9486 in the collection
Baby Bush Ignites
. . .It seems that Neil [Bush] has found a new business interest. He is heading up an educational software company -- Ignite! Learning Inc. -- and hopes to sell its training programs to all of Florida's public schools.
Supposedly, the software would help students prepare for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which brother Jeb has pushed as a way of measuring a school's success or failure.
The Ignite! software already is being used in a pilot program at Ocoee Middle School, near Orlando. The school is using the equipment for free right now, but a spokeswoman for Ignite!, Louise Thacker, said the company hopes to sell its early American history course to other schools, at a cost of $30 yearly per student. Other courses might follow.
Ms. Thacker denied that Ignite! had an unfair advantage because its founder and CEO, Neil Bush, just happens to be the governor's brother. In fact, Katie Muniz, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Jeb and Neil never even have discussed Ignite!.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education said that Ignite! officials had not approached the state about its product. But, according to The Orlando Sentinel, Mike Eason -- formerly the top technology official for the department -- is a member of an Ignite! advisory board.
So Neil Bush has found a new endeavor. Most of his past tries at business have not exactly been models of success.
For instance, there was JNB Exploration, an oil company he formed with two partners in the 1980s. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Neil put up only a few hundred dollars, but the other two partners made him president.
At the time, however, Neil also was serving as a director of Silverado Banking, a savings and loan company in Colorado. And as such, he is alleged by federal investigators to have voted to approve loans totaling more than $200 million to his partners in JNB.
Silverado went belly-up in 1988. One of the things cited for its misfortune was the failure by Neil's JNB partners to repay $132 million in loans they still owed.
The collapse of Silverado cost American taxpayers more than $1 billion. After federal hearings into the matter, Neil was fined $50,000 and given a mild censoring.
After the Silverado collapse, Neil formed another oil company, Apex Energy, with a personal investment of only $3,000, plus a $2.3 million loan from the federal government's Small Business Administration.
But just like JNB, Apex soon went under. The SBA set a deadline for Apex to liquidate its remaining assets and make an attempt to repay the government loan. But again, the taxpayers were left with the bill.
And now Neil has found a different line of work, selling educational software to schools.
I wonder if his new company has a course in business ethics
— George McEvoy
Forgotten Bush Surfaces in Schools' Quagmire
Palm Beach Post
November 2, 2002
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/opinion_d32c0e5d00a861ed002c.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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