Recently in Daddy Warbucks $$ Category

I have to say I am developing quite a girl crush on Edwonkette. Don't tell the State Board of Education members. We might have to edit some textbooks.


Look at this entry she just posted on private funding. How does she do it? How does she possibly know just how crazy the Gates money in Texas makes me? Does she know I sit around at 2 a.m., just listening to exhausting and pointless Council presentations (still not)  online weeks later, and wonder why we're spending hundreds of thousands in Bill Gates' (private) money to produce these Comparison of Strategic Plans.doc and competing gap analyses solely for political reasons?

Could it be... be still my beating heart... that other states are having some of the same thoughts we do that it just might not be a good idea to let Gates run rampant in our public schools just because they wrote us a big fat check for a bunch of boutique programs that cripple schools by re-segregating kids.. and have no concrete plan in place for how to validate or replicate the success of these campuses? Could it be that some of us might be having a few questions about this beauteous bonanza?

And just when I'm completely amazed with Eduwonkette's insight, she pulls out a spreadsheet. That really is a girl after my own heart.

I.love.her. I'm not ashamed of it.

Actually, just for the record, I want to say to Dr. McLeroy that I am not in love with Eduwonkette. I was sitting here trying to think what ELAR literary device I used (Irony? I don't know. Alanis Morrissette got me all confused on that one.), but it escapes me.

Anyway, let's play a game. This diagram charts the rather tangled interconnections among the various think tanks in DC. I think you'll recognize some names here.

I think you know where I'm going with this. What about Texas? I bet, if you put on your thinking caps and send me some hints, I can make a chart like this, too! I'm looking forward to it, as I probably don't know half as much as I think I know until you tell me!

In the meantime, I promise a real cool ed policy story with a bunch of insider baseball tomorrow, along with a Photoshopped movie poster. How much cooler can it get?