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Have you heard

There was a legend in central Maine, about a hermit who had lived in the woods, unseen, for 30 years.  Then, in 2013, the police arrested a man named Christopher Knight.

To learn more about Chris Knight’s story, be sure to check out journalist’s Mike Finkel’s book, The Stranger In The Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit.  http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/251786/the-stranger-in-the-woods-by-michael-finkel/9781101875681/

Check out The North Pond Hermit Song by Stan Keach: https://www.facebook.com/stankeachsongs/

Producer: Joe Rosenberg

Original Score: Renzo Gorrio and Andrew Vickers

Snap Judgment

The North Pond Hermit / Snap Judgment, "Personal Jesus"

Tax credit scholarships are a complex, controversial way of sending taxpayer dollars to private religious schools, allowing wealthy donors and corporations to reap huge windfalls in the process. Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire explore the the origins of the wall between public money and private schools that these “neo vouchers” are intended to circumvent. They're joined by tax policy expert Carl Davis who They’re joined by tax policy expert Carl Davis who explains that tax credit scholarships have more in common with money laundering than with charitable giving.

#15: Tax Credit Scholarships: A Laundromat for Tax Dollars

How did school boards became the must-have accessory of wealthy donors? Scholar Rebecca Jacobsen walks us through who and what is behind this big money trend. And by "big," we mean REALLY BIG. The recent school board election in Los Angeles was the most expensive in history, totaling some $17 million, much of it via untraceable "dark money" donations.

#19: Buying Influence: Big Money and School Board Elections

The push to "personalize" education is on, with more Silicon Valley disrupters jumping into the big money fray every week. But as Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider discuss with guest Bill Fitzgerald, the search for a technological cure for what ails our public schools goes way back. And by failing to heed the past, the new breed of disrupters--Mark Zuckerberg, Reed Hastings, et al--are poised to repeat it.

#20: Putting the 'i' in School: Personalized Learning and the Disruption of Public Education

In this episode of Have You Heard, we hear from teachers who left their jobs - and wanted to tell the world why. They left "kicking and screaming" as Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Shawn Sheehan explains. These very public resignations are a form of activism, a way for teachers to articulate how and why teaching needs to change.

#21: 'I Quit' - Teachers Are Leaving and They Want to Tell You Why

Jennifer Berkshire talks to Nancy MacLean, author of the best selling Democracy in Chains, about the Right's long crusade against what they call "government schools."

#22: The Long Crusade Against Public Schools: A Conversation with Nancy MacLean

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.