Odds and ends...
5.25.2009

  • This has to be the biggest head-scratcher in the ongoing saga of the ARRA (hence this nudge from ED). I've been following the law's implementation religiously, and I can't make sense of this. ????It's free money, and the application is as simple as you could imagine. ????One staffer from an SEA's budget office could finish it in no time. So why aren't they applying?

  • Another reason I'm excited about the reforms taking place in Baltimore under schools CEO Alonso.

  • Per Alyson at edweek and contra my handwringing, ED has put together a growing????list of all of its political appointees. (I don't know much about most of these folks, so if you do and you see interesting patterns or commonalities, please share. For example, are most from Chicago? Did many work in the Clinton administration? Are several from the foundation world?)

  • Is "in order to cause state-level internecine warfare" included in the preamble of the ARRA?

  • Mike's second thought is confirmed. ARRA funds aren't as enticing????as Secretary Duncan had hoped.

  • Eduwonk on top of the near-craziness on charter authorizers in NY.

  • Nearly 3/4 of aspiring math teachers in Mass can't pass the state licensing test. I wonder what percentage of current????Mass math teachers would pass...

  • Cold impersonal data is one thing, real kids in real schools is another.

  • The growth of chartering in DC is pretty amazing, and it's leading to disputes over the future enrollment of the traditional public school system.