Three faculty with the UW–Madison School of Education will be participating in the upcoming “Preserving Public Education” event hosted by the League of Women Voters of Dane County.
Kevin Henry and Julie Mead will serve on a panel examining how education funding works and the effect of public education on our community, with Julie Underwood serving as moderator. They will discuss “the result of the latest education budget, the motivation behind the (school) voucher system, and the racial and economic impacts on our children of ‘school choice.’”
Henry is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy analysis in the School of Education. He explores “the racialized lived realities of charter schools and school choice policy and practice; the persistence of anti-Blackness in education; neoliberalism and educational markets; and culturally relevant and restorative justice approaches in education.”
Mead is a professor emerita in educational leadership and policy analysis who focuses on education law. She “has proposed policy language to ensure charter schools promote equal educational opportunity, traced the evolution of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, examined voucher programs in relation to the education clauses of state constitutions, and analyzed voucher statutes for the presence or absence of nondiscrimination requirements.”
Underwood is a “nationally recognized authority on school law,” and served as dean of the School of Education from 2005-2015. “Her research and scholarship focus on school finance and education law and policy.” Underwood is also a professor emerita in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
The hybrid event will be offered both virtually and in person at the Madison South Goodman Library on Thursday, Oct. 5, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.