Episode 310- Making Education Work For the 21st Century. with Shaka Mitchell

Only 35% of kids testing on grade level is not a headline, it’s a flashing warning light. I sit down with education advocate and Substack writer Shaka Mitchell to ask the uncomfortable question behind the data: if students are just as capable as ever, why are outcomes so uneven and, in some places, outright collapsing? We get specific about what the numbers mean for families, communities, and the future of the American dream, and we look at why “systemic failure” often traces back to incentives, bureaucracy, and a lack of flexibility. 

From there, we dig into school choice, educational freedom, and the idea that funding should follow the student rather than automatically flowing to buildings. Shaka explains how education savings accounts can support a more customizable education model, why ZIP code zoning can function as “school choice by real estate,” and how a more student-centered approach could look a lot like the intent behind IEPs, but applied far more broadly. We also talk about international comparisons like PISA, the erosion of trust in institutions, and practical moves districts could make immediately, including getting smartphones out of the school day to restore attention and focus. 

Then we shift gears to something surprisingly hopeful: music. Shaka shares his Come Together Music Project and why shared songs and shared experiences can build relationships, soften polarization, and remind us we still have common ground. We close with a look at the coming Education Freedom Tax Credit and why it could matter for millions of kids across public school, private school, charter school, and homeschooling. If this conversation challenges you, share it with a parent, teacher, or school board member, and subscribe, rate, and review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Season Welcome And Guest Introduction

Announcer 0:00

Welcome to season seven of the Common Bridge, hosted by Richard Helpie, a leading analyst, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Now expanded with healthcare, education, finance, science, and world affairs bridges, the podcast, now in its seventh season, with an audience of over 7 million worldwide, explores issues in a fiercely nonpartisan way. Find us at the Common Bridge at Substack.com, YouTube, and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Rich Helppie 0:31

Hello, welcome to the Common Bridge. I'm your host, Rich Helpie, and we are continuing our limited series on Substack Writers. And today we have Shaka Mitchell. We're going to be talking about education. We're going to touch on music and whatever else comes up today. Shaka, welcome to the Common Bridge. Thank you so much for joining us.

Shaka Mitchell 0:54

Hey, thanks so much for having me, Rich. I'm really looking forward to it.

Rich Helppie 0:57

You know, our audience likes to know a little bit about the folks that are coming on the show. So if you don't mind, you know, where were your early days and, you know, your life arc, career arc, and what brought you to this point today?

Shaka Mitchell 1:10

Sure. Well, I'll try to keep it brief because you know, my bio is probably the least interesting thing that we'll talk about today. Um, I was born and raised in New York. I went to high school in Georgia, so I've got a little bit of the North-south um thing going on, which is uh which I appreciate. Um I now live in Nashville, Tennessee with my wife and three daughters. Um I'm a lawyer by training, um, but I don't practice. I really, you know, and we'll get into this, but I work in education advocacy, um, and I've got a sprinkling of some other things that I work on, but you know, that's really been kind of my career arc. Spent a little bit of time in Washington, D.C., but like most people, I didn't really love Washington, D.C. And so we're back here in Music City now.

The Learning Crisis And The Data

Rich Helppie 1:54

Beautiful. Well, it's not exactly the real world there, and we keep pointing out places where they're disconnected and keep not getting listened to. So I think the idea is we get lots of people on Substack and on other platforms talking, and maybe they'll pay attention at some point. But let's talk. Uh, you write a lot about education. So maybe let's go into there. What are some of the key themes that you've been writing about and speaking about? And if you don't mind, just tell our audience how to find you on Substack and other platforms.

Shaka Mitchell 2:26

Yeah, thank you. Well, you can find me on Substack at Shaka's Substack. So, you know, pretty easy to remember, just my first name, Apostrophe S Substack, Shaka Substack. Um, and yeah, I do a lot of writing about education. That's where most of my career has been. And specifically, I write about educational choice um issues uh primarily. And what that means is making sure that every child in the country has meaningful access to an education that fits their needs, um, irrespective of geography, irrespective of family income. Um I just believe that education is still the surest way to climb the ladder to the American dream. And just want to make sure that that's a reality for all kids.

Rich Helppie 3:13

I heartedly agree with that. And when we talk about education, it's the ability to communicate, reading, writing, computational skills, and today's day and age, absolutely at least one second language. And I'm a big advocate in this hemisphere for Spanish, that it's about 50-50 native English speakers and native Spanish speakers, and the globe's getting smaller. So I think that needs to be there. You know, of course, you know, history, geography, biology, we need to make sure we've got all of those in there. So are we at a crisis in education anyplace in the United States or around the world? And if so, how do we know that we're doing well or whether we're in a crisis?

Shaka Mitchell 3:56

Yeah, it's it's a great question. I'd say that that we do have areas of crisis, right? So it's not all doom and gloom. Um, and there's some real bright spots as well. But we've definitely got a lot of areas of crisis. I mean, to give you a a snapshot on on nationally norm reference tests. So this these are um academic achievement tests that um kids across the country take, right? Every state, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, etc. On those tests, routinely only about 35% of school age children are on grade level. 35%. Okay. So that's I would say that's a that's a crisis. I've got three kids of my own. Imagine if you told me only one of those three was going to be academically on grade level. Well, that wouldn't do. I would say that's a crisis, right? As a parent. Um, and if we think about all the skills that are going to be needed to both to compete, but even just for people to live their best lives, we've got to do better than 35%. So that's really what we're working to change. And and unfortunately, you see stats like that certainly in every state. Um, some places are worse than others. I just read a book that said uh Baltimore uh city schools, for instance. Unfortunately, I mean, you've got schools where not a single senior class member was proficient in math. Not a single member. That that's just um unconscionable.

Rich Helppie 5:31

Well, look, those are clearly systemic failures. And in your research, as you begin to pull this apart, the huge question is why? Look, I'm a baby boomer, and we benefited from robust public schools that they were staffed by teachers on a mission to prepare us. And we learned the basics, and we needed to make sure we were at grade level before we move forward. You know, we memorized our multiplication tables, we learned to do long division, we learned to listen, to read, to write, to speak. Just there's so much more out there. What's taking up the school day? Look, the kids can't be any less intelligent than we were.

Why Systems Serve Adults Over Kids

Shaka Mitchell 6:13

No, uh in in fact, um, kids are able to process things faster today than you know, than even 20 years ago, 40 years ago, etc. What I would say um was a big difference probably between, you know, when you were in school and now, and even when I was in school and now, is that the the public education system uh for the most part has not been nimble, right? It doesn't keep up with the rate of change. And in many places, it's a system that benefits benefits the adults and not the kids, right? And so the the question is um, you know, if you think about being in a a business situation, you would say, all right, well, we've got to make sure this is working for our end user, our end customer. Who is that? Unfortunately, in many school districts, the end user are the people with the jobs, it's folks in central office, it's um lots of administrators, and it's not the kids. And so we've got to flip that in order to get the quality back up.

Rich Helppie 7:11

You know, I have made note of that that central office, there's assistant superintendents of this, assistant superintendents of that, and that money doesn't go into the classroom. And that's really the point of decision is in the classroom, are the teachers equipped? Are the students coming to learn? I know there's been strides made in lower income areas where students get breakfast, lunch, and dinner at school, and they get food to take home on the weekend so that they're not trying to learn while they're hungry. That I just wonder why it is that we seem to be falling short and kids are not only falling through the cracks, but maybe two-thirds of them just aren't getting there.

Shaka Mitchell 7:51

Yeah, you know, one of the things that I write about a lot is the um the impact that voluntary choice has on quality. Right. And if you think about things that you're forced to do, none of us really like to be forced to do anything. Um and when we are, we grumble about it. It it tends to be that the things we're forced to do, you see lower quality. Well, unfortunately, in our system of public education, most kids go to a school that they are forced to go to, meaning they're zoned based on where they live to attend that school. They don't really have a choice in it. That's why I think that uh parent choice is so important. When you give parents some ability to say, Oh, that's the school that I think is going to work best for my child, uh, you see um a different kind of agency, you see quality, um, lift. Uh there's been some great data out of um Ohio where there's a school choice program called the Ed Choice Program. And in Ohio, low-income students who participated in that program were much more likely to go to and graduate from college than their peers. So choice really has some big um impacts.

Rich Helppie 9:03

Wouldn't the fact that choice exists by definition mean that there are schools that are failings? That a parent says, I'm not choosing that because I need to get a more basic education versus back many, many years ago when I was being educated, the neighborhood school model worked really well. That's where you went to school and they figured out a way to educate nearly all of us.

Shaka Mitchell 9:28

Yeah, I I think that's right. I mean, um almost by necessity, if you're choosing one thing, it means you're not choosing something else, right? Um, but uh, you know, again, one of the um sort of perspectives that I have on this is that our education system should really be in service of the students and not in service of the buildings. I mean, nobody wants to closing a school is like closing a post office. Nobody wants to close their local post office, even if you don't really love the institution. Um nobody wants to close a local school. That being said, I would much rather see every student in a seat that works for them, even if it's on the other side of town, even if it's in a smaller model or who knows what, a private school, a micro school. Um, I'd much rather see that than sit in a big brick building that's not working for anybody.

Reimagining A Customizable School System

Rich Helppie 10:20

That's great perspective. And I've often said that bureaucracies, whether they're public or private, ultimately look inward and begin serving the bureaucracy instead of serving the constituency they were designed to service. And I'm sure that there are school systems that do that. And that causes me to think with the kind of research that you do, if we were going to design a school system for America in today's world, 2026, what would it look like if we didn't have all this established infrastructure and school districts and boards and buildings? What would we do differently today?

Shaka Mitchell 10:59

Yeah, that's that's a great question. And I think I think the word that you use there is absolutely the right word, the infrastructure. We get so locked into the the fixed costs, you know, and the the fixed elements of big buildings and parking lots and and all this stuff. When if we were to establish something today in 2026, well, I think one thing we know is it would be way more customizable than it was when you went through school, when I went through school, right? Um I mean you can pick up your phone right now, and probably by the time we finish this conversation, you can um order a custom made suit for yourself and apply for a mortgage. Meanwhile, we're going to schools based on you know where our mailbox is. We would have a super customizable system. It's not to say it would be all online. I think people, I think kids still need to be together. I think they want to be together in communion. Um, but it would it would look much more tailored to the end user. We'd probably have smaller sizes, different size models. Some kids would go five days a week, some kids would go one and then do different things around the city. It would just be much more nimble and flexible. And I think the dollars would follow the scholar instead of just getting funneled to a building.

Schools Carrying Too Many Missions

Rich Helppie 12:20

I like a lot of those concepts and that we're talking basically about customized education. And look, to be fair, a lot of burdens have been put on the public school system, like nutrition, like mental health services, like support for students that might have a physical handicap. And, you know, beginning in preschool, that the school systems were set up to do that. I am sympathetic to all of the agendas they're trying to deal with, versus again, a time when all that outside and the instructor's job was to teach you mathematics or social studies or history or whatever, and then you ended your day and went back into the world. Are there things that are going on inside the school systems that perhaps need to come off of their agenda?

Shaka Mitchell 13:10

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, listen, I I think that most of those things that you mentioned are really well intended. You know, um, if a if a child is hungry, it's going to be hard for him or her to learn and to focus and to sit still. That that's just a reality. That being said, um I'm a big believer in uh in an organization, whether it's a private sector organization, a government entity, a nonprofit, whatever, like figure out what it is you're good at, be good at your mission before you start you know adding uh uh other sort of elements. Right. And so and this, and then uh if you don't do that, if you don't have that focus, of course you end up in this sort of downward spiral where you weren't great at it at your mission, you weren't achieving it, you added more things, you're not great at that, it just distracts you from your mission and and it continues, right? So yeah, absolutely. I think we need to take um take all that load and much of that burden off teachers and faculty so they can focus on core academics. And you know, we can figure out the other stuff. We can figure whether it's other nonprofits, uh, faith-based institutions, like we can get kids fed, we can get um, you know, doctor's visits, we can make sure that stuff is happening. Um, let's make sure our kids can read though.

Rich Helppie 14:36

Yeah, and that's I think one of the dilemmas. So, for example, a child born in a school system with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, down syndrome, et cetera. I think beginning as early as infancy and certainly by age three, it's incumbent on the school system to provide them services for physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and the like. I guess the question would be: is that the right mechanism to deliver those services? And does that come at a cost to the academic mission? Schools have been a central part of communities. People would probably say, I go to XYZ elementary school. That's where I go. I went to XYZ middle school and ABC high school. So there is a sense of identity, a sense of community. We see high school reunions getting posted all over social media. So, how do we get the educational mission done and not lose those special services that are so vitally needed and that sense of community?

Education Savings Accounts And Service Models

Shaka Mitchell 15:40

Yeah, yeah. Well, I I think one concept, and you're seeing this actually um in in your state, in Florida, a little bit, um, one of the things that some, I would say, forward-thinking districts are doing is they are embracing this concept of educational freedom, um, what's now called, where uh they are thinking of themselves as instead of a a system kind of like monopoly where you have the little houses, you know, and the houses eventually become a hotel, instead of a system of a bunch of little, you know, green houses uh or school buildings, they're thinking of themselves as uh an education service provider. And they are providing services to not just kids who would have attended their schools, but even to kids in the neighborhood who are homeschooling, um kids who are they're partnering with private schools, right? And so there's a thing called education savings accounts that allow parents to use funds in a more portable way so that they're kind of doing this, they're putting together an education a la carte. And so in that regard, I think schools are still can still be places of pride, they can still be places that are providing services in the community, in the neighborhoods that they serve, but it doesn't mean that they have to do everything. Instead, they're doing the things that they do really well, and they're doing it for more kids.

Commercial Speaker 17:05

Before we dive back into today's enlightening discussion, we have a quick message for all you Common Bridge enthusiasts out there. Did you know that you can find this episode and over 300 more on Substack as part of the Common Bridge series? You can also find written columns and opinions as well. Subscribe at the commonbridge.substack.com for a full Common Bridge experience. There you can comment and express your opinion on all the topics we cover on this and the past seven seasons of our podcasts. If you'd rather support the show without subscribing, you can do so with Zell at rich at richardhelpie.com or using Venmo at Richard-CBridge. Thanks for listening. Now back to the episode.

Rich Helppie 17:48

When you look at the United States and you look around the world, and I looked up something that I'd never heard of before called the Program for International Student Achievement or PISA, PISA. Are you familiar with that measure? Yep.

Shaka Mitchell 18:01

Yep.

Rich Helppie 18:02

And it says that they want to measure school achievement around the globe. And I found it really interesting that these are the most recent top performing countries: Singapore, Macau, which is China, Taiwan, again, better not crack that egg open, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. And then it drops down to Estonia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Belgium.

Shaka Mitchell 18:29

Yeah.

Rich Helppie 18:29

I'm wondering if there's something culturally there in setting expectations or within their education infrastructure that's allowing these students to flourish?

Shaka Mitchell 18:42

Yeah, it's a it's a good question. A lot of folks have have looked into this. Um two things come to mind to me. And I forget where the United States falls in the most recent rankings, but 18th according to the data I looked up, okay.

Rich Helppie 18:55

For what it's worth.

Shaka Mitchell 18:56

Um I know we've been as low as as um 30, 31 uh in recent years. Um a few things come to mind. The first, I would say, you know, I'll I I know I'm I'm beating this drum, but um I'm gonna come back to this element of of choice. You know, most uh countries in the world, actually, both um East Asian countries, European countries, uh South American, most countries um allow the government to pay for whatever school parents want to attend. The United States is actually different in that regard, right? We um say, well, for the most part, the government uh will um kick in the money if you attend a government operated school. And so again, this this element of voluntary choice is big internationally. The other thing that I would point to is unfortunately in the US, and I just don't know how these numbers shake out internationally, but uh in the US we've seen a real erosion of trust. And that erosion of of trust in institutions I think has a big impact in schools, right? And so um trust in schools, uh including trust in teachers, was at an all-time low. You know, I mean, obviously COVID was really rough on families um especially. And so uh you've got this epidemic where a lot of people are frustrated with maybe the the curriculum that's coming out of certain schools. Um and that's across the ideological spectrum. You've got a lot of folks who uh maybe are frustrated with their school boards, and so I think that has a lot to do, you know, if you don't trust an institution, if you don't really value it, um our kids pick up on that, right? And you're not as invested, maybe you're not as engaged of a parent anymore, and that has a that has a negative effect.

Universal IEP Thinking And Flexible Grouping

Rich Helppie 20:56

I strongly agree with you, and the institution is something we need to separate from the people in it. Because my experience, the the teachers, the frontline people, and many of the good principals are equally, if not more so, frustrated. They are sometimes doing a great job on behalf of students by sheer force of will and just going over the top of rules that might come their way. And that they are burdened by the bureaucracy, and which of course ties back to the funding system. It's an interesting concept to fund the education and allowing not only schools of choice, but education methods of choice. When I was going to school, there was always a program called building trades, and these guys went out and built a house every year. I don't know how to build a house. I knew how to program computers, but I could not build a house. But somebody taught me how to program computers, which I was very grateful for. Maybe we need people out there building houses, some doing computers, others really. Getting deep into biology, and those will be our doctors of the future.

Shaka Mitchell 22:03

Who knows? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there was um, and listen, I am a big fan of um certainly just education, of being a lifelong learner. I think we all have to be lifelong learners today because technology is changing so quickly. That being said, we're not all going to be interested in learning the same thing, right? And um, you know, I mentioned that that I'm a lawyer by training. Like, God forbid we have a world full of lawyers. Um, we need people who can actually do things as well. Um, and so, you know, whether it's agricultural, you know, uh uh agriculture or industrial trades, um, what have you, whether it's high-tech jobs, biological services, I mean, there's all types of things. And so the question is, can we have a system that taps into the interests of our of kids, this diverse group of you know, 50 plus million school-age kids? Um, well, that's that should be really exciting. You know, we've got um our human capital is our biggest resource in this country. And so let's tap into that and get those kids excited about what they're learning.

Rich Helppie 23:11

Absolutely. And engineering physics has to be part of that. We've had Professor Rick Geddes from Cornell on the show several times talking about infrastructure. And during one of the early interviews, I asked him, I go, well, if we funded this infrastructure projects and we were able to get the right kind of contracts in place, do we have the right people that can do the work? And his answer was very reassuring. He goes, Absolutely. We've got the best material engineers, the best structural engineers, the best civil engineers. This is something we can do. And why not have a track on structural engineering? And you know, somebody coming out of high school with at least some understanding about how to put a building, a bridge, a dam, something like that, or water management. We just had Kevin Green on the show, who is an entrepreneur that talks about water conservation. Are you familiar with the term the IEP, the individual education? Yep. Okay.

unknown 24:09

Yeah.

Rich Helppie 24:09

All right. So for the listeners, readers, and viewers, my lay understanding of it is that that is for special needs kids that might have a learning disability, a physical disability, and that the federal government mandates that they get an individualized plan and accommodations that make sense to allow them to advance academically. So almost what you're talking about would be a universal IEP, and that if a child was, let's say, gifted at math, that their IEP would say, yeah, they're ready for algebra in the fifth grade. Let's give it to them.

Shaka Mitchell 24:45

Absolutely. Yeah. And um, you know, in some ways, uh our orientation with how we think about educating students with special needs is the right, I think it's the right orientation. In practice, you know, the IEP process can be really cumbersome. I mean, you talk about bureaucracy and just checking boxes, it's a lot of box checking. But the intent, I think, is the right intent, which is to say, to take each child where they are and say, all right, let's make education work for this child. And you know, you bring up that that math example. One of the things that is so uh confounding to me is that how do we how do we organize classes? Well, we organize classes by whether or not a child was born between this month and this month, right? And and we say, oh, well, we assume that if you're born within this 12-month uh cycle, you are going to progress at the same pace in every subject. That's crazy, right? And so we can we can build a system that is much more uh um nimble and flexible so that we say, oh, you know what, Rich is he is great at um math and hard sciences. Let's so let's just keep feeding him content, math and hard. But maybe he struggles in grammar and literature, right?

Rich Helppie 26:13

Art. I would be in the whatever the lowest classes, medial two two rungs below that. Okay. Yeah.

Shaka Mitchell 26:23

Well, and and listen, that is that's a pretty typical child. All that means is we have different interests, we have different strengths. Um, yeah, so I think we can do better. Uh, it's in some some ways it's a failure of imagination. Um, yeah, and so that's that's how I spend a lot of my time writing uh on Substack is just trying to cover those, trying to bring those issues to light and talking about what some solutions are, some of the bright spots around the country.

Department Of Education What Helps

Rich Helppie 26:49

Well, you're pushing against a very entrenched bureaucracy, and of course, folks have nostalgic and romantic notions of it. And, you know, even in our discussion today, we haven't come out and said, well, this is a solution for the 65% of kids that aren't reading at grade level or aren't performing at grade level. So it's a it's a big problem. And one of the bureaucracies that was put in place during the Carter administration was the Department of Education. Has the Department of Education made an impact and has that impact been in a positive direction? I don't know if you've unwrapped that at all.

Shaka Mitchell 27:25

Yeah, I I would say unfortunately, the Department of Education has had very little impact on the academic success of students. Um I think the I think the Department of Education, there's two things that I think are have been pretty valuable within the Department of Education. The first is something you mentioned, and that's actually um IDEA. So making sure that it's that there is a sort of backstop when it comes to making sure that students with special needs receive services, right? That's they're the backstop. Now, a lot a lot of reform needs to happen to the process, but uh it's good to have that backstop. The second thing is that um the National Assessment of Educational Progress is called the NAPE, which is sometimes referred to as um the nation's report card. That's a pretty valuable diagnostic tool. Okay. But it's not the only one. But the NAPE is is pretty important, it's pretty helpful so that we can say, Hey, how are kids doing in Florida? How did how does that compare with how kids are doing in Nebraska, in Massachusetts, right? Because we are a very, very big country, a lot of students, um, just a range of different uh you know communities. Uh so uh those two things are helpful. Um those are two of the smallest pieces uh uh of the Department of Education. Uh really what it funds, and for folks who've been in DC, you'll you'll know this, but it funds some really big buildings um filled with a whole lot of bureaucrats. Um hasn't really added a whole lot of substantive value to the everyday lives of teachers and students.

Rich Helppie 29:07

So a noble effort that did some good, but perhaps could move those good functions. Have you unwrapped anything at the state level, county level, local level, and said these are places here that have outlived their usefulness or need to be redirected?

Real Estate As The Original School Choice

Shaka Mitchell 29:23

Yeah, that's a that's a another good question. I mean, frankly, one of the things that I think um that we've got to to rethink, and this is this is going to be kind of a sacred cap for a lot of people, right? But in some ways, what I talk about um as educational choice, school choice, in some ways it's always existed. We just called it real estate. I mean, what do you do? And what did what did my parents do? Maybe your parents did this, or maybe you did this yourself. But what do most people do when they are looking for a good school? They ask the realtor, what neighborhoods you know can I move into? What can I afford? Well, uh so what does that do? That necessarily has created this dynamic where a whole lot of people who can't afford to move into those neighborhoods can't afford to access a high quality school. Um we can rethink that. Again, that is not um uh you know, location-based school zones, we're not carved in stone tablets and given to us from on high. Um, we can rethink some of that. And so that's that's one thing that I would point to and say, yeah, let's do better.

Rich Helppie 30:35

I think about extracurriculars and let's look at sports. Other countries, Finland. If you're a good hockey player, basketball player, volleyball player, you don't play for your school team, you go play for a club team after school. And I think about that model of recreation and exercise and competitive sports or perhaps music coming outside of that school system. And I understand it's well-intentioned to put those in for a completely rounded person. It's not only academics, but it is fine arts, it is you know, musical arts, it is athletics, you know, taking care of one's body or letting folks compete. The other thing that we've seen people crossing school districts to get into those programs because they're a good artist or good athlete. Maybe we need to do that with academics too, universally.

Phone Bans And Attention In Class

Shaka Mitchell 31:27

Yeah, you know, um I thought of one other thing that I might suggest to my to my friends at in in districts um that they do. And this is frankly something um that I'm stunned that more districts haven't already, but um we have got to get kids off phones and off their smartphones during the school day. Um and I've got friends who uh you know their kids are at schools that don't have um tech policies that address this. And that's just crazy. We are 15 years past you know the advent of the iPhone. Right. Um we've got to have there ought to be a policy in every district um that says during the school day, this is a no-go. You've got to focus. We've got because it is doing something to our kids, even to adults, you know, where we don't have the attention span um to sit, to listen, to really invest in what's happening. So that's something that every district across America and and frankly could do tomorrow.

Come Together Music Project And Polarization

Rich Helppie 32:30

Yeah, I think some states are putting the statewide mandates in place to the relief of the school boards, because now they don't have to make a policy. They're like, hey, it's state law, it's what we have to do. And frankly, I agree with that policy is that leave your devices outside and then challenge the school system to show young people how to use the technology because we are in an interconnected world, as we're demonstrating right here with you in Nashville and me in Florida. We're talking to Shaka Mitchell of Shaka's Substacked, and uh we are going to go deeper into education on some future Common Bridge episodes, if we can entice Shaka to come back to us. But also, Shaka read another interesting thing that you're doing. So, in an abrupt shift gears here, tell me about your Come Together Music Project, because we've talked a lot about community, yeah, how education is part of that fabric. And I think I have a little understanding of what you're doing, but tell us about it. What's going on?

Shaka Mitchell 33:35

Sure. Thanks for asking. So the Come Together Music Project, it's it's a passion project that recently, um, last year became an official nonprofit, uh, an official 501c3. But this is a project where I'm using music to show how um uh music can deepen existing relationships, create new ones, and build bridges. Um you know, probably a lot of your readers and listeners of Common Bridge would appreciate that. But you know, in a world that is so polarized, um, where things, where everything from, you know, the type of milk you drink to you the the Super Bowl halftime show where everything is is politicized, um, I actually think that music can help us, help bring us together again. And so what we do is interview guests and ask them to come up with musical selections that are associated with common experiences. And uh, it's really a lot of fun.

Rich Helppie 34:40

That is really, really nice because I think that people that are gifted in that way have so much they can do that can unite us. Not to bypass the reality that there have been poets and singers that have sung about social injustices and things, you know, well in advance of them being within the public consciousness. You know, good for them. That's a role they're playing. But people need to understand something is that if you're going to be a professional musician, you've probably knew that really early on in life. And your life has been dedicated to creating that music. It's a very, very steep pyramid, and you're doing that to the exclusion of lots of other things. And that means you're probably not that good at history, economics, political science, the law, and context. And so sing the song, and we promise not to let the economists record much music. I think that's a fair trade. Let's enjoy music, right? Because we do have those common experiences about love and travel and exploration and excitement and new things, and riding a motorcycle or seeing a beautiful sunset, those are things that bring us together. And there's so much good stuff written that way.

Shaka Mitchell 36:03

Yeah, you're you're so right. I mean, all the all those things that you just named um would frankly would make for great song categories. And you know, what one of the things that we do is I might say, All right, Rich, what's a song that reminds you of just being on the open road?

Rich Helppie 36:20

Oh, right, because Roll Me Away by Bob Seeger from my hometown. All right, yeah.

Shaka Mitchell 36:25

Right, because that's because that sort of experience is something that almost all of us have had, and music is also really sticky, so it helps us remember, you know, recall memories. Um, I think it's just got a really special bonding quality. And so it's been fun to to do this both virtually, but also with live audiences and see people enjoy um this art form, but do it with people who are total strangers, but all of a sudden find that you you've got something in common, um, and the music really helps to grease the skids.

Shared Songs Shared Identity And Memory

Rich Helppie 37:01

Yeah, and look, on the road again with Willie Nelson, several Bruce Springsteen songs where he talks about being out on dusty roads and things like that. And folks have to understand people that are talented like that, they're not writing biographies, they're writing stories and and singing them in a way that we enjoy and just embrace them. It's not an agenda, it's not something to vote for, it's a thing to like because you like it. You know, Shagat, my house, we have a tradition. Every Sunday, we play Hawaiian music, and it's about joy, it's about dance, it's about oceans, it's about mountains, it's about food, it's about family. That's what we do, and it's it sets the mood on Sunday afternoons.

Shaka Mitchell 37:44

That's great. I I love that. And yeah, you're absolutely right that music it sets moods, right? It's why um in a locker room a team will listen to certain music to get them pumped up before the game. Likewise, music can can calm us, right? It's why we have lullabies and why we sing lullabies to kids and crying children. Um, yeah, same, same thing. So you've got this this moment in your home, and that will stick, right? People who participate in that, guarantee, they will remember that for decades to come.

Rich Helppie 38:17

Oh, when our kids' friends come over, if it's a Sunday, they're like, you're not playing anything else because they're used to it now. And you know, it shouldn't be politicized. Like, if the Canadian hockey team wants to play Lose Yourself by Eminem, and so does the U.S. hockey team, so what? You know, like let's do this. How about the national anthem ought to be unifying? That'd be a good thing, not something to vote for or whatever. Like, let's just stop for a moment and uh be united just for a moment. It could work. That's right. So, this has been a great chat. Is there anything else on education or music or any other topic that we didn't mention today that you'd like the listeners, readers, and the viewers of the Common Bridge to know about?

Shaka Mitchell 39:04

Well, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed uh this conversation and um had some some great questions. We covered a lot of really good ground. You know, one thing that um that I might encourage folks to look into, and I've done a little bit of writing about this, but it's uh something that is is taking effect next year in 2027. It's a thing called the Education Freedom Tax Credit, and it's gonna be a new scholarship program that is a nationwide scholarship program, and it uh will provide scholarships for kids in public schools, private schools, homeschool, charter schools. It really is a neat program, and um, you can find some information uh about it on my Substack and online as well. But uh stay tuned for that because that could impact millions of kids around the country.

Rich Helppie 39:55

Great. And I do want to again recommend Shaka's Substack. He writes about school choice, learning outcomes, and music and other education topics. Please check him out. It's a great time to get on board with independent journalism. And with my guest, Shaka Mitchell, this is your host, Rich Helpie, signing off on the Common Bridge.

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