I’ve been taking requests on tiktok to look into school district budget kerfuffles for a few years. They get a surprising amount of attention, I think because people really care about their school districts and money, but there are few outlets to really yap about it. I did one about Hickman Mills C-1 in Missouri, for instance, and it has about 42,000 views. There’s really a demand to have down to earth conversations about this stuff.

At the same time, I’ve noticed there aren’t any good podcasts about municipal finance. The ones I’ve found are either boring or someone’s trying to sell you something. I’ve wanted a lefty, funny, dialogical podcast about state and local public finance, getting into the political economy of it all with a philosophical and critical angle.

I put these two thoughts together and asked philosopher of education, policy researcher, and prolific podcaster Derek Gottlieb if he wanted to make a podcast like that, looking into the requests I get on tiktok. He was up for it and, voila, we’re releasing it!

It’s called “Budget Committee!” You can listen to it on Apple podcasts and spotify.

We’re going to drop our first episodes this week looking at districts in Tennessee, Vermont, and Missouri, so look out for them. Plus, we’ve got art by Soumya Dhelakar and music by Carsie Blanton.

And if you want to request a district, fill out this form!