THE DEATH SPIRAL DIARIES: WHY MEDICARE FOR ALL IS THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION AMERICA HASN'T TRIED YET

THE DEATH SPIRAL DIARIES

WHY MEDICARE FOR ALL IS THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION AMERICA HASN'T TRIED YET

Or: How We Spent Twenty-Five Years Letting Billionaires Fix Healthcare With a Hammer — and Are Surprised the House Still Has No Roof

Let us begin with a bedtime story.

Once upon a time, a chorus of Very Serious People — hedge fund managers, insurance executives, think-tank scholars funded by foundations named after hedge fund managers and insurance executives — stood before the American public and made a solemn promise: Let the market handle it. Competition, they said, would drive down costs. Innovation, they insisted, would deliver efficiency. The invisible hand of private enterprise, they assured us with straight faces and very expensive ties, would deliver better healthcare, cheaper and faster, than any clunky government program ever could.

That was roughly 1993. We are now $5.3 trillion into proving them wrong.

ACT ONE: THE PREMIUM DEATH SPIRAL, OR, HOW TO BOIL A FROG IN A BUDGET SPREADSHEET

New Jersey's school employees didn't wake up one morning to find their health plan in crisis. The crisis arrived the way Hemingway described bankruptcy: gradually, then all at once.

The School Employees' Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) is now staring down proposed premium hikes of 34% to 39% for active school workers in 2027. Thirty-four to thirty-nine percent. To put that in terms a school board treasurer might appreciate: that is not a budget line item. That is a Category 4 hurricane wearing a spreadsheet as a disguise.

The mechanism is elegant in its cruelty. It is what actuaries call an insurance death spiral, and it works like this:

Healthy, low-cost school districts look at their premiums, do the math, and quietly slip out the back door to buy cheaper private-market coverage. Sensible! Rational! Also, catastrophically destructive to everyone left behind. Because when the low-risk groups flee, what remains is a pool of workers who — through no fault of their own — happen to be older, sicker, and more expensive to cover. Premiums rise to compensate. More districts flee. Premiums rise again. Repeat until the plan collapses under its own weight, leaving state legislators scrambling and actuaries sending each other very grim emails.

This is not a bug in the privatized managed care system. This is the feature. Adverse selection is the engine. The entire architecture of for-profit health insurance is built around the proposition that the insurance company should be rewarded for insuring people who don't really need insurance, and subtly — or not so subtly — punished for covering the ones who do.

The billionaires who promised us market efficiency forgot to mention that the market's efficiency is directed entirely at extracting profit, not delivering care.

ACT TWO: THE NUMBERS THAT THE "FREE MARKET" CROWD WOULD PREFER YOU NOT STARE AT TOO LONG

In the year 2000, the United States spent approximately $1.4 trillion on healthcare — roughly 13.3% of GDP. Costly, yes. Unsustainable, perhaps. But manageable.

Today? National health expenditures have blown past $5.3 trillion, accounting for 18% of the entire American economy. We are spending nearly one dollar in five on a system that still manages to leave tens of millions uninsured, rank dead last among peer nations on key health outcomes, and generate enough prior authorization paperwork to mulch the Amazon basin.

For state governments, Medicaid — the program conservatives have spent four decades trying to strangle — has expanded from roughly 12-15% of state budgets in 2000 to over 20-25% today, now routinely challenging K-12 education as the single largest chunk of state general funds. Every dollar Medicaid consumes to patch the holes left by the private insurance system is a dollar not going to roads, or universities, or — and let's linger here — schools.

Which brings us to the teachers.

ACT THREE: THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRAP, OR, WHY INSURING TEACHERS IS A SPECIAL KIND OF ACTUARIAL NIGHTMARE

Public school teachers are, from a health insurance perspective, a statistically fascinating and commercially inconvenient population.

Consider the math. Roughly 74-77% of K-12 teachers are women — rising to nearly 89% in elementary schools. Women, on average, utilize healthcare at higher rates than men: more primary care visits, more preventative screenings, more behavioral health services, more maintenance prescriptions. This is not a knock on anyone. This is biology and the entirely rational behavior of people who were raised in a culture that encouraged them to actually see a doctor when something was wrong.

Now layer in the age profile. Over 60% of public school teachers are 40 or older, clustering heavily in their 40s and 50s — the years when knees start filing formal complaints, cardiovascular systems begin demanding management, and the orthopedic surgeons of America start sending thank-you notes.

Add the occupational stress load — 77% of teachers report finding their jobs chronically, intensely stressful, according to Pew — and you have a workforce that is generating significant mental health claims, physical therapy visits, and the kind of pharmaceutical spend that makes a pharmacy benefits manager's eye twitch.

Put this population into a closed, isolated risk pool — one that cannot dilute its demographics by hiring 10,000 twenty-four-year-olds next quarter — and you have created the ideal conditions for a premium death spiral. You have, in essence, built a system perfectly engineered to fail these workers.

And then you have charged the school districts to absorb it.

ACT FOUR: THE BUDGET SQUEEZE THAT NEVER MAKES THE HEADLINES

Here is what a 34-39% premium hike actually means in a school district that is already legally barred from running a deficit:

It means larger class sizes — because the cheapest line item to cut is the teacher you didn't hire yet.

It means fewer counselors — because mental health support is always optional until it isn't.

It means stagnant teacher salaries — because the district's total compensation budget is a fixed pie, and every slice eaten by a BlueCross premium is a slice not available for the teacher trying to afford rent in the district where she works.

It means, in the elegant language of economists, crowd-out: the relentless, compounding displacement of everything else public education is supposed to provide by the bottomless appetite of the American healthcare financing system.

This has been going on for a quarter century. The average annual district medical cost per teacher has risen from roughly $9,673 in the early 2000s to over $18,839 today — a 46-52% inflation-adjusted increase. During the same period, teacher salaries grew at roughly half that rate. Teachers didn't get poorer because their unions failed them. They got poorer because the money was diverted to UnitedHealth Group.

ACT FIVE: WHAT MEDICARE FOR ALL ACTUALLY DOES (SPOILER: IT ENDS THE SPIRAL)

Critics of Medicare for All — many of whom receive generous speaking fees from the insurance industry — tend to frame the debate as a question of can we afford it?

The correct question is: can we afford not to?

Because what single-payer Medicare for All does, structurally, is something no amount of tinkering with managed care networks can achieve: it abolishes the fragmented risk pool problem entirely.

There is no death spiral in a system where everyone is in the same pool. There is no adverse selection when there is no alternative plan to flee to. The 53-year-old veteran teacher with chronic back pain and a behavioral health prescription is no longer a catastrophic actuarial liability — she is simply one of 330 million Americans in a national pool that also contains millions of healthy 28-year-olds who haven't been to a doctor since the Obama administration.

The risk dissolves. The spiral becomes mathematically impossible.

For school districts, the transformation is equally radical. Instead of paying volatile, compounding, unpredictable premiums to private insurance corporations, districts would pay a stabilized payroll tax — one that tracks wages, not the whims of the specialty drug market or the latest hospital revenue capture AI. Budgets become predictable. The zero-sum competition between healthcare and classroom resources ends.

For teachers' unions, the implications are profound: health insurance disappears from the bargaining table entirely. All those years of concession bargaining — agreeing to flat wages just to prevent deductibles from doubling — become a historical curiosity. Unions get to bargain for what actually matters: pay, class sizes, prep time, support staff.

CONCLUSION: ON BILLIONAIRES, BROKEN PROMISES, AND THE LONG WAIT FOR THE OBVIOUS

The managed care revolution was supposed to save us. The HMO was supposed to be the efficient alternative to bureaucratic government medicine. The insurance marketplace was supposed to harness competition into lower premiums. The pharmacy benefit manager was supposed to control drug costs.

Instead, we got prior authorization forms that require a medical degree to complete. We got networks so narrow that your doctor is out of network but the hospital parking lot is in-network. We got GLP-1 medications that cost $1,000 a month in the United States and $89 in Canada. We got school districts choosing between teachers and insurance premiums.

The billionaire oligarchy that funded two generations of think tanks to oppose Medicare for All did not suffer from these outcomes. They never do. The executives of UnitedHealth Group are not waiting for prior authorization. They are not choosing between their child's school supplies and their family deductible. They are not teaching 35 kids in a classroom because the district couldn't afford to hire.

Medicare for All is not a radical idea. It is the obvious solution hiding in plain sight behind thirty years of very expensive lobbying. Canada has it. Germany has it. Every peer nation we compete with economically has figured out that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce, and that the administrative overhead of 1,500 competing insurance billing systems is not, in fact, efficiency.

It is time to stop calling the ambulance a death panel and start calling the system what it actually is: a premium extraction machine that has been strip-mining school budgets, suppressing teacher salaries, and delivering inferior health outcomes for a generation — all while making a small number of people extraordinarily wealthy.

The prescription is not complicated. It never was.

Medicare for All.

The only question left is who benefits from our delay in filling it.

---

Previously on Big Education Ape: THE PROFITCARE PARADOX | DEMOCRATIC MEDICARE FOR ALL VS. REPUBLICAN DON'T CARE AT ALL | "WELL, THERE YOU GO AGAIN" | GROUNDHOG DAY AT THE CAPITOL

SOURCES & LINKS

The Death Spiral Diaries: Why Medicare for All Is the Only Prescription America Hasn't Tried Yet

---

THE NEW JERSEY SEHBP DEATH SPIRAL

1. NJEA — "NJEA Urges Swift Legislative Action Following Proposal of 2027 Health Insurance Rates" (July 2026)
   Primary source on the 34–39% proposed premium hikes for active school employees.
   https://www.njea.org/njea-urges-swift-legislative-action-following-proposal-of-2027-health-insurance-rates/
2. New Jersey Monitor — "Health Benefit Premiums for NJ School Workers Expected to Rise by 34%" (July 2026)
   Detailed reporting on the SEHBP Commission hearing and Aon actuary findings, including the "death spiral" mechanism and Joe Tappe's testimony.
   https://newjerseymonitor.com/briefs/health-benefits-nj-school-workers-rise/
3. ROI-NJ — "School Employees Health Benefits Plan Facing Double-Digit Premium Rate Hikes for Plan Year 2027" (March 2026)
   Early reporting on the structural outmigration problem and prescription drug cost drivers.
   https://www.roi-nj.com/2026/03/26/healthcare/school-employees-health-benefits-plan-facing-double-digit-premium-rate-hikes-for-plan-year-2027/
4. Insider NJ — "Treasury: School Employees Health Benefits Plan Midyear Projections Indicate Likely Double Digit Premium Rate Increases for Plan Year 2027" (March 2026)
   Official NJ Treasury/Aon actuary report. First use of "death spiral" language in government communications.
   https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/treasury-school-employees-health-benefits-plan-midyear-projections-indicate-likely-double-digit-premium-rate-increases-for-plan-year-2027/
5. New Jersey Monitor — "Public Worker Health Plans Poised for Another Year of Premium Hikes" (July 2026)
   Follow-up on stop-gap legislative response by Gov. Sherrill.
   https://newjerseymonitor.com/2026/07/08/public-worker-health-plans-poised-for-another-year-of-premium-hikes/
6. The Daily Princetonian — "Rising Health Insurance Costs Strain Local Government Budgets in New Jersey" (April 2026)
   Ground-level district impact, including Princeton Public Schools' 15.2% private-market premium increase vs. SEHBP's 31.9%.
   https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026/04/princeton-news-broadfocus-rising-benefits-provide-costs-public-health

---

NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SPENDING: $5.3 TRILLION & 18% OF GDP

7. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — National Health Expenditure Data: Historical
   Official federal source. U.S. health spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, accounting for 18.0% of GDP.
   https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-reports/national-health-expenditure-data/historical
8. Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker — "How Has U.S. Spending on Healthcare Changed Over Time?" (Updated February 2026)
   Longitudinal data on per-capita spending growth, GDP share trends, and prescription drug cost acceleration.
   https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spending-healthcare-changed-time/
9. Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker — "How Much Is Health Spending Expected to Grow?" (Updated 2025)
   Projects healthcare reaching 18.6% of GDP in 2026, rising to 20.3% by 2033.
   https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/how-much-is-health-spending-expected-to-grow/
10. Peter G. Peterson Foundation — "Healthcare Spending Will Be One-Fifth of the Economy Within a Decade" (November 2025)
    Projects $8.6 trillion in national health expenditures by 2033.
    https://www.pgpf.org/article/healthcare-spending-will-be-one-fifth-of-the-economy-within-a-decade/
11. Health Affairs — "National Health Expenditure Projections, 2024–33"
    CMS Office of the Actuary's official projections. Health spending expected to average 5.8% annual growth, outpacing GDP.
    https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.00545

---

MEDICAID'S GROWING SHARE OF STATE BUDGETS

12. Peter G. Peterson Foundation — "Budget Explainer: How Do States Pay for Medicaid?" (July 2025)
    Medicaid grew from 20.5% of state budgets in 2008 to 29.8% in 2024 — now the single largest state expenditure category.
    https://www.pgpf.org/article/budget-explainer-how-do-states-pay-for-medicaid/
13. The Pew Charitable Trusts — "The Share of State Budgets Spent on Medicaid Posts Largest Annual Increase in 20 Years" (June 2025)
    FY2023 saw the biggest single-year Medicaid budget share increase in two decades — 15.1% of every state-generated dollar.
    https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2025/06/16/the-share-of-state-budgets-spent-on-medicaid-posts-largest-annual-increase-in-20-years
14. National Association of Medicaid Directors — "Top Five Medicaid Budget Pressures" (2025)
    Confirms Medicaid at 29.8% of total state spending in FY2024, second-largest general fund expenditure after K-12 education.
    https://medicaiddirectors.org/resource/top-five-medicaid-budget-pressures-for-fiscal-year-2025/

---

TEACHER DEMOGRAPHICS: THE ACTUARIAL CASE

15. Pew Research Center — "Key Facts About Public School Teachers in the U.S." (September 2024)
    77% of K-12 public school teachers are women; cites NCES 2020-21 data.
    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/24/key-facts-about-public-school-teachers-in-the-u-s/
16. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) — "Characteristics of Public School Teachers"
    Official federal teacher demographic data. Confirms gender distribution and educational attainment trends.
    https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/clr/public-school-teachers
17. Women In Academia Report — "Women Make Up More Than Three Quarters of All Teachers in K-12 Schools" (December 2022)
    76.8% of public school teachers are women; nearly 90% in elementary schools.
    https://wiareport.com/2022/12/women-make-up-more-than-three-quarters-of-all-teachers-in-k-12-schools/
18. National Education Association — "Who Is the Average U.S. Teacher?"
    NEA synthesis of NCES data on teacher demographics, including gender breakdown and salary satisfaction.
    https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/who-average-us-teacher

---

TEACHER STRESS & BURNOUT DATA

19. K-12 Dive — "11% of Teachers 'Very Likely' to Look for a New Job as Stress Mounts" (April 2024)
    Cites the 2023 Pew survey of 2,531 teachers: 77% report their job is frequently stressful, 68% call it overwhelming.
    https://www.k12dive.com/news/teacher-stress-pew-survey/712274/
20. RAND Corporation — "Findings from the 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey"
    Multi-year tracking of teacher job-related stress, burnout, and coping difficulty.
    https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA1100/RRA1108-8/RAND_RRA1108-8.pdf

---

MEDICARE FOR ALL: EDUCATION UNIONS & SCHOOL BUDGETS

21. National Education Association — "The Education Case for Single-Payer Healthcare Systems" (Updated May 2026)
    Key NEA analysis: switching to Medicare for All would save Springfield, MA $9.6 million — enough for 128 new educator positions. Covers the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and recent local union endorsements.
    https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/education-case-single-payer-healthcare-systems
22. American Federation of Teachers — "Endorsing H.R. 676: Single-Payer Universal Healthcare"
    AFT's formal resolution endorsing Medicare for All legislation.
    https://www.aft.org/resolution/endorsing-hr-676-single-payer-universal-healthcare
23. Jacobin — "Why Did Labor Leaders Vote Against Medicare for All in the Middle of a Pandemic?" (July 2020)
    Covers the 2019 AFT, NEA, and SEIU endorsements of Jayapal's Medicare for All Act, and the subsequent tensions at the 2020 Democratic platform negotiations.
    https://jacobin.com/2020/07/democratic-party-platform-medicare-for-all-unions
24. Insider NJ — "NJ Unions and Labor Groups Call on Rep. Andy Kim to Co-Sponsor Medicare for All" (August 2022)
    New Jersey-specific labor coalition statement on healthcare concession bargaining and single-payer.
    https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/nj-unions-and-labor-groups-call-on-rep-andy-kim-to-co-sponsor-medicare-for-all-in-congress/
25. Unions for Single Payer — Union Endorser List
    Full list of 22 national/international unions endorsing H.R. 676, including NEA, AFT, SEIU, AFSCME.
    https://unionsforsinglepayer.org/union_endorsers/

---

BEA BACKGROUND & RELATED EDITORIAL COVERAGE

26. Big Education Ape — "The Profitcare Paradox: How America's Healthcare System Became a Billionaire's Playground and a Patient's Nightmare" (December 2025)
    https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-profitcare-paradox-how-americas.html
27. Big Education Ape — "Democratic Medicare for All vs. Republican Don't Care at All" (December 2025)
    https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2025/12/democratic-medicare-for-all-vs.html
28. Big Education Ape — "'Well, There You Go Again': A Tragicomic History of America's Eternal Healthcare Debate" (November 2025)
    https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2025/11/well-there-you-go-again-tragicomic.html
29. Big Education Ape — "AFT and Medicare for All — Randi Weingarten" (September 2019)
    https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/09/aft-and-medicare-for-all-randi.html
30. Big Education Ape — "Groundhog Day at the Capitol: Republicans Unveil Yet Another 'Concept' While 20 Million Americans Lose Coverage" (January 2026)
    https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/01/groundhog-day-at-capitol-republicans.html

SOLD! TO THE GENTLEMEN IN THE SILICON VALLEY SKYBOX: CALIFORNIA'S PUBLIC EDUCATION GOES UNDER THE HAMMER

After 30 years and billions of dollars, the hostile takeover is complete — and the gavel came down without a single voter having a say

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the most expensive hostile takeover in California history — one that didn't require a single shareholder vote, a hostile board meeting, or even the decency of a ballot measure. With the stroke of a pen on Assembly Bill 181, Governor Newsom and the California Legislature have completed what three decades and billions of billionaire dollars couldn't quite finish at the ballot box: the systematic purchase and rebranding of California's public education system as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Governor's office — conveniently operated to the exact specifications of its philanthropic underwriters.

Champagne corks are popping in Atherton and Marin County. The help is being dismissed in Sacramento.

"We Tried It Your Way. Your Way Was Expensive."

Here is the beautiful, brutal irony of AB 181, and the oligarchy would prefer you not linger on it too long: they tried to do this democratically, and democracy kept saying no.

For two full decades, billionaire-backed reform groups threw mountains of cash at the Superintendent of Public Instruction race trying to install their preferred administrator at the helm of the California Department of Education. The spending chart reads like a fever dream:

• 2014: ~$30 million. Marshall Tuck, bankrolled by Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, and the Walton family, loses by a whisker.
• 2018: Over $50 million — the most expensive state superintendent race in American history. Charter reform advocates pour $27 million into backing Tuck again. Tony Thurmond wins anyway.
• 2026: Under $3 million. And that tells you everything.

Why did spending collapse to near-nothing in 2026? Because the office they were fighting over has been surgically hollowed out. When AB 181 kicks in January 2027, the Superintendent of Public Instruction will retain the title, the business cards, and a newly minted seat on some higher education boards — but the California Department of Education will be run by a Commissioner appointed directly by the Governor.

The billionaires didn't lose the SSPI race. They simply decided the race wasn't worth running anymore, because they found a cheaper way to win.

As one might imagine the donors saying over drinks at some sun-drenched Napa fundraiser: "Why spend $50 million on a superintendent when you can spend that on one good governor?"

Consolidate expenditures. Streamline the investment. Eliminate the middleman election.

The PACE Prequel: When "Research" Writes the Script

Of course, no hostile takeover arrives without its intellectual air cover, and California's education oligarchy has always been meticulous about dressing its power grabs in the respectable clothing of policy research.

Enter Policy Analysis for California Education — PACE — the Sacramento-adjacent research consortium funded by the Kabcenell Foundation, the Silver Giving Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, and friends. PACE helpfully published a report explaining, with the full authority of academic formatting and footnotes, how much better California's schools would be governed if the pesky elected Superintendent were replaced by someone the Governor appointed.

Shocking, that.

When PACE dropped that report, every veteran education watcher in California understood exactly what had just happened. In political terms, it was the equivalent of someone commissioning a "study" that finds the restaurant you want to buy is underperforming — right before you make your offer. The research wasn't a warning. It was a warranty card, pre-filled and ready to file.

The Governor read the report. The Legislature read the report. And a budget trailer bill — the political world's equivalent of slipping something into the fine print at 2 a.m. — made it law.

How You Know the Fix Is In

There is a reliable diagnostic test for identifying when a controversial policy outcome has been predetermined rather than deliberated: speed and silence.

When a genuinely democratic process is at work, controversial structural changes move slowly. There are hearings. There is public testimony. There are opposition campaigns. There are, occasionally, propositions — those quaint instruments by which California voters get to weigh in directly on matters of constitutional significance.

AB 181 did none of that.

The restructuring of an office established in the California Constitution — one that Californians have elected independently for over a century — was packaged inside a budget trailer bill and pushed through the Legislature without a public vote. No proposition. No debate on the general election ballot. No asking the people of California whether they wanted to permanently transfer the administrative control of their children's schools from an independently elected official to a gubernatorial appointee.

Because they already knew the answer. The people of California, given the choice, would have said no. The voters had, functionally, been saying no for 30 years of expensive elections.

So the choice was simply removed from the menu.

The Nesting Doll of Democracy Laundering

The funding architecture behind AB 181's policy push is a masterpiece of what transparency advocates call the "nesting doll" strategy. A billionaire gives millions to a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization — which need not disclose its donors. That organization writes a check to a California Super PAC. The Super PAC funds research, lobbying, and political campaigns. When the public examines the filings, the listed donor is something warmly named like "Californians for Educational Excellence" or "Children's Futures Initiative," and the original source is safely several shells deep, invisible to ordinary scrutiny.

This is not an accident. Dark money is dark by design.

What we can see in the daylight is sobering enough: in just the first half of the 2026 cycle, fifteen billionaires injected an estimated $336 million into California political action committees. Sergey Brin alone spent at least $86 million. The money doesn't flow to turn California conservative — it flows to shape which kind of Democrat writes the laws in Sacramento. Business-aligned moderates over labor-backed progressives. Appointees over electeds. Governors over Superintendents.

AB 181 is what $336 million in political investment eventually purchases.

The "Accountability" Costume Party

The word the supporters of AB 181 reach for, reflexively and repeatedly, is accountability. The argument, delivered with straight faces by the Governor and allied equity groups, is that California's old "dual-headed" system — where an independently elected Superintendent implemented policy set by the Governor and State Board — created bureaucratic friction that hurt students.

There is a kernel of legitimate governance critique buried somewhere in there, under thirty years of billionaire fingerprints.

But let us be precise about what "accountability" means in this context: it means accountability upward — to the Governor, to the appointed Commissioner, to the philanthropic infrastructure that shapes what both of them believe — rather than accountability outward, to the voters of California.

An elected Superintendent, for all the dysfunction the dual-headed system sometimes produced, was accountable to the public in the most direct way democracy offers: you could vote them out. A governor-appointed Commissioner is accountable to exactly one person, who is in turn accountable to the donors who fund their political future.

That is not a more accountable system. It is a more controllable one. And controllability is precisely what was purchased.

Meanwhile, in the Courtroom Waiting Room

The one remaining check on this restructuring is the judiciary. As EdSource has reported, legal scholars and teachers' unions are examining whether AB 181's gutting of a constitutionally established office can survive a court challenge. The consensus leans pessimistic for challengers — budget trailer bills have wide latitude, and courts tend to defer to the Legislature on structural governance questions.

But "probably won't be stopped by a lawsuit" is not the same as "was right and democratic." And the legal argument, even if it ultimately fails, is worth making — because the alternative is to establish the precedent that any constitutional office can be emptied of meaning through a budget bill, provided you have enough patience, enough money, and enough friends in the Governor's office.

The Ledger, Totaled

Thirty years. Billions of dollars. Failed ballot initiatives and $50 million superintendent races and dark money flowing through nesting-doll nonprofits and PACE reports in academic font.

And in the end: a budget trailer bill. Passed quickly. Without a vote of the people. Restructuring a constitutional office. Handing administrative control of California's schools to a gubernatorial appointee.

The billionaire oligarchy didn't buy California's education system loudly, with a villain's monologue and a giant novelty check. They bought it quietly, incrementally, patiently — funding the research that shaped the debate, the candidates that shaped the legislature, the governor that signed the bill.

The hostile takeover is complete.

The gavel has fallen.

Sold — to the gentlemen who were never on the ballot.

Big Education Ape has been covering the billionaire takeover of California public education since before it was fashionable to notice. The Superintendent may have lost her department, but we haven't lost our receipts.

Sources & Links

AB 181 — The Law Itself

Assembly Bill 181 (California, 2026)
The budget trailer bill restructuring the California Department of Education, eliminating day-to-day administrative control by the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction and creating a new governor-appointed Education Commissioner effective January 2027.
🔗 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

---

Legal Challenge Analysis

"Could a lawsuit stop Gov. Newsom and lawmakers from stripping the state superintendent's power? Probably not"
EdSource, 2026
🔗 https://edsource.org/2026/could-a-lawsuit-stop-gov-newsom-and-lawmakers-from-stripping-the-state-superintendents-power-probably-not/762366

---

Big Education Ape — Prior Coverage

"The Billionaire's Playbook: How California's Education Was Quietly Bought, Branded, and Broken"
Big Education Ape, June 2026
🔗 https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-billionaires-playbook-how.html

"The Knife in the Back and the Hand That Held It: How California's Billionaire Charter Oligarchy Used a Budget Bill to Bury Democracy in a Shallow Grave Labeled 'Accountability'"
Big Education Ape, July 2026
🔗 https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-knife-in-back-and-hand-that-held-it.html

---

PACE — Policy Analysis for California Education

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE)
The research consortium whose governance restructuring framework provided the intellectual roadmap for AB 181. Funded by the Dirk and Charlène Kabcenell Foundation, the Silver Giving Foundation, and the Stuart Foundation, among others.
🔗 https://edpolicyinca.org

---

Campaign Finance & Dark Money

California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)
Official state agency tracking campaign contributions, independent expenditures, and Super PAC activity in California elections.
🔗 https://www.fppc.ca.gov

CalMatters — Campaign Finance Coverage
Nonprofit journalism tracking money in California politics, including billionaire spending in the 2024 and 2026 cycles.
🔗 https://calmatters.org/politics/campaign-finance

California Common Cause
Transparency watchdog that documented the injection of $336 million by 15 billionaires into California political action committees in the first half of the 2026 cycle.
🔗 https://www.commoncause.org/california

---

Key Donors & Spending Figures Referenced

Sergey Brin (Google Co-Founder)
Reported individual spending of at least $86 million in the 2026 California cycle, targeting moderate, pro-business PACs and opposing proposed wealth taxes.

Chris Larsen (Ripple Co-Founder)
Contributed approximately $28 million personally to state and local races via vehicles including the "Grow California" PAC; Ripple spent an additional $56 million globally on crypto-friendly political agendas.

Reed Hastings (Netflix Co-Founder)
Major funder of charter school advocacy and billionaire-backed SSPI races, including the 2014 and 2018 Tuck campaigns.

Eli Broad (Broad Foundation)
Key funder of the 2014 Marshall Tuck campaign and long-standing financier of California charter school expansion and governance reform efforts.

Walton Family Foundation
Consistent major funder of charter school advocacy and independent expenditures in California superintendent races.

Laurene Powell Jobs (Emerson Collective)
Named funder of education reform initiatives aligned with the governance restructuring agenda.

---

CORE Districts & Capitol Impact

CORE Districts
A California collaborative of school districts operating with private management support from Capitol Impact, a private firm, funded in part through philanthropic channels.
🔗 https://coredistricts.org

---

Historical & Legal Context

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
U.S. Supreme Court decision removing limits on independent political expenditures by corporations and nonprofits — the legal foundation for the Super PAC explosion that reshaped California education politics.
🔗 https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf

California Disclose Act
State transparency law requiring disclosure of major donors on political advertising, which drove the shift toward "nesting doll" dark money structures.
🔗 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

Proposition 13 (California, 1978)
Property tax limitation measure that dramatically reduced local public school funding and set the stage for philanthropic dependency in California education.
🔗 https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3497

---

Children Now

Children Now
A California civic organization that has advocated for aligning department administration directly with the Governor's office, cited as part of the charter and tech coalition supporting AB 181's governance shift.
🔗 https://www.childrennow.org

---

Compiled by Big Education Ape. Additional documentation, FPPC filings, and legislative hearing records available upon request.

MORNING NEWS UPDATE: JULY 20, 2026

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER

U.S. NEWS (top stories around July 20, 2026):

• Ongoing U.S. military strikes on Iran continue into their ninth consecutive night, with reports of U.S. service member casualties (including deaths in Jordan from Iranian attacks) and underreported injuries.
• Gas prices in the U.S. have surged above $4 per gallon amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and rising crude oil prices due to the conflict.
• LAPD body camera footage released related to an incident involving an officer and a family dog.
• Severe weather and heat waves triggering air quality alerts and increased emergency room visits in multiple states.

• Naval Blockade and Troop Deployment in Mid-East Conflict: Following intensified regional clashes, the U.S. military has formally shifted the primary objective of its ongoing deployment to ensuring the continuous, uninhibited transit of commercial oil vessels. Concurrently, the Navy has stepped up enforcement of a strict naval blockade targeting crude oil shipments leaving major regional ports.

• Gas Prices Surge Nationwide: Driven heavily by the volatile escalations abroad and a severe energy squeeze, regular unleaded gasoline has officially crossed the $4 per gallon threshold nationwide. The spike is applying sudden, intense economic pressure on household budgets just as political campaigns begin intensifying for the fall.

• Immigration Enforcement Camera Mandate: The administration’s "border czar" announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers will now be strictly required to activate body-worn cameras during all vehicular traffic stops. The directive follows a wave of nationwide community demonstrations and legal scrutiny surrounding recent tragic enforcement encounters.

• Andrew Tate Arrested in the U.S.: High-profile social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were taken into custody by armed agents from the U.S. Marshals Service. The arrest was executed following a new series of formal sexual abuse and exploitation charges authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service.

• Palm Beach Rebranding Stalls: A high-profile, long-term initiative to heavily rebrand and align infrastructure projects around Palm Beach International Airport under the Trump namesake has encountered extensive bureaucratic delays and commercial pushback, leaving major segments of the rollout completely grounded.

POLITICS:

• UK politics shift as Andy Burnham is set to become the new Prime Minister, succeeding Keir Starmer; he faces major challenges including economic issues and regional demands.
• U.S. political figures (e.g., statements from Trump administration or Rubio) reacting to the escalating Iran conflict and ceasefire breakdowns.
• Ongoing debates around U.S. federal policies, including health program cuts under the Trump administration and their impacts.

• Dormant Deportation Tribunal Reactivated: The Trump administration has officially reactivated a highly controversial, historically dormant federal court system designed specifically for the expedited deportation of individuals classified under "alien terrorist" statutes, triggering immediate legal challenges from civil liberties organizations.

• Scientists Unite Against $1 Trillion Research Grant Cuts: Prominent scientific coalitions and academic research institutions are organizing a massive, unified front against an administration proposal to slash federal research grants by an estimated $1 trillion. Critics call the proposed budget clawbacks a catastrophic blow to long-term technological development and innovation.

• VP Family Milestone: Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance announced the birth of a baby boy. The birth marks a rare historical milestone, representing the first child born to a sitting U.S. Vice President in 156 years.

• House Democrats Shift Stance on Mideast Policy: A growing, coordinated bloc of House Democrats is pushing for a major shift in traditional party platforms regarding diplomatic and military assistance to Israel. The shift is widening internal debates between long-standing party leadership and the progressive wing.

• South Carolina Senate Race Ignites: Republican Representative Ralph Norman announced his intention to enter the primary race to succeed Senator Lindsey Graham. The announcement sets up an intense intra-party dynamic, as Donald Trump has already publicly thrown his backing behind Graham's sister, Darline, for the seat.

WORLD AFFAIRS:

• Escalating U.S.-Iran conflict, including strikes, Strait of Hormuz tensions, peace talks in Switzerland, and regional ripple effects (e.g., Israel-Hezbollah exchanges).
• Russian strikes on Ukraine, with deadly overnight attacks targeting the capital and other areas.
• Other developments: Iranian Sunni cleric killed; elections in Sao Tome and Principe; Taiwan statements on China.

• U.S. Expands Airstrikes in Iran Following Troop Casualty: The U.S. Central Command launched its ninth consecutive night of intense aerial bombardments targeting underground missile installations, command hubs, and drone launch pads across Iran. The strikes expanded into the major northwestern hub of Tabriz following the death of an American service member in Iraq over the weekend.

• Gulf States Target of Retaliation Barrages: In direct response to the expanding U.S. air campaign, Iranian forces launched a series of retaliatory missile barrages targeting strategic points in Bahrain—home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet—and Kuwait, forcing active air defense interceptions and triggering widespread emergency sirens.

• Strait of Hormuz Tanker Explosions: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for disabling two commercial oil tankers south of the Strait of Hormuz. The maritime route remains highly volatile, with commercial crews abandoning burning vessels after being struck by projectiles in the shipping lanes.

• Oil Blockade Pushes Cuba to the Edge: Cuba is teetering on the brink of total structural collapse following a continuous, six-month U.S.-imposed oil blockade. Severe energy shortages, systemic blackouts, and sweltering summer temperatures have triggered widespread civil unrest and fractured public infrastructure.

• Global Energy Crisis Deepens: As a direct result of the escalating military conflict in the Middle East and the closure of key maritime chokepoints, global benchmark Brent crude has soared past $90 a barrel, sparking panic in international energy markets.

EDUCATION:

• U.S. Department of Education ties federal student aid to graduate earnings outcomes; new rules could affect programs (e.g., arts, cosmetology, early childhood education) that don't meet thresholds, impacting hundreds of thousands of students.

• Newsom Signs Sweeping California Governance Overhaul: Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 181, enacting a historic reorganization of California's K-12 public school system. The law strips the historically elected Superintendent of Public Instruction of day-to-day administrative control over the Department of Education, transferring those powers to a newly created, governor-appointed Education Commissioner.

• Miami-Dade Caps EdTech Screen Time: Following intense backlash from parent advocate groups over classroom digitization, an official Miami-Dade County Public Schools analysis revealed new strict guidelines. The district explicitly intends to cap student use of digital learning tools at no more than 90 minutes per week for grades K-8 to ensure "teacherbots" and computers do not displace human instruction.

• Teacher Health Insurance Plans Face "Death Spiral": The New Jersey Treasury issued an urgent warning that the State School Employees’ Health Benefits Program is entering a catastrophic financial cycle, with average premium costs scheduled to skyrocket by over 34%. The massive spike is squeezing local school district budgets, forcing agonizing trade-offs between covering employee healthcare and maintaining classroom resources.

• Affordability Champion Eyed for Congress: In Minnesota, a high school mathematics teacher has launched a highly competitive, grassroots campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The campaign is gaining significant traction by focusing almost exclusively on middle-class affordability, student loan burdens, and public school funding equity.

ECONOMY:

• Markets reacting to US-Iran conflict with oil price spikes, higher gas prices, and volatility (e.g., Indian markets, Bitcoin drops).
• U.S. Leading Economic Indicators release scheduled; broader projections show moderate global/U.S. growth for 2026 amid uncertainties.

• Crude Oil Vaults Past $90 a Barrel: Commodity markets experienced extreme volatility as Brent crude surged past the $90 mark. The rapid ascent is triggering supply chain warnings across multiple industrial sectors and intensifying fears of stubborn global inflation.

• Retail Gasoline Squeezes Consumer Discretionary Spending: With average gas prices hitting $4 a gallon across the United States, retail and macroeconomic analysts warn that household discretionary income is being heavily redirected toward commuting costs, threatening broader summer consumer spending metrics.

• Naval Blockades Stall Transcripts of Fertilisers and Gas: International logistics firms warn that the ongoing naval blockade and targeting of vessels in the Arabian Sea are severely bottlenecking global shipments of agricultural fertilizers, liquified natural gas, and crude. Supply shortages are expected to impact downstream wholesale pricing by next quarter.

• Local Budgets Squeezed by Skyrocketing Benefit Premiums: Municipalities and public school districts nationwide report extreme budgetary strain as the cost of institutional health benefits outpaces regular inflation by more than a third, forcing local governments to consider tax adjustments or severe service rollbacks.

TECHNOLOGY:

• Limited specific breaking stories on this date, but ongoing AI infrastructure investments by tech giants (Google, Amazon, etc.) remain a major theme in broader economic coverage.

• The "EdTech" Backlash Intensifies: Major educational technology and generative software developers are facing systemic market resistance as large public school districts actively move to curb software usage. New reports detail significant pushback from communities demanding strict limits on classroom automation and screen-time metrics.

• Drone Warfare Tactics Evolve in Mid-East: Defense technology analysts are closely studying the deployment of advanced Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the current conflict. The heavy reliance on drone swarms and subsequent "controlled detonations" by electronic warfare units highlights a massive shift in modern tactical combat systems.

• Data Privacy Concerns Re-ignited Over Voting Databases: A major technological and legal conflict has erupted in federal courts over the deployment and cross-referencing of expanded digital databases—specifically the federal SAVE system—used by states to audit citizenship status for electronic voting rosters.

• Green Energy Grids Strained by Geopolitical Shocks: The sudden global restriction on traditional fossil fuels has put immense pressure on industrial tech sectors to accelerate grid integration of alternative energy systems, though supply chain blocks on raw tech materials are slowing progress.

HEALTH:

• Concerns over new disease threats (e.g., screwworm reemergence) linked to federal health program cuts and reduced CDC staffing under recent administration changes.
• Heat-related health impacts with spikes in emergency visits.

• Soaring Premiums Threaten Institutional Care Systems: Health policy experts are sounding alarms over a major premium spike exceeding 34% within public sector health plans. The sudden instability is raising structural fears that public safety-net benefits are entering unsustainable cost cycles.

• Mental Health Concerns Rise Amid Screentime Mandates: Pediatric health advocates and school boards have presented coordinated clinical reports linking excessive, unmonitored classroom screen time to rising rates of adolescent anxiety and attention deficits, sparking institutional policy changes.

• Military Conflict Healthcare Casualties Mount: Regional health authorities in the Middle East report that the latest rounds of heavy urban airstrikes have resulted in severe civilian trauma casualties, claiming at least 50 lives and leaving more than 517 individuals severely wounded.

• Global Shipping Halts Threaten Medical Supply Chains: Disruptions to major maritime transit lanes are beginning to cause logistical delays for pharmaceutical components, specifically key chemical compounds used in the manufacturing of bulk agricultural fertilizers and synthetic medical treatments.

SPORTS:

• FIFA World Cup 2026 updates, including halftime show preparations with stars like Justin Bieber and Madonna, and ongoing matches/semifinals.
• Golf: Ryan Fox wins the 2026 Open Championship.
• MLB action, e.g., Yankees vs. Dodgers results.

• Spain Crowned 2026 FIFA World Cup Champions: In a dramatic, edge-of-your-seat finale at the New York New Jersey Stadium, Spain dethroned the incumbent champions Argentina with a thrilling 1-0 victory in extra time. The European champions executed a masterclass defensive strategy, completely neutralizing Lionel Messi and holding Argentina to zero shots on goal during the first half.

• Lamine Yamal Shines on Global Stage: The young Spanish sensation Lamine Yamal proved to be the spark of the World Cup Final, driving Spain's aggressive offense and forcing multiple spectacular, early saves from Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

• Presidential Interception at World Cup Celebrations: Following the final whistle of the historic tournament, Donald Trump caused a stir at the stadium by attempting to join the official Spanish team victory celebrations on the pitch, drawing mixed, vocal reactions from the packed international crowd.

• Infantino and Trump Booed at Final Match: Prior to the kickoff of the highly anticipated World Cup final match in New Jersey, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and U.S. President Donald Trump were loudly booed by sections of the crowd during pre-game protocol appearances.

News can evolve quickly—especially with the fluid Middle East situation. These are synthesized from major headlines on/around July 20, 2026.

EDUCATION SPECIAL

TOP US EDUCATION NEWS TODAY

TOP WORLD EDUCATION NEWS TODAY

Top US Education News

• Federal Education Deregulation & State Waivers: The U.S. Department of Education, under Secretary Linda McMahon, has officially approved Arkansas’ "Returning Education to the States Waiver". This grants the state extensive flexibilities to bypass certain federal compliance requirements and streamline operations. Concurrently, the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced the "Less Bureaucracy, Better Education" legislative package, which includes bills aimed at outsourcing or transferring permanent functions out of the Department of Education to other federal agencies.

• International Student Cap Enacted: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Trump administration have finalized a restrictive new immigration rule that caps student visas for foreign nationals to a maximum four-year stay. Higher education administrators warn this policy will deal a severe financial blow to university budgets that rely heavily on out-of-state international tuition.

• Legal Battles Over Higher Ed Loans: A federal court has issued a temporary borrowing reprieve for graduate nursing and physician assistant programs after the administration moved to slash student loan caps for specific graduate tracks. Concurrently, federal judges struck down administration attempts to bar public service loan forgiveness for individuals employed by organizations that engage in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

• Early Reading Growth Stalls: For the first time since the 2020–21 school year, early childhood reading readiness data has failed to show year-over-year improvement. Data from the latest DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) testing indicates that progress for the youngest elementary learners has officially plateaued.

• State-Level AI Policies & Tech Pushback: Four more states have mandated that school districts adopt formal artificial intelligence frameworks. Certain states have gone a step further, explicitly banning the use of generative AI tools for high-stakes decisions like student grading and disciplinary actions.

Top World Education News

• Global Shifts in Higher Ed Enrollment: India is experiencing a historic surge in its international higher education footprint, reporting a 19% year-over-year increase in overseas student enrollment, with students arriving from 173 different countries.

• Canada Targets Document Fraud: Canadian immigration and education authorities are tightening oversight following high-profile sector integrity scandals involving fraudulent admissions letters and exploitative recruitment pipelines targeting international applicants.

• Academic Integrity Cracks Open-Book Formats: The popular online learning platform Sophia Learning implemented aggressive security updates—including blocking material downloads and disabling page-search features (Ctrl+F)—after investigative reports revealed students were bypassing curriculum benchmarks to finish full college-credit courses in just a few hours.

• India Solidifies Three-Language Policy: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) clarified that its upcoming curriculum overhaul complies fully with National Education Policy (NEP) goals. Starting in the 2027–28 academic session, secondary students must successfully pass a distinct third-language school assessment to secure their Class 10 graduation certificates.

OPINION: How a small town in rural Maine built a public school that serves a whole community, including infants and toddlers https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-how-a-small-town-in-rural-maine-built-a-public-school-that-serves-a-whole-community-including-infants-and-toddlers/ 

Education researchers warn political review of federal grants could reshape what gets studied https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-education-omb-comments/ 

How the Trump administration's new rules could affect international students : NPR https://www.npr.org/2026/07/20/nx-s1-5896300/how-the-trump-administrations-new-rules-could-affect-international-students 

Texas Book List: See What Students Will Be Required to Read - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/us/texas-schools-required-reading-books.html 

Book Review: ‘The Lost Founder,’ by Jesse Wegman - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/books/review/the-lost-founder-jesse-wegman.html

How the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church’s Silence Allows Abuse Victims to Become Perpetrators — ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/old-apostolic-lutheran-church-child-sexual-assault-cycle-abuse

You Pay for Internet Service in Empty Buildings on Alaska’s Adak Island — ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/adak-island-alaska-internet-subsidy-fcc

As defaults on student loans surge, millions are trying to get their lives back on track | EdSource https://edsource.org/2026/as-defaults-on-student-loans-surge-millions-are-trying-to-get-their-lives-back-on-track/762335

Could a lawsuit stop Gov. Newsom and lawmakers from stripping the state superintendent’s power? Probably not | EdSource https://edsource.org/2026/could-a-lawsuit-stop-gov-newsom-and-lawmakers-from-stripping-the-state-superintendents-power-probably-not/762366 

Nearly 1 in 5 California student loan borrowers is in default | EdSource https://edsource.org/2026/nearly-1-in-5-california-student-loan-borrowers-is-in-default/762347

More than 300 attend the College Access Summit at San Francisco State https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-than-300-attend-the-college-access-summit-at-san-francisco-state/ar-AA28cXIz

American mother describes French school lunches as major culture shock https://www.msn.com/en-us/food-and-drink/general/american-mother-describes-french-school-lunches-as-major-culture-shock/ss-AA28dPmI

AFT women’s rights leaders celebrate breaking boundaries | American Federation of Teachers https://www.aft.org/news/aft-womens-rights-leaders-celebrate-breaking-boundaries 

Top national officers re-elected, recommit to fighting for a better life for all | American Federation of Teachers https://www.aft.org/news/top-national-officers-re-elected-recommit-fighting-better-life-all

“This Election Will Decide Whether We Are A Country Governed By The People Or Ruled By The Powerful. A Country Of Opportunity Or Oligarchy” - AFT President Weingarten ‘Urges Mobilization To Defend Democracy’ -  https://www.wnylabortoday.com/news/2026/07/19/labor-news-from-washington-d.c./this-election-will-decide-whether-we-are-a-country-governed-by-the-people-or-ruled-by-the-powerful.-a-country-of-opportunity-or-oligarchy-aft-president-weingarten-urges-mobilization-to-defend-democracy/ 

‘Not the slick choice’: Maine Dems sweat Troy Jackson despite dominant victory - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/20/troy-jackson-cruised-to-victory-in-maine-but-graham-platner-still-looms-large-with-voters-01004705

Mamdani’s mojo comes with some blind spots - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/20/mamdanis-mojo-comes-with-some-blind-spots-01002921 

Greeks ready to pick a fight about ‘The Odyssey’ – POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/greeks-ready-to-peak-a-fight-about-the-odyssey-film-christopher-nolan/ 

Trump pushes UN ‘free speech’ declaration in veiled attack on EU tech regulation – POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-administration-will-push-un-free-speech-declaration-that-takes-aim-at-european-tech-regulation/ 

EU hits China’s Alibaba with €550M record fine over illegal products – POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-hits-chinas-alibaba-with-record-fine-of-e550m-over-illegal-products/