Decisions
See where authority actually lives—from the classroom to Sacramento.
Office Hours with Dr. Olsen
California public education, explained clearly.
Office Hours with Dr. Olsen helps parents, educators, candidates, and community leaders understand how schools work so they can ask better questions and advocate more effectively.
You should not need a doctorate to understand how your child's school works. I have one. Let me help.
The adult closest to your child is not always the adult with the authority to change the decision.
A clearer way into the system
What Office Hours explains
Office Hours explains who makes decisions, where the money comes from, how policies reach classrooms, and why understanding the system matters.
Money
Follow how funding reaches districts, schools, educators, and children.
School boards
Understand what boards decide, oversee, and cannot do alone.
Curriculum
Learn how standards, materials, instruction, and local choices connect.
Literacy
Make sense of reading research, instruction, and the questions families can ask.
Advocacy
Turn concern into better questions and more effective participation.
The map of influence
Start with the child. Then widen the circle.
Public education is easier to understand when we see it as circles around a child, not a simple chain of command. Influence and authority are not the same thing.
- Child
- Classroom
- School site
- District
- School board
- State + federal
Featured essay · Episode 01
Who Actually Decides?
A guide to where school decisions live: classroom, school site, district, school board, and state and federal systems.
Explore the writingSpeaking & workshops
Help your community understand public education.
Warm, practical sessions for parent groups, educators, civic organizations, candidates, and community leaders.
View speaking topicsKeep learning with Office Hours
Better questions lead to better advocacy.
Subscribe for new essays, explainers, and resources as they are published.