The president's brother Neil is peddling portable learning centers (he calls them COWs for Curriculum on Wheels) at $3,800 apiece. Neil says they help disadvantaged kids achieve higher test scores, an objective that might have motivated 13 school districts to use No Child Left Behind money to purchase the learning centers. But No Child Left Behind focuses on reading and math, while Neil's company, Ignite! Learning, doesn't offer reading instruction, and the COWs won't teach math until next year.

Why, then, would school districts want to buy from the president's brother? Follow the money:

Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product.

In addition to federal or state funds, foundations and corporations have helped buy Ignite products. The Washington Times Foundation, backed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the South Korea-based Unification Church, has peppered classrooms throughout Virginia with Ignite's COWs under a $1-million grant.

Oil companies and Middle East interests with long political ties to the Bush family have made similar bequests. Aramco Services Co., an arm of the Saudi-owned oil company, has donated COWs to schools, as have Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.