I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Give @digby56 & @EduShyster Some Holiday Love

There are several bloggers I look to for inspiration. Diane Ravitch, of course, is the heart of the edu-bloggosphere. Bruce Baker forces us all to raise our games. Darcie remains a moral compass for me; Blue Jersey keeps me up to date on the state news. Bob Braun has the chops that only come from years of practicing journalism. And everybody I've got on the blogroll to the left is important: Leonie, Arthur, Gary, Val, the Klonskys, Stop The Freeze (renamed!), and all of the rest.

But there are two blogs in particular I want to point out that are currently having fundrasiers. They both deserve your support.

EduShyster might be the best writer in the "real" reform movement. She's certainly the funniest and the wittiest: many's the time when I've read a post of hers and thought, "She's so much better at this than I am..." That might sound like I'm jealous; OK, a little, but mostly I'm inspired. Jennifer's sardonic wit is the perfect response to an absurd philosophy of corporate education reform. Her uncanny knack for finding just the right way to skewer the reformy for their sanctimony makes her blog one of the must-reads in the education sphere.

Digby's blog remains my paragon; if I could ever get this blog anywhere close to the level of excellence she maintains, I'd be a happy man. She was the first blogger I'd ever read who knew just how to excerpt another piece, then use it as a springboard to launch into her own thesis. She also understands perhaps better than any other writer on the net how to use multiple posts over an extended period to build a narrative. Her work on tasers for example, has been exemplary: she has built a nearly unassailable case against them, slowly and patiently over the course of years. Same with her writings on the deficit scolds and the role of the Washington, D.C. establishment, otherwise known as "The Village."

She's fortunate to have a great partner in David Atkins, a very sharp observer of politics and policy. And Dennis Hartley, with his encyclopedic mind, has become my favorite film reviewer. It's a great blog with a great cast and it deserves your support.

Both of these women turn out prose better than almost anything you'll find in a newspaper or magazine. They're both having fundraisers now; go do the right thing.

Thanks.

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