Sam Schulz

"These are boutique issues. If you're basing your vote solely on who treats trans people more poorly, you don't really suffer from any real problem ... What the fuck do you mean you're voting for whoever prevents whether some trans 6th grader from playing soccer with her friends?" @katelynburns.com

I’ve worn only wool socks for years, & somehow the 4-packs of women’s wool socks from Costco are easily the best everyday (not hiking) socks I’ve ever worn.

With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules

“The U.S. no longer has emission standards of any meaning,” said Margo T. Oge, who served as the E.P.A.’s top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups…

“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”

Five years! Forbes was extraordinarily lucky to have you for so long. Can’t wait to hear what’s next.

A ‘shadow CDC’ is scrambling to fill gaps in public health data Dozens of routinely updated CDC databases have gone quiet. Here’s what states and medical societies are doing to preserve U.S. public health

Under RFK, Jr., the CDC's authority has crumbled: it is no longer updating dozens of health databases, and has abandoned vaccine guidelines. But states and governors are trying to fill the void, @laurenjyoung.bsky.social writes @scifri.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/stat...

This makes me miss Pete’s.

It’s fairly new. It jumped out to me because where I’m from, the Office of the Public Advocate is a real citywide elected office.

News is not a “daily conversation.”

News is news.

If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.

‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life Canadian judge Kimberly Prost is unable to use credit cards, transfer money or book everyday services in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary

“I can’t think of any other way to describe it but an attack on the independence of the judiciary and the International Criminal Court’s independence as an institution.”

Prost was sanctioned because she’d ruled to OK an investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes.

www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

Speaking of people adjacent to Mae West, how well-established was the current meaning when Cary Grant, clad in a marabou bathrobe, exclaimed “I just went gay all of a sudden” in Bringing Up Baby (1938)?

“Cuomo began renting the Sunnyside apartment in 1982 while working as a campaign manager for his father’s run for governor… After his father became governor in 1983, he worked as one of his aides, taking a salary of $1 a year.”

How did the son of the then-governor pay his stabilized rent on that?

Cucina Urbana in Bankers Hill lets kids make their own pizzas. I haven’t been there myself, but I’ve heard good things about the food & liked what the chef’s done elsewhere.

The future of being trans on the internet The internet has long been a source of information and support for transgender people. Now, trans rights and the internet itself are in a moment of crisis. What happens next?

Trans rights and the internet itself are in a moment of crisis. What happens next?

Our special series, The Future of Being Trans on the Internet, is now live in its entirety. You can check out each piece in our beautiful hub, or join us on a quick scroll 🧵

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

Many issues L4L highlights — related-party transactions, lax oversight by small rural authorizers, entities that run schools avoiding transparency — are familiar for CA charters.

But oversight efforts keep failing. Reforms the moratorium aimed to buy time for haven't materialized.

It lifts Jan. 1.

One teacher specifically took issue with the expansion, given these results: “Their model doesn’t work, & it shouldn’t be used elsewhere until it works.”

For now, the expansion is only in other states: For 5+ years, CA has banned opening new non-classroom-based charters to buy time to make reforms.

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

And as in CA, Learn4Life schools elsewhere graduate fewer kids than other schools with similar populations.

L4L schools in CA graduated 29% of students within 5 years, compared to 54% for all alternative high schools. For out-of-state L4L schools, it's 9% to 35%. (L4L takes issue with this metric.)

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

That adds up: Lifelong Learning’s assets doubled from $18M to $36M in 3 years.

It's using them to expand in other states.

As in CA, the out-of-state schools' boards are controlled by one entity tied to Lifelong Learning — this one Educational *Improvement* Corp, not Educational Advancement Corp.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

As for the financial benefits, Lifelong Learning takes a cut of each school's revenue — so the more ADA funding schools can get out of students & teachers, the more Lifelong Learning collects.

School admins wouldn't say how much they pay Lifelong Learning. But documents suggest 14-15% of revenue.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

Watchdogs have warned about such arrangements — in which the client is controlled by a party related to one that financially benefits.

(It's a regular issue in CA charter world.)

They raise questions of whether school boards are doing what's best for students or for the entity that controls them.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

Nearly all the schools' boards are controlled by one obscure entity called Educational Advancement Corporation w/ close ties to Lifelong Learning.

And each school is governed by one of a constellation of entities with one thing in common: They pay & are largely managed by Lifelong Learning.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

It also plays an outsize role in running each school:

It handles their finances, PR, facilities, recordkeeping, planning & financial reporting.

It gets first right of refusal for potential admin contracts.

It helps develop schools' educational models & curricula & prepare school board agendas.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

Still, because it’s a nonprofit, there are things we know:

We know it paid multiple executives >$400K a year.

We know it paid its cofounder >$600K a year.

We know it hired at least 3 of his relatives in high-paying exec jobs.

And we know it’s one of CA’s top spenders on education lobbying.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

Lifelong Learning insists it’s not a charter management organization but rather a vendor, and therefore isn’t subject to public records law.

California’s school auditing agency has said otherwise.

But Lifelong Learning rejected our requests for board meeting and financial records on that basis.

In Learn4Life charter school network, millions of taxpayer dollars get spent by one private corporation Lifelong Learning operates outside state transparency laws, despite its outsize role in managing the schools and despite the millions it reaps in public funding.

So who's behind Learn4Life, & where is all that public money going?

Hundreds of millions of it is going to one obscure private corporation that effectively manages much of the schools’ operations — Lifelong Learning Administration Corporation.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/06/i...

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

We asked Learn4Life about it, their lawyer accused us of not understanding how schools are funded & said the question could “mislead the public into believing that L4L is breaking the law, which is categorically false.”

This was the most specific a response we got from them on anything. 7/x

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

Speaking of ADA, some Learn4Life schools filed ADA numbers even higher than the total number of students enrolled *at any point in a calendar year.*

At one, the disparity was >800 kids — worth >$10M.

We asked state auditing officials about it. They said it’s so unusual it merits investigation. 6/x

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

And kids don’t have to show up to count as attending. ADA is measured by how much work they do.

“Even if the student barely did enough work to count as 1 day’s worth of work, the students & teachers were strongly encouraged to sign off for the entire [~20-day] learning period,” a teacher said. 5/x

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

The model Learn4Life schools use is non-classroom-based (kids mostly work remotely) and independent-study (kids don't attend remote classes but rather complete assignments on their own).

To some teachers, that lack of structure was especially tough for their vulnerable student population. 4/x

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

What schools really cared about, teachers said, was posting high average daily attendance, or ADA — the basis for school funding in California.

“You gotta get ADA. That was the real driver,” one said.

But they had qualms about how they say they were expected to do it.

‘This isn’t right’: Teachers question priorities, track record of Learn4Life charter schools The network’s model has drawn criticism of its effectiveness, and some teachers described its schools as more focused on funding than on results.

“It just felt like I’m perpetuating this problem of this kid falling further and further behind even when they’re trying. I remember feeling at the time, ‘This isn’t right, it shouldn’t be this way.’”

“We didn’t graduate enough students.”

“We didn’t treat them like we should’ve.”