Over at This Week in Education, former Hill education staffer and problogger/journalist Alexander Russo has gotten hold of a fax sent by House Education Committee Chair George Miller to Secretary of Education Spellings requesting her appearance before the Committee to discuss the Reading First and college loan fiascos. To expand on his scoop, Russo says she has agreed to testify on May 10th. There's a copy of the letter available on his site.

With criminal referrals on Reading First made to the Justice Department and something similar on this loan mess likely, it will be a difficult time for the Secretary. Your editor does want her under oath when questions about her role at the White House during Reading First implementation are asked, but the truly important objectives should be getting her commitments to: 1) develop clear, workable rules that give NCLB's various "reasearch-based" requirements some meaning; 2) moving to a rule-making process around NCLB that is based on a record of decision,  and 3)  recognize that there's a new industry out there trying to achieve the law's goals that deserves Department respect, attention and support.

It's so ironic that the school improvement industry is relying on market-suspicious Democrats to seek redress from the harm done by an ultra-pro-business Republican Administration. That's a theme that deserves contemplation...  and your editor's discussion at some future opportunity.