Reading the Mahmoud decision

First, your periodic reminder both that I'm not a lawyer and that nothing I post here is from anyone other than me.  

Among the cases the Supreme Court handed down on Friday, closing this year's session, is Mahmoud et al. v. Taylor et al. The case was decided 6-3 on ideological lines.

This has largely been covered as "religious parents¹ can opt-out of LGBTQ lessons" decision in the press, 'though I should note that The Hechinger Report did better at what this more realistically means.

I have read through the decision, which was written by Justice Alito; the concurrence, written by Justice Thomas; and the dissent, written by Justice Sotomayor. Sotomayor was joined in the dissent by Justices Kagan and Jackson. What follows are my notes and thoughts on the decision. 

Fair warning: this is bad. 

Conference committee for FY26 is out

 A lot of the education money had been agreed upon already, but two education policy matters of note:

• the House-proposed "freeze and send to study" on vocational admission regulation changes is not in the conference committee budget, thus those regulations will stand as approved
  
  
• the amendment the Senate passed for a chapter 70 study is in the conference committee budget 

I've updated my spreadsheet with the numbers from the conference committee. There are a number of studies in the education sections: sex ed, transportation, teacher workforce, in addition to the above. Do note that the full SOA increase is being covered by Fair Share, which...I would argue is not what I, anyway, thought I was voting for. 

Note that, while the conference committee has finished its work, it's highly unlikely that we'll have a state budget today, as Governor Healey has ten days to make vetoes if she wishes.

Possible flag on four federal grants for this coming school year

The interaction between state and federal budgets is a bit tricky: we're hearing, now, about a federal budget which, when it comes to things like federal grants to school districts, would fund the school year after this coming one, starting in August or September of 2026 (which will be local and state fiscal year '27). The federal grants for this coming school year, the one that starts in August or September of 2025, already were passed by Congress, and, for the most part, the amounts to be allocated have already been shared with states (for what locally and at the state level is fiscal year '26).
Thus we've felt a bit safer for this coming year, as we've largely already had the numbers of what has been allocated (even as, remember, grant funding is reimbursements, so we never really have the money). 

Mark Lieberman, who writes on school finance for EdWeek, today flags four grants for which that is not the case as of yet: 

The growing anxiety over disrupted federal education funding centers on four programs worth a combined $5 billion: Title I-C for migrant education, Title II for professional development, Title III for English learners, and Title IV-B for before- and after-school programs.

The White House budget proposal published last month calls for eliminating all four programs beginning in the 2026-27 school year. But education officials nationwide worry that the administration could proceed with those cuts for the 2025-26 school year, before Congress has weighed in.

For all four programs, states haven’t received routine funding allocation estimates from the federal government that typically arrive between March and May—nor any confirmation from federal officials that the funds are still forthcoming.

Mark relates the national breakdown on how much is involved: 

• Migrant education: $376M (Title I-C)
• Professional development for teachers: $2.2B (Title II)
• Services for English learners: $890M (Title III)
• Before/afterschool programs: $1.3B (Title IV-B)

This delay has concerned the superintendents such that AASA came out with a statement today, which reads in part: 

The delayed FY25 disbursements for Title I, Part C; Title II, Part A; Title III; and Title IV-B totals $4.786 billion—resources essential for the upcoming school year, which begins in just a few weeks in many communities. Without these vital investments, schools will be faced with significant budget shortfalls, leading to reductions in service—and, in some cases, staff layoffs.

We call on the USED and OMB to release the funding as appropriated by Congress without further delay. The law is clear, the appropriations are in place, and the stakes are too high to allow political brinksmanship to interfere with the critically important operations of our nation’s public schools. We strongly urge USED and OMB to honor their legal obligations under authorizing statutes and execute the funding decisions made by Congress.

Mark also relates this concerning exchange from a Senate hearing yesterday:

 During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., asked Russell Vought, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, whether the administration intends to hold back K-12 education funding due to states next week and instead propose a “rescissions package,” asking Congress for permission to cancel the previously appropriated funds.

Vought did not rule out that possibility. He replied, in effect, that the administration hasn’t decided.

“We are considering multi-year funding. It’s underway with a programmatic review. But again, it is multi-year funding, and no decision has been made with regard to whether they will be a part of any particular rescissions package,” Vought said.

 As you may have read, Vought rejects the constitutional framework of three co-equal branches of the federal government which check and balance each other. 

I wish I had some sort of conclusion here. We don't know. Given how these have gone so far, if the funding didn't come through, presumably states would file suit, and so far, those have largely gone in favor of the states suing. 
But that doesn't meet payroll or pay for programs in the meantime. 

What I really hope the education universe jettisons over the summer

Early azalea in New Hampshire

While there are obviously some very big things--bombing countries! kidnapping people! removing rights and harassing people! returning epidemics of diseases for which we have vaccines! defunding large portions of the government! lying, ongoingly, about nearly everything!--there are also some very 'education universe' things that I'd* love for us to jettison over the summer: 

June 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: Time out practices regulation vote

 and there is a memo here, and a summary of public comment here, 

Board does vote the delegation of authority on charter management as well as the Board schedule also on the agenda before moving to this item

additional proposed changes to the regulation based on public comment received
(for those who thought that never happened; it does!)

already proposed:

• updated definition of seclusion and timeout ("in an unlocked setting from which the student is permitted to leave")
• add requirements for any room used
• emergency circumstances under which a type of seclusion is allowed as a last resort
• build in safeguards for the above
• require approved special ed day programs to comply with update
• align documentation requirements

proposed changes stemming from public comment:

• implementation August 17, 2026 (rather than this September)
• language from safeguards moved to definitions
• clarification of emergency exception (in 46.07(2)

guidance on various topics outlined in public comment to come as well
multi-year professional development as well as funding to assist with implementation

Stewart asks about engagement with stakeholders: DESE has stakeholder groups of both families and of practioners
different schools and districts are in different places
different options for funding and for professional development for various

Hills: will vote in favor "with some trepidation"
concerned still don't know where districts are on this: some will not need to change anything, while it may be a big change for others
out of district placements may see largest changes as have the largest number of issues
support is based on year change of implementation
Moriarty: think there should be a deep look in the Department on intervention
"addressing problematic districts that do not see a problem...that is a compliance issue not a regulatory one"

regulation changes as proposed today pass unanimously

ADJOURNED 
Board is off for the summer, next scheduled to meet on September 30

June 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: State Student Advisory Council

 Craven plans to skip the budget update

Student member Ioannis Asikis reporting out on work of SSAC

in person meetings held in Leicester, Worcester, Everett, and Methuen this year
hybrid model maintained to promote accessibility
expanded reach, made meetings more frequent

grounded work in Youth Risk Behavior Survey, representing thousands, weighed to be representative 
thus not only in students on SSAC only

community dialogue with other organizations and agencies
regions reported out on themes within the survey and made recommendations
overarching themes across the state on mental health and connectness to school
mental health must be as prioritized as physical health
embedded across student experiences
across the state there was seen needs for: 

• better access to support
• improved staff training
• stronger relationships between students and schools

mental health access
connectedness/attendance
stigma reduction on seeking help

on Q on how this gets back to local districts, we get a spin around referral back to regional SSAC groups but "how does it get reported out to school committees" comes up empty because there isn't one
THIS IS A THING THAT COULD AND SHOULD BE CHANGED.
Frankly, there also isn't a throughline on what happens even to these reports once they're given!

on Q on how to get information to students, Asikis notes Secretary Tutwiler's Instagram (acknowledgement in the back of who actually runs that), mentioning also newsletter or email 

Asikis speaks of his own experience as an immigrant student growing into being part of student voice 

June 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: HOLYOKE!

 there is a memo here

Mayor Josh Garcia
Anthony Soto, receiver
Dr. Yadilette Rivera Colón, vice chair

June 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: innovation career pathways presentation by North Attleborough High

 there's a cast of thousands here, 

June 2025 meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: opening comments

 On this brutally hot day in Massachusetts, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is having their June meeting. You can find their agenda here. The livestream will appear over here.

Should you wonder if DESE is backing down: no.

I will update this as they go.

On Sara Consalvo

I discovered last week that when I don't post¹ about things, I get asked, so, in advance of the Worcester School Committee taking up the administration's recommendation of Sara Consalvo to the (recommended for re-creation) position of Chief Financial and Operations Officer, let me just say:

Worcester, you may well not know how very lucky we are.

closing tabs

 Things I've had open to share: 

• I linked to this in yesterday's post, but do read the New York Times coverage that, yes, ICE raids do have an impact on attendance: 
  

  The spike in absences is equivalent to the average student missing about 15 days of school each year, up from 12 days, according to Professor Dee’s paper.
  He called the findings “a canary in the coal mine” for public education. If absences continue to be elevated, they could threaten student learning and children’s mental health.

  While the article suggests unlinking school funding from attendance (the data are from California) and perhaps adding funding when there are raids, the answer is of course not having them in the first place.
  At some point, someone may want to mark that chronic absenteeism is part of the school accountability system in Massachusetts.

Public bodies and public meetings and public speech

A few true if possibly unpopular points which I am putting here because I have no interest in arguing in threads¹ of comments:

Public bodies meet to conduct public business. There are things that are under the purview of specific public bodies, and they are required to meet in posted meetings of a quorum of that body to make decisions in public (with ten exceptions).

By Massachusetts state law, those public meetings are not required to have public comment, which is always, under MGL Ch. 30A, sec. 20 (g), at the discretion of the chair ²

On dailyness in a time lacking precedent

 

Boston Fire Department post-fire

I was working in the office in Boston the last week of May when a noticeable number of fire engines came screaming by. A look at social media revealed that a building two blocks over was actively on fire. It was the kind of fire that has people from all directions taking photos--lots of smoke in a heavily built-up area--and so it got plenty of attention. 
It wasn't, though, until I went to get lunch, and being just as nosy as you are, walked up the blocks to see what was now extinguished, taking the above photo, that I realized that I had at no point worried about where I was or my own safety. Despite being in an old port city, now build out of bricks for a reason, we have people for this: people who show up every day, having been extensively trained and equipped, exactly so I don't have to think about what I'm to do when a building two blocks over is on fire. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about this sort of showing up we take for granted, even as so much nationally is falling apart. So much of what have been so often sneeringly dismissed as federal bureaucrats are people--surprise!--on whose work we rely. This point was so effectively made by those suing to keep the federal Department of Education that they got an injunction, but of course it is just as true in every federal department, from the IRS (yes, indeed) to National Parks to USAID and on and on.

But as above, so below: the functioning of so many things at the state level and at the local level depends on the daily work of people whose names and titles never make articles, whose functions never get discussed unless and until some clueless git eliminates them. 

Do you think about what's in your water when you turn on the tap? 

Or what happens after you take out the trash to the curb? 

Or if the bridge you drive over on your way to work is going to fall down?

Aren't you glad that somebody does?

There is always more to read on generative AI

 And this week, you don't want to miss: 

• This piece in the New York Times on people ¹whose interactions with generative AI sent them down conspiratorial rabbit holes: 
  

  Generative A.I. chatbots are “giant masses of inscrutable numbers,” Mr. Yudkowsky said, and the companies making them don’t know exactly why they behave the way that they do. This potentially makes this problem a hard one to solve. “Some tiny fraction of the population is the most susceptible to being shoved around by A.I.,” Mr. Yudkowsky said, and they are the ones sending “crank emails” about the discoveries they’re making with chatbots. But, he noted, there may be other people “being driven more quietly insane in other ways.”

  That's a gift link above, so do read the whole thing. Benjamin Riley relates a similar situation closer at hand in his post here.

•  On the ongoing theme of "this is doing the opposite of what you want to do to people you're educating," we have this piece of research from Cornell which came out last week, which finds: 
  

   Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning.

  That's in addition to use of generative AI being linked to erosion of critical thinking skills, memory loss and procrastination.

I await those in the education press to give this even 1/10th the coverage they give them "WE HAVE TO DO THIS NOW" nonsense they pedal daily.

___________________
¹ as the first individual quoted started by using it for "to make financial spreadsheets and to get legal advice," given what we know, he was already in trouble. 

If it has felt as if there is a lot going on at the federal level for schools

 ...you're right. Washington Post has a great visual of all that has been going on. (That's a gift link.)