More intra-Dem pushing and shoving on education reform. This is a live issue for sure. But, is the rich donors for charter schools and reform framing actually all that helpful to the politics here? If I’m the teachers union I read this article and say, ‘more please,’ no? Reformers could do worse than ask, “What would Eva do?” Her NY playbook has proven effective.

Augusta County, Virginia (which I believe is the Virginia county with the most caves in it and is for sure home to one of Virginia’s best trout streams) is now ground zero for the culture wars. Earlier this week a calligraphy lesson involving Islam sparked some backlash. Then came the seemingly school sanctioned prayers, and now to end the week schools are closed. Good thing holiday break is coming. It’s as though a consultant went there and did a workshop on lesson planning that started with, Step 1: Think about how you can get on Fox News.

Balancing religious liberty with rights for LGBT students on campus (pdf). Duncan exit interview. Another is here. A lot better than this one!

Today in stunning, but not surprising. Here’s verbatim on the email to LAUSD that shut the place down.

I thought for-profit charters, and all charters for that matter, were cleaning up? I must spend too much time on Twitter. Anyway, apparently not. This article does miss some school networks that have expanded multi-state and survived – because they (a) condition investors to modest returns and (b) are privately held (I think the shareholder issue creates additional distorted incentives). Not a big fan of the for-profits but the article is a little deterministic for my taste. In any event, wouldn’t a real Slate pitch be about how it’s actually easy to make money in education?

Your first chance to weigh-in on Title I regulations. Who says bipartisanship is dead? Not when spending is involved. Interesting fed policy debate with a predictable ending. Ed research bill moving again in Congress.

Bear under deck gets last word and answers timeless question.