How Trump Could Have Education Both Ways

I've been saying that Trump can't have both of his education dreams--if he sends federal education money to the states in stringless block grants, he can't also use the threat of withholding funds from schools that don't follow his education decrees (never mind that the second option would be illegal).

I was wrong-- and it too Corey DeAngelis to show me how.

DeAngelis (current gig- the American Culture Project) is in the pages of the right-tilted New York Post, arguing for the shutdown of the Department of Education "for the sake of the kids," and it's filled with all the usual baloney. The teachers unions are a "money-laundering operation for the radical left" and the department was a payoff from Jimmy Carter. The department is an "unconstitutional waste of time and money" and Trump should go ahead and turn all that funding into block grants--

Except that some states, the block grants wouldn't be used the right way. DeAngelis proposes a solution:

To solve this problem, any legislation Congress passes to shut down the Department of Education must say that a state can only receive block-grant funding from the shuttered department if it has a robust school-choice program.

That would solve Trump's problem. Give piles of unregulated money to states that have already adopted his preferred policy, and keep your hands on the purse strings for states you oppose in order to punish them for not privatizing their education system. "Robust" is a nicely vague word that he could define any way he wanted to (prediction: non-robust systems would be found in blue states). 

Of course, some agency in DC would have to be in charge of managing those purse strings, but any functionary can be used to implement Dear Leader's will.

So there it is-- one more way that the party of local government can extend federal control. If you comply with Dear Leader's will, you get the money, and if you don't, you have to dance through his hoops for it. 

You know, I'm old enough that I can remember when conservatives were mad at the Obama administration for playing similar games. 

Resistance

As Trump and President Musk flood the zone, it is impossible for any one person to track and respond to it all (which is, of course, part of the point). And I don't intend to try to keep up beyond the education piece, partly because I can't and partly because one of my fears is that state and local fires will burn untended while everyone tries to navigate the flooded zone. It feels so much like there's nothing that many of us can do.

Still.

The attack on the federal government perfectly mirrors the last few decades of attacks on public education. "Look, I hold here in my hand proof that this system is failing!" Followed by delegitimizing authorities. Stripping people within the system of autonomy, while promoting authoritarian forms of boss-ship ("because this thing needs a strong leader to straighten out everyone else)". The trying to shut it all down in part or in full. The only thing missing from the Trump/Musk regime is an offer of piddling vouchers so that citizens can have greater "freedom."

There's an awful lot going on in several arenas, and a lot of discussion about checks and balances and what names to call the regime and how to strategize attempts to hold it back, from filing lots of lawsuits to trying to find out what kind of crazy glue has the asses of Democratic Congresspersons stuck to the bench. 

I want to make one observation. At the root of all the various actions by the regime is a simple principle-- the nation shouldn't have to take care of Those People. Get rid of DEIO, because we shouldn't look after Those People just because they belong to a particular group (or because they are human beings and so are we). We shouldn't look after LGBTQ persons (in fact, we should wipe the T out of existence). We shouldn't look after people in other countries, especially if they have come to our country (we sometimes remember to specify "just the illegal ones" and sometimes not). Definitely not the people who ever opposed us, or tried to investigate us. The list is huge and getting huger every day.

It is almost explicit. It would have been a simple thing, when going after USAID, to pay lip service to simple empathy and social responsibility: "Of course we will make sure that people who are dependent on USAID grants for life-saving treatments are not hurt. We will make sure not to damage anything that can't be fixed later. And we will do this carefully and thoughtfully." They could have at least acknowledged the idea in a lie and gone about their fast breaking of all the things. 

But they haven't, at any point, and everything taken together, I have to conclude that the root point of all this is to wave a finger at all the rabble, all the people who aren't white male billionaires or the fans thereof, and say, "We are not taking care of you any more. We have no obligation to you as fellow humans. If you deserved more than what you have, you would have earned it. If you haven't, tough shit." And also, "See those people over there? I'm pretty sure they're out to get you."

This is the Randian dream-- to create a country in which you never have to care about anyone but yourself and your close personal circle (as long as they stay loyal to you). That is what being a king really means-- nobody can ever make you care about anyone else. (Well, that's what it means to people who don't bother with history.) 

A country in which nobody has to empathize, to sympathize, to care about other human beings. Where there's a long list of less-thans, and you can treat them as poorly as you want. Where people are moved by fear and/or power. That's the foundational animating principle under all of this. 

Yes, there are people who get caught up in it because of particular feelings about particular issues. When a regime puts its stamp on everything, it will inevitably put its stamp on issues about which reasonable people can disagree (though it will, paradoxically, use that to argue that you should not be too dogmatic about your side, but common sense tells them that their side is unequivocally correct, and attempts at a conversation with them will be frustrating and frustrated because as long you're bothering to talk about it, they will feel as if they're winning, and who, they think, gives ground when they're winning, because the Point is not to search for a truth, but to dominate). 

So, in all of this, one of the most fundamental acts of resistance is simply treating other human beings like human beings. It is empathy and sympathy. It is looking for ways to celebrate and foster joyous connections.

The anti-life of the regime embraces the view that everyone is out to get you. It requires a sense of aggrieved complaint because it is always aggrieved about something. It's a projection. "I know everyone is always out to get someone, because I know that's how people are, because I know that's how I am." They will always be coming for another group, and at the same time, there will always be palace intrigue. Someone new will always be in. Today we are all stamping out Mugwumps to protect the Kaknots; next week, we will turn and attack the Kaknots. 

Resistance means not becoming that. It means caring for other humans, looking out for other humans, feeling for other humans (even less-than-delightful other humans). 

Teachers are well-positioned for this sort of resistance, because they have a classroom of other humans every day. I always called teaching a kind of guerilla warfare, work that you undertake often in spite of the people who are supposed to be supporting you. If you are going to get your students the educational elevation they deserve (by virtue of being human beings), sometimes you have to defy a few rules. They deserve a decent education, to learn all they can about reading and writing and the world, more than rulemakers deserve unthinking obedience. That's going to be more true than ever. 

For those of us not in the classroom, the need will be to maintain human connections, to be part of a community, to remember the parts of our personal faiths that aren't centered on smiting and punishing, and just generally resist the attempts to create a country and culture centered on a harsh, uncaring worship of power, a national ethic of "I've got mine, Jack. You're on your own." 

It's not going to stop the dismantling of government agencies or flouting of law or stomping on the Constitution, but as I wade through the ugliness on line and read the comments from the regime, I can't help feeling that actual care for other human beings is going to be a radical act of resistance going forward. If nothing else, it's something that every single one of us can do. 

ICYMI: Eyeball #2 Edition (2/9)

This week was the second and final leg of my cataract surgery journey, and for those of you contemplating such an adventure, let me assure you that it's not so bad. Lefty spent 24 hours behind a shield, and since righty isn't a lot of help, I had to go 24 hours basically without any reading or writing, which turns out to be difficult. But apart from some discomfort in those hours, it has been largely trouble free. In a month I'll get a new prescription for glasses and life will be back to better-than-the-previous-normal. 

Yesterday was also our annual ice festival in town, where the park is filled with a bunch of ice sculptures. The board of directors enjoys it, and there is still a little beauty in a grim part of the year.

In the meantime, stuff has been happening. Here's your education reading for the week.

First Came the Warning Signs. Then a Teen Opened Fire on a Nashville School.

ProPublica publishes a report from Aliyya Swaby and Paige Phleger about the child who shot up his school cafeteria, killing two (including himself) in Tennessee.

DACA-Protected Middle School Science Teacher Faces Deportation

There are thousands of DACA teachers in this country. This is a bad sign.

Trump-voting states have more to lose if Education Department dismantled

Old news, but bears repeating, especially with a handy graphic.

Lawmakers introduce bill to keep undocumented students out of public schools

Tennessee, looking for new ways to be awful.

Adults Say the Darndest Things

Speaking of Tennessee, TC Weber has some thoughts about installing Penny Schwinn at the federal Education Department. He's not a fan.

AI Boosters Think You're Dumb...

John Warner's analysis of the AI pitch coming from some very special people.

Trump Wrong About U.S. Rank in Education Spending and Outcomes

Yeah, this is also not news, but when your MAHA uncle tries to bring this up, FactCheck.org has the details you can bring up so that he can ignore them.

Cold As Ice

Gregory Sampson looks at the Duval County schools plan for when ICE shows up to grab some kids. It is not an encouraging plan.

Abstinence Until Marriage? Coming to a School Board Near You.

Also in Ducal, and Florida, a return to the most unsuccessful program ever-- abstinence only sex ed. Sue Kingery Woltanski has the story.

Diversity and Tracking

Nancy Flanagan and the clever ways we have come up with to perpetuate racism in schools.

Trump's MAGA takeover of education may backfire with parents

Amanda Marcotte at Salon offers a little history lesson in the business of trying to inflict right wing indoctrination on local schools--even in red states.

New NAEP Scores No Reason To Panic

Thomas Ultican explains why the new NAEP scores do not actually signal the end of the world.

The Coup

Audrey Watters explains why computer tech has always gone hand in hand with authoritarian baloney.

Is This the Final Knockdown of America’s Public Schools?

Nancy Bailey looks at some current threats to the Department of Education.

Keri Rodrigues Should NOT Be Appointed to Massachusetts K-12 Statewide Graduation Council

Maurice Cunningham explains what should not need explaining-- corporate lobbyists don't belong on state education leadership groups.

What Does It Mean that Trump Wants to Ban “Discriminatory Equity Ideology” in Public Schools?

Jan Resseger takes a thoughtful look at an order that sure looks like "Let's make racism great again."

Perpetual Fear

Benjamin Riley has lived in South Africa and was in New YHork City on 9/11, and he uses those experiences to anchor a powerful piece about living in Trump's USA.

Here at DOGE, We've Streamlined Every Aspect of America's Collapse

At McSweeney's, Tom Ellison provides the very darkest of humor.

Two from me at Forbes/com this week-- Donald Trump may be on track to relearn some lessons of Common Core, and one legislator in New Hampshire wants to slash graduation requirements. 

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OH: Ten Commandments Time

Next week Ohio's legislature will reportedly hold its first hearing on SB 34, a bill to display "certain historical documents in public schools."

The bill was sponsored by Senator Terry Johnson and co-sponsored by seven other Ohio worthies, and it at least attempts to provide some fig leaves to go with its aim of requiring school boards to post the Ten  Commandments in each classroom. The board "shall select" at least one of the following:

The Mayflower Compact
The Declaration of Independence
The Northwest Ordinance
The mottoes of the United States and Ohio
The Ten Commandments
The Magna Carta
The Bill of Rights
The United States Constitution
The Articles of Confederation

(And before you freak out, the Articles of Confederation are not from 1860, but from 1777--essentially the first attempt at a Constitution).

Again, the choice is required, and in the hands of the local board of education. Will plenty of districts choose one of the secular options? Sure they will. But for those who want to breeze past the First Amendment and do some religion establishment in the classroom, this bill provides cover. 

In fact, the local board can even erect "a monument or other marker" inscribed with one or more of these documents, and put it anywhere on school grounds. 

The district may take contributions of either funding or the actual displays. They tried this in Texas with "In God We Trust" posters, and Patriot Mobile, the Oh So Very Christian mobile phone company donated a bunch of posters. Of course, so did folks who incorporated rainbows and arabic writing, leading a huge dustup over just what sort of trust students were supposed to be tossing toward which gods. The Ohio law includes a clause that if the contributor tries to tell the school how to do their display, the school can turn them down. 

The Ohio display has to include an explanation of the historical importance of the item displayed, otherwise it would be obvious that the school had put up a religious display. This "historical importance" dodge is popular with the religious display-in-school crowd, at least until the Supreme Court finally rules that it would inhibit the free exercise of christianists not to be able to impose their religion on schools.

No word in the bill about which version of the decalogue schools are supposed to use. 

An actual Christian might be a bit put off by the way this bill equates a sacred text with some political documents, as if the founding fathers and the Great I Am are pretty much on equal footing, much like the Louisiana Ten Commandments law suggests putting up posters that equate Moses with Speaker Mike Johnson. 

Will the Ohio legislature show some sense? One never knows. Stay tuned.

AK: No, Alaskan Charters Don't Lead The Nation

Alaska's Mike Dunleavy is one more governor who really wants to cut into his state's public education sector. Lately he's been publishing editorials to boost the idea of expanding the charter sector in Alaska, making claims such as calling Alaska charter schools "the envy of the nation" and claiming they can boast being Number 1. 

The numbers don’t lie: Alaska’s charter schools consistently outperform traditional public schools in academic achievement, parental satisfaction and student engagement.

Except that's not true.  

Dunleavy is basing his claims on this report from Paul Peterson and M. Danish Shakeel in the Journal of School Choice (a real legitimate academic journal and certainly not a clearing house for advocacy masqu3erading as real academic research). Shakeel is a UK professor who has co-published reports with choice luminaries like Robert Maranto, Patrick Wolf, and Corey DeAngelis. Paul Peterson, of the Harvard Kennedy School, has made a career out of producing research that supports charter and voucher programs (Josh Cowen covers him extensively in The Privateers).

We could talk about how the report was commissioned by the Walton Foundation in order to buttress the case for charter schools, and I would love to talk about how it depends on scores from the Big Standardized Test to make its claims. But here's the thing about the Peterson/Shakeel report-- it doesn't even say what Dunleavy says it says.

Public schools do not appear anywhere in the paper, which is strictly a state by state comparison of charter school performance on the NAEP (the "gold standard" of national B S Tests). There are seven tables that rank states; Alaska is first in only two of them. 

In January, Beth Zirbes and Mike Bronson wrote a paper that further debunks Dunleavy's claims. Zirbes has a masters degree in both mathematics and statistics, and teaches high school math and statistics. Bronson holds a doctorate in biology and volunteers with the Anchorage NAACP, and their analysis is simple and clear. "Student achievement" has very little to do with charter vs. public school and everything to do socioeconomic status. And if you like visuals, Zirbes and Bronson drew a picture:

The authors found that charter schools on average "have very different student bodies than neighborhood schools." Charters had proportionately fewer poor students and English language learners. In fact, they found "Alaska charter school student bodies look like private schools in the Lower 48 states more than they resemble charter school students in the Lower 48"-- Alaska charter students are richer and whiter than charter students in the Lower 48. 

In 2019, just 3.5% of neighborhood schools in Alaska had fewer than 20% rates of economically disadvantaged students. Almost half of charter schools had below 20%. Only three of Alaska's twenty-eight charters enroll more than 10% of their student body from the ranks of English language learners. 157 of the state's neighborhood schools were above 10%. 

Zirbes and Bronson also note that the Peterson could not share what actual samples were used for his study. Nor does his study allow for the fact that Alaska's charter population is self-selecting, and no sort of control group was involved. 

Bottom line, once again-- controlling for the characteristics of the students involved, there is no evidence that charter schools do anything better than public schools, other than selecting higher-performing students. 

AI Skeptic Ed Zitron

My advice for folks wrestling with the Artificial Intelligence [sic] marketing blitz for education is to find trusted sources of reality based writing about the topic. Here at the Institute we follow the work of Benjamin Riley and Audrey Watters, both of whom are not only knowledgeable but who also provide lots of leads to other trustworthy sources. I also keep my eyes peeled for gems like Anne Lutz Fernandez's series about AI mania in schools. 

AI skeptics come in many shades and flavors, and if you like your skepticism straight up and seriously resistant to all the magical prophecies, let me suggest Ed Zitron.

Zitron has a podcast called Better Offline and a newsletter. He's a Brit but lives in Vegas. He does PR and tech writing, and you can get a taste of what he's about in a recent Slate interview with Alex Kirschner. 

One of Zitron's key points is that AI simply hasn't produced anything to merit the unending hype.

On top of that, we are years into generative A.I. Where is the horizontal enablement? Where is the thing it’s enabling? Two years. Show me one thing which you use that you go, “Oh, damn, I’m so glad I have this.” Show me the AirPlay; show me the Apple Pay. Show me the thing that you’re like, “Goddamn, I’m glad this is here.”

Or on the need to "find the product:"

Find the actual thing that genuinely changes lives, improves lives, and helps people. Though Uber as a company has horrifying labor practices, you can at least look at them and go, “This is why I’m using the app. This is why this is a potentially world-changing concept.” Same with Google search and cloud computing.

With ChatGPT and their ilk—Anthropic’s Claude, for example—you can find use cases, but it’s hard to point to any of them that are really killer apps. It’s impossible to point to anything that justifies the ruinous financial cost, massive environmental damage, theft from millions of people, and stealing of the entire internet. Also, on a very simple level, what’s cool about this? What is the thing that really matters here?

He cites a great cognitive dissonance, where we are being told to be excited about a thing that doesn't actually do the stuff that is supposed to be so exciting.

We’re being told, “Oh, this automation’s gonna change our lives.” Our lives aren’t really being changed, other than our power grids being strained, our things being stolen, and some jobs being replaced. Freelancers, especially artists and content creators, are seeing their things replaced with a much, much shittier version. But nevertheless, they’re seeing how some businesses have contempt for creatives.

“Why is this thing the future? And if it isn’t the future, why am I being told that it is?” That question is applicable to blue-collar workers, to hedge fund managers, to members of the government, to everyone, because this is one of the strangest things to happen in business history.

These claims are exceptionally familiar to educators, who are being told relentlessly that AI is going to transform education. The advantage teachers have over the general public is that we have been told that some piece of technology is going to transform education roughly a gazillion times. Unfortunately, some teachers work in districts where the administration falls for that line every single time. Every. Single. Time.

But in education, the claim that This Is The Future will always get some folks worked up, because isn't education always supposed to have one foot in the future? 

Zitron also blames late stage corporate striving. Steve Jobs once talked in an interview about how a company can only gather so much of the market and only improve its products so far, and at that point the product people are pushed out, and the bean counters take over. Zitron echoes that, and offers Zoom as an example

Zoom is a company that grew based on the fact that, “Hey, I want to easily talk to someone on video and audio.” Now they’re adding A.I. bullshit because they don’t know what else to do because they have to grow forever. That’s where they all are.

These aren’t companies run by people that build products. These aren’t companies that win markets by making a better thing than the competition. These people are monopolists. They’re management consultants.

I've long argued that education is where private sector consulting ideas go to die ("Management By Objectives is tapped out for corporations--maybe we could come up with a version for schools). It may well be the same for technology that sees education not as a set of needs to be met, but as an untapped market with money to be hoovered up. Which just gets us to the position that teachers know all too well: here's a piece of tech that someone in administration thought would be cool--now go figure out how to change the way you teach so that you can use this tech, somehow.

Zitron may have less faith in AI than just about anyone out there, so you may find him a little dark for your tastes, but he does a fine job articulating some of what's bothering you about AI that you can't quite put into words. And while he doesn't address education directly, much of what he has to say will strike a familiar chord.

What Do Microschools Look Like These Days

Microschools are a small but important piece of the privatization argument. And some reporting shows just how unaccountable for educating they are.

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.

Why the microschool love? Because they help plug a big hole in the privatization argument. Are you opposed to taxpayer-funded school vouchers because there are no private schools in your neighborhood that will accept you child (or just none at all)? Never fear, comes the argument-- you can have a microschool! Anybody can have a microschool! So taxpayer-funded school vouchers really do serve everyone, even if it seems as if they actually don't.

But who are they serving, and how well are they serving them?

Nobody is collecting a ton of data about microschools, but in April of 2024, Don Soifer and Ashley Soifer, CEO and Chief Innovation Officer of the National Microschooling Center did a little sector analysis that sheds a little light. They looked at 400 microschools in 41 states. That's a small sample size-- Dan Soifer told The Hill that he figures there are about 95,000 microschools serving 1.5 million children. Still, the report does paint a bit of a picture.

One third of microschool founders are currently licensed educators, one third are formerly licensed educators, and one third are neither. About half are starting their first business. 85% of the schools are serving 5-11 year olds, 66% 12-14 year olds, and 37% older teens. Only 40% of students came from public school; 33% were home schooled, and 14% were from private or charter schools. 

18% were serving 51 or more students, which strains the definition of a microschool considerably. 55% are set up as a center serving home schooled students, and 37% as a licensed non-public school; these designations have a lot to do with state regulations. Only 16% are state accredited. 32% get state school choice funds, with 63% tuition-based funding. Families self-report as 60% above or at the average income for their area.

41% operate in commercial business space, 25% in a church, and 20% in a residence. 

60% use a self-directed approach, and 60% use project based. 52% use Social-Emotional Learning. 27% are religion based. 54% use self-created curriculum, and 50% use online learning tools.

There's a lot of room for less-than-stellar schooling in this model. Like most private schools, microschools generally don't answer to the state for issues of discrimination. There are, as with most taxpayer-funded school voucher programs, plenty of state funding going to people who don't particularly need it. And states like Florida allow microschools to skip health and safety regulations imposed on schools.

The Soifer's report covers many details, but not a central question-- are the students learning anything? Many microschools make a big deal out of the centrality of the computer in the model-- "education for the 21sr Century!"

Microschools were having a big moment last year, but more recently things have been quiet in that sector. The 74 just ran a piece about how microschools can empower education-flavored entrepreneurial spirit, and the Center for American Progress, a left-tilted outfit that generally loves reformy stuff, just put out a piece warning that microschools need some regulation. They aren't wrong; microschools exist in their own little pocket universe where pretty much anyone can teach pretty much anything in pretty much any way they want (your mileage may vary depending on the state). And while the current administration fast tracks the dream of getting government out of schooling and making every child's education a family DIY project, microschools will have support, whether they deserve it or not.