We always need to keep in mind, that there are different types of political activists out there; just as there are different levels of involvement and activities; and there is a co-relation. There are those whose activism has been driven by family heritage: generations of political involvement and community activism from close relatives.

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its education finance data for FY 2009. I'm compiling it as I have the time, and will write about it when I'm done. But this year, no one should have to wait for, or rely on, me. As they said they would do when I attended a symposium a year or two ago, the Bureau’s Governments Division is releasing more “derived data,” that is data that has been tabulated to be more comparable. For example, its current report features extensive revenue and expenditure data per $1,000 of local residents’ personal income and per student, with data per student by category. In fact, spending per student by category is available not only for states, but also for individual school districts with more than 10,000 students. Including, of course, the City of New York.

I’ve seen two MSM discussions of this data. The New York Times did not see fit to write about how much is spent in its own home city and state, but did write that nationally school spending wasn’t going up as much. And WNYC mentioned total per capita spending for the U.S., NYC and New York State, but not spending by category. But the MSM could look at that PDF report and write a comparison of spending by category right now. Yet it hasn’t. Instead, the dishonest, self serving propaganda about the proposed NYC budget by various self-interested groups has been duly reported on, on a “he said she said” basis. Is there something is that data that no one wants to talk about? Or is the problem that the Census Bureau doesn’t have a staff of flacks writing press releases that, combined with a quote in opposition from one of the usual suspects, constitutes a story? The actual NYC story is laid out below.

The NYS State GOP chose Rick Perry as its speaker because "At a time when New York ranks at or near the bottom among states in every important metric, Texas is leading the way.”

By this they obviously mean percentage of population without health insurance (#1), sub-prime mortgages (#1) and toxic emissions (#1).

Yes, yes, I'll concede them Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell & Neil Young, but the Canadians really have to learn to stop imitating Americans a day late and an inch short.