Here’s the lead editorial in Wednesday’s New York Times:
The stimulus measure being debated in Congress contains a vital $140 billion education package that would more than double the Education Department’s discretionary budget and give the federal government unprecedented leverage over a school-reform effort that has been controlled primarily by the states. Congress has to make sure, however, that the spending does not actually undermine reform. The money needs to be targeted in a way that forces the states to adopt reforms required under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.
There’s more along these lines. Read A Vital Boost for Education for the whole thing. The basic premise is that federal education spending is a force for good in the world. (This from a board that had a winner just a day earlier; their call for Daschle to withdraw is said to have been the final straw to break that particular camel’s back!) Rather simplistic, to say the least. They’re from the government, and they’re here to help.
It reminds me of that old glass-half-full analogy. Over at the Times, they see the glass as half full; me, I see the glass as half full too — half full of poison!