While you’re waiting for guidance to come out from the Department of Education on just how states and districts can get their hands on stimulus money, check out these good reads:

Over at NCLB: Act II, David Hoff examines whether school districts will have to set aside millions from their Title I stimulus funds for tutoring and choice.

Listen to Arne Duncan on National Public Radio’s On Point show. He notes that the department will issue requests for proposals for the $5 billion in incentive and innovation grants in May. (That money isn’t distributed until the fiscal 2010 year.) Also, about half way through, notice how he completely dodges a question about how he’s going to accomplish all of this reform, given the power of the teachers unions.

UPDATE: Over at Gotham Schools, Elizabeth Green has aptly called Duncan “Diplomat in Chief.”

The U.S. Department of Education has started posting its weekly spending and communications reports for stimulus funding. So far, the Department has obligated and disbursed zero dollars. But, this will be a page you might want to bookmark.

Any policy wonk will appreciate this cartoon, courtesy of This Week in Education.

And last but not least, for true-blue Politics K-12 fans, there’s a new widget to your right, under our pictures, that you can place on your own blog or web page to keep track of the latest on the stimulus and schools. Also, if you’re not an EdWeek subscriber and you want to read our complete coverage of the stimulus without making the long-term commitment of a full subscription, our stimulus news and graphics are all packaged together in a PDF for the low, low price of $4.95.