"There is no condition in which the university is under attack that the whole of U.S. educational infrastructure, public and private, from pre-K up, is not under attack. And there is no condition in which education is under attack in which civil society can remain unimperiled."

And please, PLEASE let us not forget that time in 2023 when Karen Smith was elected President of the school board in Bucks County, Pa and swore her oath on a stack of banned books. The most gangsta oath ever! Just brilliant. www.edweek.org/leadership/t...

Rep. Robert Garcia was sworn in with a Superman comic! www.bbc.com/news/world-u...

Here's a thread of the books I read this year in order accompanied by a sentence-long review:

"While the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda has been ruthless in attempting to spread fear, chaos, and division across our neighborhoods, communities, and spirit this past year, ordinary Americans everywhere are saying no." americasvoicecnn.substack.com/p/americans-...

I watched Tokyo Godfathers for the first time this morning. Amazing movie! I'm adding it to my Christmas movie rotation for next year. 🥹

Like our northern neighbor, America will also create a taxpayer-subsidized gay romance miniseries once Woke 2.0 is in full effect. 🫡

This decision is disappointing and confusing.

It's one poll, it's AtlasIntel *AND* the D+18 on Education should really offer up some incentives to envision and advocate for a different type of education than we have now. Imagine a Dem policy that said less screens, less AI, more teachers, more funding, more books. A whole lane is open here!

Calling all literacy and ELA leaders (department chairs, supervisors, coaches, and more)! Submit a conference proposal exploring the intersection of “literacy” and “English” in our field. What does it mean to be a literacy leader and/or an English leader? #CEL26 #NCTE26 ncte.org/groups/cel/2...

ALA, @bookriot.bsky.social, @penamerica.bsky.social, @flfreedomread.bsky.social, @txfreedomread.bsky.social all track different aspects of the movement - no matter how you look at it, book bans are sweeping across the country. Don't miss our joint report: https://bit.ly/4qkTZh5

"Concerned citizens are speaking out at school board meetings, holding rallies, and organizing postcard campaigns to support libraries, authors, and people’s stories. People are coming together to fight censorship and celebrate the joy of reading and learning." bookriot.com/book-censors...

POTUS and GOP are weak, and so is centrism, honestly. push for the change you want: be vocal that everyone deserves healthcare. that people should be free. that all of us should have robust due process rights & not have to panic about criminalization. that everyone has rights, esp. trans youth

This week at The Banned Resistance, I wrote about repairing harm to the LGBTQ community with specific examples of what that might look like. We hope you’ll read, share, subscribe thebannedresistance.substack.com/p/repairing-...

this is, of course, exactly what republicans have always intended for vouchers to do: defund public education to facilitate the creation of a private system of segregation academies

A good sign, I think, that a piece advocating for *whole books* is getting published in AFT's magazine. Hopefully more pieces like this in similar venues with wide audiences are to come! www.aft.org/ae/winter202...

📣"The answer is seizing the means of curricular production." 📣 That means school boards, department chairs, community curriculum review boards, etc. We can all play a part in making sure teachers have the space to exercise their expertise!

Join this webinar to learn from members of the Teaching Comics Teacher Cohorts about resources they created to support student literacy using the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Great Immigrants, Great Americans comic series. Register now: https://ncte.org/introducing-great-immigrants/

My kingdom for a politician who says, "We need less screens in school and more whole books." Give teachers resources and time to teach whole books! Students need to read whole books and talk about whole books as a community. I'm sure this position is a popular one!

this is like a capsule summary of the problems with a singular focus on quantifiable data

The attacks on teacher tenure followed by the current wave of book bans were fueled by the GOP state legislature wins in 2010. The news that Democrats will be contesting all sorts of seats is good news.

"Democracy is just neighbors working together to make our lives in common better." 🥹

Worth reading for lots of reasons, but particularly because it closes with something I see in my work and travels speaking on writing and AI. Many, maybe most students do not want AI-mediated schooling or lives. We can offer them something better. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

I really can't emphasize enough that if you care about local politics, all you gotta do is show up. Just a regular schmegular person showing up. Literally just show up consistently in person and within a remarkably short amount of time, you will have a shocking amount of influence.

AI Is Not Inevitable join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Or better yet: make GenAI about an assault on civics. Because if you are selling a product that necessarily attempts to con one person into believing they are engaging with another person when they are not, you’re not just ruining education. You’re dismantling society’s foundations in social trust.

Will YOU be in NYC next Monday? WE NEED YOU! Come to Union Square at 3:30 for your rally to get the governor to sign the NY Freedom to Read Act. This is a joint effort with several organizations (including @authorsabb.bsky.social) and we need it to be BIG and LOUD! Please share!

I'm reading an ARC of The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America right now. Preorder your copy now. It's vital work and should be required reading. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/737430...

This semester I had my students sign a form starting they understood if they used AI to make material then I would not write them a letter of recommendation or serve as a reference. Teaching is *human* work. I support humans and their thoughts, ideas, and lessons.

I appreciate this reframing and context.

Headed to #NCTE2025? This doc has the sessions related to censorship! The bolded sessions feature members from @ncte.org's Committee Against Censorship. The book banners are on the wrong side of history, but we need community, solidarity, and strategy to make that happen. Join us in the work.

I really can't stress how important it is for progressive and leftists to contend for school, library, water, etc etc boards. Hyper local involvement in our communities where we can actually influence lives.

It's only one poll etc. etc, but if this result were to hold true next year then the GOP loses the Senate race in TX (among many, many, MANY other races).

we are going to win

I'd love to see how a candidate who aggressively said, "I'm going to tax people like Elon Musk so we can get food in kids' bellies and books in kids' classrooms" would do in a general election.

Where are the learning loss people? It’s hard to learn at school if you’re afraid to go because the secret police might kidnap you.

Finally got my Election Recap posted! The summary? Voters hate book banners. It’s an established pattern, even in red states like Texas. Read the details of how pro-censorship school board candidates took another drubbing in the Lone Star State: franklinstrong.substack.com/p/election-r...

Top 5 film genres: - Sad girls looking pensively out windows - It's bad but I'm gay so it's camp - Slice of life animated movie - Passage of time's impact on friendships - Julia Roberts romcom

I finished this book today. Highly recommend! One lesson, among many, is that successful work requires taking setbacks as opportunities to recalculate strategies & widen coalitions. It's about LGBTQ history in K-12 CA schools & policy work at-large. www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/contested-cu...

All K-12 schools and colleges should be doing this——-Church and College Leaders Work to Free a Detained Afghan Student www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/n...

So saddened by the news that we have lost Alice Wong. It was an honor to know her and learn from her. May the lessons she shared continue to guide us for years to come.

Every decade, we hear "the kids can't read or write!" Interventions that don't work are proposed. Those that do work are ignored: reducing class sizes, making kids & families feel safe at school and welcome, becoming a community resource. When their expensive reform fails, they yell at us again.

Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...

Can't wait to be among friends at NCTE and NCTE_CEL next week!! @naemmanuele.bsky.social @hcodymiller.bsky.social @ncte.org Register for CEL and/or stop by our NCTE Conference on English Leadership sessions where you can learn more about how we are driving literacy leadership forward!

To frame this another way: there are a lot of decision-makers sounding the alarm about a "student reading crisis" while implementing policies in their districts and schools that are actively removing books from the hands of students (And that's BEFORE we talk about the censorship going on, too)

Trying something new in the classroom is both the most exciting and scary thing. This is such a great reflection of that pedagogical process! #TeacherSky

It's time for CUNY to shine, not only in ed-tech but in broader curriculums that link fair education to fair work and fair tech.

Saying this in a room full of unionized teachers is very cool! 💪

Mamdani says in his victory speech, “we will hire thousands of teachers.” This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.

Every school board election.