This is a really frustrating delay for the Invest in MI Kids campaign, and a sign of underhanded tricks to come.

How a “BLT” of Republicans and Democrats Teamed Up to Reform Michigan’s School Finance System - MI Good Government One July day in 1993, Michigan had a system to pay for public schools across the state. The next day it was gone.

Some useful history on Michigan's Proposal A system of school funding, from former State Representative Lynn Jondahl. A sincere bipartisan compromise, it was never meant to be the last word.

July 4th: No Celebration for Me Today I have always been a patriotic American. I love the United States. To me, this country has always represented the words of welcome–the poem by Emma Lazarus– attached to the statue of Li…

I am a grandchild of relatively recent immigrants, a descendant of earlier ones. My grandparents' citizenship papers were their most prized possessions. I have always believed in the promise of this nation, and worked toward making that real. But right now, I mostly feel sadness and betrayal.

July 1, 2025 Just after noon today, the Senate passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill.

Our very own GULAG archipelago: "In answer to the question 'How many more facilities like this do you feel that the country needs...?' Trump said today: 'Well, I think we'd like to see them in many states,.... And,... they might morph into a system where you're going to keep it for a long time.'”

Why inflation data won't include prices from these cities in Utah, Nebraska and New York The federal government is scaling back data collection used to calculate the inflation rate. Economists warn that could make for less accurate cost-of-living measures.

The federal government is scaling back data collection used to calculate the inflation rate. Economists warn that could make for less accurate cost-of-living measures.

Pennsylvania public schools could save $616 million under cyber charter reform plan The state House passed a bill to cap the tuition payments school districts make to cyber charters. It's part of a several-year effort to boost oversight and cut spending on the cyber schools.

Cyber charter reform that could save public schools $616M advances with unclear future in Pa. Senate
www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2025/06/05/...

June 4, 2025 Just hours after President Donald J.

OMB Director Russell Vought "was a key author of Project 2025, whose aim is to disrupt and destroy the United States government...."

The Perverse Incentives of School Choice When researcher Josh Cowen is talking about the negative effects of school vouchers on education, he often points at "subprime" private schools-- schools opened in strip malls or church basements or s...

We've been making this argument for a while: "accountability" systems reward short-term thinking and teaching, when the impact we really care about is in the long term. Plus, private sector actors' legal first duty is to their owners, not their "customers" (the students). New word: enshittification

If You Believe Trump, He’s Already Brought In New Investments Totaling Half Of The Entire GDP Spoiler alert: You shouldn’t be believing Donald Trump.

About that $14 trillion Trump claims to have raised over the past few weeks...

He made it up.

The tell: The White House won't send receipts
The other tell: He's claiming that every dollar a Qatari earns over the next 5 years will be invested in the US
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Trump tariffs prompt nearly $1B reduction in state of Michigan revenue projection The state of Michigan's financial picture has eroded considerably since January 2023, when the state was sitting on a $9.2 billion budget surplus.

Trump's tariffs aren't just raising costs for you—they're putting a squeeze on our state budget. That makes it harder to invest in the services Michiganders rely on, from roads to schools to public safety. www.freep.com/story/news/l...

More from Florida Man. Remember "Purity Of Essence"?

Important study provides concrete examples of how schools and educators are responding to these "anti-DEI" policies. It's dystopian.
Thanks to @micapollock.bsky.social and @hiroyoshikawany.bsky.social for these research.

I have rock bottom expectations for congressional Republicans but the fact that they actually used Trump’s dipshit phrase for the bill suggests I’m still overestimating them

After 'Backroom Deal' to Make Medicaid Cuts Even Worse, GOP Passes Budget Bill Out of Committee | Common Dreams "The only reason this vote passed tonight is because they've plotted behind closed doors to hurt even more families."

Trump's budget is back on track after Speaker Johnson made concessions to GOP hardliners on Sunday.

The holdouts demanded the bill's devastating Medicaid cuts — already the largest in history — be made even deeper and faster.

Their priorities couldn’t be clearer.

Remember the long term strategy: "The Manhattan Institute’s Rufo summed up this strategy [of endless culture wars] quite frankly in a speech at Hillsdale College in 2021: 'To get to universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust.'”

May 16, 2025 MAGA world is performing over-the-top outrage over a photo former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey posted on Instagram, where he has been teasing a new novel.

After a review of Trump using outrageous tweets to distract, this: "[N]ews broke that Homeland Sec Kristi Noem has been in talks with [the makers of] Duck Dynasty for a new show [where] immigrants compete against each other in cultural contests to [speed up] their U.S. citizenship applications."

Just a reminder that the GOP had to tuck a controversial school voucher program into the budget reconciliation bill in order to get around their own voters. Opposition to vouchers among Trump supporters deserves way more attention than it's gotten...

Fast Fact: 26% of all charter schools shut down by year 5. Learn more about charter schools and how they impact YOUR local public schools at the National Center for Charter School Accountability. networkforpubliceduc...

Defunding PBS Is an Attack on Compassion: Remember What Mr. Rogers Said As calls to defund PBS resurface in today’s political climate, it’s worth remembering a quiet, powerful moment in American history—Fred Rogers’ 1969 testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Comm…

Defunding PBS Is an Attack on Compassion: Remember What Mr. Rogers Said cloakinginequity.com/2025/05/12/d...

Red State Blues Conservative candidates just got wiped out in Texas. Here's why it matters

This weekend's sweeping rejection of education extremism by Texas voters was about more than just school board races. Look closely at the Texas tea leaves and you can see the weakness of the MAGA movement. My latest open.substack.com/pub/educatio...

In prison, I finally learned to embrace social and emotional learning I can’t help but wonder what my life might have been like if I’d had access to these tools in grade school.

Check out this powerful op-ed penned by one of my incarcerated students in the BC Prison Education Program. He's convinced that if he'd had access to social and emotional learning tools as a kid the *trail of destruction* that's been his life might have been avoided www.chalkbeat.org/2025/05/12/i...

Budgets as Propaganda Trump's budget proposal formalizes the paranoid style as government policy

Budgets as Propaganda

“Trump’s budget echoes Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which used propaganda to justify an attack on higher education, fueling a lost decade for Chinese research and a much longer period of damage to state capacity and innovation.”

I talked to someone who didn't vote in 2024. I asked her why. She said she hates Trump policies, but thought Kamala "couldn't speak well." I asked her what she meant.

She watched a YouTube video that was spliced to make Kamala look like an idiot. This voter fell for it and stayed home. The point?

NPR receives $2-3M/year in federal funding.

PBS receives $80-85M.

The military-themed birthday parade Trump is throwing himself will cost taxpayers $92M.

We’re told cutting news and kids programming to fund an authoritarian birthday bash somehow “makes America great again”

A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students The Trump administration is subverting the traditional priorities of the department’s decimated civil rights office by making discrimination investigations practically impossible — instead enforcing i...

Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students #Sickening #Heartbreaking www.propublica.org/article/educ...

Kennedy Issues Demands for Vaccine Approvals That Could Affect Fall Covid Boosters The plans amount to an extraordinary flex of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s power as health secretary to make decisions ordinarily left to career scientists at the Food and Drug Administration.

I’d say that Kennedy Jr.—whose deranged conspiracy theories are now likely to cost America a new COVID-19 booster this fall—won’t be happy until his narcissism costs tens of thousands their lives, but the truth is he won’t be happy then, either.

He’s a miserable man engaged in miserable misconduct.

Opinion | Trump has only himself to blame With little to celebrate about his first 100 days in office, Trump in Michigan dwelled on the past.

Is Trump central to Trumpism? Or is it more like Ronald Reagan, where the people surrounding him gave him the script and even hid key actions from him to maintain "deniability"? Does it make a difference? Maybe. (Also, were the protestors lining the route hidden from the press pool?)

NPE on Tik Tok - Part 2 #Project2025 Robbing America’s Children #edutok #educationtiktok #teacher #school #fyp
www.tiktok.com/@netw...

So much of the progress we've made is now under assault. What we teach our children will determine what our society looks like in the future.

After many recommendations, I finally started watching the Star Wars show Andor. I found this moment from season 1 to be particularly relevant. What do you think?