AASA’s policy and advocacy team invites you to journey with them into the weeds of federal education policy at the national conference in Nashville. As in past years, there’s a policy strand of can’t-miss sessions taking place.
On Thursday, Feb. 17, attendees can spend their day learning about civil rights compliance in school districts; the fight for support of public education and how to ensure smart spending of federal ESSER funds at the local level.
Join Suzanne Goldberg, deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, for a presentation at 10:15 a.m. on recent federal K-12 civil rights actions followed by a discussion led by Goldberg about the recent changes to the Civil Rights Data Collection.
At the annual Federal Relations Luncheon at noon, Derek Black, a legal scholar and author of Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy, will discuss how the declining commitment to properly fund public education and the well-financed political agenda to expand vouchers and undermine public schools threatens not just public education but American democracy itself.
Then at 3 p.m., Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, will present “Taking Stock of ESSER Spending.” She will detail six potential mistakes school districts may be committing right now, opportunities and pitfalls of reporting ESSER spending, and how to demonstrate money is well spent in your district.
On Friday, Feb. 18, start the day with an early morning session on “Federal Regulations, Guidance and Court Cases” at 8 a.m. hosted by veteran education attorney Maree Sneed and Megan Wilson. At 11:15 a.m., hear from the AASA president-elect candidates at the president-elect forum. Then at 12:45 p.m., join the AASA advocacy team for a “Federal Education Update” with all the latest information from Washington, D.C. This is a must-attend session for those who are concerned about federal education matters and who want to stay engaged with AASA’s advocacy work.
Additional sessions on Day 2 include “Addressing the Decline of Vaccination Rates of U.S. Students: What Superintendents Can Do” at 2:30 p.m. and “Making the Most of Your ESSER Funds: Reflecting on your Plans for Recovery and Redesign” at 3:45 p.m.
You can follow the goings-on of the advocacy team and the conference’s policy sessions on the AASA blog and by following @AASAdvocacy and the advocacy team on Twitter: Noelle Ellerson (@Noellerson), Sasha Pudelski (@SPudelski), Kat Sturdevant (@K_Sturdevant) and Tara Thomas (@TaraEThomas1).
(Tara Thomas is a policy analyst at AASA.)