Seats of Change: The Future of School Boards
Seats of Change: The Future of School Boards
Podcast Description
Seats of Change: The Future of School Boards – Explores the crucial role of local governance through the lens of school boards. Through insightful interviews with current and former school board members, researchers, and practitioners, we highlight their experiences campaigning, serving, and driving equity, and reveal how their work at the grassroots level builds the foundation of our democracy. seatsofchange.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Centers on themes of local governance, educational equity, and grassroots activism, with episodes that might delve into topics such as the effects of school board decisions on community education and the challenges faced by board members in advocating for equity in schools.
Seats of Change: The Future of School Boards – Explores the crucial role of local governance through the lens of school boards. Through insightful interviews with current and former school board members, researchers, and practitioners, we highlight their experiences campaigning, serving, and driving equity, and reveal how their work at the grassroots level builds the foundation of our democracy.
What happens when a legendary artist and community advocate takes a seat at the head of the class? In the conclusion of our two-part series, Dr. Che “Rhymefest” Smith—one of Chicago’s first elected school board members—sits down for a poignant conversation on the intersection of activism and administration. We highlight what it actually means to be a modern board member in a city as complex as Chicago, how to create a student-centered strategy, agonizing trade-offs required during budget season and school closures, leveraging public-private partnerships, mobilizing volunteers to drive systemic change, and protecting the community with the heavy impact of immigration actions and ICE on student well-being and community culture.
Resources:
* A Segregated Connecticut. State + School Finance Project. https://schoolstatefinance.org/issues/segregated-connecticut
* Che “Rhymefest” Smith, candidate website. https://rhymefestforcps.com/
* Corbett Education Consulting, http://www.corbetteducation.com/
* Cost Sharing (ECS) Formula, State + School Finance Project. https://schoolstatefinance.org/issues/ecs-formula
* Lawrence, A. (2024). Rapper Rhymefest on Trump, Kanye and David Cameron: ‘There’s a political realignment happening in the US.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/dec/02/rhymefest-rapper-chicago-schools-kanye-cameron
* Karp, S. (2025). CPS school board votes to require the next leader be an educator, not a CEO. WBEZ Chicago. https://www.wbez.org/education/2025/03/20/cps-school-board-votes-to-require-next-leader-be-an-educator-not-a-ceo
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