Our Children Can't Wait

When it comes to system reform, the perspectives we should pay the most attention to are those who know the system best: individuals with lived experience. Our final episode of this season features two young changemakers using their experiences in foster care to help create a better reality for youth today. Eve Aaliyah Valdez is a youth activist with California Youth Connection, a youth-led organi...

Transition-age foster youth are young people between 16 and 25 years old who are transitioning out of the foster care system and into adulthood. Many of them are not prepared to live independently or have a strong support system to lean on. They may need help with finding stable housing or employment, paying for college, and curating supportive relationships they can rely on. Youth aging out of ca...

Nationally, only 3 out of 100 foster youth graduate with a bachelor's degree by age 26. Recent legislation in some states aims to increase this number by covering the full cost of in-state college attendance. However, students with foster care experience need a tremendous amount of support beyond financial aid to thrive in college and beyond, in areas such as life skills, housing and finances, sel...

Get a glimpse into the inner workings of state government and how elected officials and state agencies are working to support foster youth. This episode highlights perspectives from two different states: Jamie Burciaga, Colorado State Coordinator for Foster Care Education, and Isaac G. Bryan, California Assemblymember (55th District – Los Angeles), who will share his experiences in foster care and...

Foster youth tend to have a rough time in school. They are more likely to change homes and schools multiple times midyear, and can miss a lot of classes for reasons beyond their control. We spoke to foster youth advocate Dylan Tatom, who shared her educational experiences as a foster student and how she discovered her voice. La Shona Jenkins, who leads foster youth educational services for Los Ang...

Involvement in the foster care system is not random. Racism and social inequities are both reflected in and actively shape our foster care system that’s largely comprised of Black and Brown youth experiencing poverty. Foster care abolitionist Dorothy Roberts talks about the “family policing system” that is tied to historically oppressive and harmful practices, including slavery and the carceral sy...

Let’s unpack the U.S. foster care system as we know it. Child welfare and public policy historian Catherine E. Rymph provides a lesson on the origins of foster care and its evolution into the complex system that it is today. Child welfare systems change leader Sixto Cancel shares about his personal experiences of racism and abuse while in foster care that led him to found Think of Us . How did pov...

Foster students face unique challenges in and out of the classroom and they deserve more of our attention. Leading education scholars Tyrone Howard, Joseph Bishop, and Angela James discuss the intersections of foster care with poverty, systemic racism, homelessness, punitive discipline, and the carceral system. Who is responsible for the well-being of foster youth? How can schools more equitably s...

Among Us from UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools uplifts the experiences of students furthest from opportunity, and explores how systems and structures both in and out-of-school are either creating barriers or opportunities for young people. This season, we are going on a journey together through the foster care system. UCLA researchers unpack the foster system through conversations w...

In our final episode this season, we continue the shift from speaking with scholars across the country to speaking with young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen. Dr. Joe Bishop discusses the importance of diversifying college campuses with Kashish Bastola, a public education, racial and equity advocate and undergraduate student at Harvard University. Kashish sees school as a...

In this episode, we continue the shift from speaking to scholars across the country to speaking to young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen. Dr. Joe Bishop explores restorative justice approaches with high school senior Alima Kassim and her experiences after a mass shooting close to home at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville native Alima and her sisters h...

In this episode, we continue the shift from speaking to scholars across the country to speaking to young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen. Dr. Joe Bishop unpacks with Shiva Rajbhandari his decision to run for his district’s school board in Boise, Idaho and his passion for raising awareness about the climate crisis. Road trips after graduation are a rite of passage for many...

In this episode, we make a shift from speaking to scholars across the country to speaking to young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen. Dr. Joe Bishop begins the conversation on how to support young leaders with social media strategist and organizer Annie Wu Henry. Annie explains how digital spaces allow people to connect to communities that would be otherwise inaccessible. A...

Please keep your eyes peeled for more new episodes from Our Children Can't Wait coming this summer. We're talking to some interesting people who are making an impact organizing for educational policy reforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Bishop navigates student homelessness with researchers Dr. Matthew Morton and Dr. Earl J. Edwards, an issue that ties together many of the episodes’ previous topics. Both guests share their personal experiences with homelessness as students. They outline misconceptions and stigmas that we may have about the topic. Homelessness impacts one million young people in the US. How did this happen? Ac...

Dr. Joe Bishop examines youth incarceration and education policy with scholar and researcher Dr. Angela James.  We have all heard of the school-to-prison pipeline. Currently, the US spends $25 million a day to detain young people. Dr. Angela James brings a new framework to this conversation: one of transformation and hope. She outlines how incarcerated youth are educated and what their day-to...

Dr. Joe Bishop discusses youth voices and youth organizing with social justice education researcher and scholar Dr. Justin Coles of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  As a teen, Justin saw his community change from racially diverse to predominantly Black. He questioned why the reputation of his high school was negatively affected by the change in its racial composition. This led him t...

Dr. Joe Bishop explores how schools are financed with researchers and scholars Drs. Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos and Danielle Farrie.  Historically, school funding relies on local taxes, with each state having its own funding guidelines. The problem is that local communities’ taxes vary drastically, leaving many schools underfunded.  Oscar’s family came to the United States looking for bett...

Joe Bishop navigates school safety and policing with scholars and researchers Heather Meyer Reynolds and Ron Avi Astor.  When you think about school safety, do you automatically think of school shootings? Heather and Ron have been researching school safety since before the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado. They share how recent studies show school violence is actually decreasing despite th...

Joe Bishop explores housing policy with researcher Megan Gallagher.  With expertise in metropolitan housing policies and educational policies, Megan Gallagher’s research formst a crucial intersection for two issues that  are not often connected. It has become clear that communication between the two sectors is crucial for students and communities to thrive in the current housing crisis....

Joe Bishop takes a closer look at Integrated Schools and Communities with educators and scholars Dr. Jennifer B. Ayscue and Dr. Erica Frankenberg.  With segregation on the rise in the United States, Southern natives Jennifer and Erica compare the history of desegregation with the inequities between schools with segregated student bodies today. Their experiences of growing up in the South led...

Joe Bishop investigates Environmental Hazards and Education Policy with educators and researchers Dr. Sara Grineski and Dr. Timothy Collins. Combining their expertise in Sociology and Geography with Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Sara and Timothy have become an unstoppable team investigating how the locations of schools impact students' health and their ability to learn and are often ex...

Joe Bishop addresses school health with experts Alex Mays and Rochelle Davis.  As parents and a part of the Healthy Schools Campaign, Rochelle and Alex share how they became passionate for school health. From pesticides to sports to chronic health issues, they look at how such factors directly impact students’ ability to learn. How do we define school health? What is the role of policy when i...

Joe Bishop examines dismantling systemic racism with educator and researcher Dr. Tyrone Howard. Rooted in his lived experiences, Dr. Howard reflects on the inequities embedded in predominantly Black communities and schools. He was taught that education was the path to transformation for himself, his community, and the country, which has informed his life work as an educator. His philosophy is that...

Joe Bishop continues his conversation around whole child education with educator, leader, and scholar Channa Mae Cook, Ph. D. Channa’s real life experiences span states and various roles in education. She offers stories of teaching in California to opening a school in New Orleans, right after Hurricane Katrina, and how in both instances the infrastructure and systems failed the students, despite e...