On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant speaks with Quincy Natay, superintendent of Chinle Unified School District #24 in Chinle, AZ about the critical need of Impact Aid funding, the nation’s oldest federal K-12 education program that turns 75 this year.

• The Basics of Impact Aid booklet
• Impact Aid Overview One-Pager

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant interviews superintendents from around the country about how they advocate for public education not only for their schools, but also for their communities and families, and asks if they have advice for others looking to get involved.

The featured superintendents are:

• Wendy Birhanzel, superintendent, Harrison School District Two, CO
• Quintin Shepherd, superintendent, Pflugerville Independent School District, TX
• Sharonica Hardin-Bartley, superintendent, University City School District, MO
• Stephanie Burroughs, assistant superintendent, Foxborough Public School District, MA

What’s at stake for K-12 schools at the U.S. Supreme Court? Kat Sturdevant interviews Sonja Trainor, executive director of the National School Attorneys Association, to break down the key education cases on the docket and what they could mean for educators, students, and school leaders across the country.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant is joined by Jessie Mandle, National Program Director of the Healthy Schools Campaign, to deep dive the Campaign's new report about how Medicaid cuts will significantly affect schools and students (released in partnership with AASA).

The report, How Medicaid Cuts Will Harm Students & Schools, can be found here.

The resource Jessie mentioned from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families on Medicaid/CHIP Coverage by School Districts, 2019-2023 can be found here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant gets a much anticipated update from Sasha Pudelski, AASA's Director of Advocacy on where the school voucher movement currently stands in the 119th Congress, U.S. Department of Education, and beyond in a new year and a new administration.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Noelle Ellerson Ng interviews Dr. Rachel S. White, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin College of Education about a new report from The Superintendent Lab about the cost of divisive conflicts and and how school districts and superintendents are affected.

The Superintendent Lab was founded by Dr. White and her report can be found here. Featured blog post on The Leading Edge Blog about this report can be found here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant gets into the weeds on the current saga of the FCC's Universal Service Fund and E-Rate with Jon Bernstein, an education technology and telecommunications lobbyist and president of Bernstein Strategy Group.

You can read EdLiNC's letters to the 5th Circuit Court here and the ruling here.

On this episode of PEP Talk: Kat Sturdevant deep dives the role of education in the 2024 presidential election with Jonathan Voss, partner at Lake Research Partners, a national public opinion and political strategy research firm.