Rob Wisc

Summary of @AFT "partnerships" with #tech moguls #AI from 2022-2025 raises questions about the authority to strike these deals. Financial details suggest conflict of interest as well. Kudos for this research from a UC AFT member and historian: campuslabor.blogspot.com/2025/08/AFT-...

Communities all across the country are taking action against Avelo and we need you to join us! By fighting Avelo, we’re showing we can take down those who look to profit off harming our people. We’re showing what’s possible when we organize together.

Something my supervisor (a demographer) told me when I finished my PhD would be something I think way too many people in tech today pushing AI into everything and onto everyone might need to hear: "now you know what you don't know, and the limits of what you do know."

Ugh.

And, as you highlight, all my speculation is before additional regulation and rulemaking from the legislation...

Going back to Petrilli's notes: There still might be way for a gov to use this law to drive a wedge in Trump's coalition. For instance, working with orgs to provide scholarships for students with IEPs in public schools /might/ support enough students to make it harmful for Trump to block funding.

Oh for sure! Gaming out any non-private-school-tuition use of these funds is difficult when an admin might illegally impound federal funding for schools.

So it seems /possible/ that a gov could do something like choose to elect "scholarship granting organizations" that provide scholarships for transportation to public schools.

A screenshot of part of the website linked above that reads: (3) Qualified elementary and secondary education expenses (A) In general The term "qualified elementary and secondary education expenses" means- (i) expenses for tuition, fees, academic tutoring, special needs services in the case of a special needs beneficiary, books, supplies, and other equipment which are incurred in connection with the enrollment or attendance of the designated beneficiary of the trust as an elementary or secondary school student at a public, private, or religious school, (ii) expenses for room and board, uniforms, transportation, and supplementary items and services (including extended day programs) which are required or provided by a public, private, or religious school in connection with such enrollment or attendance, and (iii) expenses for the purchase of any computer technology or equipment or Internet access and related services, if such technology, equipment, or services are to be used by the beneficiary and the beneficiary's family during any of the years the beneficiary is in school. Clause (iii) shall not include expenses for computer software designed for sports, games, or hobbies unless the software is predominantly educational in nature.

It seems like the law uses 26 U.S. Code § 530(b)(3)(A) for the definitions of "qualified elementary and secondary education expenses."

uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?h...

Appreciate you sharing this link! You mention that these scholarships "can't be said to be taking any money from their public schools." But since school funding is determined based on student enrollment, wouldn't public schools lose funding if students use these funds to attend private schools?

Look at what happens to male teacher salaries (blue line) v.s. female teacher salaries (red line) after collective bargaining laws expire.

2025 Fall Food Cart Review - Reviewer Application City of Madison Logo.

For all my people still in Madison, WI:
Apply to be one of the city's food cart reviewers!

Requirements:
- Attend training on Sep 4
- Review food from at least 80% of carts Sep 8–Oct 4

No compensation, but food is free for reviewers.

www.surveymonkey.com/r/2025FCR_Re...

This is deeply disturbing.

In Emails, UNC’s Provost Said Chancellor Approved Tenure Delay Chris Clemens wrote in an email obtained by The Assembly that Chancellor Lee Roberts agreed to delay tenure votes for financial reasons.

I interrupt your Friday evening with more UNC drama (really more information about previous drama)

www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

As Ruha Benjamin says in her book Viral Justice (page 50), "...growing the world we want is like the slow tending of a garden, transforming the plants by fostering relationships, trust, skills, community accountability, and healing. It requires cultivating new habits internally, seeding restorative ways of being together interpersonally, uprooting practices of inequality institutionally, and planting alternative possibilities structurally. If we only concentrate on our internal work while ignoring the fires burning all around us, we'll eventually be consumed. But if we only concentrate on putting out the blaze, we'll eventually burn out.

Reminders to ourselves as we organize (or, I needed this today).

Workers can change the world by organizing and building structures together to fight for justice at work.

Together, we can win dignity and respect, better salaries and benefits, and protections from abusive bosses. Our safety and strength come from our collective action.

Not that this would significantly impact their actions—they could cite a different reason for closed session—but the UNC Board of Trustees did not reference a case before using closed session to speak with attorneys in the two meetings I skimmed from this year. Curious if that is a larger pattern.

Thanks for doing the work to keep an eye on things!

You may be able to answer a question I had about UNC Board of Trustees meetings: Do they ever cite specific lawsuits when using closed session to speak with an attorney?

NCGS §143-318.11(c) suggests they need to:

www.ncleg.net/enactedlegis...

Scorching cells How heat threatens lives in America’s prisons

www.reuters.com/graphics/USA... - this is torture

Assistant Professor - Madison, Wisconsin, United States Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

We're hiring! Please share with your networks!

The Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor in the field of demography of health and aging beginning in August 2026
jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Shame on the NC GOP for attacking trans people and public education and shame on Rep. Nasif Majeed (D-Mecklenburg) for supporting the NC GOP attacks...

Rep. Majeed was the only Democrat to break party lines to override Gov. Stein's veto of HB 805. #ncpol

Checking in: Have you written this up? I may have missed it somewhere...

Not in the digital collection at UW–Madison!

Crowd Sourcing: What are your favorite books, articles, podcasts on race and education (broadly defined)?

A few books I have been returning to recently:
Kelley's Freedom Dreams
Baldridge's Reclaiming Community
Ewing's Ghosts in the Schoolyard
Delgado's Rodrigo Chronicles

And recent collections:
Clay & Henry's Promise of Youth Anti-Citizenship
Verma & Apple's Disrupting Hate in Education

States Face Uncertainty as an Estimated $6.2 Billion in K–12 Funding Remains Unreleased: Here’s the Fiscal Impact by State States face uncertainty as $6.2 billion in K–12 federal funding remains unreleased. If the U.S. Department of Education doesn’t distribute these funds by July 1, state educational agencies will need p...

Here is LPI's analysis of the funds impounded at the beginning of the month (although Dept of Ed committed to releasing the summer / after-school funds last week):

learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/states-...

For sure! And most school districts (rural, suburban, urban) are already financially stretched thin / have based their next annual budget on these federal funds. So the conversations were more "we have to cut things now" rather than "we have to prepare for austerity soon."

Medicaid cuts will be devastating, but will largely be felt by individuals and institutions in a more distributed way. Higher healthcare costs and hospital closures will not hit everyone at the same time.

My gut take: The illegally impounded school funds have already been impacting district budgeting Districts have been messaging their dire financial situations to parents and community members—folks support "their schools" enough to make noise.

Assistant Professor - Open Field - Sociology University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

Berkeley Sociology is hiring faculty! Sept 1 application deadline. Two positions: (1) open area junior search. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05013, (2) associate or full professor in Anti-Black Racism and Social Inclusion aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05012 Please help spread the word!