Author Archives: Andy Spears

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Fraudsters Love Vouchers

Will Arizona-style voucher fraud come to Tennessee?

Tennessee now has a big, universal school voucher scheme.

ESAs, they’re called.

And, in other states, similar programs have been susceptible to fraud.

If you don’t live in Arizona or have any kids going to school there, you can still get access to that state’s voucher funds.

A man from Florida gained access to the state’s ESA voucher funds by indicating he had children in school in the state. Of course, he didn’t – these ghost kids, though, netted him as much as 25,000.

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Kids Go Hungry in Trump’s America

An Extreme Agenda for Schools

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Learning Social Skills in a School Without Teachers

I’ve written a bit before about the coming age of schools without human teachers.

Peter Greene takes a deeper dive into AI-based schooling and comes away with a lot. Particularly this salient bit:

And how the hell are students supposed to feel about being required to get their grade by chatting with a bot? What would they learn beyond how to talk to the bots to get the best assessment? Why should any student make a good faith attempt to speak about their learning when no responsible human is making a good faith attempt to listen to them?

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Want an iPhone? There’s a School Voucher for That!

TN School Lose Big in Trump Budget

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Conservatives Push Back on Trump’s Voucher Scheme

The Big, Terrible Bill included lots not to like, including the creation of a federal school voucher program.

While conservatives tend to be proponents of state-level voucher schemes, some are raising concerns over the Trump scheme:

Though attractive on the surface, this generous credit effectively removes the burden of K-12 funding from the state and transfers it to private SGOs. This undermines states like North Carolina, who did the difficult work of reforming their education funding model to ensure dollars follow the student.

As we saw in the last administration, given enough leverage, the federal government will always try to turn funding into a cudgel to promote its social policy goals.

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Arizona Bankrolls Extreme Education Agenda

Trump Scheme Puts Key School Programs At Risk

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An Extreme Agenda

Donald Trump and his buddies at the Heritage Foundation are seeking to remake American public education in the image of Christian Nationalism.

The Trump administration has launched a partisan “patriotic” education coalition that includes US ED and more than 40 partner groups, all of which are closely aligned with the president’s MAGA movement — including Prager U, the Heritage Foundation, Moms for Liberty, Turning Point USA, America First Legal, Hillsdale College, ALEC, the Goldwater Institute, and more — to create civics programming for public schools across the nation. Many of these organizations are involved in efforts to stop teaching civil rights material, oust school board members who believe in teaching social justice, ban books, and whitewash history lessons. In the US ED press release, Turning Point USA claimed to be “more resolved than ever to advance God-centered, virtuous education for students… 

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Even Conservatives Don’t Like Federal School Vouchers

Are Democrats Getting the Message?

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Trump Budget Puts Key Education Funding At Risk

No word from Gov. Lee about pushing back on school defunding by House GOP, Trump

President Trump’s education budget includes big cuts for public education – including more than $100 million in cuts to Tennessee schools.

They also want to cut $4.5 billion from funds for afterschool and summer programs, technology and digital literacy, mental health services, rural schools, literacy instruction, new teacher training, emergency preparedness, magnet schools, services for unhoused children, arts education, American history and civics education, family engagement and more.

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Maybe Schools Don’t Need Teachers?

Will Democrats Defend Public Schools?

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House GOP Votes to Cut Funds for Schools

Republicans in the U.S. House seem willing to do Trump’s bidding – including by cutting billions in federal dollars that typically flow to public schools.

Unlike the Senate version, which did not cut K-12 funding, the House version slashes $12 billion in school spending (a 15% cut) — including $4.7 billion in cuts to Title I, which funds the nation’s most vulnerable students, constituting a 27% cut to low-income students. Democrats offered amendments to restore the proposed $4.7 billion Title I cut, but all Republicans rejected them.

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This One’s About NAEP

Trump’s Big, Ugly Voucher Scheme

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A Note on Testing

Does measuring more mean better results?

Policymakers love to tout the results of various standardized tests to prove whatever it is they’d like to prove about schools.

The reality is a bit more complicated – but also, rather simple:

That’s the one actual lesson of NAEP; the dream of data-informed, data-driven decision making as a cure for everything that ails us is just a dream. Data can be useful for those who want to actually look at it. But data is not magical, and in education, it’s fruitless to imagine that data will settle our issues.

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A Bleak Future for Schools

Diamonds, iPhones, and Vouchers

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Fall Festival in East Nashville

Episcopal School of Nashville celebrates 10th anniversary

East Nashville-based Episcopal School of Nashville will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a Fall Festival:

The celebratory, community-wide Fall Festival will be held on September 21 from 12PM-4PM at the school’s campus located at 1310 Ordway Place in Nashville.

The free event will feature games, local food trucks, face painting, giveaways, a bounce house, and more.

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Public Schools a Winning Issue for Democrats

Trump Budget Cuts Funds to TN Schools

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It Just Keeps Getting Worse

The scandal that is Arizona’s school voucher scheme keeps getting worse.

It’s not enough that an investigation revealed families using voucher funds to pay for vacations. Now, there’s evidence the voucher money was spent on diamond rings, necklaces, and iPhones.

12 News’ Craig Harris requested reports of all of the reimbursements being approved by Supt. Horne’s ADE, and the laundry list of fraud, waste, and abuse is shocking. The investigation found that private school parents using ESA vouchers for their kids “bought diamond rings and necklaces, Kenmore appliances, and even lingerie with education tax dollars… more than 200 Apple iPhones

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Betting on Vouchers in Pennsylvania

Trump Budget Cuts Funds for TN Schools

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Trump’s Private School Coupon Scheme

TN will almost certainly opt in

Yes, there’s a federal school voucher scheme.

Yes, it’s a tax giveaway to the rich.

Yes, it also means private school coupons for wealthy families.

States will have to opt in so residents can access the federal coupons.

While there are between 7-10 states unlikely to opt in, Tennessee joins the majority of states likely to participate. Of course, the Volunteer State already has its own private school coupon plan – one that will cost state taxpayers more than $140 million this year alone.

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Using Vouchers to Pay for Vacations

TN Schools Lose in Trump Education Budget