Wherein we dump a number of interesting but disparate items in your lap.

Just in case you didn’t already think that things are seemngly spinning out of control!

First, from across the pond, the nanny state in overdrive: Parents banned from watching their children in playgrounds… in case they are paedophiles.  Read, scream, weep, rage…

Next, that stimulus program sure is creating jobs, especially in education.  The government says so, USA Today confirms.

But wait, maybe the government doesn’t quite say so.  Actually they say that they’ve helped by supplementing State education budgets.  The job numbers are “[a]ccording to media reports and anecdotal accounts…” So not exactly quite so firm.

Further, what happens when the stimulus runs out?  That question begins to be raised. The plural of stimulus, btw, is stimuli.

And when we’re talking politics and large sums of money , we know there’s always the possibility of the facts being fudged! AP: Stimulus jobs overstated in report

On a different matter, the Gates Foundation has been distributing aid to states, some states, seemingly in lockstep with the Ed Secretary’s Race to the Top program goals.  That may be changing, as After Complaints, Gates Foundation Opens Education Aid Offer to All States

And for our last item, those following Downeast know we’ve kept an eye on the administration’s (and Congress’s) reluctance to extend the very successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship voucher program. This is directly contrary to 2008’s promises to be open to “whatever works” in education.  Now comes word of what appears to be a ham-handed bullying attempt to kill an ad pushing reauthorization.  Tell me that it isn’t true!

All of those awful things that I have heard,
I don’t want to believe them, all I want is your word.
So darlin’, I’m countin’ on you,
Tell me that it isn’t true.
– Tell Me That It Isn’t True, Bob Dylan, 1969