I recently had the pleasure of recording an episode of The Recess Podcast, hosted by Indianapolis education leader David McGuire.

We discussed a number of recent stories here on the blog. Particularly our piece on the science of reading reforms undertaken by the state of Indiana and the end of for-profit charter schools in Indianapolis after Andrew J. Brown split from its charter management organization.

We also dove deep into what we think the biggest stories of the upcoming school year are going to be. For me, the direction of IPS as a result of the current school board race is a big one. We still don’t know much about the candidates, but we’ll be keeping an eye on the race as it develops. Four seats are up for grabs. One particular that hangs in the balance from what we do know about some of the candidates is whether or not the board will be amenable to increased partnerships with charter schools or whether IPS will move away from a more collaborative approach to the charter school sector.

The other, possibly even bigger story is the end of ESSER funding. I wrote about the pending impacts recently and I really can’t overstate how dramatic the funding cliff might end up being. In my estimation, too many schools are taking a “We’ll figure things out when the time comes” approach. Over the past three years, Marion County school districts have received nearly $500 million dollars. It’s largely been used on staffing. And many of those positions, if not all, are in serious jeopardy in the months ahead.

My thanks to David McGuire for having me on the podcast and for such a great conversation. You don’t want to miss it.