Apparently, Ethics isn't Fundamental.

You gotta be kidding me:

"A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's billion-dollar-a-year reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.

The government audit is unsparing in its view that the Reading First program has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.

It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views, and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money."

It gets worse.

The audit found the department:

Botched the way it picked a panel to review grant applications, raising questions over whether grants were approved as the law requires.

Screened grant reviewers for conflicts of interest, but then failed to identify six who had a clear conflict based on their industry connections.

Did not let states see the comments of experts who reviewed their applications.

Required states to meet conditions that weren't part of the law.

Tried to downplay elements of the law it didn't like when working with states.

Are you telling me these people can't even do a reading program without being crooked, without trying to scam a buck? Jesus.