On this episode of Innovations in Education, host David Adams, CEO of the Urban Assembly, sits down with Dr. Dia Bryant, Deputy Mayor for Education in Jersey City. A Detroit native and Harvard-trained leader with more than two decades of experience transforming education systems, Dr. Bryant has served as a teacher, principal, and NYC Department of Education administrator, and as an advocate at Ed Trust, where her work helped secure more than $7 billion for childcare alongside major reforms in school funding and course access. Dr. Bryant traces her path back to the values her parents instilled growing up in 1980s and '90s Detroit: service, integrity, and the belief that even with nothing, you can be of service to somebody. As a first-generation college student, she reflects on moving through spaces where experiences "converge far more often than they diverge," and on living for the ancestors who paved the way and the descendants who will come after. David and Dr. Bryant explore a question at the heart of public education: what is school actually for? Drawing on David Cohen, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the history of anti-literacy laws, Dr. Bryant argues that education is about liberation, and that schools should produce inquisitive young people who ask real questions about real things. She also shares what she learned moving from inside the system to outside advocacy, where her experience as a practitioner gave her the stories of children and families no one else at the policy table had. The conversation turns to innovation, which Dr. Bryant defines as anything that makes the market behave differently. She makes the case for partial solutions like Teach For America, Posse, and Khan Academy, pushes back on the sector's "obsession with completion," and argues that ESSER dollars were a lottery win the sector wasn't prepared to spend strategically. In Jersey City, Dr. Bryant is building an ecosystem around the city's 30,000 young people, with a portfolio that spans schools, recreation, 73 parks, and the libraries. She describes modernizing the recreation department, creating safe third spaces, launching intergenerational programs that bring young people and seniors together, and partnering with universities on credit-bearing internships, plus the story of a longtime ballroom dance instructor who found new purpose teaching seniors. Along the way, she and David nerd out over least common denominators and chemical bonds, and she explains why relational leadership beats transactional politics. In the rapid-fire round, Dr. Bryant shares the one word she hopes people will associate with Jersey City schools in five years (trusted), who she'd meet for coffee (W.E.B. Du Bois), and her belief that the future of education depends on "our willingness to give up power as adults and let children lead." Subscribe to Innovations in Education wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a conversation with the leaders making things work in public education. Visit The Urban Assembly for more.
