Here comes Alpha Schools in Massachusetts

 The Boston School Committee this week approved the opening of an Alpha School in Boston. I think those comments quoted are of note: 

The approval was largely a formality. Under state law, the committee had to evaluate whether Alpha met the basic requirements for a school in Massachusetts, though the board has no supervisory role over private schools.

Superintendent Mary Skipper called those state requirements “fundamentals” that don’t guarantee that a proposed private school will succeed.

“I can say that what lies on paper, and what actually it takes [to] make it successful, are very different things,” Skipper said.

Board members also criticized the state evaluation process because it takes resources from Boston’s public school system.

“We are basically approving competitors at a time when resources are short and parents have needs and the needs are great,” said Jeri Robinson, the committee’s chairperson.

Don't think Boston will be the end of it; my understanding is that they have also applied to open in at least Lexington.  

How subcommittees work

 In which John Adams recounts talking Thomas Jefferson into writing the draft of the Declaration of Independence: 

Yesterday was the anniversary of this historic subcommittee meeting. This is, of course, the account Adams gave, which is why you should also take good minutes, lest only one person's version of the meeting persist! 

"Turtles all the way down": Rhode Island looks at how they fund schools

 Our neighbors to the south here in Massachusetts are sending their school finance study to a study: 

At Tuesday’s finance hearing, Sen. Jonathon Acosta, a Central Falls Democrat, expressed his ire that another commission was needed to study the findings of a different commission. He noted the Blue Ribbon panel had itself spun off in part from a previous Senate commission which also studied the funding formula and wrapped up its final report in 2020.

“In so many ways, just turtles all the way down,” Acosta said.

Nevertheless, Acosta deemed Gallo’s new proposal “a significant step forward” and “a signal that the State House is willing to do something,” although any rollout of Blue Ribbon recommendations would likely would not begin until 2028.

As every state's finance system for schools is different, I found this bit about Rhode Island's of interest: 

 Key to the Blue Ribbon recommendations is expanding state funding beyond what the panel saw as a somewhat myopic focus on direct instructional costs, which comprise the bulk of current state aid to schools. The Blue Ribboners concluded that the state should pursue what the report called “full funding” for municipal school districts — a model which would fold costs such as transportation and teacher pensions into the state’s obligations.

Inside Google's AI academy report

 We know from leaked documents that Google considers schools “pipeline of future users,” as leaked documents have shown, and it appears that being "Google trained," as the AI bubble continues onwards, isn't sufficient, as Google is now training Google Gemini evangelists, as NBC news reports.  

I recommend reading it, though I'll also note that Peter Greene does quite a nice job of channeling some of the rage I feel reading it, as well. The observation I'll make is that the notion that those objecting to or opposing the use might have any valid points is of course waved away. 

One must convert or one is not worthy of consideration. 

Screen audit in Cambridge

 The Globe writes today about the work the Cambridge Public Schools has done on auditing their screen use. You might remember my writing about this  back in February, when the Crimson wrote about it. You can find the May 19 report to the Cambridge School Committee online here. Their main takeaway:

Again, note that the district has taken the concerns of families seriously, has done real work on it, and the district is changing policy and procedure as a result. 

Watch those school bus camera contracts

 Because we cannot have nice things, it appears, 404 Media reports that BusPatrol, the school bus stop arm cameras purveyor, that many of us have worked so hard to get legalized are now sharing data directly with police departments well outside of the context of illegally passing stopped school buses: 

BusPatrol has already taken steps to share the collected data with law enforcement contracting giant Axon, according to leaked BusPatrol documents and a source with knowledge of the plans. Internally, BusPatrol has acknowledged how controversial its plan to collect and share this data is pointing specifically to concerns about ICE using license plate data, but emphasizes the likely success of selling the angle of protecting children.

Second verse, same as the verse

Because the old chestnut--claims that the Worcester Public Schools spends wildly too much money on administration, and more than their peer communities--appears to making an appearance again this year, I will again note that such comparisons are done by the state annually, when districts report their district spending.