ICYMI: Where's Your Suit Edition (3/2)

The White House reached a new critical mass of bullshit this week with the public mugging of The Ukraine in favor of new bestie Russia. A lot has been written about it, and I won't be including any of that here because that's not what you come here for. But I do like to put down markers now and then so that later, I can tab back to special moments. After all, some day, someone is going to have to explain to future generations why the country couldn't keep its act together long enough for them.

Nobody can deal with all of it. But those of us who have been advocating for public education can keep doing that, because lord knows it's on the chopping block, just like every other piece of government that involves taking care of other people. So here we go. And I don't care if you're wearing a suit or not.

Children with disabilities swept up in DEI fight, advocates say

Lexi Cochran reports from Sioux City's KCAU about some of the collateral damage with the various diversity bans.

Why Are We Getting Rid of the Department of Education Again?

Jennifer Berkshire gets to the heart of the drive against DEI-- the real target is equality.

Cruel to Your School

Jennifer had a productive week. Here's a big picture piece about Trump's attack on public education that was published in The Baffler (and referenced in the above post).

Five Things Your Child’s Teacher Accomplished Last Week

President Musk managed to inspire Nancy Flanagan this week. What are five things teachers accomplished in your school?

U.S. Department of Education sued over letter on race-conscious practices in schools

A story I expect we'll be following for a while, as the courts try to figure out what the vague handwaving at race stuff is supposed to mean--and if it's even legal.

Michigan Department of Education responds to request to end 'racial preferences' or have federal funding cut

Meanwhile, Michigan's Department of Education actually pushed back on the directive.

To Make Ed Tech More Secure, Software Companies Need to Step Up

There's much to be concerned about in this The74 story, but "the average district now uses 2,592 edtech products" is certainly something.

School Choice Vouchers Led To Lower Academic Achievement, Researchers Say

Want some more research showing that vouchers lower test scores? Here you go.

Alabama’s Ten Commandment’s bill: A power grab disguised as faith

Bill Britt, editor of Alabama P{olitical Reporter, calls out the state's attempt to inject religion into classrooms.

Is it "Book Banning" to Ban Books?

Supporters of South Carolina's book banning laws are trying to support them. Syeve Nuzum points out how they are failing.

Most banned books feature people of color and LGBTQ+ people, report finds

Gloria Oladipo reports for the Guardian on the latest PEN America study that shows only certain sorts of books need to be banned--and it's not necessarily the sexy ones.

Florida: Where Essays are Both Written AND Graded By AI

No surprise here. Sue Kingery Woltanski reports that Florida's writing assessment, already a waste of time, is now approaching the singularity involving no humans at all.

What a 30-Day Break From AI Taught Me About My Teaching

Both depressing and encouraging, as this teacher figures out that maybe having ChatGPT do his thinking for him is not great.

Nobody's Business

Audrey Watters is essential reading every week on technology in ed (twice a week if you pay for your subscription) and it's always worthwhile. Here she opens with the quote "If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?"

Linda McMahon’s ‘Elegant Gaslighting’ of Democratic Senators

For The Progressive, Jeff Bryant has a great analysis of Linda McMahon's hearing.

Trump's expanded ICE raids are causing big problems for some schools

USA Today covers the mess created by sending armed police after children. Who could have predicted?

Teach Truth

Thomas Ultican gives us a look at a new book by Jesse Hagopian about the struggle for anti-racist education.

School Vouchers and the Threat to Religious Freedom

Anne Lutz Fernandez looks at a subject near and dear to my heart. Yes, it's bad for schools to have religion injected into them-- but it is also bad for religion to be commandeered by the state.

This week at the Bucks County Beacon, I wrote about a state auditor report that shows just how badly we in PA need cyber charter reform, and at Forbes, a survey that shows 40% of two year olds have their own digital devices. Yikes!

Do join me on substack, where my newsletter of stuff will always be free. 

OK: Vouchers For The Wealthy

Oklahoma voucherphiles pitched a tax credit scholarship program for years, with a variety of pretty promises.

In 2020, Senate President Pro Tempore tugged on heartstrings:

“Where there are kids that lack opportunity, my heart pains for them,” said Treat, R-Oklahoma City. “We need to make sure they are not forgotten.”

Expanding the program will get poor kids into religious schools, or help poor kids escape bullying. 

Governor Kevin Stitt pushed in 2023, proclaiming "Now we're gonna put the parents back in charge." Also, competition will raise all boats. And poor kids will be rescued. 

Yessiree-- the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program would help poor families get their kids into super duper private schools. "This is an every kid wins policy and funding plan," said House Speaker Charles McCall back in 2023, when the bill passed. 

Just barely. A similar bill tanked in 2022, opposed by rural Republicans who didn't want to see their schools drained of funding, and they didn't want to see taxpayer money going to unaccountable private schools. So the tax credit version was born. The idea was that instead of draining the general fund, taxpayers could contribute to vouchers instead of paying their taxes (which would, you know, cut revenue for the general fund.)

Lawmakers were a bit upset by what turned out to be the mechanics of the tax credit. They expected that it would come in the form of a line on tax returns (like any other tax credit). But no. In what may be the laziest attempt to maintain the fiction that these vouchers aren't a way to send public tax dollars to private religious schools, the Oklahoma system sends the voucher money directly to the school--but in a check that is made out to the parents. The parents come in to the school to endorse the check.

This baloney allows the Oklahoma Tax Commission to say, with a straight face, “No checks were issued by the Oklahoma Tax Commission to private schools."

Said some legislators, "We would not have voted for this if we thought this was how it was going to work." It took station KFOR to find out this was what was happening. 

Now the data shows there is yet another unfulfilled promise behind the vouchers. The OTC released details of who was receiving the voucher benefits.

30% of vouchers went to families making less than $75,000.

Slightly less went to families making between $75,000 and $150,000.

17% went to families making between $150,000 and $225,000.

And almost a quarter of the funds ($22.6 million) went to families making over $225,000 a year.

Oklahoma's median income is $60,000.

Governor Stitt told a press conference, "It's working like we wanted it."

State Rep. Melissa Provenzano said that the vouchers are going "overwhelmingly" to students already enrolled in private school. 

None of this should be remotely surprising, as it is exactly how vouchers have played out in other states. No mention yet about the students who were rejected by private schools. 

One thing sure to be a factor-- the voucher program immediately led to private schools hiking tuition prices. Ruby Topalian at The Oklahoman reported on the issue, offering as a specific example

The Parental Choice Tax Credit Program started in December, promising parents a tax credit of up to $3,750 per student for spring tuition. Global Harvest Christian School responded by raising its spring tuition to $3,500.

 Janelle Stecklein of Oklahoma Voice had some harsh words for the supporters of the program.

There’s a terrible stench that smells a lot like bull excrement emanating from the halls of our state Capitol right now, and Republicans are hoping that Oklahomans plug their nose and pretend their highly touted voucher-like program doesn’t stink to high heaven.

Many are also likely hoping that their constituents will suffer from a convenient bout of amnesia when it comes to recalling the promises made — and not kept — in 2023 about their Parental Choice Tax Credit Act.

As it turns out, Oklahomans were sold a sham when legislators sought to convince us why our hard-earned tax dollars should be used to pay for children’s private school educations even while their local public schools continue to struggle financially and academically.

And more to the point 

Legislators would have you forget that they want to use public money to continue to subsidize the costs of a small subset of rich children whose parents have fled the public school system that 700,000 children rely on. The exodus further exacerbates the gap between the haves and have nots.

To further rub salt in the wound, many private schools used the new “tax credit” to raise tuition. An Oklahoma Watch analysis found that about 12% of 171 participating private schools capped tuition rates near $7,500, the max a family can receive. Some schools raised tuition rates 100%.

At this point, there's no state legislator anywhere that has any excuse. All of these issues have well documented in each of the universal voucher states. Vouchers are an expensive entitlement for the wealthy that try to hide behind a fig leaf of helping a few select actual non-wealthy folks. 

But then, Stitt doesn't seem inclined to learn much from others' experience. He's busy these days touting a "path to zero" plan for cutting all state income taxes, having apparently missed the lesson of Sam Brownback's disaster trashing of Kansas in what turned out to be the ultimate debunking of supply-side economics. Good luck, Oklahoma.