PA: State Argues Great Education Only For A Few

There's a big court case currently unfolding in Pennsylvania court; several school districts and some parents are suing over the state's funding formula, arguably one of the worst in the nation. And one lawyer for the defense is saying the quiet parts out loud.

The central issue is the question of just how much responsibility the state has to provide a quality education for every child. Many state constitutions seem to suggest the answer is "a lot," but when dragged into court over the issue. states often make... other arguments. The Philadelphia Inquirer caught a fairly telling exchange

In questioning the superintendent of a rural school district, a lawyer for Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman repeatedly asked why the state’s academic standards mattered for students entering certain professions.

“What use would a carpenter have for biology?” asked John Krill of Matthew Splain, superintendent of the Otto-Eldred School District in McKean County and president of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, one of the plaintiffs. Splain had said his district’s scores on state standardized tests in biology and other subjects were not acceptable.:

“What use would someone on the McDonald’s career track have for Algebra 1?” Krill continued.

As lawyers for the plaintiffs objected, asking what the relevance was, Krill said that the trial was about whether Pennsylvania was meeting its constitutional obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient” system of education.

“The question in my mind is, thorough and efficient to what end? To serve the needs of the Commonwealth,” Krill said. “Lest we forget, the Commonwealth has many needs. There’s a need for retail workers, for people who know how to flip a pizza crust.”

So, that's pretty clear. The Senate's lawyer argues that education is meant to provide the state with meat widgets, and that each meat widget should know their place in the scheme of things and settle for however little education the state thinks they need to do that job.

There are layers to this dismissal of the state's constitutional obligation, because thanks to the worst rich-poor gap between districts in the country, the students who are getting shafted, who have the crumbling facilities, the underfunded staff, the inadequate resources--in short the education that Krill is arguing should be Good Enough for future pizza flippers--are the students in poor districts. You know--those poor kids who don't need a real education.

Suits like this have been attempted before. In Michigan, students sued the state for providing inadequate education, and the state used similar arguments--just because the law says the state has to provide education doesn't mean they have to provide a good education. One such case, hinging on "de minimis" (aka "the least you can get away with doing") ended inconclusively (while also providing another demonstration of just how little Betsy DeVos understands about how education works and how vouchers would not serve students in real need). As Rick Hess (AEI) has often noted, you can compel people to do something, but you can't compel them to do it well.

That holds true for states where this legal battle has been won. The court can find that the legislature owes public education more money, but then the legislature can just... not do anything about it. Washington went through this and the court fined the government $100K per day. This year, the court in North Carolina has been wrangling with a legislature that refused to follow a court-mandated spending plan.

So even if you manage to win this kind of case, that doesn't mean things get any better.

At the same time, though, it's really striking to see legislators and their hired guns saying the quiet part out loud--we don't really have a state-level commitment to an excellent education and we don't want to use tax dollars to educate Those Peoples' Children because all we need from them is the ability to serve us pizza and collect our garbage. If they want a great education, they should not have decided to be poor.

ICYMI: Feast Of Stephen Edition (12/26)

 Yes, that's today. Sing "Good King Wenceslas," the only good Feast of Stephen carol I know of.  The list is a little short this week because so many of us have been busy. 

Death Threats And Doxxing

How all this anti-mask, anti-crt stuff is playing out at actual school districts--in this case, in Texas.

The Decline of Standardized Testing

Quick Axios explainer in the wake of Harvard's dumping of the SAT and ACT scores. 

Theocrats are coming for the school board

If you know folks in the evangelical conservative Christian world, you've been hearing the refrain "We have to take back schools" for ages. Meet some of the groups currently interested in actually making that happen. From Salon.

I Love Teaching, But...

Steven Singer saying what many teachers are thinking (and saying, and acting on).

16 charts about schools in 2021

From the actual j0ournalism side of The 74, an article for all of us chart fans, some curious details from the year in graphic form.

How a Wisconsin tribe helped launch a MAGA charter school

Great piece from Ruth Coniff at the Wisconsin examiner, looking at a tribal college that is stealing a page from the Michigan playbook. Small college with financial issues? Just start authorizing charter schools any old place around the state founded for any old reason, and start pocketing your percentage. Particularly striking in this case, as the charter being authorized features a view of history that is not exactly respectful of the Native American story.

Data Queen Guidera to be Next VA Ed Secretary

The indispensable Mercedes Schneider has the scoop on Virginia's next education chief. Spoiler alert: it's not looking good.

Beware of "evidence-based" preschool curricula

Peter Gray at Psychology Today reminding us to look at the research behind the "evidence" because some of it sucks.

Anti-mask parents not constitutionally allowed to change school rules

The Hill brings us news of a case decided in federal court that went against Nevada parents who wanted to change school mask mandates.

Pirates, Profiteers and Privatizers

Thomas Ultican with a look at all three. Or rather, the one movement that combines them all.

Ayn Rand writes Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

McSweeney's with yet another deep cut literary lampoon. "They hate you, Rudolph. They hate you for your strength."

Okay, maybe the list isn't so short after all. Also, this week over at Forbes I looked at the PA lawsuit laying bare just how badly funded the state's schools are. 

Merry Christmas

 Every year I update my youtube playlist of things that are (mostly) off the beaten Yuletide musical path, not to be contrarian, but because 1) I like them and 2) it's as good a time as any to reflect on what a wide a varied species we are, and the many ways we express that.

And if you're more of a Spotify type, here is a playlist from my family. All the aunts and uncles and cousins and etc etc contributed some music, and I attempted to arrange it in a coherent-ish order

So there's some music to add to your day. If Christmas is your thing, have a great day. And if it isn't your thing, have a great day. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all.

FL: Another Assault On Education

Florida owns the Number One spot on the Public Education Hostility Index, but Governor Ron DeSantis is not willing to rest on his laurels. You may have already heard about this, or you may have passed over the news because it's Florida, but some bad news needs to be repeated, particularly when it comes from the state that launches so many of the bad trends in education.

DeSantis has borrowed from Texas, where a new abortion ban has come up with a clever way to circumvent rules about what a state can and cannot enforce. Now upheld by SCOTUS, the law makes every citizen a bounty hunter, with the right for "anyone to sue anyone" suspected of being in any way involved in an abortion (in a rare display to restraint, Texas exempts the woman getting the abortion from the civil liability). 

The idea of insulating the state is not new to education privatization efforts. Part of the reasoning behind education savings accounts is that it let's the state say, "What? We didn't give taxpayer dollars to a private religious institution. We just gave the money to a scholarship organization (and they gave it to the private religious school). Totally not a First Amendment violation."

So here comes DeSantis with his "Stop WOKE Act" (as in "Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees"-- some staffer was up late working on that one). This is legislation he'll "push for" because of course a governor doesn't propose legislation--he just orders it up from his party in the legislature. 

The proposal comes wrapped in lots of rhetoric about the evils of "critical race theory," which DeSantis defines broadly and bluntly:

Nobody wants this crap, OK? This is an elite-driven phenomenon being driven by bureaucratic elites, elites in universities and elites in corporate America and they’re trying to shove it down the throats of the American people. You’re not doing that in the state of Florida.

Along with vague rhetoric about learning to hate America, DeSantis brought in crt panic shill Christopher Rufo for his pep rally. And of course he trotted out some highly selective Martin Luther King Jr. quotage, because, hey, he's totally not racist.

But the highlight here is creating a "private right of action" for parents, an actual alleged civil rights violation. Anyone who thinks their kid is being taught critical race theory can sue (and this will apply to workplace training as well). Parents who win even get to collect attorney's fees, meaning they can float these damn lawsuits essentially for free-- watch for Florida's version of Edgar Snyder--attorneys advertising "there's no charge unless we get money for you."

Allowing parents to file lawsuits would have the effect of making the operating definition of crt even vaguer--it's whatever Pat and Sam's mom thinks it is. You can say that using a bad definition that loses the lawsuit would limit this vaguery, but that misses the point--the school would still have to defend itself in court, costing money and time.

This is a perfectly designed plan for chilling discussion in Florida schools. The instant this bad idea becomes a law, I promise that a non-zero number of Florida school administrators will, via meeting or memo, tell their staffs "We can't afford to be sued by every crazy racist family in the district, so as of now, no teachers will discuss anything having to do with race at all, ever." This is really beyond just a chill--this law would be a deep freeze. 

Class With Dr. Deepfake

The MIT Media Lab gas something to show us.

Yikes. The video shows old pictures being brought "to life." Here's Einstein "talking" with a voice barely escaping cartoon German scientist territory, Van Gogh with a mystery accent, and Mona Lisa not actually saying, "It's a-me, Mario!"

While MIT acknowledges the potential for harm of deepfakery and AI animatronics, I'm not sure they really get it. The "technology can be used for positive purposes--to revive Albert Einstein to teach a physics class, talk through a career change with your older self, or anonymize people while preserving facial communication."

I don't really know how that second one could possibly work, and I'll give them the one about anonymizing people--basically AI-supported catfishing so you can build face-to-face trust while still hiding yourself--could have some limited useful applications (could totally reinvent the confessional).

But that first one? No. Because Albert Einstein is not going to teach a physics class. Some programmer, using an AInimated image of a face is going to teach a class. The level of non-understanding teaching here is pretty severe, the notion that it is just delivering some information through a conduit that doesn't even rise to the level of straight lecture. In this class, you won't get Einstein's actual voice, mannerisms, movement--but you'll be encouraged by the software to imagine that you are getting all those things. Can Fake Einstein respond to questions, comments, inquiries, and can he do it with the same incisive intelligence that Real Einstein would have? 

Of course not--and that reveals some of the hubris here. These guys aren't imagining using AInimated faces to fill in for a mediocre lecturer of simple material in a low-level course--no, they want us to imagine that they can use software to reproduce one of the greatest minds in human history. Really, they're further ahead with Talking Mona Lisa, who's creating a voice and mannerisms out of whole cybercloth. We're talking about plain old Making Shit Up--but with a computer, so that makes it really cool and legit. Talking paintings that explain themselves might be cute, and at least not give the impression that we are seeing a real thing.

The "product" is marked with a traceable, human-readable watermark "to help prevent its malicious use." Won't do anything to help with well-meaning but not-good use. 

I used to joke that I would never retire, but that when I died I'd have my body stuffed and mounted with added animatronics and a library of my old lessons, and I'd just stay in the classroom forever. Now it appears that my vision was too limited--just using my picture, programmers could replace me with AInimation that might not sound, think, or act like me, but would still have my face. There are probably some non-terrible applications of this, but it is still some creepy stuff.

Common Core In The Discount Bin

Every community has some kind of deep discount store, the place that is the final stop for merchandise that people just won't buy until it's marked way, way, way down. In my neck of the woods, it's Ollie's (moto: "Good stuff cheap" which--well, you have admire a store that cuts to the chase). Today the CMO (Chief Marital Officer) and I were out shopping, stopped at Ollie's. and here's what we found tucked away on a deep cuts table:

Yup-- a whole table of Common Core goodies.

This particular product came from Carson-Dellarosa, a company that publishes all sorts of useful stuff for teachers. They have a whole bunch of brands, including Disney Learning and Mark Twain Learning. 

At some point, someone in the company in the company decided to green light this product-- a box that included the various Common Core standards, one to a card, those cards including open-ended "essential questions" as well as "I can" statements for math and reading standards. These could be paired with similar sets of "Learning Target" cards, also with essential questions (presumably much like essential oils). Ollie's does not seem to carry the wall-hanging pocket thingy that would let you display all these cards. These products were apparently aimed at teachers

The grade-specific Learning Targets and Essential Questions kits are designed to make lesson preparation easier and to help teachers save time. Each kit includes sturdy two-sided cards. The essential questions are designed to help keep lessons focused and to provide students with a clear understanding of the intended outcome. The learning targets, or I Can statements, serve as assessment tools for both teachers and students. The I Can statements also allow teachers and students to evaluate progress toward learning goals.

Yes, those happy bygone days when Common Core loving amateurs (and other people who should have known better) believed that if you just kept telling students what the standards were, they would achieve them faster. 

You may have noticed that the links above lead to Amazon. That's because Carson-Dellarosa no longer appears to offer these products at all (though they still have Common Core branded worksheets out the wazoo). Each box appears to have originally retailed for $19.99. Amazon offers them from anywhere in the low to mid teens.

But Ollies will let you pick these up for a mere $2.99 per box. Because Ollie's is the last stope before you end up on the scrap heap of history.

ICYMI: Homecoming Edition (12/19)

My daughter and her family are on a plane today, returning with considerable trepidation to the area for Christmas stuff. Scary to have them navigate the current pandemic wave, but boy do I want to see my children and grandchildren. Ho ho ho, indeed. Here's some reading from the week.

College, Career, or Whatever Readiness

Jose Luis Vilson talks about the resurgence of college and career readiness, and why it misses the mark.

Pitt launches teacher prep program

This should be interesting. Here in NW PA we've seen multiple college teacher prep programs fold or down-size because of decreased enrollment, but Pitt thinks maybe it can help address the state teacher pipeline problem by opening up a new program. Let's see how this goes.

Ben Simmons and education testing

Akil Bello with a perfect analogy about how putting testing emphasis on the wrong things leads to lousy consequences.

Not getting into it: How critical race theory laws are cutting short classroom conversations

Chalkbeat looks at the chilling effect of these gag laws which encourage teachers to just not address the topics at all.

"You're not going to teach about race. You're going to go ahead and keep your job."

EdWeek takes a look at just how chilling gag laws like Oklahoma's are. Spoiler alert: Very.

Oklahoma bill seeks to alter teaching of slavery

Also in Oklahoma, legislators want to force teachers to talk about slavery in a particular way (everybody was doing it and white people weren't any more slave-holdery than anyone else).

Teachers, parents file lawsuit against New Hampshire divisive concepts law.

US News as the story as folks fight back against the NH version of the race gag law.

Businesses: Idaho education politics are hurting state

Idaho is at #9 on the Public Education Hostility Index, and that hostility to public education is turning out to be bad for business. This is an AP story.

DeSantis unveils plan to let parents sue schools

Florida will not be outdone for hostility to public ed. Now borrowing from the Texas anti-abortion model, DeSantis now wants parents to sue schools for teaching crt. 

As parents protest critical race theory, students fight racist behavior at school

NBC notes that increased attacks over any attempt at addressing equity at school are spilling over into students' lives in school, and it's not a good thing. More attacks on boards embolden more harassment of students of color.

There's a lot for conservatives to embrace in critical race theory

Gary Abernathy in the Washington Post offers that crt has some good parts, and conservatives ought to be embracing them. 

Four Memphis schools to return to local control

A while back, Tennessee decided that they would create a state-run school district to take over "failing" schools, and then magically turn them into Very Successful Schools. It has failed, repeatedly, consistently, to do that. Here it is, failing again. Marta Aldritch in Chalkbeat.

How K-12 funding has slipped

Researchers take a look at funding "effort"-- how much states are spending as a share of their economic output. Fuess what--the effort is shrinking.

Lawmakers concerned about plan to increase frequency of standardized tests

In Illinois, some legislators note that increasing standardized test might be a dumb idea. They are not wrong. 

How the viral Wayfair sex trafficking lie hurts real kids

All that QAnon baloney about pedophile sex trafficking rings is having real negative consequences for real human beings. This Washington Post piece hangs on the story of a runaway who was being reported as a Wayfair "victim" weeks and months after she had returned home.

Six gigantic problems, six wrong solutions in public ed

Nancy Flanagan with some spot on analysis

Ohio department of education concludes investigation of Bishop Sycamore; it's a scam

You may remember the story of the fake high school in Ohio that was caught after they got hammered in an ESPN high school game of the week. The department of ed has now officially announced what everyone had pretty much concluded on their own--the school is a massive scam.

Johnson county teacher's message to parents: You can be angry, but we can also leave

Mostly just watch the three minute video of a veteran teacher's address to one of the many school boards operating in the midst of angry parent firestorms. It's a masterful, emotional speech.

The endless humiliation of teachers

Steven Singer reacts to that viral image of teachers on their knees in a hockey rink, scarmbling for cash in order to entertain the crowd. 

The Great American Teacher Exodus

Noa de la Cour at The Jacobin with a pretty solid overview of the many reasons that teaching positions have been harder and harder to fill.

Also, this week in Things I Wrote Elsewhere, at Forbes I wrote about the current SCOTUS case aimed at destroying the wall between church and state