Former Bush administration Secretary of Education Rod Paige and his former Chief of Staff, John Danielson, have joined together to form an education consultant company called Chartwell.

Chartwell's website, http://www.chartwelleducation.com/ describes the company thusly:

"The firm expands access to the best innovations in products and services designed to accelerate student achievement, and provides strategic services to the private sector and the philanthropic community enhancing their ability to link their investments to education needs."

One might ask then, why Chartwell is pushing the Study Tech. Surely a former Secretary of Education would have the discernment necessary to identify and utilize effective educational techniques. The funny thing about Americans though, is their mindless affinity toward celebrity. When Tom Cruise seeks out your company, maybe rational thought flies out the door.

For example, Dr. Paige was invited to a premiere screening of Cruise's latest movie, 'Lions For Lambs." Other guests of Cruise were mainly high level Scientologists.

You might wonder where the former Bushite got his invitation from.
Turns out, he and Danielson have been using Chartwell and their former positions to push Applied Scholastics on unsuspecting schools.

On Wikipedia, it is noted that, "A professor of educational administration who reviewed the Applied Scholastics text used at Prescott described the concepts as overly simplistic and called the activities "moronic." "

The same article notes, "In October 2005, St. Louis Public Schools superintendent Creg Williams discovered the group's Scientology connections and immediately put out the word to area principals to cease working with Applied Scholastics. Additionally, St. Louis' Hazelwood School District superintendent Chris Wright discovered that CEO Bennetta Slaughter had been falsely claiming a "partnership" with Hazelwood. She admonished Mrs.Slaughter to cease and desist doing so."

And:
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported on September 22 that the district's superintendent of education has decided that teachers will no longer participate in training programs offered by Applied Scholastics International, a front group of the Church of Scientology. Teachers who had attended these programs were uncomfortable with what they saw there, and complained to their union. School Board member Bill Purdy called for an investigation of the program last week, and after visiting the center, expressed his own concerns about all the materials being labeled 'based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard.'

Now, Paige is a great score, and a big win for Tom Cruise! Scientology often boasts about using Mr. Cruise to reach world leaders, and Paige and Danielson have credentials that Scientology would hustle for. Mr. Daniels was featured on an internal Scientology video in 2004, discussing education and "the drugging of children." Former Chief of Staff Daniels is beginning to parrot Scientology propaganda. Scientology is clearly using Chartwell to promote Applied Scholastics. As we can see, it didn't work in St. Louis. No matter how hard Scientology tries to distance itself, it always comes back to L. Ron Hubbard. And that is often the kiss of death to any program bearing his name. All it takes is a little web research to determine that Applied Scholastics, like all the other covert front groups, are simply a regurgitation of Scientology's basic, flawed principals.