You remember Tennessee’s Achievement School District (ASD)? You know, the abject failure of a policy implemented by former Gov. Bill Haslam and Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman?
The state took over “low-performing” schools under the direction of a state-appointed superintendent.
In the face of dissatisfaction with current elected officials, some in Pittsburgh are calling for a state takeover of the city’s public schools:
There is, therefore, only one choice: Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor must appeal to Gov. Josh Shapiro to support legislation placing the district’s finances under state supervision, and disbanding the elected board in favor of appointed experts.
The writer continues:
PPS is broken beyond repair. Only an outside force can transform it. Happily, there is a mechanism to apply such a force.
8 more community schools close: Our hearts break for the Kyrene and Scottsdale communities, as their school boards have voted to shutter neighborhood schools. Kyrene voted to close 6 schools, and Scottsdale Unified voted to shut down 2 schools at the end of this school year. These votes come after months of emotional community input and difficult conversations about budget constraints. This brings the total number of schools shut down since universal ESA voucher expansion to 28, with at least 4 more closures expected in Amphi.
Despite the urging of county mayors, child advocates, clergy and educators, Gov. Bill Lee has declined to secure millions of dollars in federal funding to provide food to low-income kids by the government’s Jan. 1 deadline.
Lee joins a group of a dozen GOP governors who are refusing summer EBT benefits at the behest of Trump, who wants states to be less “dependent” on the federal government.
And, apparently, Lee is willing to score political points even if it means hundreds of thousands of kids face food insecurity.
Which, by the way, what kind of sick political game creates incentives for actively promoting childhood hunger?
Rep. Gabby Salinas of Memphis has filed a bill that would prevent ICE activities at Tennessee public schools.
The legislation, HB1482, provides protections, as summarized:
As introduced, prohibits the use of certain public properties, schools, and religious institutions for certain civil immigration enforcement activities; requires state departments and agencies to make available to the public certain information concerning person’s rights with regard to federal agents.
It turns out, all that “school choice” talk Gov. Bill Lee used to promote his signature policy issue – private school discount coupons – was just talk.
Kids aren’t leaving failing schools.
Kids aren’t performing better once they are in private schools.
It’s just state-sponsored privatization of a public good.
Most Tennessee public school students who use Education Savings Account vouchers aren’t leaving low-performing public schools, while ESA students overall are underperforming their public school peers in both academic achievement and growth.
Overall, students receiving ESA money performed worse on the state’s standardized tests than students in public schools, although ESA students outperformed their peers in Memphis-Shelby County schools last year. The comptroller’s report also notes that scores from students receiving ESAs have increased over time.
Meanwhile, virtual schools participating in the ESA program for the first time last year performed worse than both private schools with ESA students and local public schools. Just 20% of ESA students enrolled in virtual schools were proficient in English language arts, and just 17% were proficient in math.
And, the kids aren’t leaving behind schools that are “failing:”
“Most schools that students are leaving to participate in the ESA program are neither reward nor priority schools, which would indicate their performance is neither among the highest or lowest of public schools in the state,” the comptroller’s report states. “When considering schools that have received state and federal designations, more ESA students are leaving reward schools than priority schools.”
A tale out of Ohio highlights a frequent complaint in education: The unfunded mandate.
Lawmakers have the “best” idea – and if only districts would do it, everything would be great.
Funding? Districts don’t need money – just ideas. And mandates. Lots and lots of mandates.
This is the story of education a million times– some legislator gets a bright idea and declares “Let’s require schools to fix this” while waving vaguely in the direction of schools. And while this bright idea may require more resources and human-hours, that lawmaker will be confident that this whole new program can be implemented for free. Rick Hess has often said that you can force folks to do something, but you can’t force them to do it well. That is doubly true when you make zero effort to provide them with the resources needed to implement the program.
As AI “teachers” come closer to being reality, a warning:
Aura found that kids use AI for companionship 42% of the time, and over a third of those interactions involve talk about violence. Half of those interactions combine violence with sexual roleplay. A study by Common Sense Media finds larger numbers, with 72% of teens reporting they have used an AI companion and 52% saying they use AI companions a few times a month or more.
Humans are built for connection. With other humans.
Children crave companionship – and they are finding it in AI bots.
TC Weber suggests that state lawmakers may inadvertently drive up union membership among educators.
One bill I’m hearing about would eliminate Collaborative Conferencing altogether.
To be clear: they’re not replacing CC. They’re just eliminating it.
Which is rich, because collaborative conferencing already forces educators to do enormous amounts of work to produce guidelines the district is under no obligation to follow.
Teachers will quickly realize that interpreting state law will come down to them versus the district—and they’ll need qualified help.
The unions will be standing there with membership forms.
