Latest / The Myth of Education Podcast / Ep. 36 | Are We Living On Stolen Land? w/ Kurt Rohrs

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Ep. 36 | Are We Living On Stolen Land? w/ Kurt Rohrs · The Myth of Education Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Myth of Education Podcast,
0:02
SPEAKER_00: where we expose corruption, advocate for student safety, and defend parental rights.
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0:21
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to The Myth of Education Podcast.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to like, share, and leave a comment.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: I have with me today Kurt Roars.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: He is member at large on the Chandler Unified School Board.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: He has served four years and was just reinstated to serve another four years.
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SPEAKER_00: So welcome, Kurt, to The Myth of Education Podcast.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you very much and thank you for having me.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: So right now,
0:49
SPEAKER_00: there are a lot of issues going on in a lot of school districts,
0:53
SPEAKER_00: and I don't think that anything that we're going to talk about is unique
0:56
SPEAKER_00: to Chandler.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: However, the way that the situation was handled is changing.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: I want to say two, three, four, however many years the left has been doing this.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And it seems to only be happening
1:15
SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts behind why this is happening?
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Well, I would say that it's actually it's a highly partisan movement.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: They're very common in Democratic Party meetings.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: They're very common in teachers union meetings.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: And teachers unions donate about 95 percent of their funds to Democratic parties.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: So they're completely partisan.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: And ASU staff meetings and also 95 percent.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: The professors in the ASU Sociology Department are also Democrats.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: So it's a highly partisan issue,
1:59
SPEAKER_01: but I don't believe we should be talking about these political statements in
2:04
SPEAKER_01: a school board meeting.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: Schools are there to educate their students,
2:08
SPEAKER_01: not to indoctrinate them with somebody's particular worldview.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Now,
2:12
SPEAKER_00: the pushback you're getting from leftists is that being a member of an Indian tribe,
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Native American,
2:18
SPEAKER_00: if you're sensitive to the term Indian,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: they're saying that Patty Serrano, you're leftist board president.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: It's not a race.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: It's not an ethnicity.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And so...
2:27
SPEAKER_00: She wants recognition for something that is just special compared
2:31
SPEAKER_00: to all other groups of people who have come from all different cultures and walks
2:35
SPEAKER_00: of life.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: How do you break down what she is trying to convey
2:38
SPEAKER_00: and why they think this particular identity group needs that special recognition
2:43
SPEAKER_00: before every board meeting and every graduation ceremony?
2:46
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is her own particular point of view.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: But if you go ahead and Google the Pima peoples, it does say that they are an ethnic group.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: So I don't understand why she's saying what she's saying.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: And even in the school district itself, we do break out.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: Native Americans as a demographic group, and we do track their performance that way.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: But I think identity group is probably a good phrase to use because that kind
3:10
SPEAKER_01: of avoids those technicalities.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: Clearly,
3:12
SPEAKER_01: it's an identity group that they're singling out to
3:15
SPEAKER_00: promote over all
3:17
SPEAKER_00: the other identity groups that we have.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: Now, the indigenous kids are about 1.6% of our student population.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: So the obvious question is, what about the other 98.4%?
3:29
SPEAKER_01: What about them?
3:30
SPEAKER_01: Why are you seeing I have this one group to promote and ignoring all the rest?
3:33
SPEAKER_00: I think it speaks to what Jen Alvey said.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: The reason why she is against it is because it feeds that narrative
3:40
SPEAKER_00: of nobody is illegal on stolen land.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: So she connected it to the agenda for having open borders,
3:48
SPEAKER_00: wanting to basically call everybody who's here a citizen.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: And then,
3:52
SPEAKER_00: of course,
3:53
SPEAKER_00: this summer,
3:53
SPEAKER_00: earlier this year, the Supreme Court made that ruling on birthright, right?
3:58
SPEAKER_00: And they used, what, the 14th Amendment to do that.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that sent me back.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: I had to read my constitution and I read my amendments and I'm like,
4:07
SPEAKER_00: This clearly was written back in the 1800s, around the time of the Civil War.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: This had to do with slaves.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: This is not saying that people should come across our border illegally and then
4:16
SPEAKER_00: when they give birth to a child, they're automatically a citizen.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: So the Supreme Court definitely got that wrong, in my opinion.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: This is not about being anti-immigration.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: We as conservatives are pro-legal immigration.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: So just wanted to clarify that.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: And this is an issue I feel like, Kurt, this should not be coming up at a school district.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: When you're on school grounds,
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Everyone should have the same opportunity to learn,
4:39
SPEAKER_00: and I am of the mind that they do.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: That they are failing the students.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: These students are graduating, not being able to read.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: There's violence and bullying.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, your district had, you know, some homicides and suicides as a result of bullying.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: And so by misdirecting the attention to the DEI and language.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a way for leftists to avoid holding the district accountable for
5:13
SPEAKER_00: the issues that it really is facing.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: What say you?
5:17
SPEAKER_01: My position always has been that I don't care what you look like.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: I don't care where you came from.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: But once you enter the doors of our schools,
5:25
SPEAKER_01: you're all CUSD kids and you're all treated the same.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: This is about dividing people into different groups and setting them against each other.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: That is exactly opposite.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: Of what we should be teaching our schools.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, they're taking the stance that this is not a political issue.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: But I looked out during our board meeting, we had this vote.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: There was a sea of red shirts from Save Our Schools people for
5:47
SPEAKER_01: a highly political activist organization that has some very strong leftist ideals.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: They pushed it as a political issue, despite of their denials.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: And it absolutely is a political issue because I can tell you it has divided this district.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: It is divided as board.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: And what it is is it's taking,
6:06
SPEAKER_01: and you pointed to this just a minute ago,
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SPEAKER_01: it's distracting us from the real mission of teaching kids to read.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: If we go to, say,
6:14
SPEAKER_01: the board of education or the department of education,
6:17
SPEAKER_01: their stance is you should be talking about academic performance
6:21
SPEAKER_01: at every meeting instead of this, okay?
6:24
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: So none of these people talk about academic performance or improving You know,
6:30
SPEAKER_01: reading proficiency for kids.
6:32
SPEAKER_01: And I would say this,
6:33
SPEAKER_01: is that even though the Native American population is a very small part
6:36
SPEAKER_01: of our population of students, their reading proficiency is by far the worst.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: Their attendance is by far the worst.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: Why aren't we talking about this and educating those kids and getting them into school?
6:48
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand why we're talking about analogists.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't do anything for anybody.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of just a performance is what it is.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: It is a performance and it leads the kids to be activists.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: I think I can't imagine why people would want this for children,
7:04
SPEAKER_00: but essentially they want them to be a dumb population of people
7:08
SPEAKER_00: that can be easily manipulated and controlled.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing that I can think of is
7:12
SPEAKER_00: because once you have enough information,
7:14
SPEAKER_00: once you can read,
7:15
SPEAKER_00: you can write and you can think for yourself,
7:17
SPEAKER_00: everybody who can think for themselves becomes a conservative.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: At least that's how I see it.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: But OK, I just looked up just very quickly.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: This was kind of on the fly.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: This is U.S. News and World Report.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: It's showing the reading proficiency in CUSD is 55 percent, math 51.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Middle school is 56, 51.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And then honestly,
7:37
SPEAKER_00: this is a D.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: OK, they're rating you at a D, but this is probably the highest in the state.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Of high school, 64% reading proficiency, 61% math.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: I may be exaggerating about it being the highest in the state,
7:51
SPEAKER_00: but I look at a lot of school districts when it comes to proficiency.
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SPEAKER_00: The kids can read and write in the younger grades,
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SPEAKER_00: and then by high school, they dip down to the 20s, 30s, and teens.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: What do you sense or know CUSD is doing differently to encourage the students
8:06
SPEAKER_00: to read and do their math in your district?
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, I would say this,
8:10
SPEAKER_01: and that's a question that we should be asking at every school board meeting,
8:13
SPEAKER_01: and I think the Department of Education is correct on that,
8:16
SPEAKER_01: but our math and reading proficiency has not improved in four years.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know why anybody thinks this would help, but...
8:24
SPEAKER_01: We're actually in the 57, 58, 59.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: And between us, Scottsdale and Gilbert, that is tops in the state.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: But I would tell you with the Native American kids, it's at 30%.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: That's what we should be talking about, not land acknowledgments.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: This is not going to help their reading proficiency.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: And that's our job.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: So I'll get back to this as a highly political and partisan issue.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like these people are trying to turn this into a Democratic Party meeting.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: And that's not what it should be.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is my thought.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Whenever there is, we can call it an identity group, whatever, there's a group of students.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what their ethnicity is.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's say they are reading at that 38% proficiency or they're doing math at
9:07
SPEAKER_00: that 30% proficiency.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: When I look at those horizontal bar graphs and I see that,
9:12
SPEAKER_00: I just take a line at the shortest line and I just draw a line down through
9:16
SPEAKER_00: the lines and I say every child behind this line we should be focused on,
9:21
SPEAKER_00: not because of their ethnicity,
9:22
SPEAKER_00: not because of their skin tone or what background they have or whatever.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Everybody behind this line needs intervention.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: I wish that our school districts would see it that way.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Every child that is below that minimal proficient age.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: They need intervention.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: They don't need DEI to come in and tell them that they're a victim.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we need.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago,
9:54
SPEAKER_00: the NAACP came to our board meeting, Kurt,
9:56
SPEAKER_00: over some books that were supposedly banned because of our DEI policy,
10:01
SPEAKER_00: which none of that was true.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of stood up there and told the public, okay,
10:05
SPEAKER_00: if we want to tell the students the truth,
10:06
SPEAKER_00: then you need to tell them how those slaves got here.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It was not Europeans going over there and kidnapping them.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: There were Africans that sold them.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, There's parts of history of the transatlantic slave trade that you're leaving out.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like it's the same with the Indians or Native Americans.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: It's just the Europeans,
10:22
SPEAKER_00: they came in and they brought disease and they took their land and all this.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe go back and study that out a little bit more.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the United States at the time.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: It was not America at the time.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't established as a nation yet, you know, but.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: That's where we are.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, and, you know, I've actually said this at the board before.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: A half a truth is a whole lie, okay?
10:44
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to talk about the oppression,
10:47
SPEAKER_01: let's talk about the oppression of the Mexican government against
10:50
SPEAKER_01: the indigenous peoples before we even got involved.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: It was brutal, just brutal.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: And they're the ones that disenfranchise them from their lands,
10:59
SPEAKER_01: essentially went on a genocidal effort to move them out and reassign those lands
11:05
SPEAKER_01: to their friends in the Mexican government.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: So I haven't seen anything in our history books that talks about the oppression from
11:12
SPEAKER_01: the Mexican government,
11:13
SPEAKER_01: which was far,
11:14
SPEAKER_01: far worse than anything that they experienced from the American government.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: In fact,
11:19
SPEAKER_01: what I do hear,
11:20
SPEAKER_01: and I heard this comment,
11:21
SPEAKER_01: that in particular,
11:23
SPEAKER_01: some of those indigenous groups were happy that the American army moved in
11:26
SPEAKER_01: because it actually protected them from some of the things that were going on.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: So they were much better off.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: But nobody's going to talk about that because it just doesn't fit the narrative.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: I always encourage my listeners to do your own research.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Don't just take our word for it.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: I want to segue into mental health services.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Since COVID days and with the ESSER funds that a lot of school districts had,
11:48
SPEAKER_00: there has been this battle over specifically.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: We're spending that money on more school social workers,
11:52
SPEAKER_00: mental health counselors, and people that are in this area.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: These are not educators, obviously.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: I would argue that they're not real counselors in some situations.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Completely ended in Chandler and I think in some other districts about the amount
12:09
SPEAKER_00: of mental health services that students should have access to.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Because now,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: post-COVID,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: we're seeing a lot of anxiety and suicide and all the things they're telling us
12:18
SPEAKER_00: that they're seeing.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not denying that by any means.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Where I come from, though, is that school districts can't be everything.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: You can't educate, plus be a clinic, plus be a hospital, plus do this, plus do that.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And intervene if their child has mental health problems.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: I would not want a child to go into a psychosis moment on school grounds
12:43
SPEAKER_00: after talking to a counselor.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: That could be dangerous for them and the other students.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: But what is your stance on whether Well, I guess the first question...
13:06
SPEAKER_01: If we're in the middle of a mental health crisis for our students, why is that?
13:12
SPEAKER_01: Why are these kids having a lot of mental health issues, if that's your perspective?
13:16
SPEAKER_01: And it may be, you know, just tying it back to the last segment, we push so many issues on them.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, this guilt shaming, how you're perceived in your own self-image.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of it's very, very negative.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: We got to remember that these are kids, not adults, okay?
13:32
SPEAKER_01: They're in a development phase.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: They don't know where they're at or where they're going.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: And they're very,
13:37
SPEAKER_01: very vulnerable to suggestion,
13:40
SPEAKER_01: and particularly some of the narratives that come on the left.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: So if you're telling, say,
13:44
SPEAKER_01: white kids,
13:45
SPEAKER_01: you should feel guilty about slavery of the black peoples
13:49
SPEAKER_01: that happened 150 years ago.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: You and I as adults are going, you know, that's a little bit tough.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: That's not where we're at today and things have changed.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: A kid that's like 12 or 13 doesn't have that kind of perspective of discernment,
14:02
SPEAKER_01: and they're just going to walk away feeling bad about themselves.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: So I can see that the social pressure from the schools themselves
14:09
SPEAKER_01: on these political issues are probably contributing
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the second point I want to make.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: I think we have at least seven different private organizations that come in and help
14:22
SPEAKER_01: with behavioral health, let's just say.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: We don't pay them, and we do allow them space.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so they're making money somehow.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: And here's the scam, and I'm going to call it a scam.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: So once you put your kid into a mental health or behavioral health program,
14:38
SPEAKER_01: you can charge that to access.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: And these organizations make their money.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: And they make a substantial amount of money.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: If they have to pay for it properly, they probably wouldn't be doing it.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: But it's kind of like a circular argument.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: Your kids, you know, have mental health problems.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: So we need to get them behavioral health and then we'll charge for it.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to convince them that they're mentally ill once they get
15:00
SPEAKER_01: into counseling and they need to,
15:02
SPEAKER_01: you know,
15:02
SPEAKER_01: do this and that and the other thing,
15:03
SPEAKER_01: going to this and that therapy, which may or may not be clinically appropriate.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: But if people are getting paid for it and they got to pay the rent,
15:13
SPEAKER_01: What do you think they're going to do?
15:14
SPEAKER_01: So I think we really need to start looking at that is what are we really accomplishing here?
15:19
SPEAKER_01: Are we making progress or not making progress?
15:21
SPEAKER_01: Or somebody says, this has turned into an industry where people are just making a living at it.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's a fair point.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: I like the first question you asked of,
15:30
SPEAKER_00: well, why are the kids emotionally and mentally suffering?
15:34
SPEAKER_00: And I agree with you 100%.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: We are putting a lot on them in terms of identity instead
15:39
SPEAKER_00: of just letting them be Americans and letting them take on the values of the homes
15:43
SPEAKER_00: that they come from, right?
15:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian,
15:46
SPEAKER_00: so I don't have to agree with raising somebody Hindu or agree
15:49
SPEAKER_00: with whatever religion you want to fill that in with.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: However, if I were an educator, I would treat the kid the same.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't divide people into these groups the way that leftists with that ideology do.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I find it to be evil to manipulate children knowing that they are underdeveloped
16:03
SPEAKER_00: and they don't have those reasoning mechanisms.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that there is a lot of money to be made,
16:08
SPEAKER_00: whether it's having somebody perpetually victimized or in the case.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: These doctors have patients for life now and the mental health are trying
16:28
SPEAKER_00: to essentially do the same thing, create lifelong trauma.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Those types of people who suffer from that,
16:33
SPEAKER_00: they always have triggers and they're unfortunately,
16:35
SPEAKER_00: they're easy I always say this before we go too far down this path.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Most of our teachers don't want to have anything to do with
16:51
SPEAKER_01: A small group of teachers and administrators that are allowed and demand certain things.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: But in general, you know, talking to our staff, teachers just love to teach.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: And most of them are just there to teach math,
17:03
SPEAKER_01: to teach history, to teach English, and they're apolitical.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: That's the majority, the silent majority.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: But there's a lot of peer pressure from different political groups and activists
17:14
SPEAKER_01: within the school district, either as, you know, teachers or administrators.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: The other thing I would probably say is that it's the school board
17:22
SPEAKER_01: that has responsibility for setting policy on that.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: Now,
17:26
SPEAKER_01: when the school board approves seven different behavioral organizations to come in
17:31
SPEAKER_01: and talk to your kids, I think you've gone too far.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: I would agree with that.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: I am very glad to hear that the majority of your teachers are not on board with this.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: The silent majority does need to find their voice because the kids are falling
17:58
SPEAKER_00: through the cracks.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And I think the manipulation goes so far into parents' minds as well.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: That messaging that the left has is very effective.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Parents are busy people.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: They have multiple kids,
18:09
SPEAKER_00: a lot of them,
18:10
SPEAKER_00: and some of them have multiple jobs or things going on in their families.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: And so to whatever extent So I am very happy that you stated that about your teachers.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: I hope that people in your community will listen to this and support those teachers and
18:45
SPEAKER_00: I would just say to the silent majority,
18:48
SPEAKER_00: you need to find somebody who is willing to speak up on these issues.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Find somebody like myself who has nothing to lose,
18:56
SPEAKER_00: who is willing to stand up against administrators and radicalized board members
19:00
SPEAKER_00: and people in the district who don't have the best entrance of students at heart.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to approach it from a political perspective saying,
19:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Republican, you're a Democrat.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm right and you're left.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: It's not about that.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: It's simply about what does a school district exist for?
19:15
SPEAKER_00: And it is to teach the children and make sure when they graduate
19:18
SPEAKER_00: that they become productive citizens.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: That to me is the ultimate nonpartisan discussion process.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: I very much view that as moral issues.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Those are not moral issues.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: And I would add that Arizona state law, everybody should review this again, 1-601.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: The parents are responsible for the upbringing of the minor child.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Now, to tie this back to land acknowledgements,
20:15
SPEAKER_01: you know, the indigenous culture is very interesting and very rich.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: But, you know,
20:20
SPEAKER_01: if they want to raise their children with land acknowledgements,
20:23
SPEAKER_01: because that's very much a part of their culture and they're very much tied to
20:27
SPEAKER_01: the land, the parents should be able to do that.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: But that's a family issue.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to kind of pivot to some past incidents and maybe get some updates.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to name names because they were students at the time,
20:59
SPEAKER_00: but I know that there were some bullying incidences.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: There was the group of teens that was kind of going around terrorizing everybody.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in the East Valley, I think there was a situation where there was a party.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to remember this.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: It's been a few years.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: But there was a party and a bullying situation or a confrontation just turned south
21:17
SPEAKER_00: and a student lost their life in that situation.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: I think one or two of the perpetrators were related to a teacher in the district or
21:24
SPEAKER_00: an administrator.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: It's ongoing.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to drop one name for you, and that's Preston Lorde.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: He was the kid that was at a Halloween party in 2023 and was accosted,
21:35
SPEAKER_01: completely innocent kid,
21:36
SPEAKER_01: accosted by a group of thugs,
21:38
SPEAKER_01: got into an altercation where they essentially beat him severely,
21:42
SPEAKER_01: and he died a couple And the reason that we're at this again,
21:46
SPEAKER_01: it was just his birthday a couple days ago.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: He celebrated it here in downtown Chandler with the Chandler City Council.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: I would say this, I was very disappointed with the district's response to this.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: They tried to distance themselves.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: And then when the superintendent decided to say that,
22:15
SPEAKER_01: I gave him a report of 11 different incidents
22:18
SPEAKER_01: with seven different Chandler Unified School students that were involved
22:21
SPEAKER_01: that I pulled from police reports and from media reports.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: He never said that again.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: But denying that this was any part that had anything to do with Chandler was wrong.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: It was just a lie.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: Two comments I heard.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: One from a board member was, Well, you know, this is just the crisis du jour.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: It all blew over in two weeks, which I thought was disgusting, sickening, absolutely sickening.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: And that person should not be on a board because they're not protecting our students.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: Student safety is one of these things that's come up over the last few years,
22:52
SPEAKER_01: particularly with this one incident,
22:54
SPEAKER_01: but several others that is on my radar screen as equal to academic proficiencies.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, kids have to feel safe at school.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: And if the incidents happen in school, they have to feel safe after school as well.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: That is our responsibility.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: Now, fortunately,
23:09
SPEAKER_01: you know,
23:10
SPEAKER_01: Chandler PD has done a very good job of trying to get their arms around this.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Gilbert PD had to be convinced, but they're actually also doing a good job.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: And so is Green Creek PD.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: So the police departments are doing a very good job.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: Gilbert Town Council and Chandler City Council are doing a good job on this.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm not so sure that the Chandler District is bought into this.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: They would rather just deny, deflect, dismiss, and pretend it's not their problem.
23:36
SPEAKER_01: Of course it's their problem.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: It's their schools that these kids need to feel safe in.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: There should not be any bullying or intimidation or harassment,
23:44
SPEAKER_01: either at the school level or on the school board level,
23:47
SPEAKER_01: because that happens as well.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, and I remember the response back then.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: This was when I had my head in the East Valley a little bit more.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to work my way back.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: And I think at the time,
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Jason Olive or Oliver, whatever his last name was, was your board president.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Olive.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And the superintendent at the time, I don't remember his name.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: But basically the solution that they had come up with after this happened,
24:10
SPEAKER_00: I remember this,
24:11
SPEAKER_00: they introduced some sort of sticker that they put on the back of
24:14
SPEAKER_00: the students' badges.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: It was kind of a, if you see something, say something number that you could call.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember if that number went What issue are we resolving?
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Their solution is to introduce restorative justice.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's all sit around in a peace circle and talk through our feelings about it.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Are we really coming to a place as a society
24:48
SPEAKER_00: where we think there should not be consequences assigned to someone that commits
24:52
SPEAKER_00: a crime?
24:53
SPEAKER_00: That's dangerous if that's where we're headed and we're teaching that to children.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's ideal.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: That's a really interesting point.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get deep into this now.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: The thing on the back of the badge was actually a hotline
25:05
SPEAKER_01: for reporting stuff anonymously, which is fine.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: That's a good thing.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: However,
25:09
SPEAKER_01: the response should have been from the district and the board is
25:12
SPEAKER_01: that we will not tolerate bullying and intimidation in our school district.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you happens at the staff level too,
25:22
SPEAKER_01: but that's a culture I really wanted to get changed,
25:24
SPEAKER_01: you know, with a new superintendent.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: The other point I would make is that,
25:27
SPEAKER_01: you know, restorative justice, the people are doing this are predators.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: They have a predatory mindset and they do not care about restoring justice at all.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: They don't.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: They're, they care about avoiding the consequences of what they've done.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: So, you know,
25:43
SPEAKER_01: you can't expect somebody that really has very low moral ethical That is such
25:49
SPEAKER_01: a fair point to say that we need to start dealing with predatory behavior.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: Nobody should want kids to be hurt.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Or for them to become perpetrators of crime.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: We have sex crimes that are happening student on student.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: It is something that needs to be addressed.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: But from my perspective,
26:27
SPEAKER_00: there's still an adult that's a problem when that situation is happening.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: It always comes back to adulthood.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's the parents not teaching them to respect human life,
26:37
SPEAKER_00: respect other people's boundaries,
26:39
SPEAKER_00: or whether it's teachers,
26:40
SPEAKER_00: administrators being enablers when they see certain behaviors.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: A lot of educators are complaining about the fact that they can't even discipline
26:47
SPEAKER_00: the students in their class now.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Districts are not expelling or giving out of school suspensions,
26:52
SPEAKER_00: except in these cases where it's something controversial that leans into
26:57
SPEAKER_00: a narrative.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: But when there's something serious that's happening,
26:59
SPEAKER_00: it's just so bizarre that people are not taking it seriously.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: What we want is we want order in society.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: We don't want chaos.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: I would say this.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: I believe this is a partisan issue.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: One phrase, defund the police.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: Now the far left extreme issue is that we shouldn't have prisons, okay?
27:16
SPEAKER_01: And we shouldn't punish people for their crimes.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: You know,
27:19
SPEAKER_01: and then there are people that are arrested by the police and
27:22
SPEAKER_01: the police are very frustrated about this.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: They put them in front of the judge and the judge lets them out on the street
27:27
SPEAKER_01: for violent crimes.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, not just, you know, stealing a bag of potato chips.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: They, you know, beat somebody up or they knifed them on a train platform or something.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: And then they let them back out on the street.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, that person's really not responsible for that.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: That's not the point.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: Whether they're responsible or not is a criminal trial,
27:45
SPEAKER_01: but you keep them in custody because they're a threat to the community, okay?
27:50
SPEAKER_01: And if they're out there committing more crimes after you just let them go,
27:54
SPEAKER_01: then the judges that are doing that or the DAs that are doing that need
27:57
SPEAKER_01: to lose their jobs because they're not protecting the community.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: And that's the job.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: And I would say this is about the defund police thing
28:04
SPEAKER_01: because our beloved board president just voted against SRO funding.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: SROs are school resource officers or police officers that we have in
28:11
SPEAKER_01: the high schools and the junior high schools.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: That program is paid for by the federal government.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: It's no cost to us at all, okay?
28:18
SPEAKER_01: That just is another example of a far-left extreme idea that is infecting the schools.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: I would say the defund police movement is probably the stupidest idea in the history
28:30
SPEAKER_01: of civilization.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: Mostly because we didn't start having a civilization until he had rules and police
28:35
SPEAKER_01: to enforce them.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: So why would you do something like that?
28:38
SPEAKER_01: It's like deconstruction.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: It's the evolution.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: And it's very foolish.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: And we need to push back on this stuff.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we can't accept narratives that they're putting on.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: What school board meeting was this where Serrano led the vote to not hire more SROs?
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Well,
28:54
SPEAKER_00: it was actually to
28:55
SPEAKER_01: accept free funding because we're in multiple municipalities,
28:59
SPEAKER_01: Queen Creek, Gilbert, and Shams.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: So this was the last meeting.
29:03
SPEAKER_01: It was a Gilbert meeting before we accepted the funding for Chandler.
29:07
SPEAKER_01: But again, it's a federal student safety grant that pays for SROs in schools.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't come out of district funds.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: Why would you not do that?
29:16
SPEAKER_01: It's free.
29:17
SPEAKER_01: That just seems crazy to me.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: Shake your head.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, because it doesn't make sense.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: It's actually triggering a thought of back when we were all living
29:25
SPEAKER_00: on those ESSER funds in the school districts and there was a fight on
29:28
SPEAKER_00: which direction those funds should go.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: We were arguing about we need more SROs,
29:32
SPEAKER_00: but the left is saying, no, we need more mental health count.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say this, and I'll give you another example.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: So in New York City, they had this initiative where
29:50
SPEAKER_01: If somebody's having a meltdown in the middle of the street and threatening people
29:53
SPEAKER_01: and looking violent, we'll send a social worker out to talk to them.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: I remember seeing this.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, that didn't last very long.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it didn't.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: A social worker simply doesn't have the method to control that person.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: So then they were sending out a social worker and a police officer primarily
30:09
SPEAKER_01: to protect the social workers.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: And I think that in some respect was working because the police officer would put
30:15
SPEAKER_01: the person out of control and the social worker would go get them the help
30:18
SPEAKER_01: that they need.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: And some of these people need to be institutionalized.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they do need treatment for a mental health issue.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: That kind of makes sense.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: But having social workers solve problems from violent assailants is dumb.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in fact, it's not any dumb, it's dangerous.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: It's dangerous for both a social worker and the people around them.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: So I just don't know where these crazy ideas come from.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: Don't they think these things through?
30:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, but...
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And if we tie it back to the mindset that you would have had if you were
30:49
SPEAKER_00: a communist, you basically do want the chaos in society, right?
30:54
SPEAKER_00: That is how you kind of usurp control.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: I always like to name drop Yuri Bezmenov for people.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: He was the KGB spy that defected here and he talked about ideological subversion and
31:05
SPEAKER_00: the four stages of how you can subvert a country, destabilization, normalization.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to get them all in the right order, but he broke it down.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: You use schools, you use the media, and you use the misdirection when there's chaos.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: I guess you could probably throw in there a little bit of some Saul Alinsky training
31:24
SPEAKER_00: if you have people dress up as if they're on the right,
31:26
SPEAKER_00: but really they're there to protest and cause chaos.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're indoctrinating into the students.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: There's also the fact that people call our nation a democracy all the time,
31:36
SPEAKER_00: and we can sit and talk through representative democracy,
31:39
SPEAKER_00: but the fact of the matter is that our rule of law is the Constitution,
31:43
SPEAKER_00: and that in effect makes us a republic in how we operate.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: I've tried to explain that democracy only happens in the voting booth.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: That's where your voice is heard, where the majority has a say.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: But all of those things tied together,
31:55
SPEAKER_00: it is, as you said, it is giving the children a worldview where rebellion happens.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Anarchy against authority is how you effect change.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Rather than sitting down and doing things civilly,
32:08
SPEAKER_00: sometimes you're not going to get the result that you want in society.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: In my mind, the difference between the extreme left and the extreme right.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: The extreme right doesn't want to take over the government and control you.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: They want freedom to do what they want.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: The left wants to take over the government and take control of everything
32:24
SPEAKER_01: and control everything you think, say, and do.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: I would point this out is that during the Russian Revolution,
32:29
SPEAKER_01: they overthrew essentially the monarchy.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden we had a communist Russia.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: So that is a playbook.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
33:01
SPEAKER_01: Destabilizing and disrupting is part of the thing.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: Demoralizing the people where they don't care anymore was the next step.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: And then creating chaos where you provide a solution because you're more organized
33:12
SPEAKER_01: and you essentially take control.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: And then Russia was communist for another 60 years or so.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: I don't want that to happen here.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: And you have a comment about democracy.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: Democracy is mob rule.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
33:22
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's hang this guy.
33:25
SPEAKER_01: He looks guilty.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: Everybody for that?
33:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're all for that.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: And you hang him.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: There's no due process.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: A representative democracy is where you have a court system,
33:33
SPEAKER_01: a judicial system that will have due process for this person.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: In my own position as a school board member, I am a representative, an elected representative.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: I represent the conservative community.
33:44
SPEAKER_01: I also represent parents as far as parents' rights.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: So there's one person that's speaking,
33:50
SPEAKER_01: and I don't speak for everybody,
33:52
SPEAKER_01: but I do speak And that's what we need to understand about democracy.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: Mob rule doesn't work,
34:01
SPEAKER_01: which is why we have a representative democracy where you have people that will take
34:05
SPEAKER_01: a step back and have some discernment,
34:07
SPEAKER_01: some experience and some judgment to represent what the constituents want,
34:12
SPEAKER_01: but in a fair and equitable manner.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: I think it's going to take the legislative level,
34:16
SPEAKER_00: the federal level,
34:17
SPEAKER_00: but really before we have a law or a policy,
34:20
SPEAKER_00: it's going to take parents definitely waking up.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: As we wrap up,
34:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you want to touch on this,
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Kurt, because this could probably have us talking for another hour.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: But if you could give your take,
34:30
SPEAKER_00: and this is just your opinion,
34:31
SPEAKER_00: obviously you're not speaking for the board or anybody else.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: But what is your opinion of what is going on with issues with EVIT?
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, full disclosure, I have not looked deeply into this.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a side on this issue.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm just seeing a lot of warfare in the headlines and with activists.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: And then I've even seen our county superintendent.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: I've been heavily involved in this because I'm on both sides.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: I know the people that eat it very well.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to get you, I'm going to get you back.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: Our players, our team, I guess, is completely turned off.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: All the people we had involved in it before are all gone.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: They're not involved anymore.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: We have another team, which,
35:25
SPEAKER_01: you know,
35:25
SPEAKER_01: starting new, hopefully is going to try to take care of some of the damage.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: I have faith in them a lot more than I did with the previous team.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: The animosity, or at least the wrangling, has calmed down considerably.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: The big issue at the beginning of school in June and as we got
35:41
SPEAKER_01: into July starting school was transportation.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: For some reason, this was, I think, not a very well thought out decision.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: The district decided to cut off all transportation from their schools over to EVA.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: They have several hundred kids that actually,
35:55
SPEAKER_01: you know,
35:56
SPEAKER_01: they go half a day at our high school and then they go over to EVA to work
36:00
SPEAKER_01: on their career program.
36:01
SPEAKER_01: That's a good thing.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: Right.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: But all of a sudden they cut them off.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: So EVIC came back and says,
36:06
SPEAKER_01: well, look, we'll arrange for the transportation and we'll pay for it.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: They got off to a bad start, but they did get it fixed.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: So that all seems to be calmed down at this point.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: But here's the other thing that came out about this.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: When you're doing a CTEA program,
36:20
SPEAKER_01: It's usually a two-year program or a three-year program for the kid.
36:23
SPEAKER_01: Most of them are two years.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: You're signing up for a program, okay?
36:27
SPEAKER_01: And you have to take specific classes in that program in order to finish that program.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: It's called completion.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: Turned out that less than a third of our kids were completing their programs.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: They were just taking one class as an elective,
36:38
SPEAKER_01: which completely defeats the purpose of a career program.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: But the district was also expecting to get paid for that.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: And Eva said, time out.
36:48
SPEAKER_01: You can't do that.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: It got even worse.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: The Auditor General for the state of Arizona said,
36:54
SPEAKER_01: you are not controlling your satellite districts,
36:57
SPEAKER_01: the schools, in the way that the law says.
37:00
SPEAKER_01: You need to get them under control.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: So they tried to get them under control.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: Districts fought back and all of a sudden we have this huge legal war.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: That did culminate in Right.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: Because they were just taking the class,
37:29
SPEAKER_01: the introductory class, as an elective to fill their schedule.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: And they had no intention of completing the whole program.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: So that is kind of a dirty little secret that I'll let out to your listeners.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: We have to rebuild that.
37:41
SPEAKER_01: If kids are going to get involved in the CTE program,
37:43
SPEAKER_01: I expect them to finish the whole program because that's what we're getting paid
37:46
SPEAKER_01: for.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I will say.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: Career and technical education,
37:50
SPEAKER_00: training and apprenticeship, that is a gateway to a great future.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody needs to go to college.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody needs to be an intellectual.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody needs book smarts.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: This is the problem with, again,
38:02
SPEAKER_00: leftist ideology,
38:04
SPEAKER_00: that we all need to go through this like factory line production in order to be
38:08
SPEAKER_00: a citizen.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: That's not how God created us.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: That's not how we should be trying to assemble ourselves.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: It's a Tower of Babel type of situation.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: And where we are as a nation,
38:17
SPEAKER_00: where it looks like we're headed, things will get worse before they get better.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: It is going to be detrimental,
38:22
SPEAKER_00: very consequential that a student coming out of high school,
38:26
SPEAKER_00: that they have a hard skill, not just a soft skill.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see students become life coaches.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: You remember that whole boom in the mid 2000s?
38:34
SPEAKER_00: That's basically a way of going around becoming a licensed practitioner in the ways
38:39
SPEAKER_00: of family therapy or counseling or whatever.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'll just be a life coach and charge astronomical amounts of money just
38:46
SPEAKER_00: to basically have coffee with somebody.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: So I don't think That that is viable.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: And you know I'm telling the truth.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: It went from life coaching to being an influencer now.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: So now you got people doing retarded things online to try to be famous and get views.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: We don't want the kids to go down that path.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Career and technical training is a great thing.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Wesmec is who we have.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: I hear positive things in school districts.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: They're partnering.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: They're letting them come in.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: The children have the transportation and the access of what they need.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, parents have to pay attention to the type of learner that they have.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: But my thing is, is that the majority of people that are going to graduate.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: They need a very practical education down to earth way to be able to survive.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Everybody needs to be able to read at a 12th grade level,
39:30
SPEAKER_00: whether or not you want to be a concert pianist or you want to lay the pipes
39:35
SPEAKER_00: and have a plumbing business.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: What we want as a community,
39:38
SPEAKER_00: if we're going to continue to fund these schools,
39:41
SPEAKER_00: all we're asking is that everybody is to the best of their ability can read,
39:45
SPEAKER_00: they can write, they can do math.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I could go on another hour on this one.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: It's one of my favorite topics.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: Education is not about books anymore.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: It's about careers, okay?
40:07
SPEAKER_01: Are we going to prepare these kids and coming out of schools and now adults to be productive?
40:12
SPEAKER_01: I think you hit on that earlier.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: There are three things that I believe that we should be focusing on.
40:17
SPEAKER_01: One is, of course, academic proficiency.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: You have to have academic knowledge.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: The second thing is some sort of technical skills, and that's where the CTE stuff comes in.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: And the third thing, and we don't talk about this enough, is that they need to Yes.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we should be probably focusing a lot more.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, what are some final thoughts that you have for the members of your community?
41:09
SPEAKER_00: What outlook should they have when it comes to the East Valley,
41:13
SPEAKER_00: particularly Chandler School District?
41:14
SPEAKER_00: And what is some encouragement for those who may be thinking about running
41:17
SPEAKER_00: for school board or they want to speak up at Well,
41:20
SPEAKER_01: speaking up is one thing that most people are afraid of.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of intimidation from the left.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: They're going to attack you personally.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: They're going to dox you.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: They're going to go after your kids.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, all that stuff happens, and we need to push back hard on that.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: Getting back to academics and technical skills will solve this.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: Preparing kids for life that they can support themselves is really what we'd be focusing on.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: How these kids grow up or how they raise or what religion they are
41:47
SPEAKER_01: or what worldview they have comes from the home
41:51
SPEAKER_01: and schools should not be interfering with that.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: We need to stay away from that stuff.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: We're not We're in the business of parenting kids.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: We're in the business of preparing kids.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: And let the things that should happen at home, happen at home.