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A screenshot from DFER's web site advertises four new branches. (The Florida branch is yet to be official, according to executive director Joe Williams.)

The lobbying group whose H.R. recommendations virtually staffed President Obama’s Education Department is spreading its “reform” tentacles.

Democrats for Education Reform now has branches in Missouri, Colorado, and Wisconsin, in addition to its hometown, New York, and the organization plans to be in 10 states by 2011, executive director Joe Williams told me earlier this week.

“We have very good conditions at the federal level right now for at least talking about reform, but we’re really talking about what at the end of the day is a local issue,” Williams said. “So the strength of any national organization like ours is really going to come down to how strong its local units are.”

The new branches are mostly self-sustaining, relying on leadership from volunteer boards and local residents already active in education. “It’s a lot of people who were doing a lot of work on reform, but there was no political arm to engage at the political level,” Williams said.

What Williams calls DFER’s “outpost” in Colorado is a case study for its plans elsewhere. Rather than generate policy ideas, the organization focuses on raising money for candidates who support its favored brand of changes to education — policies like charter schools, merit pay, and higher teaching standards. Among the Colorado officials DFER supports is Mike Johnston, who advised candidate Obama’s presidential campaign and replaced the president of Colorado’s state senate, Peter Groff, after he joined President Obama’s education department. (more…)

Alexander Russo smartly picks up this screen shot from the C-SPAN video of Arne Duncan’s confirmation hearing. That’s Jon Schnur right behind him, on our left of the screen. (He’s the smiling gray-haired guy.)

Schnur, you remember, is our poster boy for the next-generation reform movement of which Joel Klein is one important part. For a long time we couldn’t come up with a name for them, but then we landed on idealocrats, which, the more I think about it, the more I decide is so perfect. Another unclear thing was whether President Obama sided with this crowd or not. Sitting within whisper-distance of Obama’s chosen education secretary is strong evidence in the “yes” direction.

A screenshot from video of Arne Duncan's confirmation hearing. (Via Russo)