Julian Vasquez-Heilig: A Win by Gina Hinojosa Would Dramatically Change Education in Texas

By dianeravitch
October 29, 2026 //
0

Julian Vasquez-Heilig is a scholar and activist who has been a leader in studying and promoting equal access to educational opportunity for all students.

He writes here about the consequences for Texas students, teachers, and communities if Gina Hinojosa manages to get elected Governor of Texas next week. She is heavily outspent by Governor Greg Abbott, who is seeking his fourth term, yet the polls show that the race is virtually tied. The latest reports show that Abbott has a campaign chest of nearly $100 million, while Hinojosa has raised $7-8 million.

Abbott has been a forceful advocate for privatization of public schools, pushing the Republican-controlled legislature to authorize charter schools and vouchers. Rural Republicans opposed vouchers, so Abbott got $12 million from Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass to defeat the anti-voucher Republicans.

If Abbott wins, expect a doubling of the voucher budget from $1 billion a year to $2 billion a year. That increase was recently proposed by Don Huffines, the state’s chief financial officer. Expect an increase in funding for privately-managed charter schools and less oversight. Expect a steady erosion of public schools and low pay for teachers.

Vasquez-Heilig describes what to expect if Hinojosa wins:

The midterm vote in the United States could do more than change who holds political power; it could determine the future of education.

First, congrats to Lula for his big victory this week in the national Brazilian elections! Incidentally, a Brazilian university recruited me for a Fulbright project that past year examining how Brazil was recovering and reinventing its education system after Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. After the invitation, I applied and Fulbright faculty peer reviewers scored and approved the proposal. Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department then rejected it. I was not given an explanation establishing why they rejected the invited and reviewer approved Fulbright, although I couldn’t help wondering whether examining the innovation of the education system after Bolsonaro was an uncomfortable subject for the Trump Administration.

The experience left me thinking about questions much closer to home. What would it take to reimagine and rebuild education in the United States after the midterms? More specifically, what might be possible in Texas after more than a decade under Governor Greg Abbott as a case study? 

I spent eight years as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, studying educational equity, civil rights, school accountability, and privatization. During my time in Texas, I witnessed how nakedly political decisions shaped educational opportunities for millions of students and the educators who served them. With State Representative Gina Hinojosa now challenging Abbott for governor, I have examined her official education platform and considering what could change if Texas takes a different political direction. 

The possibilities extend well beyond one state, considering that the Republican’s ideas for education are all over the place (charter schools, vouchers, banning curriculum etc). Texas offers a compelling case study of how shifts in political leadership after the midterms could reshape educational policy, governance, and public investment in states transitioning from Republican to Democratic control. What happens in Texas could offer important lessons for the future of public education across the country.

For my case study, I examine ten possibilities. Some of the ideas below are commitments Hinojosa has publicly made. Others are reforms I believe deserve consideration, particularly in higher education and financial accountability.

1. The Texas Education Agency Would Get an Educator as Commissioner

Hinojosa has explicitly promised to remove Texas Education Agency non-educator Commissioner Mike Morath and appoint an educator. This could fundamentally change the agency’s relationship with schools. The next commissioner would bring direct experience with teaching and learning to an organization responsible for overseeing millions of students, school accountability, state interventions, and billions in education spending.

The consequential question would be whether that professional background will actually translate into different institutional priorities. Texas educators have spent years operating under accountability pressures, staffing shortages, and extensive state requirements. A commissioner with educator experience could approach those challenges with a different understanding of what teachers and students need, although successful administration would also require considerable policy and management expertise.

Earlier I provide some persepctives on California’s newly implemented commissioner position here.

2. Houston and Other State-Controlled Districts Could Return to Their Communities

Hinojosa promises to end state takeovers and restore local governance. Houston ISD offers the most consequential example, with state-appointed leaders making major decisions about instruction, staffing, and campus operations after the 2023 state takeover ostensibly due to single test score in a single high school. For the Republican in Texas, local control has meant controlling people locally.

The educational record deserves careful examination. State officials and takeover supporters cite improved academic ratings at historically struggling campuses in Houston, while critics have raised concerns about teacher turnover (about 12,000 have left the district), instructional restrictions and canned curriculum, elimination of an elected school board, and the manipulation of student populations to show fake results. A transition back to community governance would produce actual improvements while restoring democratic accountability.

Fort Worth, Austin, and other districts facing or experiencing state takeover present similar questions about who makes decisions and how communities regain authority over their schools.

3. Testing and Accountability System Would Be Revised

Hinojosa has proposed ending STAAR, pausing A through F accountability ratings, and developing a new system. Her campaign reports that TEA has awarded more than $1.7 billion to testing vendors during Abbott’s governorship.

During my years at UT Austin, I studied how high-stakes accountability affected schools serving historically marginalized communities in Texas. That research shaped my advocacy for community-based accountabilityand multiple measures of school success. This revised system could place greater emphasis on academic growth, graduation, student engagement, access to advanced coursework, and the opportunity to learn. Such changes would require legislation and a credible replacement system that gives families actually useful information about school performance.

4. Voucher Spending Could Face a Comprehensive Audit

Texas has committed $1 billion to its new private school voucher program, which Hinojosa proposes to end. A comprehensive financial review could examine who received funds, what providers charged, whether expenses met legal requirements, and whether safeguards adequately protected taxpayers.

Other states offer reasons to investigate. In Arizona, the media has reviewed records showing that education savings account money had been spent on travel-related expenses across 44 states and 13 countries. More than 100 accounts were associated with at least $21,000 in spending at Disney parks, Disney stores, and Disney’s streaming service. Some expenditures may have been approved under existing program rules, which makes the distinction between legal spending and appropriate public spending particularly important.

Texas investigators could carefully examine whether its own program permits comparable purchases, whether vendors are properly screened, and whether families and providers comply with spending restrictions. Arizona’s experience is a warning about oversight. I recently heard at the Network for Public Education conference that Florida has a $1 billion state budget deficit due to unlimited vouchers; that’s another warning.

5. Charter School Financial Misconduct Could Face Stronger Enforcement

Texas already has a documented history of serious charter school spending controversies. Consider IDEA Public Schools, one of the nation’s largest charter networks. Its leadership faced scrutiny over plans involving private aircraft and expenditures of approximately $400,000 on premium San Antonio Spurs tickets and luxury seating. Reports also described a proposed private jet lease, executive travel expenses, related-party business arrangements, and the acquisition of a boutique hotel. Former CEO Tom Torkelson departed with a reported $900,000 severance package. In 2024, TEA placed IDEA under conservatorship following a years-long investigation into financial and operational misconduct.

Texas could strengthen financial disclosure requirements, investigate conflicts of interest, recover improperly spent funds where legally possible, and refer substantiated fraud to law enforcement. Prosecutions should follow evidence of criminal violations rather than assumptions about an institution’s charter status.

6. Abbott’s University Regents Could Be Replaced

Texas governors exercise substantial influence over higher education through appointments to university governing boards. At the University of Texas System, nine regents serve staggered six-year terms and require Senate confirmation. A new governor would inherit those existing terms. However, three UT regent terms are scheduled to expire in February 2027, creating an early opportunity for appointments if successors are confirmed. 

New appointments could change the governing boards’ approach to presidential selection, academic freedom, institutional performance, and faculty governance. They could also prompt closer examination of whether political relationships have been given undue weight in university leadership appointments.

Hinojosa has not announced a comprehensive regent replacement agenda, and current regents cannot simply be dismissed for their political associations in theory. Nevertheless, governing board appointments would be an important part of any change in Texas higher education policy.

7. University Presidents, Provosts, and Deans Could Face New Evaluations

Changes to governing boards could eventually produce changes in university leadership. Presidents are selected and evaluated through governing structures, while presidents exercise substantial authority over the appointment and dismissal of provosts, deans, and other academic administrators. The University of Texas System’s rules generally delegate responsibility for appointing and dismissing institutional administrative officers to university presidents. 

A new governing board could examine whether presidents were selected through credible processes, whether administrative appointments emphasized academic qualifications, and whether leaders delivered results in enrollment, research, student success, and institutional governance. Where community-wide evaluations establish serious leadership failures, governing boards and presidents could make personnel changes consistent with applicable rules and contracts. 

8. Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Gender Studies Could Regain Support

Texas universities have faced substantial political and legislative pressure concerning diversity initiatives, academic programs, and the teaching of race and gender. A change in state leadership could reopen discussions about the important place of Black Studies, Latino Studies, Indigenous Studies, Gender Studies, and related fields within public universities in our democracy.

These disciplines contribute to historical understanding, scholarship, public policy, and students’ ability to examine complex social questions. Decisions about their academic standing should involve faculty expertise, scholarly standards, student demand, and institutional missions.

Restoring programs affected by state policies could require legislative changes, governing board action, institutional funding, and faculty recruitment. Hinojosa has not explicitly promised these restorations, but her administration’s approach to higher education appointments and governance could influence their future.

9. Teachers Could Receive Higher Pay and Greater Professional Influence

Hinojosa’s education platform calls for raising teacher salaries and reviewing vendor contracts that her campaign considers wasteful or improper. She proposes using recovered resources to support educators.

Texas would need to determine how much money contract reviews could actually recover and whether those savings would support recurring compensation increases. Significant statewide salary changes would likely require legislative appropriations.

10. We Can Reconsider the Relationship Between Education and Political Power

For too long, political leaders, including the governors, education commissioners, and state legislatures, have used the power of government to exert oppressive pressure on public schools, educators, universities, and the communities they serve. Through state takeovers, punitive accountability systems, restrictions on academic freedom, increasingly centralized decision-making, and privatizing our schools, communities have too often been treated as problems to be managed rather than partners capable of developing solutions. Political authority has been used to impose decisions while diminishing the voices of parents, teachers, students, and locally elected representatives.

A different approach in Texas and elsewhere after the midterms would begin by recognizing that communities are the solution, not the problem. That principle should apply equally to red and blue communities, rural towns and major cities, and neighborhoods across every region. Families and educators understand their local schools, their children’s needs, and the challenges facing their communities. Their knowledge deserves meaningful influence over educational decisions. Restoring public trust requires moving away from political coercion and toward shared responsibility, meaningful local governance, transparent accountability, and genuine community participation.

After the midterms we will have an opportunity to reconsider how political power is exercised in education. Governors, commissioners, and legislators should use their authority to support communities, expand educational opportunity, and provide the resources schools need to succeed. The ultimate measure of leadership should be whether public institutions strengthen the capacity of people to shape their own futures. Regardless of whether a community votes red or blue, its children deserve excellent public schools, its educators deserve professional respect, and its residents deserve a meaningful voice in the decisions affecting their lives. A stronger education system can emerge when state leaders begin trusting communities as essential partners in educational improvement.

Years from now, our children may not remember who won the midterms. But they will live with what the winners chose to build, whose voices they listened to, and whose futures they believed were worth investing in.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Censorship, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Class size, Corruption, Cruelty, Curriculum, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, For-Profit, Funding, Higher Education, Houston, Privatization, Separation of church and state, Standardized Testing, Texas, Vouchers

Marc Elias: A Heroic Defender of Democracy Details Trump’s Efforts to Disrupt the Electioms

By dianeravitch
October 29, 2026 //
0

Marc Elias is founder of Democracy Docket and a legal team devoted to fighting the enemies of free and fair elections in court. Marc jumps in to defend democracy whenever itvv cc is threatened in court.

He is a champion of those of us who hope to protect our democracy.

He writes:

We are six days away from the midterms, and Donald Trump’s unprecedented attacks on free and fair elections are continuing to escalate. Many of you have asked what to watch for and what to expect next.

A colleague of mine once coined the phrase “shark closest to the boat” to help focus on the most immediate threats. It doesn’t mean it is the only concern, but it is the most immediate.

Here is my guide to the sharks closest to the boat carrying our democracy in these troubled waters:

1. The Department of Justice’s lawsuit over ballot counting

The Department of Justice’s lawsuit blocking ballot counting in California is the shark closest to the boat. This is the shark from “Jaws,” and it threatens to sink our democracy if we don’t call up Captain Quint.

And yes, we’re going to need a bigger boat. Especially because the DOJ has already spread this playbook to Washington State, where the DOJ demanded that the state set aside ballots from more than 400 voters it claims are noncitizens. No matter where you live, your vote is not safe.

I am certainly concerned about this shark. My legal team is already running from the beaches into the water to fight back.

U.S. District Judge David Carter is expected to issue a ruling today. The DOJ will likely lose. But that will not be the end of this shark. The department will take this case to the Supreme Court, where I am certain this shark will meet its end.

2. The DOJ’s lawsuit to block Alaska from certifying the Democratic Senate candidate 

This is a frivolous case, but be warned: The shark is still circling the boat.

As a reminder, Trump’s DOJ is suing to block certification of the Senate election if Democrat Mary Peltola wins. The DOJ’s argument is baseless and weak. This case never should have been filed in the first place.

But that doesn’t mean we should rest easy. Trump is invested in this case because he is determined to steal the Senate. He claims that he’s the one who gave the go-ahead for the DOJ to file.

My law firm has moved to intervene on behalf of Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC. The DOJ must respond to the motion to dismiss by tomorrow. I expect we will see the last of this shark soon enough.

3. DOJ threats to state election officials for following state laws

The DOJ has been threatening state election officials who are simply doing their jobs. They warned election officials they could face criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting, and as we get closer to the election, those threats are only ramping up.

On behalf of the DSCC, DCCC, DGA and Nevada Democratic Party, as well as Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries, my law firm sued to stop these threats. Trump and the DOJ are clearly using intimidation to dictate who can vote and how elections are run. We will not let them win.

This is a pretty big shark that should unsettle all of us. Right now, this shark is a little further off the coastline, but it’s moving fast and picking up speed. We need to keep an eye out.

4. Red states colluding with the DOJ and Trump

There is a shark keeping a low profile on the ocean floor. That shark is red state officials colluding with the DOJ and Trump to subvert the election results in their states.

In some states, that looks like willingly handing over voter data. In others, it’s delaying mail ballots. As early voting starts, that could be welcoming federal agents at polling locations.

While this shark hides from view of the public, we need to be aware of it and keep our eyes peeled. It could make the difference between a Democratic or Republican victory.

5. Ballot seizures

This is the great white shark haunting our elections. We have not seen it yet, but the sea shanties worry us. This is the shark we fear the most.

If ballot seizures happen, it will be in the days following the election. The Tina Peters of the world — MAGA election clerks colluding with Trump — will mobilize and cause mayhem at the local level. Republican governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott will likely not stop them.

I worry because our attention will be divided. We will be fighting a lot of battles on a lot of different fronts. The sharks will attack before we see them.

But that does not mean we are not ready to fight back.

When the sharks attacked in 2020, I won 64 out of 65 cases. And we will win again.

The sharks may be circling, but they are no match for us.

Categories Education Reform

Andy Spears: Justin Pearson Has a Good Chance at Winning a Tennessee House Seat

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2026 //
4

At Trump’s urging, Tennessee lawmakers gerrymandered the state to create more districts likely to elect Republicans. One of those seats was created by dividing Memphis and spreading its voters across rural districts. A likely casualty was Justin Pearson, who expected to be elected to represent Memphis.

But Andy Spears thinks that Pearson has a good chance of winning, despite the gerrymander. Pearson was one of two Black legislators expelled in 2023 by the Republican super-majority in the state legislature for their protest against the body’s refusal to enact gun control after a shooting of three students and three teachers at the Covenant School in Nashville.

In an unexpected twist in the campaign, Pearson’s opponent, State Senator Brent Taylor admitted sending nude photos (“dick pics”) to women he didn’t know. Taylor called it a “youthful indiscretion” but he last did it when he was 53. He is now 58. ProPublica reported tha Brent Taylor’s agenda in the legislature was devoted to undermining the rights of blacks.

Who will voters choose: the energetic young black man or the aging white guy who likes to expose himself?

Veteran Tennessee journalist Andy Spears writes:

After the Tennessee General Assembly’s GOP Supermajority attempted to dilute the power of Memphis voters by carving the city up into three different congressional districts, State Rep. Justin Pearson delivered a powerful speech on the House floor. 

He closed with these words, “No matter what you do, no matter how much you try and break us and make us bend and make us quit, we will still be here.”

At the time, Pearson was already a candidate for Congress in the 9th District – now, with newly drawn lines, that district includes 15 mostly rural counties. 

Pearson stayed in the race, winning the Democratic primary comfortably.

With just under two weeks before the November 3rd election, I spoke to Pearson about his campaign and why he thinks he can win. From the start, it was clear Pearson was in motion – whether in a car or simply moving around a campaign office – he exuded an energy felt over the phone. Though his vocal cords offered evidence of relentless use, his answers to questions were crisp and focused. 

He mentioned on several occasions that his opponent, State Senator Brent Taylor, was “Trump-endorsed.” He also noted that Taylor backs the Trump policies that are making life more challenging for residents of the 9th District. 

Our conversation covered three issues: Affordability, Healthcare, and Data Centers.

Affordability

Pearson said the people he meets in the 9th District are “devastated” by the high prices of everything from “gas to groceries to healthcare.”

He laid responsibility for the spike in costs squarely at the feet of Donald Trump. Specifically, Pearson called out the war in Iran as a key driver of price increases. Pearson noted that his opponent continues to support Trump policies, like the war and tariffs, and these same policies are hurting Tennessee families. 

To address affordability, Pearson said America needs to find a way to end the war in Iran as soon as possible. He also said he supports raising taxes on billionaires and raising the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage last increased in 2009 and remains at $7.25. 

Health Care

When asked about Tennessee having the unenviable distinction of being a national leader in medical bankruptcy, Pearson said this was due in part to the state’s failure to expand Medicaid and provide insurance to more Tennesseans. Additionally, Trump Administration policies (ending ACA subsidies, for example) – which Taylor supports – have made insurance unaffordable for many families. 

Pearson said in Congress he would support expanding access to coverage for all Americans by way of a Medicare for All plan. 

He also said there should be a national effort to clear medical debt – by buying and cancelling it. The City of Memphis recently provided $17 million in medical debt relief to some 12,000 residents. Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky used surplus state funds to provide $250 million of medical debt relief in his state. 

Pearson said, “If we have $2 billion a day to fight a war of choice in Iran, we can afford to buy back and cancel medical debt for American families.”

Andy Beshear Takes Action to Cancel Medical Debt for Over 100,000 Kentuckians

Andy Beshear Takes Action to Cancel Medical Debt for Over 100,000 Kentuckians

Data Centers

Pearson has long been a leader on helping communities resist data centers. WPLN notes: 

Pearson supports a statewide moratorium on large data centers. The state lawmaker told WPLN that laws to protect land and people’s health from data centers will have to come at the federal level, given the Tennessee GOP’s alignment with business interests. He said he’s already drafting legislation.

A recent story in the New Yorker also points to Pearson’s work fighting against Elon Musk’s xAI data center:

Pearson and his brother KeShaun are the two most prominent local opponents of Elon Musk’s xAI, a subsidiary of which has developed a massive data-center complex, provocatively named Colossus, in and around South Memphis. The Pearsons’ group, Memphis Community Against Pollution, has questioned the legality of the company’s use of gas turbines at the data centers, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act and raising concerns about air quality.

At the federal level, Pearson says America needs a national moratorium on data centers so Congress can develop regulations that “protect communities and workers.” He said there’s a real danger that AI and the data centers it requires will end up making more money for billionaires while leaving the working class behind.

When asked why an undecided voter should support him, Pearson said, “I will fight for you, my Trump-endorsed opponent will protect the billionaire class.”

Pearson clearly has a record of leading successful fights. A record of persistence and resilience that gets results. 

In just over a week, we’ll know if that record will translate into earning Pearson a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Categories Elections, Ethics, Evil, Racism, Tennessee

House Democrats Release Report about Trump Dealings with Epstein and DOJ Suppression of His Behavior

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2026 //
3

Have you ever wondered why Trump has so little sympathy for women who say they were victims of sexual assault or rape? Why he praised Vivek’s Ramaswamy’s ad attacking Amy Acton and belittled her history of being raped by her step-father? Why Trump’s Departnebt of Justice refuses to release all the Epstein files and why those released were heavily redacted?

The House Democrats released a scathing report linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities, accusing the Department of Justice of a cover-up, and linking Trump to 11 women who claimed they were raped by him.

Julie K. Brown, the journalist at the Miami Herald who broke the Jeffrey Epstein story open after it was buried and forgotten, writes here about one of the women mentioned in the Democrats’ report.

A new sex allegation has surfaced against President Donald Trump by a former Miss Switzerland contestant who alleges that he brutally raped her during one of his beauty pageants events in 1993. 

The details of her story mirror those of other women who have accused Trump of sexual abuse and even rape. But what’s also noteworthy about this story is the gawking and grinning Trump and Epstein did at these model gatherings. They hardly seemed interested in the business of modeling; if true, it was as if they were engaged in an intrasexual competition. 

The beauty queen, Beatrice Keul, has previously said she was 24 and attending Trump’s pageant when Trump tried to attack her in a hotel room. She now says that the attack was much more violent than she previously recounted, telling the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee that Trump raped her during his American Dream Pageant.

At the event, she also recalled meeting Epstein and that he invited her to parties that he said he arranged for Trump at Mar-a-Lago. 

“I’m Jeffrey, Don’s best friend,” Epstein told her at the pageant, according to the report.

Read the Miami Herald Story Here.

The claim is part of a 53-page report compiled by Democrats on the House judiciary committee, which on Monday called for a special prosecutor to investigate Trump’s ties to Epstein and the administration’s “cover-up” of potential sex trafficking crimes by Epstein and other men, including Trump. 

“A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s,” the report says.

There have been more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual improprieties, and even assault. Some of their accounts, which were previously known, are also included in the Dem’s report. 

One of the women, E. Jean Carroll, successfully sued Trump for raping her in a department store changing room. A federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in connection with the 1996 assault in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. 

Many of the women listed in the Dems’ report have previously gone public with their accounts— and sadly, in some ways, have been forgotten. 

Maybe it is time for the public to take a new look.

Categories Character, Corruption, Cruelty, Elections, Gender, Scandals, Trump

“Abbott Elementary”Is Delightful. The Damage to the Children of Philadelphia Is Not.

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2026 //
5

Bruce Baker, a specialist in school finance, writes here about the longstanding underfunding of Philadelphia’s public schools and the consequences of the funding gap with the city’s suburbs.

He writes:

Abbott Elementary plays it for laughs. Janine Teagues hunts for a working rug, a functioning copier, a single extra aide. Barbara Howard has seen every reform come and go. Gregory Eddie inherits a classroom with no curriculum. Melissa Schemmenti knows a guy who can get the supplies the district can’t.

The show is entertaining. The damage is real. Behind every running gag is a funding gap that has been measurable, year after year, for at least fifteen years, and that has landed on real children in real Philadelphia classrooms.

Philadelphia’s district schools have spent between a third and a half less than what it would cost to get their students to national-average outcomes in every year from 2009 to 2023. Over the same years, the 61 suburban districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties spent between half again and twice what their own students needed. We laugh at the broken boilers, missing counselors and teachers buying their own supplies. The kids living it don’t get a laugh track.

What follows walks from the money to the classroom: first the adequacy gap, then the simple “screwed city” picture, then teachers per child, teacher pay, and finally who is actually standing in front of the kids.

Fifteen years below the line

In 2022-23, the School District of Philadelphia spent $18,329 per pupil. Our National Education Cost Model estimates it would have needed $28,187 to give its students a shot at national-average test scores. That is a gap of $9,858 per child, or roughly $1.2 billion across 118,000 students, in a single year.

The suburbs face the mirror image. Their enrollment-weighted average spending was $20,059 against a required $13,298, a surplus of $6,761 per child. Same metro, same labor market, same state constitution.

Actual vs. required spending per pupil, Philadelphia and suburbs, 2009–2023

This is not a recent dip. Philadelphia sat 33% below its adequacy target in 2009, sank to 50% below in 2015 in the wake of the “doomsday” budgets, and was still 35% short in 2023, even with federal pandemic aid in the mix. The suburbs started out spending more than double their target and have drifted down to about 51% above it. The rest of Pennsylvania sits in between, about a third above.

Percent above or below adequacy, Philadelphia, suburbs, and rest of Pennsylvania

The outcome side tells the same story. Philadelphia’s students scored roughly 0.8 standard deviations below the national average in 2022-23, while suburban students scored about 0.2 above. Abbott’s students are not falling short because nobody cares. They are falling short where the money falls short.

Open the link to read the full report.

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Philadelphia

Vivek Ramaswamy is a Vile and Disgusting Man, Unfit to be Governor of Ohio or Anywhere Else

By dianeravitch
October 27, 2026 //
7

Imagine this scenario: a candidate for Governor of a major state pays for a campaign ad that portrays his opponent as a liar. That in itself is not unusual. But suppose that candidate’s staff has located the mother of his opponent and has persuaded her (paid her?) to make an ad saying that her daughter is a liar, is possibly mentally unstable, and should not be elected Governor.

But this is what’s left out of the story. The context. The target of the ad–Dr. Amy Acton– has not spoken to her mother in more than 40 years. Between the ages of 9 or 10 and 12, she was raped by her stepfather. He was indicted by a grand jury for child rape but fled the state before trial. The candidate’s mother never divorced the man who raped her daughter. The daughter and her brother were removed from their mother’s care.

The mother is a felon, charged repeatedly for non-violent crimes like fraud, writing bad checks, and even animal cruelty.

The ad in which Dr. Amy Acton’s mother attacks her is the dirtiest trick of the midterm elections. It was funded by Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire who is running for governor of Ohio. Vivek must have gotten tired of hearing his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, talk about living in distressful conditions as a child. Someone on his staff found Acton’s birth mother, who lied on video to hurt her daughter yet again.

How painful for Amy Acton, who suffered through a horrible childhood, was estranged from her negligent mother, and now must endure the pain of being insulted by the mother who failed to intervene to stop the rapes and protect her daughter.

Amy Acton rose above her childhood abuse, went to college, then to medical school and became a doctor. Before she entered the race for Governor, she served Republican Governor Mike DeWine as Ohio’s Director of the state Department of Health.

Governor Mike DeWine urged Ramaswamy to take down the ad; so did other Republican state officials.

But Trump thought it was a terrific ad and urged Ramaswamy to keep running it. Trump tends to side with men accused of sexual assault, never with their victims. Vivek plans to spend $4 million to continue to run the campaign ad.

Trump and JD Vance saw nothing wrong with the ad attacking Acton. Vance said that critics should “stop whining” about the ad and focus on winning.

The one sure conclusion I reach is that these men don’t care if children are sexually assaulted and raped. They side with rapists and pedophiles, not their victims.

To these symbols of “manliness,” women don’t count.

These men are unfit to hold office.

Categories Accountability, Bias, Character, Cruelty, Elections, Ethics, Evil, Extremism, Gender, Ohio

Why Reading Fiction Matters

By dianeravitch
October 27, 2026 //
21

Did you know that reading fiction is inportant for your social and emotional development? Did you know the the widely adopted Common Core state Standards actually diminish the reading of fiction in school? The standards describe the percentage of time that should be devoted to “informational text” and fiction. As students grow older, teachers are supposed to reduce fiction and favor informational text. Studies have shown that fiction-reading has declined, which was the intended effect of the Common Core.

This article explains why the reduction of fiction reading harms students.

Richard Sima wrote the following column for The Washington Post.

Curling up with a good book isn’t just enjoyable. It’s also good for your brain.
Reading in general — newspapers, magazines, nonfiction books — has been linked to slower rates of cognitive decline in older adults and even longer lives.

But reading fiction may have unique benefits. For example, the amount of fiction people read seems to be a better predictor of language ability than nonfiction, research finds. And, perhaps even more importantly, research has found that fiction is linked to better social cognition — our ability to think about and interact with other people — and an increased understanding of the world as a complex place.
Why? Fiction forces you to imagine a story’s world and characters. It makes you grapple with different perspectives, mentally inhabiting distinct points of view, according to Nick Buttrick, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

This can help us find “better insight into our own experiences, insight into the experiences of others who are very different from us,” said Raymond Mar, a professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, who recently wrote a review on the benefits of reading narrative fiction. “It just tends to evoke a form of reflection and contemplation, which can only be good for us.”
Why reading is actually social
Social health is important for overall health. And it turns out that reading, though often thought of as a solitary activity, can boost our social abilities.
To understand why, it helps to look at how reading shapes us as we grow.
Between ages 4 and 6, children develop a theory of mind — the ability to understand that others have different beliefs, perspectives and feelings. Studies find that children exposed to more storybooks are further along this developmental milestone than those exposed to fewer ones, Mar said.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 21 studies found that children who read more storybooks had more empathy. And there is evidence that empathy and reading go both ways. Better reading comprehension was a predictor of empathy later in life, while empathy also was a predictor of better reading ability, according to a 2024 study of more than 900 children. And adolescents who read more for fun became more social adults, a 2023 study found.
Reading fiction “presents to us a complex cognitive and emotional simulation of the social world,” which is useful in the real world, Mar said.
The power of storytelling
These benefits may be due, in part, to the power of storytelling.
Neuroimaging studies find that brain networks involved in understanding stories overlap with brain networks needed for theory of mind. This suggests that “while engaging with stories, we’re also pulling online the same kinds of brain networks that we use to understand other people,” said Mar, who wrote a review about these studies.

Other forms of storytelling, such as television and movies, may provide similar benefits, but “one of the things that you do when you read is you have to construct the world” in your head, Buttrick said. “The world is not given to you. You have to do the work of imagining.”
This extra work may amplify the benefits of engaging in a story.
Spending time with our favorite story characters may also help us feel connected. “Even if our friends aren’t around and can’t get together, we can always open up a book,” Mar said.
Reading can be a social activity, too, one that reinforces the joys and benefits of reading. Book clubs, shared reading organizations and social media communities like BookTok can connect us with other readers and add yet another layer to building our social cognitive abilities.
Talking to others about the books you read means you’re not only imagining the characters in a story, but also gaining an understanding of how other people respond to those characters, Buttrick said.

Exposure to difference
Beyond helping our social cognition, reading fiction can expand our world and our understanding of its complexities. Good authors are master observers of the human condition and can expose us to experiences outside our comfort zone.

“Reading is an encounter with difference, with a different kind of mind, a different place, a different approach to the world,” Buttrick said. “And so a lot of the places where I think reading is most interesting are in places where it smashes this up with difference as strongly as it can.”
In a 2022 study of more than 5,000 people published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Buttrick and his colleagues found that those who grew up reading more literary fiction were more likely to become adults with more complex worldviews — with more nuance, more psychological richness and intellectual humility.

“I think if we want to live in a world in which everyone’s treated as something like an individual, knowing that the world is complex, especially socially complex, is probably really good,” he said.
But there are inherent difficulties with studying the effects of reading because “reading is a part of a person’s life,” Buttrick said. “And when people have more time, more space to read, more inclination to read, they’re not doing that at random.”
Benefits probably take time to accrue, and socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of reading behavior and ability, though a 2025 study of more than 14,000 students found that leisure reading had the largest benefits for children whose parents had less education.
“Successful art resonates with a great number of people because it captures something about being human that appeals to us and maybe that we don’t fully understand,” Mar said.

How to read more
Start slow. Mar recommends getting off your phone before going to bed and spending that time reading instead. “Maybe you have to build up to an hour,” he said. “But you can start with 15 minutes and then work to 30 minutes, then 45 in an hour before you go to sleep. It’s probably a good thing.”
Cultivate a habit. Consistency is key. “I don’t think that any one book will change a person’s life,” Buttrick said. “I think it’s the accretion of lots of books, you know, reading again and again and again, that really has an effect on how people think about the world more broadly.”
Dive into the vast diversity of reading. Different forms of reading — short stories, graphic novels and fan fiction, for example — also count. Given his busy work schedule and reading of academic journals, Mar prefers to read short stories. “It’s hard for me to commit to a book,” said Mar, who has most recently read the works of Irish writer Claire Keegan.

(Buttrick is currently reading Spencer Ackerman’s “Reign of Terror” and gearing up to read William Vollmann’s 3,000-plus-page novel, “A Table for Fortune.” And I’ve been reading through my collection of Terry Pratchett, who is a hilarious satirical writer, including “Small Gods,” which tackles religion, and “The Truth,” which is about journalism.)
Audiobooks can be beneficial, too. Buttrick said audiobooks still count as reading. In fact, the format may make certain books easier to grasp. Listening to James Joyce’s “Ulysses” not only makes it easier to understand and funnier, but also makes “you realize how much of it is just a song,” Buttrick said.
Remember that reading should be enjoyable. “I don’t think of reading as a monastic experience that you have to do alone at night in order to grow as a person,” Buttrick said. Lean into what you enjoy.

Make it social. Book clubs are excellent and flourishing. It’s nice to have an accountability partner and others with whom to share perspectives, Buttrick said.
Read unselfconsciously. Reading is for enjoyment. “A lot of times people seem embarrassed about the things that they’ve been reading,” Mar said. But “there’s nothing to be embarrassed about whatever you’re reading.”
Do you have a question about human behavior or neuroscience? Email BrainMatters@washpost.com and we may answer it in a future column.

Richard Sima is a neuroscientist turned award-winning science journalist who writes the “Brain Matters” column about mental health and why we do, think and feel the things we do.

Categories Cerf, Chris, Character, Charter Schools, Education Reform

Police Remove 3-year-old from Soccer Game Because He is Too Good

By dianeravitch
October 26, 2026 //
7

This is a remarkable story. The parents of a 3-year-old in Winter Park, Florida, signed him up for a league of mostly 5-year-olds. The little guy dominated the game. No one could get the ball away from him, and he easily scored against the older boys.

Someone called the police and complained about the 3-year-old.

It’s not a hoax. Watch the little guy playing soccer, and you can see a future great in soccer.

One journal called The Baller Alert reported:

A 3 year old soccer standout named Nevada was kicked out of his youth league in Winter Park, Florida, and police escorted his family off the field after parents on the opposing team complained that none of their kids could get the ball from him.

Another one, Blacksportsonline, reported the story.

A family says police escorted them and their 3-year-old son off an i9 Sports youth soccer field in Winter Park after the league issued a trespass, following complaints from opposing parents that the boy held the ball too much and was “trying to put on a show.”

The incident, captured in video the family posted to TikTok under the handle @nevadaney10 and later shared widely, shows the child — identified by his parents as Nevada — playing in a league with kids roughly two years older. According to the family’s accounts in the video and related posts, he dominated possession, was substituted multiple times in a roughly 30-minute game, and still scored multiple goals (the family cited 10 in one game). Opposing parents are heard complaining that the play was unfair.

Nevada is black. Most of the other players are not. Could that be the reason he was ejected from the game?

Tags
Categories Bigotry, Competition, Ethics, Florida

Who Ever Imagined that the U.S. and Russia Would Become Business Partners?

By dianeravitch
October 26, 2026 //
2

Expanding on the story that Heather Cox Richardson told in the previous post, the following story in The New York Times explained the deal-making arranged by Jard Kushner and Howard Witkoff, two amateurs chosen by Trump to negotiate a peace plan to end the war that Russia started when it invaded Ukraine in 2023.

Now we know why Kushner and Witkoff emerged from their meetings with Putin wreathed in smiles. They got no concessions from Putin about ending the war. Their “peace plan” is to demand that Zelensky give Putin everything has done. Their peace plan is to demand that Zelensky surrender whatever Putin wants.

What they did get was Putin’s commitment to a massive project between the US and Rymussis to drill for liquified natural gas in Alaska.

The New York Times reported:

At first blush, the proposed venture looks like it would further the Trump administration’s goal of global “energy dominance.”

An American energy company intends to buy Russian technology and use it to access a massive supply of natural gas in Alaska, liquefy it and export it to allies abroad.

The Kremlin and the White House were interested in the idea. President Vladimir V. Putin discussed the plan last month with President Trump’s peace envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, people familiar with the negotiations said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. It is one of a series of energy deals White House officials believe could help smooth relations with Moscow and eventually pave the way to end the war in Ukraine.

But it turns out that the company was not an all-American affair. The multibillion-dollar project has received secret funding from the same powerful Russian company that was to provide the technology, according to the energy executive who until last month led the U.S. firm and two others involved in company negotiations.

Joel Riddle, who was chief executive of the company, Polar LNG, until he resigned in September, said he had been misled about the sources of the start-up funding, which ostensibly came from a company in the United Arab Emirates.

Instead, Mr. Riddle said he learned, the true source of at least some of Polar LNG’s money was Novatek, a Russian energy giant under partial U.S. sanctions.

“It’s not only unlawful, but it’s not in the U.S. interest to have Russian technology controlling the commercialization of Arctic gas in the North Slope,” Mr. Riddle said in a brief interview.

These previously unreported tensions were also detailed in legal memos that Mr. Riddle attached to his resignation letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times. The memos, prepared by Baker Botts, an international law firm, said the Treasury Department’s sanctions enforcement unit had raised concerns that Polar LNG had ties to Novatek that might present “potential Russia-related sanctions concerns.”

Polar LNG on Friday issued a statement announcing a new acting chief executive, Tim Talkington, and described Mr. Riddle as a “disgruntled former employee.”

The project, if it happens, is a long way off. In addition to the sanctions issues that would have to be negotiated, the technology envisioned is highly complex and must overcome some of the most brutal weather conditions in the United States. It also is competing with another Alaska gas plan that already has the support of the Trump administration. But that the Polar LNG deal is being discussed at all shows how business deals of almost any stripe are on the table during the talks with the Kremlin.

The sequence of events illustrates the unorthodox, opaque mixture of deal-making and high-stakes diplomacy that has defined Mr. Trump’s attempts to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

There is no indication that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner were aware of Polar LNG or its ties to Novatek, even as the broad outlines of the deal came up in their talks with Mr. Putin beginning last year. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said that the deal had only been broadly mentioned and that no granular discussions had occurred.

The project, should it ever come to fruition, would doubly help Novatek, one of Russia’s biggest energy companies, first by using Novatek’s technology and second because the company would own an equity stake.

The Alaska gas discussions have taken place alongside talks to sell off part of another Russian energy giant, Lukoil, to the U.S. government and other investors, including some with business ties to Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, causing consternation among some Washington lawmakers and outraging some of Ukraine’s supporters. The pair have also discussed the possibility of U.S. involvement in future Russian gas exports to Europe. (The administration has said that Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff were guided only by U.S. interests.)

Geoffrey R. Pyatt, who served as an assistant secretary of state for energy resources during the Biden administration, said the idea of bringing Novatek into the high north of Alaska is a terrible one. “It is terrible on environmental grounds, it is a terrible idea on economic and geopolitical grounds, and most importantly this feeds the belief that Putin can get an out-of-jail-free card.”

The efforts to bring Novatek equipment to Alaska have also included a businessman, Gentry Beach, with ties to the Trump family. A college friend of Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, Mr. Beach served as a finance vice chairman for Mr. Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Mr. Beach said in February that he had held negotiations with Novatekabout bringing its natural gas technology to Alaska.

Mr. Beach could not be reached for comment. It was not clear if he remained involved in the project, or whether he was aware of Novatek’s potential ownership stake in Polar LNG.

A spokesman for Donald Trump Jr. said the two men were no longer close, adding that Mr. Trump was not involved in the Polar LNG project. Novatek’s statement said that Mr. Beach had no role in its discussions to take a stake in Polar LNG. The U.S. official said Mr. Beach was not involved in the administration’s discussions related to Novatek.

Mr. Riddle is one of at least three Polar LNG executives who recently resigned. As they departed, Trump officials were notified about their concerns related to the secret Russian financing. Mr. Riddle said the executives had urged administration officials to investigate the matter. The Energy Department, where the warning was sent, did not respond when asked about the matter.

“I felt like I did the right thing to notify authorities at the appropriate time,” Mr. Riddle said.

The Polar LNG plan called for the company to tap into the giant load of natural gas available in the northern reaches of Alaska, a byproduct of extensive oil extraction underway in the region.

Polar LNG’s proposal calls for it to buy a giant, 640,000-ton concrete-and-steel device from Novatek called a gravity-based structure that would be placed on the seabed just above the northern coast of Alaska, in an area known as Milne Point.

Map locates Milne Point, Alaska.

On top of that platform, equipment will be installed that would refrigerate gas supplied by an area oil producer, transforming it into a liquid that can then be loaded onto ships that travel through icy waters and deliver it to customers in Asia.

Novatek uses a similar approach to export natural gas from the Russian Arctic in a project called Arctic LNG 2. Mr. Putin said publicly last year that “we are discussing with our American partners” the possibility of using Novatek technology to produce liquefied natural gas in Alaska.

Korean-made ships with a special ice-breaking design that Polar LNG plans to use were initially built for Novatek, but delivery was stopped by the manufacturer after the United States imposed sanctions on the Arctic LNG 2 project.

From the start, Novatek was slated to supply the gas liquefaction station. But financing for the project was not supposed to come from Russia, according to executives involved in the effort.

Emphasizing the point, Polar LNG features images of the American flag and a bald eagle on its website, boasting that “Polar LNG helps ensure the United States leads,” adding that the project is “America’s Arctic Advantage.”

The company hired lobbyists in Washingtonand in Alaska to help push the project, according to federal and state records. In Washington alone, the company is spending $380,000 a quarter on lobbying, hiring a former Trump-era Interior Department acting assistant secretary, Adam Suess.

Novatek is already under U.S. sanctions that would require the Treasury Department to issue a license for its equipment to be used in Alaska. Recently passed sanctions legislation named after deceased Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, makes things even harder: The bill specifically targets Novatek, as well as its Arctic LNG 2 project, because of the company’s ties to Mr. Putin.

However, Mr. Trump temporarily waived the law’s Russia sanctions last week, presenting the move as necessary to keep peace talks going.

During a meeting held at the Four Seasons Hotel in late August in Abu Dhabi between executives of Polar LNG and its parent company, Tech Wave Industrial Projects Management, top executives from Novatek were present. That was when Mr. Riddle began to appreciate that Novatek was directly involved in approving funding to keep the effort going, text messages reviewed by The Times indicate.

Tech Wave is an Abu Dhabi-based company that specializes in managing oil, gas and construction projects. Its chief operating officer is Bjorn Gundersen, who a decade ago was listed in oil industry trade publications as a senior executive at Novatek supervising LNG projects.

A second Tech Wave executive, Ahmed Farghaly, also worked for Novatek until recently. According to his LinkedIn profile, he left around the time the United States firstimposed sanctions on one of Novatek’s LNG projects.

Tech Wave, in a statement, confirmed that Mr. Gundersen had worked for Novatek before 2022, the year the war with Ukraine started. It also said Novatek “has no ownership interest” in the company. The statement did not address questions from The Times as to whether Novatek money helped finance the Polar LNG efforts.

Denis Solovyov, Novatek’s deputy chairman, and Leonid Mikhelson, the company’s chief executive, discussed their company’s providing as much as $15 million to Tech Wave to bankroll Polar LNG, the messages say. Asked about the messages and the Abu Dhabi meeting, Novatek said it could not comment on private correspondence, but that the company and Polar LNG had agreed to “provide each other with open communication.”

“All the necessary decisions were made at the meeting in Abu Dhabi,” Mr. Solovyov wrote in one message to Mr. Riddle sent in early September. “The first 5 million were supposed to arrive by today.”

It was several weeks after this exchange that Mr. Riddle resigned. Two other top Polar LNG executives, Dan Chandra, the company’s chief financial officer, and Jim Smith, a former Exxon Mobil executive who served as Polar LNG’s executive vice president, also have left in recent weeks.

Polar LNG, in a statement Friday, said that “Riddle was recently terminated from the company for cause,” adding: “The company is investigating claims concerning Riddle that may result in litigation.”

But Mr. Riddle resigned six days before the company issued him a letter saying it would terminate his employment immediately, in part because he had raised concerns that some of the company’s actions could be “subject to sanctions,” documents obtained by The Times show.

Questions about the potential ties to Novatek had by late this summer already reached Trump administration officials, according to a memo prepared by an outside law firm for Polar LNG, Baker Botts.

“Concerns regarding a perceived connection to Novatek will likely affect licensing or other regulatory approvals,” Baker Botts wrote in a memo to company executives that was shared with The Times.

In addition, the letter said that federal officials had already made clear in communications with the company that they were concerned that an investor in Polar LNG “has ties to Novatek and may be acting on Novatek’s behalf with respect to the project.”

Paul Luther, a Baker Botts lawyer who worked on the matter, declined on Friday to discuss it further.

Polar LNG would need a series of approvals from the federal government before the deal could move ahead, including a sign-off from the Treasury Department authorizing it to acquire the Novatek seabed platform, given that parts of the company are under sanctions. It would also require a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a gas export facility.

Questions have already emerged about whether the Novatek device will function at the planned Milne Point location because of shallow waters there and the “potential disruption to traditional whaling and local opposition, particularly from the local native Alaskan population,” a lawyer for Polar LNG wrote in an internal company memo.

Certain Trump administration officials had already expressed skepticism about the Polar LNG plan, according to internal company documents seen by The Times and interviews with some of the people involved.

Part of the concern is that the Polar LNG project would be pitted against an even more ambitious plan to build a $50 billion, 800-mile natural gas pipeline to move natural gas from the northern slope to the southern coast of Alaska, where it could be more easily shipped out from existing ports there. That plan would also potentially supply Asian markets.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations enthusiastically embraced the gas pipeline project, which Japan and Korea may help finance to increase their reliable supply of natural gas.

“The pipeline makes far more sense,” said Matthew McManus, who until April 2025 served as a deputy director at the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources and is now at the National Center for Energy Analytics. “The Polar LNG project would face years of permitting and concerns about ties to Russia.”

Mr. Talkington, Polar LNG’s acting chief executive, said his company sought to seize “a generational opportunity to advance U.S. energy dominance, unlock profound benefits for the state of Alaska, and strengthen American Arctic navigation.”

The fact that discussions are even going on about using Russian equipment — and potentially a Russian-financed company — to move American natural gas to international markets is a further insult to Ukraine, and should not be a part of talks over a possible end to the war, said Ilya Zaslavskiy, a gas industry consultant who previously worked in Moscow and New York who now does research on Russian sanctions and energy issues out of Washington.

“Any approach by Novatek to transfer technology should be seen as a Kremlin attempt to co-opt U.S. policymakers in order to undermine U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and our allies,” Mr. Zaslavskiy said.

Categories Accountability, Alaska, Elections, Ethics, For-Profit, International, Trump

Trump Makes BIG Deals with Putin, Who Is Now Our Closest Ally

By dianeravitch
October 26, 2026 //
5

Heather Cox Richardson reports on the deals that Trump is making with Putin. The U.S. is going into business with Russia! Where is Lindsey Graham when we need him?

Trump can’t understand why Zelensky is unwilling to sell out Ukraine, as he is selling out the U.S.

Profits galore! Someone will make billions! But not you!

Richardson writes:

Despite Trump’s statement yesterday that billionaire Elon Musk had removed the restrictions from Starlink and Starshield that are crippling Ukraine’s ability to protect itself from Russia, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said today the restrictions continue.

An article published tonight by Anton Troianovski and Eric Lipton in the New York Times sheds a spotlight on the oil deals that lie behind Trump’s rush to normalize relations with Russia at Ukraine’s expense, as well as repeated statements from him and his cronies that they want to open up business transactions with Russia as incentives for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to stop his war on Ukraine—an argument that, on its face, never made sense.

Troianovski and Lipton report that a project designed to liquefy natural gas in Alaska and export it would not only use Russian technology but also be funded with money from a Russian company close to Putin that is currently under U.S. sanctions. That company, Novatek, told the reporters that it is planning to take “minority shareholder” status in the Polar LNG project, a move the reporters call “a striking effort by the Russian energy giant to seek ownership of American gas production.”

U.S. sanctions against Novatek mean Polar LNG would need special permission from the Treasury Department to use Novatek’s equipment. The Graham Act sanctions bill Congress recently passed specifically targets Novatek because of its ties to Putin—a likely reason that Trump just waived the new sanctions just two days before they were to go into effect.

Joel Riddle, the chief executive officer of the company, Polar LNG, resigned when he learned that the funding came not from the United Arab Emirates, as he had been told, but from Russia. “It’s not only unlawful, but it’s not in the U.S. interest to have Russian technology controlling the commercialization of Arctic gas in the North Slope,” Riddle told the New York Times reporters. At least two other Polar LNG executives have also resigned, citing their concerns about the Russian financing.

Talks about gas in Alaska were joined with talks about the sale of parts of Russian energy giant Lukoil to the U.S. government and investors, some of whom are tied to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy—and business partner—Steve Witkoff. Also involved in the Alaska project is Gentry Beach, who was a college friend of Donald Trump Jr.

It seems that Trump, Putin, and their allies in the administration are trying to replace the post–World War II international order and carve the world up into the system of spheres of influence they want as quickly as possible before the midterms. Central to those systems are private deals that enrich Trump and his cronies.

On October 20, Cate Brown, Aaron C. Davis, and Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica reported that the deal to capture Venezuela’s oil sets up a strategic partnership between the U.S. and a Venezuelan oligarch, Alejandro Betancourt, who has been accused of money laundering. A deal signed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls for the U.S. to take a 35% stake in Betancourt’s firm, North American Blue Energy Partners, by buying shares in a parent company that’s registered in Barbados.

A source told the ProPublica reporters that the people making the deal wanted to work with Betancourt because a publicly traded company would have to report to shareholders. They wanted flexibility and secrecy. The registration of the parent company in Barbados enables the identities of its investors, who could make fortunes from the deal, to remain hidden.

In exchange for the investment, the U.S. can buy up to 20% of the oil produced at a steep discount, but that cost doesn’t factor in moving the oil, which is so thick it has to be blended with other products to flow through pipes. Betancourt’s company currently produces only as much oil in one year as the U.S. uses in three days.

The U.S. insists the deal is a good one for both countries, but it appears to violate Venezuelan law, which prohibits oil concessions longer than 25 years, and to lock in U.S. control. The deal creates a powerful seven-member board to oversee the venture for 15 years. A majority of the board members must be U.S. citizens. The U.S. government can appoint a single, nonvoting member of the board, and it can oust Betancourt only with a supermajority of five votes from the board. Any disputes over the company must be resolved not in Venezuela, but in Texas.

The administration is also suggesting it will take steps to control Cuba. At 4:35 today, Secretary of State Rubio posted on social media: “To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba—now is the time. The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete [sic] partnership with the CIA.”

Categories Ethics, For-Profit, International, Trump
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