March 8, 2023 • 23 mins
The president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools joined the Get Schooled on Publication Education podcast to celebrate Women’s History Month. Nina shared her personal journey into education advocacy starting out as a staffer on Capitol Hill a little more than 30 years ago. Today, Nina runs a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening and increasing student access to high quality public schools. During the conversation, Nina also discussed what it was like to immigrate to the U.S. from Iran as a child, where her passion stems from, and several women who inspired her along the way.
Takeaways
Nina Rees’ educational journey and what leads her to be a leader and helping other women
Explaining some factors on why chartered schools are in high demand
Sharing amazing and memorable stories in regards with chartered schoolsCelebrating the major victories against the Department of Education Harmful Proposal to Chartered Schools
Quotes
Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we will have in common. - Melinda Gates
Featured Guest
Nina Rees
President & CEO, National Alliance for Public Charted Schools
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-rees-76911111
https://www.publiccharters.org
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:34 Nina’s role and helping women
05:22 Her educational journey
08:18 Inspiring and amazing women
10:32 Causes for charter school demand
13:26 Some memorable stories
17:14 Celebrating major wins
20:53 Advice to listeners who aspire leadership roles
23:13 Conclusion
Produced by Heartcast Media
http://www.heartcastmedia.com
Takeaways
Nina Rees’ educational journey and what leads her to be a leader and helping other women
Explaining some factors on why chartered schools are in high demand
Sharing amazing and memorable stories in regards with chartered schoolsCelebrating the major victories against the Department of Education Harmful Proposal to Chartered Schools
Quotes
Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we will have in common. - Melinda Gates
Featured Guest
Nina Rees
President & CEO, National Alliance for Public Charted Schools
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-rees-76911111
https://www.publiccharters.org
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:34 Nina’s role and helping women
05:22 Her educational journey
08:18 Inspiring and amazing women
10:32 Causes for charter school demand
13:26 Some memorable stories
17:14 Celebrating major wins
20:53 Advice to listeners who aspire leadership roles
23:13 Conclusion
Produced by Heartcast Media
http://www.heartcastmedia.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
March is Women's History Month, andthe National Women's History Alliance selected the theme
celebrating women who tell our Stories.My name is Brittany Baker. Thank you
for tuning in to the Get Schoolson Public Education podcast. I would like
to introduce our special guest. Sheruns the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,
a nonprofit committed to increasing student accessto high quality public schools. It
(00:31):
is my honor to welcome our presidentand CEO, Nina rees Hi. Nina
Hi, Brittany, thank you somuch for having it. Thank you so
much for being here. I'm soexcited to chat with you today. For
more than ten years, you havestood along with families and many individuals in
the education space to help elevate theirstories as well as to expand, strengthen
(00:52):
and preserve top tier public education optionsfor all children. And during this chat
are one of share some inspirational quotesfrom inspirational women in honor of Women's History
Month. So I'll start with thelate US Supreme Court justice and longtime advocate
for gender equality, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She once said, fight for the
(01:17):
things that you care about, butdo it in a way that will lead
others to join you. Nina,your career path has been extremely impressive.
Tell us about your various roles andhow you've helped create opportunities for other women
while being a trailblazer. Well again, thank you so much, Brittany for
your leadership in our organization and settingup this podcast. And it's my honor
(01:41):
to be on your second installment ofthis podcast. So I've been at this
about thirty years, believe it ornot. I started my career in Washington,
d C. In nineteen ninety oneas a staff around Capitol Hill,
and one thing led to another.Eventually I found myself at a public interest
law firm that litigated on behalf ofclients who were fighting for economic liberty,
(02:04):
property rights, and school choice.Something about the stories of the families we
were litigating on behalf of that reallyresonated with me, and in reflecting back,
I think it had a lot todo with my own upbringing. I'm
an immigrant. I was born andraised in Iran. Left Iran in nineteen
eighty three after the Iranian Revolution,which is something that's in the news these
(02:28):
days. The Morality police actually arrestedme and I was in jail for two
nights without my parents knowing where Iwas. And so that experience prompted my
family to pick up and leave Iran. My father was educated in the US,
so he had friends who were ableto get him a job eventually at
a university. So we moved allthe way from Iran to a small town
(02:51):
called Blacksburg, Virginia, which onlyhad one public high school. And that's
where I went to school. Idon't even know how I did. I
could deemically in that setting. Englishwas my third language. The concept of
teaching kids for whom English was nota first language was not common to them.
So but I had parents who caredobviously and pulled everything together in order
(03:15):
to give me the resources I neededto eventually go to college and graduate.
So so, but fast forward tomy experience at this public interest law firm.
I'm listening to the stories of thesefamilies who often are across the street
from a public school they want tosend their kids to, but can't because
the school that the kid is assignedto is miles away, or they are
(03:36):
in a setting that simply doesn't havea helth quality option or an option that
fits their kids needs. So tome, in this country, in particular,
the road to the American dream startswith a good education. There are
a lot of other things that needto come in place and be pulled together
as well, but if you don'tget a good education, your odds of
getting to these other things are vastlyreduced. And getting the education piece right
(03:59):
will have an impact on everything else. It has an impact on whether you
go to college, whether you geta good job, whether you stay out
of trouble. So that's when Istarted to really dedicate my personal career to
this cause, and everything I've doneever since hasn't really felt like a job.
It's felt like just something that I'menjoying to do and that I'm grateful
and privileged to be in because mostof the jobs I see out there are
(04:26):
usually a job in order to raisemoney and do something different for me.
My day and nights are the same. Because I really believe in this movement,
and I think charter schools, whichis what I've been doing for the
past ten years, are the bestway to open access to public education.
The vast majority of our kids arein public schools, and the vast majority
of Americans want a solid public schoolin their districts. Charter schools make it
(04:50):
possible for individuals to open new publicschools in your neighborhood, and that's why
I'm bullish about it. That's whyI love what I do. And also,
just seen again fast forward all thestories that you're now covering. There
are so many of them. Imean, it's hard to listen to these
stories and question the importance of whatwe do. Absolutely, and you touched
(05:15):
on it a little bit before,but what were your early years of education
like and how has that shaped yourcurrent views? So, as I said
I was, I grew up inanother country. I went into a private
school. I was a French school, so a French immersion program, and
it was a very lovely setting.As my parents like to talk about the
(05:39):
past. You know, this wasnot a school you could get admitted to.
You had to have connections and itwas very hard to get into.
I don't know what source of stringsthey pulled, but they were very proud
of the fact that I got intothis school. After the revolution that one
of the first things that the governmentdid was to close this school because they
didn't want to have Western influence inthe country. So I ended up attending
(06:00):
a regular school in my neighborhood,a public school, but interestingly enough,
this was a public school that taughtreligion, because religion is such a big
part of life and government in Iran. So you know, in this school,
I was learning everything back in farSea, but I also had to
take courses in Islam. I hadto also take courses in Arabic. I
(06:24):
mean, these were not things thatI necessarily remember much of, but to
be forced into learning and religion isdifferent from opting into it, of course.
So interestingly enough, I thought thequality of the teaching staff was pretty
good. And you know, Ialso, for the first time I was
(06:44):
in a classroom with students whose parentswere cab drivers and people who were from
very different socioeconomic backgrounds than the schoolI was attending. So in that respect,
I kind of enjoyed this new setting, even though it was very strange
and I had to be fully covered. Even though it was a single sex
school, they segregated students. Sothat was the early years. And as
(07:04):
I said, I when we movedto the US Blacksburg High School, a
small rural school in southwest Virginia,I think I was maybe one of two
or three immigrants in that school,and this remains one of the best high
schools in Virginia. And I thinkit's also a typical school in a lot
(07:26):
of these rural communities that's meeting theneeds of the community. For the average
student attending it, it's doing adecent job. But when you throw in
an anomaly, or you throw insomeone who's a little bit different, it
is probably not going to be agood fit. And so the other thing
that I like about what we doare the options and doors that choice opens.
Whether you will ever have a charterschool in that community is a question
(07:47):
mark because the population is not thathigh, But if you had options such
as online learning, you know,those are definitely things that would have potentially
been a better fit for me thanattending a brick and mortar school, you
know, in a small town poststhe Iranian Revolution, post the hostage crisis.
(08:09):
Education is a field that's often dominatedby women, who are some of
the women educators who most inspire you. You know, that's a great question.
I'll just start by saying, thewoman who kind of has been my
role model all my life is mymom. My mom worked. She worked
for Iran Airlines in their legal offices. She woke up every day very early
(08:31):
to catch a bus to go towork and come home. So growing up
in a household or my mom workedfull time along with my father, was
just something that I thought people did. So when I moved here and I
noticed these other methods of staying athome, it just didn't resonate with me.
I grew up with a lot ofvery strong women. Her mom was
a very strong woman, her sister. So when I think of role models,
(08:54):
I really think of them as individualswho stood their ground and you know,
they spoke their mind basically, andI appreciated growing up in a setting
that where women had strong voices.In terms of educators here in the US,
you know, to me, teachingis probably one of the most rewarding
(09:18):
and one of the most important jobsin this country because at the end of
the day, next to your parents, the person who's going to have the
greatest influence on a child's life isthat teacher. And we have so many
stories in our schools, in publicschools, private schools, of teachers,
one teacher who made a change ina child's life. And so I don't
think I have one example, buta lot of examples of teachers who have
(09:43):
done great work, and so oneof the things I love the most is
an event that the White House holdsevery year honoring the best teacher of the
year through the Council of Chief StateSchool Officers. I think anything we can
do in this country to elevate thestature of teachers in the professionals that they
are will be hugely valuable, becausethey are often seen as someone who's just
(10:07):
doing this job and doesn't get paidenough, when in fact, what they
end up doing in the days thatthey're with your kid stands to shape their
character and also their education trajectory morethan anything else. Absolutely, three point
seven million students are enrolled in charterschools and the number continues to climb.
(10:28):
What factors do you believe contribute tothe growing demand of charter schools. Well,
people, all things being equal,want more options rather than fewer options.
We saw in the pandemic two hundredand forty thousand students enrolled in charter
schools, and now think about it, we only have seventy seven hundred Charter
schools were only seven percent of thetotal market share of students in schools in
(10:50):
this country. So the fact thatso many of them opted to go in
a charter school in the community thathad them, indicates there would have been
more if we had more of them. So the pandemic demonstrated parents want more,
not less options. Before that,we've done some surveys that demonstrate,
again, do you want more optionsin your community? Of course everyone is
(11:11):
going to say yes. And themore they know about charter schools and what
charter schools can do, the morethey want them, even if they themselves
are happy with the public or privateschool that they're sending their kids to.
So this is one of those thingsthat's in the you know, the water,
and you know people want to havemore options, and our schools are
doing a good job at three things. First of all, there's schools of
(11:35):
choice, so no one's forced toattend them. Second, they place a
premium on your unique needs. Soif you want a STEM centric education,
there's a charter school for that.If you want something that's more back to
basics, reading instruction, math instruction, kind of more of a traditional setting,
you have those options. If thereare a lot of schools here in
DC that are focused on kids whohave dropped out of high school, so
(11:58):
that customization. It's definitely one ofthe key ingredients that makes charter schools attractive.
They tend to be smaller, andmost of all, as I said
earlier, they tend to attract teacherswho want to do things differently. So
in that sense, the sense ofagency that teaching teachers have in those schools
definitely helps make them a more attractivemedium for both the families and the administration
(12:22):
of the school. And I experiencethat first scenes when I was teaching kindergarten
in a charter school. I wasjust so impressed with all of the opportunities,
how much we were just encouraged tocustomize the lesson toward each child's needs.
Like it was such a beautiful experience. So it's just everything that you're
(12:43):
saying, it's like just it's takingme back to those days when I was
teaching in a charter school, andit's it's I love charge. I should
say, I should be asking yousome questions about yes, yes, yes,
okay. So philanthropist Melinda Gates oncesaid, connect deeply with others.
Our humanity is the one thing thatwe will have in common. Over the
(13:07):
years, I've watched you build meaningfulrelationships in charter school in the charter school
sector, all while staying true toour core focus, which is putting children
first. What's one of the mostmemorable stories someone has shared with you about
their experience with charter schools. Oh, my gosh, there's so many of
them. I would start with thefounders of some of the schools that I'm
(13:35):
most familiar with, and I thinkthe early stages of opening a school and
breaking away from what you used toknow to be true and safe into starting
in your school is always exciting.So I don't know that I'm going to
answer your question directly, but youknow, one of the women that I
(13:58):
got to know in the mid ninetieswas Erasima Salcido, who ended up starting
a school in DC called his Scissorchov As Public Charter School. And this
woman was pregnant with her fifth child. She had a very good job in
the DC public school system, butwhen she saw that charter application, it
was like a calling. I wantto start my own high school. And
(14:20):
you know, anyone who's lived inDC knows we don't have a lot of
high schools in DC. There area couple that do a really good job,
and then the rest of them,unfortunately, are not doing a terribly
good job, which means most familiesend up either leaving DC or sending their
kids to private schools. So shedecided to put that application together. Eventually
got the charter, and her schoolsare now standing. She has had her
(14:43):
struggles, but what was great abouther story is that again she left a
very stable setting at a time wheremost people up after the fifth kid,
they wouldn't want to try something that'sthis revolutionary. But these are the types
of individual rules that we need inour space, people who are tired of
doing the same thing over and overand have a vision for doing it better.
(15:07):
And you know, for a whilein the nineties when charters were popular
and coming on the scene, therewere a lot of them out there.
Those who founded KIP are an example. You Aspired charter schools in California.
The leadership of that school, DonChalvey and others is a good example.
So my experience with these leaders iswhat got me to really pay attention to
(15:31):
charter schools. They were Democrats andRepublicans, civil rights activists and people who
just wanted to run a good school. But they came together with families who
were not getting a good education andoften were drawn to private education or private
school choice programs. By creating thechartering medium, we were able to keep
(15:52):
them on the public space while creatingschools that arguably, in my opinion,
were much better than the private schoolsthat they were about to opt into.
And former First Lady Michelle Obama's mostrecent memoir, The Light We Carry,
she said, when we allow ourselvesto celebrate tiny victories as important and meaningful,
(16:14):
we start to understand the incremental natureof change. How one vote can
help change our democracy, How raisinga child who is whole and loved can
help change a nation, How educatingone girl can change a whole village for
the better. We want to takesome time to celebrate some of our victories
for charter school students, including amajor one protecting the charter schools program.
(16:40):
Last year, in twenty twenty two, the US Department of Education proposed harm
for rules to the program that wouldhave made it harder for charter schools to
grow. And under your leadership,the National Alliance help parents tell their stories
about their charter school experience in frontof the White House, and as a
(17:02):
result, the US Department of Educationremoved some of the harmful suggestions. How
did that victory make you feel,and what are some of the other major
wins we've celebrated as a charter schoolsector. Well, Brittany, you can't
quote Michelle Obama and not open thedoor to having a discussion around her leadership.
I read her book Becoming. Ihaven't read this recent book, and
(17:23):
everything she says in Becoming, andsome of the things I've heard here are
like gospels, so you can turnthe book into a set of quotes and
like remind yourself of her and heryou know who she is, how she
grew up, what she became,all of that. It's just so interesting
and also kind of a testament ofwhat I was saying earlier about the American
(17:45):
dream and the opportunities you have ifyou're afforded a good education. And we
hope that she will come to ourNational Charter Schools Conference one day, because
our audience, like all audiences,would love to see her and be inspired
by her. As in terms ofyour question, though, of course I
was ecstatic, there were a lotof other things that happened before this rally,
(18:07):
and we did a very good jobof articulating the risks to the field
gathering signatures, getting people to sendletters comment letters to the US Department of
Education to describe how these rules wouldimpact them. So the volume of letters
that went in, as well asthe unique nature of some of the letters,
(18:29):
was really important because in rulemaking,most people don't know what rulemaking is,
which is probably a good thing.So the fact that we got so
many people who are normally not thinkingabout this to take action around the rule
was very significant. But what wastransformational with the rally is that the ultimate
recipients of all these activities are individualswho are waiting for their chance to send
(18:51):
their kids to a good school.So having moms come to DC and articulate
what was at stake in plain languageand made a huge friends both in the
course of public opinion, but italso gave someone like me, who started
her career advocating on behalf of individualfamilies who wanted a school of choice.
It kind of brought all that fullcircle together. I loved it, and
(19:14):
I think the ultimate ticket to victoryfor US as a movement is by engaging
those families far more than we havebefore in state advocacy and local advocacy,
and of course federal advocacy. Butof course there are a lot of other
victories. You know, we havehad so many of them over time,
and so what happens sometimes in anyanything that's disrupting the status quo is that
(19:38):
you are going to hit the wall. And the reason the status quo is
reacting the way it's reacting is becauseyou have had an impact. You have
been effective. If you didn't havethat impact, they wouldn't be reacting this
way. So the pain points andthe challenges we're facing is a direct byproduct
of our success. And you justneed to make sure we're constantly reminding ourselves
(20:03):
and our constituents and our funders thatin order to take this ball to the
finish line. Now that you're you'reat the twenty yard line with a team
that has a really strong defense,you've brought the ball that far, it's
going to be harder to you know, get that touchdown. But that's when
the game is really taking place.This is not the time to fold and
(20:25):
call it quits. This is thetime to really fight because we're close to
winning absolutely, and for all thewomen listening or watching who want to stand
up for what they believe in,whether it's gender, equality, educational rights,
safety, or just for a spaceto be heard. What guidance would
you give them, including women whoare considering a career in education or those
(20:49):
who aspire to leadership roles. Iwould first start by saying something that is
said a lot lately, which isto really be true to yourself and you
know who you are and what youwant to become. Because when I was
growing up, my goal was andagain in you know, most immigrant families
(21:14):
want their kids to be lawyers,doctors, and engineers. So of course
I took a different path. Butnowadays, the jobs of tomorrow are going
to likely be jobs that women aregoing to create today because everything is being
disrupted by technology. So I thinkit's really important to have good, strong
core values and an interest and reallyknow yourself enough to know what is going
(21:37):
to make me happy. Once youhome in on that, then figuring out
what you need, what skills youneed, and what education you need is
going to matter. The other thingthat I've leveraged, and quite frankly,
the thing that's given me advantages thatI don't know that I would have had
in any other city, is networking. There are a lot of women and
(22:00):
men here in DC who love totalk about what they do. There are
a lot of jobs in public policy, So for me, identifying what I
wanted to do, where I wantedto work, and then just talking to
the people on those jobs to seehow I could get those jobs is what
made a difference, instead of justwaiting to see an announcement or applying online,
which seems to be the way peopleare searching for jobs, and certainly
(22:25):
the pandemic didn't help. So Iwould, you know, identifying who you
are and what you want to dois the first step, but then I
would place a little bit more ofa premium on internships and on the job
training. I have so many countlessfriends who have told me the story of
they got a law degree, theywent into a law firm, they hated
it. Now they're doing you know, they're a staff assistant or a chief
(22:48):
of staff on the hill. NowI'm not saying the law degree is not
useful to being a chief of staff, but I don't know that they needed
to spend that much time and spendthat much money for a law degree to
do what they're doing today. SoI think it's important to identify those things
and to find individuals who are doingthe work to really understand what brought them
to where they are and use themas role models. Well, thank you
(23:14):
so much for joining us today.We really appreciate you being here. Nina
Reese, President and CEO of theNational Alliance for Public Charter Schools. I'm
Brittany Baker, your host on GetSchooled on Public Education. Thank you for
tuning in, and Happy Women's HistoryMonth. Produced by Heartcast Media.
March is Women's History Month, andthe National Women's History Alliance selected the theme
celebrating women who tell our Stories.My name is Brittany Baker. Thank you
for tuning in to the Get Schoolson Public Education podcast. I would like
to introduce our special guest. Sheruns the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,
a nonprofit committed to increasing student accessto high quality public schools. It
(00:31):
is my honor to welcome our presidentand CEO, Nina rees Hi. Nina
Hi, Brittany, thank you somuch for having it. Thank you so
much for being here. I'm soexcited to chat with you today. For
more than ten years, you havestood along with families and many individuals in
the education space to help elevate theirstories as well as to expand, strengthen
(00:52):
and preserve top tier public education optionsfor all children. And during this chat
are one of share some inspirational quotesfrom inspirational women in honor of Women's History
Month. So I'll start with thelate US Supreme Court justice and longtime advocate
for gender equality, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She once said, fight for the
(01:17):
things that you care about, butdo it in a way that will lead
others to join you. Nina,your career path has been extremely impressive.
Tell us about your various roles andhow you've helped create opportunities for other women
while being a trailblazer. Well again, thank you so much, Brittany for
your leadership in our organization and settingup this podcast. And it's my honor
(01:41):
to be on your second installment ofthis podcast. So I've been at this
about thirty years, believe it ornot. I started my career in Washington,
d C. In nineteen ninety oneas a staff around Capitol Hill,
and one thing led to another.Eventually I found myself at a public interest
law firm that litigated on behalf ofclients who were fighting for economic liberty,
(02:04):
property rights, and school choice.Something about the stories of the families we
were litigating on behalf of that reallyresonated with me, and in reflecting back,
I think it had a lot todo with my own upbringing. I'm
an immigrant. I was born andraised in Iran. Left Iran in nineteen
eighty three after the Iranian Revolution,which is something that's in the news these
(02:28):
days. The Morality police actually arrestedme and I was in jail for two
nights without my parents knowing where Iwas. And so that experience prompted my
family to pick up and leave Iran. My father was educated in the US,
so he had friends who were ableto get him a job eventually at
a university. So we moved allthe way from Iran to a small town
(02:51):
called Blacksburg, Virginia, which onlyhad one public high school. And that's
where I went to school. Idon't even know how I did. I
could deemically in that setting. Englishwas my third language. The concept of
teaching kids for whom English was nota first language was not common to them.
So but I had parents who caredobviously and pulled everything together in order
(03:15):
to give me the resources I neededto eventually go to college and graduate.
So so, but fast forward tomy experience at this public interest law firm.
I'm listening to the stories of thesefamilies who often are across the street
from a public school they want tosend their kids to, but can't because
the school that the kid is assignedto is miles away, or they are
(03:36):
in a setting that simply doesn't havea helth quality option or an option that
fits their kids needs. So tome, in this country, in particular,
the road to the American dream startswith a good education. There are
a lot of other things that needto come in place and be pulled together
as well, but if you don'tget a good education, your odds of
getting to these other things are vastlyreduced. And getting the education piece right
(03:59):
will have an impact on everything else. It has an impact on whether you
go to college, whether you geta good job, whether you stay out
of trouble. So that's when Istarted to really dedicate my personal career to
this cause, and everything I've doneever since hasn't really felt like a job.
It's felt like just something that I'menjoying to do and that I'm grateful
and privileged to be in because mostof the jobs I see out there are
(04:26):
usually a job in order to raisemoney and do something different for me.
My day and nights are the same. Because I really believe in this movement,
and I think charter schools, whichis what I've been doing for the
past ten years, are the bestway to open access to public education.
The vast majority of our kids arein public schools, and the vast majority
of Americans want a solid public schoolin their districts. Charter schools make it
(04:50):
possible for individuals to open new publicschools in your neighborhood, and that's why
I'm bullish about it. That's whyI love what I do. And also,
just seen again fast forward all thestories that you're now covering. There
are so many of them. Imean, it's hard to listen to these
stories and question the importance of whatwe do. Absolutely, and you touched
(05:15):
on it a little bit before,but what were your early years of education
like and how has that shaped yourcurrent views? So, as I said
I was, I grew up inanother country. I went into a private
school. I was a French school, so a French immersion program, and
it was a very lovely setting.As my parents like to talk about the
(05:39):
past. You know, this wasnot a school you could get admitted to.
You had to have connections and itwas very hard to get into.
I don't know what source of stringsthey pulled, but they were very proud
of the fact that I got intothis school. After the revolution that one
of the first things that the governmentdid was to close this school because they
didn't want to have Western influence inthe country. So I ended up attending
(06:00):
a regular school in my neighborhood,a public school, but interestingly enough,
this was a public school that taughtreligion, because religion is such a big
part of life and government in Iran. So you know, in this school,
I was learning everything back in farSea, but I also had to
take courses in Islam. I hadto also take courses in Arabic. I
(06:24):
mean, these were not things thatI necessarily remember much of, but to
be forced into learning and religion isdifferent from opting into it, of course.
So interestingly enough, I thought thequality of the teaching staff was pretty
good. And you know, Ialso, for the first time I was
(06:44):
in a classroom with students whose parentswere cab drivers and people who were from
very different socioeconomic backgrounds than the schoolI was attending. So in that respect,
I kind of enjoyed this new setting, even though it was very strange
and I had to be fully covered. Even though it was a single sex
school, they segregated students. Sothat was the early years. And as
(07:04):
I said, I when we movedto the US Blacksburg High School, a
small rural school in southwest Virginia,I think I was maybe one of two
or three immigrants in that school,and this remains one of the best high
schools in Virginia. And I thinkit's also a typical school in a lot
(07:26):
of these rural communities that's meeting theneeds of the community. For the average
student attending it, it's doing adecent job. But when you throw in
an anomaly, or you throw insomeone who's a little bit different, it
is probably not going to be agood fit. And so the other thing
that I like about what we doare the options and doors that choice opens.
Whether you will ever have a charterschool in that community is a question
(07:47):
mark because the population is not thathigh, But if you had options such
as online learning, you know,those are definitely things that would have potentially
been a better fit for me thanattending a brick and mortar school, you
know, in a small town poststhe Iranian Revolution, post the hostage crisis.
(08:09):
Education is a field that's often dominatedby women, who are some of
the women educators who most inspire you. You know, that's a great question.
I'll just start by saying, thewoman who kind of has been my
role model all my life is mymom. My mom worked. She worked
for Iran Airlines in their legal offices. She woke up every day very early
(08:31):
to catch a bus to go towork and come home. So growing up
in a household or my mom workedfull time along with my father, was
just something that I thought people did. So when I moved here and I
noticed these other methods of staying athome, it just didn't resonate with me.
I grew up with a lot ofvery strong women. Her mom was
a very strong woman, her sister. So when I think of role models,
(08:54):
I really think of them as individualswho stood their ground and you know,
they spoke their mind basically, andI appreciated growing up in a setting
that where women had strong voices.In terms of educators here in the US,
you know, to me, teachingis probably one of the most rewarding
(09:18):
and one of the most important jobsin this country because at the end of
the day, next to your parents, the person who's going to have the
greatest influence on a child's life isthat teacher. And we have so many
stories in our schools, in publicschools, private schools, of teachers,
one teacher who made a change ina child's life. And so I don't
think I have one example, buta lot of examples of teachers who have
(09:43):
done great work, and so oneof the things I love the most is
an event that the White House holdsevery year honoring the best teacher of the
year through the Council of Chief StateSchool Officers. I think anything we can
do in this country to elevate thestature of teachers in the professionals that they
are will be hugely valuable, becausethey are often seen as someone who's just
(10:07):
doing this job and doesn't get paidenough, when in fact, what they
end up doing in the days thatthey're with your kid stands to shape their
character and also their education trajectory morethan anything else. Absolutely, three point
seven million students are enrolled in charterschools and the number continues to climb.
(10:28):
What factors do you believe contribute tothe growing demand of charter schools. Well,
people, all things being equal,want more options rather than fewer options.
We saw in the pandemic two hundredand forty thousand students enrolled in charter
schools, and now think about it, we only have seventy seven hundred Charter
schools were only seven percent of thetotal market share of students in schools in
(10:50):
this country. So the fact thatso many of them opted to go in
a charter school in the community thathad them, indicates there would have been
more if we had more of them. So the pandemic demonstrated parents want more,
not less options. Before that,we've done some surveys that demonstrate,
again, do you want more optionsin your community? Of course everyone is
(11:11):
going to say yes. And themore they know about charter schools and what
charter schools can do, the morethey want them, even if they themselves
are happy with the public or privateschool that they're sending their kids to.
So this is one of those thingsthat's in the you know, the water,
and you know people want to havemore options, and our schools are
doing a good job at three things. First of all, there's schools of
(11:35):
choice, so no one's forced toattend them. Second, they place a
premium on your unique needs. Soif you want a STEM centric education,
there's a charter school for that.If you want something that's more back to
basics, reading instruction, math instruction, kind of more of a traditional setting,
you have those options. If thereare a lot of schools here in
DC that are focused on kids whohave dropped out of high school, so
(11:58):
that customization. It's definitely one ofthe key ingredients that makes charter schools attractive.
They tend to be smaller, andmost of all, as I said
earlier, they tend to attract teacherswho want to do things differently. So
in that sense, the sense ofagency that teaching teachers have in those schools
definitely helps make them a more attractivemedium for both the families and the administration
(12:22):
of the school. And I experiencethat first scenes when I was teaching kindergarten
in a charter school. I wasjust so impressed with all of the opportunities,
how much we were just encouraged tocustomize the lesson toward each child's needs.
Like it was such a beautiful experience. So it's just everything that you're
(12:43):
saying, it's like just it's takingme back to those days when I was
teaching in a charter school, andit's it's I love charge. I should
say, I should be asking yousome questions about yes, yes, yes,
okay. So philanthropist Melinda Gates oncesaid, connect deeply with others.
Our humanity is the one thing thatwe will have in common. Over the
(13:07):
years, I've watched you build meaningfulrelationships in charter school in the charter school
sector, all while staying true toour core focus, which is putting children
first. What's one of the mostmemorable stories someone has shared with you about
their experience with charter schools. Oh, my gosh, there's so many of
them. I would start with thefounders of some of the schools that I'm
(13:35):
most familiar with, and I thinkthe early stages of opening a school and
breaking away from what you used toknow to be true and safe into starting
in your school is always exciting.So I don't know that I'm going to
answer your question directly, but youknow, one of the women that I
(13:58):
got to know in the mid ninetieswas Erasima Salcido, who ended up starting
a school in DC called his Scissorchov As Public Charter School. And this
woman was pregnant with her fifth child. She had a very good job in
the DC public school system, butwhen she saw that charter application, it
was like a calling. I wantto start my own high school. And
(14:20):
you know, anyone who's lived inDC knows we don't have a lot of
high schools in DC. There area couple that do a really good job,
and then the rest of them,unfortunately, are not doing a terribly
good job, which means most familiesend up either leaving DC or sending their
kids to private schools. So shedecided to put that application together. Eventually
got the charter, and her schoolsare now standing. She has had her
(14:43):
struggles, but what was great abouther story is that again she left a
very stable setting at a time wheremost people up after the fifth kid,
they wouldn't want to try something that'sthis revolutionary. But these are the types
of individual rules that we need inour space, people who are tired of
doing the same thing over and overand have a vision for doing it better.
(15:07):
And you know, for a whilein the nineties when charters were popular
and coming on the scene, therewere a lot of them out there.
Those who founded KIP are an example. You Aspired charter schools in California.
The leadership of that school, DonChalvey and others is a good example.
So my experience with these leaders iswhat got me to really pay attention to
(15:31):
charter schools. They were Democrats andRepublicans, civil rights activists and people who
just wanted to run a good school. But they came together with families who
were not getting a good education andoften were drawn to private education or private
school choice programs. By creating thechartering medium, we were able to keep
(15:52):
them on the public space while creatingschools that arguably, in my opinion,
were much better than the private schoolsthat they were about to opt into.
And former First Lady Michelle Obama's mostrecent memoir, The Light We Carry,
she said, when we allow ourselvesto celebrate tiny victories as important and meaningful,
(16:14):
we start to understand the incremental natureof change. How one vote can
help change our democracy, How raisinga child who is whole and loved can
help change a nation, How educatingone girl can change a whole village for
the better. We want to takesome time to celebrate some of our victories
for charter school students, including amajor one protecting the charter schools program.
(16:40):
Last year, in twenty twenty two, the US Department of Education proposed harm
for rules to the program that wouldhave made it harder for charter schools to
grow. And under your leadership,the National Alliance help parents tell their stories
about their charter school experience in frontof the White House, and as a
(17:02):
result, the US Department of Educationremoved some of the harmful suggestions. How
did that victory make you feel,and what are some of the other major
wins we've celebrated as a charter schoolsector. Well, Brittany, you can't
quote Michelle Obama and not open thedoor to having a discussion around her leadership.
I read her book Becoming. Ihaven't read this recent book, and
(17:23):
everything she says in Becoming, andsome of the things I've heard here are
like gospels, so you can turnthe book into a set of quotes and
like remind yourself of her and heryou know who she is, how she
grew up, what she became,all of that. It's just so interesting
and also kind of a testament ofwhat I was saying earlier about the American
(17:45):
dream and the opportunities you have ifyou're afforded a good education. And we
hope that she will come to ourNational Charter Schools Conference one day, because
our audience, like all audiences,would love to see her and be inspired
by her. As in terms ofyour question, though, of course I
was ecstatic, there were a lotof other things that happened before this rally,
(18:07):
and we did a very good jobof articulating the risks to the field
gathering signatures, getting people to sendletters comment letters to the US Department of
Education to describe how these rules wouldimpact them. So the volume of letters
that went in, as well asthe unique nature of some of the letters,
(18:29):
was really important because in rulemaking,most people don't know what rulemaking is,
which is probably a good thing.So the fact that we got so
many people who are normally not thinkingabout this to take action around the rule
was very significant. But what wastransformational with the rally is that the ultimate
recipients of all these activities are individualswho are waiting for their chance to send
(18:51):
their kids to a good school.So having moms come to DC and articulate
what was at stake in plain languageand made a huge friends both in the
course of public opinion, but italso gave someone like me, who started
her career advocating on behalf of individualfamilies who wanted a school of choice.
It kind of brought all that fullcircle together. I loved it, and
(19:14):
I think the ultimate ticket to victoryfor US as a movement is by engaging
those families far more than we havebefore in state advocacy and local advocacy,
and of course federal advocacy. Butof course there are a lot of other
victories. You know, we havehad so many of them over time,
and so what happens sometimes in anyanything that's disrupting the status quo is that
(19:38):
you are going to hit the wall. And the reason the status quo is
reacting the way it's reacting is becauseyou have had an impact. You have
been effective. If you didn't havethat impact, they wouldn't be reacting this
way. So the pain points andthe challenges we're facing is a direct byproduct
of our success. And you justneed to make sure we're constantly reminding ourselves
(20:03):
and our constituents and our funders thatin order to take this ball to the
finish line. Now that you're you'reat the twenty yard line with a team
that has a really strong defense,you've brought the ball that far, it's
going to be harder to you know, get that touchdown. But that's when
the game is really taking place.This is not the time to fold and
(20:25):
call it quits. This is thetime to really fight because we're close to
winning absolutely, and for all thewomen listening or watching who want to stand
up for what they believe in,whether it's gender, equality, educational rights,
safety, or just for a spaceto be heard. What guidance would
you give them, including women whoare considering a career in education or those
(20:49):
who aspire to leadership roles. Iwould first start by saying something that is
said a lot lately, which isto really be true to yourself and you
know who you are and what youwant to become. Because when I was
growing up, my goal was andagain in you know, most immigrant families
(21:14):
want their kids to be lawyers,doctors, and engineers. So of course
I took a different path. Butnowadays, the jobs of tomorrow are going
to likely be jobs that women aregoing to create today because everything is being
disrupted by technology. So I thinkit's really important to have good, strong
core values and an interest and reallyknow yourself enough to know what is going
(21:37):
to make me happy. Once youhome in on that, then figuring out
what you need, what skills youneed, and what education you need is
going to matter. The other thingthat I've leveraged, and quite frankly,
the thing that's given me advantages thatI don't know that I would have had
in any other city, is networking. There are a lot of women and
(22:00):
men here in DC who love totalk about what they do. There are
a lot of jobs in public policy, So for me, identifying what I
wanted to do, where I wantedto work, and then just talking to
the people on those jobs to seehow I could get those jobs is what
made a difference, instead of justwaiting to see an announcement or applying online,
which seems to be the way peopleare searching for jobs, and certainly
(22:25):
the pandemic didn't help. So Iwould, you know, identifying who you
are and what you want to dois the first step, but then I
would place a little bit more ofa premium on internships and on the job
training. I have so many countlessfriends who have told me the story of
they got a law degree, theywent into a law firm, they hated
it. Now they're doing you know, they're a staff assistant or a chief
(22:48):
of staff on the hill. NowI'm not saying the law degree is not
useful to being a chief of staff, but I don't know that they needed
to spend that much time and spendthat much money for a law degree to
do what they're doing today. SoI think it's important to identify those things
and to find individuals who are doingthe work to really understand what brought them
to where they are and use themas role models. Well, thank you
(23:14):
so much for joining us today.We really appreciate you being here. Nina
Reese, President and CEO of theNational Alliance for Public Charter Schools. I'm
Brittany Baker, your host on GetSchooled on Public Education. Thank you for
tuning in, and Happy Women's HistoryMonth. Produced by Heartcast Media.
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