From Education Week:
After five years of providing critical reviews of education-related reports by nonacademic think tanks, education professors Alex Molnar and Kevin G. Welner hope to expand their own reach with a new, broader research center.
The new National Education Policy Center, based at Mr. Welner's academic home, the University of Colorado at Boulder, will consolidate his Education and the Public Interest Center and Mr. Molnar's Education Policy Research Unit, previously at Arizona State University. It will review existing research, conduct new research, and, for the first time for both groups, make policy recommendations.
The story goes on to print claims from these guys that they are independent from the unions, quotes Little Ramona taking pot shots at think-tanks, etc.
It's would be easy to cry foul that the NEA is simply renting the credibility of academic institutions to produce propaganda. They gave Molnar's outfit a quarter of million dollars a year at Arizona State. Overall, however, I don't really have a problem with them doing so. Think-tanks always face scrutiny when releasing reports, and more scrutiny is better than less. As Rick Hess notes in the story:
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