July 2, 2007

Contact: Naomi Seligman Steiner 202.408.5565 nseligman@citizensforethics.org

2 Jul 2007 // Following the Department of Education Inspector General’s devastating September 2006 report [1] cataloguing mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the $6 billion Reading First program, CREW sued the Department [1] for violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The FACA requires that all advisory committees operate in the open in order to prevent the type of abuses chronicled by Inspector General John P. Higgins, Jr. and others, including Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) [2]. Now, eight months after the filing of CREW’s lawsuit, the Department has begun sending CREW the documents that should have been made available to the public since Reading First was authorized as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The Department will be producing 26 CDs worth of documents, and CREW will be posting them as they come in. Click here [2] to see what the Department has pledged to produce.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL DOCUMENTS BY STATE. [2]