To read this week

 Here's a few longer pieces that I'd recommend this week: 

• Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider on the Democrats needing to come back to/up with the why of public education in New Republic. 
   "Winning education back means reminding Americans of everything that schools can be."

• Golly gee, maybe money matters for schools after all! Yes, we've known this for quite awhile, but that One Guy who has been arguing for years that it didn't is coming out with a review of research showing that, um, maybe he was wrong.
  Twitter has been appropriately scathing:  
  

  May I be impolite? How many US students have suffered because they attended schools that didn't have the resources they needed? And how many schools are underfunded because of state & federal policies that were designed, in part, based on this man's work? https://t.co/i3Xb0kE1tW

  — Jersey Jazzman (Official... no, really) (@jerseyjazzman) May 16, 2023

      How many millions of students have been harmed by the misguided insistence that money doesn't matter for schools? How many teachers have left the profession or left underfunded schools out of frustration with budget cuts that the old assumptions deemed justified? https://t.co/woydUrAahf

  — Jess Calarco (@JessicaCalarco) May 16, 2023

• Texas schools are saying enough already with tying school "safety" funding to equipment and not funding mental health. 

• School avoidance (which isn't "becoming" a mental health crisis, but more IS a mental health issue) appears to be growing across the country (or at least more schools and families are talking about it).

• And I am ongoingly appreciative of being represented by Rep. McGovern in Congress; his work on the House floor and this piece both against book bans is just one reason why.