Another article on autism in today's NYT. The writer is deputy editor of special sections at the Times, which may account for some of the increased coverage, but it is quite noticeable. A year or more ago I wrote a nastyish letter to whoever it is who reads the letters to the Education section, faulting them for having so many articles on things like overpriced preschools (there had been an article in New York magazine a few weeks before on precisely the same subject). Apparently I struck a nerve w/whatever intern actually reads these things, b/c I got an extremely nasty email back saying that the Times had been working on its article first, that it was covering things like changes in IDEA (there had been one article in the paper proper), and perhaps if I liked the WaPo's education features, I should just read the WaPo. That was the end of our correspondence right there.

The pull-out education section still sucks and seems to be aimed at That Substrate (you know, the people who would also be very, very interested in Wall Street bonuses and how many people from the Upper East Side vacation at the same resort in Belize), but I do notice that the general education coverage has gotten better.

I'm still waiting for a decent in-depth article explaining the ramifications of the reauthorization of IDEA, but that's not inherently as sexy as articles on little kids and autism (and I'm glad they're covering that, too, truly--and good for the O'Neills for suing to get ABA for their child).