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Apr 16, 2024 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Tim DeRoche
All students should have access to any public school, regardless of their home address and government-imposed school district boundaries. Tim DeRoche, author of A Fine Line: How Most American Kids Are Kept Out of the Best Public Schools and founder of Available to All, joins the podcast to advocate for ensuring public schools are “available to all on equal terms.” Tim argues for breaking the historically discriminatory connection between housing costs, school quality, and school access.
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Mar 19, 2024 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Rick Hess |Mike McShane
In their new book, Getting Education Right: A Conservative Vision for Improving Early Childhood, K–12, and College, Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane outline a principled conservative vision that could cultivate schools that are formative, flexible, and human. In this supersized Students Over Systems episode, Rick and Mike encourage conservatives to advocate for local control, tradition, and opportunity while avoiding the lure of The Next Big Thing in technocratic K-12 education policy.
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Feb 6, 2024 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Corey DeAngelis
Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, joins Students Over Systems to discuss the educational industrial complex, the pernicious influence of teachers unions, and the recent growth in school choice programs. Corey explains why he advises leaning into the culture wars in his upcoming book, The Parent Revolution. He also dispels a number of education freedom myths, including the assertion that school choice defunds public education.
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Jan 23, 2024 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles
Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, pioneer of the universal education freedom model, joins the Students Over Systems podcast as we celebrate National School Choice Week. We discuss Arizona’s reputation as the Wild West of school choice, the growth of the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, and the wide array of education options in the state.
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Dec 26, 2023 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Nicole Solas
Nicole Solas joins Students Over Systems to review the IWF Education Freedom Center’s 2023 Naughty and Nice List. Teachers unions that closed schools with strikes top the naughty list. Union leaders Randi Weingarten, Becky Pringle, and Chicago’s Stacy Davis Gates, as well as Baltimore Public Schools, Providence Public Schools, PEN America, and school districts that forced teachers to lie to parents were also quite naughty this year.
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Dec 12, 2023 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Derrell Bradford
On this episode of Students Over Systems, host Ginny Gentles talks with Derrell Bradford, president of 50CAN, about school choice and teachers unions. Derrell views prolonged school closures in highly unionized areas as “one of the great domestic policy failures of our lifetimes” and believes allowing funding to follow children reduces unions’ outsized power to disrupt the lives of students and parents.
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Nov 14, 2023 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Gerard Robinson
Gerard Robinson helped pave the way for universal education freedom with the 2017 book he co-edited entitled Education Savings Accounts: The New Frontier in School Choice. On this week’s Students Over Systems episode, he provides a historical overview of the early days of school choice, describes the steady growth of the movement over three decades, and addresses the lack of education freedom in Virginia, where he previously served as Secretary of Education.
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Sep 19, 2023 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Lance T. Izumi
Dr. Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, joins the Students Over Systems podcast to discuss why K-12 public schools aren’t as good as middle-class parents think. Dr. Izumi describes three of his recent books that expose the weaknesses of the K-12 education system and highlights stories of parents who are seeking alternatives: Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, The Homeschool Boom, and The Great Parent Revolt.
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Sep 5, 2023 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |Virginia Foxx
Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC) joins the Students Over Systems podcast to discuss the federal government’s role in education policy. Rep. Foxx outlines her goals as chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee and delves into the hearings and legislation her committee has prioritized this year. We talk about steps the federal government can take to protect parental rights and expand education freedom.
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Aug 8, 2023 | 
iwf.org | Natalie Cassase |Ginny Gentles |John Schilling
John Schilling, senior advisor to the Invest in Education Coalition, joined Students Over Systems to discuss federal school choice options. John shares the current threats to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program for low-income students and the widespread congressional support for a federal educational choice tax credit. We lament the power-hungry nature of teachers unions–the biggest bullies in school–and celebrate the good news that education freedom programs are expanding across the nation.
