Weaponizing what's left of the Department of Education

 

trans colored heart on a sidewalk at Smith College
photo by Kate Hobbs

If you follow me on any social media platform other than this one, you've probably caught my ire that the U.S. Department of Education has now started a (well-publicized) investigation into my alma mater, Smith College for, they say, admitting men. Smith is the largest historically women's college in the country; the college started admitting women who are trans in 2015 (after an uproar over not doing so). The admission policy specifically says Smith:

considers for admission any applicants who self-identify as women; cis, trans, and nonbinary women are eligible to apply to Smith.

Batchelor et. al v. DESE et. al

You've no doubt seen that students in Boston, Brockton, Lawrence, Springfield, and Worcester along with four community organizations have filed suit against the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Board, Chair Craven, the Commissioner, and the Secretary on the segregation of our school districts. This is filed in state court under the state's Constitutional guarantee of a public education in particular. 

I've read the coverage and just read the complaint filed in state superior court, and I guess I have three thoughts:

1. Yes, Massachusetts absolutely has among the most segregated school systems in the country by district. This is a direct result of our having--unusually for the U.S.--school districts that not only are originally formed by our cities and in towns, but largely have not changed. Those lines are heavily segregated for the same reasons our housing is: historic redlining, discrimination in lending for housing, and the resulting disparities in capital by race. You know this if you've read The Color of Law, or so many other things. It's also extensively covered by Matthew DiCarlo and Bruce Baker in their recent book Segregation and School Funding.
   Regionalization efforts since the 1950's still put the authority and responsibility on the towns to ensure there are public schools; it is towns and cities that are parties to the regional agreements that form regional districts. It is up to municipalities to provide public schools.
   As sort of a side note, but which matters in this context: while most regional districts are groups of towns, but not cities, this is not true of the regional vocational districts, in which Boston, Springfield, and Worcester are outliers in having vocational schools internally rather than being part of a "Greater [city]" vocational district, as Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Brockton, and others are. Thus there are regional districts that include cities. They do operate under the "students by community" entrance system, though, and you may remember this coming up in the arguments around moving to a lottery admission for the regional vocational schools, as seats by town, rather than by total population, won’t give a group reflective of the entire student demographic. 
   
   
2. I was confused on reading initially about the lawsuit as to why DESE would be sued, as DESE has authority over none of this at all. 
   I am even more confused after reading the lawsuit, because both the complaint--the lines of school districts and the impact that then has on students--and the parts that suggest remedies-more on that below--are not within the authority of the Department to provide. The lawsuit is against state laws, which are executed by, but cannot be changed by the Department. The Governor is not named here, ‘though the Secretary is. And the argument within the filing is a series of assertions of…things DESE just cannot actually do. 
   
   
3. I'm told there's more coming, but the remedies led towards are so far doing more of the same, only more so.
   METCO covers something like 2000 statewide students; expanding it to other districts (that still can choose to participate or not) does not desegregate the state (not to mention the buses still only go one way).
   More regional vocation districts? schools? does not change that those are either internal to our heavily segregated districts, or are agreements among towns that are heavily segregated and would have seats allotted within the parties. Anything else would require a change in state law.
   Increasing magnet programs within districts doesn't desegregate districts; if you want to do inter-district magnets, you need to change state law.
   Even supporting more transportation between districts is a budgetary authority of the Legislature, not something that is at all done by the Department. 

Look, this is absolutely the right point: We have a very segregated system of school districts.

I cannot understand why one would sue DESE on things DESE can't do, arguing for things that wouldn't fix the underlying issue. 

I'll be watching with interest.

Tech and AI roundup recently

1. I'm going to suggest that districts insisting that children must use technology in schools when parents don't want them to--and when teachers and students are also objecting--is not going to go well for the districts.

2.  Rarely do I agree with Andy Smarick on anything, but when he's right, he's right, and he has nailed it on AI in the classroom in his piece for the National Review entitled "AI in the Classroom Is Our Most Senseless Education Experiment Yet"
   

   Learning is seldom about swiftly generating a final product. It’s about the slow, arduous work necessary for getting to a final product. From a great teacher’s perspective, what a student wrote in her final paper is less important than the weeks of researching relevant sources, assembling evidence, and outlining an argument. That great teacher doesn’t want a student to just write the correct answers on the exam; he wants the student to spend hours and hours reading texts closely, figuring out why that formula works, or trying different approaches until landing on the right method.

    Along similar lines is this opinion piece in The New York Times this week by  David Wallace-Wells (whose level-headedness on cell phones in schools I also appreciate).

3. The chorus of boos from graduates responding to A.I. boosters at their graduates has only grown this week (my count is up to five, if we include the graduation at which the A.I. announcement of graduates' names went haywire), and Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket starts there in her recent "Hating AI is good, actually."

4. And I'll be interested to see what Pope Leo has to say in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas ("Magnificent humanity") being released next week. Encyclicals, which is a letter of Catholic teaching, take their titles from their first few words, so we have a hint of his opening with that. Unusually, the Pope will be releasing the encyclical himself, speaking, it is thought, to how important it is to him.

Board of Ed for May: budget update

 memo here, though there is also a presentation

Hills: not the Board purview for how the resources are allocated (except in some ways it is, which is why the submit a budget request)

Bell: Senate Ways and Means has released its version of the FY27 budget; in formal session now deliberating
continues many of same themes of earlier drafts
committed to working with everyone on issues facing rural districts of which they are aware

happy to entertain questions

Martinez asks steps in the budget process, as it is his first time through
Bell: have seen some headlines on Legislature being committed to earlier process
once through Senate, conference committee formed, deliberates, releases budget that is then passed by both chambers
Smidy asks about how advocating works from Board members
Hills directs to Secretary and Commissioner
Zrike: "we think we do that together in tandem"
would love to talk to Board members about that
met with collaborative members in Northampton: hearing concerns from across the state
"coming on later in the budget process"
"data and information to bring back to the budget process"
"learning this process now"
"very productive conversations with the Legislature"

Board goes into executive session for  Doe et al. v. Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mass. Superior Court, C.A. No. 2481-CV-00994. State House News has this as to why: 

 The case, filed in Middlesex Superior Court in 2024, is a class action suit alleging that the department fails to fulfill its statutory duty to provide special education services to incarcerated students with disabilities. Mass. Lawyers Weekly reported last month that the class action survived a motion to dismiss it in Superior Court, with a judge ruling DESE has a non-delegable duty to provide special education in jails

They will not return to open session 

Board of Ed for May: Research and evaluation

 memo is here

Craven has left; Hills now chairing

speaking on this, per the memo: Rob Curtin, Deputy Commissioner, Matt Deninger, Associate Commissioner of Planning and Research, and Kendra Winner, Research and Evaluation Coordinator

Deninger: as a former high school English teacher, it is always good to be back in a high school

Board of Ed for May: Opening comments

 The Board today is meeting at Hudson High School, the school of student member Isabella Chamberlain. The agenda is here; the livestream will go up here. 

chalking outside of Hudson High School today

There is a good chance this will start late. 

Hey a new Burncoat is happening

 ...and while it sorta felt like things were dormant there for awhile--why can't we announce building committees?--there are updates, and, more importantly, places to weigh in. 
Burncoat High School page has an offshoot on the building project which notes that the building committee met for the first time last week* and there was a visioning session last night. 
But there are more: 

• On Tuesday, May 19, from 3:00-6:00 PM, the Burncoat School Building Project will host Educational Visioning Workshop #1 at Burncoat High School, 179 Burncoat Street, Worcester, in the cafeteria.
  
  
• On Tuesday, May 26, from 4:00-7:30 PM (dinner will be provided), the Burncoat School Building Project will host Educational Visioning Workshop #2 at Burncoat High School, 179 Burncoat Street, Worcester, in the cafeteria.
  
  
• On Wednesday, June 10, from 3:00-6:00 PM, the Burncoat School Building Project will host Educational Visioning Workshop #3 at Burncoat High School, 179 Burncoat Street, Worcester, in the cafeteria.

Good luck if you can only make something after 5, I guess, because only last night's did. 

I really, really urge you to attend this, because Worcester, while it is speedy at getting schools through, in part does that by having one of the least public building processes around. They'll have only the building committee meetings that they are required by MSBA to have. The School Committee in Worcester has very, very limited involvement, so you also won't see updates there.

This is it. Weigh in now. 

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*which also does not say who is on it. Sigh.