This and That, November 6,2026

I am quite behind on reporting about some SPS issues including the fact that the Board seems okay with documentation for Board committee meetings not being submitted 24 hours before the meeting. If you have a policy, enforce it. I find this disturbing. 

First up, Google is trying to blackmail school districts that use their search engine. From The New Republic:

Schools that reject Google’s AI services apparently won’t be allowed to use Google at all. 

The company announced Tuesday that it will turn off search engine access for K-12 schools that toggle off its AI tools as soon as next year. Google executives claim the decision is based on the technologies’ recent fusion. 

“Search and AI are deeply integrated,” Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google, told The New York Times, adding that students at schools that have banned AI “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available.”
Many schools across the country have already invested in Google’s technologies, purchasing low-cost Google Chromebooks to assist educational instruction. Beyond that, Google’s search algorithm has led the industry for the last two decades, besting its competitors to the point that its mere name has become synonymous with research. 

Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, argued in a statement on X that Google had used its “search monopoly to coerce schools” into adopting AI tools. She noted Google has been found legally liable multiple times for antitrust law violations.

From Senator Bernie Sanders:

Sen. Bernie Sanders

@SenSanders

President Trump claimed that AI oligarchs could regulate themselves because they “love our country.” 

Now, Google is threatening schools: if you stop your students from using AI, we will cut off your access to Google Search. 

That’s not love. That’s extortion.

I see MANY comments about people just switching to Duck Duck Go or another search engine. Not sure how easy that will be given Google's contract with SPS. 

School Closures are definitely NOT just a Seattle thing. In Washington state, parents in Bellingham, Olympia, Northshore, and Evergreen are pushing back against closures in their districts. I am hearing a lot about pushback in Bellingham. From My Bellingham:

Students took to the streets and parents took to public meetings over proposed elementary school closures in Bellingham. Parents, current and former students who spoke touched on a variety of frustrations, including a lack of transparency over how a voter-approved bond from 2022 was spent.

My Bellingham Now previously reported that part of the bond funded the relocation of the district office, while the rest was initially meant to renovate Carl Cozier, Columbia and Roosevelt elementary schools.

They took bond money meant for schools and used it for the district office building and now they want to close some schools? Not a good look.

As well, school closures are also a national topic and that includes Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Tucson, Los Angeles and,a perennial district for closing schools, Chicago. Indeed, there is quite a bit of research around closing schools and outcomes for kids from Chicago. Minneapolis has tabled the topic for one year. 

From The Hill:

Researchers found public schools lost 1.83 million students between the 2019-2020 school year and the 2023-2024 one, a shift fueled by the pandemic.

The National Center for Education Statistics projects public school enrollment will drop 7.5 percent from 2019 to 2031.

More than 1,000 public schools closed nationwide in the 2025-26 school year, according to preliminary National Center for Education Statistics data. It’s the fourth year in a row that school closures have gone up.

Of course, the declining birth rate and costs are always factors but there are others.

From Stateline:

The COVID-19 pandemic also accelerated interest in homeschooling, virtual education and other alternatives to traditional public schools, according to Megan Bowen, high school director at the U.S. Career Institute, a Colorado-based online education provider.

And the immigration crackdown also may play a role. Before being elected and becoming House speaker in the Colorado legislature, Democratic state Rep. Julie McCluskie was a public school employee at Summit School District in one of the state’s rural resort towns. She told Stateline the reasons for the state’s yearly decline in public school students — and in her district — includes heightened immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration.

You hear many of the same concerns about where students will go and the planning around closures. One theme I hear over and over is that districts will need to have a very clear A-Z plan for displaced students and staff, how the switch will work at a new school, plans for closed buildings, etc.



And, because of Tuesday's results, we can expect to see at least some discussion in many states about their state's public education.

“What will have a major impact on [school closures] are the changing politics and policies that could be the result of the midterm elections. And so, with 36 states electing governors this year, that has major implications for the school board makeup, for the makeup of chief school officers and what they have the power to do to help districts navigate this difficulty,” said Nithya Joseph, managing partner of policy and advocacy at TNTP, a nonprofit that works with schools to redesign education systems.

Gubernatorial races in numerous states have seen staunch stances on school choice, with Democratic opponents attacking their counterparts for sending money out of public schools at a time when the institutions are struggling.

Gubernatorial races in numerous states have seen staunch stances on school choice, with Democratic opponents attacking their counterparts for sending money out of public schools at a time when the institutions are struggling.

In Arizona where we elected an all Dem state leadership team, we also have a new state superintendent of public instruction - a Latina AND an educator. As well, for the first time in decades, Dems control the legislature. 

That means that our near-anything-goes state voucher system is going to get an overhaul. We also turned back a cagey proposition that would have forced schools to spend money in a strict way and would have affected positions like nurses, counselors, etc.