On this episode we are joined by Lance Christensen with the California Policy Center to discuss the state of public education in California. We discuss the power of the teacher's unions and how California needs to break free from their grip to enact real change.
To learn more about the California Policy Center go to www.californiapolicycenter.org
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
Support California Underground on Patreon at www.patreon.com/CaliforniaUnderground
Follow California Underground on Social Media Instagram: www.instagram.com/californiaunderground
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj8SabIcF4AKqEVFsLmo1jA
Substack: https://substack.com/profile/72986149-ca_underground
Shop California Underground Merchandise: https://california-underground.creator-spring.com
Review the Anchor.Fm Privacy Policy: Anchor - The easiest way to make a podcast
00:00:01
What's up everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another
00:00:02
episode of California underground.
00:00:04
Your host. Phil tonight, we have a very
00:00:06
special guest, someone who is incredibly passionate about
00:00:10
education in the state of California.
00:00:12
He ran for superintendent of Public Instruction, he is also
00:00:16
involved with the cow policy. Center is the education guy.
00:00:19
He has a whole longer title and I asked them before we just
00:00:21
hopped on and I said, I'm not going to remember the entire
00:00:23
title, but he's the education guy for cow policy Center if you
00:00:27
don't follow cow policy Center, I love to read.
00:00:30
The articles that gate do some great journalism, definitely
00:00:33
check them out. Tonight's guest, Lance
00:00:35
Christensen. Lance, how are you doing?
00:00:38
Living a dream film. Camille things for me on,
00:00:41
absolutely. And as always the best and
00:00:45
fastest researcher in the west Camille, my co-host.
00:00:48
How are you doing tonight? I'm good.
00:00:50
But I have more titles of that. So, do you remember all mine?
00:00:54
Just kidding. Ya of a lot of titles but we're
00:00:56
just going to go with that tonight.
00:00:58
Okay. Lance, Let's just jump, right?
00:01:00
To it. Why don't you tell everybody a
00:01:02
little bit about yourself. How you got into educational?
00:01:05
Why it's really become a passion of yours?
00:01:07
I think that's sort of a broad question and but go right ahead
00:01:11
and just kind of introduce yourself for everyone.
00:01:13
Sure. So when I was a kid, my
00:01:16
principal in Suburban Denver, Colorado was a man by the name
00:01:20
of Jerry and lemons and that guy ruled the universe, he was
00:01:24
amazing and so I grew up became an English major in college.
00:01:27
My wife, when we got married said, what do you Do with an
00:01:31
English major. That's what I want to teach or I
00:01:33
want to become an elementary school, principal like my
00:01:36
Elementary School principal because he was awesome and I
00:01:40
ended up going in teaching, fourth grade for a short period
00:01:43
of time in the same district. I grew up in and I learned
00:01:47
something really important that time.
00:01:49
It was that most teachers are really incredible people, but
00:01:53
when you talk about the public school system where I taught,
00:01:57
they didn't care as much as they did about.
00:02:00
Schools where they sent their kids.
00:02:03
I learned really quickly to that most of the parents who send
00:02:07
their kids off their kids off to Public Schools while they love
00:02:12
them. Were kind of fine.
00:02:14
With just this idea of sending their kids to more of a daycare
00:02:19
that might happen to educate their kids.
00:02:21
I worked really hard as a teacher and so the ones that I
00:02:23
taught with I got a master's degree in public policy soon
00:02:27
thereafter and decided to get really involved and State
00:02:30
process. I worked in Sacramento for
00:02:32
nearly 20 years and did a lot of Education policy that I might
00:02:37
start out with Tom. McClintock, who was a state
00:02:39
senator the time he now is in Congress.
00:02:43
And about eight years ago, I worked with John warlock.
00:02:47
Who was a former Treasurer tax collector of Orange County and
00:02:52
the guy that predicted the largest Municipal bankruptcy
00:02:55
night. Statistically and so when he and
00:02:57
I worked together one of our Principal Paul Issues was to
00:03:01
really track education funding, and he was the only CP in the
00:03:06
legislature and so we spent time tracking down all the school
00:03:09
districts in the state and trying to figure out with their
00:03:11
finances look like, we found out is about 60% of the school
00:03:16
districts in the state were pretty much under water or not
00:03:19
underfunded but just misappropriating their funding
00:03:23
and who's responsible for that. Well, it was the teachers union,
00:03:27
a lot of them pushed and forced a lot of contracts that not
00:03:30
sustainable. They work to negotiate benefits
00:03:35
and structures that the district's couldn't pay for.
00:03:38
In fact, our state teachers retirement system calstrs was so
00:03:44
badly mismanaged for years than in 2014.
00:03:46
They passed a reform that wasn't really reform, it just pushed
00:03:51
the cost on the teachers and the school districts.
00:03:54
And so what we see now in the last several years is a
00:03:57
culmination of decades, poor public, So policy in California
00:04:02
and so when John Morlock was heading into his re-election in
00:04:06
2020, the California Teachers Association wanted to make sure
00:04:09
he didn't return and they and a few other unions drop seven and
00:04:13
a half million dollars on his head and he didn't make it back
00:04:17
to Sacramento as a ton of money. I was left without a job at the
00:04:21
time and so I had been offered a position over the California
00:04:24
policy Center, they do a lot of free market, research and
00:04:29
studies. And one of their big issues, the
00:04:32
reason that God created was because of the teachers union,
00:04:35
and the idea that public employees in the state of
00:04:38
California at the time had been required to take, take the money
00:04:45
of their members to use it for political, and lobbying
00:04:49
campaigns often at odds, with the teachers, that were paying
00:04:53
this membership, these membership.
00:04:54
Dues. So when I joined them, one of
00:04:56
the key things we started doing was drafting a school choice
00:04:59
initiative. To bring education savings
00:05:01
accounts to indicate in the state that wanted them and to
00:05:06
unlock kids from their zip codes.
00:05:09
I did that for a little bit and when we couldn't get that
00:05:11
qualified for the ballot, there was a whole backstory to that.
00:05:15
I came back and realize that if we didn't have a superintendent
00:05:19
of Public Instruction, who really cared about these kids
00:05:23
wouldn't have a candidate to go up against the incumbent was
00:05:26
very unpopular, then we're going to have four more years of
00:05:30
Justice. Traveling and spending continued
00:05:33
school closures, terrible, curriculum and continued bad
00:05:37
results of our education system. So that's a whole bunch to say
00:05:41
that I really care about the kids and I care about the kids
00:05:44
because I have five of my own. My oldest is 19 minus 26 and so
00:05:48
I'm pretty much every step of the path in terms of their
00:05:52
education. And I want to stay in
00:05:55
California. I don't want to leave and the
00:05:58
way that you fix a lot of the ills of society, Teased by
00:06:00
having an education system that works and right now doesn't it's
00:06:04
broken. It's a life support.
00:06:05
We can't duct tape this baby anymore.
00:06:12
I could go on if you want me to. Yeah sorry I had my mic muted
00:06:16
because I am watching the dog tonight and she got a little
00:06:19
excited about something outside. So you ran for superintendent of
00:06:23
Public Instruction recently what was what caused you to run on
00:06:29
and what kind of lessons did you learn?
00:06:30
While you were out on the campaign, Trail going for that
00:06:33
position and it kind of maybe explain before we get into that,
00:06:37
what does the superintendent of Public Instruction do in
00:06:40
California? So people know what that
00:06:41
position. - sure. So in California with a
00:06:46
constitutional officers that are Statewide.
00:06:49
So the governor, lieutenant governor Attorney General
00:06:51
Secretary of State, there's a few others, the last on that
00:06:54
list is the superintendent of Public Instruction.
00:06:57
So it's a Statewide office but it's nonpartisan.
00:07:01
So in other words you don't run as a Republican or Democrat, you
00:07:03
run as a nonpartisan. Now you may be a republican
00:07:06
Democrat which most are but the idea is to really have somebody
00:07:10
who's going to oversee this. State's education system in a
00:07:14
way. That's not swayed by the
00:07:16
political. You know, means that happen.
00:07:19
Unfortunately, it's become a very political tool for the
00:07:22
California, Teachers Association, they spend tens of
00:07:25
millions of dollars to get the right.
00:07:27
People elected every four years and it's an important thing for
00:07:30
them. Currently our superintendent of
00:07:32
Public Instruction is Tony Thurmond and former legislator.
00:07:35
He was a school board member, how from a Contra, Costa County,
00:07:40
California's kids are 50th in the nation on literacy and that
00:07:44
happened on if his leadership during the pandemic, when the
00:07:48
governor was shutting schools down, he didn't push back at
00:07:51
all. In fact, he kind of Sat by is
00:07:53
that sort of stuff happened. He's also the director of the
00:07:57
Department of Education and sits on the State Board of Education,
00:08:02
which kind of control animals. He controls but has a large
00:08:05
influence, over the curriculum, we have in the state and I watch
00:08:09
what he was doing. And I thought this is just
00:08:11
untenable, this This can't go on.
00:08:13
I want kids to be back in school.
00:08:15
I want them to have a good education.
00:08:17
And so during the time that we were doing the school choice
00:08:19
initiative, one of the people that I had been working with
00:08:22
came back and said, listen, Lance we have a problem here.
00:08:25
If we don't have a good superintendent of Public
00:08:27
Instruction, all the work that we are doing now will be for
00:08:31
naught because that will be a person that will be in charge of
00:08:34
implementing these kinds of policies.
00:08:36
So and so I thought really hard about it and I started making
00:08:39
calls and in fact, there's some pretty high-profile people I
00:08:42
call and said, hey, are you going to run you know, and
00:08:46
should you know, can you get involved in this?
00:08:49
And everybody, I talk to you, turn it down, and then I watch
00:08:52
what happened during the San, Francisco Unified School Board
00:08:58
recall, when three of the seven were recalled after, they had
00:09:02
done a whole bunch of really terrible things and I thought
00:09:04
man at a place like San Francisco.
00:09:07
We're only six point six percent of the five hundred thousand
00:09:10
voters are Republican. This was not even a parent
00:09:13
thing. This is a community thing, they
00:09:15
felt really powerfully about making sure the kids.
00:09:18
Got it back in the school and have a good education if that
00:09:20
can happen in San Francisco, there's a shot and I wasn't
00:09:25
satisfied with any of the candidates that were running.
00:09:27
So I threw my hat in the ring and I did it at the insistence
00:09:31
of a lot of good friends of mine and people who've been in
00:09:34
politics for a while and the Tough part about that is when
00:09:38
you try to run for Statewide office you have to raise money,
00:09:41
it's expensive. The state is huge to travel from
00:09:45
one place to the next and the pay, you know, people to help
00:09:49
you out with your campaign. You're gonna have the best
00:09:51
Volunteers in the world but it is certain class that are there
00:09:54
and if you can't cover those costs, it's very difficult.
00:09:56
So I try to raise money and try to get started.
00:10:00
And a lot of people knew, kind of who I was, I had a decent
00:10:03
reputation working legislature for 20 years A lot of people who
00:10:08
I was from the ballot initiative, try some people knew
00:10:12
about me California policy Center.
00:10:15
So I try to work those angles, and what I found out, it's a
00:10:18
couple things. One is a lot of people care.
00:10:21
Pretty, pretty passionate about the kids education, but they
00:10:25
don't know the first place to go.
00:10:27
And so I had probably hundreds of parents who were frustrated
00:10:35
and wanted to run for school board.
00:10:36
So So one of the key things I did is I actually linked arms
00:10:39
with probably close to 200 parents who decide, they want to
00:10:43
take back their boards and their local communities and it was a
00:10:46
powerful experience. But again, most of these people
00:10:49
had never run for office. They're not politico's, this is
00:10:52
not what they do. And so we join hands together
00:10:55
and I support a lot of them and actually endorse several of
00:11:00
them. A lot of them endorse me.
00:11:03
And what I found was a really good kind of symbiotic.
00:11:06
Show where they could be the people in the community.
00:11:09
They could be the ones who were working with other parents and
00:11:13
activists. So that was one interesting.
00:11:16
Part of the campaign, another was the state is huge and it
00:11:20
really is very different. What happens in San Diego is
00:11:23
different than what happens and Kern County or Santa Barbara or
00:11:28
reading Eureka the mountains Placer County Sacramento I went
00:11:35
to 30 counties. I put a 120 miles in the
00:11:38
air, I put another 60 miles on my car, and I probably met
00:11:42
with upwards of 100 people. And when you do that, it's
00:11:46
overwhelming to see how big this data is.
00:11:49
And when you have 22 million registered voters, that's it's
00:11:54
just, it's mind-boggling. But the problem is, like I said,
00:11:57
the governor's office is up here.
00:11:59
People are concentrating on Gavin Newsom and and Brian
00:12:02
Dowling at the time, is a republican candidate didn't
00:12:05
really like, I don't think that Probably named lieutenant
00:12:08
governor candidates, right. Most people didn't care by the
00:12:11
time I got to superintendent, they didn't care about that
00:12:14
either mostly. But what was amazing is that the
00:12:17
Union money was there. They spent four and a half
00:12:19
million dollars than general election to squash me.
00:12:22
They made all sorts of really crazy campaign commercials and
00:12:26
ads about me. They target very well in the
00:12:30
end, I got 3.2 million votes which is more votes than the
00:12:33
governors of 20 other states. But it wasn't, Enough in
00:12:37
California and so is about a 60/40 result.
00:12:42
But I made a ton of friends and you and I had met on the
00:12:45
campaign Trail. We've had a lot of friends in
00:12:49
common and the idea is okay, I lost.
00:12:52
But now, what? Right, I can't just go home and
00:12:55
cry about it and I didn't, but I had to sit and reflect like is
00:13:00
this a time to just kind of let things play out?
00:13:03
Let the whole system implode because that's what's happening
00:13:06
right now. Or is it an opportunity to go
00:13:08
out and really test the field and see what's going on to talk
00:13:13
to people who are influencers? So that's why I decided to do
00:13:17
after December, kind of holidays were done.
00:13:20
I went to my colleagues at California policy so I said
00:13:23
listen, I just spent the last year talking to thousands of
00:13:28
thousands of people about education policy.
00:13:30
I can't waste this chit. You know this is this is a these
00:13:34
are experiences that I'll never get back.
00:13:38
So let's do something with it. And so I propose that I do a
00:13:42
Statewide tour and start hitting as many communities as possible.
00:13:46
And I just asked the question, what do we want a 21st century
00:13:51
education system look like in California and nothing should be
00:13:54
off the table. Let's throw all the mud against
00:13:57
the wall. See what sticks?
00:14:00
And let's have a real good conversation in the spring and
00:14:02
then the summer let's actually produce a report or a set of
00:14:07
Ideas or policy objectives, both big, big ideas and small details
00:14:12
about how we can take our education back.
00:14:15
And if you'll notice, I'm not saying schools because I don't
00:14:18
want to conflate schools with education, those are two
00:14:21
different things, schools as a vehicle education, is the thing
00:14:25
that parents try to do their kids.
00:14:27
And so, I did my first form this last week in San Jose. 150
00:14:32
people showed up in the pouring rain and it was an amazing
00:14:35
conversation. Over Sation amazing.
00:14:38
Group of people we talked for a good two hours about what we
00:14:42
thought were not, just the deficiencies in our schools but
00:14:45
we can start doing about it. And I'll be doing that again
00:14:48
tomorrow actually in Orange County and Huntington Beach at
00:14:52
Calvary Chapel there in the harbor.
00:14:54
And from six to eight, I will bring anybody who wants to come
00:14:57
and talk and I invite all sorts of ideas and thoughts.
00:15:01
Anybody who wants to get out there and have a conversation
00:15:04
about what our schools should look like.
00:15:06
But what our Education should be for California.
00:15:11
What's the craziest thing is a side question?
00:15:13
What's the craziest thing that your opponent or the union said
00:15:17
about you in any campaign commercial?
00:15:21
What is interesting because they dry.
00:15:24
So a lot of campaigns, if you've ever been in politics, they do a
00:15:28
lot of opposition research. So I my side, what we did is we
00:15:31
went and we screenshotted his website.
00:15:34
We got every every single page of his website, we screenshot
00:15:38
and saved it. And he was connected to all the
00:15:41
people that are recalled during the San Francisco election, like
00:15:45
he did endorse. All these people, I thought that
00:15:47
was interesting, but again, you have to have money to real use
00:15:50
that kind of information. Ian.
00:15:51
But on my side that only thing they could come up with and I'm
00:15:55
a pretty clean squeaky think I've done anything.
00:15:58
I've been faithful to my wife for 23 years you know five kids
00:16:01
I'm kind of a boring you know Christian guy.
00:16:04
The only thing they could come up with is the fact that I went
00:16:08
to an event, it was concen a year ago, I met with a whole
00:16:11
bunch of really wealthy donors in my nonprofit status, who had
00:16:16
actually been associated with Donald Trump and so all the
00:16:20
campaign Those were like, the Lance, Christensen is Donald
00:16:23
Trump commercials, and I didn't see that out.
00:16:28
This is, I mean, I don't have a relationship Donald Trump, but I
00:16:32
get this phone call from MacKenzie maze at the LA Times.
00:16:36
She's education, reporter. It was just after the primary
00:16:39
and mind. You, I've known Mackenzie for a
00:16:41
long time. When I was in the capital, I
00:16:43
used to talk to her all the time of education issues.
00:16:46
So it's not like we didn't know each other but she ignored my
00:16:49
campaign, the primary because if you got 50 percent of the vote
00:16:53
plus 1, you would win the election out, right?
00:16:56
And since Tony Thurman, couldn't do that.
00:16:59
All of a sudden they had actually start covering the race
00:17:01
for the general election. So she calls me up and she asked
00:17:04
me, tell me about this, all this money.
00:17:07
You got from these groups that supported Donald Trump.
00:17:10
I said, what are you talking about?
00:17:12
I've got no money from them. And she says, well, not
00:17:15
according to your fppc forms, which fppc the the Clinical
00:17:21
practice is commission that governs all of spending and that
00:17:24
kind of stuff and donations. Well, the year, before I had
00:17:27
gone has conference instead of paying for my hotel and all that
00:17:30
stuff, they just gave me a check to cover the cost for travel for
00:17:34
food and that kind of stuff and a small honorarium like $200.
00:17:38
And so, they took that money and Associated me with Donald Trump
00:17:43
and made it look like I have some sort of Lackey there.
00:17:45
And so, all the commercials were the red pictures of me and
00:17:49
Donald hanging out together. Again superimposed on each other
00:17:53
so it's just funny because that's it, that's all they had.
00:17:57
I was pretty outspoken about the teachers union how much I hated
00:18:00
them? I'd hold blogs on my medium
00:18:02
blog, dedicated to my hatred of the teachers union.
00:18:06
I had there's a lot of other material used but it was Donald
00:18:10
Trump every time. So I don't, I'd like that.
00:18:11
A no, that was the craziest thing for me.
00:18:15
Something that unions are I still stand by.
00:18:17
You got less votes because you're always on the ballot.
00:18:21
Thank you. I was probably I was down near
00:18:23
the bottom. I was underneath Allah judges
00:18:26
not going down by the local candidates, which is weird.
00:18:28
It's a Statewide office. But you had to go down a page
00:18:32
and a half or two to get to my name.
00:18:35
We were literally the very bottom right in the corner on
00:18:38
mine under the judges and I think most people ignore, judges
00:18:42
don't know and they glanced at it and go.
00:18:44
I No, and just flip the page and continue on.
00:18:47
I think you're right. I mean, 3.2 is nothing to scoff
00:18:51
at, that's for sure, that's an enormous amount of boats.
00:18:54
So now it's on you should be very proud of that and that the
00:18:57
fact that you were able in a nonpartisan race to get that
00:19:01
many people behind you, is kind of a testament to how powerful
00:19:05
this message is and how much people are kind of looking at
00:19:08
schools in California and going there, something massively wrong
00:19:13
here. And I Think covid-19 trouble,
00:19:17
blee, the sunshine, or the sunlight that came in as the
00:19:20
disinfectant for schools, because people saw firsthand who
00:19:24
runs their school boards. You know, who's making these
00:19:28
decisions, what are your kids reading?
00:19:30
And then, especially with remote learning.
00:19:32
They were able to say exactly what kids are learning and they
00:19:35
were horrified by a lot of in going.
00:19:37
What are my kids reading and what are they learning?
00:19:39
And the fact that they didn't open and the teachers unions
00:19:43
were like, we don't want to open Open, unless you basically tear
00:19:47
out the guts of every school and rebuild them with, like, 21st
00:19:50
century ventilation, and all this crazy stuff, like they say,
00:19:53
I think people start to realize like what the heck is going on
00:19:56
here in California. So there's definitely that sense
00:20:00
of I think frustration in California.
00:20:02
It comes to public school and I just don't think teachers
00:20:05
unions. Want people to talk about it and
00:20:07
that may be why you're a threat to them.
00:20:11
I think there's something to that.
00:20:12
And like I said, I taught fourth grade.
00:20:14
I know how important teachers are and I know how important
00:20:17
they are in the public school system in California.
00:20:20
We have about six point, six million kids, ages, 5 to 18.
00:20:24
So like your kindergarten through high school and of
00:20:29
those, we're pretty close to 6 million kids a couple years ago,
00:20:34
but we actually lost 271 kids for the public school
00:20:39
system of the a couple years and the numbers are going to come
00:20:41
out. And I think the next week or so,
00:20:43
we'll probably find another couple hundred thousand of gone.
00:20:47
We've gone below the growth rate of most other schools.
00:20:53
But yet the the spending has like is Way Beyond what most
00:20:58
other states are even thinking about.
00:21:01
Every every kid, the say, on average is being we spent about
00:21:07
twenty three thousand dollars per kid.
00:21:09
That's real estate. That's an average.
00:21:11
So if you go to a place, like Los Angeles Unified, that has,
00:21:15
you know, just under a half million kids, they are spending
00:21:19
almost thirty one thousand dollars per kid.
00:21:23
But where's that money going? These kids aren't graduating
00:21:26
becoming rocket scientist and brain surgeons were throwing a
00:21:29
lot of money into the system for administrators and staff and and
00:21:35
big buildings. That don't work and Technology
00:21:38
that's ill ill fitting. For these kids, when we're not
00:21:41
doing the basic stuff like, teaching them how to read and do
00:21:44
math and I think part of the challenge, we have honestly I
00:21:50
would have schools in the the 80s and 90s as a kid.
00:21:53
I think I we live for some sort of nostalgia of our younger
00:21:58
years where life is good, schools are pretty normal,
00:22:01
whatever weird stuff was happening.
00:22:03
It was kind of one-off stuff but it wasn't the norm.
00:22:07
But I have kids in school now that They come home with
00:22:10
craziest stories even the young kids and so I don't think we're
00:22:14
at that place in where the culture has shifted so far.
00:22:18
And so fast that are public or government.
00:22:20
Schools really are not Education Centers, their indoctrination
00:22:24
cans, and we basically take our kids and put them on a conveyor
00:22:27
belt in kindergarten and March them through this Warehouse
00:22:31
through 12th grade. And then hopefully the other end
00:22:34
they come out, right? And that's just not palatable
00:22:37
anymore, it's not working. You said, you had your first
00:22:41
reform discussion this past weekend on Wednesday last week
00:22:46
in San Jose. Yeah.
00:22:48
And can you tell us a little about that of maybe what some of
00:22:51
the things you heard or? Yeah.
00:22:55
So what I do is I do a pretty freeform conversation.
00:22:57
I get up with Mike and I put a mic out to the public.
00:23:00
And what I remind them is, I'm not here to gripe about the
00:23:04
system. We all know how bad it is.
00:23:06
We could go through all the statistics and to all of our
00:23:08
horror stories. And do the parade of horribles
00:23:11
but that doesn't get us anywhere.
00:23:13
We know it's bad but it doesn't have to be this way and parents
00:23:18
I think can be empowered to do something different and teachers
00:23:21
to most teachers are very agreeable people.
00:23:24
I've said this a few times, but I think Jordan Pederson speaks
00:23:27
to this when he talks about agreeable people, they don't
00:23:30
want to argue, they don't want to, you know, be hostile.
00:23:32
They don't want to push back against things.
00:23:34
That's most of our teachers right now that I'm push back
00:23:37
against the union, they continue to belong to it.
00:23:39
Is it only browbeaten and bullied and harassed all the
00:23:43
time. So what we talked about is hey
00:23:47
what are the solutions? What are the trade-offs, what
00:23:49
are the things we can do? And you know, it's always a I
00:23:53
mean some of the things we talked about was the fact that
00:23:56
you've got this compulsory education, you have to send your
00:23:59
kid to school grade 1 through 12, kindergartens optional least
00:24:05
for now, some people are talking about making it mandatory and
00:24:08
then of course, we're expanding, Bending downwards towards
00:24:11
transitional kindergarten, but I asked parents.
00:24:13
Why on Earth would you unless you really had to for economic
00:24:17
purposes? Would you give your weight your
00:24:20
kids away to the state for a period of time that you don't
00:24:22
have to during their most formative years?
00:24:26
So that's a question. Number two is why K through 12.
00:24:30
I mean, what's the magic about that time.
00:24:33
There are some places where it's one through eighth grade.
00:24:36
That's the mandatory time then after that, maybe do some sort
00:24:39
of Read or maybe go off and you do a high school or secondary
00:24:43
education or maybe a straight to college.
00:24:45
Because frankly, what's happening in our high schools
00:24:47
right now, are not preparing these kids for college and their
00:24:50
dumbing down the college standards so much that it
00:24:52
doesn't matter much anymore. Maybe we should have a
00:24:56
conversation about school, safety and discipline and that's
00:24:59
all been made manifest again this last week and that happened
00:25:02
at a private school. That was in a public school.
00:25:05
So we have a whole cultural malaise and We see that we have
00:25:10
to deal with and it's significant and it's happening
00:25:13
across the state of California and droves, we got to talk
00:25:16
about, not just having a school choice, like it's nice to say,
00:25:20
hey school choice fixes these things.
00:25:22
School choice can do some good stuff but it's just a vehicle.
00:25:26
Like what's the kind of education want to have classic
00:25:30
liberal arts? Where you learn about the
00:25:32
Ancients and history? We read the books of old where
00:25:36
you go off to the true, the good, and the Beautiful.
00:25:40
Or we continue down this like this the set of curricula that
00:25:44
really just garbage and doesn't improve.
00:25:46
Our kids doesn't allow them to think and be creative itself
00:25:50
degeneracy and whatever we talk about budgets, you know, again
00:25:55
if our state's spending a hundred twenty eight point six
00:25:58
billion dollars this year on our Public School System, a hundred
00:26:02
twenty eight point, six billion dollars is a lot of money.
00:26:06
What is it paying for? And what could that money be?
00:26:09
Done or how can we use a better if it were in the hands of
00:26:13
parents, making decisions about other kids, we talked about,
00:26:17
also, a lot of what happens in terms of academics right now in
00:26:22
California, the kids can't read. And I don't know if you've ever
00:26:25
heard the soul, the story podcast by Emily Hanford, she
00:26:30
was an education reporter that goes through and talks about
00:26:33
this. This education system we have on
00:26:36
literacy in California. We adopted years ago that Work
00:26:41
scientifically, it doesn't work. It's been proven not to work for
00:26:45
decades and yet most California school districts persistent this
00:26:50
and even when given the data in this science and and all the
00:26:54
tests and studies, they still continue to teach our kids, not
00:26:59
how to read that. To me it's my ball, you know,
00:27:03
boggling. So what can we do to help
00:27:05
parents feel empowered by by this knowledge by this?
00:27:09
Information. How can we give it to her in a
00:27:11
way that makes them more successful.
00:27:15
I we had a really interesting experience with our kid.
00:27:18
We are our second son was in 7th grade about the time, the covid
00:27:26
happened and he was enduring some pretty incredible bullying
00:27:30
school. I won't go into details about
00:27:33
it, but it was pretty bad and we decided to pull them out
00:27:36
literally a day before covid happened. so it was kind of a
00:27:40
blessing in our house in Disguise and my wife homeschool,
00:27:44
then with the two, other kids who were just younger than it,
00:27:47
might youngest hadn't been in the kindergarten yet and so she
00:27:50
basically homeschooled the four of them together but his math
00:27:54
was Way Beyond anything she could do and so she kind of you
00:27:58
know, patched it together, she worked with her mom, there's
00:28:01
only kid that want to do this stuff and eventually you know,
00:28:05
he had to take his tests and see where he was we ended up moving
00:28:10
From where we lived in, Sacramento up to you.
00:28:11
But County, which is about 45 minutes north, he went to who I
00:28:15
school by the time he got there, his math had so improved that he
00:28:20
was actually testing out of the freshman and sophomore math
00:28:23
classes, and he's being placed in with the Juniors and seniors.
00:28:27
This kids not a math prodigy. My wife hates math.
00:28:30
It's not like something she was, she's some former math professor
00:28:33
or anything but because she had taken the time with him and I
00:28:37
was just a few hours more than probably You had in the past, he
00:28:41
excelled what can we do? If we get parents to really
00:28:44
realize that they don't have to send their kids to school for
00:28:47
eight hours a day to be successful?
00:28:50
Why do we do five days a week? Why not for, why not three?
00:28:53
Why not invert the pyramid like Khan Academy did?
00:28:56
There's a thousand ways we can approach education in our state
00:29:01
and it doesn't have to be one size, fits, all we get a micro
00:29:05
schools and home schools, we get have hybrids you know we could
00:29:08
have different kind of Contracts.
00:29:11
There are a thousand ways to deal with education reform, but
00:29:15
we don't have them in California because you're basically either
00:29:18
you go to a public school, you might get the charter option,
00:29:22
which is still a public school and still has a lot of the same
00:29:25
requirements, or you go to private school or home school
00:29:28
and that's it. You really can't do much more
00:29:30
than that, unless you get really creative or you kind of buck the
00:29:33
trends. So I don't know.
00:29:36
That's the sort of conversation we had.
00:29:37
It was amazing. A lot of really Tense,
00:29:40
conversation some sharp content comments, some people to push
00:29:46
back against a few things, but that's the kind of debate that
00:29:50
parents need to be involved in. We can't just be walking around
00:29:53
like expecting that our school administrators and teachers are
00:29:57
as informed as they should be with a lot of education issues.
00:30:03
To your point about homeschool. I think this the smaller class
00:30:06
size gives an advantage. As you know, I home school and
00:30:11
three of my four kids are all ahead in all like just
00:30:14
completely grade level. I have one daughter who she's
00:30:17
technically, 8th grade but I put her ninth grade because she's
00:30:20
finished. She's done so much middle
00:30:22
school. That I was just like, okay, well
00:30:23
I guess we're ninth grade now. She is technically completed,
00:30:26
all high school math already. I'm not a math genius.
00:30:30
I hate now and I wouldn't So she's I mean she's pretty smart
00:30:34
but it's just that one-on-one time.
00:30:37
I started homeschooling 12 years ago, my kids have never been in
00:30:41
public school or private school for that matter.
00:30:44
I'm a Christian and my big thing at the time was I want them to
00:30:48
be taught creation versus evolution and and there was
00:30:52
other political issues that I saw coming in, but that was why
00:30:57
I started it was like, just like, okay I we're not doing
00:31:00
private school at this time and my Christian moral Use.
00:31:03
I want to like a lion school with with Biblical beliefs and
00:31:08
now I'm just I'm glad we're there and I've always said I'm
00:31:11
only going to home school as long as it works because
00:31:13
everyone asked me what's your plan?
00:31:14
What's your plan? I'm like well if until it
00:31:16
doesn't work anymore than you know I'm gonna homeschool.
00:31:18
Now I've got three high schoolers and in one year I'll
00:31:22
have only two left of it in two years.
00:31:26
It's like it's like a three years.
00:31:27
I'm only gonna have one child in high school and everyone else
00:31:30
will be out but I think It's not like, I'm incredible.
00:31:34
I'm not a genius. We're just one, you know, one
00:31:37
person for kids and even there. So many of the things that they
00:31:41
are being taught together just because I've been able like
00:31:45
Spanish, for example, all four are due at the same level in
00:31:48
Spanish just because we have that freedom that option that
00:31:52
one-on-one time as a teacher. I've never been a teacher but as
00:31:55
a teacher, you have to try to get 35 40 students.
00:31:59
The same length you're, you know, you're only as Hi as far
00:32:05
along as the weakest student in the class and when you're trying
00:32:08
to get kids on the same level and one kid trying to, you know,
00:32:12
teach them English at the same time, it's going to be a very
00:32:16
slow-moving thing. So I know class size is a huge
00:32:18
issue. Yeah.
00:32:20
Well I think you said something that I would push back on just a
00:32:23
tad. We can never.
00:32:26
We've got to stop saying we're not teachers we're just parents,
00:32:29
right? Because you are a teacher You're
00:32:33
the original teacher? No, you didn't go through these
00:32:37
schools of pedagogy and know. You don't have a license from
00:32:40
the state, but actually it's kind of a good thing, right?
00:32:43
Because if you've seen these colleges of teaching anymore
00:32:47
their garbage there, go in fact, in California, they started
00:32:51
producing all the test scores required to come in the schools
00:32:54
because we're not hiring our best.
00:32:55
And our brightest. When I was doing the, the
00:32:58
campaign for superintendent, I did an interview with the cow
00:33:02
matters and Ask the question, like, what would you do to
00:33:04
improve the teaching profession? And I think part of my response
00:33:08
was well, I would change the tenure rules for one.
00:33:12
Once you're in teaching for about two years, you're
00:33:14
guaranteed a job for life and you can be the worst teacher on
00:33:17
the planet. Doesn't matter.
00:33:19
Number two is, if even garbage, teachers are paid the same
00:33:23
amount as good teachers. What's the incentive to excel
00:33:26
anymore? I mean, honestly, if I'm a good
00:33:28
teacher, I'm putting a lot of time in as a math or science or
00:33:32
history teacher. I'm going the extra mile for my
00:33:34
students but then the teacher down the hall is a showing up,
00:33:38
you know, and kicking their feet on the table and throwing
00:33:40
garbage, assignments, or kids all day long.
00:33:43
But being paid the exact same amount of money.
00:33:46
I inside so terrible, I did, there's got to be some sort of
00:33:48
Merit there but who defends the terrible teachers it's the
00:33:52
unions and they don't want to change but if you also go back
00:33:56
and you check out some of these teachers that have abused or
00:33:58
kids and Doctrine, am you have the one project Veritas reveal
00:34:02
last year? Ear with Gabe.
00:34:04
Gipe in Natomas Unified, North Sacramento area.
00:34:08
Who was an AP Government teacher, and his goal was in 180
00:34:12
days to make his kids revolutionaries Marxist.
00:34:17
You know, he had the BLM and antiva flags on his wall and
00:34:21
pride this and pride that these are the kind of teachers that
00:34:26
just have an infiltrated, our Public Schools.
00:34:28
But now we're in a lot of our private schools, too.
00:34:32
And so, yes, parents sometimes, sometimes you got to pull your
00:34:36
kid out. Sometimes there's a little bit
00:34:38
of civil disobedience in these to happen.
00:34:41
I used to be opposed to that because at that some of the
00:34:43
schools are really struggling, right?
00:34:45
They're trying to do their best the principles.
00:34:47
Really working hard. We don't need to punish them by
00:34:50
removing the incentive to do better and then I realized no no
00:34:55
it's they could control their schools better, they would, but
00:34:57
they aren't and their capitulating to the Mob of the
00:35:01
teachers. Union.
00:35:02
So maybe it's time, maybe it's time to pull our kids out and to
00:35:06
make the, the school's really think hard about what's going to
00:35:09
happen. If you look at places like El,
00:35:12
you estate, who just went through this massive strike,
00:35:14
where the teachers, they walked, or they didn't cross the picket
00:35:19
line in solidarity with SEIU union.
00:35:24
The problem with that is it's illegal, nobody called them in
00:35:28
the carpet, on that they should be fine.
00:35:31
They should have been fired. I heard if I were the
00:35:33
superintendent that point in time of UL USD, I would have
00:35:36
fired every single person show up to work that day because
00:35:39
frankly, if you're doing that, it's not the school district,
00:35:42
you're hurting. It's the kids and a lot of these
00:35:46
come from really poor families that are economically deprived
00:35:49
and they don't really have a future.
00:35:51
And so what you're doing is, you're, you're you're you're
00:35:54
saying to them that the rules don't matter.
00:35:56
You don't have to show up if you really believe in something,
00:35:58
just fighting. So the utility a present, Cecily
00:36:02
maricruz who is just your reelected by 75% of the people
00:36:06
that actually show up to vote. Again, show me how corrupt these
00:36:10
unions are. She doesn't care about reading.
00:36:13
She says, at least our little babies, know how to be a
00:36:15
revolutionaries. Well, that's what we're raising
00:36:18
then. Why in the heck, are we sending
00:36:19
our kids to these schools and why are we paying for them as
00:36:22
taxpayers? So again, all this stuff has to
00:36:25
be on table and frankly, there's got to be a way where we can
00:36:29
say. Listen, parents, you decide you
00:36:31
decide. What you want for your kids and
00:36:33
then the pushback will always be this.
00:36:35
Well, there's some really bad parents out there.
00:36:38
Yeah, there are there are they will always be there.
00:36:42
But we shouldn't make La based upon the exception to the rule,
00:36:45
we should base it on the the large Rule and we should say to
00:36:48
parents. Guess what?
00:36:49
You're empowered to control the future and Destiny of your
00:36:52
children, not the teacher that you sent them to 48 months out
00:36:56
of the year who won't see them after they sent him home after
00:36:59
after you know, summer break. And some of these teachers go in
00:37:02
to do this indoctrination or when they allow garbage in the
00:37:05
classroom, guess what happens. There's no responsibility after
00:37:10
the eight months is up, you know, by we'll see you next
00:37:13
year. Okay then what who asked me,
00:37:18
what those lingering problems of illiteracy or people kids, you
00:37:22
know, how to do math, or didn't really gain good social skills?
00:37:25
That's always the case back with homeschool parents.
00:37:27
Well, we want these kids to be socialized, you know?
00:37:30
They've got to be in the real world, I don't know, I don't
00:37:33
know that. I want them in the real world.
00:37:35
I don't know if that's the real world, then maybe there's a
00:37:38
different way to socialize them. My kids, you know, we got a
00:37:41
church and we have youth programs.
00:37:44
They In sports there. Plenty socialized.
00:37:48
So again, is eight hours in the classroom.
00:37:51
Five days a week. Is that what we should be doing,
00:37:55
or we just creating little robots and cogs in the machine?
00:37:59
I think we're beyond that now. I haven't been asked about
00:38:02
socialization since covid Zone. But yes.
00:38:05
Not otherwise was why would you do that?
00:38:08
How do your kids get, socialized.
00:38:10
Oh, you mean, they're not socialize with bullies of their
00:38:12
own age, 48 hours a day, five days a week.
00:38:14
Well, you're reading about these kids and places like the Bay
00:38:17
Area. There's a big story in the San
00:38:20
Francisco Chronicle few weeks ago about one of these refugees
00:38:22
from Ukraine. She goes to school in San
00:38:25
Francisco. And she just has awakened to the
00:38:29
reality of California. Schools, she can't go to the
00:38:32
bathroom. All day food thrown away at a
00:38:35
rapid rate. During lunch time, there's
00:38:38
fights all the time in the classroom.
00:38:40
Nobody turns to their assignments.
00:38:42
And she's like, I thought this was America like this is the
00:38:45
best of the best if this is the best.
00:38:47
The best mean, I can't see your worst.
00:38:49
Like it's got to be complete complete and total, and utter
00:38:52
chaos. And that's what we've done for a
00:38:55
lot of our schools is there's no discipline in them anymore.
00:38:58
The teachers aren't really empowered to teach them.
00:39:01
And then you have a whole group of people that want to come and
00:39:05
deal with the gender ideology and the sexual sexual ization of
00:39:10
our kids, the race-baiting that happens everything that Martin
00:39:15
Luther King talked about back in the 60s has completely been
00:39:19
obliterated by the radical left and that's who controls our
00:39:24
schools right now. So again, parents like you have
00:39:27
to understand they're your kids there.
00:39:30
Nobody else. His kids are not the
00:39:31
government's kids and we don't loan them to them, we don't turn
00:39:35
them over, we've got to hold them.
00:39:37
So if you do send them to Public Schools I don't condemn that at
00:39:40
all. There's some people that think
00:39:41
that that's a terrible idea, but I think you have to be, you have
00:39:45
to be very informed about what's going on.
00:39:47
And you have to hold the school's the teachers the
00:39:49
administration to account. You have to be there.
00:39:52
If you're not willing to do that, then do not be surprised
00:39:55
when your kids become some sort of crazies, when they leave for
00:39:57
a high score for college After High School.
00:40:02
So we got some questions rolling in, you've got the chat on fire
00:40:07
on YouTube so you're ready for some questions, it me, get the
00:40:12
hardest one. Well, we got several.
00:40:15
So I'm going to just start at the first one.
00:40:18
What can citizens do strategically to defeat a be
00:40:22
1078, which essentially strips local school boards of their
00:40:26
authority over the curriculum taught in their school
00:40:28
districts. Well, first of all, a baby 1070
00:40:32
it's done by a new assemblyman from Riverside, County, his
00:40:35
name's Courtney Jackson. He's a radical.
00:40:39
What they're saying is a lot of these school districts like to
00:40:42
Mecca, Valley Unified, and some up in Santa Rosa and San Luis
00:40:47
Obispo. There's other places plaster
00:40:51
County that have basically done things to say.
00:40:53
We're not going to do this critical race Theory, curriculum
00:40:58
or not going to imply it. If the state requires us to some
00:41:01
ethnic studies, we're going to make sure it's well balanced.
00:41:04
We'll go from there, but we're not going to do hidden Marxism
00:41:08
and because of this the left realizes fanatic lie.
00:41:13
That if they don't stop, they don't control it.
00:41:15
Do we have a problem? So a couple of things to
00:41:17
consider one is the school district is absolutely in charge
00:41:21
of curriculum for their kids and you can actually go to the
00:41:25
education code where it verifies this So we need to remember
00:41:30
that. I think it's Ed code, 66 400.
00:41:33
I'll look it up in a minute to make sure it's that right one.
00:41:35
But every school district has the ability to choose their own
00:41:38
curriculum. Now a lot of people say hold on
00:41:40
the state, gives it to us no the state passes, a law, that
00:41:45
creates a standard, then that goes to the State Board of
00:41:48
Education, which develops a framework on, which curriculum
00:41:53
can be adopted, but what the state board of education does
00:41:57
doesn't matter. R, because the school district
00:41:59
is long as they fall the law, they can make whatever
00:42:03
curriculum. They want that again.
00:42:04
It's consistent with the law. So a lot of school districts are
00:42:09
very lazy about this. So I think I would say one is
00:42:12
you're going to go to your school district and say, hey,
00:42:13
what are you doing? Are you creating your own
00:42:16
curriculum? Are you making sure it's
00:42:17
consistent that? It's that, it's, that it's
00:42:20
commencer, or the values of this community if San Francisco wants
00:42:24
to crazy stuff than let them do it?
00:42:25
But I'm pretty sure the Kern County.
00:42:28
And Clovis and and, you know, Chino Hills and other places
00:42:33
don't want this sort of garbage their classrooms.
00:42:36
So that's 12. They need to go their
00:42:39
legislators especially the moderate Democrats and say, what
00:42:43
on Earth. Are you thinking in voting for
00:42:46
this bill right now? I think it's in the assembly,
00:42:48
education, committee. I haven't looked today.
00:42:50
I should've but a be 1078 is going to go through a process.
00:42:56
So everybody who's in those committees, If you have people
00:42:59
online or listening, he need to call up the legislators on those
00:43:02
committees and say, this is really not a good idea to take
00:43:06
the the curriculum that these school districts can determine
00:43:10
for themselves again, consistent with state law.
00:43:13
They're not breaking any laws, but it's not following the path
00:43:16
of critical race Theory and Hyper sexualization, and these
00:43:20
weird gender theories if they can make it consistent, and they
00:43:23
should have that ability to retain.
00:43:25
That number three is the school board's now, The pushback and
00:43:28
sort of legislative leaders, they need to call when your
00:43:31
locally elected, locally elected official, like the school board
00:43:36
member. You actually have decent amount
00:43:38
of cash, a and political maneuverability.
00:43:42
If you call and say, listen, I understand that you feel
00:43:45
differently about these things. But we have a constitutional,
00:43:49
not only obligation, but Duty, and right, and authority to
00:43:53
create our own curriculum, and it's protected.
00:43:57
And A law. Why would you want to take that
00:44:00
away from us? If you don't like it.
00:44:02
Then let's talk about how we can improve it rather than just
00:44:05
ripping the authority away from it and centralizing to the to
00:44:08
the governor. And then number four is,
00:44:10
sometimes new legislators get too big for their own britches.
00:44:14
They think that they wanted their, the most wonderful thing
00:44:16
on the planet. I would suspect of that office
00:44:19
got thousands or tens of thousands of phone calls that
00:44:23
things would change really quickly, but don't just call the
00:44:25
capitol office, call the district.
00:44:28
Because I'll tell you, as a former Chief of Staff for six
00:44:32
years, when we, we get calls of the capitals, you're immune to
00:44:35
that. It's like an inoculation.
00:44:37
You've heard every single angry person in the world, but if you
00:44:41
call the district office, that's a different issue because
00:44:44
they're trying to reflect and represent their constituents and
00:44:47
they get lots of phone calls. It rattles, rkh, really, really
00:44:52
bad. There's a psychological effect
00:44:54
there. So I would say, Court Jackson's
00:44:56
office should get Tens of thousands of phone calls that
00:45:00
should just ringing off the hook.
00:45:02
And if you do that, you'll shut down their operations.
00:45:04
There's only so much you can do after you get thousands and
00:45:08
thousands of phone calls. I've literally had to just stop
00:45:10
answering the calls and walk away from my office.
00:45:14
And then everything stops. So that's one way to do it.
00:45:18
Sounds like a call to action. We might have to put out on the
00:45:21
page. Yeah.
00:45:23
Next question. What is the best way to spot CRT
00:45:27
curriculum besides SEL and Equity agenda?
00:45:31
Most parents don't really understand what all that
00:45:33
actually means. I would say anything that moves
00:45:38
towards a collective approach, that removes the parent from
00:45:47
discussing difficult issues from the children, something that
00:45:54
pushes more towards and Equity agenda and inclusionary and
00:46:02
agenda. A lot of people just sit back
00:46:04
and I think about these acronyms I think other harmless but the
00:46:07
alphabet soup movement on the left, the whole reason.
00:46:13
They create these terms in these programs is to basically take
00:46:17
over your kids and use them for the collective.
00:46:20
They want to build them into big government robots.
00:46:24
And so parents when you think about it.
00:46:26
Yeah, of course, we want social emotional, emotional learning
00:46:29
for our kids, but it doesn't come by them becoming some sort
00:46:33
of monster. Bye.
00:46:36
A being very difficult for the with other people that don't
00:46:38
believe like they do diversity, you know, equity and inclusion
00:46:43
sounds great, until you start to dig into its history.
00:46:46
So part of it is really having a conversation with your kids.
00:46:50
But also going to the school, I think a lot of teachers, don't
00:46:53
like teaching this stuff in the first place especially in the
00:46:56
public schools. These are issues by which
00:46:59
they're not prepared to teach, they don't want to get into that
00:47:01
fight and so they often will take any excuse for Opportunity
00:47:06
to avoid the discussion of the can it is a know that parents
00:47:10
are on their side. They'll be more likely to do
00:47:13
that. But of teachers only hear from
00:47:16
the squeaky wheels and then only hear from the radical parents.
00:47:20
Well, that's where they're going to do.
00:47:22
They're going to capitulate, they're going to keep doing that
00:47:24
stuff. I had a kid, my oldest son was
00:47:27
in the sophomore year in high school.
00:47:29
It was a normal high school in. San Juan Unified up in
00:47:32
Sacramento and he hits to his honor.
00:47:36
Extinguish class and the first line on the teacher syllabus for
00:47:39
that class. Again, an honest English class
00:47:42
for 10th graders was, my goal is to make you a social justice
00:47:47
Warrior this year. He brought that home and I said,
00:47:51
nope, that is not his job. You know, I'll change your
00:47:55
class, I'll change your teacher, I'll do whatever I have to do
00:47:58
and my son is kind of interesting the time because
00:48:00
again, my wife and I work really hard with our kids, we spent a
00:48:03
lot of time talking about hard things and at an earlier age
00:48:07
than we probably were prepared to do.
00:48:09
But he said to me, Daddy, you know what, this is only one part
00:48:12
of the battle. This is not the greater War.
00:48:13
He said, I think I can again influence for good in that
00:48:16
class. And plus I have other friends in
00:48:18
there that need my help. And so I'm going to stick with
00:48:20
it. I'm going to do it and he did,
00:48:22
and he was Honorable in it and he and a few other kids in the
00:48:25
class, really changed some minds of other kids, and actually
00:48:28
helped push back against the agenda with this class.
00:48:31
I, if I had a kid that was a little weaker in that area,
00:48:34
probably would have insisted the other direction but it was cool
00:48:37
to see him step up. It was cool to see my son
00:48:40
empowered and to really make adult decisions.
00:48:43
He's a better person for it, but I can also see, you know, if it
00:48:47
had been somebody else who wasn't a strong.
00:48:49
I'd have a different decision. So parents have to know.
00:48:51
They have to know your boundaries for your kids.
00:48:53
All five magnets are wonderful in different ways but they're
00:48:56
all very different and so some can be good at one thing and
00:48:59
some can be a good another. I would put one in one situation
00:49:02
that are definitely want to put another end, but that's the
00:49:05
whole point of having individualized education
00:49:07
processes. So again, fill back your
00:49:09
original question, CRTs pervasive, it's everywhere when
00:49:13
people say it doesn't exist, they get really offended.
00:49:15
When you say that it does, it just means that they're trying
00:49:18
to be Ooh, sneaky as possible. So we're we're trying to sever
00:49:22
that cord between the parent and the child that basically is the
00:49:26
the whole concept between all this D EI that SI SE SEL, you
00:49:34
know, down the line. What does SEL stand for I don't
00:49:37
have no social emotional learning yeah.
00:49:40
That sounds like it would set some alarm Bells off and if I
00:49:43
heard that, if I had a kid and they came home and said that,
00:49:48
what's the best piece? Of advice, you have for a new
00:49:52
school board member who aligns with your values and beliefs.
00:49:56
So basically, what we've been talking about right now, Well,
00:50:01
one is stand and be counted. I think new school board members
00:50:05
come in and they think, well, I'm just one person.
00:50:08
What does it matter when I was on the campaign Trail?
00:50:11
I supported close to 200 School Board candidates and about out
00:50:16
of those 200. I would say but the ones I
00:50:20
officially endorsed about a quarter of them one but there's
00:50:23
a whole bunch. I didn't officially endorse what
00:50:25
we helped out for various reasons, so probably about 100
00:50:28
of them. One And there were several that
00:50:31
flip school board's who took out incumbents that have been there
00:50:35
for a long time or supported by the unions or radical agenda.
00:50:38
And so what I've told them is listen, you're there.
00:50:41
Now you have only four years to really make a difference, but
00:50:46
your job is not just to go in and raise Ruckus and yell and
00:50:50
scream about all the things that you were angry about before.
00:50:54
Now it's your turn to lead and to persuade and to do it in a
00:50:59
way that That makes sense. Sometimes it's going to be going
00:51:02
against the grain a little bit. Sometimes that's pulling your
00:51:07
colleagues off to the side and saying, Hey, do you really want
00:51:10
our kids sexualize like this? Or do you really want their
00:51:12
education dumb down? Or do you really care about the
00:51:15
discipline in the classrooms? I think if you can have that
00:51:18
kind of conversation with them, it makes a difference.
00:51:21
And if you can help guide and direct them in a way that says,
00:51:23
okay, I understand these radical agendas are coming at us but we
00:51:28
don't have to accept just because It comes from the other
00:51:30
side. We can sit back and we can own
00:51:32
or control this board. Plus your fiduciary, your
00:51:36
illegal constitutionally-protected
00:51:38
fiduciary ever School. District your vote is no less
00:51:42
valuable than anybody else's vote on that board.
00:51:46
And if you can be shown to be somebody who actually pays
00:51:48
attention and reads, and considers the issues before you
00:51:52
that meets with constituents, I'll tell you, one of the best
00:51:55
things you can do is send out a regular newsletter, every single
00:51:59
Your constituents, one of my favorite new school board
00:52:03
members, who I supported, she supported me in my election to
00:52:05
become fast. Friends is Julie Hamill from the
00:52:09
Rancho Palos Verdes area. She ran for school board, she's
00:52:13
an attorney. A land used attorney by trade, a
00:52:16
mom of three kids. Married lives in a beautiful
00:52:19
area but looks for schools and we're just dumps their fallen
00:52:22
apart. They weren't spending money to
00:52:23
maintain them and keep them up to date.
00:52:26
The money was going elsewhere for different programs.
00:52:28
And she said, This isn't fair but Julie Hamill writes the best
00:52:32
weekly newsletters of anybody. I see out there.
00:52:36
And if you're not on her distribution list, you should
00:52:38
get on it. Even if you're not in her area
00:52:40
because she writes compellingly thoughtfully, she provides
00:52:45
really good responses to a lot of the issues.
00:52:47
Like, one reason, when they were just really caught my eye, was
00:52:49
this whole idea that these new conservative or moderate or
00:52:53
center-right, parent Advocates as school board members are
00:52:56
Banning books in schools. It's so Stupid and so
00:53:00
ridiculous. What?
00:53:01
They're not telling everybody, it's the stuff that's being,
00:53:04
that's infiltrating our libraries and our classrooms is
00:53:07
not of any educational value. It's mostly soft pornography or
00:53:11
hardcore depending on how you look at it.
00:53:14
And our classrooms are not the Library of Congress.
00:53:18
They don't have to have every book that's out there, but I'll
00:53:21
tell you what, they don't have, they don't have books, like
00:53:23
Atlas Shrugged or iron Rands and even ran stuff there on the Holy
00:53:28
Bible. And In there or even other
00:53:33
religious texts, which have more than just religious sort of
00:53:36
components. They've historical components,
00:53:38
they have other pieces that really show off, you know, the
00:53:42
political processes over years. There's a lot of books that I
00:53:46
wish I would have read in high school, Thomas Soul, Thomas old
00:53:49
changed my life in college but I doubt he's in a single high
00:53:53
school in the entire State of California.
00:53:56
But are they Banning books because that's not in there.
00:53:58
Now, it's just But it's childish.
00:54:00
So I would hope that school board members, especially the
00:54:04
new ones really reach out to their constituents.
00:54:06
Talk about the important things. Listen to them, respond to
00:54:10
emails of. You can to a lot of people that
00:54:12
write in or frustrated, do it calmly and patiently and kindly,
00:54:16
but respond to the emails, let them know you're listening.
00:54:19
And if they have a real serious concern, give them a call.
00:54:22
I'll tell you learn a lot of friends and future voters and
00:54:25
supporters if you just show up half the time.
00:54:28
So that's My best advice for new school board members.
00:54:35
I can't hear you Phil. I keep muted my mic because my
00:54:39
dog is all rattled by. I don't know.
00:54:42
People walking by or something tonight, that's me.
00:54:45
I have set him off to me. Final question.
00:54:50
Lance, do you have other resources besides the Department
00:54:53
of Education website to put all this information in the simplest
00:54:57
terms for parents? Yeah.
00:54:59
So go to California policies, turned out org that's our
00:55:02
website just search using the Search terms, education or
00:55:07
curriculum or budgets. We put out tons of material
00:55:11
there. California policy Center has
00:55:14
three main projects when we call the parent Union, Where We
00:55:17
Gather parents together to help train them.
00:55:20
We do a lot of its hubs and spokes approach.
00:55:23
We're not out there to get tens of thousands or hundreds of
00:55:26
thousands of parents to join. We're there to help you.
00:55:29
Poor to other like-minded parent advocacy groups and leaders so
00:55:34
they can sustain themselves. They don't flame up and burn
00:55:36
out. We have another project called
00:55:39
Cleo the California, local elected officials where we
00:55:42
actually train people who want to run for office and train
00:55:46
those who get into the office about how to be good stewards of
00:55:49
that opportunity. You can find that at Cal
00:55:53
electeds dot-org. If you go there, there's a Code,
00:55:57
CPC free. And you can take part of any of
00:56:00
those trainings or module trainings, you can take them in
00:56:03
your own pace. Usually in module will take
00:56:05
about 20 minutes to do, but it's thoughtful conversations about
00:56:08
everything. You could possibly think of in
00:56:10
running for and in be no in a local elected office and then I
00:56:15
would just say follow me on Twitter, I met Lance lands.
00:56:18
I write a lot. I put a lot of material up
00:56:20
there. I try to keep up to date with
00:56:22
the latest and greatest and in guide people to the resources
00:56:27
that I think, Really enlightened people's minds.
00:56:30
And at the end of the summer after I've done this tour of
00:56:33
across the whole state, I intend on having a very thorough and
00:56:36
comprehensive proposal to Terror States down, State's education
00:56:42
system down. Rebuild it a new.
00:56:44
I think it's time to stop using the duct tape and hey, baling
00:56:48
wire and to have a system that actually makes sense for a 21st
00:56:52
century economy and Society. I think that's might be the best
00:56:58
way to kind of wrap up this whole conversation.
00:57:00
I think that's a good. I was going to ask you to give
00:57:02
your final thoughts if you have any, but I think you kind of
00:57:06
wrapped it up, but I'll still give you the floor.
00:57:08
If you have any final thoughts because we're coming up on the
00:57:10
hour. Well, you and you are doing
00:57:13
amazing things. I think being a voice for those
00:57:16
who just feel like they're forgotten weren't partisan at
00:57:19
all. Who just want California's
00:57:20
succeed. We've got to do this.
00:57:22
My kids are Seventh Generation Californians.
00:57:24
I adopted California. I grew up in Denver Colorado,
00:57:27
but California's home. I don't plan on leaving and if I
00:57:31
want this place to succeed, it's not going to happen unless we
00:57:35
capture the minds and souls and vision of our kids.
00:57:39
And I don't want to do it in controlling fashion.
00:57:41
I want them to understand if they have ability to really
00:57:44
think freely. They can do a lot of incredible
00:57:46
things but the school system education process.
00:57:50
The Union's, they're all destroying right now.
00:57:53
I'm going to take it back. This is my wish my My you know
00:57:56
my dream and it hasn't come true yet so I'm taking it back I'm
00:58:00
taking them all back. Awesome well, amazing
00:58:04
conversation, Lance open invitation.
00:58:08
If you ever want to come back on and there's anything else,
00:58:10
education wise to come back on, feel free to reach out to us.
00:58:13
We'd love to have you back on to be that voice about education.
00:58:17
I think based on the chat and what people are saying, they
00:58:21
love your input and your ideas and all your resources and what
00:58:24
you've been sharing. So, I think this is a great
00:58:26
resource for concerned parents about education in California.
00:58:31
So With that, I think anybody who's listening.
00:58:34
Make sure you share this episode with anybody who's a concerned
00:58:39
parent for Education, here. In California.
00:58:42
Make sure you subscribe, like, share review, this episode all
00:58:45
that stuff, and I guess that's it.
00:58:49
Thanks everyone for listening and have a good night.
00:58:53
Have a good one guys. Have a good one guys.