Keynote Discussion with Arne Duncan
Association for Education Finance and Policy Conference
Chicago, 2026

For an audience of 300, Jill Barshay interviewed Arne Duncan about how Democrats lost the confidence of many parents on education.

His take: Pandemic-era school closures played a role. But more fundamentally, he argued, Democrats stopped offering a clear vision, creating an opening for Republicans to tap into parents' fears effectively.

His Rx: Stand for academic excellence, wherever it exists, and push for accountability in school choice -- not against it.

Panel Moderator at the Back to School Summit
New York City, 2026

In the does AI actually improve learning or just the pitch? At the AI hype audit: real classroom results vs speculation at the 25th Annual Back to School Summit, Abbas Manjee talked about AI in NY and Edtech research embedded in Kiddom while Daniel Friedman fired up the panel calling for PD, smaller classes, longer school years, and meeting students' basic needs to drive growth, not simply devices or AI. Jitin Sethi (L.E.K. Consulting) traced the skepticism to years of overpromising marketing to schools and delivered striking results from recent research from L.E.K. Consulting h. Moderated by the ever artful conversationalist, Jill Barshay (The Hechinger Report HolonIQ QS Quacquarelli Symonds

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