Episode 66: Nick Melvoin ’04
The Supporting Cast
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55m
In 2017, a 31-year-old Nick Melvoin ’04 was elected as one of seven members of the largest self-governing school district in the world, the LAUSD Board of Education. In this episode, Nick tells his story, from growing up in LA and attending Harvard-Westlake and Harvard College, before teaching in a Watts public school as part of Teach For America. The inequities that Nick observed there led him to partner with the ACLU in 2014 to sue the LAUSD on behalf of his students—a lawsuit he and the ACLU won—prompting Nick to attend law school and then public service in the Obama White House and then the school board. Now a decade later and viewing these issues as a policymaker, Nick speaks about the LAUSD’s challenges—600,000 students, with 85% of LA kids living in poverty—and the delicate tensions around teacher compensation, teachers’ unions, and school autonomy. Nick also discusses his recent resolution banning cell phones in all of LAUSD. Since the recording of this podcast, Nick’s resolution passed. Nick references various educators at Harvard-Westlake, as well as Catherine Belcher of LMU and Mark Rosenbaum of the ACLU, as profound life influences. Originally aired July 2, 2024.
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