Links 2-1-10

-The National Tea Party Convention starts this Thursday here in Nashville.  Sarah Palin will be the keynote speaker.

-After a bevy of studies finding negative effects from abstinence-only sex education, a new study of 6th and 7th grade African-American students finds that fewer students in the class focused on telling kids to wait until they were ready to have sex became sexually active over the next two years than those enrolled in other classes.

-Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called up the Mayor New Orleans to explain why he said that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system" in the city.  He emphasized the influx of new schools and teachers since Katrina and acknowledged that he understood the devastation that had taken place.

-The Atlantic breaks down the proposed changes to NCLB with a list of five ways that Obama's budget will change education policy

-newgeography argues that Obama is losing popularity b/c he's prioritizing urban areas over suburban ones