What's Really Happening in Texas Classrooms and What Parents Can Do About It | Susan Perez

If you've been wondering whether someone is actually out there doing the hard work of protecting Texas kids — meet Susan Perez.

Susan is the founder of Citizens for Education Reform in Lubbock, Texas, an organization she built from the ground up in 2021 to stop indoctrination in our schools and put communities back in control of their children's education. She's an Amazon Bestselling Author of Take Your Stand: Raise Strong Children Who Can Guard Against Deception and Stand for Truth — and she was just named a 2025 Texas Hero for Children by the State Board of Education. That award doesn't go to people sitting on the sidelines.

In this episode, Susan and I get into the real conversations Texas parents need to be having right now.

We talk about the reading crisis — why students are still being left behind despite what the legislature thinks they've fixed, and what classical education actually gets right that our current system doesn't. We break down what parents should do the moment they find explicit material in their child's school, the conflict of interest buried inside school board training, and why 66% of education budgets never make it into the classroom.

We also go deep on the future of education in Texas — the case for multiple graduation pathways, why we have to stop asking "where is your kid going to college?" and start asking "what is your kid going to DO after high school?", and how honoring trade and technical careers could change the trajectory of an entire generation.

This is the kind of conversation that reminds you why this fight matters.

In this episode:

• The reading crisis — and why it's far from fixed
• How to respond when you find explicit content in your child's school
• The TASB conflict of interest parents aren't talking about
• Classical education vs. the one-size-fits-all public school model
• Multiple graduation pathways and honoring every track
• Why 3rd grade reading level is a pipeline to prison or welfare
• Merit-based pay, vendorism, and where the money is really going
• Teaching kids to find their purpose — not just fill a seat

Connect with Susan Perez: 🌐 educationempowermentcoach.com

About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.

About Ashley:  As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.

Follow @AshleyBCashOfficial on Instagram & @Ashley Bowes Cash on Facebook.

Visit www.AshleyBCashOfficial.com for more content and features. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, I'm Ashley Cash, and welcome to the Ashley B. Cash Show. Today I'm honored to be sitting here with someone who is doing the work of protecting our children right here in Texas. Susan Perez is the founder of Citizens for Education Reform, right here in Lubbock, an organization she built from the ground up in 2021 to stop indoctrination in schools and to get communities back in the driver's seat of their children's education. Since then, she's been spreading awareness about what's really happening in Texas classrooms and mobilizing parents to take action. She's also an Amazon best-selling author with her book, Take Your Stand, Raise Strong Children who can guard against deception and stand for truth. It is exactly the kind of resource that every parent needs to have on their shelf. And if that weren't enough, the Texas State Board of Education just named Susan as a 2025 Texas Hero for Children, which is their most prestigious award for volunteers. And it's recognizing her for what she's doing in public education in our state. That award does not go to people who sit on the sidelines. Susan is the real deal, and I'm so glad she's here today. Susan, thank you for joining us. Thank you, Ashley, for having me. Well, I'm super excited. Um, I'm so glad to have another children's advocate here fighting the good battle in Lubbock, Texas. Um, and we we have so many things in common when it comes to wanting to transform the K-12 education system and make it better for every child. So tell us a little bit about what you've been working on with your Citizens for Education reform.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Well, 90% of the children are going to be left in public school no matter what we offer. So I just couldn't give up on public education. So when we started Citizens for Education Reform, first of all, we just meet quarterly because our objective is not to go to meetings but to get things done. And so we had speakers come in and just teach us about social emotional learning and critical race theory, and one thing I didn't want to know about comprehensive sex education, but everybody else was concerned, so we had speakers talk about that. We learned about some positive things also school choice, chaplains in schools, House Bill 1605, which allowed Texas to write their own curriculum, because the curriculum from the Northeast, where all the curriculum was coming from, was indoctrinated and was not patriotic and was filled with critical race theory, even though it was illegal in Texas, and um suicide and other dark themes right after COVID. So that was one of the first things that we worked on was challenging the Amplify curriculum, which I just described. And Texas rewrote it, and it's now called the Blue Bonnet Curriculum, and so it is patriotic. It has a unit on Daniel and one on Esther and one on Solomon and others, and those are leadership units. They're not uh evangelizing children, it's just using real leaders to help them understand what leadership is. But there are still some concerns with the curriculum because for some reason we think if we do more earlier, the kids are going to get better, and what we're finding is they're actually leaving the students behind and causing learning disabilities. For example, when my kids were in school, at least what I remember of their kindergarten year, they studied one letter a week. So 26 weeks to cover the alphabet, and so that left about 10 weeks to review and do other things. Well, now they cut up cover 44 sounds in kindergarten. That's about three days per sound with no time for review, and so it's not surprising they're not learning all those sounds, and that's the very basis of reading.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

So if they get behind in kindergarten and they're, you know, struggling, then I don't know that it's gonna turn out well. Some kids, of course, come along and do well, but I'm told that in the Netherlands that that's one of the highest um reading literacy rates, they don't even start teaching them to read until third grade. They play and do hands-on activities, and so we might need to look at that in the United States. So that's just an overview of things that we've done because we do get involved in specific things like getting the sexually explicit books out of the library, working on the curriculum, trying to get legislation passed or stopped, whichever the case may be. But you know, education is a broad field, so there are a lot of areas to be concerned about and to work on.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

You're I mean, I could not agree more. Um, I know you and I've talked and met um about me saying that we need to transform the K through 12 education system. And you and I both like certain things about um a classical education, and yet I realize that while we might be able to use the teaching methodology, that we also and and maybe we we go back to the reading skills in that, but there's also things that we need to be adding to our education system because we're just in a different day and age, and with AI, like things that need to be changed. But um, I know one of the things that you specifically worked on, and you touched on it briefly, was getting some books out of school, um, some sexually explicit books out of out of the libraries and things like that. Let's talk a little bit more in depth about that.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Well, I know the legislature thinks they have solved this problem, but I haven't seen much change, honestly. We started over three years ago doing requests for reconsideration forms in our local school district, and we did at least 130. And so, first of all, three years later, my awareness is six of those 130 books were actually taken out. Now, some of them they say are not in the library. Maybe the card catalog wasn't updated, maybe somebody checked the book out and never turned it back in, which could be understandable with teenagers what they might do with the book that's sexually explicit. Now, they did have the legislature through Senate Bill 13 did require school districts to uh have a committee that looks at the books and decides what to do about it. And so that committee has taken the 38 books of ours that are still left that have not been addressed, and they are trying to decide what to do with those. But now that Senate Bill 13 has been passed, they have 90 days, they don't have three years, so they're really under the gun to figure out what to do with the books, and they say they want to read them in their entirety. I don't believe that's actually required. Now, maybe it protects them in the case of a lawsuit, but I don't know of any state any schools in Texas that have been sued, so that's a big concern for a little response of you know, people that are actually suing. But you know, if a book's sexually explicit, do you really want to read the whole thing, or could you just read the summaries that are on the um websites and and read those passages that are actual quotes and what pages they're on, and if you look them up, that's exactly what's in the book. You read enough of those, you can see that does not need to be something for a student to look at because the only purpose is sexual arousal. There is no better theme to the book. There's and and another aspect of that, if there's a book on gardening, and all of the book is about planting the plants and where to plant them and sun required and nutrients required, but the middle of the book has a page or two about a lady getting raped in the garden with all the sexual details. So if it's only two pages, does that make that book okay? I mean, what is the criteria of how many pages should should cause a book to be removed? Because a lot of times they say, uh, you know, with the preponderance of evidence, or you know, is it throughout the book? But does that matter?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

You know, if it's in the book, it's not appropriate for children. And of course, there's a lot of research on what pornography does to affect children under age because it resets their neural pathways. It's a little bit different if you're an adult, it's still uh harmful, but it is something that you really have a hard time overcoming if you experience it as a child.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Yeah. It's horrible. How do if you would tell parents, like if they are with their child and they come across a book that has something sexually explicit in it or CRT in it, um, critical race theory, what what is what do they need to do?

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Well, the new form from uh Cinnabil 13, Texas Education Agency, prescribed what has to be in the form. Now the school districts can add to it, but the form that we've been looking at says, did you talk to the librarian? Did you talk to the principal? And that's really wise to go to the source of you know the closest person that you can talk to before you fill out this form for the committee that is already trying to figure out how to cover 38 books in the next 90 days. So I would suggest going and talking to the librarian, talking to the principal, and then you can go on the school website and look up their request for reconsideration form if you don't get anywhere and you can fill that form out. And if it's still not taken out, you can appeal that book to the Texas Education Agency, and then they have to make a decision there.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Well I just so when did the 90 days start? Are they coming up on ending?

SPEAKER_02 9:51

My understanding, now I didn't pursue this, but according to our local school district, the 90 days started once the board passed the policy. So they've taken this whole year just to create their policy. I mean, it's almost April, and they just passed their policy.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

So they figured out a way to extend the 90 days to a year.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

They figured out a way to extend the three years another year.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

So Brenda Howard went to her local um school board for three times about this book issue. And what she had found is that because school boards are trained by TASBE, the Texas Association of School Boards, which you and I are both very familiar with. Yes, um, they did not realize that the TEA was their governing agency. They thought TASB was their governing agency, and she, as a just a parent and a grandparent, and someone who'd previously been a teacher, had to sit there and inform them because they were waiting on TASB to give them a ruling on what TEA had sent saying that they had to remove these books. And she's like, you understand that TEA is your governing agency, and TASB is someone you hire to give you advice and that you need to go by what the governing and the her school board members did not know that because in their school board training, TASV had not told them that. So that TASV could try to maintain a stranglehold on what was being sent out. And it's just as crazy to me that we're letting that happen in this day and age. And in fact, um, I am asking the state legislature to pass a bill this session that actually requires the TEA to train school boards and not that it's fine if TASB wants to give them a training too, but we need to get there first and make sure and do the school board trainings.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yes. Or I've also read it might go through the state board of education if they could set up the requirements. Yeah. There's also an alternative to Texas Association of School Boards. It's Texans for Excellence in Education. Yes, it costs about half as much. They do the training online so the school doesn't have to spend thousands of dollars to go to Houston with the whole school board for a week and who knows what else they do while they're there as far as enjoying themselves. But also, I've also been told TASB provides the um policy, but the insurance for the school. But I've been told that it's not wise for the school board to be insured by the same people that insure the school, because there could come a time that the school board needs a separate lawyer.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

It's a conflict of interest.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

It is a conflict of interest, and so I would recommend for schools to look into Texans for excellence in education.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Well, and I think that that's something that's really important that people know because historically there has not been an alternative to TASB, and so they had everyone in their control, and now there is, and so we need to get that message out that there is Texans for excellence in education, and it isn't alternative to everything that TASB does now. They now have the same um abilities, and so I think school boards, especially when school when um populations have elected more conservative school board members, yes, that they need to know that they now have a non-liberal option.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Well, and also Texans for Excellence in Education does not train as TASB does, that the board's job is just to rubber stamp whatever the superintendent wants, because TASB, I'm told by school board members that they say your superintendent is your expert and you should just do what they say.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

They do.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

And I think that's where these percentage raises are coming from. So if you think about a percentage raise, sorry, but this is one of my No, let's go for it. Uh a percentage raise. So let's say you give a 3% raise. Well, if you have a superintendent that's making $300,000, that's probably about $13,000 raise. Where you have a custodian that might be making $20,000, they might not even get a $1,000 raise. So, yes, that percentage raise may be legally easier to defend until the school district start telling us that they're running out of money, giving these huge raises that they're giving for people over $100,000. Why not give a certain amount? Or anybody that's over $150,000 just freeze their salaries. That'd be my preference. They don't need a raise anyway.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, yeah, there, and there may be some truth to that. Um so we mentioned a minute ago um about classical education. Yes. And I know that you and I are both fans of quite a bit of it. Um, so let's talk a little bit about classical education specifically.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Well, first of all, a lot of Christian schools just add a chapel time, so it's pretty much like public education, similar curriculum. They might have some better curriculum offerings in some subjects, but classical education is designed with God as the basis of everything that's taught. And the and so it's pervasive throughout their curriculum. But also the purpose of classical education is to help the child discover their own talents and their own abilities and what God put them on this earth for. Whereas public education is more one size fits all, they're all in the classroom based on their age, which I've never quite understood how that is helpful to the students or the teacher, because you can have all these variances of ability, but you know, because they're the same age, they're in the same classroom. But classical education uh has a basis of the great books series, which we haven't used those in public education for over a hundred years. And if you read some of those books, the depth and the literature is so profound, it's like nothing we've been exposed to. Yet our founding fathers read those books and they had journals, I've forgotten what they called their journals, but they took notes and they would pull that journal out to defend whenever they had a point that they were trying to discuss. So they had the ability to listen to each other and find their documentation to support their points, and students in classical education are being taught that. Their junior year and their senior year in high school, they write a thesis and they defend that thesis, but it's based on something that they're interested in.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

No, I mean, I think there's some really good things in the thing I think that I like the best about the classical education is exactly what you said, that they they target what the student wants to learn and what they're good innately good at to help them figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their life. And I know that I talked to you about my desire to um have every child take aptitude testing and interest testing in junior high and then line those innate abilities and their interests up with careers that are in need in our local, state, and federal government that they can do right after high school, right after college, or right after graduate school. And we're gonna tell them here's all the things, because I think that's the thing that we're missing today in our in our one of the things that we're missing today in our education system is connecting why kids are studying and what they're studying with what they can be when they grow up. We're not connecting the dot to make them understand that this is for their benefit and that they can choose to follow something from this point on that will be something that is interesting to them and will hopefully help them find their purpose.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

And my last teaching was in the health science field, and we've had a presenter that came and talked to us, it was a doctor, but he said the people that could get the two-year degree, the tech, the sonogram tech, the x-ray tech, those level of careers were really in need. They are, and it didn't take long to get that certification, it didn't cost nearly as much.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

I think it's only two years, correct?

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Yes, yes, and so that was really an area where the students weren't aware that that was an area that they could go into. Some of those they can get their certification while they're in high school and come out certified and ready to go to work.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

And I think that most of those um are making between $60 and $100,000 a year, like right out of school, which is amazing. Yeah. Um, and so it's definitely something people need to think about. I think one of the saddest things for me that has happened in our overall education system is that we have told everyone they have to go to college, right? And it's the one goal of our education system is college prep, and yet we're failing at it. Um when and we've made it seem bad, seem, seem to not be good to be looked down upon if you're actually pursuing a trade. And we have done this at the detriment to our own societies and to all of these kids because now we don't have enough sonogram technicians or enough x-ray technicians. We don't have enough plumbers, electricians, welders. It's become a national security emergency. And I think that we all see the impact of it in our own communities when we're trying to find an X-ray tag or sonogram tech or a plumber or an electrician, and we're paying tons of money for them because there's not enough. And um, I know you were talking to me about the fact that Lubbock ISD does have some of those classes available here in Lubbock.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Yes, they do have a plumber, they have an electrician, they have law enforcement classes, they have the nursing programs, which a number of schools have developed those. Uh, I even was in Smyr, and they have a horticulture class. So, yes, those are great fields to go into. And I've seen the pendulum and education swing back and forth where we supported vocational education and then we didn't support it anymore. Everybody needed to go to college. But I think you're right that the the tracks need to be there for all those different levels because all of those are needed careers and we should honor all of them.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

And and and I think that we've got to normalize, we've got to normalize telling kids, go pursue what you're interested in. And this is something that you can be great at, and this is something that is needed in our communities, and we've got to get excited about for them when they're not going to college, instead of it being like, oh, where's your kid going to college? Instead, start asking people, what is your kid going to do when they graduate? Right. Because you see kids going to college now, and then they're still living at home because they got a degree in something that is not able to get it, they're not able to get a job in, and now they're living with mom and dad. Whereas they could be getting a two-year degree or certification and having a great future. Yes. And we need to make sure that we're we're making sure that those kids are encouraged to be doing that.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yes. And they can come out without this huge debt also that they could actually sustain and have a job that they could pay those bills. So no.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

And I mean, for me, the most important thing, um, apart from the kids' safety and from their emotional and uh spiritual well-being is that they be able to get a job and take care of themselves and pursue the opportunities that the United States affords them. But right now, the education that they're receiving is not doing that, and we've got to make vast changes to it. Um and and just making sure that they can read, that they can communicate, that they can think critically. And earlier you touched on something that's really important to me, and that's the communication. Um I firmly believe that we need to start kids speaking, like to, in fact, I'm taking a bill this session to divide language arts into two course subjects, where you have reading and writing, I mean, sorry, reading as just one class, right? Now you've got reading and writing as a class together. And so you're only spending half your time reading and half your time writing. And I think we need to double down. We're clearly not doing a good job at teaching these kids to read. So why don't we double down? So let's make reading one course subject and then writing and adding speaking to it. Um because the number one fear of adults is public. Speaking and yet kids aren't scared of it. So if we start them doing that when they're young and we take it all the way through school, through high school to debate, so that I think that it will help every child be able to communicate better. I think it will teach them how to do research. I think it will teach them not to just believe everything that they're told and hopefully to be good listeners and to listen for understanding, not just rebuttal.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yes, and to have be able to have a communication with somebody that they don't agree with and hear their ideas and build stronger ideas.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Because right now, for sure, learn why people think the way that they do.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yes. And classical education also has in junior high, um, they have found that kids love to argue at that age. So teach them to do it well, teach them to debate with documentation of where they're getting their ideas, listening to each other. That's the perfect time to really build on that because that's when they really love to do that.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

So well, and it's crazy to me, like out shopping or at grocery stores or wherever, and you run into a younger person, and if they're not on their screen, which is a whole nother problem, um, just having them look you in the eye and have a conversation with you, or if you have a problem and you ask them, like, what do I do about this? and they just stare back at you because they don't know how to think critically to help you solve it, right? And so these are these are skills that every single one of these kids need. And I think it's our responsibility to transform the education system to make sure that they're actually getting those. Because I think those are the most basic things that they need.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

So if you don't mind, I'm gonna switch and talk about a book that I've encountered recently called Saving Public Education. Yeah, that's talking. And it's written by Kent Grusendorf, who's a former Texas representative, and he introduced a bill with Alan Schoolcraft in the last legislative session, and it's gonna be introduced again. It's another form of school choice, an additional form of school choice. And so previously the money, the education savings account, followed the student. But in this bill, the money will follow the teacher. So if a teacher has 10 students and they create their own classroom, so they would have to be, there are only two criteria that my understanding, first of all, they have to be a public school teacher for at least three years and have good evaluations to be able to start their own classroom or their own school and to get this funding. But the second thing is they have to use a nationally normed achievement test to test the children. Other than that, they're free to set up their own curriculum because you know, teachers know what's working in the classroom, and teachers that have been teaching for a while know which methodologies actually work. We keep throwing all these methodologies at teachers and telling them to do this, and then it doesn't work. So we're losing a whole generation of kids that we have prescribed how these things will be done in the classroom and basically handcuffing the teachers that know what works in the classroom. I've heard teachers say, you know, they they gave me this method and that method and this method and that method, and they used them all because they knew that they all had good parts. Well, if we free up teachers to do that, uh first of all, the teachers would get about $12,000 or $13,000 per student. So if they had 10 students, that's $130,000 to set up the curriculum the way they think it needs to be. The other thing that it does is it does away with the middleman because the money goes to the school, not to the classroom, not to the student. They say the money follows the student, but it really doesn't because the money goes to the school right now. Well, the central office people are not the ones that are doing without. The teachers are the ones that don't have teaching supplies and they buy things out of their own pocket. So this system would allow the teachers to do what they need to do, and all the money would go to the students. If the teachers felt like a student needed a special ed help, then they could bring somebody in for that amount of money. If they felt like they needed transportation to go pick the kids up, they could provide it for that amount of money. But they wouldn't have the top-down approach that all these things are getting the money and it never gets to the teacher or the students.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

And I'm just going to provide some specifics. Right now, 66% of the budget does not go into the classroom or to the teacher, so it does not get to the level of the teacher or the student. And I think you're right, there's so much vendorism happening, and there is so much, and I know there are being some bills that are being brought from Texas Public Policy Foundation about that vendorism, what's happening with the school buildings, getting so much money, causing so much debt per student, and um and also the fact that more of that money needs to end up in the classroom.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Well, I've read statistics that 85% of the increased funding has gone to the administrative level, whereas there's been a 3-5% increase in teachers and a 3-5% increase in students, 3 or 4% increase in students. So I don't know why we needed 85% more funding, and none of it's actually making it to the classroom.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Well, and that was true historically. This year, um, well, SB2, which was the parent choice bill, all that money is going to follow the student, and that was an additional $1 billion. But the $8.5 billion that was in HB2, 60% of that was earmarked to go actually to teachers and the students. So that's the first time that the legislature actually said didn't just give the schools the money and say, do it at what you want. They actually said it has to end up at the teacher and the student level. Okay. And so I was really glad I wish it had been a larger percentage, but at least 60% of it, and hopefully some of the other 40% will as well, but 60% of it was specifically earmarked for teachers. So that was good. I thought that was really good this year, and I was I was grateful for that happening. Um, and there were some really other great things in that bill that I think will help teachers too. There's ability um for teachers who have been retired to now come back into the classroom because some of that funding will actually, I didn't realize this, but when a teacher retires, if they want to come back and teach again, they actually have to pay a fine, right? A fee. And now the state has allocated money to pay that for them to get to get really good retired teachers back into the classrooms. There was money in there to take people who have been in other industries, like business leaders and military leaders, and help them get certified to go back into the classroom. So I hope a bunch of business leaders, especially people who've retired and now find themselves wanting to do something again, please go back into our classrooms and help teach these kids. Um, but they will pay for that certification for them to do that. Um, and then there were the merit-based pay, which is we've had for the last couple of sessions, but they really doubled down on it this year and added a lot more money so that teachers aren't just being paid based on how many years they've worked, but the really good teachers will be able to make more money because they will be rewarded.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

I hope that works. Yeah, I mean too. They've tried that, but maybe it'll work this time.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Well, I know in the past a lot of school districts didn't um initiate it, but this year, because they really attach the funding to that, they said that they'd had a lot more schools, a lot more school districts um apply for that. So hopefully that's gonna help teach our. I hope it works. Yeah, me too. Um, okay. So we've we've touched briefly on curriculum a couple of times. Um, and you started off by talking about blue bonnet earlier. Um, and then just a minute ago, you mentioned that um it's really important that teachers be able to teach their methods, and I 100% agree with that. I think that we need to get out of teachers' ways, let them they know what's best with the students that they have in front of them, they should be teaching to those students. Um and I like a lot of the things in Blue Bonnet. For example, I like that we reintroduced phonics and we reintroduced spelling and vocabulary, which is handwriting. I can't believe we ever went away from that, but I'm so grateful that Blue Bonnet bought that back. But the one thing that I think a lot of teachers have told me that they don't like about Blue Bonnet, and something that I'm concerned about with Blue Bonnet, is that it is to some degree a script with a timer. And um so what do you think we need to be doing with curriculum to make sure that teachers still have their um ability to decide what's happening in their classroom that they can slow down when they need to to meet the needs of the students, but we need to be improving curriculum like Blue Bonnet did. So, how do we how do we mesh those two things together?

SPEAKER_02 30:52

It's a real challenge in the current public schools because there is so much input from the central office level. My understanding, some local schools, when they started off with Amplify before it was Blue Bonnet, they went around and checked to see if the teachers were on schedule each day. Like they had five minutes to introduce and 12 minutes to do this. And I mean, you talk about stifling education, central office needs to have fewer people so they don't have time to do that. First of all, uh, and second of all, I've heard TEA say that the script is there to help teachers. It's not supposed to be scripted, and yet I know teachers went home at night and studied that script so that they could say it in their own words, spent two hours at night studying the script so they could say it. So this again, the school district is putting that uh pressure on teachers that they have to do it that way. So I think Kent Grusendorf's idea of letting the teachers be the one that is in charge is the way to go because I don't know how you undo this central office control and the huge salaries, and I don't think that's gonna go away very easily.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Well, and I think that's part of the bill that TPPF is bringing this year, that we need to shift the money to the teacher and the student, and that will hopefully shrink that middle management down. Um, I am not a fan of the central um district offices. I think that that is a big part of where a lot of the money is going. And they're not on the campus, they're not dealing with the kids. And I think that we need to shift whatever of those people we actually need back to the schools and get rid of those huge buildings that are taking so much money.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Well, not only that, but we need to honor that small schools are doing the best job. I believe the small schools have the highest scores, you know. So the little country schools quit trying to consolidate them, quit trying to take the money away from them because they are the ones that are achieving. And the same thing in the large towns where they're putting two or three schools together. When they started doing that in our local town, they were talking about number of students, money, all the mathematical formulas. And I said, Are you looking at student achievement? And they said, No. Well, I think they are now, but student achievement should be the number one criteria because when this campus gets bigger, it's harder to monitor what's going on and the achievement is going to suffer. Now I realize they say, well, we can have things that we can offer to a larger school that we can't offer to a smaller school. But I don't think that the scores and you know, the scores have been um drawn modified. Well, and they've rearranged how they calculate them so that they look better too. That's true. You know, so I don't think that the literacy rate is going up.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Now maybe so it's not. I mean, 100% it's not. I mean, on every metric we're failing.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Um but it would be good to have an a study of small schools with under a certain number of students versus middle-sized schools, plus you know, looking at the large schools to see where is the literacy rate in the other in the smaller schools? Is it is it higher? Because I would bet that it is. I don't know if I answered your question.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

No, I mean I think I think I mean I think that we need to be looking at curriculum, but we you're right, we need to be looking at class size. Yes. Like have classes gotten too big, especially when they're younger and we're really trying to focus on reading, um, which is the most critical foundation that they have for education. Um I am always just blown away whenever I think of the third grade reading level and how less than half of the kids are actually at the end of third grade or reading at a third grade level. And yet that is the saddest thing for me that that number is used to determine how many beds we're gonna have in our prison system later on. And that when a child is not reading at a third grade level at the end of third grade, there is an 80% chance that that child will either end up in a prison or on welfare. And we are just like, I don't think anybody should be graduating third grade without being able to read at a third grade level. Like we should go back and fix that. And and we should start in kindergarten if they haven't met the metrics for kindergarten, they don't move on. If they haven't met the metrics for first grade, they don't move on. If because we're we're handicapping them for life.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

But on the other hand, we're finding that if we would let kindergarten play and not spend so much time on the letters and reading, we would have greater performance later on. And I've experienced this with my own grandchildren that are now seven, and we've homeschooled them. And a teacher that was homeschooling said the most important thing they need to do is play. And so that released my daughter from thinking, oh, I've got to cover all these teaks and I've got to cover all this curriculum. And so she relaxed and she let the kids go on more field trips, do more fun things. And then in first grade, they knew all of their letters, but then you know, we were starting to put the combinations together, you know, a consonant, vowel, consonant, and all of a sudden they just took off and started reading. Yeah. Now I've been in education for over 40 years. I've taught reading many, many years, but I'd never seen the progression like that. And it was just miraculous that those girls just started reading on their own. They read blends that we hadn't taught them. And so I don't know that we need to feel so pressured that they have to do a certain thing by the end of kindergarten. I think we need to give the kids more free time, more time for imagination, more time outside. That's another thing that classical education does, is they go outside three or four times a day. I mean, God made this beautiful earth and we need the vitamin D. We need the far-sightedness to see far away because we're spending lots of time on screens. So I think we need to reduce what we're doing in kindergarten and just go back to the centers and the play and the fun. But it doesn't all have to be teacher-directed either. It can be a lot of free time, fun time.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

I agree with you. And in fact, like in my transformation plan, um, kindergarten through third grade, like the only focus would really be on reading, writing, speaking, and basic math. And more of the time would then be given to centers and doing things and playing and having more time outside. Yes. And I think that we've also got to go back and change some of the laws that are on their books. Because right now there's a law that says at a certain grade, you get two 20-minute recesses. And because the way it's written, you are stuck with two 20-minute recesses where the teacher may think we need to go outside four times for 20 minutes each, right? But because the way the law is written, they can't. And so why wouldn't we change that law and say instead of two 20-minute recesses, say a minimum of 40 minutes a day? And then they can allocate it however is best for that classroom in that day.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Um, but they're just there are just so many things like that that need to be tweaked and changed, and um but the curriculum. Um so I helped work on SB27 last year, which is a financial literacy class. And I was recently speaking with um a member of the State Board of Education, and they told me that in that bill we had written that it was going to be required for every high school student to have a semester of personal financial literacy, and that we were writing a curriculum for it. Great. But then it went on to say that we would also be required to provide an AP course. Well, to be an AP course, you must use a curriculum from that is written by the college board. Well, there is only one financial literacy course available from the college board to meet that part of the SB27, and it is full of communism. Wow. So um I'm going to be taking another bill this legislative session to amend that um and have it add a like um an honors level class, which then the state can go ahead and pick or write a different curriculum.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

And maybe have people submit curriculum possibilities because there are a lot of smart people out there.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Right. And I um this is one of those classes where I think it will be better taught by somebody who is a specialist in this field versus trying to have teachers learn a specific curriculum. Um, now I think that the teachers obviously need to maybe it's gonna be a computer program, I don't know, but then augment it with the teacher leading the class and the teacher holding doing projects that go alongside of the curriculum where the kids are actually getting hands-on, you know, like you give them a thousand dollars and tell them obviously that's not gonna work. You give them two thousand dollars and pretend that you're having to find a place to live and a car to drive and food to eat, and how are you going to live on that money and budget it, you know, or set up a business, set up a business, or take a certain amount of money and invest it into stocks, and you actually look at the actual stock market and you pick actual stocks and then you follow those stocks, right? You don't actually buy them, but you pretend that you do, right? And I think things like that can be really beneficial to the kids too.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Yes. Um how to do your taxes, yes, unless we're gonna have a flat tax rate at some point.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

I would be all for that because I really hate sitting down to have to do my taxes, but um, just for the ease, but um just trying to figure it all out, right? Um, but there are so many, and I think that we need to have a life one-on-one class where we teach kids things that they're going to need to use in their life, like how to get insurance, how to make sure that you have the proper coverage, whether it's for your car or for your house, how to know that if you ever have um an accident or you get your hail your roof gets hailed on, when that check comes in, you don't cash it until you know that there is enough money being offered by the insurance company to actually cover and get your house back to the way it was or your car back to the way it was, right? Or how to make sure that you are every year um increasing the um praise. How every year to increase the uh the amount that you your replacement value on your house. I can't tell you how many people have a catastrophic event happen and then they realize that they didn't have their house insured for enough money to cover that replacement cost. And so they get a smaller amount of money and they can't rebuild the same amount of house, and that's horrific. Um, but there are things like that that we need to be how to change tire, how to change your oil, what to do when smoke starts coming out of your muffler, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

But well, and also basic things like child development, because almost everybody's gonna have children or be around children, nutrition, you know, what is actually in the food that you're eating, and and how to eat properly and the pro proper, like putting the right things on your plate so that you're actually healthy.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

But you brought up a really good point, um, and that is um what how to parent, right? And child development. And um one of the things when I bring bills to legislators that they'll say to me is, well, Ashley, that's a great bill, but it doesn't really matter because not every child has parent involvement, and that's the most important thing to do in determining whether a child is going to be successful in school. And so I'm sick and tired of hearing that, right? And and I know it's true, but what can we do about it? Like, okay, we've identified a problem, let's find a solution for it. And so um, this year I've asked some legislators to uh to bring a bill that actually will fund some programs to teach people how to be better parents for their kids' education, because we know it's a problem, so let's fix it. So, can we um create videos to put out on social media? Where are the parents? Were they on social media watching it? So, can we do short, fun videos that say, hey, if you want your child to be successful, read to them when they're little. Hey, if you want your child to be successful, make sure they do their homework. Hey, when you go and you should go to your teacher meetings, ask these questions, right? Um, let's start teaching. We've never taught people how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Give them responsibility as a child. Don't let them get away with not helping around the house. That's part of being a family.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Yes. Make sure that they're listening to that they know school is important because it can help them get a great job and make good money, right? Um, so like let's fund creating these videos and putting them out on social media. Yes, let's create videos that go into um pediatricians' offices and hospital waiting rooms where we have people sitting with a bunch of children and with time on their hands. Let's um create a program where we Go into maternity wards, and someone actually goes to the new mother and says, Hey, did you know that if you read your children that they will be more successful? And by the way, here's three books, right? Like, let's if if we know that's the problem, let's start trying to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

And use social media for something educational, use TV to be educational. Interesting. And there actually is uh Tuttle Twins with um you know that tells all about our nation and the constitution. And I never thought children would watch that, but they love it and they're learning so much. It's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

And I actually met this man at TPPF, and I'll have to get his name for everyone, and he is creating short three to five minute videos on history, and they're very interesting and they're very interactive, and they're like cartoons, but it's very historical, and they're short, which is the perfect amount of time for a child's attention span, right? And so you can you can start following him, and I'll I'll make sure and post a link in um the details of this um if for anybody that wants to go and look at that. But um, but I thought that was really interesting and uh super excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Yeah, well, all right. I so appreciate you being here today. And before we wrap up, I would like you to take the opportunity to tell people how they can get in touch with you and what your biggest project is that you're working on and that you want them to know about.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Well, Citizens for Education Reform has a meeting coming up April 10th, and it's going to be Kent Grusendorf that we mentioned, the former state representative. He's going to be talking about the book, Saving Public Education, and the bill that is being introduced so that the money follows the teacher. And man, we need to get behind this because this could really make an impact on education for teachers to be in control of education, especially if they have high scores as a public school teacher, then that means that they are doing a good job. And let's free them up. So, in order to find out more about that, you can contact me at citizens for education reform at yahoo.com.

unknown 46:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

And do you have a website that they can go to?

SPEAKER_02 46:10

I do. My website is actually education empowermentcoach.com. And that's where you actually sign up for the meeting. You go to the store and you look for the upcoming meeting on April 10th. I do require people to pay in advance, and so in order to register for the meeting, you go there and you pay for it, and then that means your registration is confirmed for that meeting. And it's 11:30 to 1 at Lubbock Women's Club. That doesn't mean men don't come, they do. So we invite you to come and hear this inform uh interesting information about how to put teachers in charge of education.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

And they can also find future, you said you met quarterly, so that you have the April 10th meeting at 11:30 to 1 here in Lubbock, but you will have another meeting next quarter as well.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Yes, July, and you're actually our presenter.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Well, hopefully it will be great. I'm sure it will. But anyway, I just want to thank you so much for coming today and thank you so much for all that you're doing. Thank you. Um, I think it's so important, and and the whole reason that I'm doing this podcast and my social media is to get all of the parents, all the grandparents, all the teachers, and all the business leaders to start working to transform education. We all need to stand up and do our part, and thank you so much for doing that. Thank you and for being a great resource for other people to help as well. So I hope that you'll join me next time where we discuss how we're going to transform the K through 12 education system. It's been a great day. We'll see you next time.