PEP (Public Education Policy) Talk: An AASA Podcast

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant speaks with Tiffany Kessler, partner at The Bruman Group about the Interagency Agreements at the Department of Education; what programs are moving, what are the challenges and benefits, and what superintendents need to plan for.   Tiffany Kessler will also be part of a webinar with AASA on April 7 about Schoolwide Fund Consolidation, which you can register for here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant catches up with Amelia Vance, founder and president of the Public Interest Privacy Center who staffs the AASA Student and Child Privacy Center, to discuss recent legislative developments on Capitol Hill related to student and child privacy bills and the role of AI in schools.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant interviews two of the authors of AASA's new report Rethinking Special Education Dispute Resolution at IDEA’s 50th Anniversary. Angela L. Balsley, Ed.D., founder of Unified Leadership and David Bateman, PhD., answer questions about what dispute resolution reforms could look like in 5 - 10 years and why this report is important and timely.   To read the full report, please check it out here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant chats with AASA's senior government affairs manager Tara Thomas about the proposed changes to the H-1B Visa program, a key tool some districts use to alleviate staffing shortages for teaching positions. Kat also spoke with Tobin Novasio, superintendent of Hardin Schools in Montana, about how the proposed changes would affect his district.   CORRECTION: In a previous version of this podcast, Tara mistakenly stated that the fee was not currently active due to the court challenge. An injunction has been requested, but not yet provided by the court. As of October 24, 2025 the fee is applicable. 

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant speaks with Quincy Natay, superintendent of Chinle Unified School District #24 in Chinle, AZ about the critical need of Impact Aid funding, the nation’s oldest federal K-12 education program that turns 75 this year. The Basics of Impact Aid booklet Impact Aid Overview One-Pager

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant interviews superintendents from around the country about how they advocate for public education not only for their schools, but also for their communities and families, and asks if they have advice for others looking to get involved. The featured superintendents are: Wendy Birhanzel, superintendent, Harrison School District Two, CO Quintin Shepherd, superintendent, Pflugerville Independent School District, TX Sharonica Hardin-Bartley, superintendent, University City School District, MO Stephanie Burroughs, assistant superintendent, Foxborough Public School District, MA

What’s at stake for K-12 schools at the U.S. Supreme Court? Kat Sturdevant interviews Sonja Trainor, executive director of the National School Attorneys Association, to break down the key education cases on the docket and what they could mean for educators, students, and school leaders across the country.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant is joined by Jessie Mandle, National Program Director of the Healthy Schools Campaign, to deep dive the Campaign's new report about how Medicaid cuts will significantly affect schools and students (released in partnership with AASA). The report, How Medicaid Cuts Will Harm Students & Schools, can be found here. The resource Jessie mentioned from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families on Medicaid/CHIP Coverage by School Districts, 2019-2023 can be found here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant gets a much anticipated update from Sasha Pudelski, AASA's Director of Advocacy on where the school voucher movement currently stands in the 119th Congress, U.S. Department of Education, and beyond in a new year and a new administration.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Noelle Ellerson Ng interviews Dr. Rachel S. White, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin College of Education about a new report from The Superintendent Lab about the cost of divisive conflicts and and how school districts and superintendents are affected. The Superintendent Lab was founded by Dr. White and her report can be found here. Featured blog post on The Leading Edge Blog about this report can be found here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant gets into the weeds on the current saga of the FCC's Universal Service Fund and E-Rate with Jon Bernstein, an education technology and telecommunications lobbyist and president of Bernstein Strategy Group. You can read EdLiNC's letters to the 5th Circuit Court here and the ruling here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant deep dives the role of education in the 2024 presidential election with Jonathan Voss, partner at Lake Research Partners, a national public opinion and political strategy research firm.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant discusses the newest edition of the American Rescue Plan Report with Sasha Pudelski, Director of Advocacy at AASA, just in time for the ESSER obligation deadline.   You can check out the full report here. Check out our blog post on the report here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant interviews Holly McIntush, partner at Thompson & Horton LLP and Jackie Gharapour Wernz, partner at ECR Solutions LLC, two powerhouse Title IX experts about the recently released Title IX regulations. They cover everything from the changes since 2020, implementation, and litigations popping up in states. You can find excellent Title IX resources from AASA here. You can also check out blog posts written by Jackie Wernz on the "Civil Rights Insights" blog here and here. You can register for the Thompson & Horton webinar series on Title IX here.

On this episode of PEP Talk, Kat Sturdevant welcomes back Tara Thomas, AASA policy analyst, to discuss the changes and updates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the school nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. You can read our companion blog summary here.

On this episode of PEP Talk, Kat Sturdevant interviews  Jessica Levin, litigation director at the Education Law Center about the ongoing litigations about school voucher programs in states, and the rhetoric proponents use to justify the transfer of public funds to private institutions. Check out these resources for ways you can fight back against vouchers in your state: Public Funds, Public Schools Campaign Website Public Funds, Public Schools Bill Tracker Public Schools, Public Funds Fact Sheet - Myth of Cost Savings from Vouchers Public Schools, Public Funds Fact Sheet - True Cost of Vouchers Public Schools, Public Funds Litigation Page Public Schools, Public Funds Report - The Fiscal Consequences of Private Schools Vouchers National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE) Toolkit For State Legislators and Advocates National Coalition for Public Education Social Media Graphics

On this episode of PEP Talk, Kat Sturdevant interviews Nora Gordon, professor, McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University about all things Title I; what it is, how it's funded, and who it benefits. We have a host of reports to check out with this episode, too! All4Ed's Report- Title I of ESEA: How the Formulas Work All4Ed's Report- Title I of ESEA: How the Formulas Benefit Different Types of School Districts U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) Guidance National Center for Education Statistics Study of the Title I, Part A Grant Program Mathematical Formulas 

On this episode of PEP Talk, producer Kat Sturdevant interviews Dr. Rachel S. White, assistant professor of educational leadership & policy studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville about the rising trends of attrition, mobility and the increasing role of gender in the superintendency profession. You can check out Dr. White's data on The Superintendent Lab.

On this episode of PEP Talk, producer Kat Sturdevant and policy analyst Tara Thomas continue their conversation on rural schools, but this time with a focus on the Secure Rural Schools Program. Tara Thomas interviews Jaime Green, superintendent of Trinity Alps Unified School District in Weaverville, CA who is a passionate advocate for the program.

On this special episode of PEP Talk, producer Kat Sturdevant interviews AASA policy analyst Tara Thomas all about rural schools and the findings in the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) Survey Report released on November 15, 2023. Check out the report here.

AASA's Advocacy team interviews Amelia Vance, chief counsel, and Morgan Leftwich, project director from AASA's Student & Child Privacy Center to get us up to speed about current privacy laws, the landscape, and more!

AASA's Advocacy team interviews Sarah Abernathy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) about how education funding is procured in Congress, how a budget is set, and outlooks for FY2024.

AASA and PDK International have partnered in a series of podcasts to coincide with the availability of the American Superintendent 2020 Decennial Study. The second episode features CEO of PDK International Josh Starr, Almudena (Almi) G. Abeyta, superintendent, Chelsea (Mass.) Public Schools; Deb Kerr, retired superintendent and AASA immediate past president; and, Carol Kelley, superintendent, Oak Park Elementary (Ill.) School District 97 in a conversation about women in school leadership. 

AASA and PDK have partnered in a series of podcasts to coincide with the availability of the American Superintendent 2020 Decennial Study. The first episode features chief executive officer of PDK International Joshua Starr, Gregory Hutchings, superintendent of Alexandria (Va.) Public Schools and Jennifer Cheatham, senior lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education, in a conversation about race and equity in K-12 public schools.

AASA's advocacy team gets into the nitty gritty of the COVID pandemic, its impact on schools (As well as what to expect in terms of a fiscal downturn), and what the federal response to COVID will mean for your schools. 

Today's podcast features Alan Richard, board member and journalist of the Rural School and Community Trust. Richard talks about the Trust's 2018-2019 Why Rural Matters report which analyzes cthe contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calls attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues more effectively. AASA has been proud to partner with the Rural School and Community Trust since 2017 because they are the go-to resource on the latest research and trends in education students in rural districts. Alan joins Sasha Pudelski for a discussion of some of the key findings from their signature report.   

Our latest PEP Talk Podcast features Heather Weaver, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU, who will discus the major school voucher case that will be argued before the Supreme Court in January known as Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. A ruling in favor of voucher proponents could dramatically change the school voucher landscape in states. 

This Week's Episode of PEP Talk features John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director at Environment America and AASA Policy Analyst Chris Rogers. In this episode, viewers will get a chance to hear our conversation about the newly announced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Lead and Copper Rule and its impact on school districts. Specifically, John and I delve into the prevalence of Lead in public school water systems, the difficulties of testing for leads, and steps LEAs can take to solve the problem.

We're back with the latest episode of PEP Talk- AASA's policy podcast. This week's episode features a conversation between Alex Mays, Senior National Program Director Director for the Healthy Schools Campaign and AASA Advocacy Director Sasha Pudelski. Alex discusses the important work that the Healthy Schools Campaign is doing with district leaders as part of the Healthy Students Promising Future Learning Collaborative and in particular, what's happening in States that are pursuing opportunities to expand healthcare services for children. Check out our discussion to get the latest developments on what's happening at the federal and state level in terms of Medicaid as well as how the Healthy Schools Campaign is helping districts reduce chronic absenteeism.     

We're back with the latest episode of PEP Talk, AASA's policy podcast. This week's episode features a conversation between Crystal FitzSimons, Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs at the Food Research and Action Committee (FRAC) and AASA Policy Analyst Chris Rogers. In her current role, Crystal directs FRAC's work on the child nutrition programs that serve school-age children; and is responsible for advocating for legislative and regulatory improvements to the federal child nutrition programs. Check out our discussion to get the latest developments on the Categorical Eligibility program and hear updates from the Hill on Child Nutrition Reauthorization.

AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng talks with Katie Bisbee and Anna Edwards of Donors Choose, touching on crowd funding, what it means for schools, classrooms, and students, and ways our organizations are partnering to highlight the opportunities for using platforms like Donors Choose strategically within districts. 

Getting a little wonkier, this episode of PEP Talk unpacks a seemingly arcane provision in federal policy that limits the ability of school districts to better address integration. AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng talks with  Sunil Mansukhani & Philip Tegeler about this outdated anti-busing policy, a policy that exists today merely because it hadn’t been replaced. It's something we've been collaborating on for a few years, but something that also saw a resurgence after a related issue arose in recent presidential politics. 

Longtime AASA friend Carl Davis, Research Director at Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, talked with Noelle Ellerson Ng all about the updated regulations released by the IRS, related to the tuition tax credit loop hole. 

When it comes to being the top coalition for protecting and prioritizing the importance of public education at the federal level, and advocating against privatization agendas, there is no better or more effective coalition than the National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE). In this episode, AASA's Sasha Pudelski (an NCPE Co-Chair) chats with her fellow co-chair, Maggie Garrett with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. 

John Forkenbrock is a longtime AASA friend, making a career out of education policy and advocacy. His passion for strong public schools and rural education was central to his time on Capitol Hill and in education associations. Currently serving as a leader with Organizations Concerned with Rural Education (OCRE), John was previously the executive director for the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS). In this episode, he chats with AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng, and the conversation is as filled with policy insights as it is with colorful stories from an accomplished education career.

AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng chats with Professor Bruce Baker, the dynamo behind @SchlFinance101 and one of the AASA advocacy team's favorite people to talk to when it comes to school finance and education funding formulas. In this episode, we focus on his most recent paper, one that takes a fresh--and also understandable and approachable--analysis of all 50 state funding formulas. Professor Baker works at Rutgers University specializing in school finance, education policy & quantitative analysis.

Let's talk education and #Census2020! In this episode, AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng talks with Georgetown Professor Nora Gordon, looking at exactly why Census 2020 matters to schools, what response rate and accurate count can mean to schools and communities, and starts to look at what superintendents can do.

AASA's Noelle Ng talks with CAP's Scott Sargrad, running through three of their newest reports, on fixing chronic disinvestment, increasing teacher salaries, and if high school diplomas are a path to success. 

In this episode. AASA's Noelle Ng chats all things E-Rate and connectivity with Education Superhighway's Evan Marwell.

Former AASA advocacy all-star Leslie Finnan moved on after 5 years to head up policy and advocacy for the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS), the group that advocates for Impact Aid. She called in to talk through all the fun goings-on of federal education policy and schools right now. 

Education reporters Alyson Klein (Education Week) and Lauren Camera (US News and World Report) talk all things edu-policy and what to expect in 2019 with AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel joins AASA's Noelle Ellerson Ng to talk E-Rate, connectivity, homework gap, and leadership.

Public Education Policy (PEP) Talk is the officially unofficial podcast for the AASA advocacy team. AASA represents the nation's public school superintendents, and this podcast is one more way to engage with our advocacy team.    Our inaugural episode features AASA's advocacy team, Sasha Pudelski (Advocacy Director) and Noelle Ellerson Ng (Associate Executive Director, Policy & Advocacy). Enjoy!