Columnist paid to promote Education's plans

The Department of Education paid a prominent commentator to promote the No Child Left Behind Act to fellow blacks and to give the education secretary press attention.

A company operated by syndicated columnist and commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Education Department. The goal was to deliver positive messages about President Bush's education overhaul, using Mr. Williams' broad reach with minorities.

Tribune Media Services said late yesterday that it has dropped Mr. Williams' weekly column after he failed to disclose his receipt of payments from the department. Mr. Williams' column appears occasionally in The Washington Times. Times editors are reviewing the matter to decide whether the column will continue to run.

Information about the contract with Mr. Williams was first reported by USA Today.

The contract required Mr. Williams' company, the Graham Williams Group, to produce radio and TV commercials featuring one-minute "reads" by Education Secretary Rod Paige. The deal enabled Mr. Paige and other department officials to appear as guests on Mr. Williams' programs.

Mr. Williams, one of the leading black conservative voices in the country, was to persuade other black journalists to talk about the No Child Left Behind Act.

The No Child Left Behind legislation aims to raise achievement among poor and minority children, with penalties for schools that don't make progress.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that the decisions on the practice were made by the Education Department. He did not say whether the White House approved the practice.

The department defended its decision as a "permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures." The point was to help parents, particularly in poor and minority communities, understand the benefits of the law, it said.

Mr. Williams called criticism of his relationship with the department "legitimate."

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