A high school sports editor watched a fellow editor dismiss a brilliant Black student's writing. The question that moment raised never left him.
In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Jon Schnur, cofounder of New Leaders and CEO of America Achieves, for a conversation about leadership, education, and economic mobility in the age of AI.
Jon grew up just outside Milwaukee, the son of a mother who co-founded one of the country's first children's museums and the city's first racially integrated preschool. He went to that preschool. So when he later sat in segregated Milwaukee classrooms as a teenage reporter, he already knew another way was possible. That gap between what is and what could be became his life's engine: ask why, then ask what we can do about it.
That question carried him from a Chicago campaign volunteer job (he started as Bill Clinton's airport driver) through seven years in the Clinton administration, advising Al Gore, and co-founding New Leaders, which has since developed 8,000 school leaders reaching more than a million students. Ron has his own New Leaders story, and the two of them trace what made that community what it was.
Then Jon turns to what is next: the good jobs economy, and how states can prepare people for meaningful work as AI reshapes entire careers.
Tune in to hear why Jon believes the future is not something to predict, but something we decide through what we choose to do.
Chapters:
- 🎙️ 00:40 Welcome to Ronderings, and a full-circle reunion two decades in the making
- 🏛️ 04:24 Growing up in Milwaukee, and a mother who built museums and integrated preschools
- 📰 09:39 The high school newsroom moment that turned a sports editor toward education
- 🚗 20:26 From Clinton's airport driver to seven years in the administration
- 🏫 24:19 Why every great school had a great principal, and the idea behind New Leaders
- 🤝 31:15 Twenty-five years of New Leaders, and the people who built the community
- 🌎 38:12 How a search for an executive director led to Barack Obama
- 💼 53:30 The good jobs economy, and preparing people for work in the age of AI
- ❤️ 58:30 The Ronderings question: equal dignity, asking why, and taking action
- 📬 1:00:18 How to reach Jon, and a final word on responsibility over grievance
- 🎧 1:04:36 Closing reflections, and Podcasts That Matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org
Links:
Reach out to Jon to talk leadership, the good jobs economy, and how states can prepare people for meaningful work in the age of AI. If you are part of the New Leaders community, he is genuinely inviting your ideas on what the next twenty-five years should look like.
Episode 100
