Some light beach reading for Politics K-12 readers soaking up the last couple weeks of summer:

Eduwonk has some absolutely priceless back-and-forth between Diane Ravitch, and Simon & Shuster, the publishers of Class Warfare, Steven Brill’s recent book on K-12 politics.

If you haven’t already, check out this very interesting profile of Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a Republican presidential candidate. There’s a lot in there on education, including on the charter school that she started for at-risk kids in Minnesota. The school nearly lost its charter because it embraced a religious viewpoint. Bachmann and another founder eventually resigned, and the school continues to serve students today.

For those of you who enjoy a good juicy GAO report with your summer cocktail, check out this look at the implementation issues with the School Improvement Grant program.

Speaking of SIG, check out this story on the contract issues for these low-performing schools in New York. (Hat tip to thisweekineducation.)

President Obama may ask lawmakers considering deficit reduction to take a look at job-creation measures, according to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal. Wanna bet this won’t mean $100 billion for K-12?

Nirvi Shah, at On Special Education, has a great post on the latest effort to get full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (the federal main special education law).

And on a sad note, Edweek’s own Mary Ann Zehr, who often wrote about the politically charged issues in educating English-Language Learners, is leaving journalism to become a teacher. Her farewell post at Learning the Language here.