For Book Banners, It's Never Enough

Fans of reading restrictions like to point at the most extreme cases, books with graphic depictions of sex acts. And there's no doubt that there are some works out there that even I would be inclined to keep away from younger eyes. 

But the thing to remember is that reading restrictions don't work the extremes of what's out there. There's no instance where folks calling for book bans announce, "Okay, now that this list of ten really objectionable books has been pulled from the library, we're satisfied and you'll never hear from us again."

Getting stuff banned is like some sort of crack-laced super-Pringles, and calls for reasonable restraint always escalate to ridiculous levels.

Take this case in Ohio, where a teacher was suspended because she had four books with LGBTQ characters in her classroom. The books have no sexual actions depicted. They were not required reading, or even prominently displayed. They were just in the classroom. The teacher is suing the district. Good for her. 

Or in Tennessee, where Knox County Schools has its new list of 48 books banned from all district buildings. The list contains the usuals like 13 Reasons Why and Perks of Being a Wallflower, plus works by Ellen Hopkins, there are some others as well. Like Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle, the collage artist who brought us the hungry, hungry caterpillar. But Draw Me A Star includes a pair of rough collage depictions of a nude man and woman (who look way less like a man and women than the hungry caterpillar looks like a caterpillar). If you know the work of architectural artists David McCauley, you may be aware that he did the same thing for the human body. Can't have that. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak is another frequent target because it shows a boy with a penis. Shel Silverstein's A Light In The Attic doesn't have any sex of LGBTQ content, but it's frequently targeted because it promotes disobedience. And there's Slaughterhouse Five, a longstanding feature on ban lists because there is a picture that uses a couple of rough circles to represent breasts (well, that and it's anti-war, but I'm sure that's not a problem). And something by Toni Morrison, because what's a ban list without something from one of our greatest authors.

Or in North Carolina, where the popular children's manga Unico has been yanked, not because of any sexual content at all, but because one mom objects to a scene where a man attacks a cat and where a character uses a gun. Her first grader purchased the book, recommended for grades 3-7, at a Scholastic Book fair. Scholastic Book Fairs are a frequent target of Moms for Liberty and other far right groups pushing a conservative alternative.

It all goes way, way beyond trying to remove a handful of sexually explicit books. For many of the book ban crowd, it's about hiding any aspects of human existence that they don't want to have acknowledged in front of the children and, in some cases, going a step further by trying to create an image of reality that only allows for what they believe should be real. And when you are trying to curate and dictate reality according to your own narrow vision of what reality should be, your work is never done. 

ICYMI: Blizzard Edition (12/8)

We finally got hit this week, resulting in two snow days to start the weekend. The board of directors here at the institute have enjoyed honing their sidewalk shoveling technique, and my town looks plenty picturesque. But God bless the teachers who will have to get school running again after a four day weekend coming after a five day weekend two weeks before winter break. 

In the meantime, here's some stuff to read from the week.

Dane County judge strikes down Act 10, restoring public employee union bargaining rights

I don't want you to miss this news-- a judge in Wisconsin has thrown out Act 10, Scott Walker's attempt to strip unions of power. It was bad news. This is better news.

The Religious Right Is Plotting How To Get Christianity Into Schools

I can see we're going to have a hard time talking about this without overheated rhetoric from all sides, but we can't ignore the increased push to put a particular brand of Christianity in schools. Here's Nathalie Baptiste at Huffington Post addressing the issue.

Is Separate Still Unequal? New Evidence on School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps

The abstract to a paper that's behind a paywall. If you can get behind that wall, great-- this link is for you. The research asks if segregation is still feeding an achievement gap. Three guesses.

Stop using generative AI as a search engine

A whole bunch of folks, including writers who should know better, asked AI if other Presidents had pardoned family members, and the answers were... not correct. Although the emergence of Hunter deButts as Woodrow Wilson's brother-in-law at least provides entertainment value. Elizabeth Lopatto reports on one more example that AI is not worth the cost.

Pedagogy of the Depressed

Oh, this is one of those hilarious-yet-depressing posts that education is prone to. Benjamin Riley takes us through the features of some on-line "AI for educators" courses. Which one should you take? (Spoiler alert: they are all tragic).

Colorado-Based Christian Nationalists are Rewriting Recent History

Speaking of unreliable scholarship, Logan Davis reports on some of the historical baloney from christianists attempting to rewrite history so that they can be simultaneously the winners and the oppressed. Coming soon to a classroom near you.

Frank the Dissembler

The Frank here is Frank Edelblut, New Hampshire's completely unqualified education chief, who is providing a master class in how to cut funding for special ed. From Andru Volinsky.

The looming GOP divide over school vouchers

Writing for the Olean Times Herald, Mary Ellen Klas points out that the recent defeat of voucher measures in some very red states may spell trouble for GOP leaders who want to push vouchers.

What Trump 2.0 Could Mean For Public Education

Josephine Lee at Texas Observer talks to Diane Ravich about what the next administration may hold for education.

Children illegally worked dangerous overnight shifts at pork processing plant, feds find

Reported by Kate Gibson at CBS, one more example of why so many states want to roll back child labor protections--because certain industries really love their child labor.

When the Robots Have Brain Rot

Audrey Watters is back on the education beat, which means you should go subscribe to her newsletter Second Breakfast right now. In the meantime, here's a post that, among other things, looks at AI and its many problems.

Pennridge School District Repeals Independence Law Center-Written Anti-Advocacy Policy That Banned Pride Flags

How about some good news. Cyril Mychalejko reports that one Bucks County school district has actually rolled back some of its repressive policies.

How Boston Globe’s Education Coverage Educates Us About the Capital v. Labor Divide

Maurice Cunningham shows how Boston Globe coverage reflects capital's desire not for education, but for meat widget vocational training.

Accountability goes with voucher

In Ohio, voucher boosters are fighting hard to make sure that there is no accountability or oversight attached to them. The editorial board of the Toledo Blade thinks that the wrong way to go.

The usual cast of characters have lined up to oppose even a modicum of transparency and accountability for private schools (HB407)

More details for that struggle over simple accountability

Billionaire Sponsored Malarkey from Education Trust

Thomas Ultican looks at some of the propaganda being cranked out by one group of well-heeled reformsters.

Building Community and Uncertain Doom

Jose Luis Vilson writes about community and the future we're facing in the US.

Gifts of Christmas Past

Guess who's not allowed to get gifts in some states (Hint: the answer is not "Supreme Court Justices"). Nancy Flanagan breaks it down with her usual flare.

Trump’s Threatened Immigration Deportations Would Traumatize Students and Disrupt Public Schools

Jan Resseger has been on a serious roll lately, and if you don't already subscribe, you're missing out. This piece looks at the implications for schools of Trump's promised mass deportation. 

Who is at the Center of the Education Policy Conversation?

TC Weber on the importance recruitment AND retention for building strong teaching staffs. Pluss more Tennessee shenanigans.

A Response to Jeb’s Election ReCap Baloney

Jeb Bush had some "thoughts" about the election. Sue Kingery Woltanski has some thoughts about his "thoughts."

Human Interaction Is Now A Luxury Good

Jessica Grose talk to Allison Pugh about how fields that are supposed to provide human service are increasingly... not. This is at the New York Times, but if I did this right, this link should give you gift access.

Tips to Survive 2025

Jeanne Dietsch shares some thoughts about getting through next year.

Come join me (and a few million others) on Bluesky and find me at @palan57.bsky.social.

Also, you can sign up for my substack newsletter, which puts all of my stuff in your email inbox. Handy and free.

Meet Florida's Top Book Banner (The Daily Show)

I remember the long-ago days when The Daily Show interviewed outlandish individuals who were blissfully unaware that they were being set up by a fake news show. Maybe Bruce Friedman was just unaware.

Friedman is Florida's top book banner. He's the president of Florida's No Left Turn chapter, an organization that is determined that children should not be indoctrinated with any beliefs except the correct ones. And he has feelings about public schools and his son. As reported by Kumal Dey for meaww.com

Friedman described his son as "bright," "gifted" and "a fine young man who is considerably smarter than I am," adding, "He makes me proud, but I am not going to stick him in a school with groomers and pedophiles and twisted sick people that think these… books and many like them are okay to present to a child. They are not okay. There's no literal literary value to any of this. It's poison."

That particular occasion was Friedman getting his mic cut off for reading naughty bits at a board meeting. He's most active in Clay County, where the Jewish father has agitated to have the graphic novel version of Diary of Anne Frank pulled from libraries. Sophie's Choice, too. Jewish Telegraph Agency profiled him, along with a list of just a few of his targeted books.

Under a picture of him in a t-shirt that says "My body. My Child. My choice." the article lists some of his greatest hits. 

In objecting to a children’s biography of Harriet Tubman, for example, he says, “Telling them that the Civil War was all about slavery is a lie.” The picture book “Arthur’s Birthday,” featuring the cartoon aardvark, was bad in his view because “it is not appropriate to discuss ‘spin the bottle’ with elementary school children.” To Friedman, “Americanah,” a prizewinning novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the immigrant experience, is “a horrible piece of garbage.” Reading from his own file on the book, he listed off its problems: “Attempted suicide, immigration fraud, promiscuity, infidelity, abortion, racism, sex, critical race theory.”

He reads the books. One of his challenges was against Slaughterhouse Five, a book he read when he was 12.  “When I read it I had no regard for my own innocence,” he told JTA. He keeps files on his laptop (you'll see it in the piece below) where he notes in which way the book violates his extremely broad list of all the things children should not be exposed to. "

Friedman is responsible for over a third of all book challenges in the state in 2023. "They're all porn," he says. 

This would be the guy that Ron DeSantis was talking about earlier this year when he announced that the reading suppression law needed to be "fixed," claiming that outlandish calls for banning classics and non-porny kiddie books was just someone trying to make the law look foolish. Except, of course, Friedman is delivering an authentic type of foolishness. 

But somehow, Friedman agreed to sit down with Michael Kosta for a Daily Show piece, and he is everything you might imagine he is. Give the segment a view.

Free Market Is Bad For Education

Imagine that you are in the hospital for a major bit of surgery. As you go under, you notice that there is a big timer next to the anesthesiologist's seat. 90 minutes later, the surgery is under way with just a few minor blips, when the anesthesiologist announces, "Okay, that's it." Then he cuts off the anesthetic. You didn't see the timer hit zero, but you will soon. 

Your health insurance must come from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, which has announced that they will pre-determine the amount of time the patient gets anesthetic for the operation, and they won't pay for anything beyond that pre-set time. 

It's the eleventy-gazzilionth reminder that the problem with free market human services is simple-- every dollar spent taking care of the humans is one more dollar that the business and its investors don't get. 

I am not anti-free market. The free market and capitalism have enabled some great things, many of which I happily benefit from. But when free market operators lose their way, bad things happen for all of us. 

Do you miss Sears and K-Mart? I sure do; our community no longer has either, and yours probably doesn't either. This is not because of the internet or economic slumpage or a lack of support from your local shoppers. It's because venture capitalists bought them up and stripped them for parts. This is misguided free marketry, a late-stage capitalism problem of people who have lost all sight of who they serve. 

When this disease hits, the customer is not the people who shop at that business, but the investors. The customers are just resources to be drained of as much money as possible. They are not humans; they are just little backpacks full of cash.

Anthem has become, in Cory Doctorow's very useful coinage, enshittified. They have made their product deliberately worse for purposes of harvesting larger profits. Maybe the backpacks full of money that we are tapping would tolerate just this much less useful service without actually firing us, thereby allowing us to better serve our real customers--the investors.

Twisted free marketry is one thing when we're talking about, say, burgers or surfboards; the business can be made to face the consequences as the public decides it can just do without that stuff (though the last election suggests that when the market starts gouging too much, people other than the investors pay a price). 

But when the "product" is a necessary human service, like health care or education, and you cease to see the humans being cared for as customers and instead view them just as couriers carrying backpacks full of cash that you want to collect so you can give it to your true customers-- well, that's how you get a product that is increasingly enshittified. 

We can already see some of the results. I've talked to cyber-school teachers who complain about being vastly understaffed not because staff is hard to find, but because management figures a couple of hundred students per teacher is good enough. Charter and private schools that refuse to accept students who would require too many resources, keep too much of the money in those backpacks from getting to the real customers.

It's true that public schools make tough choices, but those are based on the question "How much money do we have" and not "How much money can we get away with holding back from what is supposed to be our main mission." 

I don't want to wake up mid-operation, my spleen hanging out of my body, because the insurance company is trying to make its numbers for stockholders this quarter. And I don't want to see students cheated of all the education they could have because somebody's hoping to buy a bigger mansion this fall. 

[Update: Hammered in the court of public opinion, Anthem just reversed its policy. "Honest folks, we were never not going to pay for medically necessary anesthesia," they protested. They did not go on to say, "And we will decide what is medically necessary."]

OK: Walters Wants Superintendents To Be Elected

Ryan Walters has yet another bad idea he wants to push on his state.

Make school superintendents elected officials.

Why? Of course, elected principals were, at one point, a Trump proposal, and Walters has always been determined to show off his MAGA credentials as a devoted follower of Dear Leader.

Walters also has a laundry list of things that superintendents have done of which he does not approve. One superintendent wouldn't suppress books as Walters demanded. That same district had a fund raiser that involved behavior of which Walters disapproved. Another district had a superintendent resign over a DWI, and another district didn't do a good job of handling sexual abuse allegations. He didn't mention superintendents who dared to defy him over things like Bibles in classrooms or those who ignored his decree that his prayer should be broadcast to all students, but I'm betting he has them in mind, too.

How would electing superintendents fix any of this? Unclear, as Walters tries to connect all of this to his favorite culture panic issues. As he told Fox News:

Even in a conservative state like Oklahoma, where voters have overwhelmingly made clear they want the radical progressive policies of the left out of public schools, we continually see superintendents defying their will, ignoring their concerns, and refusing to take action necessary to improve education outcomes while protecting Oklahoma children.

This is on brand for Walters. It's not just the content, the anti-lefty lather, but the formulation. We're not talking about the rule of law, but the Will of the People, which is perfectly embodied by Ryan Walters. Therefor, his will is the people's will, and must be obeyed. Walters argues, as he always does, not for the Rule of Law, but the Rule of Me. 

Like many of Walters's bad ideas, even other Republicans know it's a bad idea. Reported by Alecia Aston and Murray Evans at the Oklahoman:

Rep. Mike Osburn, R-Edmond, a member of the House Appropriations and Budget subcommittee on education, called the suggestion "another example of Ryan Walters’ desire to get clicks instead of improving student outcomes.

"School boards are elected, and they pick the superintendent for their district," Osburn said. "Rather than focusing on outcomes, he’s just trying to sow seeds of conflict with hard-working superintendents, which is simply and unnecessarily disruptive. None of this will bring us up from dead last in the nation in ACT scores and student outcomes. I wish he would focus on the job he was elected to, rather than trying to score political points for who knows what. The voters of Oklahoma and their kids deserve better."

How would this even happen? There's no actual bill in the pipeline yet, though News9 reports that Walters's office says they're writing legislation on how, exactly, this would work and they expect the full text to be released soon.

Walters complains about the "entrenched influence of radical teacher union agendas" and the damned "woke mob" which he thinks somehow pushes superintendents to defy the bright ideas of (some) conservative leaders. It's a bit of a switch from the usual complaint about elections of school board members being dominated by all that union money and influence, and I'm not clear how superintendent elections would, in his mind, escape this pernicious influence.

After you've elected a superintendent based, I reckon, on his political campaigning skills and not his running a school district skills, how does that person work with the duly elected-by-taxpayers school board? Do they still get to hire his staff and assistants, perhaps directing them to thwart him at every turn. And does Walters really believe that voters will elect superintendents based on issues like "Will you pledge to always obey Superintendent Walters" and not issues like "Will you pledge to give our elementary school a new playground" or "Will you pledge to spend more money on the girls' volleyball team." 

What kind of power does this give teachers over their boss when he has to be re-elected and they do not? I am thinking that either Walters has not thought this through, or there is another shoe waiting to drop, one that gives properly compliant superintendents new levels of supreme power over their little fiefdoms. Either way, the whole idea invites new levels of chaos and disruption to school districts. Yet some folks say this whole idea is catching on and that lobbying groups are writing model bills. 

We'll have to see one of those bills to see just how bad an idea this is, but I'm betting it's somewhere between Spectacularly Bad and Good Lord In Heaven Bad. Let's see what his office cranks out, and which legislator is willing to be his courier. 

Is Your Board Working With This Anti-Woke Board Group? Watch Out.

At the beginning of 2024, we noted the launch of one more anti-woke school association-- School Boards for Academic Excellence. They've been busy, and they are attracting some familiar friends. If you have local school board members cozying up, watch out.

They launched with an attempt to seem non-partisan, and their website still trumpets neutral-sounding language. Empowering school boards! A vision that is "focused squarely on academic excellence and student achievement, ensuring that every child, regardless of circumstance, is equipped to reach their highest potential." They believe that "the education of Americaʼs children is not a partisan issue" because Americans "across the ideological spectrum" all want an education system "focused on academic excellence and student achievement." They value "collaboration"! All swell stuff, and totally not one more load of culture panic.

And yet, their first big press was an op-ed on the Fox News website headlined, "New school boards challenge woke bureaucracy that leaves kids behind" by their executive director David Hoyt, who jumped on the claim that the National School Board Association had revealed itself to be all woke just because it asked the Department of Justice for some help with the extreme attacks coming at school board members over the evils of masking. 

The team at SBAE is a batch of right-tilted culture panic veterans.

Board member Lance Christensen is the VP of Education Policy for the California Policy Center, an affiliate of the State Policy Network, the web of right-wing advocacy and pressure thinky tanks. They put big pressure on the state to open school buildings and managed to create some NAACP infighting over charters. They brought a case to get a union thrown out as the bargaining unit in a district, and they run a "parents union" in four California regions. Christensen has also worked with the Reason Foundation and, according to the SBAE site, "was also one of the principal architects of the recent school choice initiative proposal in California."

Board member Ward Cassidy is on staff at the Kansas Policy Institute as the Executive Director for Kansas School Board Resource Center. KPI was founded by long-time Koch operative George Pearson; it hangs with the usual thinky tank advocacy groups like State Policy Network and ALEC. Cassidy served in the Kansas House of Representatives. Way back in the day, he was an actual teacher.

The board chair is Amy O. Cooke, Cooke was CEO of the John Locke Foundation in North Carolina, a post she took in 2020 after years as the executive vp of the Independence Institute of Colorado. She was also a senior fellow with the Independent Women's Forum. In other words, an entire career spent in right-tilted advocacy groups. The John Locke Foundation is tied to the Bradley Foundation, ALEC, State Policy Network, Franklin Foundation, Art Pope-- you get the idea. Her LinkedIn profile summarizes her years in Colorado fighting energy policies as "having more fun than the left allows." Her twitter handle is @TheRightAOC.

They've added a Director of Network Engagement since February. That's Jon Russell, who used to be Chief of Staff for Spotsylvania County Public Schools, one of those districts that spent time in the news because of a far right board takeover, complete with a chair calling for book burning and an unqualified superintendent. He also worked for the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, another one of those right wing advocacy thinky tanks that belongs to the SPN and advocates to end the ACA and wants Medicare Advantage for All rather than Medicare for All. Russell has also worked for ALEC.

The executive director is David Hoyt. Hoyt has worked for the Heartland Institute, Young Americans for Liberty, America's Future Foundation, The Leadership Institute, and as volunteer manager for Ron Paul's 2008 campaign. He founded Liberty Development (a fundraising service for "liberty-minded" organizations) and the Cornerstone Classical Academy, a classical charter school, in Jacksonville, Florida.

SBAE runs the ideological gamut from A to B. It's as diverse as block of uncooked tofu.

They are aimed at building a network (many states now have these faux school board groups for disaffected right-wingers who want to disrupt stuff, and they are hosting a three-day Education Policy and Training Summit this coming January in Orlando, FL. 

You'll want to get there early, because speaking at the opening reception is Oklahoma's Bible-shoving education dudebro-in-chief, Ryan Walters. The Opening dinner features Manny Diaz, Florida's qualified-by-ideology-only education chief. 

Speakers include Bill Gillmeister, who started out his career in the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, but in 2012 moved on to the Coalition for Family and Marriage, Renew Massachusetts Coalition, and the Massachusetts Family Institute--all right wing culture panic groups. There's Will Flanders, research director at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. Plus Sara Clements, a consultant who used to work for both Step Up for Students (the voucher management company) and Foundation for Excellence in Education, Jeb Bush's choicey advocacy group.

The sessions focus on lobbying, managing board meets, and the art of persuasion. Not much of anything about the actual nuts and bolts of running a school district.

If you can't make it to Florida in January, SBAE has some aids on the site. There's a piece about curriculum guidelines that includes a very specific checklist to use in making sure that the district is in line with the Science of Reading. If someone is coming after your district about SOR, I recomme3nd checking out this list which will show you what they're about. 

As another bonus, it appears that SBAE has partnered up with Jordan Adams. Adams, you may recall, is the guy who started out working for Hillsdale College, helped Florida check textbooks for wokitude, then branched out to a one-man curriculum consulting firm (Vermilion Education). Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler tried to get him a gig with Sarasota schools in early 2023. Later that 2023 summer, Adams took a swing at Pennridge schools in Pennsylvania (part of the constellation of Bucks County schools taken over by MAGA culture panickers). Neither of those worked out, though he at least got started in Pennridge. Adams did get a chance to strut his stuff at the 2023 Moms for Liberty gathering, where he laid out a program for using shock and awe to impose your right-wing agenda once you've been elected to the board. 

His consultant website for Vermillion appears to have gone dark, but now SBAE is offering his curriculum consulting services to its members.

Jordan Adams brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table. With a background in curriculum development and educational consulting, Jordan has worked with school districts across the country to improve their curricula and enhance student learning outcomes. His approach is data-driven, evidence-based, and focused on achieving.

Well, no. As far as I know, Adams was only hired at one district, started overhauling the curriculum, probably helped cost some right wingers their board election, and then had all his work rolled back.  

SBAE talks about its Network Partners a lot, but is very cagey about who and how many they are. Make of that what you will. But if any of your local board members are cozying up to these guys, prepare yourselves, because this is just more right wing culture panic Moms-for-Liberty-style ideological takeover trying to pass itself off as bi-partisan interest in student achievement. 

Run Like a Business

 

Let’s run the government like a business, drive the car like a bicycle, and play the guitar like a piano

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 6:41 AM

I'm writing this post mostly so I can hang onto this Kevin Kruse skeet forever.

Education has been plagued by the "run schools like a business" crowd since forever. They come in a variety of sub-flavors, from the "Run schools like a business so that I can profit from them" crowd to the "Run schools like they are an extension of my business so that graduates emerge ready to serve me" crowd. 

But they all share a childlike faith that running things business style is A) a simple definition and B) the best way to run anything.

But, first, there are many ways to run businesses, and many of them are terrible. In this country, we are living amidst the rubble created by many of the worst methods. And it seems oddly enough that it's proponents of some of the worst management techniques who think their methods should be imposed on education. Pick a genius visionary CEO and let him rule the country like a tin-pot dictator is not a good way to run a business. Squeeze every cent out of the business and put it in your pocket is not a good way to run a business. Cut your product to the bare minimum you can get away with is not a good way to run a business, and yet all are big faves in the "run schools like a business crowd."

Why is it that the RLAB crowd is so rarely, for instance, repeating Edward Deming's insistence that businesses are best run on trust and safety rather than fear and intimidation? 

"Run like a business" means many things, and some of them are really bad.

But even in the best cases, RLAB is not well suited to anything that involves the care of actual human beings. Businesses sort. Businesses select people into groups, groups of winners and losers, customers and "So sorry, but you'll need to look elsewhere." 

It is no more reasonable to think that the Like A Business is how every endeavor should be managed than it is to think that we should depend on magic pixies to fix everything.

After all, what are the assumptions about what Run Like A Business means? Somebody has to be in charge? It has to make money? Everyone involved has to behave like a cog in a machine and human feelings and commitments must not clog the works? The needs of owners must come ahead of all other needs and commitments? There may be some assumptions that make a certain sense, like "Don't try to deploy resources that you don't actually have." But mostly, no.

Mostly you don't run schools like a business because they are not businesses, and you don't drive a car like a bicycle or play guitar like a piano.