Education On The Line
Education On The Line (formerly titled Sparking Equity) is a podcast focusing on the mounting political, financial, legal and ideological threats to public education. It will provide strategies to help education leaders and decisionmakers traverse the current perilous education landscape.
Join media innovator and veteran education journalist Louis Freedberg as he interviews school leaders about how they are coping with attacks on public schools emanating from Washington D.C. -- while staying focused on how to ensure that all students succeed.
The advisor for the podcast (and occasional guest host) is Pedro Noguera, Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education.
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Episodes
30 episodes
Coping with Declining Enrollment: Fewer Kids, Harder Choices -- and No End In Sight
Enrollment is falling in many schools across the nation, and the ripple effects are showing up everywhere: budget deficits, program cuts, labor tension, and the gut-wrenching necessity in many districts to close schools. We look at the reality ...
Should Democratic States Opt Into Trump's Stealth School Voucher Plan?
Here’s a question that Democratic governors across the country will have to wrestle with in the months ahead: should they opt into President Trump’s upcoming federal tax credit scholarship program, or hold the line against what will be the firs...
As costs rise, and enrollments dip, can school districts meet teacher demands?
School districts across California and the nation are caught in a financial vise. Enrollments are falling, federal COVID relief funds have been depleted, and costs keep rising. Meanwhile, growing numbers of teacher's can't even affo...
The Push to Keep Undocumented Students Out Of School: Will It Succeed?
The Supreme Court's landmark 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision established that every child in America has the right to a public education, regardless of immigration status. For 43 years, that ruling has kept schoolhouse doors open to undocumented ch...
Inside Trump's Stealth School Voucher Program: What's At Stake
The sweeping federal tax credit scholarship program which President Trump was able to shoehorn into his so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" will go into effect in less than a year. It has the potential to divert billions of federal tax dollars t...
Trump vs. Education: What Happened, What Didn't, and What to Expect in 2026
What happens when frenetic policymaking by the Trump Administration collides with the guardrails of courts, campuses, and public opinion? We sit down with leading conservative commentator Frederick Hess, director of education policy at the Amer...
How School Leaders Can Navigate The Culture Wars And Build Community Trust
During the first year of President Trump's latest term in the White House, much of his admiinistration's focus been national in scope, especially on its push to dismantle or eradicate entirely the U.S. Dept. of Education. What, however, i...
How The Dept. of Education Can Be Saved from Trump Assaults
Cut staff at the U.S. Education Dept. in half, and send programs they were overseeing to multiple other departments -- what could that possibly go wrong for students and schools? To examine what is at stake, veteran education journa...
Making Sense Of Test Scores in the Trump Era -- Without The Politics
Educators are barraged with a range of test scores from K-12 schools that are often confusing and seem to conflict with each other. Some show students improving. Others show the opposite. Listen to Linda Darling-Hammond...
Breaking Up The Federal Support System for Special Education
In the episode of Education on the Line, we examine how the Trump administration has used the shutdown to try to eviscerate key agencies in the U.S. Dept of Education that oversee enforcement and the integrity of the Individuals with Disabiliti...
The New Politics of Civil Rights In Schools: Submit or Lose Funds
The Trump administration is so far using TItle IX as the principal weapon to attack public schools: principally against school districts with gender-neutral bathrooms. But its use of civil rights laws could soon expand to usin...
When Bathrooms Become Political Weapons
Bathrooms have emerged as the principal battleground in efforts by the Trump administration to cut federal support of public schools. based on its attacks on "gender ideology." The Denver Public Schools , for example, face a potential $10...
When Presidents Get Pink Slips: Higher Ed Faces "Existential Crisis"
The battle over diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education has reached a critical tipping point. What began as targeted attacks on elite institutions has evolved into an existential threat affecting colleges and universities of every ...
Why Public Education's Survival Matters for America's Future
Educational leaders across the country are navigating a storm of uncertainty as the Trump administration unleashes a barrage of executive orders targeting public schools. What began with a minimal education focus during the Presidential campaig...
Beyond Fear: Leading Schools in an Era of Immigration Threats
School districts around the nation are struggling to fend off threats from the Trump administration on multiple fronts. In addition to trying to protect students whose families may face a threat of deportation, they also face a looming Ap...
Trump Ratchets Up Assault on Higher Ed
Higher education in America stands at a critical juncture as unprecedented political attacks threaten to erode academic freedom, and upend longstanding relationships between the federal government and both private and public colleges and univer...
Navigating Trump's Higher Ed Shakeup
What could be the impact of a torrent of Trump Administration initiatives targeting higher education, and how should education leaders and students respond? In this episode, we focus on the potential fallout of dismantling the the U...
From Boredom to Engagement: Why the Credit Hour Must Be Reformed
Even as public schools enter a period of extreme uncertainty, there are exciting developments underway to rethink the school day and to develop new ways to measure what students are learning.Listening to a stimulating conversation about ...
Reimagining the School Day: Learning Outside the Classroom
Listen to this important discussion on rethinking the basic structure of the school day to enhance learning and make schools more rewarding for students whose learning styles don't necessarily match the century-old division of learning in...
What Higher Education Must Do To Take on Climate Change
In this episode of Sparking Equity, host Lande Ajose explores the critical role higher education can play in addressing the climate crisis while advancing equity. Joined by Eloy Ortiz Oakley, President and CEO of the College Futures Foundation,...
Are Big Changes in Store for Education After Trump Victory?
The November 5th elections are expected to have an impact on almost every aspect of government and public policy, including education. In this episode, hosts Pedro Noguera and Louis Freedberg take a deeper dive into what promises Presiden...
Rethinking Civics Education
The youngest voters in the U.S. have historically turned out in lower numbers than any other age group. And unfortunately analyses of the Nov. 5 elections suggest that they turned out in lower numbers than in the 2020 electio...
How Compton is Putting Students on Path to Prized STEM Careers
One of the most formidable challenges in education is how to reverse the disproportionately low representation of Black and Latino students in STEM courses and careers. Remarkably, Compton Unified in Los Angeles County, a ...