There is a saying in the defense industry, "Nobody ever got fired for hiring Boeing." I've seen versions of this for different sectors, but it's always a mega-corporation: Boeing, IBM, Oracle, etc. My guess for the education business is that Scholastic is Boeing in this analogy. They're a 1.3 billion dollar public company with over 5,000 employees and a household name to parents. So naturally, when I saw that District 65 signed an $87,978 contract extension last month, I was curious to know more.

On top of that, our local elementary school has sent links to take a Scholastic "family engagement" survey, which apparently, has a low response rate.

Did we pay $87,978 for a qualitrics link that nobody fills out? The answer is: I don't know yet, but it sure seems like it. So I submitted a FOIA request for a copy of the 2021 contract ($31,992), signed in 2021, and the extension ($87,978), signed in 2022, after the October board meeting.

I got back a full copy of the 2021 contract, which, if you've ever done consulting, is pretty boilerplate: insurance requirements, the scope of work, and legalese. The District did not include any scope of work or documentation for the 2022 contract extension ($87,978). I am awaiting a response on that FOIA (submitted 11/4/22). While we wait, let's see what the District paid for last year:

District 65 bought 64 hours (boiled into eight planning sessions). That comes out to $500/hour. For context, my consulting rate is $250/hour (my firm does machine learning and AI for corrosion mitigation). Scholastic's rate is high but not outside the wheelhouse for a company of that size. I've seen higher!

What did the District get for this money? Well, I'm not sure. I got a handout from my student's teacher at the beginning of the year with some tips to ask him questions. Or were the planning sessions used to plan for the survey? I compare this spend to something like Books and Breakfast, which received fewer funds ($25,000), yet went directly to the kids. Did the District spend $31,898 on a costly set of printouts? How did this move the needle on equity? On the achievement gap? On the intended goal of family engagement?

I look forward to getting the second half of my request filled and will update. Download the full FOIA request and response here.