Rick Wormeli

snap cuts, growing to 35% by 2034

chip and medicaid cuts growing to 12-14% by 2034

Cost estimate of the House-passed "Big Beautiful Bill" is out

It'd be the largest cut to Medicaid+CHIP and SNAP in history while still increasing deficits by $2.4 trillion due to $3.8 trillion in tax cuts

This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

Proud of my hometown airport here in the Washington, DC area, Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), and their support of the World Pride 2025 events happening here!

Members of LGBTQA+ community will find a ready advocate, & ceaselessly supportive colleague/friend in me. I stand w/you as you live yr authentic selves & navigate civic, religious, educ, legal, & political challenges. Know that you are deeply valued just as you are & that you are welcome in my life.

YouTube video by The Emancipator How does the government want Americans to respond to antiracist activity?

One of the most repulsive acts of the current admin is asking/requiring, employees & others to report individuals and organizations that promote DEIA policies/programs. From the The Emancipator, Ibram X. Kendi explains how this has been a strategy for racists for years: youtube.com/shorts/o2LbJ...

I am grateful for @biblioracle.bsky.social’s latest book. His steady examination of AI reassures & affirms my belief that the best way to grow our students is to lean into our humanity. More Than Words is a thoughtful and excellent rumination; one I will be revisiting often. #EduSky

The Humility of the Page: The Lost Ethics of Deep Reading Why attention to words is attention to others and why it matters

Moving piece by Carl Hendrick, "The Humility of the Page: The Lost Ethics of Deep Reading-Why attention to words is attention to others and why it matters." 'Might help all of us invest in our own deeper reading and in sharing the experience with others. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-humili...

Drowning is the leading cause of death in young kids. Here’s how to prevent it | CNN Drowning is the top cause of death in young kids. As pools and beaches reopen for the summer, emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen discusses important water-safety tips.

An estimated 4,000 fatal unintentional drownings happen every year in the United States — an average of 11 drowning deaths per day — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Drowning is the leading cause of death in young kids. Here’s how to prevent it | CNN Drowning is the top cause of death in young kids. As pools and beaches reopen for the summer, emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen discusses important water-safety tips.

Please teach children how to swim. And yes, Black children have the highest rate of drowning when we look at stats. My wife & I help with lessons for my daughter's kids, taking them to lessons & later, swimming w/them. Important article here on the topic: www.cnn.com/2025/05/24/h...

Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students

Just utter lawlessness from the Trump Administration, with no goal other than to punish institutions for refusing to bend the knee. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

Supreme Court Shuts Down Oklahoma’s Catholic Charter School For the moment, the remaining bit of wall between church and state will stand.

Supreme Court Shuts Down Oklahoma’s Catholic Charter School via @palan57.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/peterg...

Viewpoint: May 2025 The “Wild West” nature of grading is troubling. Standardized test scores don’t always reflect report card grades. Some teachers count homework as 20% of the grade while others don’t count it at all. R...

ICYMI: New piece, candid and practical, hopefully useful: "When Our Grading Philosophies Conflict With Those of Our Faculty," Principal Leadership from NASSP, May 2025 www.nassp.org/publication/...

Chicago Sun-Times response to May 18 special section

It should have never happened, but the @chicago.suntimes.com response to this is pretty decent, including owning the fuck-up and working to make sure it doesn't happen again. That said, in 2025 there is no excuse for "advertorial" not being clearly marked.

chicago.suntimes.com/press-room/2...

This likely AI-hallucinated reading list is part of a ~60-page summer supplement, and in an initial spot-check, I'm having trouble confirming any of the quotes. But it's all such transparent filler that I can't help feeling sympathy for the lone freelancer apparently saddled with producing it.

This is horrid. Either she doesn’t know or she knows and this is a vicious lie. Neither is good. 👀⚖️👇🏾

This is deeply ignorant of what DEI actually is & operating from ignorance often results in cruelty & regret. Let's do our hmwrk b4 succumbing to gaslit myths. And the Parents Rights in Education group mentioned? ' Far more abt imposing their religion upon everyone else than about parents' rights.

A new bill aims to ban 'DEI' in K-12 schools A bill to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools is in the Ohio Senate. A companion piece of legislation has been introduced in the Ohio House.

Ohio’s public K-12 schools are now the focus of legislative effort by state lawmakers to ban diversity, equity & inclusion. Senate Bill 113 is similar to different legislation already passed the legislature banning DEI in Ohio's public colleges & universities
www.ideastream.org/2025-05-19/a...

Power Lesson: Poetry Gallery Walk | Cult of Pedagogy This peer feedback approach has the potential to build empathy and community, as long as you set it up with intention.

Three years later and still doesn't stop being cool to see this sharing with @cultofpedagogy.bsky.social show up in classrooms (seriously: this makes for the best day ever in the classroom!)

www.cultofpedagogy.com/poetry-galle...

❤️

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future Scholar Jason Stanley, in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian, discussed his book, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, which exposes the ways a...

Jason Stanley's Erasing History is a compelling source in educators' efforts against ignorant & racist re-writing of history. @zinnedproject.bsky.social released an interview w/him, also providing a helpful list of resources for educators navigating all of this: www.zinnedproject.org/news/erasing...

How Trump Defeated Columbia The inside story of an unconditional surrender.

I don't know what to call this, a cautionary tale? An obituary? Columbia appears to have been uniquely vulnerable to the internal dysfunction and outside attacks and in response, they caved. It's horrible all around. nymag.com/intelligence...

Helpful (and free!) 11-page publication from cognitiveresonance.net to use when considering generative AI use in schools, including what LLM's can and cannot do, insights abt grading, instruction, tutoring, policy decisions for administrators, and more: www.cognitiveresonance.net/EducationHaz...

“In the long run, every writer is misunderstood” In this edition of the Weekender: a new pope, seeking the perfect West Village girl, and the lies we tell our kids

“In the long run, every writer is misunderstood”
open.substack.com/pub/post/p/i...

Free for All: The Public Library - Independent Lens The story of how public libraries shaped America and how libraries continue to be a sanctuary for Americans everywhere.

Behind every book borrowed is a story of resilience. Free for All: The Public Library shines a light on the librarians and advocates who've championed access to information against all odds. It's a powerful reminder of the role libraries play in shaping informed communities.

My School Visit was Cancelled. I Fought Back and Won. | Opinion A parent complaint about a nonbinary snail led a Virginia elementary school principal to cancel a visit by author Erica S. Perl. A former trial attorney, Perl offers a lesson in smart booking contract...

Yes, we can push back on the intolerance, ignorance, and cruel censorship in misguided schools and districts. Thankful for this author! @slj.com
www.slj.com/story/My-Sch...

"Utah Bans 18th Book from All Public Schools Statewide" via Kelly Jensen's new post at www.bookriot.com @bookriot.bsky.social This time it's Water for Elephants banned statewide. South Carolina among other states doing the same. 'Worth the read.

What Should Parents Be Worried About? The Books Their Children Don’t Read “‘Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.’” So says the ex-English professor in “Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel about life under a ...

It's Teacher Appreciation Week. Here's how to appreciate teachers: read books, read them to your kids, encourage kids to read.

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.

“Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate…Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.”

I asked Wendy if I could read the paper she turned in, and when I opened the document, I was surprised to see the topic: critical pedagogy, the philosophy of education pioneered by Paulo Freire. The philosophy examines the influence of social and political forces on learning and classroom dynamics. Her opening line: “To what extent is schooling hindering students’ cognitive ability to think critically?” Later, I asked Wendy if she recognized the irony in using AI to write not just a paper on critical pedagogy but one that argues learning is what “makes us truly human.” She wasn’t sure what to make of the question. “I use AI a lot. Like, every day,” she said. “And I do believe it could take away that critical-thinking part. But it’s just — now that we rely on it, we can’t really imagine living without it.”

Speechless.

Whenever Wendy uses AI to write an essay (which is to say, whenever she writes an essay), she follows three steps. Step one: “I say, ‘I’m a first-year college student. I’m taking this English class.’” Otherwise, Wendy said, “it will give you a very advanced, very complicated writing style, and you don’t want that.” Step two: Wendy provides some background on the class she’s taking before copy-and-pasting her professor’s instructions into the chatbot. Step three: “Then I ask, ‘According to the prompt, can you please provide me an outline or an organization to give me a structure so that I can follow and write my essay?’ It then gives me an outline, introduction, topic sentences, paragraph one, paragraph two, paragraph three.” Sometimes, Wendy asks for a bullet list of ideas to support or refute a given argument: “I have difficulty with organization, and this makes it really easy for me to follow.

What structures are in place that make students choose to outsource their own thinking, and how we got to a point where the step that seems important to do yourself is the "writing up" of a bot's ideas rather than the thinking. /2