The Citizen Stewart Show

Ravi sits down with Matt Barnum, interim national editor at Chalkbeat. Matt’s excellent education writing is a frequent topic of discussion on the show, so we were excited to finally have him to discuss class sizes, teacher shortages, COVID learning loss, and more.

• NYC Must Slash Class Sizes Under A New Law. The Neediest Schools Stand To Benefit Least. (Chalkbeat, 8/17/23)

This week on The Citizen Stewart Show, Chris and Ravi welcome former opponent from the ed wars, Gary Rubinstein.

Gary recently published a piece in which he surprisingly revealed that he’s a fan of the Citizen Stewart Show. So it felt like a great time to have him on the show to revisit some past disagreements and discuss a path forward for education in America.

This week on The Citizen Stewart Show, Chris and Ravi discussed…

• Dems Lose Historic Lead on Education in Battleground States (Democrats for Education Reform, 7/28/23)

• Florida Approves Use Of Conservative Content From 'Prager U' In Schools (WTSP, 7/26/23)

• California Moves To Silence Stanford Researchers Who Got State Data To Study Education Issues (EdSource, 7/28/23)

• Eighth Graders at LeBron James’ I Promise School Haven’t Passed a Single Math Test in Three Years, School Responds (Complex, 7/31/23)

• Chicago Eyes Dramatically Expanding Its Sustainable Community Schools Program (Chalkbeat, 7/31/23)

Ravi is joined by Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education and current CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center. In a wide-ranging conversation about the past, present, and future of education policy, Spellings offers insights into misunderstood initiatives like No Child Left Behind.

• Looking Back to Look Forward: Quantitative and Qualitative Reviews of the Past 20 Years of K-12 Education Assessment and Accountability Policy

Today Chris talks school choice with Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy who founded the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.

Chris interviews Beth Lewis, Director of Save Our Schools Arizona to discuss the nuances of school choice and Education Savings Accounts.  

This week on The Citizen Stewart Show, Chris and Ravi discussed…everything!

• Supreme Court Rejects Race-Based Affirmative Action In College Admissions (WaPo, 6/29/23)

• Our Confidence In College Is Plummeting To A Shocking Degree. Here Are Likely Reasons Why (Fast Company, 7/12/23)

• Miami Dade College Expands High School ‘teaching Academies’ To Address Teacher Shortage (WLRN, 7/11/23)

• Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s About-Face on School Vouchers (City Journal, 7/10/23)

• California Needs Real Math Education, Not Gimmicks (Noahpinion, 7/8/23)

• The Federal Government Is Shelling Out $130 Million To Bring Free College To About 30,000 Inmates In Places Like Folsom Prison (Fortune, 6/28/23)

This week Chris sits down with Marc Porter Magee, CEO and founder of 50CAN: a 50-state campaign advocating for a better education system that delivers on Five Promises to America’s Children.

This week Chris sits down with Robert Enlow, President and CEO of EdChoice to debate the merits of Education Savings Accounts.

Check out Robert’s piece on ESAs here:

• Success of Educational Choice Laws Will Depend on Implementing Them with Excellence (EducationNext, 6/12/23)

Our guest this week is Emily Hanford, host of the podcast Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong. Emily and Chris discuss how a flawed method of reading instruction was allowed to hold sway in our schools for so long.