This week’s episode of The Empty Office Podcast features a great conversation between two advocates for public education in Alaska. Senator Löki Gale Tobin and Aleutian Region School District Superintendent Michael Hanley discuss the importance of place-based education and the challenges of educating children and young adults in the nation's westernmost school district.
Mike Hanley served as the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development from 2011 to 2016. He was a teacher in the Anchorage School District from 1991 to 2005, and then served as a principal there from 2005 to 2011. Mike Hanley holds degrees in business administration and K-8 education. He holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The REAA school district that Mike Hanley leads, the Aleutian Region School District, serves the communities of Nikolaki, Atka, and Adak.
During the conversation, Superintendent Hanley discusses the fate of two small children’s desks that his parents preserved from a segregated school that was closed in Alabama in the 1960’s. One of the desks sits in Senator Tobin’s office in Anchorage, and the other is in Superintendent Hanley’s home.
“Every child deserves the opportunity to succeed, and it is our job in education to pry open every possible door of opportunity for every one of them. This desk has been a reminder to me of that responsibility and the ongoing efforts we need to pursue to ensure that we have learned from our past and have a better vision and hope for our future and the future of our children.” - Michael Hanley
In response to Mike Mason’s question about who to add to the Alaska State Senate to sit next to Senator Tobin, Superintendent Hanley chose noted radio broadcaster and author Garrison Keillor, who created A Prairie Home Companion, which aired on public radio stations across the country from 1974 to 2016.
The music for this episode is the song “Throwing Beers at Rick Parfitt” by the band The Jesus Years.
