Notes for a critical history of Philly's school buildings
Every year, Philly schools have to close when it’s hot. That’s because they don’t have proper air conditioning. But for some reason, this year, when the...
Messing with the books in Newberg-Dundee
This post was written with the amazing help of Alan Gao, a long-time reader of the newsletter who answered my call to help put together critical workups of...
Blocked
Last week I wrote about a bunch of conservative education policy proposals. I thought I’d do a follow up post, since over the last few days, the idea that...
MAGAed?
It’s hard to believe that Donald Trump will be president again. Even though I’m having all the feelings associated with Kamala Harris’s loss, and I’m sifting...
Public education in the US today
It’s election day tomorrow and the vibes are tense and sweeping. But I’m not going to write about the election. I’m going to do something else instead. I...
Why're you hitting yourself? (Capping in Seattle, part 2)
I recently found out that the paid subscription link for this newsletter wasn’t working, but the fine people at Buttondown have addressed the issue. If you’d...
Capping in Seattle, or: b(ii) brute?
I’ve gotten a number of messages from separate people in Seattle about the budget crisis there. After chatting with them and doing some digging, I learned...
The despair of $3.7 million
I talked with a school district official from Beloit, Wisconsin recently and in preparation for our call I put together some notes. I found an enraging...
How to do a critical workup on a school district
A number of readers have offered to pay me for this newsletter and I’ve decided to open up paid subscriptions as an option (mostly to throw some revenue...
MEABF culpa
I’ve been thinking about the situation in Chicago, and it’s a great opportunity to meditate on how we can use this unstable moment to create structural...
Not wrong to be wrong
I got something wrong recently in my research, and in this week’s post I want to lay out some corrections I’m making to the findings and thinking behind that...
Good news in Springfield, Ohio?
Given all the fashy hubbub about Springfield, Ohio recently, I got interested in the extent to which Springfield City School District might be benefiting...
Municipal finance and divestment
Since I last wrote about university anti-genocide organizers’ disclose and divestment demands, the New School agreed to some of those demands and will vote...
Organizing for green schools on the ground
An old friend who’s been doing work at the intersection of organizing, school finance, and climate change recently sent me a panel that they’d organized with...
Get your fix at Roosevelt 66
I’ve been taking requests to look at school district budget crises recently, making short videos on tiktok and writing posts here about what I find. Every...
Stewards of students and capital
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I’d appear on the education podcast Have You Heard. The episode came out last Wednesday and you can listen to it here....
Carrots for progressives
I went to a book event recently and asked a question during the Q&A that I’ve been wanting to write about. The event was a dual book launch for Zone Books’...
MSPERS of War
I’m appearing on the amazing Have You Heard podcast later this week. The hosts asked me to look into a specific school district’s budget crisis. This time,...
Space and debt capacity near Cape Fear
Another tiktok request, this time in New Hanover County School District (NHCSD), near the Cape Fear River, around Wilmington, North Carolina. The request I...
New research: Toxic Finance--Underinvestment in Philly's School Buildings, 1993-2021
I'm so excited to announce that this paper with Dr. Camika Royal is out in the world as part of a special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration...