Education News & Investigations
The go to place for any issue having to do with education across the nation
Weekday education briefings and weekly deep dives, state by state — plus national investigations built entirely from public records, federal data, and on-record voices. Every episode publishes its sources, so anything we say can be checked.
Have an education story or question for the show? Request a call and a member of the production team will phone you.
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A national claim needs national organization. Each state has its own page — its daily briefings, its latest episodes, its education department, and the hot issues our board-watch is tracking there.
The flagship. A weekday briefing for every state in the nation, weekly deep dives, section-by-section walkthroughs of the laws that run schools — IDEA, Section 504, and state rules like New Hampshire's Ed 1100 — and national investigations. Hosted by Alex and Jordan.
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A weekly hour on the trends reshaping schools in southern New Hampshire — Manchester, Nashua, Derry, Salem — funding, policy, and the numbers behind the headlines. Hosted by Alex and Jordan.
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Our producer's other show, with its own site, channels, and audience: a weekly podcast about building and running a business, sequenced from the very beginning — what a business actually is, the idea and the customer, money in and money out, pricing, the first sale, and leading people — with meetings covered as one module in the run of the show. Sundays at 7:00 PM ET. Hosted by Alex and Jordan.
Nineteen percent of public school students — nearly one in five — now have an IEP under IDEA or a Section 504 plan. Our investigation of the newest federal data asks why: real need finally counted, or a system producing its own caseload? The verdict is mixed, the evidence is discriminating, and every number is sourced. Specific learning disability — the category weak instruction would inflate — has been shrinking for two decades, while autism, ADHD, and 504-only plans drive the growth; identification rates run from about 11% to about 21% depending on the state a child happens to live in.
A national special on Section 504 — the accommodation plan that almost quadrupled in fifteen years under one unchanging legal test, varies from 0% to over 30% depending on the building, and has never had a federal eligibility audit. Every claim proof-checked before air.
Sources, always. Every episode description carries a Sources section naming the documents, datasets, and reporting behind it.
Nothing invented. No fabricated quotes, no invented figures, no voices created for real people. Guests who record with us are aired exactly as they recorded — their voice, unaltered. Written answers are read verbatim.
On the record. The officials and institutions we cover are invited to respond on the record, and their responses air as given.
Corrections in the open. When we get something wrong, we fix the episode and say what changed.
Education Across the States is produced by Charles Mayfield, producer and owner — independent and self-funded, with no outside backers. The shows cover education the way it actually works: the federal law, the state rules, the district budgets, and the meetings where decisions get made.
Press and guest inquiries: educationacrossthestates@gmail.com · (978) 291-8525. Run the Room: runtheroom@outlook.com.
Teachers, parents, staff, board members: if you have documents or a story about education in your state — a budget that doesn't add up, a policy hurting kids, a meeting where the public was shut out — send it to educationacrossthestates@gmail.com. We check everything against the public record before it airs.