Department of Education sought out Damon in D.C.

Remember when Matt Damon spoke out against standardized testing at a Save Our Schools rally in Washington last month? Well, according to The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss, the Department of Education tried to get to Damon before he took the podium. Strauss reported this week that Education Secretary Arne Duncan tried several times to meet with Damon before the event, but that the actor didn’t respond. Damon spent much of that day praising his former teachers in Cambridge and saying that he shudders “to think that these tests are being used today to control where funding goes.’’ Damon’s mother, early childhood education expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige, works at Lesley University.