Have You Heard

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?

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Schools are in for more chaos and conflict, whatever specific policies are enacted by a second Trump Administration. We talk to two scholars about just how much the politics of disruption are costing, in terms of the material costs to school district budgets and the erosion of community trust. The research of Rachel White, co-author of a new study, “The Cost of Conflict,” and Rebecca Jacobsen, co-author of the forthcoming “The Politics of Disruption” is a timely reminder that the consequences of our school wars are all too real.

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Massachusetts voters will soon weigh in on whether to abandon the state’s de facto high school exit exam. That prospect has pitted elected officials and business leaders against teachers and their union, as well as a majority of voters, who’ve grown weary of schools’ focus on standardized testing. But the contentious debate also reflects a deep (and old) divide over the purpose of high school. We’re joined by education historian David Labaree who argues that high schools are not equipped (and never have been) to prepare students for the jobs of the future, and that policymakers and business leaders who insist on that goal have ended up dramatically narrowing the purpose of school.

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