Education News, Analysis, and Commentary
I remember one (well funded, natch) education non-profit leader telling me at a dinner a few years ago how crazy, and disrespectful, it was for me to say that Black people might vote for Donald Trump in numbers. OK. Here’s a chart of shifts in national vote patterns in last week’s election. From a political …
More to come on the election and its impact—but for now, a few thoughts. First, for Democrats, this was avoidable, and it’s consequently inexcusable. At some level, it’s the obvious things: the incumbent administration is unpopular, and people are frustrated. Women care about issues besides abortion. Sure. Except, the other candidate was Donald Trump, and the …
Continue reading “Shellacked. What Are The Education Takeaways From The Election?”
ICYMI — Laura Marcus from Tidelines Institute stopped by to talk about her education journey and the experiential education work she is leading in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Jed and I discussed several issues on the last WonkyFolk. Here’s a new analysis on AI from Bellwether. And here’s a new analysis of special education finance from Bellwether. It took Harvard 388 years to catch …
A few memories stay with me from the very early days of the pandemic. Mostly about what I got wrong or right, or just got lucky. My wife and I throw themed dinner parties and on Feb. 29th of 2020 we threw a small one with a leap theme, about great leaps. We served grasshoppers …
ICYMI earlier in the week I wrote about why, despite the stridency about non-profit and for-profit status, tax status actually doesn’t matter a lot in key ways. Last week I took a look at AI and suggested that while bias is an issue given how these models work, we shouldn’t over-index on it. Google over-indexed …
It’s the first week of January so here’s the In and Out list (2023 here and 2022 here). It’s unscientific, it’s impressionistic, and it’s informed by your emails so keep sending them. Happy New Year. Out In Dress Codes Gender stereotypes Networks Hubs Philanthropic dollars in education Philanthropic commitment to education Race-based affirmative action Essays …
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Today, reader reactions to two recent posts, a couple of items not by me you may have missed, and a serious fish. Some selected reactions to the recent post on funders and risk. A few funders wrote to say, ‘hey we’re doing this!’ A few shared interesting examples of different kinds …
What I’ve written: I have a short commentary in The 74 today about the Spencer Cox veto of a bill aimed the transgender students and sports issue. What I’ve read: A few interesting things this week, with implications for education. This survey data on special education parents is worth your time. People keep talking about pandemic …
Continue reading “Odds & Ends…And Again, The Ed Sector’s Eliteness”
Happy New Year. K-12 education is the one issue where Democrats don’t think giving money and power to poor people is a good idea. And it’s the one issue where Republicans generally do. After two years of pandemic disruptions, parental frustration, and a political shift is 2022 the year we square that circle a bit? …
Continue reading “Loudoun County Backstory, DeVos’ Diligence, Bloomberg Punches, Empirical Music….”
Matt Taibbi is going deep on Loudoun County ($). As we’ve discussed around here much of “narrative” about Loudoun County was at odds with the facts on the ground (this is one reason why the Republican effort to translate their Virginia success to national campaigns is not straightforward). This is important reporting that gets underneath …
Continue reading “Loudoun Reporting, Emerging Democratic Education Problem, Overworked…More…”