If you’re wondering why the DC education blogs are so quiet today, it’s because all the best-dressed education folks are gathered at a big AEI event on the supply side of school reform -- the “intriguing and daring” reformistas who are attracting all the attention (and funding) despite their small scale, mixed results, etc. Check out the agenda and the papers here.
Or, if you’re more in the mood for a big picture view of things, check out Timonthy Noah’s recent critique of AEI in Slate here. While not focused on education particularly, Noah claims that most of the Bush administration’s worst ideas have come from AEI. Noah also tells the story of AEI’s rise into a more ideological, glamorous think tank (past Heritage and its liberal counterpart Brookings) whose so-called scholars are everywhere on the pundit and media circuit.