After busting some myths about US education performance and its causes, we interview renowned SF Teacher of the Year Lana Corda to understand some of the challenges facing one of the toughest school districts in the country. We learn a lot about the on-the-ground details on some of the barriers to improving student performance.

Sources

• Video, "Laney's Story"
• SF Mayor's Teacher of the Year Award
• Education Funding History (Committee for Education Funding)
• Estimated average annual salary of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools, by state (IES-NCES)
• Average Salary for All K-12 Teachers (PayScale)
• How Much are Teachers really Paid? A Nationwide Analysis of Teacher Pay (MacIver Institute)
• Palo Alto Unified School District: 2016-2017 Teachers' Salary Schedule
• Irwin Garfinkel, Timothy M. Smeeding, Welfare State Myths and Measurement (Capitalism and Society)

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“Politics, but we don’t do the thinking for you.”

ReConsider, by Xander Snyder and Erik Fogg, is a twice per month podcast in which we take on, in-depth, one pressing political issue facing western Democracies with a fresh, researched, and challenging perspective. We help listeners see the full context behind the issue and make up their own minds.

ReConsider Media is a syndicate of IVN.us. This podcast was originally published on ReConsider Media July 19, 2016.