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The article presents information that when film producer Zach Richter was looking for a way to publicize his documentary about a flourishing Connecticut charter school, he turned to Washington. Under the U.S. President George Bush administration, the Education Department's largest traditional public relations undertaking has been its $1 million contract with the New York City-based public relations giant Ketchum Inc., for promoting the No Child Left Behind Act. RedGizmo mapped out a bilingual campaign aimed at educating parents about the No Child Left Behind Act, which included an interactive Web site and a series of events that featured President Bush's first-term secretary of education, Rod Paige.

The article focuses on an issue of a payment of some $240,000 to the commentator Armstrong Williams for various efforts to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. Senators can obstruct a confirmation vote by placing what is usually an anonymous hold on the nominee. The hold on the nomination was one of a number of after-effects of the revelation that under a $1 million contract between the Education Department and Ketchum Inc., a leading public relations firm based in New York City. The Senate minority leader urged to remove Williams from a position on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, a program that places special assistants to high-level federal officials.