Alex Freidus

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

Yes but also this story really shocked me precisely because of how it bucked the pattern, which is so longstanding:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/u...

This pattern continues to shock but not surprise us - we accept and predict the inequality. And yet, efforts to make schools more diverse can also be rooted in white supremacy.

My book about this comes out today! There's a coupon code for 30% off from NYU Press if you want to know more.

@rawsalerts #BREAKING: Texas Governor Abbott has issued a warning that if House Democrats do not return by 3 PM tomorrow, he will move to declare their seats vacant and replace them 4:06 AM • Aug 4, 2025 • 3.2M Views 1.6K t 6.1K 59K 1.8K Dwarf... & @dwarfstar... • 16h @grok can the Texas Governor make that decision?

Dwarf... @dwarfstar... • g g... @grok can the Texas Governor make that decision? @grok • 16h No, the Texas Governor cannot unilaterally declare legislative seats vacant due to absence. Per the Texas Constitution (Art. 3, Sec. 10), the House can compel attendance of absent members to meet quorum, but absence alone doesn't create a vacancy. Vacancies occur via resignation, Show more Community... @Half... • 1h g Grok, you are wrong! He called a special session. And while in that special session. By statue and case law. He can 100 percent do so.

Grok v XI @grok • 1h While Gov. Abbott invokes Art. 3 Sec. 23 (vacancy if residence removed from district), temporary absence to break quorum isn't "removing residence" per precedent. No Texas statute or case law lets the Governor unilaterally declare seats vacant for this-vacancies require House Show more Grok now remembers your conversations. Ask for recommendations or advice, and get personalized responses. Community... Wrong!

Grok v @grok.45m You're not providing any specific statute or case law to support your claim—because none exists. Texas Const. Art. 3 §23 requires actual removal of residence for vacancy, not temporary absence. Governor lacks unilateral power; House handles attendance (Sec. 10). Precedent from Show more 19 Ill 298 Community... @H... • 32m g... I dont have to provide it. I've read it. After it was posted by the Texas Governor. So yeah, you're still wrong. Grok @grok •30m Claims require evidence, not just assertions. Abbott's warning, while posted, doesn't confer legal authority. Texas Const. Art. 3 §§10,13,23 limit Governor to calling elections for actual vacancies; temporary absence isn't one. Experts (Newsweek, Politico 8/4/25) deem threat Show more

“Claims require evidence” I’m crying

Thanks, Sarah!

This pattern continues to shock but not surprise us - we accept and predict the inequality. And yet, efforts to make schools more diverse can also be rooted in white supremacy.

My book about this comes out today! There's a coupon code for 30% off from NYU Press if you want to know more.

Justin Driver comes through yet again.

“Frankly, I don’t agree with anyone about Israel, so that can’t be the criteria for who we elect as mayor, because I don’t even agree with myself most days.” A truer more Jewish quote has never been given www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/n... by @liam-stack.bsky.social

American Dream? Bring earplugs for the extreme music, make sure there's a clear designated meeting spot, that place if kid fun but also like a casino inside - easy to get lost and no clocks at all.

My tenth grade English teacher's favorite line in 1991: "An essay should be like a girl's skirt - long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting."

When I complained, they said he'd been teaching there for 30 years and was about to retire and there was nothing anyone could do.

Think part of the problem is that his argument (like lots of other similar arguments) relies on an understanding of "the left" that totally ignores feminism.

ADL Musk

I spoke with 40+ sources for a look inside the Anti-Defamation League. Here’s some of what I found.

ADL’s gentle response to Elon Musk’s infamous salute was partially driven by his support of Israel. To ADL, that indicated he didn’t have “antisemitic tendencies.” (1/x)

nymag.com/intelligence...

I have a few ideas. (I bet you do too.)

Oh, they know

This feels like an ethics scenario that could be... on the bar?

My college: "We don't see SETs as important indicators of student learning and we encourage the use of alternate measures."
Also my college (of education!): "Please include SETs data in merit materials and award nominations."

OMG we do NOT need more explainers about the horrors of the academic job market. Let's just say this... isn't a thing.

Alexandra Freidus with Max Freedman Brooklyn independent bookstore

It's at Greenlight! Join us! greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-0...

Thanks, David! Will you be at Greenlight next week? CUNY event has not yet been scheduled, I should follow up...

If you insist...

(Coming out next week! Brooklyn release party on Wednesday 8/6!)

bsky.app/profile/alex...

"Many of us—including some politicians—cling to the conviction that with hard work and moral rectitude, suffering will not befall us. If you think that way, you are fortunate indeed."

Compare/contrast:
1. DOJ memo, maintaining that recruitment at institutions chosen for their racial/ethnic composition is a "potentially unlawful practice
2. Brown settlement agreement, requiring targeted recruitment at Jewish day schools, as a remedy for past discrimination

Funny, for us that is actually the point. I have weird anxiety/control issues around timing, so I use location sharing to stop myself from texting my partner every 10 minutes to find out when he is likely to get home for dinner. But we're both very aware that this is MY issue.

My kids are learning to navigate NYC on their own, incrementally and as needed. A thing I remind myself (and anxious extended family) is that surveillance and overprotection involves its own significant risks.

Literally nothing is going to ruin my day as fast as getting an email from the president of my alma mater entitled “Brown and U.S. Government reach agreement.”

Meanwhile FEMA contracts had to be checked so thoroughly that emergency responses were delayed...

Want to get back at that prof who gave you an A- on an exam? Or maybe you don't think people of color or women should be professors?

Make up a story about antisemitism, plop it into an anonymous student evaluation, and watch as your prof's life is upturned faster than you can spell "fascism."

It's not that I expect anything much of institutions, so it's not that they disappoint me. But I am repeatedly appalled by the ones with which I am affiliated as an alum, employee, etc.

Today in writing wins(?): I finally sat down to fully outline and memo on a paper I have been wanting to write since last summer. Then as I gathered files, I realized that I wrote all those memos last summer.

Either this project will go pretty fast or I will never remember/complete anything again.

it's crazy that you can be a writer for the new york times and not know who the current mayor of new york city is or the current budget of the NYPD, who despite a constant presence in the area failed to intercept a man walking around with a GIANT FUCKING LONG GUN

My kids appreciate the rev war history, epitaph reading, and the view of the statue of liberty - but YMMV