The Friday Reading list is really best enjoyed on Monday afternoon.

Check out these good reads:

*So whatever happened to all that great, unprecedented technical support that states were supposed to get from the U.S. Department of Education for the $4 billion Race to the Top competition? Well, it looks like ICF Incorporated, a Virginia based firm, got more than $42 million in federal funding to help out with that. (Here’s a department of education notice about one $38 million grant. Plus, ICF got an additional nearly $5 million on top of that, also for Race to the Top technical assistance.)

Over $40 million in technical assistance money is nothing to sneeze at, remember states winning an actual RTT grant could get as little as $20 million under U.S. Department estimates.

*If you haven’t already, check out Sara Mead’s twin takes on “Waiting for ‘Superman’” over at Sara Mead’s Policy Notebook.

*National Journal‘s Education Experts do a post-mortem of a post-Michelle Rhee world.

*Are you a rural program that missed out on an Investing in Innovation Grant? Check out the Rural School and Community Trust’s webinar next week to learn about innovation in rural schools.

*And finally... the Best Name for an Edu-candidate Ever is ... Democrats for Education Reform’s Reformer of the Month Krystal Ball, who is running for Congress in Virginia. Apparently, her name comes from the fact that her dad was a physicist who studied crystals. She’s an accountant and edu-software company owner and wrote about the perils of her “stripper” “porn star” name for the Huffington Post. Check out her education views here.