Does School Choice Harm Or Help US Education? | Breaking Points w/James Li

Here's a quick explainer about school choice, featuring Josh Cowen as a guest. Brief but clear. Warning-- you probably want to stay out of the comments section. 

Leaked Audio From Hillsdale-Linked Dewokify Privatizer

Vermilion Education is a new name in the consulting biz. The Sarasota, FL, board considered (and ultimately rejected) a contract with the education consulting firm. Then it turned up in Pennridge 

The address Vermilion lists on the Sarasota contract proposals is a single family home (1640 square feet) in a residential neighborhood of Hillsdale. And their personnel--well, so far, it looks like one guy.

These guys all seem to have a distinctive look

That guy is Jordan Adams, fresh from Hillsdale. There's a lot of story with Hillsdale (here's a short-ish version or get into it more heavily with a whole series of articles), but the current version is a private right-wing christianist college whose head, Larry Arnn ("Teaching is our trade; also, I confess, it's our weapon"), is the same MAGA-fied guy who headed up Trump's 1776 Education thingy (and said teachers are the dumbest). They've provided a platform for a lot of school privatization and taxpayer subsidies for private christian school rhetoric from heavy hitters like Betsy DeVos and Christopher Rufo, all arguing that government shouldn't be running schools--churches should.

Hillsdale has long had a charter school initiative called the Barney Charter Schools, and more recently they've been behind the launch of many "classical" academies around the country.

Jordan Adams is a Hillsdale grad ('13), which means he was a Hillsdale student when they were launching the Barney schools, and eventually became their Associate Director of Instructional Resources, supposedly teaching at charters for a year or two (though I can't find confirmation of that).  I'll let you draw your own conclusion about his fitness for the role:

“I mostly focus on the history and Latin curricula, figuring out how things are taught in a fourth-grade or eleventh-grade classroom,” said Adams. He looks forward to experimenting with more accessible resources for teachers: “When you’re a first-year teacher, you’re just trying to stay one day ahead of what you’re supposed to be teaching. You don’t have time to sit down and read a long text about teaching. But maybe if there’s a short video that is clearly titled and easy to access, you might conceivably watch it while you’re making dinner.”

Note: I had to go to the Wayback Machine internet archive for that article, which has since been scrubbed from the Hillsdale site.

If only there were a place to go where you could study teaching so that you knew what you were doing on more than a day by day basis. Adams's original undergrad plan was to work at a think tank, then he went to grad school for a Masters of Humanities. One more educational amateur rediscovering the wheel. But apparently reinvented it well enough to move up to interim director of curriculum for the Hillsdale College K-12 Education Office, a job he was holding back in October of 2022.

Adams was part of the crew that screened the Florida math textbooks that DeSantis accused of being too indoctrinatey.

Adams is no longer listed in any current capacity as employed by Hillsdale, though there is no peep about his departure. Not sure what we can make of that.

As was the case in Sarasota, Pennridge added the Vermilion contract to the agenda 24 hours before the meeting,

His work there so far is a fiasco (here's some coverage by Jenny Stephens for the Bucks County Beacon) and it's increasingly clear that not only is Adams unqualified for the job, but the job he's really intending to do is not the one being sold to the public. Adams is there to dewokify the district and turn it into a christianist nationalist operation. And while Adams will refer to the districts that have hired him, just two weeks ago he was telling Pennridge that they were the first to hire him.

And if there were any doubt--well, Adams was at the Moms For Liberty soiree a few weeks back, offering a session entitled “The First 100 Days: Getting Flipped School Boards to Take Action.” This is going to be long, but you'll never get a better look at the kind of strategy that the right wing culture war crowd imagines.

Somebody made an audio recording and then handed it off to the Bucks County Beacon, where you can hear the audio and read a transcript. Which you absolutely should. And to entice you, let me share some of the choice parts of this speech full of culture warrior talking points as he walks us through month by month.

January

Urgency of Right Now? Check: "If we don’t make most of this chance, we’re not going to be at another one. It is very much within education….It’s a do-or-die moment." Sure. It's not like this exact same culture war baloney has been going for a hundred years already. Which reminds me--ahistorical nonsense? Check.

We're the victimized underdog? Check. 

...you have board members getting onto the board, but then they’re running into a machine, a machine that, like I said, has been doing this for decades, controls all the levers of power, has a ton of money behind it, has, increasingly, goons that will come out and yell and scream until they get their way. They have all the consultants in the world to choose from to bring this stuff in.

That's why he's in the biz now--the "other side" could bring in consultants to push SEL and curriculum changes because "it's all their friends" and "they're all on the same team." So he formed a K-12 consulting company "for reform-minded school board majorities."

What I realized and what I’ve seen boards do is if they get in there, the dog has caught the car, and they don’t know what the first thing is to do.

Well, that and they discover that running a school district involves a lot of detail work and nuts and bolts and keeping the lights on and you don't always have supreme power to just insist that your own ideology become the rule of the district.

Owning the libs? Check. Once he's hired (he claims multiple districts, though Pennridge is the only contract I know of) "the right people are freaking out because the fox is in the henhouse." Which is an odd thing to say if you're there to help a school district. 

Insisting that your own ignorance is just as valid as someone else's knowledge? Check.

One thing I’ll caution against, though, is don’t call me an expert, please. I’m so sick of the word expert, I could scream. ...I mean if 2020 has proved anything else it is that expertise is dead in the country. There’s no such thing. That is a label to shut down any type of dialogue and pretend that you can’t use your own brain to figure things out.

This presentation will focus on actions that will actually result in concrete, specific, meaningful changes in what students encounter and experience each day in school, especially from an educating perspective. I’m not getting into the finances, legal, budget, Robert’s Rules of Order, none of that stuff. I really want to talk about how schools are about teaching children. How can we make changes that affect what students learn and how they learn it.

Finances, legal, budget, keeping the lights on, keeping the district legal and functioning? Who cares? Just let's get them soaked in our own belief system.

although I’m going to throw a lot at you, unfortunately, since I’m a teacher, I’m making you take notes.

Claiming the mantle of "teacher" on scant experience (while still denmigrating teacher expertise)? Check.

And then he gets into strategy.

For these boards, these majorities, they need to be hitting on multiple fronts, multiple issues, they need to keep moving.

The idea is that the other side, the powers that be, they cannot keep up with all of it. Oftentimes, they’ll be one small thing, one thing at a time and they can rally people around that. They can’t counter everything. Everything should be up for debate. We should be moving on multiple policy areas and it should be happening quickly and efficiently.

You will recognize the old MAGA strategy of flood the zone--a strategy that is only adoptable if you believe that you are the only person whose ideas matter. 

Here are some of his specific ideas. Get a document preservation policy, because when you go snooping around, "things will get deleted." The presumption here is that the district is filled with bad actors who will try to hide their naught deeds from the noble new board members.

Then start demanding all sorts of information.

This includes things such as the percentage of students who are not proficient in a given grade or subject based on available tests, and if they’re going to throw the 2022, 2023 scores at you, or at your board, ask for the 2019 as well because I guarantee you, things were better but not that much better before the lockdowns.

No word on how to respond when the district employees point out that all this info is publicly available and can be looked up in about ten minutes.

They should demand a standard operating procedure for selecting curriculum, including what the curriculum review process is, how it’s planned out and what the status is of each in each of those areas. They should demand the policy and procedure overseeing instructional materials that teachers use to supplement the official district recommendations. It’s not just enough to pay attention to the official curriculum, teachers generally have great autonomy in bringing additional things into their classrooms.

And it should include information, we want information. Did the board approve this? Was it the superintendent who approved it? Whose name is on the signature line? All contracts and invoices for any services provided to the district. It should demand every policy and procedure related to controversial issues. Anything related to student tracking by identity, any past surveys given to students.

You should ask for material purchase orders for programs, texts, or subscriptions from the last five years. Yes, purchase orders for anything that’s bought that’s related to programs, texts, subscription services, you should get. This is publicly available, but they can provide it for you. Every admin and admin staff salary and what their responsibilities are. You should get from the superintendent the names of the positions with whom the buck stops for academic or discipline failures in the district. Whether this is by a school, whether this is by district-wide, also known as an enhanced org chart, where you get into the specifics of how this thing is organized and who’s responsible for what.

So, drown your administrators and staff in paperwork all based on the assumption that they are probably Up To Something and you need to catch them at it. Because it's important that they understand that there is no trust between the board and the staff. But Adams has his eyes on a different message:

What this shows is, one, you mean business. They mean business. There’s a new sheriff in town. There’s new representation, things are going to start being responsive to the community.

Again, the assumption here is that the school staff and leaders will find the idea of being responsive to the community is some sort of shocking new idea. Trust.

Now Adams claims that this will just be playing fair, giving them a chance to "pony up." He also says that they won't and they'll make excuses like they don't have that or they can't get it that quickly. But he has a "very simple" response to those excuses:

Based on your positions and your salaries, this is how any small business in our community would have to be run. Have all the stuff at the ready, accounted for, already organized, and know where it’s at, so that all you have to do, really, all you should have to do is either hit print if you’re old school, or file share to share this with the board. That’s it. If you don’t have that in place, we have some problems and we’re going to start putting that stuff in place right away.

Run schools like a business? Check. And we could have done this sooner, but also, demonstrate that you don't really know a damned thing about how schools actually work? Check.

Then he wants the new board members to demand a copy of the curriculum with day to day detail. How are teachers trained? Who is being let into the schools? Review the strategic plan. 

One of the things I’m very hopeful about all this is that we start with the crazy ideology that is being pushed in schools…but we start looking at all the other issues going on as well.

He recommends--of course--the podcast series on the "Science of Reading," especially Episode 6 which he says "you can apply to any subject at any grade level," somehow. 

Anyway, back to his next step in flooding the zone. Review all administrative positions, mostly as a way of putting them on notice that they "need to cooperate with all this."

Pretending you've discovered the wheel? Check. Item number six is start looking to fill your upcoming staff vacancies early. Reach out to colleges that might have teachers graduating. Wow, what a brainstorm! Adams thinks, however, that there are "a lot of teachers out there that are keeping their heads down," that are just waiting for some district to market itself as devoted to right wing batshittery "great teaching."

February

In February, start introducing policies-- "policies on CRT, eliminating DEI offices, renewing contracts and initiatives, eliminating student surveys." He takes a moment to say that surveys and other new things from the last ten years weren't around when he was in school, dagnabbit, "and we were doing fine." 

Put a moratorium on new technology. If you have doubts, he suggests--and I swear I am not making this up--that you google it. Also, put a cell phone policy in place. 

Also, make student performance part of teacher review, he says, apparently unaware that this has been so for roughly twenty years. Completely failed to do his homework? Check.

Pause all outside contractors. Introduce a policy that says the school board should approve all new courses to be offered. Because "the board should have oversight over which things are taught." Teachers should document everything they teach, and all those lesson plans should be stored somewhere so that supervisors can know what teachers are doing. Good thinking. I'll bet that never occurred to anyone in the district. Also, document every supplemental thing, so that when you want to complain to the principal, you can add "Can you show me the documentation for this?"

And, of course, check everything in the library.

One more policy. Make sure all materials that will be presented to district staff must be available to the board a week ahead of time so that they can micromanage that, too. And make sure a specific name is attached to every single idea in the district so that you know who's accountable. "Just like in a business," says this thirty-something guy who has never worked in a school or run a business.

You start looking under the hood at this, and you realize it’s a circus. Nobody is doing anything, and they’re raking in the cash from the state, from taxpayers. They’re funneling off to their friends. It is all over the place. It is an absolute disaster. What we’ve encountered so far is the tip of an iceberg. It truly is.

You should hire a consultant to audit everything.

March

Enact the policies. Does that seem fast? Are people yelling at you? See it through. Fight back by being "over the target." Yeah, his March is a lot of gibberish.

April

Continue that review of staff positions. Now we’re pushing into April, and you’ve enacted the policies here. By the way, this is like your six-hour meeting, right? Or several six-hour meetings to get this one through because there’s a ton of public comment beforehand, particularly yelling at you. Then you vote on it, and there’s a lot of public comment afterwards to lambast you for voting on it. Just pack a snack or something.

Because you represent the community and the voters and taxpayers, but not the ones that disagree with you. Seriously--in the breath he calls administrators "stewards of what the community wants" which is why they should get with the program. But ignore the people who disagree with you. Those admins will "give you lip service all day long." 

Beyond

As reports come up, publish them. Maybe a final audit in the summer so "you can write, 'see for yourselves'." because the assumption is that you will catch the district Being Naughty.

Build a paper trail, because then it will prove that you asked Administrator X for Report B on such and such a date. "We asked, we kindly asked as representatives of our constituents who put us into office by this majority, by the way, by this margin of victory last fall." Also, put your margin on your school board meeting name plate. No advice for those whose margin was miniscule.

Don't let anyone off the hook. Keep pushing staff, and if they decide they don't want to work for you, "That's fine." 

Your attorney is not usually an ally, because they want top avoid things like lawsuits, especially big dollar ones. 

Be proactive on your board PR and social media. He's directly contradicting most school board associations there, but that's no surprise. Also, if you worked hard to get one of these people elected. "They are there to be the face of you, to hold the line, to stand in the breach, to face all that." But get to meetings and provide support. 

One of the things about traditional public schools is that what makes them a traditional public is the fact that not because they get taxpayer money, it’s because they represent the people. It’s the way that people and parents control what is happening in schools. They should constantly be referring back to the fact that they are representing the majority of the people and the parents in their community. It’s truly self-government.

Hey there! This guy from the Hillsdale charter school biz does, in fact, understand why charter schools are not public schools!

Messaging

He has some PR advice, like focus on the phrase "ideology-free," and I can't tell if he knows he's full of shit here or not, because the right wing christianism-infused education that he advocates for is certainly not ideology free, but I can also believe that, in essence, these folks believe that everything that contradicts the christianist right is an ideology but what they believe is just The Common Sense Truth.

But he says just point to quality. 

Like if somebody has like 60% of kids can’t read on grade level or whatever. What other institution of business besides federal government can get away with a 60% failure rate? Anything they do, you’d be fired overnight.

And a real piece of strategic messaging:

It’s very easy to talk about the trajectory that the country is going in and education in general. Bring it back and think about the individual child because that child has one life to live. They have a one-shot education. They’re highly impressionable. One thing that they experience the wrong way when they’re in second grade could, well, can take them in a whole different path for the rest of their lives.

And his message for the people in education:

You had your chance. You’ve been running the education system in the country for decades now. You’ve made all the shots. It’s not only is it just staying, it’s getting worse.

And advice on how to present yourself:

Managing your image through all this. In working with some of the boards, you need to come across as being competent. You can speak slowly and deliberately about things. You just don’t want to give an image that, yes, you’re not confident. That’s the main thing. Maybe it’s not even necessarily positive. Just don’t give an image that you’re not confident in doing something. Portray confidence, and that matters. Also, be relentless about it and be calculated. Like I said, the stakes are way too high to not be very thoughtful and thinking through everything very carefully. Be empathetic.

The empathetic thing--well, he doesn't mean it exactly:

It’s easy to talk about ideas and this principle and that principle, but make it empathetic and use these things as you always fall back to whenever you’re in the face of being hit over the head with something. Use terms like: “I worry that.” “My concern is…” “The most vulnerable students.” “We want to protect teachers from unfair accusations.” “We want to get the most out of every minute of class time.” “It’s unfair that..”

About teachers

"Be careful of teachers," he says, pointing out that watching Tik Tok might give you the impression that they're all nuts. "I think about 60% of teachers are good teachers." They're not "pushing things" or if they are, it's because "that's what they were given to do." But

There are 20%, I think, increasingly younger who are very unhinged, frankly. Then there are 20%, I think, who are great teachers, who are keeping their heads down, who know– Look, if there’s a strong union, you don’t stick your neck out at all within those communities.

Those unhinged young teachers, says the guy who graduated from college in 2013. 

The "be careful" seems to mean, eventually, that local people like their local teachers, so maybe focus on what great teachers dol. The implication is attack local teachers at your peril.

Admins, however? They don't hold people accountable. They "make a lot of money." Maybe in your district, buddy. But his thesis is that admins are where "most of the money goers in education." Technology and admin. 

Specific talking points

Here he gets into things that the district will say to you and how you come back at them. 

"That's not how it's done." We're the people's representatives and they wanted us to do it this way. Which suggests really unusual school board elections.

"It has to align with state standards." You can make anything align to state standards, so that's not an excuse not consider a work. He's not wrong about this.

"We need remediation." Naw, just fix whatever made remediation necessary. Because it must be the program, not anything else.

"We do phonics." He warns against phoney baloney schools that mix phonics in with a bunch of other stuff, like whole language. He says go look at the actual program, because "It should be exclusively phonics, right? The research is clear on this at this point." No, it's not.

"We have x many years of experience" or "we are experts" or "we have credentials." He doesn't care. Just explain the situation because the folks on the board "can make, form their own judgments about this." Only teaching puts up with this kind of crap. Imagine taking this line with your surgeon.

"A curriculum doesn't include x" Then go get something that has x.

"We have seen improvement." Adams sees this as a way to make excuses. That's not good enough for him.

"We collaborate." That's not necessarily a good thing. Also, he wants to know who's responsible. 

"We're proud of teachers and how they work." Sure, but he's "afraid that they've been misguided a little bit from the district.

"Curriculum needs to be relevant to students and they need to relate to it." Just in case you forgot that Adams doesn't know much about actual teaching, he will point out that no data supports this. Then he will say this:

Also, how do you understand kids identifying with or being able to relate to talking animals and other portrayals of fictional creatures and so forth? They do not look like them at all. They are not six-year-old boys. Why is this true of anything else? No, the main thing is that they’re human beings, right? That’s the main thing that is relevant to them, and if it’s true and captivating, then they will be able to relate to that. It’s only we adults are pointing out that they’re different somehow. Okay, by the way, that’s the other thing. They’re not picking up on that themselves.

"Students can't do that." Just point out places where they can, which certainly exist, and then ask why our kids can't. 

"Teachers don't have enough time to make new plans on such short notice." Based on his vast personal experience, Adams is sure that teachers don't do that work over the summer, and he "can almost guarantee you that [if] they're under a union contract," they're certainly not. 

"Every unit needs to have a theme." Theme, shmeme. Just "figure out what content needs to be learned" like "what are really good books for students to read." Should be classics that have met the test of time. 

Saying we’re coming up with this theme about coming of age things, we’re going to find all these edgy conventional books that fit that that have a bunch of other garbage in them and are not well written. That’s not going to produce a quality education.

"We need to start with the standards" He says that good curriculum will keep up with the standards naturally. Lordy. What does he mean by "good curriculum"? I guess he means curriculum that meets the standards. But definitely do not start with the standards.

"We need to have some sort of ethnic book." I am pretty sure no school administrator says this, but he says, fine, go get some minority author, but don't be racist.

"Need to differentiate instruction" I'm not sure exactly what he's at here, but I think he's saying that if you differentiate instructions, then you don't have to differentiate instruction. Or maybe he's saying that he doesn't know what differentiated instruction is.

"We need to teach mastery to students" Again, not a string of words that anyone in education actually uses. But he wants you to know that a third grader is not going to be a master of anything. "It's insane to think that somehow we have to wrap everything up in any given grade level."

"We can't share because of copyright" He has no idea what he's talking about here.

Question and Answer

Are you still here? I'm about out of patience, and much of the transcript is unable to pick up the questions, so let me just hit some select highlights.

There’s no reason why we can’t have 80-90% of students at any given grade level excelling in every subject. There’s no reason for that.

Q: Do the unions teach them how to subvert? A: It’s like in the water, at schools and in the bureaucracy. This is just how it is when you go into other education programs at your district school, just how all that stuff is written.

Money’s not actually an issue in education. It’s just not. It’s all going to admin positions and salaries, and all these outside programs.

Phew. The bottom line at last.

What have we learned here? Well, there are several threads that run through the presentation.

There's a deep level of school district distrust that runs through this, the idea that as a board member you are there to catch people being naughty. But that's coupled with a directive to look neutral and just demand a lot of information all the time. It's the administrative version of Fox's "We're just asking questions here." 

That rests on the solid thread of belief that educator expertise and experience is to be shunned and ignored. Never take the word of "experts," but just depend on your own hatched ideas about what is true.

Which is doubly problematic because it rests on a stunning lack of understanding about schools and teaching, accompanied by huge confidence. This is a guy who has no direct experience in public ed and barely any in private ed, but he's confident that he can tell you how to run your school district.

Also, you as a board member represent the public, but only the parts of the public that agree with you.

This is the ongoing plague of the education world--amateurs with a level of confidence unjustified by their limited understanding of the work angling for power to inflict their particular reality-impaired vision on schools and students. 

No Labels Education Platform: Same Old Same Old

No Labels is supposed to be some sort of centrist break from the raging politics of left and right as a champion of "common sense," and I'm not going to wander down that political rabbit hole (other than to note that saying you're all about common sense while seriously considering Joe Manchin as a Presidential candidate plays about like a vegan eating a hamburger). 

But they've got a platform, and it uses four points to address "America's Youth" and so education, and that's our beat here at the Institute, so let's take a look, shall we?

Idea 11: As a matter of decency, dignity, and morality, no child in America should go to bed or go to school hungry.

The basic idea is solid enough-- it's a bad thing for children to go hungry. Some of the rationale is ...odd? ...off the point? 

Undernourished children "Make smaller gains in math and reading, repeat grades more, and are less likely to graduate from high school, which means they’re more likely to end up in prison." That's an interesting chain of causes and effects. Also, they disrupt classrooms more, interfering with other children's education. 

Despite the heading, there's not a moral argument in sight. And we still have to insert "even though Washington must reduce spending" we wave at some sort of significant expansion of funding or tax credits so children are fed. So nothing systemic about child hunger or poverty, I guess.

Idea 12: Every child in America should have the right to a high-quality education. No child should be forced to go to a failing school.

There is not a molecule of air between these "centrists" and the usual crowd of school privatizers. 

Rich kids get great schools and poor kids get terrible ones, so the solution is NOT to fix  or supplement funding, but to push down the pedal on charters and vouchers. Because, hey-- America spends "more on education per school-aged child than any country in the world, with worse results." Let's also throw in some bogus testing results, and the usual claims about charter school waiting lists.

Because "we like competition too," their common sense solution is to add 10,000 charter schools in the next ten years, to offer a "lifeline" to some students "trapped in failing traditional public schools." I'm not going to take the time to argue any of this (just go looking through the posts on this blog). Let's just note that there's nothing here that Betsy DeVos or Jeb Bush would object to, other than they'd rather see more vouchers. This is standard rightwing fare.

Idea 13: America should make a national commitment that our students will be number one in reading and math globally within a decade.

You know-number one in the international rankings based on Big Standardized Test results, a position and ranking that the United States has never held ever. And yet somehow, leading nations like Estonia have failed to kick our butt. These guys invoke China's test results, when even a rudimentary check would let you know that China doesn't test all of its students. 

If America wants to maintain our lead in the technologies of tomorrow, we’d better spend less time on waging culture wars in our schools and more time focusing on promoting, rewarding, and reaching for excellence.

Remember that, so far, we have maintained that lead without improving our test score ranking.

But if excellence in education is the goal, maybe rethink voucher-based subsidies for schools that mostly are religious and teach creationism and reading only "proper" stuff and just generally waging those same culture wars. Or starting up 10,000 charter schools that don't necessarily do anything better than a public (and who may soon also have the chance to operate in a narrow, myopic, discriminatory religious framework).

Idea 14: Financial literacy is essential for all Americans striving to get ahead

Oh, lordy. Remember all those poor kids in Idea 11? Well, No Labels has an explanation.

Almost six in 10 Americans say they are living paycheck to paycheck. Inflation is arguably the biggest driver of this insecurity, but far too many Americans also lack the knowledge and tools to become financially independent and get ahead.

Inflation and bad accounting. You know what helps people become financially independent? Money.

So let's have financial literacy classes so people can get better credit scores.

Also, in Idea 22, they want civics education so people will be proud of America. Idea 24-- "No American should face discrimination at school or at work because of their political view," and I'm going to send them right back to their support for vouchers and charters that are working hard to be free to do exactly that.

Look, I feel the frustration over education's status as a political orphan, an important sector that neither party stands up for. But if you're looking for someone who understands some of the nuances of education and wants to stand up for the institution of public education, No Labels are not the party, either.

This sounds mostly like right-tilted Chamber of Commerce-style reformsterism  from a decade ago. Even in a world in which both parties have lurched to the right, this is not a centrist approach to education. It's the same privatizing reformster baloney we've been hearing since the Reagan administration drew a target on public education's back. If you're looking for the vegan candidate, this burger is not for you.

PA: Commonwealth Action And Vouchers

School privatizers want vouchers (well, more vouchers--we already have tax credit scholarship vouchers) in Pennsylvania so very, very, very, very badly. So badly that they redesigned to voucher program they've been pushing for years so that it would be more palatable to Democratic Governor and Voucher Sort-of-supporter Josh Shapiro.

They whipped up a letter from a bunch of right-wing privatization supporters, which was kind of an odd choice, because what Democratic governor in a purple state wouldn't jump at the chance to be seen as a partner of Betsy DeVos?

They even came up with a way to say that they wouldn't take any money from public schools to fund their $100 million voucher plan (spoiler alert: they totally planned to take it from public schools).

They were so sure they had it in the bag. And then Shapiro broke their hearts and/or stabbed them in the back, depending on how sad they felt.

But they haven't given up yet, because in Pennsylvania it's a not-unusual thing to have budget drama drag out months and months and months past the nominal budget deadline (yeah, it's hard on actual citizens in the state, but oh well).

So the push is still on. Witness, for instance the group Commonwealth Action, a group that appears to exist for no reason except to push this voucher scheme. They've got a single-page website whose only content is there 24 second video. They've got a mailing address--which appears to be a Staples. And a Twitter account that has only existed since May of 2023 (they did spring for the blue check) and has tweeted 56 times so far. 

Their Facebook page is even fresher-- it appears to have become Commonwealth Action on June 30, 2023. But before then...

From November of 2014 on, they were Keystone Community Action. That website has gone dark, but the Wayback Machine internet archives tell us that KCA was an equally thinly described group, though the name Mike Herbert is attached. Before that, starting in February of 2013, they were We The Taxpayers, Inc, an organizational name that has turned up in Florida and Georgia, but not PA. So far, I'm not sure who these guys (or this guy) is--though whoever it is has some graphic design skills.

Earlier on, the group was busy pushing Shapiro's budget, but once Shapiro detached himself from vouchers, they became all voucher bill, all the time.

Their video captures the gist of their argument:

Shapiro said he liked vouchers, then didn't back them. "Josh Shapiro is choosing special interests over kids." Low-income and minority students deserve a chance to escape those failing public schools. "Governor Shapiro, don't turn your back on our most vulnerable kids." 

These are the questions to ask this mysterious group and everyone who supports their plea For The Children:

1) What regulations would they like to see requiring private schools to accept any and all voucher students? After all, the voucher doesn't do much good if the school the student chooses won't let the student in.

2) What will they propose to mitigate the effects of private school tuition costs" The proposed voucher will not begin to cover the tuition costs at the pricier private schools in PA.

3) What sort of accountability and oversight do they propose? After all, it would sure suck if some student used their voucher to escape a failing public school and found themselves in a failing private school, or a school that isn't even meeting the state standards that public schools are required to meet. And since vouchers are taxpayer funds, don't the taxpayers deserve a full accounting of how those funds were spent? 

4) Do you support allowing private schools to use the kind of discrimination that is not allowed in public schools? Do you support vouchers going to religious private schools? Why should taxpayers pay for religious training--isn't that a parental right and responsibility?

5) Presumably not every student will be able to escape the failing public school. What do the supporters of this program propose as a way to rescue those students who are still at the school? Does it make sense to deal with a sinking ship by only providing as lifeboat for 10% of the passengers?

6) Who are you? And what are your actual goals in promoting this policy? Are you even someone worth listening to, or are you just one more education amateur no idea what you're talking about?

Of course, to have this conversation, you would have to find the mysterious Mr. Herbert or his associates, or just settle for one of the other many privatization supporters wailing and crying foul over Shapiro's unexpected sudden change of direction. I recommend they have Betsy DeVos publicly pressure him some more. Seems like a super tactic.

ICYMI: A Birthday Edition (7/16)

Not mine-- my father's. He's 88 today, and they've been well spent ones. So raise a glass.

Also, here's some reading from the week.

PENNCREST meeting turns into shouting match over censure resolution

We've visited Penncrest before here at the institute, and I reference this story over at Forbes, but if you want to see the full spectacle of a school board that you're glad isn't yours, here you go.

How to fix the damage done to schools by federal school reform laws

Valerie Strauss at Washington Post takes a look at a new report from a bunch of very smart people considering how to undo some of the damage of the last twenty-some years.

The Trillion-Dollar Grift: Inside the Greatest Scam of All Time

Sean Woods at Rolling Stone with a story that isn't strictly speaking an education one, but still takes a look at the mess of pandemic relief.

Learning to Read in Middle School

You know who learns to read a new language in middle school? Musicians. Nancy Flanagan, retired music teacher, with some observations.

Your only job is to love them.

At Answer Key, a reminder about the heart of the work.

Pennsylvania principals leaving schools at 'substantial' rate, new report finds

The Post-Gazette has a report on Ed Fuller's research at Penn State. It's not encouraging.

Plenty of Black college students want to be teachers, so why don't they end up in classrooms?

Jill Barhsay from Hechinger reports on some research about diversity issues in the teaching force.

As Part of State Budget, Ohio Legislature Ends Third-Grade Guarantee’s Requirement that Children Be Held Back

Jill Resseger reports that the Ohio legislature did get at least one thing right.

Students can handle exposure to different world views in school. It's adults who are fragile.

Lauren Bouchard with an op-ed for USA Today questions exactly whose delicate sensibilities we're trying to protect with reading restrictions.

Questions on Homeschooling.

Stephen Owens blogs from a Christian perspective at Common Grace, Common Schools; this time it's about homeschooling.

Texas private schools look nothing like you imagine

This post is an old one, but it popped up a bunch this week as a reminder of what exactly we're talking about when we discuss private schools in Texas (and elsewhere).

The Woman Who Bought A Mountain for God

We now enter the far right religious section of this week's list. This is not directly about education (though education is one of the Seven Mountains). This piece in the Atlantic by Stephanie McCrummon literally hist home for me. This is my town. The place described is about a mile from my parents' house, and the husband in the story is a guy I graduated from high school with; he and I are both guys who stayed here in town as adults. Probably we'll run into them at lunch today, again. Nice folks. So when someone says that folks with these sorts of dominionist beliefs could be your neighbors, that's a fact.

Pennsylvania’s Prayer Warrior: Abby Abildness And Her Dominionist Crusade In The Commonwealth

In Pennsylvania, this New Apostolic Reformation movement has connections all the way into the capital. Jennifer Cohn writes about it for the Bucks County Beacon.

For too many Christians, the lines between dominionism, nationalism and fascism are blurred

Here's a take on the issues from the Religious News Service. 

It was a busy week for me at Forbes. com--

The Myths of Merits Scholarships-- Akil Bello at FairTest with some hard truths about tests and merit scholarships

Cyber charter reform in PA could finally happen. Maybe.

The trend in punishing people who draw attention to a school district's poor choices.

Join me on substack and never miss any of my writerly output. All free!

PA: Cyber Schools Spend $16.8 Million On Marketing In One Year

Education Voters of Pennsylvania do some extraordinary work for public education here in the Keystone State, and that has included hounding cyber charters to fork over documentation of how much they spend on marketing. 

It's labor-intensive work--the cybers send over thousands of pages of invoices, heavily redacted, and volunteers just have to go through page by page. Over a year ago, EdVoters ploughed through a trove of documentation and found that from 2019-2021, the cyber charters had spent over $35 million on marketing. Everything from sponsoring local events to newspaper ads to a float in a Philadelphia parade, all paid for with taxpayer dollars. That would be taxpayer dollars taken with the understanding that they would be spent on educating students, but instead, well, not.

Now EdVoters has finished sifting through the materials from 2021-2022, and it's...well, it's something else.

$16.8 million, at least. That's a lot of money, and digging into the details makes it look even worse.

Achievement House Cyber Charter School spent $1,306 per student on advertising.

PA Cyber spent $58,000 on swag, including $9,725 on owl-shaped erasers, $6,750 on custom lapel pins, $8,678 on branded Post-It notes, and $18,120 on branded magnets.

PA Cyber spent $81,000 on branded clothing and mugs.

PA Virtual Charter School spent $132,404 on bus wraps and other transit advertising.

PA Virtual Charter school spent $28,807 on sponsorships of minor league baseball teams.

Insight Cyber Charter School spent $959,053 on a contract for undisclosed services with for-profit management company K-12, Inc.

Your public school might have the occasional pep rally or student assembly to build morale and school spirit, but you've got nothing on the cybers. Reach Cyber Charter School spent $125,308 on Target gift cards for students.

But Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA), the 800 pound cyber-gorilla of PA cyber schools, has made a real science out of "events" for its customers. Here's some of what EdVoters found CCA spending money on:

More than $17,000 for family parties at Dave & Busters, Ninja Nook, 814 Lanes and Games, and Lehigh Valley Laser Tag.

$60,000 for a three-year sponsorship agreement with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and $6,458 on tickets for CCA families to attend games. 

More than $75,000 on catering, concessions, parking, and tickets for CCA students and families to attend Philadelphia Phillies baseball games.

These are, I will point out again, taxpayer dollars at work. Taxpayer dollars collected specifically for educating students. Meanwhile, a bill to bring cyber school funding and transparency into line is awaiting Senate attention, which may never happen because cybers and their lobbyists are making loud noises about not depriving the children of an education, which I guess has to include minor league baseball and Ninja Nook.

Let's Not Try To Make Book Banning Illegal

Illinois has done it. California has a bill in the pipeline, and so does Pennsylvania. And while I absolutely understand the impulse to make book bans illegal, I am extremely leery of the whole business.

PENAmerica has done extraordinary work tracking the new wave of reading restrictions, as has the American Library Association, which has always kept an eye on book banning shenanigans. And you would currently have to have your head firmly planted under a collection of large boulders not to be aware of the current moral panic resulting in call after call after call (enabled by a variety of ill-considered laws) to get rid of naughty books from libraries.

It's the ALA that has provided a sort of template for these proposed laws with its Library Bill of Rights, which includes these three items right up front:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

To be clear, I think these are excellent standards to follow. Every library should follow them. But I don't think they should be turned into a law.

Involving government in the enforcement of rules and escalation of penalties (the template here seems to be "follow these rules or lose your funding") is not always a great idea. And I see few benefits and multiple problems with these.

The bill that is being proposed in Pennsylvania appears to be aimed only at public libraries, so not any help for school libraries, which are on the front edge of this issue. School districts like PennCrest or in Bucks County would be unaffected by this bill. 

The measure could slow down local libraries that have boards captured by far-right boards, but we've seen repeatedly that the folks who want to restrict reading aren't worried about going to far. Telling them, "Stop banning LGBTQ books, or we will cut your funding," is going to provide zero motivation to folks who would just as soon see all library funding cut anyway. 

The law also fails the Dark Future test (a test that folks on all sides of the aisles consistently ignore). The test is this: look at your law and ask yourself how it would be used by your political enemies if they were in charge? Don't create a big hammer on the assumption that you will always be the one holding it.

In this case, we don't even have to imagine the "in charge" part.

No library stocks all the books. It can't. This bill requires us to gaze into the hearts and minds of the librarian who does the selecting. "You don't stock Why Fascism Is Great or the 120-book children's book series All Gays Go To Hell because you are proscribing them because of politics." The same crowd that now circulates lists of books to get rid of will then circulate lists of books to demand that the library stock. Should the library include some right-wing stuff? Absolutely. But as with getting rid of naughty books, there will never be a point when those folks say, "Enough." Right wing children's books are already a growth industry--just imagine when they can get a pipeline into libraries.

You may say that the law would not allow big battles over what the librarian's motives may or may not be. Just stick to the written policy. Okay--but then we're right back where we started, because none of these policies say directly that certain subject matter must be banned because it violates a certain socio-political orthodoxy. 

The courts long ago recognized that identifying pornography is complicated and local and beyond the ability of lawmakers to specifically define and codify (though they haven't stopped trying). This is much in the same vein. Librarians have to make choices, and those choices involve other choices about what's appropriate and for whom and for what age groups and that's all complicated stuff. Right now it's further complicated by folks who think that they've done such a lousy job of parenting that if their child sees just one book that says "LGBTQ people exist" or "White folks have at times in our country's history been really bad to Black folks" that somehow all their parenting will be wiped out, plus folks who think they can rewrite history by sheer force of will, and it is really tempting want to come up with a law that would just shut those people the hell up, or at least neuter them. But I don't believe that's the answer.

The solution is more annoyingly time consuming. Make sure you don't elect crazy anti-reading rights people. Have a process for challenging books that isn't a shadow ban request, and then follow the process, and be prepared to stand up to people who want to short-circuit and twist that process. It's an old teacher trick--wear them down before they can wear you down (understanding that it may take way longer than you wish it would). And don't create new, larger regulatory powers that may or may not end up in the hands of people who are not sympathetic to your values.

That's where I am on this right now. You can come at me in the comments and try to change my mind.