Welcome to the Freedom to Learn podcast. I'm your host, Ginny Gentles. This season, we're diving into what it means to return education to states, communities, and families.

And we're exploring what becomes possible when education is freed from union dominance and federal control.

As an immigrant, I came here when I was six from the Soviet Union from, you know,

from Odessa, Ukraine. And if schools had shut down when I came here and when I was acquiring

the language when my parents were struggling, my father was a plumber and was working in incinerators and was

out of the house all day. My mother is a bookkeeper commuting to Manhattan and that's what we needed.

That was our livelihood and it was just me. Like in our tiny apartment, if I had been shut in that

apartment for months and months and months and not been able to go to first grade.

I don't think I'd be here speaking to you right now.

Natalia Moroccova joins me on today's episode to talk about her new documentary, 15 days,

The Real Story of America's Pandemic School Closures,

and the importance of preserving the true narrative of America's disastrous COVID-era policy decisions.

Natalia and I talk about teachers' unions' outsized role in shaping the policy and narrative, Daren and after the closures. We cover the disruptive

policy's significant impacts on children's academic outcomes, engagement with school, future

opportunities, mental health, and social development. And Natalia explains why we must prevent this

harmful chapter in our nation's history from being

rewritten. Natalia's personal experiences as a Soviet immigrant and mother fueled her commitment

to advocating for children's education. She was a leader in the open schools movement,

the founder of urgency of normal. And as she explains during our conversation, she convened

esteemed medical experts from across the country to create and communicate a toolkit to give it school districts to reopen schools.

15 days has been released on X.

Please check it out and consider scheduling a screening in your community.

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