State News

The Great Dr. Robert Shapiro will be on CNBC tomorrow, giving you the rundown on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's trip to China.  Tune in at 11:10 a.m. ET, when he'll be a guest on "The Call."

If you'd like to bone up beforehand, check out the speech Secretary Geithner gave today at Peking University (or "BeiDa," to we alums).  

Moore is the judge who refused to remove a colossal hunk of rock with the Ten Commandments on them, resulting in a fine from the very court he swore to serve.

Steve Gordon lays out the case for Moore in tongue-in-cheek fashion. They include national media exposure ("we can be sure that Alabama will be highlighted on a daily basis on programs like The Tonight Show, The Daily Show and Bullshit!. We'll also be helping the national economy, as sites like The Onion and Wonkette will have to hire additional writers to keep up with us.") and increasing religious diversity ("With respect to religion, Alabama is one of the least diverse places I've been.  The institution of the worship of idols made out of stone will go a long way to re-establish our primal pagan [and pre-Ten Commandments] values.")

More, including Moore's theocratic beliefs on the gays and the gambling, here.

Over at NRO I have an article suggesting that the Tea Party movement adopt as its program what I am calling “Reagan’s Unfinished Agenda.”? In one sentence, it describes a way of going on offense, and getting out of the defensive crouch that is the dominant posture of conservatives at the moment.

… starting in 1987, Reagan offered a more comprehensive package he called the ?SEconomic Bill of Rights.? In addition to the balanced-budget and line-item veto amendments, Reagan proposed three additional amendments that would impose a federal spending limit, require a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate for any tax increases, and prohibit wage and price controls.

This is a breaking story about which I'll have more to say in a column next week, but today the National Governors' Association announced that 46 states and the District of Columbia have joined a coalition in favor of common academic standards. Only South Carolina, Alaska, Missouri, and Texas have held back. From the NGA press release:

By signing on to the common core state standards initiative, governors and state commissioners of education across the country are committing to joining a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. These standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills.

The caveat here is that once the coalition develops the standards, each state will be able to choose whether or not it will actually adhere to them. Unless the federal government provides some sticks and carrots, there will be little incentive for politicians from low-performing states, like Mississippi, to enact the standards. After all, doing so would reveal just how little those states' school children are actually learning, and to what a pitifully low standard they've been held.

But this is still big news. It wasn't that long ago that proponents of common standards believed the best they could hope for were regional standards. In other words, instead of our current system of 50 different state curricula, groups of states would band together and agree to share one system. But in recent months, the political calculus has shifted considerably, with national standards emerging as education reform common ground between teachers' unions and some of their opponents within the Democratic coalition -- those who broadly support teacher merit pay, an expansion of charter schools and vouchers, and alternative-certification programs for teachers. All of these folks can agree, seemingly, that the system would benefit from some regularization.

Of course, anti-testing advocates are likely to be quite skeptical of this move, which has the potential to lead to national assessments. At this early stage, though, it is totally unclear whether common assessments would even be an outgrowth of common standards.

--Dana Goldstein

The New Hampshire House has approved a bill to strengthen legal protections for religious organizations related to same-sex marriage, and the governor says he will sign same-sex marriage into law.

The House approved the measure on a vote of 198-176. Supporters of same-sex marriage erupted in cheers and applause as the total was announced.

Gov. John Lynch announced that he would sign the same-sex marriage bill into law on Wednesday evening.

The House vote followed the Senate approving the bill on a 14-10 party-line vote.