The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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This is a Kun V studios original program.

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The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Speaker 3 0:19
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Speaker 3 0:42
You Good morning Las Vegas, happy holidays, and welcome to December. Thank you for waking up to join me this morning to talk about things here on the scoop on KU envy, Public Radio, 91.5 jazz and more, delighted as always, to have you with me, just to share in some conversation, hear some new things, and be and have your mind expanded, I am delighted to welcome to welcome back to the show a dynamic young woman who has been on with me in the past to talk about education. So without further ado, I want to say good morning to Christina Laster, good morning. Christina,

Speaker 4 1:21
Happy New Happy New Day. To you and your audience. It's always a pleasure to be able to have this discussion.

Speaker 3 1:29
Well, thank you for taking the time to stop by and have this discussion. And before we get too deep and I'm you wear so many hats. Your titles are awesome. You have done amazing things, but I don't want to butcher us. I'm going to let you please share a little bit about who you are, your background with the audience, so we can bring them up to speed on your what you do in this dedicated space of advancing equality in the space of education. All

Speaker 4 1:54
right, I would love to so first and foremost, I am a mom of four, a grandma of five and one on the way. And I have been in education since I graduated from high school. Of course, when I was in school, I was in education, but I worked in education right out of high school, and so I spent a lot of time on the inside. And then, you know, after that leaving, I started looking at the civil rights and education. The Constitution no rights and education. So I've worked for several policy think tanks as their policy and legislation expert, and then ultimately working with the civil rights organizations. I am now the Director of Education for the Western Region of the National Action Network. I also am a practitioner of the Hoover Education Success Initiative at Stanford University here in California. And you know, just several things that I have done in the policy and legislation space of K to 12 education primarily, but then also Child and Family Welfare, like departments of children's services, juvenile so called justice, we can talk about that another day, and different things dealing with children and families.

Speaker 3 3:18
Okay, that is a resume that is extremely impressive, and I wanted just to have you shared a little bit, because it's just so much that I don't think I could have ever gotten it all out with the respect that it deserves, and just to shine a spotlight on it the way you you do. First of all, thank you for all that you have done and for finding your passion and working in this space. You mentioned National Action Network, and I know that's part of why I'm having you on the show today to talk about what's coming up here in Las Vegas with the National Action Network. And I know you said you're in California, but I believe you are headed this way. Yes,

Speaker 4 3:57
I will be there December 3 and fourth with the White House initiative for black Americans and Discovery Education, because they will be having a Power Up Event, which I invite everyone to register and show up for. It's free, talking about the initiative that was signed into executive order under the Biden Harris administration in October of 2021, and their partnership is regarding, you know, bringing this information to local communities, bringing those connections, career professionals from the federal agencies will be there, from the Department of Health and Human Services, from the IRS, from, you know, all types of different agencies, those people that were there before the executive order and who will be there after the executive order, because they're not necessarily. The the Biden Harris appointees, they actually are the people working in those agencies day after day, year after year, you know, helping with some of the federal level work and also initiatives such as this one. So I definitely think that it would be a great opportunity over these two days for Nevada citizens and community to get to this event, questions that you may have about, you know, upcoming changes in the federal agencies or executive orders, etc, etc, right? They will be the right people to ask. But more so if you have a K to 12 age child or a student that is in college, because they will have people from the US Department of Education, that's where the executive order is housed, to answer questions about upcoming important information, such as, you know financial aid Student You know, things that are pertaining to your students.

Speaker 3 6:04
So this is going to be a complete smorgasbord of information on education. So we're talking about, you mentioned, financial aid. We're talking about, are we also talking about status of loan forgiveness programs, tuition across the country, and there's a huge conversation Christina right now around diversity, equity and inclusion, which is very much something that people may or may not think about, but it really does affect education in the education community, how people of color and how diversity is considered in creating a balanced, fair learning environment. So is that the kind of thing that's also going to be on the table in case people because it's becoming a buzzword conversation, what's going on with dei in so many spaces, and I can't imagine it's not impacting the education conversation too, especially if we're talking about equality, equity, excellence and economic opportunities for black people in the space of this absolutely

Speaker 4 7:08
so they will be talking not just about education, but also economic opportunities, right, Talking about upcoming opportunities of grants and, you know, resources and like, that's why the IRS is going to be there, right? So they can talk to people about their programs. I think that what they have done, well, I've been one of the stakeholders to this initiative since the day that they started doing the work. And what they have done well is have an open door policy, bringing, you know, people that may seem to be intimidating from various agencies to talk about what it is that they do, to talk about what it is that we, the American people, pay for with our taxes programmatically, And to bring those resources right back to the community. So this is the team, and also the sessions that they will be providing throughout those two days will live leave you empowered with the resources that you need, knowing directly who to contact at the federal level, and also help to make some of those connections at the local and state level, you

Speaker 3 8:24
kind of began to set of a question that was in the back of my head. But what can a person expect in this day? So you have a two day conference, and let's be clear, this two day conference is coming up on the third and the fourth is happening. I believe it says Cheyenne. Is that the CSN at our college campus here? Yes. So it's and it's our Cheyenne campus, right of the College of Southern Nevada? Yes. Okay, so it's our college campus, our College of Southern Nevada campus on the east end of Cheyenne. It's a 3900 east, 3900 East Cheyenne. So people can come in, and they're going to be a number of panel discussions, workshops, round table discussions. What can you tell us a little bit about what to expect? And is it a conference that's moving around the country?

Speaker 4 9:14
It has been moving around the country, and this will be its last stop. So I'm so glad that they're coming to the west. I believe they were in Philadelphia last time, and they were in Chicago, they were in Georgia. And so they decided that for their West visit, they were going to come to Nevada and bring the federal agencies with them. And so you can expect the federal agencies to have their own table set up so that you can go and engage with them, talk to them, one on one, meet the people that are actually behind, you know, the desks doing the work. You know whether that be or in the field, right, doing the work. And then there will be. The engagement I will be talking on the third of December with regards to how parents and families can engage more around financial empowerment, right? And so we'll talk about that link that you mentioned earlier between education and financial empowerment. I know what my panel discussion is about, per se, but I didn't get the breakdown of other people's panel discussion. So I guess you'll have to show up in order to give more info about that, but I know that my panel discussion will be specifically around financial empowerment and education, you know, what are the pathways? Where are we headed with our our children and the next generation of innovation, even, right, and just different things like that?

Speaker 3 10:53
And it's a breath, because you said this is a K through 12, and really it also looks at the collegiate level when we're talking about education. So they're covering the entire, you know, the full spectrum from kindergarten through undergraduate studies now, just so I'm clear, does it touch on when you're in college, graduate level degrees as well, or is it just looking at that initial beginning to so it's all so this so it's coming here, to Nevada, to Las Vegas, specifically on the West Coast, not to Arizona, not to a city in California. If you can talk to our listeners who are here in the great state of Nevada, City of Las Vegas Valley, of Las Vegas Valley, I should say about what is significant, that it's here, like, what is it that makes Nevada unique enough or interesting enough, or a key place for this to take place, relative to what's happening in education, what's happening here that made them come to our city,

Speaker 4 12:02
absolutely so if you know that the US Department of Education doesn't just have one office, right? They have multitudes of offices, right? Multiple offices. They have the Office of Civil Rights that a lot of people relied on heavily for their special education, you know, complaints or even discrimination complaints. I mean, they are looking at, you know, even program improvement. They have K to 12. They have early childhood education. I mean, there's tons of offices that are underneath the purview of the Secretary of Education, and then other ones that are under the purview of the Deputy Secretary of Education, right and so they also collect Civil Rights Data and academic data that academic data is based on, you know, state testing, standardized state testing measures that then states collate and turn over to what we talk talk about as nape the national averages in education performance. And when you look at that data, you can tell that there are huge gaps and disparities in Nevada, right? So there's a lot of things that are very challenging happening in schools and school districts. And I think what their goal is, and their hope is, to be able to come and empower or infuse resources directly in to the community, the stakeholders, the parents that are, you know, parenting school age children, the educators that are looking at these gaps and these disparities in English, language arts, in math and all of those things, and trying to figure out what is the road ahead. How do we overcome, you know, these hurdles that we may face, even when we're faced with challenges within our state, right? So what a better way than to be able to have this Power Up Tour. That's why it's named that. And then in on the west, in Nevada, where they see these disparities and let you guys know we recognize that there are some issues, and we're hoping to come and build you up and help you with the resources and information that you need, and to get you connected with the proper federal agencies that or federal agency professionals that you will need to connect with, you know, next year and the year beyond, right, get that information directly in the hands And so this is the White House initiative for black Americans and Discovery Education, who is presenting this para in Nevada on the third and the fourth.

Speaker 3 14:52
This is really exciting, and I want people to know it, because a lot of times we hear about things like this, and so we think they're new. And this. This is really not new. This is just a continuation of good work that has been going on previous presidential administrations, particularly, or specifically President Barack Obama's administration, in 2012 established the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, and the Biden Harris administration came back and further advanced it in 2021 creating the White House Initiative on advancing educational equity, excellence and economic opportunity for black Americans. I think it's really important to point out that there was such specificity. And I'm saying that to say, if you are a part of the African American community here, or you are passionate about working with communities of color, communities of culture, all communities have a different form of culture, but there's something very unique about the fact that this is such a specific, purposeful initiative that was put in place during the Obama administration and then further advanced during Biden's under Biden's leadership as President of the United States. And I think that speaks volumes to taking a look at the disparities and inequalities in the space of education and economic advancement. So I remember back when President Clinton was in office and he talked about the need to have honest conversations about race and race relations. And I think that this is a testament to some of the honesty that needed to come into conversations to establish things like this power up conference that is dedicated to looking at equity and excellence. So I assuming you guys are targeting teachers, huh? Yeah, no, go ahead, Christina and I

Speaker 4 16:49
want to add in, right, like our role in this. So from date, from the first day that I worked with this team, since you know, people were appointed and assigned as directors and deputy directors, I was able to talk about what was happening in the western region, and Nevada had always stayed at the top of my radar, right talking in conversations with them, and so I'm glad I was able to say, here are the policies, here are the practices, here are the complaints that even our organization sees from the National Action Network receiving from parents in Nevada. And if you can connect me with the Office for Civil Rights, I'd like to explain the experiences of black parents and families in Nevada, right in the Clark County School District having that open, Honest dialog about why disparities existed and why opportunities didn't exist as much as the disparities did, right, and looking at the policies and the practices, the laws and the initiatives, and strategizing with that. And so immediately, what I did was look at the executive order and then look at our agenda for black parents and families at the National Action Network. I set those goals side by side, and I said, here is where there is intersection on what we're doing, and here is where I don't see a connection, but I definitely would like to talk about how we can further explore these areas, and here is where I see we can expand our work together. And so over the past few years and that agenda I have available for anyone that wants to see it, I've had the opportunity to speak up on behalf of your experiences, on behalf of the complaints that I've received, or other organizations have received, and it brought in teams of people in Nevada, like LA Dave and others who worked in coalition to have these discussions directly with the White House initiative, so that Nevada was constantly on their radar, and they were always paying attention and thinking through the strategies with us. What can we do? How can we improve outcomes and empower families at the same time? I mean,

Speaker 3 19:15
I think at some point I like to welcome somebody to the show to talk about how this is directly impacted, who's worked in the space here, but being that this has taken place in other cities already, what are some of the outcomes or takeaways that you guys have been able to measure in those other cities where this power up conference has happened, that we might be able to expect to see as outcomes and deliverables here in Las Vegas when this is over on December 4, because it's a two day conference happening December 3 and December 4. So what, what type of measurable outcomes should we expect as a community, right?

Speaker 4 19:52
So the biggest takeaway that I have heard personally is about the Direct. Connection with the local and federal agency heads of departments, right that helping families be able to talk directly with them, bring forward whatever it is that they may have at an issue with and so they didn't have to go through layers and layers of people right to get to the one person that they have been trying to get to solve their issues. Okay? Because most of the time what we see is when people come, they have a lot of stuff that hasn't been resolved, right? And so one of the things that I have seen is now those people that had issues that previously weren't getting resolved, whether it was, you know, a student loan question or issue they had, or a civil rights complainer issue they had, or even a Health and Human Services or IRS question, they were able to connect directly with the heads of those departments or the representative that can put them in touch directly, and they had their issues resolved. Okay? Now that's huge when you had those stumbling blocks before another thing is, is that people were able to understand the grant opportunities that existed previously. They didn't know that there were these grant opportunities and resources that states hadn't even drawn down on money that was out there that could be utilized for some of the types of local initiatives and stakeholder engagements that we like to see in our communities to further our agenda and grant more access and opportunities. Those opportunities were given directly to them. People were able to talk to the, you know, departments that about the grants and those opportunities, and even really after that, sign up, when the when the window of opportunity was open to be grant reviewers, because that's very important, right?

Speaker 3 22:04
I want to show those some of the things, right? And so in looking at one of the previous power up conferences, I want to make sure people kind of also hear that, in addition to what Christina you've already shared with us, there's going to be, there may be, because I don't know the agenda for the one coming up. We don't have it right now to talk about. We don't have it yet, but I'm seeing that in other cities, they've had college and career fairs. So for people wondering about the futures of their children and their young people, there's been youth engagement conversations. They've talked about everything we've been discussing this morning, about the financial benefits. There's a round table discussion that I'm seeing took place in another city, mental health conversations that have taken place in other cities, in these spaces, technology discussions as it pertains to education, career success conversation. So there's this student debt. We talked about that, and I'm seeing the student loan and the debt relief as one of the subject matters. I'm making a point to mention these things again, because for those who are listening, if you have any questions about your future, any questions about the education of your children, or children that you may be concerned with, or yourself, this is sounding like an excellent opportunity, at no cost to you or someone that you just might want to share this information with, if you are listening this morning and you think that person might not be up listening to the radio, that this power up conference is coming to Las Vegas, and it is going to be a very, very well stocked experience as it pertains to education, education solutions and resources and accessibility, and what is happening in this space from the federal level, and how that affects you in your own personal backyard. And I just can't stress enough that this is free, and it's happening December 3 and fourth, and it's going to be over at the College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne campus. It looks like the day got started probably about, I'm assuming you guys will get started about eight o'clock, or seven o'clock in the morning or something, maybe nine o'clock, somewhere around there.

Speaker 4 24:19
I believe it's I well, I know I will be there at nine on the on the third of December. And so if I could read directly, where can people

Speaker 3 24:28
find out, whatever you can share, on how person can get information about the conference dates or anything like, you know, times on what's going to happen on the two days, whatever you can share with us, Christina, I think would be really valuable right now.

Speaker 4 24:44
So if you Google White House initiative for black Americans, presents power up Nevada, you will be taken to the registration link. Okay? One. White House initiative for black Americans presents power up. Nevada, you will be taken directly to the lake, and it will say White House initiative for black Americans and Discovery Education presents power up. It'll give you the dates, December 3 through December 4. And it says that power up Nevada is the sixth installment of the series. The first day December 3 includes youth, family and community engagement. Okay? On day four, I mean, sorry, December 4, attendees will hear directly from local and federal agencies about initiatives, policies and strategies to enhance racial and social justice, economic opportunity and access to essential services for black Americans. Okay, now look it up. You'll be able to register. I don't, you know, think that it's going to be a problem, even if you forget to register. And you're saying, You know what, I want to go and just show up. I don't know if they'll be turning people away. I haven't known this team to do that, but I'm telling you, it would probably be best if you do register. That's going to be at the College of Southern Nevada, six, 375, West Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas. I will be there on December 3 to talk to families, again, engage with families and on the panel discussion. I look forward to seeing all of you who come and, you know, introducing myself and helping you whatever was I can do with Nan. So I appreciate being able to even discuss this, because I think it's important that we continue to have these kinds of dialogs and discussions within our community. And

Speaker 3 26:49
it's super important. I want to make some draw some super major, important attention to the location, because before in the conversation, we did say it was going to be a College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne campus. It will be at the College of Southern Nevada, West Charleston campus. And so that's really important. There's also information on Facebook about this event. So if you just look them up, they have a full Facebook page the Discovery Education folks that will let you know it's December 3 to the fourth, as Christina said, from 8am until roughly, you know, the end of the next day, the same time. But again, very important to point out, it is at CSN West Charleston campus. So when you go on to the website that she shared and those I'm mentioning, there is also information on Facebook, where you can put that you're interested or that you're going and track details about the discussion and get other information. So there's just all kinds of stuff here. So there's social media information and website information. We just want to make sure you are informed. Christina, you are just a wealth of knowledge about education. And as I mentioned, it's great to have you on again. We're getting into the end of the show, and we just wanted to bring some attention to this free conference going on in this opportunity to level up on what's going on in education, especially nowadays, with all these changes happening in our country. But if there's any social media handles that you would like to share where people can follow and keep up with the work that you're doing, we have about a minute and a half left in the show. Can you share those with our listeners?

Speaker 4 28:19
Absolutely. You can find me on Facebook. If you look up Christina, it's going to say Christina, Christopher on there. You can definitely find me on Instagram at 365 wise W, I S, E, I'm also on tick tock under the same handle, 365 wise W, i, s, e, and I'm on YouTube as wise society, and so that's where people can find me, and I look forward to even engaging with you on social media. Well,

Speaker 3 28:53
thank you once again for joining me on the show. We are pretty much out of time. I hope you all have gotten some great information this morning, and you will look up this conference and check it out. It's coming up this week, right here in our city, December 3 and fourth at the CSN campus on West Charleston. Have a wonderful week. Welcome to December. Happy holidays. Stay safe, enjoy love and laughter. Respect and cherish your family members and just enjoy building new memories until the next time. Thank you for joining me here on K, U N, V, 91.5 jazz and more. I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a N, A, G, A, N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai