Episode 169
The Future of Learning: AI, Online Classrooms, and Education’s Next Era
A conversation with Michelle Rhee
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January 29, 2025
National School Choice Week is January 26 through February 1, when parents are encouraged to explore their K–12 education options.
In this episode, we’ve compiled expert highlights from previous What I Want To Know podcast episodes, featuring key insights from education leaders, parent advocates, and school choice experts.
Listen on: Apple Podcast, Spotify
Meet Andrew Campanella
Andrew Campanella is one of the nation’s leading K–12 school choice experts. He is the president and CEO of the National School Choice Awareness Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to inform, inspire, and empower parents to discover, navigate, and access schools and education options.
Meet Kayla Svedin
Kayla Svedin is one of the founders of Empowered Arizona Families. Her unique story led her to start the nonprofit organization, which seeks to ensure every family has access to a school that works for their children.
As a mother of four and staunch advocate for parent involvement in education, Kayla works to empower families to make informed decisions that are in the best interest of their kids.
Meet Jon Deane
Jon Deane is chief executive officer at GreatSchools.org, a nonprofit web platform providing high-quality information for parents looking for a good school for their children.
Jon has nearly two decades of experience in K through 12 education. He previously served as a director on the education team at The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he worked with schools, districts, states, researchers, and various organizations to support personalized learning.
Meet Shree Recasner
Shree Recasner is the vice president of strategic engagement for the Texas Charter Schools Association, a membership organization working to accelerate student achievement in Texas by strengthening and supporting a diverse set of effective public charter schools.
Meet Robert Pondiscio
Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, specializing in K12 education, teaching, curriculum, and school choice. He became interested in education policy after teaching at an underfunded school in the South Bronx.
Kevin P. Chavous: In recent years, school choice has become a growing issue among parents. In our shifting education landscape, some parents are turning away from public schools, while others remain staunch advocates of traditional public education. But is it really just an either-or discussion? And how can our school systems serve all students, regardless of need and ability?
This is “ What I Want to Know.”
Andrew Campanella: It’s a shame it took a pandemic to open so many folks’ eyes to the need for school choice. But what COVID did was it forced every single parent across the country to look at what their kids were learning and how their kids were learning. It forced them to do that all at the same time, which has never happened before.
There has never been a singular moment where every parent has been forced to pay attention to their kid’s education at the same time. And so parents did. In some cases, they were even more appreciative of what their kids’ teachers were doing. I know that teachers worked incredibly hard under incredibly difficult circumstances during COVID.
In other cases, parents said, “I can see why this works in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting for my child, but this emergency remote learning is just not what my child will benefit from.” Other families looked at their children’s learning and realized there wasn’t enough learning going on.
And so, what I think every family realized—whether or not they were happy with their child’s school, thought they did a decent enough job coping with the challenges, or were completely dissatisfied—families wanted or wished they at least had something else from which to choose, even if they were happy.
And so that resulted in families understanding, for the first time in many cases, that school choice was the way more communities need to go. They stood up, they spoke out, and lawmakers listened. In just the last year, 20 states have expanded school choice and educational freedom in some way, shape, or form.
In some places like New York, the expansion was relatively small but still important, allowing for more charter schools. In other states like Iowa, Florida, and Arkansas, the expansions were bigger, giving families almost universal access to every type of school out there. And so we are seeing a fundamental transformation of education in this country. That transformation is focused on giving families more options. And better options. You know,
Kayla Svedin: How we dealt with individuals with disabilities in the past, and how the programs have changed, all this stuff. One thing that really stuck with me from this training was how we, as a nation, shifted from a system-centered approach to people with disabilities to a person-centered approach.
So instead of saying, “Oh, well, your child has Down syndrome; they’re going to go live in this institution, they’re going to be taught these skills, and then they’re going to have this job and live in this group home,” now, when we address disability, we go to that individual. Because it doesn’t matter if they have the same disability as someone else—they’re still an individual. They have their own wants, needs, and desires. We’re seeing them as a person and treating their lives holistically.
But I think we need to start making that change with education. Obviously, that’s a much bigger institution. It’s a much bigger system. It’s going to take time. The road is going to be long. But we have to start making that shift from seeing it just as the public school system, doing what the school needs and wants, to focusing on how our approaches and education are actually meeting the needs of children at individual levels.
When we start doing that, we’re going to see a better-educated populace. We’re going to have more needs met for these individuals. They’re children now, but they’re going to be adults. They’re going to be running our country later. They’re going to be taking care of us later. And those who’ve had their needs met and an education that is fulfilling, successful, and gives them opportunities they couldn’t have attained otherwise—we’re going to be in a better place for it.
Jon Deane: I think the most important thing is to get a sense of your child and what it is that you value—what you’re expecting out of school. Different parents have different experiences that way. If you can visit the school, talk to other parents who are there, read the reviews, there are vibrant experiences from other parents. I think those are important things.
How does the school teach reading if you’re in elementary school? We’re learning a lot more about that and understanding the variety of ways kids learn. Those things aren’t always captured in data. Try to get a sense of that. What are the other experiences you want for your kid?
I know, personally, I valued schools that were a little noisier and louder because that’s how I loved the classroom. Other parents prefer calm, quiet places. You find those differences by talking to people and visiting the school. That’s just important to understand.
Kevin P. Chavous: Come on, Jon. How they teach math—that’s important too, right?
Jon Deane: Kevin, you and I both know.
Shree Recasner: No one is working with both sides. The teachers fear the parents. The parents fear the teachers. The administrators, quite frankly, are just trying to keep things going. Nobody is really preparing teachers today on how to work with parents. As much as I thought I had a great relationship with my son’s teacher, I had a different one moving forward, and it was much more celebrated and productive for my son.
Kevin P. Chavous: How do we bridge that gap, especially at a time when political tensions are at an all-time high? We are in an “us versus them” mindset culturally. Folks are overly sensitive—some with justification—but still, people feel like the other person is out to get them. In schools, especially schools with challenges making sure all kids get what they deserve academically, folks are on edge. But the work you did at Bayo, putting together the blueprint for the best parent engagement relationship with teachers, was remarkable. Talk about that and where you are now.
Shree Recasner: Well, thank you for saying that. There are just three things when you’re talking to parents and helping them understand their “why.” Why are you in this school? Why are you sending your child here? Why do you want a different option? Helping parents connect to their “why” is critical.
The second thing was sharing all the information upfront. Gone are the days of treating people like they can’t handle the truth. Treat parents like adults, like professionals—it’s their children. The third thing is answering all their questions.
Robert Pondiscio: On a good day, there may be a miscomprehension between parents and schools; on a bad day, hostility. That’s not just a public school thing; it’s an education thing. Teachers, at large, have fairly low expectations of parents. One of the real achievements of the reform movement is that it’s become unthinkable to hold low expectations of kids of color. But we’ve not given up those low expectations of parents. The soft bigotry of low expectations has just found a different surface to adhere to. That’s an ongoing problem.
Kevin P. Chavous: For all the angst post-COVID, this is the dark before the light. There will be a settling-out period where we focus on what children need rather than what systems need to do better.
Thanks for listening to What I Want to Know. Be sure to follow and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Join the conversation using hashtag #WWTK. For more information on Stride and online education, visit stridelearning.com. I’m your host, Kevin P. Chavous. Thank you for joining What I Want to Know.
Education is undergoing a dramatic shift, creating an opportunity to transform how we serve learners of all ages. Kevin P. Chavous turns to innovators across education, workforce development, and more to ask: “How can we do better?”
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