IDEAS: Big Stories I'm Too Lazy To Cover

I know, I know.  Journalism is dead.  But still, here are some stories that I hope someone -- not me -- is working on:

Mr. Duncan Goes To Washington:  He talks like a goofball.   He hates the law he now oversees (NCLB).  He probably can't name the ranking members of the House and Senate education committees.  The stimulus gives him all sorts of dollars to dish out. He's the 2009 version of Rod Paige.  Someone should tag along with him all year and give us a sense of what it's like to walk into the beast's lair - if only for the pleasure of being able to drink hang out with Peter Cunningham after work once in a while.

Stimulating School:  Watch school districts and state agencies squander billions in taxpayer dollars just like in the past (Class Size Reduction, School Modernization, E-Rate, Empowerment Zones).  Hang out with a stimulus czar and see how government regulations, logistics, politics, and compliance-minded stupidity get in the way of making much good out of the Stimulus money.  Happy to be wrong, but I bet that South Carolina school is still dilapidated a year from now. 

The "Anti-Michelle":  Michelle Rhee may be the first TFA alum to run a big-city school district (besides Cami Anderson, of course), and she won't be the last.  But what about finding a rising star who came up the old way -- teacher, principal, etc. -- and is doing good things at scale?  What's new is old, what's old is new.  Polka dots for spring. 

The Modern American Ed School:  Ed schools have been under attack for at least a decade, and many have tried to revamp what they do in order to get better at preparing teachers.  But tradition, financial incentives, and faculty politics often get in the way of change. Carpetbagging political scientists and economists aren't helping any.  Find a reform-minded ed school dean and, over the course of a year, watch him or her get beat to smithereens.  Expert quotes from Art Levine.