Have You Heard heads to Florida, where education policy is increasingly being determined by wealthy donors. We meet a billionaire who has been putting big bucks behind a very particular vision for the state’s education future. And we learn, yet again, that even the best laid plans have a way of going awry. Corporate influence exposer Jason Garcia and public education advocate Sue Woltanski take us on a tour of the Florida swamp, while Jack provides some answers to a question that many Floridians are asking these days: whatever happened to local control? The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Race science, with its noxious claims that ‘biology is destiny,’ comes roaring back during periods of social change. That’s the conclusion of a new book by historian Quinn Slobodian, tracing today’s obsessive focus on IQ back to the social tumult of the 1970’s and the revolt against ‘political correctness’ in the 1990’s. Regardless of the time period, the argument for race science is remarkably consistent: since destiny is baked into the genetic pie, what’s the point of costly public policy interventions, public education chief among them? The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Forget all that talk about education as the great equalizer. Public schools and inequality are joined at the hip. But must it be that way? We talk to the authors of a recent book called Schooled and Sorted, an eye-opening investigation into the ways sorting within schools translates into inequality in the larger world, and how to change that. And we head to Portland, Oregon for a close-up look at the most destructive sort of sorting in action, and meet some parents who are trying to do something about it. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Ohio’s billion dollar plus religious school voucher program is blatantly unconstitutional. So ruled a state judge this summer, putting political leaders and their increasing hostility towards public education on a collision course with Ohio’s constitution and the schools that are a backbone of this state. We talk to policy experts and school district leaders about the ruling, learn about the Northwest Ordinance (thanks Jack!), and hear from Ohioans who are equal parts terrified and hopeful about the future of both public education and democracy in this state. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Public schools are facing mounting money woes, and feeling the pinch of hostile policies coming from the state and federal government. But despite this bleak forecast, there are also pockets of possibility. School finance ‘whisperer’ David Backer returns to Have You Heard to help us understand the current landscape, and to make the case for healthy school finance vs the ‘toxic’ brand that currently rules. David’s brand of policy-focused organizing, a vision that’s been delivering some surprising wins, offers some desperately needed inspiration. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

We meet eight former prison inmates who are now attending college on campus at Boston College. These students in the BC Prison Education Program reflect on the transition from incarceration to college, what they make of their traditional undergrad peers, and the power of the liberal arts. As debates rage over the purpose of higher education and who it’s for, this episode reminds us of what learning for learning’s sake can still sound like. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Local democracy has never been more essential, so why does it so often disappoint us? Jack convenes an all-star cast to discuss the promise vs the reality of school boards as democratic institutions. Special guests Rachel White, Derek Gottlieb, Kathleen Knight Abowitz and Johann Neem make the case that, love them or hate them, school boards remain one of the last places where Americans can come together as neighbors as part of a community. Bonus: we meet one of the longest-serving school board members in the land. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

It’s the 200th episode of Have You Heard and we’ve assembled an all-star lineup to help us make sense of what the AI ‘revolution’ in education is really about. Audrey Watters, Ben Riley and John Warner view the over-heated claims being made about AI’s potential with extreme skepticism, reminding us of the long history of the ed tech sales pitch, and the dangers of a world in which tech titans have the money, power and influence to reshape education along reactionary lines.

Legal scholar Derek Black is a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI crusade, arguing that the effort to impose what he calls ‘loyalty oaths’ on schools is blatantly unconstitutional. Black argues that the attacks on public education are at the center of a larger project aimed at undermining the two central pillars of democracy: free speech and due process. The author of a new book, Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy, Black draws parallels between the lead-up to the Civil War and today’s paranoia-fueled efforts to limit what teachers can teach and students can learn. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

We’re headed to California, where high school students will soon be required to complete an ethnic studies course in order to graduate. The policy has set off the predictable culture war response, with critics charging that ethnic studies is indoctrination, activism, DEI, CRT, etc. But lost in the fog of backlash are the impressive results that ethnic studies has shown for students who struggle in school, including boosting attendance, GPA, and engagement. So what’s the problem? It turns out that ethnic studies’ inherent activism is precisely why the course is so effective, and why it’s such a target these days. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

The vision of the future on offer from Donald Trump looks a lot like the past, when men were men, women stayed home, and just about everyone was less educated. To get a glimpse of what that future might look like we head to Indiana, one of the great ‘human capital anti-success stories of the 21st century,’ according to our guest, economist Michael Hicks. Hicks makes the case that Indiana has pursued a series of disastrous policy choices over the past decade, including slashing spending on K-12 schools and higher education, expanding school choice (while cutting school spending), and preparing kids for the jobs of the past. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

The best schools in the country may be run by - wait for it - the Defense Department. But as education researcher Kenneth Wong tells us, the schools’ success is a fairly recent development, reflecting a years-long overhaul centered on improving teaching and learning. Alas, the ‘what works’ era that would have once sent education experts rushing to the scene in search of the secret sauce is no more. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has priortized the crusade against DEI while his boss has ordered him to draw up a plan to voucher-ize the schools. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

We’re headed to Vermont where public schools are confronting a ‘perfect storm’ of challenges. Costs are rising in this largely rural state even as the student population is declining, fueling a taxpayer revolt. Meanwhile, thanks to a recent SCOTUS ruling, a tradition of funding private schools with public funds means that Vermont must now pay for religious education. Enter the state’s Republican governor with a bold plan to do education in Vermont completely differently. Will public education in the Green Mountain State survive? And how long before schools in your state face a similar precipice? The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Like just about everyone these days, our own Jack Schneider is troubled–make that frightened–by our political landscape. But however deep our divides may be, there’s one issue that can, if not bring us together, allow for at least a conversation. The dismantling of the public education system would be so obviously bad for all of us that maybe, just maybe, a shout from the other side of the partisan divide might actually be heard. In this Letter to a Trump Voter, Jack reminds us of all the important areas of aggreement Americans actually share when it comes to their public schools. "Maybe if we can agree to protect public education we can find other things to agree on." Music for the episode provided by the brilliant Francisco Rafart. Song list: - Caminito del Turia - Always with you - Andes Haze - Magic Concepts Links to music: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/3EIxblOsWLuH54ZRWDuw1m Website https://rafartmusic.com/albums The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Organizing in defense of public education at the local level has never been more vital. And yet in an era when even the most local elections are now nationalized, electing pro-public education candidates can be a heavy lift. In this episode, we hear from a group of parents in Souderton, Pennsylvania who have been slowly ‘moving the needle,’ making incremental gains in each election cycle. They’re hoping that 2025 will finally be the charm when it comes to convincing local voters to make the school board nonpartisan again. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

It’s common knowledge that every student has a learning style: visual, auditory or kinesthetic. But what if those classifications are not just inaccurate but dangerous? That’s the argument made by education historian Tom Fallace in his provocative new book, You Are Not a Kinesthetic Learner: The Troubled History of the Learning Style Idea. As Fallace documents, not only is the research behind learning styles flimsy, but the classifications end up lumping together whole racial and ethnic groups as kinesthetic learners. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Vouchers are not conservative. That’s what we heard again and again when we talked to Texans who consider themselves Republicans but oppose their party’s top education priority. We hear from rural Texans who are taking the attacks on their local schools very personally, and business minded Republicans who fear the consequences of privatizing education for workforce development. But the real lesson in this episode is political. The big money push to expand school vouchers, and expel voucher opponents, is spurring rising discontent within the ranks of the Republican party, including among some of Trump’s staunchest supporters. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Our biggest political divide these days isn’t race or gender but education - and that division is only getting worse. We talk to the co-author of a new book that offers the single best explanation we’ve come across regarding the role that education is playing in fueling our bitter political battles. David Hopkins, author (with Matthew Grossmann) of Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics, helps us makes sense of a profound shift in American politics, how K-12 teachers and university faculty came to be seen as the enemy by so many on the right, and what we can do about it. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

For decades the Republican mantra on public schools has been to make them ‘business like,’ driven by the belief that strong schools = a strong economy. No more. Today’s top priorities for the GOP are moving students into private religious schools and home schools, and infusing religion into public schools. How did such a dramatic shift occur? Political scientist Heath Brown, author of Homeschooling the Right, joins us to talk about the transformation of the Republican Party and its implications for education policy. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Donald Trump’s return to office is likely to have profound implications for the nation’s public schools. In this episode we start to grapple with five major policy areas that are likely to be impacted: immigration, school choice, teacher unions, student civil rights and religion. With the aid of experts Sophia Rodriguez, Jon Valant, Mimi Arnold Lyon, Derek Black and Ben Justice, Have You Heard gives you a sense of what to expect and how to prepare for what’s coming. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast