Latest / Washington Post / 4.7.26
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
- 0:03April seventh, twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio I
- 0:08is a reading service intended for people who are U
- 0:10blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
- 0:13read printed material. Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser.
- 0:18To day's front page headlines from the Washington Post are
- 0:21Trump renews threats as Iran or buff's demands, Vow's rampage,
- 0:26and wake of Airman's rescue. President issues Tuesday deadline for
- 0:30Hormu's deal. Next, President God supports US cause in Iran
- 0:37war Our next headline, Virginians are deeply divided on Spanberger.
- 0:43Months after a landslide victory, the state's first female governor
- 0:47faces sharp skepticism. Next, in Secrecy, a US centric global
- 0:54health plan develops. And the final headline from to Day's
- 0:58front page, conservative college entrance exam gains traction. More states
- 1:03are adopting classic learning tests despite critics concerns. In addition,
- 1:09there are two photos on the front page, The first
- 1:12titled a New Frontier for human space travel. The caption reads,
- 1:16the Moon is seen in the window of NASA's Ryan
- 1:19spacecraft on Monday, the Artemis two crew has flown more
- 1:23than two hundred forty eight thousand, six hundred fifty five
- 1:26miles in space, farther than any humans, surpassing the mark
- 1:30set by the crew of Apollo thirteen in nineteen seventy.
- 1:34The other photo is captioned Tradition rolls along. President Donald
- 1:38Trump delivers remarks with First Lady Malania Trump and the
- 1:42Easter Bunny on Monday as the annual White House Easter
- 1:45Egg roll takes place on the South Lawn. Now, let's
- 1:49turn to our first item, titled Trump renews threats as
- 1:53iron Ribuff's demands vow's rampage in wake of Airman's rescue.
- 1:58President issues Tuesday Dead Lil for Hormu's Deal by Isaac Arnsdorf,
- 2:03Sammy Westfall, and Tera Copp. President Donald Trump renewed his
- 2:08threat to destroy Iranian bridges and power plants if the
- 2:11country doesn't soon agree to reopen the world oil trades
- 2:14through the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that the Iranian people
- 2:18supported the US and Israeli bombing. The entire country can
- 2:23be taken out in one night, and that night might
- 2:25be tomorrow night, he said Monday issuing a deadline of
- 2:29Tuesday at eight p m. Eastern and pledging destruction by
- 2:33midnight if leaders don't comply. The remarks came during a
- 2:37White House briefing where officials detailed the rescue of two
- 2:40US airmen whose F fifteen E was shot down Friday
- 2:44over Iran. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete
- 2:48Hexheth said Rainian officials were embarrassed by their failure to
- 2:52capture the US aviator, who was injured and stranded in
- 2:55rugged hostile territory for two days. Still, the Iranian showed
- 2:59no interest in surrendering, rejecting a US back ceasefire proposal
- 3:03on Monday. Trump at once touted the success of US
- 3:07military operations and showed frustration with the elusive resolution to
- 3:12the expensive and unpopular five week old war. He has
- 3:16postponed his threat to bomb power plants twice before. We're
- 3:20the winner. We won, okay, the President said in the
- 3:23White House briefing room. They are militarily defeated. The only
- 3:28thing they have is a psychology of Oh, we're going
- 3:31to drop a couple of minds in the water. He
- 3:34brushed off concern that his threat to bomb infrastructure would
- 3:37violate the Geneva Conventions, a series of treaties the US
- 3:40signed after World War Two to limit dangers to civilians.
- 3:45We don't want that to happen, Trump said. We may
- 3:48even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation. And
- 3:51you know what, if that's the case, the last thing
- 3:54we want to do is start with power plants, which
- 3:56are among the most expensive things. Trump said had eavesdrops
- 4:01on conversations among Iranian civilians, indicating support for the bombing.
- 4:05He started the war by calling on the country's people
- 4:08to rise up and overthrow the government. They would be
- 4:11willing to suffer that in order to have freedom, He said.
- 4:14We've had numerous intercepts. Please keep bombing, bombs that are
- 4:18dropping near their homes, Please keep bombing. Do it. Earlier Monday,
- 4:24Iran refused to back down, saying such attacks would be
- 4:27met with a strong response. Foreign Minister Abbas Agrashi told
- 4:31his French counterpart in a call that Trump's threat amounts
- 4:35to normalizing war crimes and genocide. Kazam Garababadi, a deputy
- 4:40foreign minister, said on x that Trump's threats constitute individual
- 4:45criminal responsibility and that Iran will retaliate with a regret
- 4:49inducing response. Mohammed Akraminia, an Iranian Army spokesman, said Sunday
- 4:55that deterrence for future war relies on bringing the enemy
- 4:59to genuine record. The Tasnim news agency reported Sunday's rescue
- 5:04operation of a missing US airman averted what could have
- 5:07been a politically catastrophic situation for the White House had
- 5:11Iran taken him as a prisoner of war. But the
- 5:14downing of the F fifteen E and another U S
- 5:17military jet, an A ten attack plane whose pilot navigated
- 5:20into Kuwait air space before ejecting, raised questions about Trump's
- 5:25exuberant claims of U. S air dominance and the destruction
- 5:28of Iran's air defenses. Trump revealed on Monday that the
- 5:32F fifteen was likely hit by a shoulder fired missile
- 5:36known as a man PAD or man portable air defense system,
- 5:41a relatively cheap weapon that can be fired by a
- 5:43single person on the ground and uses an aircraft's heat
- 5:47signature to track and target it. Despite the country's weekend defenses,
- 5:52shoulder fired missiles remained a significant threat to US warplanes
- 5:56because of how many Iran has and how easy to
- 5:58hide they are. Trump had previously claimed the US had
- 6:02eliminated Iron's ability to defend from air attacks, saying on
- 6:06March twenty fourth that they can't do a thing about it,
- 6:10and a week later that they have nothing to shoot.
- 6:14We took out a lot, but they still have, he
- 6:16said on Monday's it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever.
- 6:21Our rescue mission was launched almost immediately for the downed
- 6:24crew members. Two h H sixty pave Hawk Air Force
- 6:28Special Operations Command helicopters and h C one thirty Combat
- 6:32King two A ten Thunderbolt to attack aircraft and drones
- 6:36began circling and suppressing fighters on the ground until they
- 6:40could rescue the F fifteen pilot. In addition to the
- 6:43downed A ten whose pilot ejected and survived, one of
- 6:47the helicopters involved in the rescue took ground fire, injuring
- 6:50members of the crew. The F fifteen's weapons system officer,
- 6:54who was wounded, remained missing after the pilot was rescued.
- 6:58Wounded and bleeding, he had landed far from the pilot
- 7:01and began to move up a seven thousand foot ridge
- 7:04line to hide. For hours. There was no news on
- 7:07where he was. The CIA had eyes on the mountain
- 7:11ridge and late in the night in Iran, Ratcliffe said,
- 7:13he informed Trump, we're seeing someone moving on the mountain.
- 7:17For forty five minutes, the agency kept his camera on
- 7:20the form, not sure what it was. Then he stood up,
- 7:24Trump said, and they said, we have him. More than
- 7:28one hundred fifty aircraft soon swarmed different sites to throw
- 7:32off Iranians on the ground as to the location of
- 7:34the airmen. Israel, which assisted in the rescue operation by
- 7:38providing intelligence, announced Monday that it had killed Major General
- 7:43Majid Kadimi, the head of intelligence for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary
- 7:47Guard Corps. Kadimi's death was confirmed by Iranian news agencies.
- 7:51His predecessor, Mohammed Kazimi, was killed in an Israeli strike
- 7:56during the Twelve day war in June. Iran's leaders lived
- 8:00with a sense of being hunted. Israeli Defense Minister Israel
- 8:03Katz said in a statement, we will continue to hunt
- 8:06them down one by one. Iranan officials continued to reject
- 8:11a fifteen point US ceasefire proposal, with Foreign Ministry spokesman
- 8:16zmai Il Baki saying at a news conference Monday that
- 8:19Iran finds it excessively demanding, unreasonable, and illogical. On Monday,
- 8:25bouquey You said ceasefires often serve to create mere pauses,
- 8:29allowing the United States to regroup and strategize for future attacks.
- 8:34Tasnium reported, deadlines shouldn't cause us to have the slightest
- 8:38doubt in defending our country, bouquey He said. He said
- 8:42the transfer of messages continues naturally between intermediaries, but negotiation
- 8:47is in no way compatible with ultimatums, with crime, with
- 8:51threats of committing war crimes. Israel also struck a major
- 8:55Iranian petrochemical facility in Aziluyah on Monday, after he the
- 9:00country's other key plant in Mashar over the weekend. According
- 9:04to Katz, together, the facilities are responsible for about eighty
- 9:08five percent of Iran's petrochemical exports, kat said, and have
- 9:12now been disabled and are no longer operational. Asked at
- 9:16a Monday news briefing, how such a tax on dual
- 9:19use infrastructure square with negotiations, Nadasashani and Israel Defense forts
- 9:24As spokesman said, the war is going as talks are going.
- 9:28Iran will pay a price as the time goes by.
- 9:31Shashani said Iran has previously a strategy of stalling and
- 9:35using negotiations to create time. An accusation of raining officials
- 9:40leveled against the United States. The same day, Antonio Costa,
- 9:45president of the European Council, said a tax on civilian infrastructure,
- 9:49emphasizing energy facilities is illegal and unacceptable. He said he
- 9:54stressed this in a call with Iranian President Masu Pasishkian.
- 9:59The Iranians of Allian population is the main victim of
- 10:02the Iranian regime. It would also be the main victim
- 10:05of a widening of the military campaign. Costa wrote on
- 10:08x strikes continued across the region. More than two thousand
- 10:12people had been killed in Iran during the war, according
- 10:15to the International Federation of Red Cross. Lebanon's health ministry
- 10:20said at least one thousand, four hundred ninety seven people
- 10:23have been killed in attacks, including an attack overnight on
- 10:26a team of paramedics that killed two. The ministry condemned
- 10:30systematic Israeli attacks on the country's health sector. More than
- 10:34fifty people have been killed in attacks affecting health care
- 10:37groups and Lebanon. According to U n and World Health
- 10:40Organization representatives in the country. In Israel, an Iranian missile
- 10:45directly hit, but reportedly did not detonate, a seven story
- 10:49building in the northern port city of Haifa. After searching
- 10:53through rubble, overnight, search and rescue teams recovered the bodies
- 10:56of four people killed and trapped under the rubble. Westfall
- 11:01reported from Jerusalem. Alex Horton in Washington, Leor Soroka and
- 11:05Tel Aviv, and Suzanne Hadidamos and Berut contributed to this report.
- 11:11This item is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned
- 11:14a picture of the late Iridian Supreme Leader Ali Kamenei
- 11:18hangs on the side of the road in the outskirts
- 11:20of Tron on April fifth, Francisco Seco a p. The
- 11:24photo is taken at night and the picture of the
- 11:28former Supreme leader is illuminated. The next photo is captioned
- 11:33an anti U S banner depicting a helicopter being fired
- 11:36upon is displayed in Tehran on Monday, Ada Canari a
- 11:41f P Getty Images. The anti U S. Banner has
- 11:45writing on it in Farsi and English. The English reads
- 11:49this is our home. Get the hell out. The next
- 11:53photo is captioned people walk past a billboard with a
- 11:56satins reading the Strait of Hormus remains closed at Enghelib
- 12:00Square in Tehran on Sunday AFP Getty Images. The banner
- 12:06shows three men holding a large net. Depicted Captured in
- 12:10the net are planes, some with American flags on them.
- 12:15This banner has riding only in Farsi. The next photo
- 12:19is captioned Kazim Garababadi, an Iranian deputy Foreign Minister, is
- 12:24seen at a meeting in Vienna in November twenty nineteen.
- 12:27Ronald zach Ap. The next photo is captured workers removed
- 12:32debris Monday at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology that Iranian
- 12:37authorities say was hit early that day by US Israeli strike.
- 12:41Francesco seco Ap. The next photo is captured Israeli military
- 12:46and rescue workers on Monday carry a body from the
- 12:49rubble of a residential building that was hit by an
- 12:52Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel. Heidi Levine for The Washington Post.
- 12:58The photo shows close to twenty duels in hard hats
- 13:02and vests on apollo of rubble. They're carrying out one
- 13:06wrapped item that appears to be a body. The next
- 13:11autumn from today's front page is entitled President God supports
- 13:15US cause in Iran War by Natalie Allison. As President
- 13:20Donald Trump renews his threats to bomb the entire country
- 13:23of Iran, He's offering a new justification for the costly
- 13:27five week conflict with no clear end in sight. God
- 13:30himself wants United States to do it. Trump said Monday
- 13:34that he believed God supports United States actions in the
- 13:37US Israeli war in Iran, a widening conflict that has
- 13:41killed thousands in the Middle East, wounded many more, and
- 13:44left thirteen US service members dead. I do because God
- 13:48is good, Trump said, in response to a Washington Post
- 13:51reporter's question during a White House news breathing and God
- 13:54wants to see people taken care of. Trump's comments mark
- 13:58a shift in how he used to describing the war.
- 14:01After offering conflicting explanations for US involvement, including whether his
- 14:05goal is regime change, he has begun in recent days
- 14:09to cast a conflict in religious terms as he raises
- 14:12the possibility of broader strikes. The president earlier Monday threatened
- 14:17to bomb the country's power and transportation infrastructure, until it
- 14:20resembles the Stone ages. He claimed that such actions are
- 14:24welcomed by Iranian people who want their government overthrown and
- 14:28who he said, are begging the US to please keep bombing.
- 14:33Trump did not answer a question about whether he has
- 14:35sought God's direction as a conflict has escalated, but he
- 14:39suggested that the Almighty supports us action even if God
- 14:43is grieved by the violence. God doesn't like what's happening.
- 14:47I don't like what's happening, Trump continued. Everyone says I
- 14:50enjoy it. I don't enjoy this. I don't enjoy it.
- 14:54He went on to toubt that he had ended eight
- 14:56wars earlier in his term, a reference he has frequently
- 14:59made to brokering peace deals between India and Pakistan, Armenia
- 15:03and Azerbaijan, and others. That makes me much happier than
- 15:07what we're doing right now, the president said. Trump, who
- 15:11identifies as a Christian but does not claim to regularly
- 15:14pray or read the Bible, has invoked faith at times
- 15:17in his second term, including suggesting that his political return
- 15:20and survival after an assassination attempt carried a larger purpose.
- 15:25The language has echoed that of some of his supporters,
- 15:27who have cast him as a figure protected or chosen
- 15:30by God. In recent days, Trump has hinted that the
- 15:34war is an existential battle between Christianity and Islam. Open
- 15:39the fucking strait, EU, crazy bastards, or you'll be living
- 15:42in hell. Just watch Praise be to Allah, Tromp wrote
- 15:45in a social media post Easter Sunday morning. U S
- 15:49presidents have often invoked faith in times of conflict, but
- 15:52others such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who
- 15:56also presided over war in the Middle East, have gone
- 15:59out of their way to emphasize that the United States
- 16:02was not battling Muslims or Islam, but a specific group
- 16:06of people who had attacked America. Some Muslim leaders quickly
- 16:10condemned Trump's use of the praise be phrase as a
- 16:12mockery of the religion, including the Amam's Council of Michigan,
- 16:16a state where Trump made gains with Muslim voters in
- 16:19twenty twenty four, and mom Steve Elturk called Trump's post
- 16:23a dangerous escalation that undermines both international stability and the
- 16:28moral fabric of public discourse. The post on Sunday drew
- 16:32parallels to one the President had made a day earlier.
- 16:36Time is running out forty eight hours before all hell
- 16:39will rain down on them. Glory be to God, Trump
- 16:42wrote on truth Social on Saturday. Some Castolic leaders have
- 16:46harshly criticized the U S strikes in Iran, including Pope Leo,
- 16:50who on Palm Sunday preached that God does not listen
- 16:53to the prayers of those who wage war. Two days later,
- 16:57Leo urged Trump by name to end the war. Leo,
- 17:01the first American born pope, had previously criticized the Trump
- 17:04administration's policies more broadly without mentioning the President himself, and
- 17:10trump ally turned critic. Marjorie Taylor Green, a Republican former
- 17:14congresswoman and a Protestant Christian, on Sunday bashed the president's
- 17:18vows to escalate the war, declaring that Trump is not
- 17:22a Christian. Jesus commanded us to love one another and
- 17:25forgive one another, even our enemies, Green wrote on Monday,
- 17:30in describing the rescue of a U S airman in
- 17:32a mountainous region of Iran, Trump credited God for looking
- 17:36out for the U S mission, which he previously described
- 17:38as miraculous. Well it was the Easter. We were in
- 17:41Eastern Territory, I guess, Trump said, but God was watching
- 17:45us amazing. Defense Secretary Pete Hexath, who flanked Trump throughout
- 17:50the briefing, used the metaphor of the Crucifixion, death Beryl
- 17:54in a tomb and resurrection of Jesus to discuss the
- 17:57military's rescue of the colonel on Sunday. You see shot
- 18:00down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave,
- 18:03a crevis all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday, Hexas said,
- 18:08flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on
- 18:10Easter Sunday. A pilot reborn. This autumn is accompanied by
- 18:15a photo captioned with Defense Secretary Pete Hexath standing nearby.
- 18:20President Donald Trump speaks to reporters Monday about the rescue
- 18:23of an American pilot and the war with Iran. Maxine
- 18:26Wallace The Washington Post Our next autumn is entitled Virginians
- 18:32Are Deeply Divided. On Spanburger, months after landslide victory, the
- 18:36state's first female governor faces sharp skepticism by Gregory Schneider,
- 18:42Scott Clement, and Pravina Somosundaran Virginia governor Abigail Spanburger's approval
- 18:49rating stands at forty seven percent two months into the
- 18:52democrat's term, with forty six percent of voters disapproving and
- 18:56seven percent expressing no opinion in a Washington Post Shar School.
- 19:01Spanberger won in a fifteen point landslide last year after
- 19:04toauting her reputation for by partisanship built on three terms
- 19:08representing a conservative leaning district in Congress, but her current
- 19:12ratings were fledged sharp polarization among Virginia voters in their
- 19:16views of the state's first female governor. The approval mark
- 19:20for Spanberger is thirteen percentage points lower than the average
- 19:23for Virginia governors in post polling since the nineteen nineties.
- 19:27Her near even split between approval and disapproval is a
- 19:30worse net approval rating than the early term scores of
- 19:33her predecessors in previous post polls. It is also slightly
- 19:37weaker than ratings of her immediate predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican,
- 19:41in a post Shar School poll last fall, showing he
- 19:44ended his term with fifty percent approval and forty six
- 19:48percent disapproval, Unlike Spanburger, Youngin had come into office with
- 19:52a very narrow victory. Next to this autumn is a
- 19:56bar graph entitled, Virginians are more divided over s Spamberger
- 20:00than previous governors. Question do you approve or disapprove of
- 20:04the way the governor is handling his her job as
- 20:07governor of Virginia? Abigail Spanberger, the current governor, forty six
- 20:12percent disapproved, forty seven percent approve. Average ratings for past
- 20:17Virginia governors Glenn Youngkin, Republican thirty nine percent disapprove, forty
- 20:22four percent approve Ralph Northam a Democrat, thirty seven percent disapprove,
- 20:27forty eight percent approve Terry mcaulliffe, a Democrat, thirty percent disapprove,
- 20:33fifty two percent approve Bob McDonell Republican thirty nine percent disapprove,
- 20:39fifty nine percent approve Tim Caine, Democrat, thirty one percent disapprove,
- 20:45sixty two percent approve Mark Warner, Democrat, twenty percent disapprove,
- 20:50seventy eight percent approve Jim Gilmore Republican thirty percent disapprove,
- 20:56sixty three percent approve George Allen, Republican twenty seven percent
- 21:01disapproved sixty seven percent approved. Source Washington Post Shar School
- 21:06poll conducted March twenty six through thirty first, twenty twenty
- 21:10six among one thousand, one hundred one Virginia registered voters,
- 21:14with an air margin of plus or minus three point
- 21:16four percentage points. Historical data from Washington Post and Post
- 21:20Shar School polls of registered voters and likely voters. In
- 21:25a positive sign for Spamberger. Elements of her affordability agenda
- 21:29score well, with voters suggesting room to improve her image
- 21:32after a rocky start. The governor also continues to be
- 21:36more popular than President Donald Trump among Virginia voters, forty
- 21:40percent of whom approve of his performance, while fifty seven
- 21:43percent disapprove. A larger share of voters expressed strong disapproval
- 21:47of Spamberger's performance than of her predecessors. Two thirds say
- 21:51they either strongly approve twenty nine percent or strongly disapproved
- 21:55thirty eight percent. Fewer than six and ten felt strongly
- 21:58about Youngkin's performance at any point in his tenure, with
- 22:02twenty eight percent strongly approving and twenty five percent strongly disapproving.
- 22:06In opposed sharpolling last summer, Some amount of polarization is
- 22:10baked in but this is unusual at this early stage
- 22:13of her administration and given that she had long cultivated
- 22:17a centrist image, said Mark rosel, dean of George Mason
- 22:21University Shar School of Policy and Government, which co sponsored
- 22:24the poll. While she has maintained the support of a
- 22:28Democratic base more than eight in ten Democrats approve of
- 22:31her performance, Spamberger has not made inroads with Republicans, nearly
- 22:36nine to ten, of whom disapprove. In addition, Spamberger gets
- 22:40more strong disapproval from Republicans seventy eight percent than strong
- 22:44approval from Democrats sixty two percent. Independent voters are split,
- 22:50with forty five percent approving and forty six percent disapproving
- 22:53of Spamburger. Last fall, she won fifty nine percent of
- 22:57independent voters, according to Network Exit Polling. Next is a
- 23:02bar graph entitled Virginia voters split on Spanberger's job performance question,
- 23:08Do you approve or disapprove of the way Abigail Spamberger
- 23:11is handling her job as governor of Virginia. Virginia registered
- 23:15voters forty six percent disapproved, forty seven percent approved Democrats
- 23:21ten percent disapproved, eighty four percent approved Republicans eighty seven
- 23:26percent disapprove, eleven percent approve independence others forty six percent disapprove,
- 23:33forty five percent approve No opinion not shown. Source Washington
- 23:38Post Shar School poll conducted March twenty six through thirty first,
- 23:42twenty twenty six, among oney one hundred one Virginia registered voters,
- 23:47with an air margin of plus her minus three point
- 23:49four percentage points. The air margin is larger among subgroups.
- 23:54Spamberger has largely kept promises to pursue pocketbook minded legislation,
- 23:58such as improving access to health care and investing in
- 24:01affordable housing, and has worked with Democratic leaders in the
- 24:04General Assembly to quash talk of tax increases. But Rossell
- 24:08noted that her modern image has been complicated by several
- 24:12factors that provided fodder for intensely negative campaigns from the right.
- 24:16She condemned Trump's immigration operations and ended controversial partnership agreements
- 24:21between state law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. She has
- 24:25grudgingly supported efforts to redraw the state's congressional districts to
- 24:29heavily favored Democrats, again resisting Trump, who has pushed Republican
- 24:35states to redraw districts to preserve the GOP majority in
- 24:38the US House. The Trump administration has routinely excoriated Spamberger
- 24:43in public statements and news releases, and the post Shar
- 24:46School poll found strong partisan sentiment about redistricting. In addition,
- 24:52multiple tax proposals in the General Assembly, even though not
- 24:56enacted and not championed by Spamberger, drove a narrative of
- 24:59Democrats and Richmond lurching way left, which likely affected perceptions
- 25:03of the governor Rosell said. Gregory Roddy, a self described
- 25:08independent voter from Fairfax County who leans conservative, said he
- 25:12was always skeptical of Spamberger's pitch as a bipartisan candidate.
- 25:16When she was elected, Spamburger switched over, he said, citing
- 25:20her swift move to curtail Virginia's cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
- 25:26Now she's just a bot for the Democratic Party, Roddy,
- 25:29sixty nine said, But Spamberger's quick actions on issues such
- 25:33as immigration enforcement won her praise from voters like Marcus Shaw,
- 25:37who describes himself as left of center but wary of Democrats.
- 25:41Shaw distrusted Spamberger when he voted for her, but said
- 25:45her boldness could prove useful for Virginians in the long run,
- 25:49I really appreciate somebody that takes up the mantle, goes
- 25:52in and says, okay, we're doing X y Z, said Shaw, thirty,
- 25:57of Hampton. The Pole finds forty five five percent of
- 26:00Virginia voters thinks Spamberger's views are too liberal, while forty
- 26:04two percent think they are just about right, and seven
- 26:07percent say she's too conservative. Next is a barograph entitled
- 26:12Virginian's roughly split between saying Spamberger is too liberal or
- 26:16just about right? Question overall, do you think Spamberger's views
- 26:20on most issues are too liberal for you, too conservative
- 26:24for you, or just about right? Virginia registered voters forty
- 26:28five percent too liberal, forty two percent just about right,
- 26:33seven percent to conservative, six percent no opinion or skipped.
- 26:38Democrats six percent too liberal, seventy nine percent just about right,
- 26:43eleven percent too conservative, four percent no opinion or skipped.
- 26:48Republicans ninety one percent too liberal, five percent just about right,
- 26:55two percent to conservative, and two percent no opinion skipped.
- 26:59Independent and its others forty four percent to liberal, thirty
- 27:04nine percent just about write, eight percent to conservative, nine
- 27:08percent no opinion or skipped source Washington Post Shar School
- 27:13poll conducted March twenty six through thirty first, twenty twenty six,
- 27:17among one thy one hundred one Virginia registered voters, with
- 27:20an air margin of plus or minus three point four
- 27:23percentage points. The air margin is larger among subgroups. The
- 27:27scope of her image problem is apparent in the disconnect
- 27:30between voter impressions of her actions and her specific affordability policies.
- 27:35Spamberger has cautioned that there is no automatic strategy to
- 27:38improve cost of living, but more voters think Spamberger's policies
- 27:42will make Virginia less affordable forty one percent than more
- 27:46affordable thirty one percent, while twenty three percent don't think
- 27:49her policies will make a difference. Even among Democrats, sixty
- 27:54three percent thinks Spamberger's policies will improve affordability, but more
- 27:58than three and ten think they either won't make a
- 28:00difference twenty five percent or will make this state less
- 28:04affordable eight percent. About eight to ten Republicans predict her
- 28:08policies will make the state less affordable. Independence skew negative
- 28:12on Spamberger's actions, with forty one percent saying they will
- 28:15make this state less affordable versus twenty seven percent who
- 28:19say they will make the state more affordable. Next is
- 28:22a barograph entitled in general, more Virginia voters think Spamberger's
- 28:26policies will hurt than help affordability question. Do you think
- 28:30Spamberger's policies will make Virginia more affordable? Thirty one percent
- 28:35less affordable, forty one percent, won't make a difference twenty
- 28:39three percent, no opinion skipped five percent. Source Washington Post
- 28:44Shar School poll conducted March twenty six through thirty first,
- 28:47twenty twenty six among oney one hundred one Virginia registered voters,
- 28:52with an air margin of plus or minus three point
- 28:54four percentage points. Mason Neshi, a self described independent voter
- 28:59in Rule CLIs Pepper County, said he did not vote
- 29:02for Spamberger but hoped she would improve the cost of living. Instead,
- 29:06he feels she has been trying to make herself into
- 29:09a democratic icon. I don't see anything that makes me
- 29:13think I'll be able to own a home again one
- 29:15day in this state, said Niche, a forty four year
- 29:17old car parts salesman. Spamberger has requested and signed a
- 29:22host of legislation aimed at housing affordability, lowering energy bills,
- 29:26and boosting resources for low income households. Asked about specific
- 29:30Spamburger policies, Virginia's are more optimistic, believing that six of
- 29:35the eight priorities mentioned in the poll will make living
- 29:37in the state more affordable. Those include reducing regulations on
- 29:41small solar panel systems, encouraging mixed income housing development, requiring
- 29:46electric companies to help lower income residents improve their home
- 29:50energy efficiency. Next is a biograph entitled how Virginia voters
- 29:55think about specific affordability proposals from Spamburger and Democrats. Question,
- 30:01thinking about a few specific policies, do you think each
- 30:05of the following will make Virginia more affordable less affordable?
- 30:11Won't make a difference, no opinion. Requiring electric utilities to
- 30:16help low income customers improve home efficiency fifty one percent
- 30:20more affordable, twenty seven percent less affordable eighteen percent won't
- 30:25make a difference, and four percent no opinion. Steadily increasing
- 30:29Virginia minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour forty six
- 30:33percent more affordable, thirty two percent, less affordable nineteen percent
- 30:39won't make a difference, and three percent no opinion. Reducing
- 30:44regulations on small solar panel systems forty four percent more affordable,
- 30:49sixteen percent less affordable thirty one percent won't make a
- 30:53difference nine percent no opinion. Providing loans for mixed income
- 30:58housing construction forty one percent more affordable twenty five percent
- 31:03less affordable twenty nine percent won't make a difference five percent,
- 31:07no opinion. Banning pharmacy benefit managers from inquiring patients to
- 31:12use specific pharmacies forty percent more affordable twenty eight percent
- 31:17less affordable twenty seven percent won't make a difference six percent,
- 31:21no opinion. Providing workers twelve weeks paid family medical lead
- 31:26funded by higher payroll taxes thirty nine percent more affordable
- 31:30forty one percent less affordable sixteen percent won't make a
- 31:34difference five percent, no opinion. Limiting prior authorization used by
- 31:39health insurance companies thirty seven percent more affordable twenty seven
- 31:44percent less affordable twenty nine percent won't make a difference
- 31:48eight percent, no opinion. Increasing renter protections against eviction twenty
- 31:54nine percent, more affordable thirty nine percent, less affordable twenty
- 31:58seven percent will make a difference. Five percent no opinion.
- 32:03Source March twenty six through thirty first twenty twenty six
- 32:06Washington Post shar School poll question based on half samples
- 32:10of five hundred forty eight to five hundred fifty three
- 32:13registered voters in Virginia, with a margin of air of
- 32:15plus or minus four point eight percentage points. Affordability is
- 32:20a great campaign theme, but almost an impossible governing one,
- 32:23given the limited tools that a governor has to affect prices.
- 32:27Rozzal said the public may like the particulars of some
- 32:30of her proposals, but as long as the overall environment
- 32:33on affordability remains unchanged, there is inevitable disappointment. Voter prospectives
- 32:39change based on income level, however, with Spamburger's approval ratings
- 32:43slightly higher among families making under one hundred thousand dollars,
- 32:47her support from Black Virginia voters appears shaky, with two
- 32:51thirds saying they approve of Spamberger's performance, compared with a
- 32:55ninety three percent of black voters who supported her last far.
- 32:59According to Network exit polls, Spamberger maintains an edge with
- 33:03women voters, fifty two percent of whom approve of her performance,
- 33:07while fifty four percent of men disapproved. The poll was
- 33:11conducted by the Post and George Mason University shar School
- 33:14of Policy and Government from March twenty sixth to thirty first,
- 33:17among a random sample of one thousand, one hundred one
- 33:20registered voters in Virginia drawn from a statewide voter database.
- 33:24Live color interviews reached respondents on cell phones sixty two
- 33:27percent and land lines sixteen percent. Twenty two percent of
- 33:31respondents were reached via text message and invited to take
- 33:34the survey online. The overall margin of air is plus
- 33:37R minus three point four percentage points. Isabel Gibson contributed
- 33:41to this report. This item is accompanied by a photo
- 33:45caption Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger during her inauguration in Richmond
- 33:50on January seventeenth, Marvin Joseph, The Washington Post. The next
- 33:55item from Today's from Pages entitled in Secrecy, A US
- 33:59centric global health plan develops by Adam Taylor. The Trump
- 34:03administration has spent the better part of a year quietly
- 34:06negotiating agreements with poor nations as it seeks to scale
- 34:10back and reimagine US foreign assistance for efforts like HIV
- 34:14and tuberculosis prevention through a new America First global health strategy.
- 34:19To date, twenty eight deals have been negotiated with foreign governments,
- 34:23mostly throughout Africa, but in a break with precedent, the
- 34:26administration has refused to disclose their full terms publicly. The
- 34:30veil of secrecy has frustrated partner countries and anchor transparency advocates,
- 34:36who worry that billions of dollars in US funding money
- 34:39that's intended to help combat disease is being leveraged by
- 34:42the Trump administration as it seeks controversial concessions on unrelated policies.
- 34:48In return. Public Citizen, a government watchdog group, has brought
- 34:53a lawsuit demanding access to some of the administration's global
- 34:57health agreements, arguing that the State department Its failure to
- 35:00produce the records in response to a Freedom of Information
- 35:03Act request is unlawful. The agreement's public disclosure is essential
- 35:08to understanding the new foreign aid structure being built by
- 35:11the State Department, and what the United States expects or
- 35:14extracts in return, said Peter Maybarden, director of Public Citizen's
- 35:19Access to Medicinees Group. The State Department, which has led
- 35:23the overhaul of health related foreign aids since last year's
- 35:26dismantling of the US Agency for International Development said it
- 35:29does not comment on ongoing litigation, but that it takes
- 35:33its transparency obligations very seriously. In a statement, the agency
- 35:38vowed to disclose the terms of its agreements once negotiations
- 35:42with all partner governments are complete, saying its approach is
- 35:45consistent with applicable law and intended to protect sensitive conversations.
- 35:50The State Department did not address questions about how many
- 35:53negotiations may be ongoing and when those talks might conclude,
- 35:57but said it was fully on track with al developed
- 36:00last year. In some foreign capitals, frustration has been building
- 36:04for months, according to diplomats and US officials who spoke
- 36:08on the condition of anonymity to discuss the process. In Zimbabwe,
- 36:12for instance, President Emerson Mongagua halted his country's negotiations with
- 36:17the Trump administration late last year after the government determined
- 36:21that lopsided talks ricks undermining Zimbabwe's sovereignty. According to correspondence
- 36:27reviewed by The Washington Post, the US Embassy and Harari
- 36:30confirmed in February that Zimbabwe had withdrawn from negotiations and
- 36:35that the United States would begin winding down our health
- 36:38assistance in Zimbabwe. In neighboring Zambia, where idea was expected
- 36:43to be sought in December, talks had become a political
- 36:46pressure point for the government amid reports that the Trump
- 36:49administration is seeking to leverage the aid money as it
- 36:52seeks concessions on a separate agreement related to the mining
- 36:56of critical minerals. The Trump administration is pushing for greater
- 36:59access to critical minerals in Africa, such as copper and
- 37:03Zambia to challenge Chinese dominance of a resource that is
- 37:06vital for building modern technology like electric vehicles and data centers.
- 37:12The State Department has rejected those accusations, though officials have
- 37:16acknowledged the administration is taking a new approach to global health.
- 37:20I can say unequivocally we are not seeking anything at
- 37:23Zambia's expense or again Zambia's laws or entrance, Nick Checker,
- 37:28a senior State Department official for Africa, said at a
- 37:31summit in Washington last month. But how we negotiate this
- 37:35and what we expect from them will be fundamentally different
- 37:38from approaches of the past that fail to deliver free
- 37:41the Zambia's sustainable future or for the American people checker added,
- 37:46post it, then delete it. The global health agreements are
- 37:50part of a new strategy that is designed, officials say,
- 37:54to reduce overall US spending on such initiatives and push
- 37:57partner countries to spend more themselves to break a cycle
- 38:01of dependency. Under the Trump administration, agreements worth twelve point
- 38:05seven billion dollars in US assistants have been signed so far,
- 38:09requiring recipient countries to invest seven point eight billion dollars.
- 38:13According to the State Department, our foreign assistance programs are
- 38:17deeply broken, Secretary of State Markarrubia wrote in an introduction
- 38:21to the administration's America First Global Health Policy last year,
- 38:25our health foreign assistance programs in particular, have become inefficient
- 38:29and wasteful. Even among credits of the administration, there is
- 38:33widespread agreement about the problems of waste and dependency in
- 38:37global health assistance, but numerous experts say the negotiations, which
- 38:41have been led by Trump political appointees with little background
- 38:45in complex global health dealds, have been conducted largely behind
- 38:49closed doors, with no outside input and little Congressional oversight.
- 38:54Public citizens like our Duke said the strategy seems to
- 38:57be divide and conquer the partners of the United States.
- 39:00The term administration, he said, is treating its negotiating partners
- 39:04as hostives and treating Health AID a bit like conflict,
- 39:08as though every bit of US negotiating advantage must be
- 39:11preserved through secrecy. There have been five signed agreements publicly
- 39:16released by the U S government thus far, though it
- 39:18appears to have been done accidentally. The documents outlining deals
- 39:22with Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Ethiopia were published on
- 39:28an obscure government website in March, but a few days later,
- 39:31the ZIP file that contained copies of the agreement's text
- 39:34was deleted. Was later republished without those documents. The State Department,
- 39:40in his response to questions, said that the five agreements
- 39:43released on its website were posted in error. We took
- 39:46them down to treat all partner countries consistently and will
- 39:50repost them along with the rest once the full set
- 39:53of agreements is finalized. That is a process fixed, not
- 39:56a cover up, the agency, said. Curtis Bradley, a professor
- 40:00at the University of Chicago Law School who has studied
- 40:03laws on public disclosure of such agreements, said there appeared
- 40:06to be no legal requirement to publish all the agreements
- 40:10at once. There is nothing in the statute about this,
- 40:13he said. A handful of other agreements have been circulated
- 40:17after being leaked. The Kenyan government publicly released the terms
- 40:20of its agreement with Washington after legal challenge there said
- 40:24the provisions the deal granted the u S wide access
- 40:27to Kenyan citizen's health data and biological specimens were unconstitutional.
- 40:33What's in the deals? The five agreements, temporarily posted to
- 40:37the State Department's website, offer a glimpse into how the
- 40:41deals may differ from one country to the next. The
- 40:44documents show that overall u S funding will decline significantly
- 40:49in each country over a five year period, but the
- 40:52rate at which it declines and the amount by which
- 40:55each country is expected to boost its own health spending
- 40:58veries significantly. Some countries, such as Nigeria, are being asked
- 41:03to rapidly increase their share of health spending, the document show.
- 41:08Others such as Mozambique, have less ambitious spending pledges, but
- 41:12the documents show they could face and abrupt you as
- 41:14funding cut off if those lower targets are not met.
- 41:18The State Department said the circumstances are different for each
- 41:21country and that the deals reflect how both sides are
- 41:24putting skin in the game to ensure lasting impact. Some
- 41:27countries had signed health agreements with the United States, where
- 41:30in unrelated contentious negotiations with Washington around the same time.
- 41:35Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, had
- 41:39recently signed US brokered peace deals when they agreed to
- 41:42the health packs, leading to concerns that traditionally a political
- 41:46health funding was being used as a political pressure tool.
- 41:50At least nine countries, including several major HIV epidemics like Eswatini,
- 41:56have concurrently held negotiations with the Trump administration to reset
- 42:00sdeve third country nationals deported from the United States. Critics
- 42:04of the administration's approach save the blurring of lines between
- 42:07US global health policy and other aims, risks undermining efforts
- 42:11to five diseases like HIV, and that the lack of
- 42:15information released publicly added to the perception that the deals
- 42:19were being used as a pressure tool, until the Trump
- 42:22administration said Neybraduke health was not something to hide. This
- 42:27atom is accompanied by photos. The first is captured boxes
- 42:31of anti retroviral drugs. Remnants of a final donation from
- 42:35the US government before funding cuts lined the shelves of
- 42:38a hospital stock room in Kusumu, Kenya, last April. Michael
- 42:42Lunaga Getty Images. The cartans have large labels saying USAID.
- 42:49The next photo is captured a woman waits for a
- 42:52contraceptive in plant procedure at a clinic in Epworth, Zimbabwe
- 42:56ern Ufumi ap She is seated with the child in
- 43:00her lap in front of signs that say USAID from
- 43:04the American People Shashah Sexual Health Services. The other sign
- 43:08lists variety of contraceptive methods. The next photos caption a
- 43:13medical facility in Sitko Kodvo Eswatini advises patients of its
- 43:18closure last year Helan Godfrey for The Washington Post. The
- 43:22sign reads closed until further notice. Smaller print on the
- 43:26sign is not legible, and the final lote im from
- 43:30today's front page is entitled Conservative touted college entrance exam
- 43:35gains traction. More states are adopting classic learning tests, despite
- 43:40critics concerns. By Todd Wallock from Annapolis, Maryland, an upstart
- 43:46college entrance exam designed to be an alternative to the
- 43:49ACT and SAT and featuring works from ancient Western civilization,
- 43:55is gaining support from the Trump administration and conservatives in
- 43:58red and purple states. In recent months, the Pentagon decided
- 44:02to accept the Classic Learning Test pre West Military Service
- 44:05academies and scholarships at other colleges around the country. Indiana
- 44:10enacted legislation in March requiring its state universities to consider
- 44:15COLT scores along with those from the SAT and ACT,
- 44:19and the North Carolina University System agreed to take the COLT,
- 44:23including on its flagship campus in Chapel Hill. We've had
- 44:27some big wins, said Jeremy Tate, founder of the test
- 44:31and the Maryland company behind it Classic Learning Initiatives. While
- 44:35all three tests have verbal and mass sections, the COLT
- 44:38stands out because it mainly features passages from noted philosophers,
- 44:42religious scholars, scientists and authors in the canon of Western literature,
- 44:47including Plato, Saint Augustine, Dante, and Shakespeare. Students can take
- 44:52the test at a traditional testing site or online at home.
- 44:56Since its creation in twenty fifteen, the COLT has been
- 44:59in brain by many Christian schools, homeschooling families, and educators
- 45:03in the classical education movement who want children to study
- 45:07foundational texts that they say help shape American history and culture,
- 45:12but the exam's growing popularity has sparked questions about whether
- 45:15the CLT is a reliable measure of students skills, how
- 45:19to compare CLT's scores to the ACT and SAT, and
- 45:23whether it's secure since students can take the CLT at home,
- 45:27Unlike the other two tests, we're lacking evidence on the CLT,
- 45:31said Audrey Amrin Beardsley, a professor at Arizona State University
- 45:36who is reviewing public data on the test and plans
- 45:39to publish findings this summer and as a test becomes
- 45:42more widely used, the CLTS creator hope it will push
- 45:46schools and teachers to introduce students to classic texts to
- 45:50better prepare them for the exam. We view this as
- 45:53a lever that shapes education, Tate said, but some critics
- 45:57worry the CLT's list of authors could push out alternate
- 46:01points of view and give students a sanitized and triumphalist
- 46:05version of history. My biggest concern is that students won't
- 46:09learn the truth about history, said Curtis Doser, a Vassar
- 46:13College professor of Greek and Roman studies who wrote a
- 46:16book about how far right politicians use the Classics to
- 46:20advance their worldview. Next is a graph entitled more Students
- 46:24are taking the Classic Learning Test. The number of test
- 46:28takers soared after Florida began using the test as an
- 46:31option for high school graduation and admission to stay colleges
- 46:34in twenty twenty three. The graph shows minimal numbers of
- 46:38students taking the test from twenty sixteen up until twenty
- 46:42twenty two, when there were eighty four hundred seventy eight takers.
- 46:46In twenty twenty three, twenty seven thousand, one hundred sixty takers,
- 46:51twenty twenty four one hundred ninety thousand, one hundred ninety
- 46:54four takers, and in twenty twenty five one hundred eighty
- 46:58two thousand, six hundred thirty one linetakers source Classic Learning Initiatives.
- 47:04More than three hundred and fifty universities, mostly private Christian colleges,
- 47:08accept SLT scores for admissions. In addition to the ACT
- 47:11and SAT. Many other colleges have been hesitant. A review
- 47:16by the Iowa Board of Regents in twenty twenty four
- 47:19couldn't find a single peer reviewed study on how well,
- 47:23the CLT can predict success in college. There's just been
- 47:27limited use thus far of the Classic Learning Test, so
- 47:30there isn't sufficient data yet, Rachel Boone, chief academic officer
- 47:34for the board said at a public meeting at the time.
- 47:38The state is now searching for additional data, she said
- 47:41in an interview. Because of the lack of research, the
- 47:44Iowa State University System decided in twenty twenty four to
- 47:47use only the ACT or SAT for automatic admissions THROUGHOUTE.
- 47:52Most students used to attend Classic Learning said. The test
- 47:56value was detailed in a study completed last year at
- 47:59Grove City College, a conservative Christian college in Pennsylvania. The
- 48:03study of two hundred and thirty five students, which has
- 48:06yet to be published in an academic journal, found CLT
- 48:09test scores are strongly correlated with first year college grades,
- 48:13but the study's author says he doesn't yet have enough
- 48:16data to say whether it's better or worse than the
- 48:19SAT and ACT. My conclusion at this point is that
- 48:23they are all three reasonable predictors for college grades, said
- 48:27Gary Welton, Assistant dean for institutional Assessment at the school.
- 48:32There is also the question of what can be considered
- 48:34a good CLT score, since that test is newer than
- 48:38the ACT and SAT. Classic Learning developed a table in
- 48:42twenty twenty three to help interpret the numbers. For example,
- 48:47it says a score of one hundred on the CLT
- 48:50out of a perfect one twenty is equivalent to thirteen
- 48:53ninety out of sixteen hundred on the SAT and a
- 48:57thirty one out of thirty six on the AC. The
- 49:01company wasn't able to reach an agreement though, to work
- 49:04with the ACT and College Board to pool their data
- 49:07for comparison. We are not sure these tests are similar
- 49:11enough to compare the scores, said Briscilla Rodriguez, senior vice
- 49:15president with the College Board, which administers the SAT. Meanwhile,
- 49:20the CLT has gained strong support from conservatives, who complain
- 49:24the SAT and ACT have dumbed down their tests over
- 49:27the years. For instance, the SAT and ACT started allowing
- 49:31calculators in the mid nineteen nineties. The SAT also eliminated
- 49:35its antimine section, designed to test students on vocabulary, and
- 49:39replaced longer reading passages with shorter tests, some just a
- 49:43few sentences long. It is generally bland material that doesn't
- 49:47have any inherent value in it, said Jonathan Butcher of
- 49:50the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The classic learning
- 49:55test is asking students to be prepared to handle more
- 49:57rigorous content. Tables entitled breaking down the Differences between SAT
- 50:04ACT and COLT reading Sections SAT fifty four short passages,
- 50:09one question for passage, typically about twenty five to one
- 50:13hundred fifty words per passage. An example is included. The
- 50:18following text is from David Barclay Moore's twenty twenty two
- 50:21novel Hollow of the Fireflies. This place was different than
- 50:25I thought it would be. I'd never been somewhere like
- 50:28this before, followed by one question ACT four long passages.
- 50:33Number of questions varies, typically about six hundred fifty to
- 50:37seven hundred fifty words per passage. The example is This
- 50:42passage is adapted from the essay rough Water by David McGlenn,
- 50:45copyright two thousand and eight by David McGlenn. Only short
- 50:50excerpts of the actual texting and question are included. About
- 50:53six hundred yards in my coach started to pace. I
- 50:56stayed study on, not in a hurry, not about to
- 50:59get my hope up. I've never sprinted harder in my life,
- 51:02not before and not since. I hit the wall, followed
- 51:06by a variable number of questions COLT four long passages
- 51:11ten questions per passage, typically about four hundred sixty to
- 51:15six hundred and fifty words per passage. Example. This passage
- 51:19is adapted from Dante Allegery's Conto two of Paradisio from
- 51:22the Divine Comedy, first published in thirteen twenty. Only a
- 51:26short excerpt of the text included in question is included.
- 51:30If I then was of a corporeal frame, and it
- 51:33understood my weak thoughts, how could one dimension thus endure?
- 51:37Then I responded, what are these various heavenly bodies above us? Both?
- 51:41Thence are rare cosbi, followed by ten questions. Source passages
- 51:46are from sample tests provided by test bakers. The CLT
- 51:50does not allow students to use calculators, and the CLT
- 51:53boasts that two thirds of its reading passages come from
- 51:56an author bank of more than one hundred sixty writers
- 51:58and works dating that Mesopotamia. More than two dozen of
- 52:02the authors are Christian saints, theologians, or religious thinkers, including
- 52:06the Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards, best known for his sermon
- 52:10Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Though the
- 52:13test is popular with many Christian private schools. It is
- 52:16not exclusively Christian or religious, and Tate the test's founder notes,
- 52:22there is good reason to introduce all kinds of students
- 52:25to important Christian texts. I don't think any one in
- 52:28the West can be considered seriously educated without some knowledge
- 52:31of the Christian intellectual tradition, including the Bible, he said.
- 52:36While the SAT and ACT us some older literature as well.
- 52:40The SAT once featured a passage from Aristophanes in four
- 52:43twenty three b C. They generally put more emphasis on
- 52:47contemporary writing than the COLT. The ACT notes that it
- 52:51still features longer passages, while the College Board says its
- 52:54which to shorter excerpts on the SAT to encourage students
- 52:58to read the passages closely instead of scanning them for
- 53:01the answers. Partly because the CLT allows students to take
- 53:05the test at home, it has grown especially popular in
- 53:08the homeschooling community. Next is a table titled ACT, SAT
- 53:14and CLT at a glance. The ACT and SAT have
- 53:18been the dominant test for college admissions for decades, but
- 53:21the CLT is gaining ground year founded ACT nineteen fifty nine,
- 53:27SAT nineteen twenty six, CLT twenty fifteen test length and minutes.
- 53:32ACT one hundred twenty five, SAT one thirty four, CLT
- 53:37one hundred twenty number of questions, ACT one hundred thirty
- 53:42one SAT ninety eight, CLT one hundred twenty score range
- 53:47ACT one through thirty six SAT four hundred to sixteen
- 53:52hundred cl core sections ACT English, Math, Reading, SAT, Reading
- 53:59and Writing Math, CLT, Verbal reasoning, Grammar and writing quantitative reasoning.
- 54:06Accepted at ACT nearly all colleges, SAT, nearly all colleges,
- 54:12CLT three hundred fifty plus colleges. Calculator allowed, ACT Yes, SAT, Yes,
- 54:20CLT No. Can be taken at home, ACT no, SAT NO,
- 54:25CLT yes, paper or digital, ACT BOAT SAT, digital only,
- 54:31except for cases involving special accommodations. CLT both reading passage length,
- 54:38ACT six hundred fifty to seven hundred fifty words, SAT
- 54:43twenty five to one hundred fifty words, CLT four hundred
- 54:46sixty to six hundred fifty words. Source, ACT, College Board
- 54:51and Classic Learning Initiatives. Todd Wallach the Washington Post. Parker Falk,
- 54:57a sixteen year old homeschooler in Michigan, said he had
- 55:00to travel as far as an hour and a half
- 55:02to take the ACT, who was able to take the
- 55:04COLT in a bedroom. It was nicer to be able
- 55:07to test in my own environment, Fox said. The ACT
- 55:11and College Board said they don't offer remote testing because
- 55:14of the increased risk of cheating or the questions getting leaked.
- 55:18Trust is of the utmost importance, said ACT spokesman Juan Elizondo.
- 55:24Classic voting executives said they have taken strong measures to
- 55:27determine his conduct, including requiring students to keep web cameras
- 55:31on and install software that prevents them from opening other
- 55:34windows on their computer screens. We have a really really
- 55:38high standard protect security, Tate said. The CLT cases an
- 55:43uphill challenge to become as popular as the SAT and ACT,
- 55:46but it is making games. Nearly one hundred and eighty
- 55:49three thousand students took the test last year, compared to
- 55:52just two hundred ninety one a decade ago. By comparison,
- 55:56more than two million graduating seniors in the class of
- 55:59twenty twenty took the SAT at least once in high school,
- 56:03and one point formally took the ACT. While most colleges
- 56:07do not require test scores, some elite schools do, and
- 56:11is widely thought that a high score can aid students
- 56:13applications at others. More public colleges are also starting to
- 56:18accept the COLT, in part because of support from Republicans
- 56:22and state legislatures. Indiana State Senator Gary Burn, a Republican
- 56:27who wrote the bill requiring public universities there that take
- 56:30the ACT and SAT to also accept the COLT, said
- 56:34he wanted to give students and parents another choice. He
- 56:37said he also hopes the measure will encourage more public
- 56:40schools to introduce students to classic works. His chefs going
- 56:44back to what we used to do Byrne, said. Lawmakers
- 56:48in Arkansas passed a similar bill last year, and another
- 56:51bill is moving forward in Ohio. And in twenty twenty three,
- 56:56Florida decided to accept the COLT as an additional option
- 56:59for Universe the Admissions scholarships and to meet certain high
- 57:03school graduation requirements. Some other states, including Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Wyoming,
- 57:09also now accept the COLT for state scholarships. Despite the
- 57:13push from conservatives, Tate denied the test as partisan or
- 57:16limited to one world view. The author pool for the
- 57:20reading section of CLT includes both Adam Smith, the father
- 57:23of capitalism, and Karl Marx, the father of communism. It
- 57:27contains Christian preachers, but also the Chinese philosopher Confucius, Muslim
- 57:32scholar of as Senna, and Friedrich Nietzsche, the German writer
- 57:35who famously declare that God is dead. And while most
- 57:39of the authors are white, the pool also has black
- 57:42civil rights leaders like sojourn or Truth, Frederick Douglas, and
- 57:46Martin Luther King Junior. One third of the passages company
- 57:49sources outside the CLT's public author list, including the Modern Thinkers.
- 57:54A recent exam included an essay from liberal jurist Ruth
- 57:58Baker Ginsburg for God. Regardless, the c l T faces
- 58:01other burdens to catch up to the sat At Act.
- 58:05Some states offer either the SAT or ACT to nearly
- 58:08all public high school students to measure their performance. Students
- 58:12often stick with those when applying for college or scholarships,
- 58:16and most of the elite schools that require entrance exams
- 58:20only except the ACT and SAT. Due to constraints of time,
- 58:25we will be unable to complete this item. This concludes
- 58:29the reading of the Washington Post for to Day, Tuesday,
- 58:31April seventh, twenty twenty six. Your reader for to day
- 58:35has been Sendy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments,
- 58:38or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
- 58:42us at A five nine four two two six three
- 58:44nine zero. Thank you for listening and now please stay
- 58:48tuned for continued programming on Radio I T zero to
- 58:52one hundred twenty