Kim Borchers (Photo: Bird Dog Recruitment & Consulting, LLC)

On this episode of Take Back Our Schools, Beth and Andrew speak with parent advocate Kim Borchers. Kim is the President and owner of Bird Dog Recruitment and Consulting LLC, was formerly with the Foundation for Government Accountability, and has spent 20+ years in the grassroots movement. Along the way she also served in politics, serving as a Deputy Chief of Staff for a Midwest governor, is the current RNC National Committeewoman for Kansas and currently advises and directs the Policy Circle’s Civic Leadership Engagement Roadmap (CLER) program. Kim is also part of the Independent Women’s Forum. 

 Kim speaks about her first experiences as a parent activist when she was a young mom fighting pornography in her local public library. We talk about Kim’s passion for preparing women to effectively engage in their own local communities, and how the landscape of the parent activist has changed. Kim also shares her advice for how to get other women to join the fight for their children’s educations and speaks about the work the Policy Circle is doing training women to be community activists and school board candidates.

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Published in: Education, Education, Podcasts

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There are 2 comments.

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  1. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Good story.  It is probably what needs to be done in Democrat run states.  However, we have to be much bolder in states with Republican governors.   Governors can do what New Zealand did to go from the bottom of the wests schools to the top, just behind Singapore, in one year.  They eliminated teachers unions and government controls that ran schools and made every school compete for students with every other school in the country.  Teachers ran schools.   First thing teachers did to compete with other schools was  fire lousy teachers who both parents and other teachers knew.  Our approach, even if successful will take decades and we don’t have decades and certainly this generation of kids deserves real education immediately.  It can be done immediately with gutsy real governors.   It basically means privatization with parents  free to choose any school but get to keep their education dollars and use them how they choose.  Its a way to have markets determine outcomes as occurs where the economy functions well, but keeps education equal for for all students.  

    • #1
  2. Andrew Gutmann Podcaster
    Andrew Gutmann
    @andrewgutmann

    I Walton (View Comment):

    Good story. It is probably what needs to be done in Democrat run states. However, we have to be much bolder in states with Republican governors. Governors can do what New Zealand did to go from the bottom of the wests schools to the top, just behind Singapore, in one year. They eliminated teachers unions and government controls that ran schools and made every school compete for students with every other school in the country. Teachers ran schools. First thing teachers did to compete with other schools was fire lousy teachers who both parents and other teachers knew. Our approach, even if successful will take decades and we don’t have decades and certainly this generation of kids deserves real education immediately. It can be done immediately with gutsy real governors. It basically means privatization with parents free to choose any school but get to keep their education dollars and use them how they choose. Its a way to have markets determine outcomes as occurs where the economy functions well, but keeps education equal for for all students.

    Well said. I’m 1/3 of the way through Betsy DeVos’s new book, who we are interviewing tomorrow for the podcast. She talks about how hard it was even to get some Republican governors to support school choice and go against the unions. Couldn’t agree more that we need more courage in our political leadership on this issue.

    • #2
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