The Post story on the Reading First study begins: “Students enrolled in a $6 billion federal reading program that is at the heart of the No Child Behind law…”
Wait. It’s only a $6 billion program if you add up the total funding over six years (I think, I’m writing this on a plane). That’s a completely non-standard way of reporting federal budget numbers. Nobody says the Pentagon has a $2.4 trillion budget. And reading first isn’t “at the heart” of NCLB. The accountability provisions are.
Why exaggerate to sell the story? It’s an interesting study — play it straight.
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/11/10 | Kevin Carey is quoted on the rising costs of education in The Economist.
03/10/10 | Chad Aldeman's False Fronts paper is quoted on Accuracy in Academia.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on Federal Family Education Loan defaults on The Huffington Post.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on loan origination on the Firedog Lake blog.
03/07/10 | Kevin Carey calls for a Race to the Top in higher education in a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education.