Some things I really hope we get right in 2025

Let there be goblin hordes, let there be terrible environmental threats, let there be giant 

mutated slugs if you really must, but let there also be Hope. It may be a grim, thin hope, an Arthurian sword at sunset, but let us know that we do not live in vain.

Terry Pratchett, "When Children Read Fantasy"

As the turn of the calendar gives one of the "looking back/looking forward" opportunities, I thought I'd put together some hopes I have of this coming calendar year, if only, as the great Pratchett put it, to "know that we do not live in vain."

• I hope we can stop thinking the incoming presidential administration is going to somehow "end special ed" and related wild fears I have seen posted. I hope we can breathe enough to get a grip on what actual threats are posed to public education by the incoming presidency and Congress. It seems increasingly unlikely that there will be the Congressional discipline to, for example, eliminate the Department of Education, as they could barely get their acts together enough to pass a continuing resolution (and how about getting a speaker in place?). They're not going to end IDEA by passing a new version of the federal law; they're not going to pass a revamp of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that ends Title I.
  They could do things like mess with the regulations on Title I, SCHOOL LUNCH (watch the Agriculture Department!), Title IX (though note that the Biden administration's withdrawal of their pending rule making means that they have to start over on that), and so forth. I don't like what is likely to be the impact of immigration action or even threats on school attendance and family security. 
  And as I said very early after election day, the day-to-day bigotry of those leading the country is absolutely toxic in the permission it will seem to give in schools to the same behavior. That alone is exhausting. 
  Remember that anything that takes an actual act of Congress is going to have to go through the VERY divided House in a party that has spent most of the holiday break in a circular firing squad. I'm not saying don't worry: I'm saying figure out what they actually CAN do rather than panicking across the board.
  
  
• I hope that we can stop, in Massachusetts, being so complacent about our "blue state" representation and actually pass public policy that is supportive of people. Particularly with the federal government as it is, we should be uncompromising in our defense and support of immigrants, of LGBTQ+ people, of women, of people of color, of the poor...of anyone who is vulnerable and/or historically marginalized.
  That would mean stopping much of our unhelpful nonsense around homelessness, around the loaded word "sanctuary," and around otherwise being unproductive or continuing the administration of Charlie Baker.
  
  
• From an education perspective, this would mean finally wrestling with the perpetuation of inequity that our school funding system creates. The combination of 1) local property wealth being inextricably tied only to the local school system plus 2) the increasing distance between state aid and real need, as hold harmless funding goes up and up and up is not good. It is not healthy. It is making our systems even less fair.
  The above is not a popular statement, I realize. The highest concentration of our most in need kids remain in the communities that are least able to fund their needs appropriately, though. And continuing to pretend that state aid that is detached from those needs is somehow "fair" simply is not. 
  
  
• I hope, despite the wide open door that November's ballot question left, we do not follow other states down the road of having the state legislature determine curriculum. They are not a body created to do so; it is an enormous overreach for them to do so, and it will poorly serve our kids.
  I would have the same hope for the Board of Ed, but, as I've noted, I don't see a way around that, given the mess the ballot question has left. 
  
  
• I hope we as a state can have vocational schools that serve the purpose for which they are created and funded in which the admission requirements are only those that serve the actual purpose of the program.
  
  
• I hope the Governor finally fills the seats that are either open or are filled by those well over term.
  
  
• I hope that Board is the one that appoints a new commissioner, someone who has a history of working with and answer to a public body, who knows how to run a multi-hundred person organization, who doesn't have terrible ideas, and who knows when and how to say no. 
  
  
• I hope we as a state realize how gigantically behind we are on universal preschool and actually do something about it. 
  
  
• I hope we use the Fair Share funding for bonds for both schools and transportation.
  
  
• I hope we get WAY over our incredibly unhealth fascination with generative AI in general and in education in particular. So 2024, people!
  
  
• I hope that people who value each child for who they are and who they are becoming continue to get themselves involved in public education. There is so much good to be done.

Let me close with the words of the great Molly Ivins: 

So keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doing it. Be outrageous... rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. 

And when you get through celebrating the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was!

Molly Ivins