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Sunday, October 12, 2025

ICYMI: Cross Country Edition (10/12)

The Board of Directors has developed a real taste for the long distance run, and we are lucky enough to be in a district with an elementary cross country program. This is their second season, and they remain into it. They like to run and run and run and it turns out that running is best with a bunch of other kids to run with. Yesterday was the big invitational that usually marks the end of the season. There might be one more small meet next week, but that's it. They will be sad to be done. "I'll bet they're tired after all that running," say other parents, with unspoken acknowledgement that a tired child at the end of the day can be a real blessing. But no. No, they are not. Just cranked up and ready for more. There aren't many things cooler than watching a young human do something they love.

The list this week is, for some reason, huge. Dig in.

Neighborhood schools are closing across Arizona. It’s because of vouchers.

Beth Lewis points out just some of the damage being done by Arizona's taxpayer-funded voucher program.

Privatizers in Mississippi are getting extra-pushy about taxpayer-funded vouchers, but plenty of regular folks on the ground are saying , "No, thank you." Devna Bose reports for Mississippi Today.

Debunking David Brooks on Education

It's a delight to have Mark Weber ("Jersey Jazzman") blogging again, and this piece that dismembers David Brooks' attempt to pile up some baloney about NCLB and Democrats and test scores--well, it's a delight, too. 

The Inconvenient Success of Mississippi

Jennifer Berkshire looks at why Mississippi's push for vouchers is a little complicated. For one thing, it calls to abandon public schools just as Mississippi is touting a miraculous leap forward in those very schools. 

Wyoming library director fired amid book dispute wins $700,000 settlement

Terri Lesley was fired--and harassed-- because the library system she directed was found to have Naughty Books that made some folks Very Sad. And now the county will have to pay a pretty penny for their mistreatment of her, Mead Gruver at the Associated Press.

Lawsuit: South Carolina book ban regulation is unconstitutional

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, folks are suing the book banners in federal court. Steve Nuzum has the details.

If You Use AI to Grade Student Writing, Stop or Quit Your Job

John Warner with some straight talk. Companies have been pushing computer assessment for student writing for years (I think I've written about it a gazillion times here) but the marketing of AI has goosed robo-grading again. Don't do it. 

Work Hard, Burn Out, Repeat: The Culture Schools Won’t Quit

TC Weber on the teaching culture of trying to Do It All while you Suffer For Your Art. A lot to chew on here.

Making America Hungry Again

Andy Spears wants to know what is healthy-making about policies that starve food banks and students.

‘Hostile takeover:’ Charter operator files to occupy three Sarasota schools

Florida keeps dealing with the fallout of a policy that says public schools must hand over taxpayer-owned property to private charter school companies. Make it make sense. Reported by ABC7.

School Vouchers Cost States Like Florida a Fortune. They Don’t Improve Education, Either.

At USA Today, parent Scott Olson explains why taxpayer-funded school vouchers are a big fat money-sucking mistake. 

As book bans decline, concerns mount over librarian and teacher self-censoring

This is from The Hill, so I'm not sure I buy the "bans are waning" line, but the continued chilly atmosphere and self-censorship in schools definitely deserves discussion. Lexi Lonas Cochran reporting.


Who knew that gifted and talented programs would become an issue in the NYC mayor's race? Jose Luis Vilson takes that moment to consider some of the issues wrapped up in gifted and talented programs, and the genius of students who never get to show their genius.

Perverse Incentives in Florida’s Middle School Math Acceleration

Sue Kingery Woltanski has found some accountabaloney so stinky that even Patty Levesque can tell something's not right. 

Five Ways the Department of Education Is Upending Public Schools

I've already written about the dynamite ProPublica article by Megan O'Matz and Jennifer Smith Richards. Now check out a follow-up piece they wrote about federal education shenanigans.


Anna E. Clark considers if K-12 and higher ed could benefit from teaming up to deal with fallout from the Trump regime.

‘It feels like I am being forced to harm a child’: research shows how teachers are suffering moral injury

Okay, so this is from June and Australia. But I've long been interested in the idea of how moral injury--the injuries suffered by being required to do something you know is wrong--affects teachers. So I can't pass up this article about actual, research on the question.

Success Academy rally and their history of violating laws

Leonie Haimson reports on some September shenanigans from Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy. Do it Eva's way, or else.

South Bend forum speakers see charter schools and vouchers as threats to public education

In Indiana, some public discussion about the problems with privatizers in education.

New Book Documents Trump Administration’s Actions to Destroy Diversity in Higher Education

Jan Resseger reviews The Fall of Affirmative Action; Race, The Supreme Court, and the Future of Higher Education. Some scary stuff here.

Silencing Mockingbirds

Jess Piper was a high school English teacher before she became a political activist, and this story from the classroom illustrates again the effects of the Big Standardized Test on how literature is taught in this country.

Observations of Young Children Writing Undermine Goldenberg and The “science of reading” Contention that “Phonics is the On-Ramp to Reading”

Denny Taylor's latest post is long and wonkish, but it has a lot to say about how children may really learn to read and write (and about the "science" thereof).

Petition Panic: The Manufactured Outrage Against Two ASD Teachers

From Alaska, Matthew Beck provides another example of using culture panic to harass educators.


Thomas Ultican provides some history about public education and battles centered on religious differences.

SecEd Maddow Makes College Presidents an Offer They Can’t Refuse

Rick Hess uses some satirical edge to point out that conservatives may well rue the day that using bribery and extortion to shape college teaching became a policy idea.

1 in 5 high schoolers has had a romantic AI relationship, or knows someone who has

Lee Gaines at NPR reports on some new research and yikes! And if that stat in the headline seems alarming, note also that there appears to be a correlation between school use of AI and students having a social "relationship" with AI.

Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things

An interesting take from Chris Stewart (yes, that Chris Stewart) and the study of Stupidology.


The Oatmeal offers a take on AI art, and it's a pretty good one. Not just about the choice to create it, but how it makes us feel as an audience. With pictures!

Robin Williams’ Daughter Tells Fans to ‘Stop Sending Me AI Videos of Dad’: It’s ‘Gross’ and ‘Not What He’d Want’

Yeah, using AI to bug folks with AI fake zombies is now a thing. Don't let it be your thing.

The quantum of intelligence

Ben Riley loves to dive into the deep end. This time, he considers quantum physics, cognition, and AI and then tries to connect some dots. Real thinking stuff (and I mean that in all the ways). 


I stumbled across this piece from way back in early 2023, roughly a thousand years ago as AI goes, but it's worth a read. Lauren Goodlad and Samuel Baker at Public Books contemplate the crap that would come from the automating of writing.

School offers hikes instead of detention. Teachers are seeing results.

Paywall free, this piece by Kyle Melnick profiles a school in Maine that has tried something different for problem students, and it's not terrible.


One of the first books I latched onto when I started wading into the world of education reform was 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools by David Berliner and Gene Glass. When I was asked to contribute to a Berliner-edited collection of essays about public ed, it felt like a huge step up for me. NEPC offers some remembrances. Diane Ravitch also noted his passing.

At Forbes.com this week, I wrote up the defeat of New Hampshire's anti-DEI law by a federal judge. May the courtroom losses continue.

For this week's music, let's go back to 1977 and that other re-visioning of The Wizard of Oz. 


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