Yes, Biden has been walking back and re-editing his open-the-schools-within-100-days vow ever since he first said it. axios.com/biden-100-day-…
I wrote a week ago about "the fundamental untenability of his—and teachers unions'—position." Namely, that they're reopeners rhetorically (in order to sound responsive to FURIOUS parents), but where it counts they're just pumping out money with no strings. reason.com/2021/01/26/sch…
Congress has already thrown $69 billion in extra Covid-relief money to K-12 schools (on top of the DOE's $40 billion outlay each year). Biden wants another $130 billion in his first relief bill. Unions want the money...and no strings attached. Parents want the nightmare to end.
As I sourly and unhappily predicted a month ago, "the most 'open' thing will be the government's checkbook—that and parents' web browsers as they explore every option for their kids that doesn't include a teachers union." reason.com/2021/01/25/wil…
You can see the tension--how to appear parent-responsive about reopening and union-responsive about money?--in this Axios summary: "The president has always made his goal contingent on Congress passing enough funds to ensure teachers could instruct students safely."

"enough"
Keep in mind that in addition to the explicit $130 billion K-12 ask, Biden-relief also wants $350 billion to help states fill budget holes. About 20% of state budgets go to K-12 education. urban.org/policy-centers….
The politics of this issue flipped on a dime after the presidential race was finally called for Biden, as that NY Mag piece last week showed. Gone was the mother of all scapegoats. Suddenly blue-state parents weren't as scared to pipe up. Unions flinched. reason.com/2021/01/27/tea…
But Chicago is the great test case. Union honcho Randi Weingarten, who's been making noises about reopening since late November, is foursquare behind the CTU not showing up for work. And many parents who watch stuff like this just fume.
We talk about this stuff for the first 25 minutes of today's @Reason Roundtable podcast, which was a really lively & intelligent conversation w/ @nickgillespie, @petersuderman & @kmanguward about a lot of stuff, including "forgiving the past." reason.com/podcast/2021/0…
Also talked about this on @KennedyNation tonight, which I'll throw at the bottom of this thread if it magically appears on this system of tubes. I can't see the forest for the trees on this stuff, but I suspect the politics of this is particularly potent going forward.

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More from @MattWelch

24 Jan
I grew up listening to the best radio in the world. Chick Hearn, Vin Scully, Dick Enberg, Jim Healey, Gary Owens, Jim Ladd, Machine Gun Kelly, Rodney on the ROQ, Dr. Demento. The one guy who probably broadened my horizons more than any other? Larry King.
He had this show syndicated on the Mutual Broadcasting System, came pretty late on weeknights in SoCal. I just got my brand spanking new digital clock radio--my most prized possession, by far--and this show, man, it went on for like 100 hours EVERY NIGHT.
There'd be a guest to talk for an hour or two--unless it was Danny Kaye, Sandy Koufax, or Francis Albert Sinatra; they'd get the full run. But otherwise after the guests left it was Open Phone America, where he'd do his trademark. "Dubuque! Hello!" For hours, every night.
Read 9 tweets
23 Jan
When Hank Aaron came up to the big leagues in 1954 at age 20, the stolen base was pretty dead as a weapon. A great athlete and smart ballplayer, he stole just 20 bases his first 6 seasons. Then Maury Wills came along, and he was all, "Really?" Then averaged 22 SB from 1960-68.
Hank Aaron hit 77 triples his first 10 years in the bigs (1954-63).

Since 1964, only 46 players have hit more than 77 triples in their entire careers. Not Barry Larkin, not Ryne Sandberg, not Mickey Rivers.
Kirk Gibson in 1988 won the MVP while racking up 6.5 Wins Above Replacement, 6th most in the NL. I would have given it to 1st-place WAR-haver Orel Hershiser (7.1), but it wasn't a bad pick.

Hank Aaron had more than 6.5 WAR every year from 1956-69.
Read 7 tweets
22 Jan
A point worth elaborating: "decisions about hiring and firing are rarely as simple as they appear to outside observers with an ax to grind, so there may well be more going on here—though the statement from Taylor seems to eliminate much of that ambiguity"
reason.com/2021/01/22/nis…
In my experience, outsiders (including journalists) describing personnel decisions of which I have tangible knowledge of almost always get it significantly wrong, due to the routine asymmetry of candor between parties who have a career-altering disagreement. That's important!
Even public-facing statements that seem to confirm the basic Narrative can be misleading, if the management involved is using a transgression as a convenient excuse to do something they had long wanted to do. The more a place is managed or PR'd badly, the more likely that is.
Read 6 tweets
18 Jan
Let’s put more things in the world, says I. So without further ado, here’s the best first-draft playlist I could rummage from music that was first revealed in December 1989. Two mega-hits, followed by weird instrumentals, alt-stuff, topped by epic metal.
open.spotify.com/playlist/67BIx…
Thus ends Phase 1 of this collaborative Twitter exercise, in which you, the big people, helped me go month by month through that revolutionary political and musical year, making playlists, and learning a bunch of stuff. Thank you! Raw material for great editorial content to come.
Past lists can be found working backward through the thread announcing the November 1989 list.
Read 9 tweets
9 Jan
OK, we could all use a pointless distraction, so:

Here’s my playlist composed of notable musicks that were first released in November 1989. From Morrissey to Crispin Glover, Robert Earl Keen to Queen Latifah, and just so, so much punk rock. [1/x]
open.spotify.com/playlist/1BjVM…
To recap, I’ve been marching through each month of that revolutionary and musically interesting year. Will become a podcast series soon.

You can hear me talking about it while spinning discs w/ my old pal @dougiegyro on Prague’s legendary Radio 1:
mixcloud.com/douglasa/radio…
Short samling from the stuff I’ve written about 1989, and about its musical connections:
* reason.com/2009/10/12/the…
* reason.com/2011/12/18/kee…
* reason.com/2013/10/27/how…
Read 11 tweets
8 Jan
Some quotes from my interview yesterday with @RepMeijer, the young anti-war vet and Republican who succeeded @justinamash in Congress. reason.com/2021/01/08/ama…
"Some of my colleagues in Congress, they share responsibility for that. Many of them were fundraising off of this Stop the Steal grift. I don't understand how you can look in the mirror and go to sleep at night without that weighing on your conscience, I fundamentally do not.”
“I'm just at a loss for words about how some of them have acted in ways that are just knowingly, provably false. And they *know* they're lying, too."
Read 6 tweets

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