N.Y. Investigates Alleged Lobbying by Education Publisher’s Foundation

New York’s attorney general is investigating whether a major educational publisher’s nonprofit arm attempted to influence state schools officials on its corporate parent’s behalf by offering foreign travel and other perks, says The New York Times.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s office issued subpoenas this week to Pearson Education, the nation’s largest publisher of textbooks and other school materials, and the associated Pearson Foundation.

The investigation aims to determine whether the foundation’s activities, including paying for education officials to attend conferences in Helsinki, London, Rio de Janeiro, and Singapore, were used to benefit Pearson Education, which recently won a $32 million contract to administer state tests. The nonprofit group is barred by state law from engaging in undisclosed lobbying.

Spokespeople for the company and the foundation said they could not comment on the inquiry. An Education Department spokesman said Pearson won the testing contract in competitive bidding in which the agency’s contracting process was “followed to the letter.”