“At least eight top officials in the Education Department during the Bush administration either came from student-loan or related organizations or have taken lucrative jobs in that arena since leaving the agency,” according to this WSJ story focusing on Sally Stroup and others (Did Revolving Door Lead To Student Loan Mess?). “Former Education Department staffers say a revolving door between the department and industry has led to lax oversight of federal financial aid.”
By and large, this story seems to be getting tons more attention and a faster response than the Reading First story has gotten -- I’m guessing because its locus is financial rather than ideological, because it involves more than a couple of folks in the USDE, and because it involves banks and other lenders rather than states and districts and reading experts most folks have never heard of. Or maybe there are other factors.