In the second episode of their new Arkansas education podcast “Fair Assessment,” hosts Gwen Faulkenberry and Ali Noland discuss several themes prominent in education-related politics and culture in Arkansas.
First, Gwen, a veteran classroom teacher who hails from a long line of proud public educators, discusses the recent movement to delegitimize and vilify the teaching profession.
Ali, an attorney with an LL.M. degree in constitutional and civil-rights law, discusses the alarming rise in censorship of library books, school curriculum materials and ideas.
Finally, both hosts reflect on the fact that, especially in red states like Arkansas, public schools have become the front lines for meeting many of the basic human needs – food, medical care, mental-health treatment, etc. – that state governments fail to adequately address.
If you haven’t caught up on their first episode, in which they discuss the well-funded national push to privatize K-12 education, you can listen here.
We are still working to get both episodes of the podcast uploaded to platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and we will update this post with links when the episode is available via those services. Feel free to share this post (there’s no paywall) with anyone interested in listening.
Up next week: Ali and Gwen are interviewing Steve Grappe from the Coalition for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES), which is working to repeal the LEARNS Act. Don’t miss it!
Feedback and suggestions for the show can be sent to FairAssessmentPodcast@gmail.com.