Have You Heard
Have You Heard
Occasionally funny and periodically informative, Have You Heard features journalist Jennifer Berkshire and scholar Jack Schneider as they explore the age-old quest to finally fix the nation's public schools, one policy issue at a time.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 9, 2020 • 31min
#86 You’ve Got Questions. We Have Answers
Have You Heard opens the proverbial phone lines to hear what listeners want to know about education in a time of pandemic. And an all-star cast of experts steps up to provide the answers.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Mar 23, 2020 • 27min
#85 Pandemic: School Closures Past, Present, Future
This isn't the first time schools have shuttered in response to a pandemic. Resident education historian Jack Schneider on what we can learn from school closures past. Meanwhile, the absence of schools seems to have awakened even their critics to how key they are. And what of the future? Resident paranoid Jennifer Berkshire says it's never too soon to start fretting over whether schools will ever reopen - especially in states where pols have been feverishly focused on dismantling them.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Mar 5, 2020 • 35min
#84 The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing
Blaming teachers for the woes of US public schools and beyond is as old a pastime as public education itself. Historian Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz takes us through 100 years of teacher blaming and the love-hate relationship the US has with its teachers. You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll want to pre-order her book, Blaming Teachers.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Feb 20, 2020 • 36min
#83 Don’t Mess with Texas’ Schools
Have You Heard heads to fast-growing north Texas to listen in on how support for public education is upending the state's politics. Part of our series on education and politics in 2020, this episode captures a trend with major implications for Texas and beyond.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going and enables us to hit the road. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Feb 6, 2020 • 39min
#82 Milton Friedman’s Day in Court
The raging debate about whether public money should fund private religious education is a very old one. What's new is the increasingly complex education landscape and the mainstreaming of once radical free market ideas. Education historian Ethan Hutt makes it all make sense.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Jan 23, 2020 • 32min
#81 History Wars: How Politics Shape Textbooks
What are students learning about American history in these hyper-polarized times? That’s what New York Times reporter Dana Goldstein wanted to know. And so she set off on an epic reading adventure: 43 middle and high school American history textbooks, 4,800 pages in all. Have You Heard talks to Dana about how our divided nation shows up on the pages of these books on subjects such as immigration, the economy and suburbanization. Also, Jack revisits the great debate in the 1990’s over history standards.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Jan 9, 2020 • 33min
#80 The Rural Schools Conundrum
Have You Heard heads to rural Wisconsin to investigate a puzzle. Communities in the "reddest" parts of the state keep voting to hike their own taxes to pay for schools, even as they elect and re-elect politicians who enact cuts to school funding. What gives? The answers are complicated and surprising.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Dec 19, 2019 • 30min
#79 The PISA Problem
It’s time to junk the international assessment of 15-year-olds known as the PISA test says scholar Oren Pizmony-Levy. And Have You Heard announces big plans for 2020.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Dec 5, 2019 • 43min
#78 Flip the Board: Denver and the Politics of School Reform
For more than a decade, Denver has been a model for a brand of school reform centered on closing low-performing schools, opening charter schools and rewarding teachers for boosting student test scores. But a diverse coalition of opponents says it’s time to put the brakes on that approach and showed its strength at the polls in November by “flipping” the Denver School Board.
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast

Nov 14, 2019 • 35min
#77 Equity in Theory, Privilege in Practice: Race and the Quest for "Good Schools"
Why do progressive parents so often act to preserve their own privilege even as they say they're committed to challenging inequality? We talk to Margaret Hagerman, author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America.
Recommended reading: White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America
The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast alive. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast


