Annie Gilbertson of public radio KPCC in Los Angeles has another scoop. Officials who were on the committee to choose the winning bid for LAUSD’s huge technology purchase received free iPads and the cost of their trip to a meeting at a resort was underwritten by the Pearson Foundation.

She writes:

“Los Angeles Unified officials who evaluated bids for its massive technology project received iPads from Pearson, met with a Pearson software executive and attended a weekend sales pitch for that software — all ahead of the public bid process, documents show.

“The revelation is important because Superintendent John Deasy has repeatedly said the bid process was not affected by early conversations on the software — which he asserts were limited to a small pilot project.

“According to travel reports received through a public records act request, Susan Tandberg and Gerardo Loera, top administrators in the district’s office of curriculum and instruction, attended a Pearson conference at a Palm Desert resort in July 2012 where all attendees were given iPads loaded with Pearson’s learning software.

“A third office of curriculum and instruction staffer, Carol Askin, also attended the conference and would have received an iPad, records show.”

At the end of the story comes this stunning revelation:

“As for the meetings, Pearson officials on Monday said they agreed with Deasy’s statements to other media that the early communications between the company and L.A. Unified officials related only to planning an eight-classroom pilot program.

“However, emails show L.A. Unified officials discussing training 2,000 teachers on the Pearson software and Pearson offered to hire four, full-time staff members to help train teachers – an extraordinary expense an eight-classroom pilot.”