Kathleen Knight Abowitz

"The League of Women Voters will not stand by while politicians spread lies to limit democratic participation. Our democracy is strong when every eligible voter can make their voice heard, whether at a polling place or through a mail-in ballot."

www.lwv.org/newsroom/pre...

Kicking Away the Ladder The great American wealth transfer is underway

All of Trump’s education moves have a common theme: a kicking away of the ladder that will entrench privilege for those who already have the most. My latest open.substack.com/pub/educatio...

How Dept. of Education abolition could affect Ohio
“With less money from the state, less money from the federal government, it is not good for the students of Ohio”
-Jeff Wensing, @ohioea.bsky.social
by Delaney Ruth
www.nbc4i.com/news/your-lo...

We have three branches of government: the executive, the yes men, and the people who never say no

Project 2025 Will End Education As We Know It | Opinion Dismantling the federal effort to improve schools would be a disaster for students, teachers, and parents alike.

None of what's happened with education under Trump has been anything other than what was telegraphed in Project 2025. Here's what we wrote about back before the election www.newsweek.com/project-2025...

Hundreds of 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees don't have criminal records Trump said the camp would hold "the most vicious people on the planet," but a list obtained by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Tribune says otherwise.

A list of detainees at "Alligator Alcatraz" shows hundreds have no criminal records or pending charges.

#201 Use It Or Lose It Local democracy has never been more essential, so why does it so often disappoint us? Jack convenes an all-star cast to discuss the promise vs the reality of school boards as democratic institutions.

I enjoyed this conversation with @derekgottlieb.bsky.social, @drrachelswhite.bsky.social and @johannneem.bsky.social and the excellent hosts of @haveyouheard.bsky.social to discuss the American school board. Thanks, DG. soundcloud.com/haveyouheard...

Further research on what I call the "tyranny of choice," what researchers here dub the "double burden of choice" bit.ly/4nEbBUi

"School choice" is not only illusory, it should be undesirable. Freedom from being forced to make burdensome choices is better, if we would just make ALL SCHOOLS desirable

"In my work with the defendants [at the Nuremberg Trails], I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy...the genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
- Captain G. Gilbert, US Army

A “Striking” Trend: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage A new ProPublica data analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

"After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage." www.propublica.org/article/texa...

Trump Media Takes Truth+ Streaming Global After President Slashes Voice Of America Trump’s media company is testing an international launch of its Truth+ streaming platform, raising questions over conflicts of interest as the administration cuts funding to America’s biggest global b...

🚨 New: Trump’s taking his streaming platform global—just months after he gutted Voice of America, the US’s biggest international news outlet.

Trump the president cuts global news. Trump the businessman fills the void. #synergy

My full story for @forbes.com 👇

1/

DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship Denaturalization is a tactic heavily used during the McCarthy era and one that was expanded during the Obama administration and grew further during President Trump's first term. It's a tool usually us...

Get on alert folks. We are getting pretty far down that “first they came for…” list.

www.npr.org/2025/06/30/n...

Opinion | I Worked at U.S.A.I.D. for Over 8 Years. This Is Our Biggest Failure.

"it cost the average American household roughly $6 a year in taxes to prevent about half as many deaths as occurred in the Holocaust." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/o...

Red State Voters Approved Progressive Measures. GOP Lawmakers Are Trying to Undermine Them. In the wake of ballot measures that increased abortion access and improved sick leave for workers, a coordinated effort is unfolding across the country to restrict direct democracy — and shift power…

“This is very much connected to the rise of authoritarianism that we’ve seen across the country,” said the executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. “They can’t win fairly, so they’re trying to rewrite the rules to get their way.”

By @jeremykohler.bsky.social

Take note.

When MIT is Also Beating Dead AI Horses My quick and unplanned "react" article to a new study on AI in education that will probably make a splash.

I regret to inform you that the MIT study that's making the rounds re the negative impact of AI on cognition...appears not so great. The core task being assessed "doesn’t demand cognitive investment; it invites cognitive laziness." (Wess Trabelsi)

open.substack.com/pub/wesstrab...

Ohio Senate Bill 153 a masterclass in undermining democracy | Letter A Beacon journal reader writes about roadblocks Senate Bill 153 would add for anyone trying to get an issue on the ballot.

Making it harder for citizens to propose ballot measures isn’t just bad policy, it’s unconstitutional. This bill puts an unfair burden on grassroots efforts while giving big-money a free pass

SB 153 is a bad bill, plain and simple

Janice Oakley, Sagamore Hills
www.beaconjournal.com/story/opinio...

Reminder: in broken and gerrymandered states, politics ceases being about public service…and it warps into a corrupt form of private service, where politicians use public power and raid public assets to serve private interests.

This Browns fiasco offers the perfect case study:

Thanks @dwallacewells.bsky.social for explaining so clearly what's at the heart of the 50-state voucher program buried in the big beautiful bill: a war on the entire idea of public goods www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/o...

What a line up

a man wearing a black shirt that says " why " ALT: a man wearing a black shirt that says " why "

I wonder why the first senator they've used physical force against is Sen. Alex Padilla, a Latino man representing California 🤔

This new month would try to persuade Ohioans to have babies
(instead of actually passing any laws that help people have babies or raise kids...)

Also WTF is a "natural family"? The bill's authors seem to think single parents and #LGBTQ parents don't count....
naturalfamilystrong.com/about-us/ #Ohio

Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.

I wish everyone in #Ohio knew how state politicians are trying to spend their tax dollars

This budget bill is inhumane. No other way to describe it. #Republicans are openly trying to give tax cuts to billionaires by hurting literally everyone else

Take action: bit.ly/OhioBudget2025

Peoples lives and careers have been ruined, health and welfare and education all decimated, violence and fascism unleashed, the damage already incalculable and immediate, by these two high agency clowns and all their cronies.

One of the greatest deceptions of our time is the false narrative that we should be more concerned about a poor person misusing the welfare system or an immigrant being here illegally than we are about the ultra wealthy abusing the system and cruel people having unchecked power over all of us.

The ‘Highly Unusual’ Case Of The Midwife Arrested For Allegedly Violating Texas’ Abortion Law Maria Rojas was arrested nearly three months ago and still hasn't been indicted for any crime — putting her in excruciating limbo by the state.

NEW: Texas midwife Maria Rojas was arrested in March for allegedly performing an illegal abortion.

Nearly three months later, Rojas has not been indicted for any crime -- putting her in excruciating limbo by the state.

Yesterday, June 2, was an interesting day at work. I was reporting a story about how the Education Department hadn't delivered a report to Congress on the Condition of Education, despite the June 1 deadline mandated by law. 🧵 (1/9)

Imagine what this woman and her family went through. All for what?