Whether you think the U.S. Ed Department's comparison between student achievement in private and public schools is important/relevant/meaningful etc. or not, you have to give credit to AFT John for pretty much nailing the "politics of test score release."

And yes, getting your blog mentioned in the New York Times story on the matter is a much more meaningful sign that education blogging has arrived than turning up in a FOIL request that captures junk email. Someone with an expense account should buy John a drink to honor that bona fide cyber-accomplishment.

Hopefully the Education Dept won't prove John's prediction about the release of charter school comparisons to be on the mark as well. Just put it out and let everyone deal with it. No matter what the results are, they will be politicized anyway so why get so bogged down in politicizing the release process?

One other point that occurred to me last night on the third margarita (so take it with a rim of salt): the private school vs. public school data could be bad news for charter school supporters in New York State. If legislators read the Times story and suddenly decide this would be a groovy time to yank their kids out of expensive private schools and send them to their neighborhood public schools, it could dramatically improve their household's monthly cash flow. That is obviously bad because then they might not want/need a you-know-what.