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Sunday, November 6, 2022

ICYMI: Vote Vote Vote Edition (11/6)

It's time. The races in your locality may or may not be apocalyptic in scope, but they certainly matter, and it's a little embarrassing every time America, the great shining beacon of Democracy, somehow can't get its own citizens to get off their butts to cast a vote. So do that. Thanks.

Now for this week's reading.

Are national ‘parental rights’ groups making decisions in your local school district?

Michigan Advance is one of several news outlets looking at how Moms for Liberty and other similar outfits are working to commandeer local school boards. 


The New Yorker (warning--paywall) also takes a look at how these groups are trying to grab control of school boards coast to coast. 

New Documents Show ALEC Targeting School Board and Other Local Races

And if you're not alarmed enough already, Alyssa Bowen at the Center for Media and Democracy reveals that ALEC, the great grabby bill mill, is also in on this game.

Angry Right-Wing Moms Are Trying to Have Librarians Arrested by “Constitutional Sheriffs”

How far are the Moms for Liberty willing to go? How about getting the local sheriff to arrest librarians with naughty books. From Jessica Pishko at Salon.

Small-town students would pay for high price tag of school choice

In Oklahoma, the spectre of a voucher bill is haunting rural schools, which will get hammered if such a bill becomes law under newly-elected choicers (like the hugely unqualified Ryan Walters). From the Tulsa Woirld.

NC Supreme Court issues much anticipated rulings on education funding, environmental protection

In North Carolina, a case involving school funding has been twisting its way through court for decades. Another big step forward came this week.

A ‘Texas miracle’ brought us No Child Left Behind. Here’s a new one.

Texas loves its educational miracle. Trouble is, when you look closer, they turn out to not be very miraculous. The story is at Valerie Strauss's Answer Sheet at the Washington Post.

If today’s GOP baffles you, consider what motivates its base

At the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin looks at the results of the Public Religion Research Institute's American Values Survey and what they tell us about white evangelicals in the US.

Solutions stories that aren’t puff pieces

Nice piece by Kate Rix about how to create stories based in some actual research (and so, it's also a guide to how to spot them as a reader).


Paul Thomas passes along some good news about the fight for readers' rights in South Carolina


Yes, I almosty never link to Diane Ravitch here on the theory that if you're a regular here, you probably didn't miss it. But this account of Preston Green's talk about the need to regulate charters is one you definitely shouldn't miss. 

Can A.I. Write Recipes Better Than Humans? We Put It to the Ultimate Test.

Some researchers at the New York Times decided to let AI put together a Thanksgiving dinner. Add this to your file of "AI Is Not Ready for Prime Time" stories.

Over at Forbes, I wrote about how to handle the likely presence of AI writers in your classroom.

In other news, I've launched in substack. You get the same stuff you get here at the mother ship, delivered to your inbox, plus anything I run over at Forbes or the Progressive or who-knows-where-else. I'm not abandoning anything else--just trying to provide more options. And there's no charge. So feel free to let me clutter up your computer one more way.



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