ICYMI: Late Edition Edition (5/1)

Last week was tech week for the local production of Nunsense for which I'm music director. I also had about 400 essays to read through a couple of times for a county-wide high school essay context I run. And the last two days I've spent in Philly at the Network for Public Education conference. The CMO (chief marital officer) for the Institute and I left the Board of Directors with their maternal grandmother, and we had our first childless outing in a couple of years. As a result of all that. things here at the Institute have been a little slow, and you are getting your reading list for the week a bit late. But you're still getting it, and here we go. 

Also there was a race this morning, meaning we could go stand in the street for a perfect angle.

The education culture war is raging, but for most parents, it's background noise.

If you only read one item on the list, make it this one. A new NPR poll confirms that the vast majority of Americans are not at all ready to come after their teachers with a pitchfork and torch and, in fact, actually think their teachers are doing pretty well. 

Kansas City area district bans teachers from having safe space signs for LGBTQ kids

One more item for the "this is what these gag laws look like on the ground. Coverage from the Kansas City Star.

I'm a gay kindergarten teacher in Florida. These are the questions I'm asking myself.

From NBC, for that same file.

The Best Question During Today’s School Prayer Arguments Came From … Brett Kavanaugh?

Mark Joseph Stern is covering the latest school prayer case that was argued before SCOTUS this week, and yes, though it's no sign that he'll decide correctly, Justice Kavanaugh had the question that cut to the chase. This article also provides a good summary of how the case arrived in front of the Supremes.

DeSantis and DeVos have a school voucher online town hall.

Kathryn Joyce wrote about it for Salon; this link takes you to non-paywalled Alternet copy. Only for the strong of heart.

That Infiniti Commercial

You know--the one with cute kids playing terribly. Nancy Flanagan, retired music teacher, has some feelings about that.

The School Privatization Movement’s Latest Scheme to Undermine Public Education

Kalena Thomhave at In These Times has this great explainer/background piece about education savings accounts--the newest, worstest version of school vouchers.

Texas and its teacher supply problems.

What a mess-- on the one hand, Texas's major teacher-producer turns out to be a mess and gets it plug pulled. At the same time, some genius decides that Texas should make it harder to become a teacher (not to mention trying to revoke licenses for teachers who want to leave a bad job).

16 tricks to stretch out an essay

McSweeney's with some tips that many teachers will recognize.

Meanwhile, over at Forbes.com, I reviewed a book about the evolution-in-schools by Adam Laats (spoiler alert--I highly recommend it).