The NYT has numbers on the cuts at the Dept of Education. Almost 800 people have been cut at Federal Student Aid. That's a lot larger than I expected. And IES has been gutted.

Florida spending 4.3B (11.2% of total K12 expenditures) on private school choice, and Arizona 1.16B (8.4%) [via EdChoice]

“private schools in Arkansas have raised their tuitions by thousands of dollars since vouchers first became available….’The cost of tuition seems to be going up as well. In a lot of places, it seems to be the same amount as the EFA’”

what stage of the demographic transition is it when low fertility/low mortality countries opt-in to higher morality?

New comptroller's report from Tennessee on ESA schools' tuition: "Tuition at participating schools exceeds the amount of the ESA award by approximately $3,000, on average."

marry a man who makes mice squeak strangely

let’s hire professors based on teaching is the radical proposal

Only 8 states and DC have minimum salaries for teachers that exceed the minimum salary that ICE is offering to agents. Yet, unlike ICE agents, teachers in every state are required to have a bachelor's degree.

I'll write a blog post on this at some point over the next few days, but a much larger share of programs at for-profit colleges are estimated to fail the new federal earnings test using newly released data. The level of program also matters, with undergraduate certificates being the main culprit.

If you feel like everyone you know in NYC has the flu, here are some data to contextualize.

Merry Christmas y’all

when your argument catches feelings

2026 goals: be the fun coauthor

There is almost always a We behind social science papers. apparently I’m not alone in hearing “I found, my research, me me me” as a negative

educational freedom in practice...

"About 98 percent of private school students used an education savings account voucher this year, the first year the program opened to any student in kindergarten through 12th grade regardless of income."

when science calls to bless your high fat cheese habit

In any choice system (chart, mag, vouchers, intra-dist, open enr), schools can make staying so miserable parents “voluntarily” pull kids: think daily calls, endless mtgs, CPS threats over absences. Not valorizing zoned schools as a model of justice, but this is a persistent problem in need of remedy

End of year reminder to show @chalkbeat.org the love they deserve.

Professor vs Pre Holiday Grading

If you want to re-experience this 1980s squeezy toy, but way better, you need a Speks Jumbo Gump.

You're wondering what to do to shore up democracy? You live in a school district. See if there's an election for school board this year. If there is, find out if there are any candidates. (Many elections have none.) If there are, see if anyone is pro-democracy and pro-public school. If so, do

Here's the annual comparison of NYC lab-reported flu cases.

Looks like this may be a big flu season for NYC kids. As the NYT reports below, only ~1 in 4 NYC kids >6 months has received the flu shot this season.

After avoiding getting a new driver’s license for decades, Uber’s 2025 look back is the rude intervention that will finally deliver me to the DMV

A better college pitch for boys than learning and earning

"Why, after all, would anyone want to deny an abused or neglected home-schooled child the comfort of knowing that at last, at some point, someone will come to check on them?"

Education Studies minor!

Nice to see @mememedianmode.bsky.social's oral exams profiled here! I had big dreams of doing @andrewdeanho.bsky.social's Conversational Celebration of Learning, but with 52 kids, I ultimately decided I was in over my head. Maybe in the future with a smaller class.

"The humanities prepare students not just to get a job, but to keep it and excel while doing so." In an op-ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Princeton's Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett makes the case for why a humanities degree is a smart investment: https://bit.ly/48ge5CZ

Support Education Law Center-PA!

Good hair day, end of semester Via @see3trees.bsky.social

my inbox looking at me, mid December Ht @see3trees.bsky.social

butterfly effect, if this comes to pass: Mahmoud plaintiffs taking "Violet blushed hot" out of context leads to measles outbreaks in NY.

Do peer countries allow these learning conditions? I feel like this wouldn't fly in Japan or Finland.

There are only a couple of people on earth who can tell us what Hell is really like, and they are whoever was on a transcontinental flight within earshot of 64-year-old Bill de Blasio’s 5-hour-plus conversation about his fathering a baby

In 1998, during pre-service training, they put 2 gigantic desktop computers in the classroom and it was supposed to revolutionize everything. We are living through the same nonsense.

@larryferlazzo.bsky.social @marcusluther.bsky.social @heymrsbond.com @palan57.bsky.social #Edusky

Profs & K12 teachers make wild adaptations to deal w inadequate resources. We should capture them. I'll start ➡️Pilfered pens via career fairs & doctors offices (Ms. Jennings, what's McKinsey? Who is Viagra?) ➡️Brought own 🧻 ➡️Brought 2 stools from apt to NYU classrm (short 2 chairs in 50 stu lecture)

@joshua-goodman.com your move

Previous snowplow naming contest winners include Control-Salt-Delete Edward Blizzardhands Taylor Drift Mac N Freeze Snow B Wan Kenobi Sherlock Snowmes Sled Zeppelin

At Princeton's holiday party in 2023, I recorded a version of "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" with the lyrics changed to "Kate Ho is the Best Advisor." I still feel that way. I couldn't have asked for a better advisor. I can't believe she's gone.

A well-done explainer on IQ tests, their predictive power ("they do a good job of predicting future performance-but not potential"), as well as their limits as predictors ("If circumstances change, outcomes may change too.")

The 3rd annual lecture in my sister Mona’s name @medstarhealth.bsky.social was delivered last month by the great vaccine scientist @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social on “Global Vaccines and Immunizations in a Time of Climate Change, Megacities, and Anti-Science". Video now posted at: vimeo.com/1144358830

Important reality check from @mattbarnum.bsky.social on the oft-heard refrain that loosening admissions at selective schools will harm the lower-scoring students who get in by setting them up for failure. Research shows precisely the opposite: those students see real benefits.

The US would be a better place to grow up if you couldn’t post on social media until 16.