A Big Tent: Parent Voice for Public Educatiion

In this episode, we’re stretching the boundaries of our “big tent”—the messy, hopeful space where we try to build a public education system worthy of all our kids. We sat down with Ms. Keri Rodrigues, President and co-founder of the National Parents Union, for a conversation recorded inside the U.S. Senate building (a first for us!).

Ms. Rodrigues brings her whole self into this work: mother, organizer, daughter of immigrants, former student who didn’t always get what she needed from school, and fierce believer in the power of parents showing up together. While the methods of school improvement NPU has advocated for the in the past may not have felt fully aligned with our values, we share a commitment to the common good of public education—and in a moment when that institution feels increasingly under attack, widening the circle of who we can struggle with feels essential.

In This Episode We Explore:

• Parent voice as expertise
• Why parents—especially those who’ve historically been pushed to the margins—carry knowledge that our systems often ignore, and what’s lost when family engagement is treated as transactional rather than transformational.
• The conditions that fuel fear-based parent movements
• Ms. Rodrigues offers a nuanced take on how groups like Moms for Liberty gained traction, and how a lack of authentic, respectful engagement with parents created space for bad actors to step in.
• Trust between families and schools
• What it means to leave “our hearts outside our bodies” every morning, and the very real fears that get activated when schools feel unwelcoming, dismissive, or unsafe—especially for Black, Brown, immigrant, and disabled students and their families.
• The broader crisis facing children
• From ICE raids to unregulated social media to defunding the Department of Education, Ms. Rodrigues paints a sobering picture of what American childhood looks like right now—and why focusing narrowly on academics misses the full context our kids are living in.
• Possibility inside the “messy middle”
• How unlikely coalitions (even with people we once vowed to “never work with”) can still form around shared values like literacy, safety, and teacher pay—and why bipartisan hope isn’t naïve, but necessary.
• Our own expectations of school
• After the interview, Val and Andrew reflect on power, privilege, trust, and the complicated dance between advocating for our kids and caring for all kids—work that sits at the very heart of public education in a multiracial democracy.

Why This Conversation Matters

If we truly believe that public schools are foundational to a functioning democracy, then we need a tent big enough to hold disagreement, nuance, and shared purpose. Not a tent where we water down our values or ignore harm, but one spacious enough for collective problem-solving. As Ms. Rodrigues reminds us, movements built on love endure longer than movements built on fear. And right now, our kids need us rooted in love.

Join the Conversation

Where do you see yourself in this big tent?

What are your expectations for parent voice?

How do you advocate as a parent or caregiver?

How do you build (or rebuild) trust with your child’s school?

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The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowit