The Raleigh News & Observer reports today about a federally funded reading program that, for the first time, must collect and report data to illustrate its effectiveness. To my pleasant surprise, those interviewed for the story have responded mostly positively to the requirement. However, Paul Light, a New York University professor of public service, characterizes things this way:
“The funding environment has become, one might say, more brutal in sorting the effectual programs from the well-intentioned.”
More brutal? That stipulates it’s been brutal in the first place and that, somehow, reporting results from the use of taxpayer funds or privately donated funds is a painful, difficult task to be avoided. I beg to differ. What’s brutal, in my view, is when the funder gets taken for a ride.
