ICYMI: Spooky Spooky Edition (10/30)

We're back, and with election season ramping up, there's plenty to read about. Education is opn the ballot in many states--get out there are vote for it. In the meantime, here's some reading.

Anti-LGBTQ Groups Are Helping Enforce a ‘Book Ban’ Law in Florida

To help schools deal with gag laws and book bans, the governor has appointed a panel of people in favor of book bans. This should work just great.

Exclusive: Moms for Liberty Pays $21,000 to Company Owned by Founding Member’s Husband

You may remember that M4L quietly mothballed one of their three founding members, perhaps because of her close marital ties to the GOP establishment media machine. But as financial detail emerge, we learn that ties to that media machine were maintained with $$$. From The 74, which remains, despite the rightward tilt of its opinion side, a decent source for actual news.

Teachers say the future of education is on the ballot in Oklahoma midterms

Education is on the line in Oklahoma, as Ryan Walters, an unqualified privatizer runs to be head of the state's education department. Here's what PBS had to say.

Sec. Ryan Walters plans to 'eliminate' an educational accountability commission he leads

Walters, as the current secretary of ed (which in OK is different from the head of the ed department) chairs a committee that is concerned with many of the things he says he's concerned about. But he's never been to a meeting, and his goal appears to be to eliminate the committee. From Payton May at OKCFox.

Walters wants to destroy public ed in Okla. All he needs is your vote

At OKC Free Press, George Lang lays out the stakes. Walters is a bad news dudebro.

Can we tell a different story about campus speech?

You may have heard about a dustup at Penn State over a Proud Boys co-founders "speech." Don Moynihan has a much clearer picture of what was happening--and what it tells us about far right tactics.

What does Argo’s closing mean for Pittsburgh’s robotics future?

A reminder once again that the capabilities and future of AI have been hugely overhyped, as the soon-to-be-awesome world of self-driving cars continues to evaporate. Kris Mamula at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Covid-19 “Leave No Crisis Wasted” School Plan that Failed…for Now

Nancy Bailey looks at back at the moment that computerized ed fans thought they were about to have their Katrina moment. What happened, and what do we watch for next?

Church and State

Nancy Flanagan writes about the separation of church and state and why it's a good thing. 

There Are Just 90 LGBTQ School Board Members. Half Were Threatened, Harassed

The 74 again, passing on a report about how things have been going for the mere 90 LGBTQ school board members in the country.

I'm a teacher. Here's why I don't care about the NAEP scores.

Jay Wamsted at EdWeek with one of the best takes on the NAEP flap from this week. 

PROOF POINTS: Several surprises in gloomy NAEP report

Jill Barshay at Hechinger with a dig into some of the details of the NAEP data. 

Despite what you hear, parents aren't in charge of schools. That's a good thing.

Brian Dickerson at USA Today with a somewhat contentious take on the whole parental rights thing. 

Public Schools Aren’t Godless. Ask the Christians Who Feel Called to Stay.

From Ericka Andersen, writing for Christianity Today, another angle on the culture wars. Maybe all Christians don't actually hate public education. 

Meanwhile, over at Forbes I wrote about how to claw back some time for schools to make up any lost ground. 

Also, I'm now on substack. You can go to my page there to sign up. It's free and just one more way of staying up to date with whatever I'm yammering about.