This week, hosts Carole Dorn-Bell and Joel Gagne talk about what’s changing and how local school districts can help drive the conversation.

The rhetoric lately around public schools, they note, has been negative.

Under the new presidential administration in Washington, D.C., Gagne says, schools have the opportunity to “take the fight local,” to say, we bring value to the community and we’re irreplaceable.

School districts can say whatever happens nationally, here’s what we’re going to focus on. Essentially, the best defense is a good offense.

“You have to go out and market your school locally to your taxpayers,” Gagne says. “They’re the ones who foot the bill. Things could potentially get rough over the next four years, so you have to make sure you’re out there aggressively marketing them.”

That means using every platform possible to say, we’re doing great things, and we’re proud of it.

Teachers should be at the forefront of the message, Dorn-Bell says.