One down...

Minnesota's education commisar, Cheri Pierson Yecke, didn't pass the senate sniff test this week. Minnesota State Senators voted to replace her 35-31 along party lines. Every democrat voted to replace her. Every Republican voted to keep her.

During her controversial 15-month tenure, Yecke called for educational standards that eschewed what she called an "America-hating agenda." She mediated curriculum discussions in which key educational concepts were balanced against her desire to advocate a literal interpretation of scripture. She was, in one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twists so common these days, an education commissioner who was anti-public education. Minnesota is well shed of her. Nick Coleman, of the Star Tribune, says it well.

While Yecke's firing can be regarded as a small victory for the forces of reason in policy. This little example is a sign of the times. We are in the middle, or maybe the beginning, of a national family furniture-breaking fight in which both sides do not intend to take prisoners. It should give everybody pause for thought that Yecke was nearly confirmed. Minnesota was only 4 votes away from validating the beginning of the end of our much vaunted public schools.