Sep 21, 2026 · 31 min · 11 segments
Michael Kirst, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a recently passed law that gives California's governor more power over education in the state.
Michael KirstGuest
Paul PetersonHost
Was this a policy issue or was this just a governance issue where people fed up on all the mistakes and errors and slowness and nothing ever gets done? It takes forever to do anything.
Was that the thing that really drove the issue or were there some policy questions as to how we should spend more for this or that? Yeah.
I mentioned math because people say that schools are really responsible for for educating kids in math.
Parents read to their kids, but they're no longer really able to help kids with math.
There is a realization that if you look at states like Mississippi in reading, that you need a strong State Department to provide professional development of the teachers, mobilize the coaches.
And so we have a nice reading bill, and we're going to pass, hopefully, but again, this is being fought out, a math bill similar to the literacy bills you've seen spread around the country.
It was their strategy rather than pushing and helping to really build a scale, a movement that would help the classroom improvement.
So I know that in Mississippi and in other states, the state gets really active in trying to make sure their policies get implemented at the school district level.
Was this a policy issue or was this just a governance issue where people fed up on all the mistakes and errors and slowness and nothing ever gets done? It takes forever to do anything.
Was that the thing that really drove the issue or were there some policy questions as to how we should spend more for this or that? Yeah.
I mentioned math because people say that schools are really responsible for for educating kids in math.
Parents read to their kids, but they're no longer really able to help kids with math.
There is a realization that if you look at states like Mississippi in reading, that you need a strong State Department to provide professional development of the teachers, mobilize the coaches.
And so we have a nice reading bill, and we're going to pass, hopefully, but again, this is being fought out, a math bill similar to the literacy bills you've seen spread around the country.
It was their strategy rather than pushing and helping to really build a scale, a movement that would help the classroom improvement.
So I know that in Mississippi and in other states, the state gets really active in trying to make sure their policies get implemented at the school district level.
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