It's been a while...
I won't get into the details, but suffice to say I had to take some time off from blogging. Too much stuff on my plate, and I was running the risk of doing it all badly. Something had to give.
During the time off, I thought about shutting the blog down. I've got a place to do my Jersey-specific work, another place to do descriptive analysis and other similar research, another place to preach the gospel of equitable and adequate school funding, and a bunch of other things in the works for 2020 -- including a few partners some of you will probably be shocked to see me working with (heh, heh)...
So why keep blogging? It's way more time-intensive than you probably think, it doesn't get me any accolades, it certainly doesn't make me new friends (usually it's quite the opposite). Many times blogging has distracted me from doing paid work, or work that would up my cred in academic circles, or work around the house that keeps my marriage happy.
So why keep blogging?
The simplest answer is that I think there are analyses to be conducted or data to be crunched or points to be made that aren't appropriate for an academic journal, or a formal policy brief, or an op-ed in a news site. A blog is a junk drawer for a policy nerd like me: a place to throw all the stuff that doesn't really go anywhere else.
But it's also a place to shoot down bad faith arguments, poor analysis, and general nonsense. And we have plenty of that in the K-12 space these days. It's also a place to break down needless complexity, which is pervasive within the education policy world, especially since the economists took over... Kidding! (Sort of...)
And I've found that this blog has been a good place to explain my own work, in a voice that some may find more accessible. I was right in the middle of that when I stopped; I'm going to pick up where I left off next.
After that... who knows? As Booker T says, time is tight. So let's make the most of it. See you in a bit, and Happy New Year.