Reading round-up

Some things I've read recently of interest:

• it shouldn't be news but it never hurts to reiterate that PTA fundraising exacerbates inequities. The move towards at least making outside funding transparent would be a first good step (can't we run these all through school committees as donations? shouldn't we, anyway?). 
• there's been lots of pushback (thankfully) on the rewarding "grit" notion (which was somewhat being misinterpreted, anyway), and this Boston Globe piece puts that together well. 
• morning reminder (via tweet) post-Santa Clarita that what we're teaching students in schools is not only harmful, it also is of limited utility. 
• if the Supreme Court decides to end DACA, we're going to lose a lot of teachers. 
• I'm not sure that our having gender neutral restrooms available in the new Worcester high schools should even be news, but the pushback to those criticizing it in the comment section on Facebook is heartwarming. Also, this Time article is a solid read.
• and perhaps it isn't surprising that Worcester Public Schools Transporation Director John Hennessey can make sense of the spaghetti that is the routing system; it seems he was practically born in a bus yard! Nice one from School Bus Fleet, which is the national school transportation magazine, on Mr. Hennessey's recent recognition as 2019 Administrator of the Year. And yes, it does talk about bringing WPS transportation fully in-house.