Beth and Andrew speak with education innovator and author Ray Ravaglia about what lead to his founding of the Stanford Online High School back in 2007, and the challenges of using technology to create a robust online school for gifted and talented students.

Ravaglia discusses how online learning has changed over the past several decades, and especially since the Covid years. We delve into his current work at the organization, Opportunity Education, and how technology can be used in the classroom to successfully track student learning and engagement. We also talk about the pros and cons of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT in education.

Ray Ravaglia is the author of two books, numerous articles, and has produced over 100 online courses.

Education analyst Max Eden joins Andrew and Beth for a wide-ranging discussion on the issues facing today’s eductaion system. Eden describes what led to him to a career studying education policy and we discuss his explosive and bestselling book about the Parkland school shooting, which concluded that progressive “restorative justice” policies in the school led to the horrific incident.

Eden also gives us an update on the Biden administrations proposed changes to Title IX rules and their impact on girls sports. We also discuss what states like Florida are doing to combat progressive ideology in public schools and we talk about the rapidly growing movement for school choice.

Max Eden is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on education reform, specifically K–12 and early childhood education, and was previously a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Max is the coauthor of the bestseller “Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students” and the coeditor of “The Every Student Succeeds Act: What It Means for Schools, Systems, and States.” Eden has testified about school violence before Congress and about the “school-to-prison pipeline” before the US Commission on Civil Rights.

Photo courtesy of Karith Foster

On this episode, Andrew and Beth speak with comedian and diversity trainer, Karith Foster.

Photo courtesy of Dorian Abbot

This week Beth and Andrew speak with geophysicist Dorian Abbot, an outspoken activist for academic freedom. Abbot discusses his views on the state of free speech and academic freedom in elite universities in the United States and talks about his own high profile experience of being cancelled from a speech he was supposed to give at MIT because of his outspoken activism against the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) regime.

Dan Proft (Photo: WIND-AM and Salem Interactive Media

On this episode Beth and Andrew speak with Chicago radio host and former Illinois gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft.

This week Beth and Andrew speak with Pastor and community leader, Corey B. Brooks of Chicago. Pastor Brooks discusses the fight against violence gripping the city’s poorest neighborhoods. He talks about how progressive policies over the past 60 years have led to a deterioration of black neighborhoods and the destruction of the traditional family.

Moreover, Pastor Brooks explains how the loss of religion and the deterioration of schools has impacted the community and how that adds to the allure of gangs to young black males. We also discuss Pastor Brook’s efforts to mentor at risk children and his vision for a new Christian charter school for boys, which he hopes to open in 2025.

Pastor Corey B. Brooks, founder and Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and founder and CEO of Project H.O.O.D. Communities Development Corporation has become a leading voice and presence in the fight against the violence gripping Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. Pastor Brook’s efforts received national acclaim when he spent 94 days living on the roof of a rundown motel located across the street from the church.

This week Beth and Andrew speak with attorney and activist Will Estrada, who explains what is meant by the term “parental rights” and gives a history of legislation and the important court cases that have impacted the rights of parents.

Estrada also discusses his organization’s work fighting for curriculum transparency in our nation’s public schools and the importance of fighting for parental rights at all three levels of government: local school boards, state legislatures and at the federal level. We also touch on how the issues of gender and trans ideology, and mental health is affecting the movement.

Will Estrada is a husband, dad, attorney, and the President of ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation, two nationwide nonprofits headquartered in Loudoun County, Virginia that have advocated at the local, state, and federal levels for the last sixteen years to protect children by empowering parents.

(Photo courtesy of Karol Markowicz)

On this episode, Andrew and Beth speak with journalist and author Karol Markowicz, who discusses her brand new book, Stolen Youth, which details how our nation’s children have been under siege from Covid restrictions and the left’s political indoctrination in schools. She also shares her view on what parents must do to raise their own children given today’s political climate and how they can help the fight within their kids’ schools.

On this episode, Beth and Andrew speak with evolutionary biologist Colin Wright. Wright walks us through the controversies around gender and trans ideology from the perspective of an evolutionary biologist and discusses the difference between sex and gender and explains why there are only two sexes: male and female.

He shares his views on why so few scientists and doctors are willing to speak up on these issues. That leaves it to the parents and we talk about what they need to know about gender and sex in order to understand the ideologies being pushed on their children in our nation’s schools.

Colin Wright is an evolutionary biologist, Manhattan Institute Fellow, and an Academic Advisor at the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM). He received his PhD in evolutionary biology from UC Santa Barbara in 2018, and was an Eberly Research Fellow at Penn State from 2018 to 2020. Wright began writing publicly about issues of sex and gender in late 2018. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post, Newsweek, Quillette, and other major news outlets and peer-reviewed journals.

Photo courtesy of Eric Cohen

This week Andrew and Beth speak with Eric Cohen, author and founder of The Lobel Center for Jewish Classical Education where we discuss the importance of classical education for the Jewish community, the differences between classical and progressive schooling and the relationship between classical education and academic rigor.

Lance Izumi (U.S. Army photo by William Pratt)

On this episode, Andrew and Beth speak with author and education expert Lance Izumi about his new book, The Great Parent Revolt, which highlights the stories of ordinary people that stood up to the against critical race theory and woke indoctrination in their children’s schools. We discuss how these new American heroes come from all walks of life, geographically, politically and socioeconomically. Lance talks about how many of the parents he profiles share one thing in common – an immigrant story. Lance also shares the story of a student in California who describes what political indoctrination is like from the student’s prospective.

On this episode Andrew and Beth interview professor Eric Kaufmann on his new Manhattan Institute report, “School Choice Is Not Enough: The Impact of Critical Social Justice Ideology in American Education.” Eric shares the findings of his comprehensive report and details how critical race theory and radical gender ideology are rampant in American schools, including public, private and religious schools. Eric discusses how this ideology in schools is influencing political beliefs and how it is associated with a fear of speaking one’s mind. Eric also shares his policy recommendations for Republicans in both blue and red states and we discuss whether or not school choice is the solution the problem of social justice indoctrination.

Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is the author of Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities (Penguin/Abrams, 2018/19.) He has also written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Newsweek, National Review, New Statesman, Financial Times and other outlets.

On this episode Beth and Andrew speak with philosophy professor and author Jason D. Hill. Jason talks about his life as an American immigrant from Jamaica, what led him to the study of philosophy, and his rejection of leftist social justice ideology. He discusses the state of today’s woke college campus, including what is motivating impressionable students, and why most professors are so reluctant to speak up against illiberal trends. We talk about whether higher ed is savable and Jason shares his views on the growing chorus and power of the reparations movement.

Jason D. Hill is professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago specializing in ethics, social and political philosophy, American politics and moral psychology. He is the author of several books, including What Do White Americans Owe Black People: Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression.

In this powerful episode of Take Back Our Schools, Beth and Andrew speak with Mom and children’s advocate, Erin Friday. Erin shares her emotional journey rescuing her own teenage daughter from the cult of transgender ideology. She speaks about the role of sex ed curriculum in schools in introducing children to concepts of gender ideology, and how the isolation from extended school closures during Covid encouraged girls to become lost in a sea of toxic social media and susceptible to social contagion. Erin also discusses how schools are deliberating keeping parents in the dark about their children and driving a wedge between parent and child. We also talk to Erin about her advocacy and legislative work in California aimed at protecting vulnerable children and holding schools and healthcare institutions responsible for the damage being down to vulnerable children because of gender ideology and the trans movement.

Erin Friday, Esq. is a California licensed attorney and lifetime Democrat. She practiced law for over 20 years in the private sector. Ms. Friday is now a co-leader of the USA’s Western Regional branch of Our Duty (ourduty.group), an international coalition of non-partisan parents and allies advocating for safeguarding of minors and young adults against transgender ideology. She also leads the local branch of Parents of Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoric Kids.

On this episode of Take Back Our Schools, Andrew and Beth speak with author and anti-woke activist, James Lindsay, known on Twitter as @ConceptualJames. James shares his views on how America’s education system was overtaken by revolutionary ideologies based in Marxism and how these ideologies, including critical race theory and queer theory, are manifested in the classroom. We discuss how parents can recognize this transformation of their children’s schools and what can be done to reclaim our country’s education system and reverse the woke takeover of our institutions.

James Lindsay is the founder of New Discourses and the author of several books, including Cynical Theories, Race Marxism and most recently, The Marxification of Education. A former mathematician, James is the leading authority on the ideological foundations of the woke movement.

Photo courtesy of Elana Yaron Fishbein

Andrew and Beth speak with Dr. Elana Yaron Fishbein, founder of the organization, No Left Turn in Education. Elana tells her story of how she became an activist in the parents movement and founded a national “boots on the ground” grassroots organization. She talks about the issues that motivated her to begin speaking up about the crises of K-12 education, including critical race theory and the sexualization of children. She also shares her views on what has changed in the parents movement over the past several years and where she thinks the parents movement is going.

On this episode of Take Back Our Schools, Andrew and Beth welcome teacher and author, Daniel Buck. Daniel talks about his new book, What is Wrong with Our Schools, and shares his own experiences as a student in the progressive echo chamber of education schools and as a teacher. Daniel describes his journey away from progressive education and towards knowledge-based traditional education, especially classical literature. We discuss the importance of student behavior in the classroom and the deleterious impact of restorative justice programs. Daniel also interprets and criticizes progressive buzzwords such as “critical thinking” and “child-centered learning.”

Daniel Buck is a middle-school English teacher, having taught at both public and private schools He is also senior visiting fellow at the Fordham Institute, and his writing has been featured in many publications including The Wall Street Journal and National Review.

On this episode of Take Back Our Schools, Andrew and Beth welcome classical education innovator Jeremy Tate who talks about his experiences teaching in inner city New York City and what led him to found the Classic Learning Test, a standardized test for classical education that aims to compete with the SAT and ACT. We discuss the differences between classical education and progressive/modern education and Jeremy shares his views on the history of progressive education and of standardized testing in the United States. We also discuss the recent news of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis’s led takeover of the New College of Florida.

Jeremy Tate is the founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test (CLT). Jeremy is also the host of the Anchored Podcast that features discussions at the intersection of education and culture. Prior to founding CLT, Jeremy served as Director of College Counseling at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Religious Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary.

Leonard Sax

Beth and Andrew welcome family physician and author, Dr. Leonard Sax, who shares his views on how both parenting and children have changed over the 30+ years he has practiced family medicine, particularly how the scourge of cell phones, social media and pervasive pornography have impacted our nation’s youth.

Photo courtesy Katherine Birbalsingh

On this episode Andrew and Beth interview “Britain’s Strictest Headmistress,” Kathrine Birbalsingh. Kathrine speaks about the state of education in the U.K., which we compare with our own experiences in the U.S.