Advancing equity continues to be a major focus for California public education at all levels of the system. Yet, as education leaders and school business officials, it's not always easy to press your way forward into the noisy, bustling, sometimes uncomfortable intersection where equity meets educational resources.
 
In our first episode,  host Jason Willis, director of strategic resource planning and implementation for WestEd and a former chief business official in several California school districts, invites several guest policy experts, advocates and school district leaders to share how they think about and define resource equity in education. It's our way to help you get your "resource equity bearings."

This also helps set the context for a core question we'll be exploring throughout this series: How can dedicated teams of educators, administrators, school business officials and entire school communities allocate resources — resources like time, money and our most valuable asset, people — to better meet the needs of all their students? Especially at this watershed moment, coming out of the pandemic, when student needs have never been greater and an influx of additional federal and state dollars offer opportunities for transformative change.
 
Guests in this episode:

• Christopher Edley, Jr., J.D., interim dean, U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Education; co-founder and president emeritus of The Opportunity Institute; professor and dean emeritus, U.C. Berkeley School of Law; former professor, Harvard Law School; and co-chair, National Commission on K-12 Excellence & Equity
• Maria Echaveste, J.D., president and CEO, The Opportunity Institute; and former White House deputy chief of staff
• Jayne Christakos, former chief business officer, San Bernardino City Unified School District
• Marguerite Williams, Ed.D., assistant superintendent of educational services, Adelanto Elementary School District; and former senior director of equity and diversity, Association of California School Administrators
• Adela Madrigal Jones, superintendent, Sanger Unified School District
• Michael Kirst, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University; and past president, California State Board of Education

Download the Interactive Companion Brief for this episode.

Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO), the premier resource for professional development and best practices for more than 24,000 California school business leaders, in partnership with WestEd, a national nonprofit research development and service agency that works to promote excellence and equity in education. We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for providing additional support.

Engage with us on Twitter at @Budget4EdEquity

Budgeting for Educational Equity is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz at WestEd serves as an advisor and develops the written materials that go along with each episode.