In this episode, Kristi & Christina discuss a tale of feigned addiction, a public relations stunt, and far-right grift, all at a local Texas school board meeting.You may have seen a social media post circulating about a woman speaking at a Texas school board meeting in support of banning the book "Drama,"  saying that she developed an addiction to pornography after she read the book at 11 years old because it depicted an image of a single kiss.  This story gets even crazier if you can believe it.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina are joined by the Our Schools Lehigh County chapter lead Stefanie Rafes (@ourschools_lehighcounty) to discuss how a bipartisan coalition of parents and community members kept extremism out of three local school districts, where 15 of 15 candidates supported by the Our Schools Leigh County chapter won their school board races. Key lessons and insights for organizing for 2024 school board elections are explored.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina embark on Part III of their three-part series on book bans and associated strategies, addressing the messaging and tactics, both preemptive and reactive, to fight back against these book bans and book ban-adjacent strategies.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina embark on Part II of their three-part series on book bans and associated strategies, addressing the astroturf groups and websites who are pushing this agenda, by taking a specific focus on a few of the newer groups who have effectuated these bans. The newest round of bans are not being propelled in a “one-off” fashion - i.e., a concerned parent or family member taking their issues with a particular book to the school library. This is something schools have experience with and, normally, have some sort of policy to address.They are driven by “lists” of books being created by astroturfed groups and websites who are pushing an agenda, with the parents and others hyping book bans in schools, never even having read or seen the books they seek to ban.  This is part of a national top-down movement, an agenda stoked by far-right groups and donors, to create fear around what is being taught in public schools.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina kick off a three-part series on book bans and associated strategies with Part I: Defining Book Bans, since some of the policy adoption and tactics being used by the far-right are not necessarily obvious rote book bans, for example, banning a literal book from a public school library.While the late 70’s and early 80’s saw their share of “content” hysteria, what we are seeing today is a marked rise in actual book bans in both public schools and community libraries.The far-right has adjusted its strategy since book bans are actually wildly unpopular in communities and with parents in public schools, and this series will explore how this is all unfolding in our nation's public schools.

Last week, The New York Times published an interesting article, “Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.”Author Sarah Mervosh, in a report from Fort Moore in Georgia, which is home to five of these schools, takes an in-depth look at how these schools perform.These schools tend to perform higher than the national average: Department of Defense schools outscored every jurisdiction in math and reading last year. In this podcast, Kristi & Christina discuss some of the factors that may contribute to this performance, as the first of our "food for thought" podcasts.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina discuss the weaponization of religion in public education as it is gaining traction anew, taking cues from the conservative movements of the 1970’s and 1980’s, but this time with the added amplification of far-right conservative media and the ability for anyone to reach millions of people 24/7 through social media.Joined by former pastor Rachel Dennis, this episode explores the far-right's attempts to “own” faith, disregarding the millions of parents of various faiths who disagree with them.

In this episode, Kristi & Christina have a conversation with Tiffany Van Der Hyde, Executive Director of the Virginia non-profit We the People for Education, about what is happening with public education in Virginia with Governor Glenn Youngkin.As parents rights is clearly the rallying cry for the 2024 election, presidential candidates are taking their cues and talking points from national groups like Moms for Liberty. But, you have to go back in time to know how we got here, and part of that history for the far-right extremist parents’ rights movement is the 2021 Virginia Gubernatorial race.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina interview Ashley Thrasher, a parent from Crook County, Oregon, who shares how her district's beloved and award-winning Superintendent has been pushed out by newly-elected far-right extremist "Mama Bear" school board members. This conversation addressed the exodus of highly qualified professionals from our public schools due to election of far-right extremist school board candidates groups like Moms for Liberty propelled forward in the 2022 election cycle.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina interview Daisy Gardner, author of a recent article in The Nation,  "The 'Parental Rights' Fanatics Have Descended on LA," discussing her experience with the burgeoning far-right extremism in Los Angeles and adjacent school districts.The conversation addresses the misconception that major metropolitan areas may be immune from the culture war battles that are hitting our public schools.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina discuss polling data, focus group data, and other research mechanisms that demonstrate what America's parents actually want in our public schools. Contrary to what the far-right extremists and their news media portray, most parents want to focus on learning outcomes, not culture war distractions.

In this episode, Kristi & Christina talk with the Ridge Network (@ridgenetwork) out of the Pennridge School District in Pennsylvania about what is happening in their school district with far-right consultant Jordan Adams and  his company, Vermillion, and the overhaul of the District's curriculum, despite the concerns of the majority of parents. A cautionary tale of how far-right extremism creeps into a school district.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina discuss when the adoption of curriculum, like American Birthright Standards, by far-right school boards has unintended consequences, such as jeopardizing eligibility to play college athletics. It's a tale of the NCAA, social studies, and a Colorado school district.

In this episode, Kristi & Christina discuss the controversial adoption of  PragerU Kids materials as supplemental curriculum in Florida public schools, highlighting several unbelievable examples of historical inaccuracies and portrayals in this edutainment content.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina discuss the teacher shortages impacting districts across the United States. From increased class sizes to lack of electives for students, this episode explores the effects of far-right policies and messaging on public school employee morale and working conditions, which directly impacts student learning.

In this episode, Kristi & Christina discuss the Florida Board of Education's policies that effectively ban AP Psychology being taught in Florida schools.By instructing Florida superintendents that teaching content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,  nearly 30,000 students and their families will be robbed of course schedules and college credit opportunities.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina unpack the most recent Moms for Liberty tweet and position that there should be no mental health care in public schools (or health care at all). Joined by Ahmanise Sanati,  a regional director for the National Association of Social Workers, and current Licensed Clinical Social Worker for one of the largest school districts in the country,  what the absence of mental health care services in our public schools would look like is discussed.

Inspired by an Instagram follower's request, Kristi & Christina discuss ways that you can organize around school board issues to be on the offense, rather than the defense.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina discuss a proposal being set forth by House Republicans that could bring cuts to the national free and reduced lunch program, which would result in families not receiving free lunch.

In this episode, Kristi and Christina talk about the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction's recent comments that have come under fire as well as what happens when inexperienced people with a lack of expertise manage and set policy for public schools.