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Sunday, December 21, 2025

ICYMI: Hope You're Ready Edition (12/21)

It feels like there are a couple of days yet, but there really aren't-- especially if we hold onto our reserve not to enrich Bezos this year. So let's use this last time to clean the house, pack in the groceries, and finish the laundry. That leaves us free to clear the decks and lower the expectations so we can just enjoy each other. We're only here for a little while; let's make the most of it.

Still got a reading list to look at. Here come this week's nifty reads.

Is Anyone Really Surprised?

It is hard to grasp how profoundly screwed up Florida's education funding is at this point. Sue Kingery Woltanski breaks down how just one district's students are suffering from the voucher drainage. These numbers are astonishing.

Rural schools hit by Trump’s grant cuts have few options for making up for the lost money

Annie ma reporting for the AP takes a look at how Dear Leader's cuts are making life difficult for families served by rural schools.

How the charter school industry’s newest scheme could be ‘the death of public schools’

Florida's voucher program isn't the only disaster brewing; the new rules allowing charter school squatters to take over public school property are crazy pants. Jeff Bryant reports.

Take note, Gov. Polis: Coloradans have repeatedly said no to school vouchers

Colorado's governor is gazing longingly at those federal school vouchers. Kevin Welner and Kathy Gebhardt explain why he should really just take a pass on this one.

As 2026 Dawns, Future of Civil Rights Protection in K-12 Public Schools and Higher Ed. Looks Bleak Under Trump Administration

Jan Resseger on the administration's continued whacking away at K12 civil rights.

Alabama state education committee identifies ‘burdensome paperwork tasks’ for teachers

Andrea Tinker in the Alabama Reflector with this interesting little nugget. The state went to identify time-wasting paperwork, and the results aren't surprising, but it's still something that the state was even trying to find out.

As state’s school voucher program expands, legislative oversight committee has not met in a year

New Hampshire is not exactly killing it in the oversight department.

Charter school advocates fear their future at the Labor Department

Charter school fans have started to realize that they are in fact one of the entrenched interests being threatened by the Trump administration. Matt Barnum for Chalkbeat.

Erie School District sues Erie Rise to spur ex-charter school's dissolution, find assets

In PA, when a charter is shut down, its assets are supposed to go back to the district its students came from. In Erie, one closed charter is dragging its feet (and maybe spending its leftovers).

K-12 Indoctrination: Every Accusation is a Confession

Anne Lutz Fernandez looks at the many ways that MAGA would like to indoctrinate children into their preferred ideology.

Swimming Below The Surface

Test scores. Vouchers. Security officers. Teachers coached via earpiece. TC Weber as always has a handle on what's going on in and around Memphis.

Empty empathy machines

Thin empathy, thick empathy, the kind of empathy we want teachers to have, and what chatbots lack. Benjamin Riley.

What If Students Want Something More Than AI?

John warner at Inside Higher Ed. "We should stop declaring we know the future and give students the space to figure things out for themselves."

How Black Barbershops Are Helping Boys Fall in Love With Reading

This story ran way back in February, but I didn't see it until it turned up on somebody's "swell stories from this year lists" and it's definitely worth a share.

O Christmas Tree

Nancy Flanagan is not yet convinced that she should buy an artificial tree so that more tree farms can become data centers.

Texas universities deploy AI tools to review and rewrite how some courses discuss race and gender

Well, you knew this was coming. How better to root out that awful DEI than with a soulless, brainless bot?

Silicon Valley’s Fake Christianity Enables Tech Genocide

Excellent interview with Paris Marx delving into our tech overlords and their God complex. Who's the AntiChrist, really?

Your seasonal palate cleanser this week is just the thing to calm the soul.


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