Here’s a shocker: the new Rasmussen poll shows that “eighty percent (80%) of New Jersey voters have been following news of the education grant loss at least somewhat closely, including 50% who have been following the story Very Closely.” So it’s not just eduwonks who are hypnotized by the NJ DOE, a tragi-comedy of dysfunctional families akin to – oh heck, we’ll go big – King Lear. Think of it: Christie as Lear, Schundler as Cordelia (really! Picture it: King Christie says to his youngest daughter, the moral center of the play, “”How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is/ To have a thankless child!”) Maybe NJEA Prez Barbara Keshishian is Gloucester, despairing after her betrayal, “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, /—They kill us for their sport.” Not sure who the Fool is in this scenario. Maybe the New Jersey Legislature for insisting on baling political hay from this tragedy of fools and knaves.

Enough. The hearings on our Race To The Top loss begin at 10 this morning. (You can listen live here.) NJ Spotlight has a nifty playbill of cast members and pertinent documents. Major players expected to appear, according to New Jersey Newsroom, are Acting Ed Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks, Deputy Commissioner Andy Smarick, Newark’s Dan Gohl, and Jessiani Gordon, formerly head of NJ’s Charter School organization who helped prepare the application. Schundler and his Chief of Staff Richard Bagger were invited, but PolitickerNJ says Schundler will request an understudy.