The fourth podcast episode focused on public education in Arkansas is out, featuring state Sen. Linda Chesterfield of Little Rock. Chesterfield talks about her 30-year career as a classroom teacher, the value of teachers unions, her frustration with the legislative process used to pass the LEARNS Act and the real-world implications of repealing the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act.
Gwen Faulkenberry
Posted inArkansas Blog
New ‘Fair Assessment’ podcast: Grappe-ling with the Arkansas LEARNS Act
An interview with Steve Grappe, executive director of Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES). Grappe is working with public education advocates across the state to put a repeal of the LEARNS Act on the ballot.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Fair Assessment podcast episode 2: Unpacking the playbook to undermine public education
Vilifying teachers, banning books and saddling schools with the task of feeding and providing health care for poor students is all part of a campaign to stick it to public education. Experts Gwen Faulkenberry and Ali Noland talk it out.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Here’s your first episode of ‘Fair Assessment,’ a podcast about public education in Arkansas
In this first episode of Fair Assessment, co-hosts Ali Noland, an attorney and school-board member in Little Rock, and Gwen Faulkenberry, a veteran classroom teacher in rural Arkansas, introduce themselves to listeners, explain their motivation for creating an Arkansas education podcast, and start a discussion about some of the big themes that have emerged in public-education policy and politics recently.
Posted inArkansas Blog
There is no ‘them’
We can’t choose for COVID-19 not to exist. But we can choose how we respond to it. It’s time to look beyond protecting just ourselves, and start looking out for other people, too.
Posted inArkansas Blog
The Reform Alliance report card: A+ for betrayal
Read and weep over the list of Arkansas lawmakers who give short shrift to 92% of the schoolchildren in our state.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Requiem: A mother marks a changing of seasons
If there’s a better metaphor for the transience of life than the changing colors of leaves, I don’t know it.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Arkansas took the lead in immunizations before, and we can do it again
Gwen Faulkenberry soothes her worries over vaccine resistance with chocolate and a look back to a time when Arkansas turned it all around for the better.
Posted inArkansas Blog
For Arkansas, it’s time to stop doing the common thing
The common thing is the easy thing, the thing everyone else is doing, the status quo. It’s the uncommon person who rises above that. Both approaches were on display at the Arkansas Capitol recently.