WonkyFolk

The founder of Netflix says school is about to be unrecognizable. A former mayor is talking about reading scores. A teachers' union president is boycotting Target.Reed Hastings, Rahm Emanuel, and Randi Weingarten — Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham take the three in turn.Reed Hastings makes the technologist's case, and Andy, who moderated his conversation with Mike Goldstein, isn't buying the analogy that carries it: personalized learning is not personalized medicine. Jed has a study out of China where homework quality soared and measured learning fell behind classrooms using no AI at all.Rahm Emanuel, meanwhile, is speaking common sense about schools at a moment when common sense sounds radical — and Andy thinks that lane is worth more than the endorsement everyone else is chasing.And Randi Weingarten is boycotting Target, which Andy suspects has almost nothing to do with Target, while Jed thinks it will cost the sector something real.In this episode:Andy on Reed Hastings the technologist — "for a lot of people in Silicon Valley, technology, it is a faith"Why Hastings' analogy to personalized cancer drugs struck Andy as "almost like a category error"The Economist's write-up of a Chinese dataset: homework quality up, measured learning down against classrooms without AIJed's daughter's clinical psychology program, where a bot now stands in for a first practicum clientWhy Andy thinks the biggest gains may be teacher-facing — training, screening, and remediation rather than student tutoringCognitive offloading, and why "a crappy lesson off of ChatGPT or Claude isn't any better than getting one off of Pinterest"Jed on AI as a force magnifier arriving exactly when adult ambivalence is at its worstThe techlash, and Andy's insistence that the first response to a sweeping declaration should be more questionsLiz Cohen's "Dry January for tech," and cell phone bans as "a white flag that we don't know what to do"Virginia: Nina's CharterFolk piece, a state with roughly seven charter schools, and a law that lets only localities authorizeYoungkin's twenty lab schools — shipbuilding, aerospace on the Eastern Shore — and the politics threatening themJed's California strategy: put a charter in all fifty-six counties and force the recordWhether the 2020 presidential primary locked in the Democratic Party's posture toward charters — and what a 2028 field might doRahm Emanuel "staking out the common sense lane," and why education reads to voters as a proxy for seriousnessEnrollment decline, the end of COVID funding, and Jed's 2021 thought exercise about Sacramento UnifiedRandi Weingarten's boycott of Target, Andy's late-night Walmart story, and a corporate sector that had already decided education was a no-win propositionShow Notes & Resources:The conversation behind this episode: Reed Hastings and Mike Goldstein, moderated by Andy Rotherham (Bellwether)Reed Hastings on the impact of AI on schools (The 74)Reed Hastings on what it will take for AI to be different from other ed tech (The 74)The Economist study on AI's impact on learningSal Khan re-evaluates the impact of AI in schools — ChalkbeatBellwether on artificial intelligence"Screen Bans Can Be Education's Dry January — Time for a Much-Needed Reset" — Liz Cohen, The 74Cell phone bans — Andy Rotherham, Eduwonk"The Best Answer To Many Education Questions? Another Question" — Andy Rotherham, EduwonkThe future of charter schools in an evolving school-choice landscape — AEI survey (AZ, FL, UT)Musical chairs — Andy Rotherham, EduwonkThe AFT, Target, and teachers' retirement funds — Wall Street Journal opinionThe PBA's letter to the teachers union — New York Post (2014)Learn about and support Andy's work for Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteEduwonkCharterFolkHosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether)Sponsor WonkyFolk: Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Sponsorship packages are available, including live WonkyFolk events. Reach out to Jed Wallace at [email protected] for more information.Watch the full video on YouTube.WonkyFolk is produced by CharterFolk.

Pat Brantley — CEO of Friendship Public Schools and a 2026 inductee into the National Charter School Hall of Fame — joins Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham for a WonkyFolk conversation recorded live in front of an audience at Friendship's Armstrong campus in Washington, DC.Pat traces her path from Newark to Princeton to Dr. Dorothy Height's civil rights work to Friendship House — and the moment the idea for a charter school was born. From there: what she says to charter critics, why she sees the public vs. public-charter divide as the sector's greatest failure, how she weighs growth against proficiency, the line-by-line math behind DC's charter budget shortfall, why hitting 50% market share makes charters "a target" rather than a protection, the case for "adopting" struggling schools, and — in a live audience Q&A — the role of Black male educators and what charter leaders owe their communities heading into the DC elections.In this episode:Pat's path from Newark to Princeton to Dr. Dorothy Height's civil rights work — and how she landed at Friendship HouseDonald Hentz, Friendship House's reinvention "to be about children," and the birth of the charter school ideaBuilding Friendship into 15 campuses serving nearly 5,000 students across DCWhy Pat names schools for local history — Friendship Armstrong, Friendship Blow Pierce — rather than erasing itWhat she says to charter critics: "I'm not listening to the critics. I'm listening to the parents."Why the public vs. public-charter divide is, in her view, the sector's greatest failureGrowth vs. absolute proficiency — and why both have to matterWhy report cards and transparent accountability still matter, and DC's new accountability frameworkThe 25-year question: does DC have a North Star, and what Indianapolis got right — and at what costThe DC budget fight — Pat's line-by-line math on the per-pupil shortfall and $50 million in fixed costs shifted off DCPSWhy hitting 50% market share gives charters "visibility" and makes them "a target" — not protectionThe case for mergers — or "adoption" — of struggling schools, and the turnaround of Friendship IdealA live audience Q&A: the ecosystem responsibility of high-performing charters, the role of Black male educators, and what charter leaders owe their communities in an election yearDorothy Height's "fist" metaphor and "one Friendship, one band, one sound"Show Notes & Resources:Pat Brantley — bio (Friendship Public Schools Leadership Team)Friendship Public SchoolsDC Charter School AllianceDC Public Charter School BoardNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsBellwetherGuest: Pat Brantley — CEO, Friendship Public Schools; Chair, DC Charter School Alliance; 2026 National Charter School Hall of Fame inducteeHosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether)Watch the full video on YouTube.WonkyFolk is produced by CharterFolk.

Jorge Elorza — former mayor of Providence, now CEO of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) — joins Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham for a frank conversation about the federal scholarship tax credit, the Democratic Party’s education problem, and what a reset actually requires.They dig into how the new federal tax credit program actually works (and why Jorge and Arne Duncan called it a “no-brainer”), why more than thirty U.S. senators from the Dem Party are now trying to sunset the entire thing, and what that fight reveals about a Democratic brand that’s gotten badly out of step with the voters it claims to represent. Along the way: Providence’s 2.4% math proficiency, Detroit’s 80% of fourth-graders below basic, Rahm Emanuel’s urgency, Mikey Sherrill’s budget address, fake charter laws and fake science of reading bills, and why Jorge thinks the ideological map of the future isn’t left-vs-right — it’s liberalism vs. illiberalism.In this episode:Jorge’s journey from barely graduating high school to Providence mayor to DFER CEOWhat changed his mind about ed reform while in office — and his final press conference call to charterize the districtRhode Island’s most WonkyFolk fun fact: the Senate President is (or was) also the teachers union presidentHow the federal scholarship tax credit actually works — and why it’s not a voucher programWhy Jorge thinks governors have every reason to opt in, and what Jared Polis is modeling in ColoradoThe 30-senator push to sunset the program — and what it says about Democrats’ education reflexesWhy “money follows the child” is a distinctly progressive idea, not a conservative oneThe generational change Democrats need — and why Pelosi/Schumer aren’t built for itRahm Emanuel’s urgency, Mikey Sherrill’s budget address, and what real leadership on education sounds likeFake charter laws, fake science of reading bills, and the sector’s unwillingness to call balls and strikesLiberalism vs. illiberalism as the real ideological divide of the futureWhere DFER is headed: from a chapter/legislative model to executive/gubernatorial engagementShow Notes & Resources:Democrats for Education Reform (DFER)Jorge Elorza & Arne Duncan — Washington Post op-ed on the federal tax creditSenator Mark Kelly — effort to sunset the federal scholarship tax creditGovernor Jared Polis (CO) — opting Colorado into the programMatt Yglesias — Slow BoringEzra Klein & Derek Thompson — AbundanceGuest: Jorge Elorza — CEO, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER); former Mayor of Providence, RIHosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether)Watch the full video on YouTube.

AI in education — what's working, what's risky, and what charter schools should do next. Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham are joined by Bellwether's Mary Wells and Marisa Mission for a wide-ranging conversation.They dig into how AI tools are actually being used day to day, why "human in the loop" means more than just a review step, and what cognitive science tells us about the real danger of students offloading hard thinking to technology. The conversation also covers the evolving role of teachers, the economic ripple effects of AI, and why the charter school mindset of curiosity and rigor matters more than ever.In this episode:How Bellwether's team is personally using AI tools like Claude Skills and Gemini CanvasWhat cognitive offloading means and why it threatens real learningThe "ambidextrous adoption" approach to AI in schoolsWhere pockets of innovation are emerging — and the equity concerns that come with themDream Charter School's AI readiness curriculumThe bimodal classroom: AI-encouraged assignments alongside blue books and pen-and-paperWhy teacher support and family engagement are critical gaps right nowThe White House AI Policy Framework and state-level responsesWill AI cause a white-collar job apocalypse — or fuel entrepreneurship?What charter schools should be doing right nowShow Notes & Resources:Bellwether AI workThe Leading Indicator: AI in Education newsletter (Marisa Mission & Alex Spurrier)Productive Struggle (Bellwether)Built for Learning case studies (Bellwether)Robin Lake / CRPE on AI in EducationDan Meyer on AI and mathAFT & Moms for Liberty on screensBlue Rose Research – AI public opinionWhite House AI Policy FrameworkDOL AI Literacy FrameworkJulia Freeland FisherChad AldermanMarguerite Roza / Edunomics LabGuests: Mary Wells (Co-Founder, Bellwether) and Marisa Mission (Bellwether)Hosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether)Watch the full video on YouTube.WonkyFolk is produced by CharterFolk.

WonkyFolk: Lisa Keegan on Educational Opportunity, Accountability, and the Future of ReformIn this episode of WonkyFolk, Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham sit down with longtime education leader and reform advocate Lisa Keegan for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about educational opportunity in America.Drawing on decades of leadership experience—from state-level policymaking to national advocacy—Keegan reflects on where the education reform movement has made real progress, where it has stumbled, and what must come next.The conversation explores:The evolving politics of school choice and accountabilityWhether reformers have lost clarity about purposeWhat data tell us about public sentiment on educational opportunityWhy durable change requires both courage and coalition-buildingThis episode also highlights findings from the latest national survey on educational opportunity—offering a grounded look at what families actually want from schools today.If you care about governance, public trust, and the long game of education reform, this is a must-listen.📎 Show Notes & Resources50CAN Educational Opportunity Survey (2nd Edition) https://50can.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/50CAN_EducationalOpportunitySurvey_2ndEdition.pdf