The Learning Curve

This week on The Learning Curve, Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute discussed the state of K-12 education reform, including declining test scores, COVID-related learning loss, and the growth of education bureaucracies and non-instructional staffing. He reflected on charter schools, school choice, and how knowledge of U.S. history and civics should be taught. Lance talked about efforts to rebuild coalitions to promote charter schools, and the impact of two recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings on expanding private and religious school choice for families.

This week on The Learning Curve, McGill University Professor Marc Raboy, author of Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World, explores how twentieth-century Italian communications pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made his world-changing discoveries. Prof. Raboy explores the global significance of Marconi’s first transoceanic signal transmission in 1901, and how today’s world of smartphones, Wi-Fi, satellite TV, GPS navigation, and wireless computer networking derives from Marconi’s historic work. Prof. Raboy closes the interview with a reading from his Marconi biography.

This week on The Learning Curve, cohosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson spoke with Donald Graham, Chairman of Graham Holdings Company, previously The Washington Post Company. Mr.Graham discussed his family’s ownership of The Washington Post, their efforts to bring the paper to prominence and financial stability. He talked about his mother, Katharine Graham’s, history-changing achievements, including the Post’s coverage of the Watergate scandal. Graham reflects upon how his military and police career informed his work as a journalist, his views on social media, and his work in higher education reform and philanthropy on behalf of immigrant youth.

This week on The Learning Curve, cohost Cara Candal and guest cohost Michael Bindas, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, speak with noted constitutional law professor Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School. They discuss the legal basis for private and religious school choice, and how American constitutionalism supports parental choice in education. Prof. Hamburger explores the implications of recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin for the future of private and religious school litigation in America. Prof. Hamburger closes with a reading from his book Purchasing Submission: Conditions, Power, and Freedom.

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohost Jonathan Greenberg speaks with Loyola University Maryland professor and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Dr. Diana Schaub. They discuss America’s democratic civic culture and how Enlightenment thinkers shaped the Founders’ views about modern republican self-government. Prof. Schaub explores the legacies, speeches, and writings of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, and how knowledge of U.S. history and primary sources can debunk revisionist approaches to teaching history and civics. Dr. Schaub closes the interview with a reading from her recent book, His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation.

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard speak with Morehouse College's Dr. Marisela Martinez-Cola, JD, about her book The Bricks before Brown: The Chinese American, Native American, and Mexican Americans' Struggle for Educational Equality, about the long struggle for equal opportunity in American education. She discussed the many cases that preceded Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 decision that overturned the doctrine of "separate but equal" established in the Supreme Court's 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Dr. Martinez-Cola reviews the important, lesser-known legal challenges brought by Chinese American, Native American, and Mexican American plaintiffs, and how their efforts set the stage for Brown and continue to shape Americans' understanding of civil rights and equality of educational opportunity.

This week on The Learning Curve, Gerard and guest cohost Alisha Searcy speak with Dr. Howard Fuller, Founder/Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning (ITL) at Marquette University, about the state of education reform and the ongoing push to expand school choice and charter schools. Dr. Fuller discusses educational options available to minority students today, the role of charter schools in overall reform of urban education, and how the nation’s political, civic, and religious leaders can address racial divisions. He also shares with listeners highlights and frustrations from his long and remarkable career in education.

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohosts Charlie Chieppo and Alisha Searcy speak with Dr. Eric Foner, Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author on Lincoln, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. They discuss what educators and students today need to know about the post-Civil War era, Reconstruction, and the legacy of slavery. Professor Foner talks about emancipated slaves' quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship, and the importance of studying and understanding the Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. He closes the interview with a reading from his book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and guest cohost Charlie Chieppo speak with Dr. Carey Wright, former Mississippi state superintendent of education. They discuss the lessons she’s learned about education policymaking across her career, and the state leadership that was necessary to achieve dramatic improvements in fourth graders' reading scores in Mississippi during her time there. Dr. Wright also talks about the role Mississippi’s great literature and blues music should play in the curriculum of K-12 schooling. She discusses the importance of early childhood education and literacy programs, as well as the lessons educators can draw from Mississippi's heroes in the Civil Rights Movement, including Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.

This week on The Learning Curve, Gerard and guest cohost Jay Greene discuss the history of modern China with Dr. Frank Dikötter, author of the People's Trilogy, a landmark study of the impact of Communism on the ordinary people of China. Dr. Dikötter discusses Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist revolution, the Great Leap Forward, China's economic ascent under Deng Xiaoping, and the hard realities that the U.S. and the West must understand as they seek to engage with the rising economic and military power that is modern China. Prof. Dikötter closes the interview with a reading from his book, China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower.