Editors note: The Guardian is interviewing candidates for the fall elections, and to give everyone the broadest possible understanding of the issues and our endorsement process, we're posting the sound files of all the interviews on the politics blog. Our endorsements will be coming out Oct. 6th.

Margaret Brodkin's spent her entire adult life as an advocate for children, youth and families. She been a nonprofit director (she ran Coleman Advocates for 24 years), a department manager (running the Department of Children, Youth and Families until Gavin Newsom fired her for refusing to go along with his budget plans) and was the author of the legislation that created the Children's Fund. She has a wealth of knowledge about the school district and is full of ideas about what a 21st century education would look like.

Brodkin talks about big-picture issues -- experiential learning, the problems with the Obama Administration's education policies -- and basic local issues (the need for a central kitchen to make healthy school lunches).

You can hear our interview with her here:

mbrodkin by endorsements2010