Gay Start for Spellings, Merit Pay for Feds, Gorilla vs. Governator, Snow Days in Boston (Best of the Week)

Education Secretary Criticizes PBS Show With Gay Couples (LA Times). What a strange and short-sighted thing for newly-approved Secretary Spellings to start out with -- almost as strange as outgoing Secretary Paige waving goodbye with a plea for…more arts education: Putting Arts Education Front and Center (Education Week). Doesn’t Spellings have anything better to do? Bush bans payola to journalists (The New York Times). See also: PBS's 'Buster' Gets An Education (Washington Post), Education secretary blasts children's show (USAT). What crazy idea is next? Merit pay for USDE officials? Don’t laugh. It’s apparently already happening over at the Department of Homeland Security: Civil Service System on Way Out at DHS (Washington Post).

Expect governor to be taught a political lesson (San Francisco Chronicle). Looking over the political landscape in California, the Education Intelligence Agency expects the Governator to lose when going up against the CTA: “Previous governors have tried hostility (Deukmejian), appeasement (Davis), or situational bouncing between the two (Wilson). Not one could really claim a major victory. You can count major CTA political defeats on one hand. There is zero possibility that Arnold will get his plan as stated through the Democratic-dominated legislature. But if he places an understandable reform plan on the statewide ballot, all bets are off.”

As at least a few big-city mayors have learned, sometimes it’s not all about making big policy announcements but rather about little things like snow days: School closings test parents, Payzant (Boston Globe), Wrong call on classes (Boston Globe). And while we’re on the subject: Snow way! Why don't kids offer to shovel our driveways anymore? (Boston Herald). Others praise Payzant: Lessons in consistency (Fort Wayne Sentinel).