Former Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith Among Group For Whom Pearson Sponsored Extravagant Overseas Trips
While reporting a 31 percent gain in profits this year, education corporate giant Pearson was paying for state education commissioners from all over the country to fly overseas to attend their conferences. Included in the list was former Florida education commissioner Eric Smith. From Michael Winerip of the NY Times:
In recent years, the Pearson Foundation has paid to send state education commissioners to meet with their international counterparts in London, Helsinki, Singapore and, just last week, Rio de Janeiro
The commissioners stay in expensive hotels, like the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore. They spend several days meeting with educators in these places. They also meet with top executives from the commercial side of Pearson, which is one of the biggest education companies in the world, selling
