OK: House GOP Coming For Ryan Walters

Tonight Spencer Humphrey, reporter for KFOR, is reporting that at least 22 House Republicans have signed a letter calling for an impeachment investigation into Oklahoma's education dudebro-in-chief, Ryan Walters. That's 22 signatures so far; speculation is that they might get 51 before they're done.

Walters, as we've noted sooooo many times, does not play well with others. The letter is a recap of some of his greatest hits (complete with citations). 

The letter, written by Mark McBride, is addressed to Speaker McCall about "concerns" and the "current actions" of Superintendent Walters. 

Since Superintendent Walters took office 18 months ago, I have grown increasingly concerned about the budget performance, spending priorities, and transparency surrounding the Department. Conditions at the Department, the manner in which the Superintendent and the Board of Education have treated members of the Legislature from both parties and from both the House of Representatives and the State Senate has been, to say the least, unprofessional, beneath the dignity of a statewide elected official, and most importantly, contrary to the best interest of the taxpayers and students of the State of Oklahoma.

Then follows a "non-exhaustive" list of Walters various acts of misbehavior.

* Denied entry to execut8ive sessions to legislators. 

* Refused or delayed inquiries from Appropriations and Budget Committee, to the point of requiring two subpoenas from the committee to get him to respond.

* Failed to comply with legislative budget directives regarding dispersal of School Security Dollars. This is the one where Walters decided on his own that the law didn't say what it actually said, and he wouldn't let funds for school security roll over. 

* Failed to turn over travel expenditure information. This is the one where Walters spent a bunch of taxpayer money for travel and wouldn't tell the legislators where, when or how much.

* Failed to turn over records requested under the open records act until the Attorney General had to threaten him with civil or criminal action. 

* Defied legislature's authority by refusing to execute required funding for asthma inhalers. 

And that's not even getting into issues like being a four star jerk over pushback for his new unconstitutional Bible requirement and just generally being contentious and very bad at his actual job. 

There's that time that he fumbled grant money and his general attempts to make up his own rules about all sorts of things, as the latter says,

promulgating administrative rules absent explicit statutory authority. The latter resulted in a unanimous opinion by the State Supreme Court, finding that Superintendent Walters and the State Board of Education “is attempting to exercise unauthorized quasi-judicial authority in enforcement proceedings before the Board that involve the Edmond School District …”. The High Court’s ruling resulted in administrative actions of the Board of Education being invalidated.

Citing a "pattern  of overreach, disregard for legislative oversight and policy making, and lack of concern for student safety and budgetary stability," the letter asks the legislature to "investigate any possible willful neglect of duty or incompetency on the part of Superintendent Walters as described in Article 8 Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution."

McBride doesn't sound happy about going after a fellow Republican, but he pretty much sums up the dysfunctional situation (well, I've skipped over the attacks on teachers and books and his personal national PR drive):

I have repeatedly met one-on-one with the Superintendent, where I pled with him to please focus on the responsibilities and duties of his office, and work with the Legislature to improve and advance the cause of Public Education in Oklahoma. These pleas have fallen on deaf ears and the Superintendent has chosen to pursue an aggressively opposite path, one filled with name-calling, obstruction, defiance, and secrecy.

Walters, for his part, has struck the same aggressive and combative attitude as always. He told KOCO News:

If they decide to move forward with that, it would be the most unprecedented move in state history to undermine the will of the Oklahoman voters. We're going to continue to put parents and grandparents in charge of their kids' education. We're going to continue to put Oklahoma on a path to be successful in education. So, I will never back down to moderate Republicans partnering with Democrats to try to overturn the will of the people. We're not going to allow it.

That's Walters. He doesn't answer to any legislators, and he will personally decree what will or will not be the education law of Oklahoma. Maybe he's high on his national big time political contacts. Maybe he thinks God has his back. Maybe he's just one more MAGA dudebro who thinks he can just throw his alpha male authoritarian weight around. Watch to see how many signatures end up on the latter, whether or not the legislators have the spine to actually impeach him, and how many more reasons he can give them to want to in the meantime. Stay tuned!

ICYMI: Teacher VP Edition (8/11)

We are still in the woods of Maine (returning home shortly), but even here we've got enough bandwidth to hear that Harris picked former teacher Tim Walz as her VP, which seems like good news. My sense of optimism is always tempered, and I am not excited about some of the arguments being made ("we have big rallies so clearly we should win" is a Trump talking point, and pep rallies don't vote), but I am unreasonably pleased that my generation (that's Generation Jones, not the Baby Boomers) is represented.  And "former teacher" is no automatic qualification (edu-disaster Ryan Walters is a former teacher), but it's still nice to see the Walz teaching couple in this spot. Yeah, I'm feeling positive about all of this week's news.

Most of all, it's important to remember that the Trump team's strategy for taking the White House is not entirely based on getting the most votes. I suppose there' a world in which Harris wins by so many votes that attempts to overturn the results can't get enough steam, but I'm going to count on it. 

But like many people, I find that Walz reminds me of a few people I have known and worked with, in a good way. And I like a campaign that has some positivity to it. And personally, I would vote for my dog before I voted for Trump (and my dog passed away over a year ago). 

Depths of Maine aside, I still have reading for you. Enjoy.

Bixby Superintendent Responds To Ryan Walters

There has been a great deal of pushback against Oklahoma's education dudebro-in-chief and his Bible edict, but one of the most vocal has been Rob Miller, Bixby superintendent, who doesn't much like being called a liar.

FFRF urging Tenn. school district to stop promoting religion at mandatory teacher event

Freedom From Religion Foundation issues a statement about a school that holds mandatory Christian teacher in-service sessions. 

A superintendent made big gains with English learners. His success may have been his downfall

Kavitha Cardoza at Hechinger with a depressing story from Alabama, where a superintendent has huge success with teaching immigrant children and part of the community sees that as making Those People too comfortable and welcome here where they're not wanted. A reminder that sometimes local control leads to bad stuff.

The Freshman: How Tim Walz Went From the Classroom to Congress

You've read a few hundred pieces mining the same pile of information, but do check out this archival piece from Ed Week. Way back in 2007, they interviewed a small town teacher who ran for political office and won. 

Tim Walz helps Democrats make the ‘prairie populist’ case for public schools

Also recommend this Erica Meltzer piece at Chalkbeat looking at Walz and educxation.

In now-delayed book, Heritage president details MAGA plans to remake education: “America's teachers have gone insane"

If you thought Project 2025 was harsh, wait till you get a look at what Heritage honcho Kevin Roberts has to say about education.

Moms for Liberty’s Plan to “Light up” School Board Fizzles Out

Yeah, Alaska deals with this stuff, too. Matthew Beck of The Blue Alaskan reports on a not-so-successful attempt by M4L to throw their weight around.

Should Religious Schools Be Publicly Funded? Issues of Religion, Discrimination, and Equity

Academic wonkiness from Taylor and Francis, but still worth a look at positions on these policy questions.

Keri Rodrigues and Walton Allies Join to Solve a Biiiiig Problem

Maurice Cunningham looks at who the National Parents Union proposes should look at the BIG problems of education at SXSWED.

The Educators

PopSugar, the lifestyle media thingy, is running a set of 24 profiles of teachers, and it's a pleasantly positive reminder of the kinds of folks out there in the trenches. Heavy on the warm fuzzies, light on the academics, but still an encouraging batch of profiles.

"Universal" School Vouchers Cost States Billions

Steve Nuzum has written a pretty good explainer of universal vouchers, looking at the South Carolina shenanigans that have come along with them.

“Vouchers Hurt Ohio” Lawsuit Tests Constitutional Protection of Equal Access to Public Schooling

Ohio is getting sued over its problematic school choice program. Jan Resseger can explain what's going on for you.

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Teaching the Bible Badly

Ryan Walters may have finally arrived at his "Have you no sense of decency" moment over his Bible directive, with several superintendents stating that there will be no classroom Bible instruction in their district in widespread pushback. (Walters, for his part, has offered no argument other than Eric Cartmanesque declarations that schools "will comply" or else.)

It seems entirely probable that it will all end up in court where, unfortunately, it's at least even odds that the court will decide that to scratch the rule would infringe on Ryan Walters' First Amendment Free Exercise rights (I'm only sort of kidding). 

But in the meantime, it's worth noticing just how bad the OSDE guidelines for teaching the Bible are, not just from a Violating The First Amendment standpoint, but from a Being a Fan of Holy Scripture standpoint as well as an Actual Education standpoint.

You can find a copy of the guidelines here.

The guidelines kick off with more chest thumping about how the "superintendent's directive" is absolutely "mandatory for the holistic education of students." The directive includes providing a copy of the guidelines and a physical copy of the Bible, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Ten Commandments (but no indication that the state will be helping pay for all that). Also no discussion of adding a unit about how Republicans were once the party of small government and local control. 

Then the guidelines offer some helpful tips on how to incorporate the Scriptures into lessons.

Influence on Western Civilization. The Bible, says Walters, has been a "key cornerstone" in the development of Western thought, "influencing legal systems, ethical frameworks, and cultural norms" along "the concepts of justice, human rights, and the rule of law."  While the Bible has a slice of involvement, this also points to one of the odd contradictions in Walters' decree and the whole classical education movement.  

Because the roots of classical Western civilization are in ancient Greece and Rome and the great thinkers like Aristotle and Socrates-- all well before Jesus ever set foot on the planet. In fact, if we want to talk about Western civilization and the Bible, we should talk about how Paul clearly has taken pieces of his Greek education and grafted them onto the work of Jesus. Like many conservative christianists, Walters sems way more attached to the Old Testament than the new one.

As for the notion that it was the Bible that laid the foundation for ideas such as the rule of law, that's just silly. Many, many civilizations planted these ideas without any help from the Bible at all. It would make far more religious sense to suppose that God somehow worked a similar message through many channels, but that's the other thing about Walters' policy and others like it-- it's not nearly as expressive of devotion to God as it is a fetishizing of the Bible. 

Impact on American History. In much of American history, leaders have quoted and alluded to the Bible. Also, Shakespeare, pop music lyrics, and racist literature. The attempt to prioritize the Bible is weak sauce. I can, however, imagine an interesting unit studying paces where the Bible is NOT quoted or mentioned (like, say, the Constitution).

But where Walters really gets in the weeds with the topic of Literary Significance.

Canonical Literature. Yes, the Bible gets quoted and alluded to a bunch. Fine. Probably already done in plenty of English classes. Not sure how to just drop this into First Grade spelling or a phys ed class.

Literary Techniques. This is where things really head into the weeds. 

The Bible uses numerous and various literary techniques, including allegory, metaphor, and parable. Teachers can use biblical texts to illustrate these techniques, enhancing students’ literary analysis skills. This approach allows students to appreciate the Bible’s literary craftsmanship without delving into religious doctrine,

First, this depends a great deal on the translation being used. 

But more to the point, this invites students to treat the Bible as if it were just a work of literature, a piece of writing that some human just made up. If you were raised to believe that the Bible is the actual Word of God, divinely inspired, ten what exactly are we doing here? Critiquing the Almighty's writing skills? Suggesting that the Word of God belongs on a shelf next to Huckleberry Finn and Rome and Juliet and other works of fiction? And how exactly does one consider literary craftsmanship without considering the purpose for which it was crafted--and again--who is the teacher supposed to say did the crafting? 

Artistic and Musical Influences. Maybe you could trot out some pieces of art and music that are about Bible things?

Walters offers some "implementation strategies" which are, again, in the weeds. Do some textual analysis, in which you "analyze biblical texts as they would any other historical or literary document." Yes, I'm sure devoutly Christian parents will be happy to have their children taught that the Bible is a book just like any other book.

Or maybe compare the Bible to other works, like, say, Greek myths. Because, again, families of faith will really dig the idea of treating the Bible like it's a work of mythology. Walters also endorses encouraging "critical thinking" and respectful dialog, which is a great thing that he should consider modeling in his work as education dudebro-in-chief.

There are also grade-specific guidelines which are pretty vague but which definitely double down on the whole "treat the Bible like it's a storybook or a myth" aspect, which one could fully expect to clash horribly with families who believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. 

Walters has come up with an edict sure to make absolutely nobody happy except for christianist nationalist policy pushers, who will not have to deal with how this plays out on the ground. It's a policy that violates the First Amendment not just because it puts one religious text in the public classroom, but because it will inevitably require classroom teachers to explicitly or implicitly answer the question, "So, is this stuff real or not?" 

Here's hoping that the courts do everyone a favor and strike down this unconstitutional policy edict

Yes, Classmates Matter

Add this to your teacher files of Things You Already Knew But Now Some Researcher Provided Proof.

The paper is entitled Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success? The answer is, of course, yes. 

Every class has its own chemistry, and a major element of that chemistry is how much individual students do (or do not) care. Every single teacher can tell you the stories.

The classes you've had where everyone excels because a handful of students in the class are intense and achievement oriented. The class you've had in which students looked around the room and clearly thought, "Well, nobody else is knocking themselves out, so I guess I'm doing plenty enough."

In high school, in particular, many students are focused on one big question-- "How normal am I?" They find their answer by looking at their peers. "Peer pressure" is often portrayed as some kid making pitches like, "C'mon, smoke some donuts. Everyone is doing it. You don't want people to think you're a loser, do you?" But it's often way more subtle than that. Nobody has to explicitly make the pitch; teens are already checking to see what everyone else is doing. That's why major social currency in high school is not a col car or nice clothes or playing the right sport, but confidence-- projecting the air that you are NOT checking around you to figure out if you're okay or not. (Note: this is not the same as deliberately and even angrily rejecting what you thin k everyone else is doing.)

It's also a matter of setting an example. In high school, I learned a lot about playing trombone from John Stuck, who was not my band director, but the guy in the section a year ahead of me. He was good, and I picked up a lot just by listening and watching. By my junior year, one of my proud achievements was making "additions" to the music that got John in trouble. If John had not been in my school, or if either of us had been born a little sooner or later, I would have turned out different as a player.

I've seen versions of that play out many times. The student who was really lifted up because she happened to be in the same class as some high achievers. The top student who would have disappeared into the medium-level crowd if she had been a year older or younger. The class that always upped its game when a certain student was absent.

Sometimes a teacher can help amplify peer effects, and sometimes those effects are beyond their control. But there's no question that the peer effects matter. Now there's a piece of research to back up what teachers already know.

Is This A Case For Standardized Testing?

For some folks, love for the Big Standardized Test just never dies. If anything, fears that the pandemess would squelch the BS Test gave testophiles an extra shot to the heart. Over at the Fordham Institute, Victoria McDougald kicked off the month by taking a shot at making the 2024 case for the BS Test. McDougald is not an educator, but a policy maven, with years logged at the Gates Foundation. So how'd she do? Let's see what the current state of the argument is.

McDougald offers six reasons to stick with the Big Standardized Test.

1. Tests provide an essential source of information for students and parents about student learning, alongside grades and teacher feedback.

Well, at least we've moved forward from the days when reformsters argued that without BS Testing, parents and students would have no idea how students were doing. But this is still a silly argument. A single multiple choice test held up against the results of regular assessments and teacher observations will do one of two things-- agree with what parents have already learned, or contradict it. If it agrees, so what? If it disagrees, which will parents find more useful- a year's worth of direct observation and assessment, or that single snapshot? 

Yes, more data is more useful than less data, but with BS Testing we must always always always talk about opportunity cost. Look at the hours and days used through the year to prep, pre-test, re-test, and test--is the tidbit of data generated by the BS Test worth giving up all the other educational stuff that could have been done with all that time?

McDougald compares the test data to a doctor's appointment. 

Just as I wouldn’t skip my child’s annual physical at the doctor’s office, I wouldn’t opt out of testing that provides important data about how my child is doing and progressing academically.

Unless my child was spending the rest of the year with a team of health care professionals and the doctor's office in question was a shady one whose credentials are not actually established. 

2. Test scores help counteract grade inflation in schools.

There are some ed reform games that schools cannot win. If student grades are staying the same, that's a sign of stagnation. If they're dropping, that's a sign of failure. If grades are improving, that's just a sign of "grade inflation." 

The idea here is the BS Tests provide an objective measure, as if the hand of God is weighing student achievement on a divine scale. But tests are manufactured by human beings and, as witnessed by decades of argument about embedded bias in the SAT, subject to those humans' subjective choices. Even the beloved NAEP has questionable value as a gold standard benchmark.

3. Tests shed light on learning successes and gaps, and help teachers address students’ unique needs.

Again, testophiles have learned to temper their declarations of usefulness here, but this is still one of those selling points that reflects a lack of experience on the ground in a real classroom. Here's the nub--

Alongside other indicators of student performance, tests provide teachers with actionable data that can help inform their instruction...

No, they don't. You get your test results long after they are of any use, and those "results" come in a black box. You are not allowed to see the actual questions your students attempted to answer (because protecting the proprietary materials of test manufacturers takes priority overt usefulness for teachers), so as a teacher, you literally do not know what your students got wrong. Scores are single numbers with no particular depth or detail (student got a 5 in "reading non-fiction").  What detail you do get will come from the practice tests that your school requires in an attempt to try to figure out where test prep might help your school make better numbers. 

Even a mediocre teacher will get more utility out of a quick "check for understanding" quiz. 

McDougald also argues that the BS Test will help administrators figure out "which teachers and schools are excelling at or struggling with helping students learn." But since test results can vary wildly--particularly if they are first being soaked in value-added measure (VAM) sauce-- that's not necessarily true. And in the real worlds, that mostly just leads to more test prep ("Here--scrap that unit on a full novel and start using these reading excerpt drill books"). 

This is how Campbell's Law activates-- when you treat the measure of the thing as if it actually is the thing, you end up focusing on the measurement instead of the thing. IOW, you start pretending that "Raise student test scores" and "teach students more and better how to read and write" are synonymous. They aren't.

Four, state tests provide policymakers with consistent, comparable data about student learning statewide.

Talking about the complex systems, goals, outcomes, and effects of education is hard. Reducing everything to a number or letter grade makes it easy. Policymakers would rather do the easy thing. 

This reductive and nuance-free approach might be tolerable if it resulted in anything good. But the simplified measurements generated by the BS Test have been used mostly for destruction. "Look at those low scores! We'd better give that public school a huge boost in resources right away," said policymakers never. Instead, low scores make public schools targets for takeover, charterization, or arguments in favor of vouchers.

Low test scores usually feed the rhetoric of "Public schools are failing" and not "Policy makers are failing public schools."

And now that we've had test-centered education for a while, it's hard not to notice that certain folks only care about the data when it doesn't make their favorite policy look bad. Josh Cowen studied voucher data for a couple of decades before concluding that the data shows that vouchers result in bad student outcomes. And let's not forget the states where non-public schools don't have to generate BS Test data for policy makers to contemplate.

Fifth, they’re an important indicator of college readiness.

Yeah, not really. McDougald provides a link to a Fordham Institute article that doesn't really say anything about the tests as a measure of college readiness. Meanwhile, there's plenty of evidence that high school grades are better predictors of college success. 

Sixth, tests are also pretty good predicters of later life success.

This oft-repeated talking point is meaningless. Correlation is not causation, particularly when it's a correlation that is pretty easily explained.

Let's say that research shows that fifth graders who have a large shoe size grow up to be tall. Should a state interested in increasing average adult height mandate that all fifth graders should wear extra large shoes, or perhaps retain students in fifth grade until they fit in extra large shoes? Because that would be silly, right?

We know that students from certain socio-economic backgrounds do better on Big Standardized Tests. We know that students from that same certain socio-economic background have better life outcomes. 

What we don't know--what no research at all shows--is whether raising a student's test score will improve that student's life outcome. And unless and until someone shows that, this talking point is just an argument that everyone should wear big shoes.

So I'm going to call McDougald 0 for 6. The Big Standardized Test can generate some marginally useful data, but the big question that McDougald doesn't answer is whether or not that small slice of data is worth all the time and money and opportunity that it costs schools to generate. All these years into test-centered education and I have yet to see one reason that justifies the cost, let alone six.

ICYMI: Out Of The Office Edition (8/4)

The Institute's home office staff has been vacationing in Maine, where my grandfather the general contractor and my grandmother the state legislator built a little place decades ago which my father later rehabilitated and expanded. It's still sits slightly apart from civilization, and we spend an awful lot of time reading and flopping about in the water. We even took some time for an extra outing to Acadia National Park, something I've always meant to do, but have been dissuaded by the four-ish hour dive. It was worth finally seeing it. Somewhere near you is a nation al park of some sort, and if you haven't visited, you should.

Incidentally, while I'm working (occasionally) from mobile office platform, expect double the usual mes of typos.

Despite all that, I've still got some reading for you to do this week. Here we go. 

Democrats for Education Reform Brings Dark Money Back to Massachusetts Politics

Maurice Cunningham, dark money expert, notes that DFER is back to its usual deep pocketed shenanigans again.

While book ban attempts increase nationally, one Oregon library has kept requests low

For a change, a story about a library that is having some success navigating the culture panic book banniness waters. By Olvia Wang-- a high school journalist.

The Heritage Foundation Wants to Train Your School Board.

The indispensable Mercedes Schneider looks at Heritage Foundation (the Project 2025 folks) and their thought about how to train school boards to be crusaders for wingnut ideas.

‘Disappointed’: Black students suing Shenandoah school board for restoring Confederate names

Good for them. A report by Nathaniel Cline at Virginia Mercury.

Huntsville approves ‘Teachers’ Bill of Rights’ for student discipline

Depending on how things are going in your region you will think either "About time" or "You mean to tell me they didn't have policies that covered this already?"

Superintendent Ryan Walters faces pushback over illegal immigration directive

In Oklahoma, Ryan Walters is getting used to issuing edicts for illegal policy. At the same time, superintendents are getting used to telling him to pound sand.

NC Parents Bill of Rights produces ‘concerning’ decline in CMS student health screenings

Caught this one a little late, but it's too important to let go-- North Carolina's parental rights law is having some troubling unintended consequences.

Gov. Reynolds offers support for other states passing laws like Iowa ESA program

Having trouble getting The People to support your voucher idea? Gov. Kim Reynolds, IOWA honcho and ALEC education co-chair, will happy to give pointers on how to ram that legislation through anyway.

Elon Musk’s Experimental School In Texas Is Now Looking For Students

Sarah Emerson reports for Forbes on Musk's fancy private school. No way this could end badly.

Public School Success in Jefferson County, FL

The state handed the public schools over to a charter company. Later, the charter company bailed. Then the state turned it back into a public school district and guess what happened? Sue Kingery Woltanski has the story.

Education is a Winning Issue for Democrats

Anne Lutz Fernandez does some analysis and shows that maybe the Dems could get somewhere as defenders of public education. Will they do it? Well....

Not one but two excellent responses to that Google Gemini ad that stunk up the p[lace so bad that they pulled it:

I hate the Gemini ‘Dear Sydney’ ad more every passing moment

Alexandra Petri at the Washington Post nails the awfulness of not just the ad, but the product.

That Google Gemini Ad Is an Abomination

John Warner wants to kill it with fire, then burn the ashes.

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Why The Microschool Love?

Microschools are having a moment, again, according to Politico. 

This time it's because Florida's latest grab bag of education policies (i.e. a bag full of opportunities that lets profiteers and privatizers grab whatever they can get their hands on) includes some microschool gifts, a loosening of regulations about where and how you can set these up.

A microschool is a simple thing. All you need is a handful of students, probably a computer, and some adult. Doesn't have to be a teacher--the teacher's in the software--but just some "coach" to keep things organized and on track. It's a super-modern iteration of a on e-room schoolhouse. It's a homeschooling co-op. It's also a version of the distance learning that so many people hated during the pandemess, but you won't hear that mentioned often. The Microschools Network website defines it this way:

An intentionally small student population,
An innovative curriculum,
Place-based and experiential learning,
The use of cutting-edge technology, and
An emphasis on mastering or understanding material.

Microschools are a big business, particularly if, like industry giant Prenda, you can get an entire state to give you a contract. The Koch-topus loves micro-schools. Reformster Travis Pillow wrote a legitimately strong response to one of my microschool pieces. Betsy DeVos says nice things about them. And Prenda itself got a healthy shot of investment money from a newish Koch-Walton initiative called VELA Education Fund. Headed up by Meredith Olson (a VP at Koch's Stand Together) and Beth Seling (with background in the charter school biz), the board of VELA is rounded out by reps from Stand Together and the Walton Foundation.

In short, Florida is jumping on a bandwagon that has already drawn a crowd.

So why so much love for what is a meager holdover from the bad old days of pandemic pods?

As with every other "innovation " in education, I have no doubt that you can find some examples of people accomplishing good stuff. But I don't think that's why privatizers love microschooling.

Microschooling plugs a huge hole in the privatization marketing argument. It's the solution to the marketing problem of school choice, which is that school choice really isn't. 

Says a parent, "I gathered up my voucher and started shopping on the free and open market. But first I noticed that there aren't any actual choices in my area. So I widened my search, and then found a school that I liked but which told me they would not accept my child. Apparently they can reject my kid for religious reasons or academic reasons or whatever-they-feel-like reasons. Oh well-- what difference does it make because my voucher would barely dent the tuition anyway. You promised me and my fam ily choice, but we got none."

"Never fear," respond privatizers. "You can have a microschool! Anyone with a computer and an internet connection and an adult with some free time on their hands can have a microschool!"

Microschools let privatizers maintain the fiction that school choice works for everyone. Can't make choice work for you? Don't want to return to a public school that has had its funding gutted by choice? You can always have a microschool. 

Microschools allow choicers to push back against the argument that a free market commodified education system will not honor the promise to educate all students. Microschools buttress the argument that choice will serve everyone. 

"This stinks," bemoan parents shopping in the Big Grocery Store of Education. "I've got this voucher, but I still can't afford the meals I want or any vegetables and the people at the meat counter said they refuse to sell to me."

"No problem," reply privatizers with an expansive sweep of their well-clothed arms. "We have a whole shelf of ramen noodles for you right here. Nobody goes hungry at our store!"

Again- are there people who can fashion a delightful meal out of ramen? Probably, but that's not really the point. The point is that Microschools help complete the con, the trick of getting people to give up the whole notion of education as a public service that promises a decent meal for every student. Florida's support just underlines that con job.