WonkyFolk

About WonkyFolk

WonkyFolk is a discussion series between Andy Rotherham and Jed Wallace intended to provide an informative and engaging forum where education reformers can grapple with tough issues related to our shared quest to improve public education in our country.

Publisher

CharterFolk

Category

education · news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Apr 2023

Latest episode

29 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

38 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Vol 38 – Derrell’s Mom Got There First: Unpacking The Nikole Hannah-Jones Article

   Ten years ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote about choosing a struggling, segregated public school for her daughter as a matter of principle. This month she wrote the sequel, and it did not go the way she hoped. Derrell Bradford read it at 6:30 on a Sunday morning and forwarded it to his mother with a text of his own: "Thank you for not doing this to me." Growing up in Southwest Baltimore, his family had debated whose address to borrow so he could escape the school he was zoned for. Here's the part that stings. Hannah-Jones spent ten years looking for a great school for her daughter. Success Academy, Achievement First, Uncommon and KIPP were, as Derrell puts it, "a 30-second walk away from PS 307." Sixty-three thousand Black families in New York City have already made that walk. She didn't. Derrell thinks he knows why: she doesn't like the policy that built them. Derrell, president of 50CAN, joins Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham. Derrell calls her a talented writer. The agreement ends there: whether the piece moves anything, why the charter movement stopped saying out loud what works, and whether the problem is courage, boredom, or plain politics. Along the way: why Derrell says "she's catching hell from Black people because Black people care about their kids," the "Bad Bet" Democrats made on education, a New York Times list of 30 school fixes that left out charter schools entirely, Jed's data putting Indianapolis charters off the charts, the daughter as the Shakespearean jester who tells the truth, and the question nobody is asking: no one has questioned her right to make that choice, so why deny it to everyone else? In this episode: Derrell's Sunday-morning read, and the text he sent his mother: "Thank you for not doing this to me" Southwest Baltimore, borrowed addresses, a scholarship to an all-boys day school, and why Derrell says "I lived it" Why Derrell thinks "the intent must have always been to write the second story" Nick Gillespie's point: compelling journalism, weak policy analysis Andy on what the article leaves out, from a school spending over $50 thousand a kid to No Child Left Behind, and why "everyone's not entitled to their own facts" "She's catching hell from Black people because Black people care about their kids" Jed's two cognitive dissonances: "my kid's in a lousy school and I'm a good parent," and "I got my kid into a good school and I'm a good citizen" "It's a mistake to build public policy that requires people not to act in the best interest of their own children," with Success Academy, Achievement First, Uncommon, and KIPP a 30-second walk from PS 307 Derrell's "Bad Bet": Common Core, teacher eval, ESSA, Trump's first term, and Democrats trading their education agenda to win back the unions The New York Times' 30 ideas for fixing public schools, and why charter schools weren't one of them The Newark school whose former principals went on to start North Star Academy and DSST, and why that history is missing from the front of the reform pipeline Indianapolis: integrated charter schools under one umbrella, new state data, and a context the rest of the country doesn't have Empathy for the kid, and the daughter as the Shakespearean jester who tells the truth Boredom, courage, or politics: why the sector went quiet, and what an alien would make of both parties "No one has questioned her right to make it," and a new scale lever: charters, ESAs, tax credits, and 1.6 million kids in open enrollment Show Notes & Resources: Nikole Hannah-Jones, NYT Magazine (2016) (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/choosing-a-school-for-my-daughter-in-a-segregated-city.html) Nikole Hannah-Jones, NYT Magazine (2026) (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html) Michael Harriott's Contraband Camp podcast, with Nikole Hannah-Jones (https://www.contrabandcamp.com/p/the-article-blacksplained-by-nikole) Derrell Bradford in The 74 (https://www.the74million.org/article/bradford-why-nikole-hannah-jones-faith-in-public-schools-loses-sight-of-some-harsher-truths/) Derrell Bradford in Vital City (https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/nikole-hannah-jones-biggest-blind-spot/) "Markets and Monopolies: The Faces of School Choice in 2025" — Derrell Bradford, PEPG (https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Taubman/PEPG/research/PEPG25_01.pdf) "Say It Loud" — Derrell Bradford, CharterFolk (https://www.charterfolk.org/charterfolk-contributor-derrell-bradford-say-it-loud/) "When Cognitive Dissonance Becomes Cognitive Offloading" — Jed Wallace, CharterFolk (https://www.charterfolk.org/when-cognitive-dissonance-becomes-cognitive-offloading/) "An Education Conservative Is a Liberal Who's Had To Do Cafeteria Duty?" — Andy Rotherham, Eduwonk (https://eduwonk.substack.com/p/an-education-conservative-is-a-liberal) Reason Roundtable episode Andy referenced (https://reason.com/podcast/2026/09/21/does-cnn-deserve-to-be-banned-from-the-white-house/) Coleman Hughes, The Free Press (https://www.thefp.com/p/coleman-hughes-lessons-nikole-hannah-jones-school-experiment) The NYT's 30 ideas for fixing schools, ranked (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/upshot/ideas-fixing-schools-ranked.html) Eva Moskowitz: "I sent my children to the schools I founded. It wasn't a sacrifice." (https://www.successacademies.org/education-blog/i-sent-my-children-to-the-schools-i-founded-it-wasnt-a-sacrifice/) The Mind Trust on 2026 ILEARN results in Indianapolis (https://www.themindtrust.org/blog/2026/09/25/2026-ilearn-indianapolis-charter-schools-are-the-highest-performing-public-school-type-in-ips-boundaries/) Terrance Carroll's podcast with Peter Groff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_saq2mHxDg) Mike Petrilli's roundup of responses (https://schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/a-great-week-for-ed-reform-thanks) CharterFolk (https://charterfolk.org) Hosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether) Guest: Derrell Bradford (President, 50CAN) Sponsor WonkyFolk: Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Sponsorship packages are available, including live WonkyFolk events. Reach out to Jed Wallace at jed@charterfolk.org (mailto:jed@charterfolk.org) for more information. Watch the full video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/FUQsLxZW7fg). WonkyFolk is produced by CharterFolk (https://charterfolk.org).

2. 

   31 Aug 2026

   Vol 37 - Reed, Rahm, and Randi: The New Three R's in Education?

   The founder of Netflix says school is about to be unrecognizable. A former mayor is talking about reading scores. A teachers' union president is boycotting Target. Reed Hastings, Rahm Emanuel, and Randi Weingarten — Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham take the three in turn. Reed Hastings makes the technologist's case, and Andy, who moderated his conversation with Mike Goldstein, isn't buying the analogy that carries it: personalized learning is not personalized medicine. Jed has a study out of China where homework quality soared and measured learning fell behind classrooms using no AI at all. Rahm Emanuel, meanwhile, is speaking common sense about schools at a moment when common sense sounds radical — and Andy thinks that lane is worth more than the endorsement everyone else is chasing. And Randi Weingarten is boycotting Target, which Andy suspects has almost nothing to do with Target, while Jed thinks it will cost the sector something real. In this episode: Andy on Reed Hastings the technologist — "for a lot of people in Silicon Valley, technology, it is a faith" Why Hastings' analogy to personalized cancer drugs struck Andy as "almost like a category error" The Economist's write-up of a Chinese dataset: homework quality up, measured learning down against classrooms without AI Jed's daughter's clinical psychology program, where a bot now stands in for a first practicum client Why Andy thinks the biggest gains may be teacher-facing — training, screening, and remediation rather than student tutoring Cognitive offloading, and why "a crappy lesson off of ChatGPT or Claude isn't any better than getting one off of Pinterest" Jed on AI as a force magnifier arriving exactly when adult ambivalence is at its worst The techlash, and Andy's insistence that the first response to a sweeping declaration should be more questions Liz Cohen's "Dry January for tech," and cell phone bans as "a white flag that we don't know what to do" Virginia: Nina's CharterFolk piece, a state with roughly seven charter schools, and a law that lets only localities authorize Youngkin's twenty lab schools — shipbuilding, aerospace on the Eastern Shore — and the politics threatening them Jed's California strategy: put a charter in all fifty-six counties and force the record Whether the 2020 presidential primary locked in the Democratic Party's posture toward charters — and what a 2028 field might do Rahm Emanuel "staking out the common sense lane," and why education reads to voters as a proxy for seriousness Enrollment decline, the end of COVID funding, and Jed's 2021 thought exercise about Sacramento Unified Randi Weingarten's boycott of Target, Andy's late-night Walmart story, and a corporate sector that had already decided education was a no-win proposition Show Notes & Resources: The conversation behind this episode: Reed Hastings and Mike Goldstein, moderated by Andy Rotherham (Bellwether) (https://www.linkedin.com/events/7487956708225433600/) Reed Hastings on the impact of AI on schools (The 74) (https://www.the74million.org/article/netflixs-reed-hastings-on-the-impact-of-ai-on-schools/) Reed Hastings on what it will take for AI to be different from other ed tech (The 74) (https://www.the74million.org/article/reed-hastings-on-what-it-will-take-for-ai-to-be-different-from-other-edtech/) The Economist study on AI's impact on learning (https://share.google/1OWJ51FJ61lQZM78y) Sal Khan re-evaluates the impact of AI in schools — Chalkbeat (https://www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/09/sal-khan-reflects-on-ai-in-schools-and-khanmigo/) Bellwether on artificial intelligence (https://bellwether.org/focus-areas/artificial-intelligence/) "Screen Bans Can Be Education's Dry January — Time for a Much-Needed Reset" — Liz Cohen, The 74 (https://www.the74million.org/article/screen-bans-can-be-educations-dry-january-time-for-a-much-needed-reset/) Cell phone bans — Andy Rotherham, Eduwonk (https://eduwonk.substack.com/p/the-smartphone-war-is-over-and-we) "The Best Answer To Many Education Questions? Another Question" — Andy Rotherham, Eduwonk (https://eduwonk.substack.com/p/the-best-answer-to-many-education) The future of charter schools in an evolving school-choice landscape — AEI survey (AZ, FL, UT) (https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/the-future-of-charter-schools-in-an-evolving-school-choice-landscape-survey-evidence-from-arizona-florida-and-utah/) Musical chairs — Andy Rotherham, Eduwonk (https://eduwonk.substack.com/p/charter-schools-might-not-have-a) The AFT, Target, and teachers' retirement funds — Wall Street Journal opinion (https://www.wsj.com/opinion/aft-target-funds-teachers-retirement-e90081e5?st=PvbV7x&reflink=article_copyURL_share) The PBA's letter to the teachers union — New York Post (2014) (https://nypost.com/2014/08/17/teachers-union-joining-police-protest-is-graceful-pba-head/) Eduwonk (https://www.eduwonk.com/) CharterFolk (https://charterfolk.org) Hosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether) Sponsor WonkyFolk: Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Sponsorship packages are available, including live WonkyFolk events. Reach out to Jed Wallace at jed@charterfolk.org (mailto:jed@charterfolk.org) for more information. Watch the full video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/tI2Ib00SuqI). WonkyFolk is produced by CharterFolk (https://charterfolk.org).

3. 

   22 May 2026

   Vol 36 - A Conversation with Pat Brantley, CEO of Friendship Public Schools

   Pat Brantley — CEO of Friendship Public Schools and a 2026 inductee into the National Charter School Hall of Fame — joins Jed Wallace and Andy Rotherham for a WonkyFolk conversation recorded live in front of an audience at Friendship's Armstrong campus in Washington, DC. Pat traces her path from Newark to Princeton to Dr. Dorothy Height's civil rights work to Friendship House — and the moment the idea for a charter school was born. From there: what she says to charter critics, why she sees the public vs. public-charter divide as the sector's greatest failure, how she weighs growth against proficiency, the line-by-line math behind DC's charter budget shortfall, why hitting 50% market share makes charters "a target" rather than a protection, the case for "adopting" struggling schools, and — in a live audience Q&A — the role of Black male educators and what charter leaders owe their communities heading into the DC elections. In this episode: Pat's path from Newark to Princeton to Dr. Dorothy Height's civil rights work — and how she landed at Friendship House Donald Hentz, Friendship House's reinvention "to be about children," and the birth of the charter school idea Building Friendship into 15 campuses serving nearly 5,000 students across DC Why Pat names schools for local history — Friendship Armstrong, Friendship Blow Pierce — rather than erasing it What she says to charter critics: "I'm not listening to the critics. I'm listening to the parents." Why the public vs. public-charter divide is, in her view, the sector's greatest failure Growth vs. absolute proficiency — and why both have to matter Why report cards and transparent accountability still matter, and DC's new accountability framework The 25-year question: does DC have a North Star, and what Indianapolis got right — and at what cost The DC budget fight — Pat's line-by-line math on the per-pupil shortfall and $50 million in fixed costs shifted off DCPS Why hitting 50% market share gives charters "visibility" and makes them "a target" — not protection The case for mergers — or "adoption" — of struggling schools, and the turnaround of Friendship Ideal A live audience Q&A: the ecosystem responsibility of high-performing charters, the role of Black male educators, and what charter leaders owe their communities in an election year Dorothy Height's "fist" metaphor and "one Friendship, one band, one sound" Show Notes & Resources: Pat Brantley — bio (Friendship Public Schools Leadership Team) (https://www.friendshipschools.org/about/leadership-team/) Friendship Public Schools (https://www.friendshipschools.org/) DC Charter School Alliance (https://dccharters.org/) DC Public Charter School Board (https://www.dcpcsb.org/) National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (https://publiccharters.org/) Bellwether (https://bellwether.org/) Guest: Pat Brantley — CEO, Friendship Public Schools; Chair, DC Charter School Alliance; 2026 National Charter School Hall of Fame inductee Hosts: Jed Wallace (CharterFolk) and Andy Rotherham (Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Bellwether) Watch the full video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/). WonkyFolk is produced by CharterFolk (https://charterfolk.org).

Who has been a guest on WonkyFolk

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Linda McMahon
• Tim Daly
• Andy Fryer
• Lindsay Fryer

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Contact WonkyFolk

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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