ICYMI: New Year Already Please (12/31)

Well, this was not a vacation that unfolded as we would have hoped, between injury and illness and absent family, but sometimes that's just how it goes, and what we as humans get for pinning hopes on a particular date set for us instead of just making events fit our own timing. Hope your break has been a good one, and whatever it is you do tonight to celebrate the calendar rolling over, may it be fun and rewarding.

Here's a bit of reading from the week.

Meet Three Of The Neighbors Who United To Defend Public Education In Central Bucks School District

From the Bucks County Beacon, a profile of three folks who stood up in Bucks County, God bless 'em, taking on one very rich guy and a bunch of the Moms for Liberty crowd.

Judge blocks parts of Iowa law banning school library book, discussion of LGBTQ+ issues

The court serves a setback to Iowa's book banning Don't Say Gay law.

Ohio’s Republican governor vetoes trans care restriction and sports ban

Governor Mike DeWine takes the radical step of going to talk to parents and families and people who work in the hospitals before making one of his occasional decent human decisions. NBC news on the story.

Tired of Being Tired (Toward a Better 2024)

Here's the thing. Jose Luis Vilson isn't just back to the blogging thing--he's cranking out several posts a week. So go read this one about approaching the new year, and then click on the [subscribe] button, because you should be reading him regularly.

Public Christian schools? Leonard Leo’s allies advance a new cause

Heidi Przybyla at Politico dives deep into the conservative folks working hard to make taxpayer-funded religious public schools a thing, including the same people who brought us the end of Roe v. Wade.

Why Was It So Hard for Nikki Haley to Say ‘Slavery’? History Has the Answer

Joshua Zeitz at Politico uses Haley's boneheaded fumble to remind us of the story of the Lost Cause and the rewriting of Civil War history. Not directly about education, but this is what some folks want schools to teach.

Retired teachers forced to pay thousands

From New Mexico, a reminder that when retired teachers answer the call to come back and help out, they need to make sure they get the paperwork right.

Angry About Your Kid’s After-School Satan Club? Blame Clarence Thomas.

Adam Laats at The New Republic explains why after school Satan Clubs are just the religious liberty crowd getting just what they asked for.

The Long Lineage of Conservative Mother Movements

Adam Laats again, this time being interviewed at WNYC studios about the history of Moms for Liberty style movements. You can listen or read the transcript.

The Post reviewed 1,000 school book challenges. Here’s what we found.

Hannah Natanson at the Washington Post writes up their study of so very many book challenges and finds, among other things, that the majority came from just 11 people.

Right-Wing Activist Chris Rufo Calls for “Siege” of University at UT

The message, as reported by Brant Bingamon at the Daily News, was the usual Rufo riff. But when it came time for Q&A, things didn't go so well for him.

Making it a Job to be Happy

Anne Lutz Fernandez looks at happiness, the new year, and education. A good read to kick off the new year.

Sad news. Among the reporters taking the buyout offer at the Washington Post is education stalwart Valerie Strauss. At her space, the Answer Sheet, Strauss was always a voice of education reason at an otherwise reformster-friendly outfit. She boosted my work more than a few times and was always supportive and a lovely human being. I'm going to miss her work at WaPo.

Finally, this week I did the obligatory prediction piece for Forbes (I have no desire to look back at 2023, which was pretty rough all around). If I turn out to be wrong, we'll just pretend I never wrote my education stories to watch piece at all. 

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