The Briefcase: Public Pensions and School Funding

Sarah is in Washington D.C. as part of her #CommissionerHolland duties, so this episode features two interviews. First, Beth talks with Angie Ferguson, a Kentucky state judicial secretary (and fellow Phi Mu and Transylvania University alum) about the public pension crisis. Then, Beth talks with Zahava Stadler, Manager of Policy and Research at EdBuild, about school funding, inequality, and new ways to think about education. 

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Angie Ferguson has been with the Kentucky state court system for 13 years. During that time, she has paid into Kentucky's non-hazardous workers' pension system. Angie recognizes that something has to give in our benefits system. She also knows that we aren't paying public workers enough to reasonably expect to shift all of the risk and burden to individuals. She gives us some live Friday feedback in this episode. 

Zahava Stadler is the Manager of Policy and Research at EdBuild, a national non-profit focused on bringing common sense solutions to school funding. Zahava and Beth discuss how we accept real property tax funding at the local level for schools as part of the natural order, and, in doing so, contribute to an unequal school system that fails many of our children.