Andrew Lessman

I may have lost almost all faith in adults, but I will never give up on kids.

This administration constantly makes clear how little regard it has for vulnerable communities, especially those whom there has been a bipartisan desire to help. As always, cruelty is the point. www.npr.org/2025/10/13/n...

Nothing says “land of the free” like armed agents of the state saying “show me your papers if you want your daughter back” bsky.app/profile/nbcb...

ICE is sweeping up people with disabilities now, making no accommodations for them. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Trump: "The plan is to act like I wanted to attack Iran all along, bomb the shit out of them, then declare a ceasefire. I'm sure Iran won't just use that as an opportunity to launch a barrage against a now temporarily hesitant Israel. That way I still get my Nobel Peace Prize!"

according to conservatives on the court, the constitution does not protect your right to your own body but does enable the government to ship you off to a foreign gulag without any hope of return

The list has become painfully long. www.npr.org/2025/06/10/n...

No deregulation here. www.npr.org/2025/04/23/n...

Some additional context on the "A1" statement. Might well have been referring to this particular AI vendor. Teacher's unions might actually have preferred this to be a straight gaffe. finance.yahoo.com/news/secreta...

Yikes. Seems they no longer want to be constrained by ethical obligations.

Whenever this administration claims to be powerless to do something, we need to push back. They claim power over every area of our lives, but that they do not have the power to correct their own abuses.

We must immediately close our buggy-whip gap!

Moving these functions under RFK's supervision would be an unforgivable travesty. www.npr.org/2025/04/03/n...

Dead people telling the President to pursue a trade war with an uninhabited island is real George III territory

Without due process protections, anyone could be next.

Solid advice, but no one can quite predict how this SCOTUS will view the constitutionality of a President's authority over Executive agencies. They have been teeing up an expansion on this front for a while. Approving this switchover is very possible. www.fastcompany.com/91306787/wha...

Quite the headline. apnews.com/article/supr...

Ghost gun companies were their own worst enemies in this case. They pretended they weren't selling firearms, but EVERYTHING about their marketing conveyed the fact that you could easily turn their kits into functioning guns. Gorsuch really nails that here. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Today's decision is a pretty major smackdown for the 5th Circuit, which angrily rejected the ghost gun regulations as an egregiously unlawful assault on the rights of at-home gunsmiths. Gorsuch's opinion says the 5th Circuit badly misapplied the law in a number of ways. When you've lost Gorsuch...

Redirecting these functions is unconstitutional without action from Congress as these are precisely the statutorily required functions McMahon stated the department would continue to oversee. www.npr.org/2025/03/21/n...

Everyone tries to keep their head down, not notice the abuses and desperately prays they are not next. Once enough people start thinking that way, the culture shifts to ratting out your neighbors and colleagues in order to stay in the State's "good graces." All while the fascists entrench deeper.

Highlighting the need for and benefits of education data investment: www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...

Many accreditors and states require online program students to have the same level of access to university services as face-to-face students, and that the programs be of similar rigor. These pressures, along with profit, help explain the equivalence in price. www.npr.org/2025/03/15/n...

No one, not state governments, not teachers, not parents, nor students, will benefit from crippling our ability to collect and analyze education data. These functions are required by law. What is the replacement? www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

“The Left thought that cultural, linguistic, representational shifts would inure us from reactionary authoritarian politics. The Right has shown they can retool it & make it work for their ends.” @alfatau.bsky.social @joelowndes.bsky.social & Dan HoSang on the troubling rise of the multiracial right

Fewer OCR staff likely means the only claims that will get thoroughly investigated are those that break through on Fox News. Anyone can become disabled at any time, including students, and discrimination against such students persists nationwide. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Are state governments prepared to ensure that, as the Center for Education Reform states, Congressionally allocated money will "follow students where they are educated, regardless of the type of school"? www.npr.org/2025/03/12/n...

The Department of Education needs to immediately define "statutory programs." If they are cutting programs students are relying on expecting the states to step up, we need to know what programs are being cut as soon as possible to build state capacity. www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

These exclusions, like so many of the standards listed in his executive orders or described in tariff demands, are written vaguely enough to allow the Executive to punish just about anyone if they choose. www.npr.org/2025/03/07/n...

While the top schools are getting the headlines, make no mistake. This administration's policies are having a creating massive amounts of uncertainty and putting increasing financial pressure on the entire higher education sector. www.highereddive.com/news/perplex...

The Department of Education fills education gaps that states have refused to address for decades, especially for low-income and students with disabilities. Those communities are going to be the ones most harmed by these reckless and cruel decisions. www.npr.org/2025/03/05/n...

International students are key to the enrollment strategies of many higher education institutions. Even more disruption on this front could be very problematic. www.npr.org/2025/03/04/n...

So instead of helping students, the few remaining Ed staffers will be tasked with either putting themselves out of the job or finding a new department to force their way into so they can continue their work. Disaster waiting to happen. www.ed.gov/about/news/s...

Alaska is somewhat unique due to its location and layout, but chronic failure to maintain safe public school facilities is a nationwide problem. www.npr.org/2025/03/04/g...

Only took NYT until 2025 to get the message.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves for everything you have done up until this point here. Now who wants to cripple this department even MORE with me?"

Excellent guidance for students and people who actually care about students. The reckless and destructive incompetence displayed by Musk and DOGE necessitates students doing everything possible to protect their rights. www.cnbc.com/2025/02/25/s...

Bipartisan support was expressed during McMahon's confirmation hearing for the Department of Education to do more for students, not less. Block grants to state governments with no capacity to effectively administer that money will mean service cuts. www.npr.org/2025/02/24/n...

Focus was less on Mrs. McMahon and more on what she would do to ensure she complied with the law. Suggestion to spin special education off to HHS hit very different when made explicit that meant putting those programs under the control of RFK Jr.. www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

IES was established by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. The functions of IES are specified by this law, which was signed by George W. Bush. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

There was already precious little reliable and actionable data in the higher education space. Shutting down IES and NCES will leave us more blind than ever to how we are actually doing in helping students. www.npr.org/2025/02/10/n...

Devastating. America's position as one of the world's top medical research locations may never recover, costing Americans dearly when it comes to medical prices. American anti-intellectualism at its worst and most destructive.

Interesting that it is the tentacles of "No Child Left Behind" that this administration wants to strip out. "Money in exchange for meeting federal standards" was not some wild conception. Tons of Republicans loved it too. www.npr.org/2025/02/04/n...

The people who voted for Trump because they thought he’d pull the U.S. back from foreign entanglements and overseas adventurism are really among the prime suckers of our era.

Setting aside for a second the damage to students and others from shuttering programs states have refused to pay for themselves, the fact staffers are being let go for ATTENDING a diversity and inclusion workshop is insane. www.npr.org/2025/02/03/n...

Shapiro was able to find compromises on this front that at least temporarily broke up the Commonwealth political logjam. Key will be the scale of resources diverted from public education to the private sector. www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...

Literally making people beg for money. Setting up a personalist regime where you beg for the leader's favor.