In response to a lawsuit filed by more than 300 public school districts, a state appeals court ruled vouchers unconstitutional. The vote was unanimous. Article VI, Section 2 of the Ohio State const…

By Thomas Ultican 10/13/2026 At NPE Houston, a woman from Ohio gave me the book Right Down the Drain. It is a product of the Department of Education graduate school at Miami University Oxford, Ohio…

By Thomas Ultican 10/13/2026 At NPE Houston, a woman from Ohio gave me the book Right Down the Drain. It is a product of the Department of Education graduate school at Miami University Oxford, Ohio…

There can be no American Dream without strong public schools. That’s why public education is enshrined in the Texas Constitution: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation ...

Edunomics’ spending-and-scores graphs have been showing up in one state after another. It’s only a matter of time before they show up in New Jersey. Here’s why they misinform rath…

Tom Ultican, retired teacher of physics and advanced mathematics, writes powerful columns about the value of public schools and the misguided efforts of those who vilify public schools. In this pos…

Two former U.S. education secretaries—one Republican and one Democrat—argue that the federal government needs to stop just handing out money for public education and start demanding real results. M…

In his soon-to-be-released book Vaporware, Inc, political scientist David Karpf argues that Silicon Valley is no longer in the business of inventing new technologies, building new products, or enginee...

By Thomas Ultican 10/13/2026 At NPE Houston, a woman from Ohio gave me the book Right Down the Drain. It is a product of the Department of Education graduate school at Miami University Oxford, Ohio…

The Time Has Come for a Second Reconstruction.

No Matter Where You Live; Here are 12 More Locations, from El Centro to OB to Hemet

I have written about the devastating consequences of vouchers for years and the fact that they are promoted by billionaires and rejected whenever they are put to a statewide vote. So it is very sat…

The news across Ohio this November is about the enormous number of local school levies on the ballot. School finance expert Howard Fleeter provides the details: “There are 131 school issues o…

Margaret Spellings and Arne Duncan are caught in some sort of black hole, a time loop that will not let them escape their dreams about federally-driven test-centered education reform. And they’re back...

October 17: What Steps Will You Take to Defend Democracy?

As Short and Sweet as I Could Make It; Links to Longer Analyses.

John Thompson, historian and retired teachers in Oklahoma, questions the outbreak of bigotry towards Muslims, starting at the tip. He writes: Gov. Kevin Stitt recently ordered the Oklahoma Departme…

By Thomas Ultican 10/13/2026 At NPE Houston, a woman from Ohio gave me the book Right Down the Drain. It is a product of the Department of Education graduate school at Miami University Oxford, Ohio…

“Some teachers work in schools in which the culture supports change, while others work in schools in which maintaining the status quo is of paramount importance.” Lorin Anderson (2011)

Change Begins With ME​ Indivisible invites you to join us in University City

By Thomas Ultican 10/13/2026 At NPE Houston, a woman from Ohio gave me the book Right Down the Drain. It is a product of the Department of Education graduate school at Miami University Oxford, Ohio…

Marc Elias is a leading lawyer in defense of democracy. He has won numerous federal and state cases in defense of voting rights. In this post, Elias refutes The Big Lie. By Marc Elias · Democr…

“Don’t make enemies of the ubër wealthy, people you think will make you President of the United States.”

Bruce Baker has written a sterling article about the real price of voucher programs. Who pays? Students. Universal voucher programs like those of Arizona and Florida provide little, if any, educati…

Paul Waldman was a reporter for The Washington Post . He now writes a Substack blog. As this article shows, he is a journalist with insight and a long memory. A certain sector of the Democratic eli…

FYI-If the internet seems less shitty his week, thank Volodymyr Zelenskyy

VOTE EARLY - DRAG OUT THE VOTE AT BALBOA PARK

Recently, superstar journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote a long essay for The New York Times Magazine regretting her decision a decade earlier to put her daughter into a local public school in New …

When Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, western nations imposed sanctions on Russia in an effort to persuade him to stop the war through economic pressure. Despite sanctions, Russia has managed to cont…

In the midst of their current summit (cleverly scheduled for the end of Banned Books Week), Moms for Liberty unveiled a new AI tool.

Same cost model, same NAEP tests, fifteen years. California and Illinois raised real school spending by more than a third; Texas and Florida cut effort by roughly 30% and gave back their NAEP edge.…

“[T]he Simple View, as interpreted in the SoR, validates a shallow level of engagement with print, focused on the mechanics of decoding rather than reading for meaning.” Mark Seidenberg (2026)

I have deliberately waited until after Banned Books Week this year to talk about banned books because it’s a topic I hate to see relegated to just one week where we all wring our hands with concern an...

President Donald Trump lamented that the Norwegian Nobel Committee chose not to award him with its annual Peace Prize on Friday, telling rallygoers the decision leaves “an indelible stain on the count...

As Short and Sweet as I Could Make It; Links to Longer Analyses.

Saurabh Anand published a piece at JSTOR last month that has been an open tab on my desktop ever since, even as I have added it to my file of Things I Would Totally Steal If I Were Still Teaching.

“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows

From Buck’s County Beacon

Florida is one crazy state. Its state leaders interfere in every aspect of people’s lives. Under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, it passed a rigid abortion ban, denying every woman i…

The U.S. Supreme Court has opened a can of worms by its recent decisions allowing public dollars to flow to religious schools. Some of the conservative Justices claim to be “originalists,&#82…

Sixty nine years ago, nine black students formally integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They became known as the Little Rock Nine. These nine students faced armed resistance fro…

I’m back from Las Vegas and I know you’ve lost sleep over this waiting to hear how it went so I’m going to post my refections here. The event was at The Caesar’s Forum betwe…

The Trump administration has been crossing out rules about “disparate impact” all across federal agencies.

Proposition 39 is a Trojan Horse, funded by billionaires

Snopes investigated the question. The answer is yes. Trump is a laughing stock in Europe. He thinks his bullying and lying makes him look tough. It doesn’t. It makes him look ridiculous. If y…

Snopes investigated the question. The answer is yes. Trump is a laughing stock in Europe. He thinks his bullying and lying makes him look tough. It doesn’t. It makes him look ridiculous. If y…

From The Derrick