Have You Heard

A journey through West Virginia’s rural schools, where closures threaten community lifelines, voucher expansion drains public resources, and students face longer journeys for an education. Teachers, families, and advocates discuss special education, population loss, coalfield decline, and the legacy of Red for Ed activism, while asking whether a new movement to defend public education is taking shape.

Traditional student discipline is broken. That’s the premise of an exciting experiment in student-run restorative justice taking place at Attleboro High School in southeastern Massachusetts. Students who’ve committed minor disciplinary infractions can now go before a jury of their literal peers in an effort to repair the harm they’ve done. Far from letting offenders off easy, Youth Court holds students accountable in a way that detention or in-school suspension doesn’t. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Derek Gottlieb, an education scholar and school finance analyst, and David Backer, a public education finance researcher, unpack the tangled finances of Lake Travis and Austin schools. They explore attendance-based funding, deficits, stadium bonds, debt, tax compression, recapture, and why public budgets remain so difficult to understand. A sharp introduction to the forces shaping school finance in Texas and beyond.

Despite working considerably more hours than their colleagues in other countries, teachers here say they don’t have enough time to do their jobs, leading to high rates of stress, burnout and teacher turnover. We hear from researchers and current and former teachers about the ‘time scarcity’ toll, and why any effort to ‘fix’ our schools must start by reckoning with the demands on teacher time. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Anne Manoff, a writer and lawyer who reported on higher education and wrote about Republican-funded humanities projects. She explores the rise of conservative civic centers on red-state campuses. She visits a new Hamilton School in Florida. She contrasts sales pitches of rigorous Great Books programs with slim reading lists and minimal core requirements.

Jon Valant, director at the Brown Center and Brookings senior fellow who studies education policy, breaks down the new federal voucher program. He traces its hidden legislative path and explains how scholarship-granting organizations operate. He discusses state opt-ins, who stands to benefit, the program’s fiscal uncertainty, and why he sees it as primed for massive waste and abuse.

Marta Jusin, investigative reporter who covers New Orleans education and runs the Lamplighter newsletter, walks through sudden charter school closures. She recounts KIPP’s abrupt shutdown of Douglass, the lack of community input, and the strain of a falling birthrate on an all-charter system. The conversation highlights transparency, student impacts, and the politics behind school consolidation.

Xander Moritz, student activist and founder of Sea Alliance organizing youth civic power. He recounts a graduation speech that sparked local action. He explains how Sarasota became a national school-board battleground. He describes turning student energy into voter turnout and building grassroots campaigns that defended public schools and shifted local politics.

Tim Scott, a social work professor and author of Schooling for Silicon Valley, offers a research-driven critique of tech in schools. He discusses humanoid educators, surveillance and developmental harms, ties between ed tech and military/security interests, the rhetoric of personalized learning, and how corporate and workforce motives shape educational choices.

Annie Abrams, a high school English teacher and author defending books and democratic curricula; Jeff Austin, a Michigan literacy consultant fighting for access to books and broader adolescent supports; Nora De La Cour, a writer and former teacher critiquing restrictive literacy laws; and John Downes-Angus, a NYC teacher who champions whole-book, student-centered humanities. They discuss how testing, laws, and scripted materials are pushing books out, narrowing instruction, and harming student agency.