I'm in Steubenville, Ohio, this weekend for a conference, and happened to see the front page of today's paper. Apparently, Governor Bob Taft spent $139 million of taxpayer money on a reading program called OhioReads.
Well -- to quote one of my favorite websites -- put on your surprise face: it turns out, according to the paper, that no greater progress in reading has occurred in schools that received OhioReads money than in those that didn't. I bet that means lots of heads will roll, the money will be returned to the taxpayers at the expense of the geniuses who concocted this boondoggle, and the state will be less liable in the future to blame educational underachievement on lack of funds.
Or maybe not.
