Today we suggested that everyone just give up on this whole school idea. School will never work! Teachers are rotten! There's no money! Etc. This elicited lots of commenter feedback, with one commenter in particular issuing a simple, earnest plea.

Last September, Barack Obama addressed the nation's schoolchildren to start the new academic year, and conservatives went insane. Many parents worried that Obama would "indoctrinate" their children with Marxism. So where's the angry chorus for this year's same speech?

Earlier this week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lashed out at the Obama administration for not giving it a chance to correct an application error, costing the state $400 million in education funding. Apparently Jersey did have a chance, though!

New Jersey was not among the winning states announced yesterday in the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" contest for federal education funding. The only reason? A single clerical error on its application. And it'll cost the state $400 million.

New York was among the winning states announced today in Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" contest, where states compete for federal education money. A celebratory Governor David Paterson accidentally called it "Race to the Cock," though, to Twitter's delight.

The Los Angeles public school system, the second-largest in the country, is set to unveil its new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex, a K-12 "Taj Mahal" school that cost $578 million, the most expensive in US history. Too much?

The New York City school system has banned former teacher Nathan Turner for taking five students on an unauthorized field trip to Cuba in 2007. Turner resigned in 2008, so whatever, and besides, he had a good reason.

Did you do the stupid thing that a lot of people have done recently and go to law school, just because you're aimless and you figured it would be a productive use of time "in the long run?" Sucker.

The actor and hiptellectual (we're just making up words these days, right Sarah?) announced on Good Morning America today that he will be teaching a "very special class" in New Haven next year. What should it be? We have ideas.

Finally, some good news, from a new Congressional report: fewer and fewer poor kids are going to college. Fantastic. Leave that money-sucking scam camp for the richies.

Yesterday marked the end of "rubber rooms," where NYC teachers were sent to wait pointlessly while being investigated for transgressions. Going forward, hot lesbian teachers will presumably be allowed to roam the city, free, unrestrained, and untamed. [NYT, photo: AP]

Catherine Ariemma is a history teacher at Lumpkin County High School in Dahlonega, Georgia. She has "a perfect record." Until now! Because she let a bunch of her students dress up in Klan outfits, in school, for a "video assignment."

First California boycotted Arizona over its stupid immigration law. Now its lawmakers are fighting back against the Texas Board of Education's changes to history textbooks — to defend McCarthy-ism, minimise Thomas Jefferson and twist the separation of church and state.

A Staten Island teacher won an initial court ruling after she was suspended for allowing students to write down penis-related Yiddishisms in an HIV education class. She is now seeking $1 million in damages from the city. [NYT, pic]

The plan in Texas to rewrite history textbooks to fit a right-wing agenda could pass this week. The Guardian profiles the evangelical Christian lawyer behind the push, Cynthia Dunbar, who has plenty of interesting ways of looking at history.

Some data fiend decided to see how data on drinking habits correlated with all sorts of other fun factors like religion, education and politics. Educated godless liberals with large vocabularies, it seems, enjoy a beverage more than most.

Oh, Arizona. First this, then this, and now this: The state is cracking down on school teachers with accents in an effort to secure Anglo dominance in the southwest, because Arizona is a state where we speak English, okay?

You can vote for a high school and Barack Obama will deliver a commencement speech there. Here are the choices:

A new study of future math teachers around the world gave Americans a grade of "C" when it comes to being smart in math, by math teacher standards. Which is just fine. Until you see who beat us.

Last week's preliminary decision by the Texas Board of Education to rewrite US history to fit right-wing ideology has some academics all worked up, saying "it's not a partisan issue, it's a good history issue."