Slop schools
I am not ready to hand over learning to a robot, or a “guide.” Think of your favorite, most impactful teacher right now. I bet you are smiling. Learning is so important, so human, that it requires and is in some way defined by the people you learned with and from.
If there is both common sense and empirical truth at the center of effective learning it is the presence of an effective instructor. In a way, Alpha School is striving to create one paragon of an educator: the personal tutor. If the children of Egyptian pharaohs and Silicon Valley titans can enjoy this level of support, why not use technology to bring it to more people? Fair, but Alpha School is not offering Socrates. You get a guide and a room with kids full of Chromebooks.
I am rooting for the kids who have enrolled in Alpha School. Families have every right to choose this option for their kids. I hope their kids learn a lot, and Alpha School can learn and share what works in its classrooms.
But I’ll be happy if that school model doesn’t spread. Massachusetts has about 900,000 public school children, and districts spend approximately $20,000 per pupil. At most, Alpha School will enroll 180 students in Greater Boston this school year, charging tuition at least three times that much. Alpha School probably won’t change education because its model is fundamentally unscalable.
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Madison’s district, despite an elite university pipeline, hypereducated leadership, and a shiny, new strategic plan, suffers the same frailties as Milwaukee’s: basement performance, backbreaking spending. But while Milwaukee is pulling out of its tailspin due to courageouschoices from the top, Madison is ponderously ambling to nowhere. Just ask the locals. “You need the marketing, and you need the product,” as a parent told a reporter. “I’m missing the product.”
2025-2026 Madison 4k-3rd grade Early Literacy Screener report: The bar moves faster than the kids.
Joe Gothard, Becky Kundert and Sonia Spencer Remarks on Madison’s K-12 Literacy Crisis.
2026-2027 Madison K-12 $pending continues to grow, fueled by a 9.7% (!) property tax increase. Total spending will be at least $706,000,000 for 25,003 students, or $28,236 per student.
May 2026 Madison School District Presentation: 7,095 adults for 25,003 students (3.52 students per adult!)
2024-2025 Early Literacy Screener Map.
Map: Foundations of Reading Results: 2015–2024
Where have all the students gone?
3,887 Madison 4 year old to third grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group.
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average k-12 tax & $pending. This despite our long term, disastrous reading results. May, 2026: 7,095 Staff for 25,003 students; $pending > $26k per student!
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic.
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?
