Politics K-12

While Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has only recently vaulted to the national stage, she's been on the radar screen for awhile here at Education Week, which covers the education angle of legislative sessions, governors' State of the State addresses, and any other big policy developments in the state capitals.

In fact, EdWeek's "Capitol Recap" of Alaska's 2008 legislative session, an eight-paragraph account written by our Alaska beat reporter, Sean Cavanagh, is now being invoked by Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in defense of charges that Palin cut special education while in office.

Last night, the Arizona senator's campaign press office sent out an e-mail blast titled: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: FactCheck.org: "Sliming Palin." In it, the McCain campaign brags about an entry by Factcheck.org, which uses Sean's recap to point out that Palin actually boosted special education funding. The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.