ICYMI: Horrific Violence Edition (7/14)

If we should have learned anything else in the past couple of decades, it's that leaping in quickly with comments and reactions before the smoke has cleared is a mistake, so I try to keep my mouth shut, but I will say this-- I have no love or respect for Trump, but this was terribly, deeply wrong.

The shooting hits hard here-- Butler is in my neck of the woods, a quick 40-mile jaunt up the road. We go there for some Red Lobster now and then. It's a small city, very much the kind of place that you would not expect something like this to happen.

Meanwhile, the story I was going to lead with took place in the next county over from Butler. A teenaged trans girl was found horribly murdered; a suspect is in custody. I would not have caught the story except for a message posted by Bishop Sean Rowe (currently newly elected top bishop of Episcopal church, formerly the priest at my own local Episcopal church). It's a terrible, brutal story.

I'm not a fan of critically acclaimed shows about horrible people doing horrible things' The world doesn't really need any more of that; certainly not in real life. I am grateful that in the education biz, we mostly don't have to spend a lot of time arguing about who does or does not deserve to be murdered. Mostly.

It's Sunday and my regular promise is a reading list and not a homily, so here you go. 

Florida Department of Education includes Jane Austen novel in ‘American Pride’ recs

What happens when you just search for key words in your library listing? Maybe this.

A Failure for ‘Divisive Concepts’ Legislation Is a Victory for Education

Jacob Goodwin takes a look at an important victory in New Hampshire. For The Progressive.

A school district in Pa. says students made fake TikTok accounts to target teachers

The new technological frontier in student trolling of teachers, scaled up. If you couldn't get past the NYT paywall when this story broke, here's the NPR coverage.

The Real Targets of Project 2025’s War on Porn

Melissa Gira Grant takes a look at the anti-porn portions of Project 2025 and how it fits with the culture panic of the past couple of years.

The College Board’s FAFSA Takeover

Liam Knox for Inside Higher Ed looks at the latest fallout from the FAFSA fiasco. No way this could end badly.

PROOF POINTS: Asian American students lose more points in an AI essay grading study — but researchers don’t know why

Jill Barshay at Hechinger looks at a study I've written about before--the one where humans and AI both scored the same essays. It's mostly bunk, but this little data point that has shaken out is just so weird...

The blasphemous GOP push for religion in public schools

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, paster Kate Murphy has a reaction to recent attempts to shove Christianity into the classroom, including the point that needs to be made much more often:

If the governor of Florida can, by the power not vested in him, unilaterally declare that the church of Satan isn’t a religion, then he can also wake up one morning and decide that Islam isn’t a religion, or Hinduism, or Catholicism or any faith that allows women to preach or doesn’t handle snakes.

Project 2025: Ending Public Education for Students with Disabilities

Nancy Bailey looks at how Project 2025 would affect special ed services, and it's not good. 

PragerU Has Schmoozed Its Sketchy Content Into Six States, Including Louisiana

The indispensable Mercedes Schneider looks at how PragerU, the fake education video outfit, has managed to get a handful of states to help it out with market share.

Stunning New Report on Who Is Funding the Culture Wars to Undermine Support for Public Schooling

Jan Resseger guides us through a new report that provides new details about who exactly is funding the ongoing attempts to discredit public education.

At Forbes.com this week I took a not very sexy look at a new bill that proposes to clamp down on charter school profiteering.