New evidence of the rise of the blog. Senator Clinton cited The Education Gadfly
(from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation) in a Senate Education
Subcommittee hearing today on Global Competitiveness. The blog Senator
Clinton referenced, written by Checker Finn and Mike Petrilli, can be
found here. 



In response Secretary Spellings stated, 'Senator, I have not seen that
particular blog, but I disagree with it." Perhaps Secretary Spellings
and her staff at the Department of Ed. should get up to speed a bit.
Being that they cut so many programs in the latest budget, they should
have plenty of time to keep up with the blogs.



Besides the blog reference, the Senate Education Committee Hearing did
not yield much of interest. Secretary Spellings continued to push the
President's Math and Science AP plan, admitting that it will be quite a
challenge to get the necessary AP teachers. The Democrats on the
Committee continued to take their swings at the latest budget, noting
all the programs that will find themselves in the dark.



A video file of the hearing will be available here.     

The President's budget has been released to the ravages of Congress. There are some interesting implications for education. For starters, there is over 3 billion in cuts
(see the chart below). There are a few programs that will see their
funding increased. First, the math and science instruction the
president called for in the State of the Union will be funded at 380 million. Further, the High School Reform program will see an additional 1.5 billion.

While it is far to early in the budget process to run screaming in
terror, the cuts do reflect the administration's outlook on education.
Senator Specter, perhaps, sums it up best ..."it is scandalous."

Today marks the first entry by the Edjurists. The edjurists are a
collection of education law specialists having obtained at least some
of their training at Indiana University - Bloomington. This blog will
report on education law and policy related topics. This blog will seek
to be objective and forthright in the information presented. However,
we make no guarentees that positions taken will not generate
disagreement among readers. Please respond when you disagree and
convince us otherwise. If we know nothing else about law and policy, we
know that it is based on the arguments of individuals. This collection
of individuals, the edjurists, will seek to inform those arguments by
providing free information and analysis on present day education
topics. Enjoy.