Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Hi, I'm Al Neely. I've spent most of my life asking, " Why do people behave a certain way? Why don't people understand that most everyone wants basically the same thing? Most everyone wants their fundamental need for peace of mind, nourishment, shelter and safety."
What I have learned is that because of an unwillingness to open one's mind to see that some of the people you come in contact with may have those same desires as you do. We prejudge, isolate ourselves, and can be hesitant to interact, and sometimes we can be belligerent towards one another. This is caused by learned behavior that may have repeated itself for generations in our families.
What I hope to do with this podcast is to introduce as many people with as many various cultures, backgrounds, and practices as possible. The thought is that I can help to bring different perspectives by discussing various views from my guests that are willing to talk about their personal experiences.
Hopefully we all will learn something new. We may even learn that most of us share the same desire for our fundamental needs. We may just simply try to obtain it differently.
Sit back, learn, and enjoy!
Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Navigating Education Policy: Tina Jenkins and Al Neely on Equity, Media Influence, and Political Engagement
What if the shifting tides in education policy could reshape the future of our classrooms? Join Tina Jenkins and me, Al Neely, as we tackle the pressing questions surrounding the educational landscape under the new administration. We explore the potential impact of executive orders on funding for special needs and Title I students, despite the protective barriers set by Congress-approved budgets. You'll discover why Title I funding is a lifeline for many communities and how recent shifts in financial priorities resonate across diverse groups, touching both those who backed the administration and those who didn't.
In our discussion, we uncover the historical and ongoing challenges faced by minority communities in America, drawing attention to systemic issues of racism and discrimination. From the experiences of Japanese, Chinese, Hispanic, and Black communities to the biases in our educational curricula, we highlight how underfunding can perpetuate inequalities. Our conversation stresses the importance of political engagement, especially when nearly half the nation refrains from voting, and we underscore how local and state governance often holds the keys to equitable education.
Finally, we navigate the complexities of political manipulation and media influence on education policy. From the portrayal of minority communities in the media to the ongoing debate over parental rights versus educational expertise, we delve into the delicate balance required. The episode closes with a look at the intersection of religion and education, emphasizing the critical need to maintain the separation of church and state to ensure a fair and inclusive environment for all students. Tune in for a comprehensive exploration of these vital issues, and gain fresh insights into how political and media landscapes are shaping the education system today.
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Hello everyone, welcome to Listen Up Podcast. I'm Al Neely and today we're here with Tina Jenkins and we're just going to chop it up a little bit about what's taking place. We are now in January. Well, towards the end of January, we're in the I'm going into the first week of February, which we're under a new administration and you just see, some of the things taking place that were promised during the campaign were promised under during the campaign. So we're going to talk about, we're going to delve into a little bit of the department of education and education and things that are taking place with.
Speaker 1:With that right now there's many things like. Now there's oh, everybody's all concerned about the ice raids and the migrants and the detainees and it's really creating a bunch of fear. Signed in to an executive order canceling all the previous executive orders that were written of the past presidents to To dissolve and break up what was pretty much the status quo for the Department of Education and the policies that were focused on by the previous presidents were things such as protections for special needs children, protections for Title I students, meals and things like that. So by him signing his executive order, he's put in place the foundation to dissolve those things and it's been a concern.
Speaker 2:So let's just talk about what you're seeing and what you want to focus on, Tina, I think when we look at that, I think when we look at his executive orders one it's what I would like to call it it's sort of like, almost like a legal I want to be legal wish list, because everything has to go through a legal process. Even executive orders have to go through a department, especially Department of Education, because it was something that was put in place by Congress. So in order for him to even think he can remove the Department of Education, he wouldn't even be able to do that legally under an executive order. It would have to go before Congress because Congress is the one that had voted on it, put it together and so it has to go back through Congress to eliminate it. Now can he divert funding? He wouldn't be able to do that under the current funding that we have because that has already been passed and that has been nullified. So he can't do much. That's why, when he signed that one executive order saying stop all funding well, you can't stop all funding. That's illegal because that was already ratified by Congress, saying this is what the money is going towards. So but I think the positive thing is that we did see when that sort of went into effect.
Speaker 2:People realize how removing that funding or stopping that funding really affects everybody across the board, no matter how you vote, where you live. It affects everyone, from those who have college kids, kids who are in special needs, the elderly, and so when it comes to funding, a lot of that has already been approved. Now come this new funding bill that we're about to go through that or that process that we're about to go through. We'll see what's going to happen going forward. But, as it states right now, you know he can't remove all that funding and then divert it to wherever else that he wants it to go.
Speaker 2:But Title I funding is extremely important to every school system here throughout America because it ensures that there's funding for all the special needs that kids that you know families need, that the school supplies, so if you have a kid that has an IEP or 504, all of those things. All that funding goes into ensuring that they have an equitable opportunity for education and it doesn't matter how their parents vote. It's the equitable opportunity for them to have and it's not right for that to be pulled. And that was one of the big reasons why we do have the Department of Education is to ensure that children can learn equitably without being to ensure that they're able to just you know, learn in a safe and a well-rounded environment. And so, for him, he's going to start to try and continue to push those boundaries, in my opinion, because you see that the people that vote for him and think like him and support him.
Speaker 1:it's all been about culture, okay, so for the last 15, 20 years there's just snowballing, growing effect to now, whereas at a crescendo it's all about culture, right, and you're warring with people about culture and the basis for your beliefs and your foundations. Foundations have not been thoroughly. I don't believe the bases have been thoroughly thought through, processed or they've been looked at from the standpoint of what's equitable for everybody and how it affects everybody, because it affects the lot of the people that vote for him.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Okay, and they don't understand that. So this is how it breaks down. Um, title one students. Um, this is the makeup of the title one students. Native American students make up about 17%. Um, black students make up about 17%. Black students make up about 16%. The Asians they tend to have issues with autism and hearing. So those are the things that focus on and they fall into the special needs students. Okay, that focus on and they fall into the special needs students. Okay, poor white students make up 14% and Hispanics make up 14%. Okay, so we're talking about people.
Speaker 1:I saw something the other day. We were, we were I was looking at a, a news reel, and they were talking about. There was a school that was in a rural area. Mm-hmm, overwhelmingly voted for Trump and they voted overwhelmingly voted for Republicans, like 85%. Okay, the school is made up majority of poor white students that don't have lunch. They have special needs. I'm not lunch. They don't have food breakfast in the morning. They have special needs. They need help with just paying for schools. So these are the people that are voting for him and Almost always, when you have a culture war, what's happening is they're hanging and they're making the face of whatever it is that is an issue or the target.
Speaker 1:They want to make it the face of a minority. In this case, they want to make it the case of black people, black students and Hispanic students. Okay, but, as you can see, black students make up 16% of it, hispanic students make up 14%, and so do white students. So it's always with the culture war, there's always has to be a face associated with it, which is shows that you don't research, you don't know what's actually causing these issues and you don't know how it's detrimentally affecting the community. So if you don't have competitive students and you don't have competitive departments of education to elevate your society, you're going to fall by wayside, right. So I can keep going, but I just this is overwhelmingly. I don't really think this has been thought about. You just pick a culture war, you put a target on a race of people Yep, okay, and then you just keep making stuff up to try to prove your point, but in the meantime, you're hurting the people that don't actually You're hurting the people that don't actually.
Speaker 2:You're hurting the people that you're hurting, that's voting for you. You're hurting everybody.
Speaker 1:Exactly, you're hurting everybody. You're basing everybody else. Right, you're hurting everybody, because the majority of the country are poor people, right Marginalized people. It doesn't matter what color they are.
Speaker 2:That's true, but you know, I think, and when you said they don't do their research, the big part of it is is that the Department of Education is only there really is for a way to have accountability for the states that they can come in to ensure that the students are not, their civil rights are not being gone against. They're there to provide funding. But the federal government, the Department of Education, they don't oversee your curriculum. They don't oversee what goes on in the detail and the minutia of what actually goes on in your actual school district. That is your state government and then your state. Then it's your local government or your local municipality that really has better oversight over your school district and what funding goes in there, what curriculum goes in there, what are some of the rules and guidelines that go in there. And so when you look at the schools that are rule and or rule and very poor, they're normally in what kind of states?
Speaker 1:They're in states that support Donald Trump.
Speaker 2:Exactly, they're all in the Republican.
Speaker 1:And his administration and all the people that are usually siding with him, those, yeah, yeah. So once again, it's a culture war, like I said. Now here's the other part of that that I keep leaving out, that I hear quite a bit that. I keep leaving out that. I hear quite a bit. Well, I don't want my kids to go to school to learn how to be transgender or whatever before this. There's one gender for male, one gender for a female, and that's it. So you have two genders. We don't know. So the focus once again is you pick a boogeyman.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Okay, the boogeyman in this case is someone that has issues with or minding someone else's business about what their sexual identity is.
Speaker 2:Right, okay.
Speaker 1:All right about what their sexual identity is. Right, okay, all right, so that is a topic for another day. We definitely need to talk about that because that is, we all have family members or really close friends or relatives that have issues accepting the gay people or the trans people in their families, and all of them have them in their families.
Speaker 2:Right, right right.
Speaker 1:So we have a bunch of people that don't understand it, so that's also the boogeyman in this case. So we don't want to fund that. So you know we don't want to have transgender bathrooms. Okay, and some of it makes sense, but a lot of it's just being blown out of it.
Speaker 2:It really is yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you should have a male, a bathroom for males, and you should have a bathroom for females. If you don't want to do a bathroom for anybody else, that's fine. You're going to have to pick which one you need to use, but this is all you're going to get outside of that. What else needs to be done? You don't need to make it a gender war.
Speaker 2:I mean a cultural war but unfortunately it is just like you said. They make it in two way cultural wars, just like no one is being indoctr. Unfortunately it is Just like you said. They make it in two-way cultural wars. That's a boogeyman. Just like no one is being indoctrinated at school.
Speaker 2:If that was the case, then you and I should be indoctrinated, because we went to school, did anything that they teach us. There's not so much different. That's being taught maybe a little bit less on history of correct history, different ways of doing math you know, different ways of you know, instead of the things that we call sight words growing up, now they're called heart words. So it's just, you know, things are just a tad bit different. But I mean, we're being, our children are not being indoctrinated, but of course that's something that they can hold on to, to try to support whatever it is that they want to support, because that's what their base wants to hear. And it's very unfortunate because at the end of the day, people are being hurt by it, families are being hurt by it because come this new you know our new funding cycle. We shall see how much funding goes towards education in the Department of Education, and then they, you know, want to do the whole charter thing.
Speaker 1:So every time we talk, we talk about a different aspect uh, why the department of education is being attacked. And then what you just said, the indoctrination part. Okay, and you're talking about us. The other thing is history. Okay, we've been, I, I, I get so tired. History, of course, was my major, okay, so if you want to talk to history about me, you just we can just go ahead and break open a soda pop and we can just go. Okay, we can just go.
Speaker 1:All right, but we've been lied to so much throughout history that it's not interesting anymore. No one's paying attention to it anymore and they're realizing it's not true. And these are the people that are apathetic to politics, the political system and voting, and they're saying that it's not true, right? So you're not going to legislate by taking books out of school. You're not going to legislate what people are going to be forced to learn? Because the people that really want to know, or that do know, they know the difference, right? So we all, you know, we all heard the stories about, you know, chopping down the tree.
Speaker 2:Johnny Appleseed.
Speaker 1:The George Washington.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes I can't tell a lie.
Speaker 1:And okay, you know, we Abraham Lincoln, you know released the slaves, all these Danes. Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, which is? It's all stuff that's made up that we've been indoctrinated to believe that this is actually the truth. It works better when you actually tell people the that this is actually the truth. Okay, it works better when you actually tell people the truth. You tell people what actually happened. Okay, tell them what happened with the Native Americans, all right.
Speaker 2:Why there's so few of them here.
Speaker 1:Okay, Tell them the truth at what happened with the forcing of people from Africa to come here. Okay, if you want to talk about immigration, talk about the various immigrants that have come from each country here and what they've contributed or what they brought to the country. You know, the Asians that came here, the Chinese, they built the railroads, exactly Okay. So the Italians that came, they built the sewers, and the Irish fought the war.
Speaker 2:They did skyscrapers. Well, they fought in the Civil War. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Those were mostly Irish people that were brought over here to fight the people in the South. That's where they constantly got their flow. So you have different things that are going on. The Japanese were forced into internment camps. Okay, these are truths. But if you don't tell anybody that, so their cultures know this Japanese culture knows it. So when they're seeing what's happening with the Hispanic culture right now, they're going oh, we've seen this happen.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Right. When you see the Chinese being, excuse me. When you see the Chinese being, excuse me. When you see the Chinese being, when you see the Hispanics being brought up in a situation where they're being ostracized and they're pointed out because they're here to work hard, and and the ones that are, here, are trying to do it legally, are working hard to try to build something. Of course, the chinese see that and that's what they tried to do. Right, and they were treated like dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah okay, exactly and we all know what the history of black people are in the country right, we were the first wealth generating group of people that were we were basically basically what's the word I'm looking for used to build the country right. So we all know this. So, if we know this and we work on solutions to work this out which I personally don't know if this is going to happen but one of the things you're going to have is you're going to have this riff back and forth, back and forth, and this is what I'm afraid of. So you, you, the, the black people here, know this. They're not going to stop fighting.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think, I don't. Yeah, I can't see that happening. Just because that's part of human nature Everybody fights among themselves just because.
Speaker 1:Right, but they're not. Whatever you stand for, whatever you stand up for, you're going to, no matter what kind of terrorism or whatever is taking place. You're not going to let allow that to deter. You is my point.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:OK. So what winds up happening is you're having these culture wars and, yeah, you think you might be winning, but in actuality you're not. You're just getting people angry.
Speaker 2:I think now you know, when you go back to education, you see that if they can limit who gets the right kind of education, you know, then we don't have to worry about, you know, the lower income individuals getting a better education. We won't have to worry about them because they're not going to vote, they're not going to. You know, they're not going to way of defunding education. We will have a reversal of how well our children will be educated. I mean, it's hard to educate them now as it is, because there's teachers. It's hard to find good qualifying teachers. Who wants to do it?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, you know who wants to do it. Nobody wants to do it.
Speaker 2:Right. They're not well paid, they're not treated well, and that's a whole different subject. Correct In the classroom, that's a whole different subject. But at the same time it's just like if they already don't have enough funding as it is, and then you decrease it even more. How much less are they going to get? Just a really well rounded education? They're not. And then you look at the textbooks that are being written. They're constantly being rewritten to whitewash history, especially history, to make sure that math is done a specific way, make sure that there's no reference to diversity at all in math as well. You could see it in some of the curriculum. That and math as well. You could see it in some of the curriculum that Florida had to go through when it came to it. So education, I think we're going to continue to go down if we don't get enough funding, and I don't see that happening under this administration. I just see it just.
Speaker 1:Well, I look at it and I think I think this way, you have One third of the people voted for the Republican Party. One third just under one third voted for the Democratic Party, and then you had an entire third that didn't vote. That don't? They're just apathetic to the entire system. So you're going to continue to have. Now, here's the entire system. So you're gonna continue to have. Now, here's the bad thing. We don't ever really have doesn't matter what party, it is a large, substantial group of politicians that are actually for the people.
Speaker 1:So oh, yeah it doesn't matter which ones they are, because if you see them, I mean you can look at it. You know when they're talking about, not when they're talking about when they're doing these hearings for this position. Well, you'll have the majority of their Republicans voting for this particular person that was put up. Then you'll have a few of the Democrats making deals.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Right to vote for them and basically, what you're doing is you're making a deal to put yourself in a position to better yourself and you see it happening. It doesn't matter whoever's in power back and forth is either one of them and, almost ultimately, if you don't stand on something and you're wavering back and forth and you're making a deal with someone that doesn't have the best interests of people in mind but you're thinking you have to make that deal to get something through, it's not for the people Right, so it doesn't matter what party it is, so that one third of the people don't actually that didn't vote, don't actually believe this thing is working for them right and I can see why.
Speaker 1:You can see why then you have one third.
Speaker 2:You're like what's the point then? You have one third, that's're like what's the point?
Speaker 1:Then you have one third that's just hot on this culture war, like that's going to make a difference. All you're just going to do is you're going to create, like you got upset and you tried to overthrow the government and you tried to do that. Now what's going to happen is you're going to have another segment opposite. Your ideology is going to get upset, right, that don't believe in the government, anti-government, and they're going to come up and then they're going to do that. It's just politicians, the majority of them. They do just a disservice to this country to the point where the majority of the people, they don't benefit. So it doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1:The whole education thing, like you said, we're getting back to I got a little bit off the topic here, but getting back to that, yes, you're going to have states that are going to educate people, that are continue to educate people. You're going to have institutions that are going to educate people, that can continue to educate people based on the truth. Then you're going to have those states that don't and they're going to lose out. But we already see those states that don't have good educational programs. Their incomes, their poverty levels are the most lowest their education levels are most those states are just going to continue to go down, like you said, right.
Speaker 2:And then I think you know, when you talk about politicians and the one third that doesn't vote, I think you know, whenever we're in a general election, you always see. You know, of course, the president, you know this is who you need to vote for. But it is as much as important to understand how your state runs and how your local municipality runs. Like, who are your, who are your council people? Do your council people that you're electing do they even, do they even care about education? Where do they stand on education? Where do they stand on vouchers and charter schools? Where do they stand on just making sure that children have an equitable opportunity to be educated? Where are they at? Where are our state senators? Where are they at when you're looking at them?
Speaker 2:And then it was very interesting my husband and I was talking the other night in reference to just city council and some of the people that you know in the past that we have voted for, and because you know he's in the city I'm in the city, but a different city we get to see a little bit more of the inner workings of the city and you start to see just different personalities, of who they are. You know, of who these politicians really are, because you can't see that on a campaign trail, especially not with city council. You really can't see that on their, on their website when you go to do your due diligence and research right. So it's just like how do you really pick a really qualified person?
Speaker 1:you know it's really hard figuring out these people because I, I will, I will definitely say those people are probably the most important um political figures they are in your life. If you're local, your city, your state, those are the ones that any of those, those government agencies that are there, those are the ones that are going to affect you on a daily basis exactly, and I think that's you need to focus on, and if we could get that going, then eventually maybe we're able to grow it to a point where you have a larger percentage of people that are in the federal government that actually have people's best interests in mind.
Speaker 2:That actually care they're not.
Speaker 1:So, um, it's not as important to be associated with somebody for an appearance or for power, so you can stay in power. Yes and that's all it is yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:It's just a unfortunate rat race. It's like okay, once I get in, I gotta figure out how to stay in. And how to stay in is is okay. I'll scratch your back If you scratch my back, okay. It's all those backdoor meetings and and unfortunately, it's the citizens who pay for some of those awful decisions, and that's why I really hope that you know, when it comes to education, that our children's education is not affected by that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But they're the vulnerable ones that get caught up in all of this craziness, from indoctrination to oh. I can't have this book in the library Right.
Speaker 1:That's a culture war. That's a culture war that has no bearing on anything except for making you feel good about your culture. Exactly or making you feel superior to somebody else's culture.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:Because your culture's not confident, I guess. I don't know Whatever it is it's. I don't know where we go from here, but it's absolutely a mess.
Speaker 2:I think when we look at where we go, I think politically, we look at our midterms and definitely see who's really in our corner when it comes to making sure that we have the funding, that we have the support that families need. And but there again, funding that we have the support that families need, and you know, but there again you got to sort of be diligent about the research as much as you can. You can't just rely upon the. You know the website. It's unfortunate.
Speaker 1:Somebody comes to your hood and sees you and no one's been in your hood for I know politician on the federal level has been in your neighborhood for eight years and then somebody comes down there and sees you and have a conversation with you at the barbershop. It fools you to make you think that they have your best interest in mind.
Speaker 2:Right that they actually care about you, and that's why I just, yeah, I don't, I don't understand. I've never understood. I never understood that, oh, he's a great person, but you met him or her one time, right, cause they can't.
Speaker 1:They knew me. They care enough about me to come down here Right, enough about me to come down here, right. I just think back to Vivek and Byron Vivek Ramaswamy and Byron Donald when they went to Philly. Right, they're not even part of the administration.
Speaker 2:Right, where did he go? I have no idea when did Byron go? He's in.
Speaker 1:Florida, but I guess he did what he needed to do. And he's still where he was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, All of that for what? All of that for what I mean he?
Speaker 1:got exactly what he got, and then that Vivek, he's all on. What's the name? In the morning I forgot With Charlemagne.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, gotcha, yeah, breakfast club.
Speaker 1:He's in the neighborhood and they don't even want him in the administration. But he's out there and they're. They're out there. They were in the hood trying to get black boats black men's vote and they got them. They were in the hood trying to get black votes black men's vote and they got them.
Speaker 2:They got some of them.
Speaker 1:They got some of them. They got some of them it's a myth.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a myth. There it goes again. It's that whole. Look over here let's just say, oh, it's all the black men.
Speaker 1:They got a few more than they would normally do.
Speaker 2:Right, it's all the black men that went against Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1:That's a total farce 87% of black men voted for Kamala Harris. Exactly 92% of black women voted for Kamala.
Speaker 2:Harris, exactly, but that's a lie that they were trying to tell you.
Speaker 1:There's no other group voted as much for a particular politician than that. So it's always. It's always disingenuous, propagandist facts.
Speaker 2:They tell a small portion of it. Yeah, just like you know, if you go back to what you're saying about history, they'll tell a small portion about, or teach a small portion about, what history is to continue to ensure that a certain people group stays in the limelight, that they weren't such bad people they did discover.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be careful. Your grandkids are going to go to school one day as a dude boy and come home as a girl.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Like. Bam Didn't even-.
Speaker 1:The nurse is going to perform an operation.
Speaker 2:Right, and then people actually believe that. Yeah, it's very, very sad and it's very sad of where we're even at, just even right now with the whole DEI stuff.
Speaker 1:That in itself we got to do that one another day.
Speaker 2:That was horrible.
Speaker 1:The face that they have associated with that is Black women. That's the face. The boogeyman for DE, that is black women. That's the face. The boogeyman for DEI is black women. You know who DEI benefits the most White women.
Speaker 2:That woman that's sitting up at that podium, who's 27 years old. She wouldn't have been at that podium if it wasn't for DEI.
Speaker 1:That's correct, but of course you wouldn't be able to tell the masses that there's a boogeyman face associated with all of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. And then? If you drank the Kool-Aid, then you vote that way you try to find something to fit your narrative, right, and it's very unfortunate because right now, that that's, it's OK. You have one little snippet here to fit your narrative and then your narrative must be true, right, and that's that's. I feel like that's where we're at. Society was facts have gone out the door. Yeah, it is just gone out the door. That's why there's no. In my opinion, there is no point of watching mainstream oh, I stopped.
Speaker 1:I stopped watching the news. I was watching it occasionally. I'm talking about network news, oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Up until the election, I completely turned it off. I don't even anymore I do. If I want to get news, I get it from a couple of places, and then, of course, when I'm doing my research for my, my video essays or my podcast, and I'm doing my research myself. But I mean, even they, even you look at these networks, networks, these networks are capitulating to whatever political party is in office so that they can reap revenue and benefits. Right, yeah? So whatever they're, they're gearing their viewership. So, whatever they're gearing their viewership, the policies or the topics that they're gearing towards their viewership are to promote the fact of revenue generation for that particular company, and they're doing the same thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely Back and forth, so I can stay in business, exactly. Exactly so. At the end of the day, it's all about money.
Speaker 1:Right. It has nothing to do with the people, the welfare of the people, and I think that's where we've gotten with with everything pretty much in this country. When we started the Department of Education, it was started to I wrote some notes down, so it was started to one to improve the educational quality, increase access to education, increase public involvement Okay, which is a big thing. I don't want a teacher telling my kid what we need to do. I'm the parent, but you're not the educator.
Speaker 2:I get that, but there's a fine line on that too. When it comes to the whole, I need for you to teach my kid this and this and this. We, as parents, we're parents. Last time I checked, we're not educators. We didn't go to school to be an educator. There are certain things that people go through a stringent curriculum, a test certification, in order to be a teacher, and I find it so hypocritical for parents and we've seen it in our own state where you know the teachers, the parent like they, like parents have lost say-so in the school of what their kids should be taught. All of that curriculum is gone over by well-educated people. That is their field.
Speaker 1:Well, the whole thought is it's leftist, it's propaganda, and you don't want your kids learning ideas that will make them ungodly or gay or sensitive to another culture or sensitive to another culture's um plight correct, or I don't want my kids, knowing their history, to feel guilty.
Speaker 1:So you have that in play, right. But I think we we've all read, you know, or most of the people I would say in high school have read certain books catcher in the ride, dj Salinger, and all, and then different things. So I didn't turn gay. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Right but.
Speaker 1:I'm more well-rounded, I can talk about things and I can have empathy for people. There's books. You didn't have to take the book out of there. How empathetic, how well-rounded are you going to be if you don't have exposure to things?
Speaker 2:Exactly. I remember there were some books that our children brought home.
Speaker 1:These are all books that they want to take out.
Speaker 2:And I forget the name of this one book, but I remember this one book my child was telling me about there in high school and I'm like, are you serious? This is what you're reading about these kids being reborn? Are you serious? This is what you're reading about these kids being reborn? And? And if they didn't do a certain thing, then they would, they would call them. And I'm like you're reading about calling children. Are you serious? Because I'm the mom that wants to protect her kids, so I get it, but at the same time, I'm like you need to be exposed to this. You need to be exposed to different ways of thinking, different cultures, different, like you know, for this was a different kind of sub genre that they were going through, but I could not.
Speaker 1:I was shocked. I was shocked, you know what?
Speaker 2:But I wouldn't go. Hey, librarian, you need to take that off the shelf.
Speaker 1:You know what that actually helps being exposed to that. It helps you stop trying to fight people. Okay, right, because you go. Oh huh, they might actually have something similar to me and I just learned something.
Speaker 1:Yeah so it doesn't have to be a fight, a physical fight, it could just be. Okay, I got it, we're cool, we can have a relationship and we can move on. So also support research, research to figure out how you can make education better, to fulfill a campaign promise. Of course, it was Carter who's established the modern Department of Education, which is, I think Carter is considered probably amongst the one, two or three most intelligent presidents we've ever had. To clarify the federal role, to save tax dollars and to support the democracy.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right. So I don't think this country wants to be a democracy anymore, so maybe that's the reason we want to get rid of the apartment.
Speaker 2:I don't know what we want to be. Right we want to just be ruled by oligarchs.
Speaker 1:Gosh, so anyway.
Speaker 2:And I think, and you know as I was doing my research about, you know the Department of Education, how it plays a role in our local government and in our state government. You know we actually believe it or not received way more funding as a state in whole from the, from the federal government, and I want to say probably about, if I remember correctly, between four to 7% of that goes into our state education and so it pays. There is, it does pay for quite a bit like free lunches, breakfast, different afterschool activities and things of that nature, and then there's separate funding for title one and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:So it is a wonderful department that we, in my opinion, I feel like we still need to have, but it's super important for people to realize that, at the end of the day, you need to make sure that you're putting the people that you're putting in power is the right people that you should be putting in power in your local and state government. Yeah, and I feel like we are in a state um, that's pretty, that's pretty stable which state our state virginia
Speaker 1:yes, virginia it's stable because there's a balance, exactly.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Exactly. The present governor would probably side more to what Trump would want to do Absolutely, he sure would. But you know the the state Congress, they won't allow that.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So, that's our saving grace. That is absolutely our saving grace. That is absolutely our saving grace, just like when you see what they're trying to do. And I believe it's Oklahoma where they want to make sure that when you enroll a child, that the child is a citizen.
Speaker 1:The what.
Speaker 2:That the child is a US citizen, so I guess they can have a role or immigration role. So you can say Johnny B is not a US citizen but Johnny A is a citizen and so when you have ICE come, you can round up all the non-citizen children and that's how I see it. But it's very unfortunate.
Speaker 1:But if you look at where Oklahoma is and where it's at educationally, they want to do all these cultural things and not do what's right by their constituents to make sure that their Mississippi are one of the lowest within our United States that has the lowest education level of Victory for Greenwood and he does a lot there in Tulsa, oklahoma, about the education of Greenwood and the Native Americans, and then you know all the things that are going on and I think they just decided to open up an investigation about what actually took place during Greenwood. But one of the things him and I were talking about and he touched on is about the educational levels there and the lack of them teaching actually history and what actually was taking place there. So, yeah, I can see that the big thing is also there is what putting Bibles in the classroom.
Speaker 2:Yeah Bibles in the classroom. No curriculum Curriculum.
Speaker 1:For what?
Speaker 2:Having religious curriculum, and so the teachers would have to teach this religious curriculum to the kids which Christianity? Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:You mean American nationalist Christianity, right, exactly, yeah, okay, yeah, because I don, okay, I don't, I'm a Christian, so there's a lot of stuff that's there that I just I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't get on board with, absolutely I can't leave people out.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter where you're from what you're doing or whatever. So I would imagine that's going to be an issue, because you're going to have other culturesrinate them and you're not going to force them to assimilate into the white American national Christian ideology If their entire family is Asian or Jewish or Indian. You're not going to. This is not going to happen.
Speaker 2:No, no, or Hispanic Right. And it's very unfortunate because and there again it goes by you know their local government.
Speaker 1:I think that's what they meant by separation of state.
Speaker 2:Church and state, oh goodness yeah.
Speaker 1:There is no separation.
Speaker 2:They're not trying to keep them separate.
Speaker 1:It's unfortunate. Well, it's not going to work for everybody, it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not.
Speaker 1:And I think we have a big enough voice that it's not going to happen. Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think they did put like a caveat in there that you know to make this curriculum available in your school and if you don't make it available in your school, then we'll revoke funding from your district. So it's very, very rocky out in other states when it comes to education and what they're trying to push their own agenda, their own indoctrination, especially when it comes to religion. It's just like that's the whole point. That's one of our biggest things is the separation of church and state, and church not meaning Christian church, it means all churches.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what the whole country was founded on. That's what we tried to get away from England for.
Speaker 2:Right, we tried to get away from England. We forget about that.
Speaker 1:They kept trying to force the same what they're trying to do now down the settlers that came here. That's what they were going to get away from.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but they forget about that too. It's very unfortunate.
Speaker 1:I don't think they forget about it, I just think they're trying to rewrite it.
Speaker 2:To fit their narrative, correct To fit their narrative. It's just like they're going to have their own narrative of what they want to say in order to fit their agenda.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then they'll continue to tweak it and tweak it, and the sad thing is that they figure they say it over and, over and over again. It becomes truth. It's still a lie. You just continue to believe in that lie, right? Or you start to believe in the lie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, you can see it happening with the news networks.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you're trying to have a conversation with people that listen to Fox it's just ridiculous. People that listen to CNN it's just it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I don't, I don't, yeah's ridiculous. I don't, I don't, yeah, yeah, I can't. I know my limits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, yeah, I. At a certain point, all it is comes down no, it's not. Yes, it is no, it's not. I'm like where are your facts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, where's your research.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw it on this and I'm like okay, well, where did that?
Speaker 2:come. Where did that come from exactly?
Speaker 1:so it's, it's just a matter of um.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're gonna try to, like you said, repeat it until they think it'll become true, or enough people believe it, they could care less if it's a lie, and, and that's why I think it's become true, or enough people believe it, they could care less if it's a lie and and that's why I think it's the. It's a sad state because it is a lie for him to have said over and over and over again main trail, we're going to shut the department of education.
Speaker 2:Now we're going to shut shut it down he can't shut it down Exactly and it's he can take funding.
Speaker 1:He, he can't shut it down. He can't shut it down Exactly, and it's he can take funding. He can take funding from it, but he definitely can't shut it down. The people that need it the most like I said, that little rural town that it's predominantly just about all of them are white Americans Right to suffer because now they're not going to have funding for special needs or school breakfast, which is the first thing that I've always learned about education in schools when you're poor is you cannot focus when you're hungry or you're tired, right.
Speaker 2:No, we see that as adults.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah. It's no difference you cannot focus when you're hungry or you're tired, right no, we see that as adults, right yeah, it's no difference.
Speaker 2:For a little while I could not focus, because I was just sick and I hadn't eaten. So you're right, you can't think, right, you can't write. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you're taking that away, of course, then you're going to have issues with being able to prosper in school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but if you leave it up to one senator, kids should go out there and you know work, and then they should be able to pay for their lunch.
Speaker 1:The question is where are they going to be able to work at? I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's another story when are they going to be able to work at that's?
Speaker 1:another story where they're going to be able to work at you know, I just find that just it's.
Speaker 2:They'll remove funding and then be like, oh, the kids can just go out there and get a job and pay for their lunch. Well, how am I, five years old, going to go out there and pay for the get a job, to pay for their breakfast and lunch, if I can't even afford it?
Speaker 1:I'm about to give a historical argument. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the feudalism, with the serfs, yes, and the feudal system, yes, of the 1300s, yes Of the 1300s, and you just had a group of loyalists, elites, and then everybody else was left with just you're just trying to figure out how to survive.
Speaker 2:How to survive.
Speaker 1:How to make ends meet. You got a rake that you a rake and a hoe that you made out of some bones and stuff. Is that a log?
Speaker 2:You got to find a seed, you got to do everything.
Speaker 1:That's right, you got some burlap for shoes.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Make the best out of it if you can.
Speaker 1:We're basically going back to feudalism.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And that's what they're saying At least this is what this one gentleman was saying. I said oh my goodness, are our kids supposed to go out, get a job so they can pay for their own lunch? Because you don't want to fund it, then what are you going to do with our tax paying dollars? Then where is that going to go? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I was gonna go on that, that big old ai yeah all right, so any, any last thoughts I think my, my last thought is that people, whatever starts coming out the mouth or tweeting or xing or whatever it is that you want to call it um and posting on social media, you got to check for it yourself, because I think that's the only way that we, as a society of people who care and want to see our fellow man prosper, our country prosper, is to make sure that we do our own research ourselves, because we cannot believe anything this dude says.
Speaker 2:You just can't. It's all lies. He might tell a small minute truth, but then everything around it else is lies and if you continue to listen to that and believe it, you're just going to spiral down and we're already in a mental health crisis and I think the best thing to help with that is to do your own research. Take what he says with a grain of salt and go look it up yourself, because I thought, are you serious? He's going to close the Department of Education. And then I'm like, oh, I tell you, he's making me the smartest person Because I got to go and do all this research because of the things that come out of his mouth.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, there you have it, ms Tina. She's getting smarter by the minute because she's doing her research, because she doesn't believe what's coming out of our political leader's mouth. There you go, which is probably a good practice.
Speaker 2:It has to be a practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good practice, All right. So thank to be a practice. Yeah, it's good practice, all right. So thank you for joining us. That ends today's episode of Listen Up. We'll catch you next time on Listen Up. For anyone watching this channel, I ask that you please like and subscribe for upcoming videos.
