Notes on Neil Bush - All hat and some cows

A COW: curriculum on wheels

Neil Bush, brother of former Florida governor Jeb Bush [and former President George Bush], founded Ignite Incorporated, a software company that helps students prepare to take comprehensive tests required under the No Child Left Behind act.
From Pam Spaulding on January 8, 2005

The Ignite software is designed to prepare students to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).

Progreso Weekly

To fund Ignite!, Neil Bush and others raised $23 million from U.S. investors, including his parents, Barbara Bush and George H.W. Bush, as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As of October 2006, over 13 U.S. school districts (out of over 14,000 school districts nation-wide) have used federal funds made available through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 in order to buy Ignite's products at $3,800 apiece.

In December 2003, a Washington Post Style article said that Ignite! was paying Neil Bush a salary of $180,000 per year.

In early 2006, Ignite Learning announced that Barbara Bush had donated funds to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (a charity established by former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton), with instructions that the money be used to purchase "COWs" ("Curriculum on Wheels") from Ignite! for several economically disadvantaged schools.
Wikipedia

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Request Department of Ed. Audit of NCLB Funds Spent on Ingite! Learning Products
CREW

Ignite! Learning, Inc