This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard talk with Alisha Thomas Searcy, the Democratic nominee for Georgia state school superintendent. She shares her experience as a former six-term state legislator and school leader; her recent bid for Georgia’s top education post; and her passion for K-12 education reform. They explore her support of charter schools, school choice, and other accountability-based reforms, and how it impacted her reception within the Georgia Democratic Party, and among gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams and the teachers’ union (which endorsed her Republican opponent). She talks about the endorsements she received from bipartisan national figures such as former U.S. secretaries of education Rod Paige and Arne Duncan, as well as the fundraising realities of running for office, and the business community’s commitment to K-12 school reform. She shares insights on how education reform will likely proceed politically in Georgia and nationally.

Stories of the Week: How will the 2022 mid-term election results impact K-12 education? Cara and Gerard discuss. In New Mexico, voters passed a ballot measure that provides over $150 million a year for early childhood education.