Edubloggers, including none other than Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, are having quite the back-and-forth on the issue of whether the list of Race to the Top judges should be kept a secret:

Quick Reacap: Michele brought up the question last week.

Then AEI’s resident edu-smartypants Rick Hess gave his take. Duncan didn’t respond directly, but addressed the issue here.

Hess shot back, reminding the Education Department what happened when allegations of conflict of interest were raised about Reading First. And Eduwonk engaged in a lively debate... with himself. Hess explained here why one of the debating Eduwonks is wrong and also Bill Clintonesque.

And the Fordham Institute’s Mike Petrilli argued that Duncan could be playing with political dynamite, in a post featuring a guest quote from Hypothetical Rahm Emanuel, who doesn’t make appearances in edublogs nearly often enough.

Eduwonk comes back this time wondering if the administration’s goals (which he can understand) are worth it, giving the political risk of releasing criticism along the lines of what he calls Hess’ “jihad.” Hess gets this in the final-for-now word. Unless of course, I missed something.

Now, if you’ve managed to digest all that and you’re still a fan of edublogs ... EdWeek has a new one!

Please welcome State EdWatch, by Lesli Maxwell, who has blogged for Politics K12 on everything from the nitty-gritty of school improvement grants to Governor Moonbeam.