Shanna Peeples 🏳️‍🌈

It would be more honest if more people would say "I am doing OK amidst the horrors being suffered by others." It's actually not true that everything is terrible for everyone right now. We're living under unequally distributed fascism.

WATCH: “Democracy demands our outrage, and our courage.”

Rep. @jamestalarico.bsky.social says he shares Maddow’s view that we have “crossed a line”, and says he hopes Tx dems breaking quorum will inspire others to stand up to would-be tyrant Trump.

Full: youtu.be/8_OzeeDmoyk?si

Thank goodness for the American Medical Association. Here is their YouTube page. Please share this far & wide. MISINFORMATION at CDC is spreading throughout our country & most people have no clue. Please stay updated & bookmark this page for your health & well-being.➡️ www.youtube.com/@americanmed...

‘Why do you go to school?’ What kids told me changed how I design campuses. When we take students’ feedback seriously, we get more than just better design. We get better schools.

When we take students’ feedback seriously, we get more than just better design. We get better schools.

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS dramas, find in-depth news analysis and explore documentaries on history, science, art and more!

For $5/month or $60/yr you get access to PBS Passport and the entire Masterpiece library plus Great Performances, etc. Defunded but not defeated. www.pbs.org/passport/lea...

Must-Reads and Why Everything Feels Harder Right Now "Don't lose your heart,” says Sarah Kendzior.

My latest must-reads list and some thoughts on why everything feels harder right now. “We're dealing with a series of horrors that are vicious, and they're spiritually exhausting and difficult to combat in law," says @sarahkendzior.bsky.social. "Authoritarianism is here ... and it's sadistic.”

As we all stagger home from vacations & begin working on syllabi in earnest, I’d offer my semesterly recommendation that @wcaleb.org's generic syllabus maker can generate a list of days your class will meet—all you have to do is delete any holidays, etc. from the list wcaleb.rice.edu/syllabusmake...

We teach what we teach. The end. The first amendment exist or it doesn’t. We are in the business of education or we aren’t. There’s no middle ground.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Our article on assistant principals as equity leaders published today. We explore how school leaders can develop capacity for conversations about race & achievement @belmasoffice.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#Education #Research #EquityLeadership #AcademicSky

Not a Distraction: Epstein, Elite Impunity, and the Rot at the Core To wave off every horror as a distraction is to participate in the very obfuscation that protects the powerful.

I wrote about Epstein and the rot that's killing us. "To wave off every horror as a distraction is to participate in the very obfuscation that protects the powerful."

Special thanks to @sarahkendzior.bsky.social for talking with me for this piece.

Long ago, I wrote about Epic’s reissues of Ozzy’s catalog for the Amarillo Globe-News when it was still a real newspaper. I’m glad I saved a copy of the review since the archives of my old music column are long gone bit.ly/4lP3PWn

“After listening to [Ozzy] over & over, I realized that he was so popular because he's accessible. There's no pretension in the man. His demons, anxieties & insecurities are on display for everyone. His voice is so easy to sing along with that almost anyone can sound better in comparison”

US education has always been contested, but AI might change the nature of the contest itself. When the core educational relationship shifts from human-to-human to human-to-machine, we're not just debating purposes and access, we're debating what kind of humans we're creating 3/5

IMO, the question isn't whether AI will transform education, but whether we'll apply history's lessons about democracy, equity, and human dignity to guide that transformation. Based on Alpha School's example, I'm not optimistic we're heading in the right direction 5/5

When an AI determines a child's educational path, who can parents petition? How can communities influence those decisions? 4/5

What keeps me up at night is that we might be at an inflection point as significant as Brown v. Board. But unlike its expanded access and equality (however imperfectly), the AI revolution in education could institutionalize inequality in ways that are harder to see and harder to challenge 2/5

A.I.-Driven Education: Founded in Texas and Coming to a School Near You

Most troubling to me is how Alpha's expansion could create a new form of educational apartheid. Wealthy students get human "guides" earning six-figure salaries plus cutting-edge AI, while public school students might get basic AI without the human support (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/u...

This thoughtful review by @shannapeeples.bsky.social provides a vital reminder of the hope we must recapture -- hope we felt while learning about these wonderful Schools of Opportunity.
@prof-ishimaru.bsky.social @katesomerville.bsky.social
@michellevalladares.bsky.social @wileyke.bsky.social ‪‪

In their new volume the editors "offer “existence proofs” (p. 193) that schools can successfully pursue equity despite formidable obstacles." Read Dr. @shannapeeples.bsky.social's review here: buff.ly/WMnLQLw @nepc.bsky.social @tcpress.bsky.social

The Texas Jigsaw Massacre Governor Abbott has a brilliant plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Can Texas Republicans draw a Congressional map that adds five seats to their existing gerrymander?

At the Electoral Innovation Lab, we investigated the odds of a backfire. As it turns out, in a bad year Republicans could end up with as few as 13 out of 38 seats. samwang.substack.com/p/the-texas-...

Congrats to Stephen Colbert for never bending the knee.

Remember: There is nothing natural or inevitable about extreme inequality; it’s the result of an economic system that values wealth and power over human dignity and justice.

It doesn't have to be this way.

How the Billionaires Took Over America Yes, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But the far bigger menace is the monstrous growth in wealth concentration over five decades that made a Trump presidency possible—and maybe inevitable. Here’s how we let it happen.

To own $1 billion is to possess more dollars than you’ll ever count. It’s to possess more dollars than any human being will ever count. And Forbes counts 15 Americans who possess hundreds of billions.

https://trib.al/7pMNmZ1

Equal Ground John Lewis National Day of Commemoration and Action · John Lewis Actions On July 17, 2024, Equal Ground invites you to join us in honoring the life and legacy of the late Congressman John Lewis on the 4th anniversary of his passing. This special day is dedicated to celebra...

🚨Can’t make it to an on the ground Good Trouble event?

This is a Virtual John Lewis Action event!

let's take stock here:

(Democratic) Presidents, via the Dept of Education, can't cancel student debt because statutes don't clearly authorize it.

Republican Presidents can cancel/shut down the Dept of Education because, even though only Congress can shut down departments ..., ... 🤷‍♀️ YOLO?

They tore up the commandments, they denied the super-ego. They said ‘You may persecute the minority, you may kill, you may torture, you may couple and breed without love’ They offered humanity all its great temptations. Nothing is true, everything is permitted’ 2/2

John Fowles, The Magus

‘One of the great fallacies of our time is that the Nazis rose to power because they imposed order on chaos. Precisely the opposite is true—they were successful because they imposed chaos on order’ 1/2

Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door

Some places will have to start rationing water - to enable AI slop.

"A data center like Meta’s, which was completed last year, typically guzzles around 500,000 gallons of water a day. New data centers [will] require millions of gallons of water a day"

Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/t...

I received irrationally furious emails and messages from strangers who really really really do not like that I constantly tell people that:

1. Yes you need to know who your neighbors are.
2. We are interdependent and cannot survive without other people.

These are basic true things.

A "blue alert" from the state of Texas for an injury to a cop 250 miles away from where I live.

Texas can't adequately warn people about deadly floods, but it can immediately let me know that a cop got hurt 250 miles away from me.