My privately-funded bureaucracy is inherently better than your publicly-funded bureaucracy

Kevin Drum's back, and he's as full of insightful, quotable pieces as ever:

...Bottom line: conservatives can't have it both ways. If high-stakes testing is the be-all and end-all of education reform, then their pet voucher proposals need to include the same kind of testing requirements that they demand for public schools. And if voucher schools end up doing no better than public schools, providing little more than a safe haven for a voting bloc that wants to protect their kids from learning about evolution? Then it's back to the drawing board.

The Florida Supremes did the right thing. Public money without public accountability is fundamentally wrong.

UPDATE: Whoops, I didn't read down far enough before posting this. Here's another good Drum quote from yesterday:

BY THE WAY: I'm sure I ought to know this, but what's the deal with all these recess appointments, anyway? Clinton did a few, but that's because he had Jesse Helms and Orrin Hatch to contend with. Is it really the case that Bush can't even convince his own party to confirm these losers? Or is there something else going on?