Shavar Jeffries is the National President of Democrats for Education Reform. Shavar is a deep and passionate thinker -- you are going to enjoy this one. We really start rolling about halfway through, so stick with it.

Shavar previously ran for mayor of Newark in 2014, after Cory Booker was elected to senate. The central issue of the campaign was education, and it was a closely watched election for many reasons. If you aren't familiar with the story of Newark at this time, there's a New Yorker article called Schooled that is a great intro. It's based on the a book called the Prize. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get into this topic too much during the podcast, but it's important to know that Shavar knows firsthand what it takes to make a successful case for change in a community.

This podcast is about how to create change in education. I want to take a minute to put these interviews in perspective.

The first episode, with Matt Barnum from 74million.org, was about the role of the media in creating change in education. My interview with Scott Given, the founder of UP Education Network, was about founding a new organization to create change. We took a detour into immigration policy in response to Trump's travel ban with AILA's Jennifer Minear to talk about how you can use the legal system to resist harmful change. My previous interview, with Mora Segal, was about directly scaling an organization to serve 250,000 students by trying to make schools better through data and consulting services.

One way to listen to Shavar's interview is: how do you create change in education politics? How do you build a movement that supports and is supported by local communities?

If you enjoy the podcast, please tell people about it. Spread the word. Rate us on iTunes. Build a movement.

Shavar Recommends:

- Memphis Lift (@memphis_lift on Twitter)