Reading First is a $900-million-a-year project that offers states grants to improve reading instruction for children in kindergarten through third grade. However, Reading First is now awash in allegations of mismanagement and conflicts of interest. The Education Department's inspector general issued a report that declared that the program's managers had violated a long list of rules and procedures. Some of the most serious allegations of malfeasance, all of which remain in dispute, center on a close-knit group of educational psychologists at the University of Oregon. Three of those scholars have been accused of personally profiting from their roles as federal contractors who offered technical advice to state governments about how to design their Reading First programs. In many cases, those states purchased textbooks or other materials designed or written by the Oregon scholars themselves. Those purchases are now generating tens of thousands of dollars in annual royalty income. This article further discusses the issues and controversies surrounding the Reading First program.