March 31, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode, Ryan discusses the recent executive order by President Trump to dismantle the Department of Education, exploring the implications for American education. He evaluates the current state of education in the U.S., referencing international assessments like PISA, and highlights the racial disparities in educational outcomes. Aiden Buzzetti joins to discuss the current state of education reform in the United States, focusing on the impact of federal policies on local school districts, the challenges of disciplinary practices, and the importance of engaging parents in the educational process. They explore the obstacles to innovation within the education system, including outdated teaching methods and the influence of teachers' unions. It's a Numbers Game with Ryan Girdusky is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
Email your questions and thoughts to Ryan HERE
#educationreform #local #school #districts #federal #policies #equitypolicies #disciplinarypractices #school #safety #educational #innovation #schoolboard #1776Foundation
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to a Numbers Game with Ryan Grodowski. I
want to thank you all for joining me yet again.
I have some big news to share. Because of your support,
many of you have subscribed or you're planning to after
you hear this episode and giving me a five star
review on Apple or Spotify, or you're planning to after
this episode, I can announce that beginning next week, this
(00:25):
podcast will go to two days a week instead of
just once. I'm very excited. It's a lot of work,
but I'm here because I want to bring you all
the numbers behind the narratives, and I want you to
be able to form a different opinion than what you're
just hearing on the news or social media. So I hope,
I hope that beginning next week, you'll join me twice
a week beginning in April, and once again, please like
(00:47):
and subscribe this podcast. It really really means a lot
to get us out there, and hopefully you will never
miss an episode twice a week starting the April. The
April episodes. Speaking of episodes, let's let's get to this one.
In nineteen seventy two, Alice Cooper sang the lyrics of
his most famous and iconic song schools out for the summer,
(01:08):
Schools out forever. And on March twentieth, twenty twenty five,
President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying the Department
of Education is out forever. Yes, President Donald Trump's on
the executive order directing the Education Secretary Linda McMahon to
begin dismantling the Department of Education. Now, I was walking
in the park with my best friend, who's a school
teacher and a pretty conservative Republican and a Trump supporter,
(01:31):
and he said that he's nervous over what happens when
the department ends, What happens when it starts dismantling, what
happens to the federal money and what's supposed to go
to districts for things like special education. Who's going to
be handling student loan debt? And then I have older
relatives who are very conservative, and they're like, this will
end far left wocism in our schools and we won't
(01:51):
be behind other countries in math and reading anymore. And
I think that it's important in a time of big
change to take us step back and evaluate the data.
Where are we, what are we doing, and where are
we going? I want to remind listeners that in the
last four years, I founded the nation's largest super pac
(02:12):
dedicated to electing conservatives to school boards, the seventeen seventy
six Project Pack. We supported hundreds of people across the country.
So this is a very important issue that I'm actually
decently informed on on America's education, and I hate the
fact that people bring it down to talking points because
I think that there's a lot that we could do
(02:32):
to improve education if we just really worked on it,
and I think the first step is to understanding it.
So first, what is the state of America's education? This
is an important part of the equation because both people
on the left and the right of the political ais'll
say that education and I'm talking about like K through twelve,
I'm not talking about college, but that K through twelve
education is just blatantly failing our kids, and that we
(02:54):
spend the most money in the world, and that we're
way behind everybody else. Are we that's the question, are
we actually behind the rest of the world. This narrative
that America is behind the rest of the globe comes
from an international study called the Program for International Student
Assessment or PISA. It's run by an intergovernmental organization, the
(03:15):
Organization for Economic Co Cooperation and Development. If you don't
need to know that, if you need to know about PISA.
PISA evaluate six hundred and ninety fifteen year olds on
their scholastic ability from different participating countries in a two
hour long test and engages their skills in math, science
and reading. Now, the important part of that sentence is
participating countries, because all countries do not participate in the
(03:40):
PISA and the international studies that sit there and say
who's up and who's down. For instance, India, the second
largest nation in the world, does not participate. The last
time they did was in two thousand and nine and
they scored second to last. So they chose not to
do it ever again. And I think it was actually
just two of their most educated providences the tests, and
(04:00):
they still scored second to last, I think, behind Kazakhstan.
Aside from India, almost all of China, I think, except
for one or two provinces, do not take the exam. Russia,
North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Syria, almost the entire continent
of Africa, and a lot of South and Central America.
Pockets of South and Central America also do not participate
(04:23):
in the test, so when we say it's a global test,
it's missing most of the world's population. Only eighty one
of one hundred and ninety five countries in the last
twenty twenty two tests participated. So according to the twenty
twenty two PISA numbers, the United States ranked ninth in
the world on reading, just behind Canada and ahead of
New Zealand. We rank sixteenth in science, ahead of Poland
(04:46):
and right behind Great Britain. And our worst score was
a math where we're actually behind international averages for thirty fourth,
behind Malta and ahead of Slovakia in every category. All
top ten countries are either from East Asia, Europe, or
North America, with Singapore coming in first in every category.
From twenty to twenty twenty two. The best years the
(05:10):
US scored internationally in reading and science was in twenty
twenty two. Like, we's gotten better over this time, but
we have fallen behind in math pretty significantly. Now, what
I'm going to say next is extremely politically incorrect and
very sensitive, but it is a reason, it is a
very very very important reason why our test scores look
(05:31):
different than other developed countries, and that is the racial
gap in outcomes and the racial gap in testing. From
two thousand and three to twenty fifteen, white and Asian
students basically scored close to the same number in math
around five hundred points. Hispanic students scored four forty, and
black students were close to four fifteen. In reading, once again,
(05:54):
whites and Asians were close to the same around five
hundred and thirty points, depending on the year. From two
thousand and three to twenty fifteen, Hispanics were four sixty
and climbing. I mean, his span numbers have been getting
up in that, but they still lag, and so do
Blacks with around four hundred and forty. The same is
also true for science. So in the PISA score in
twenty twenty two, split the races up Americans races and
(06:18):
compare them to other countries. Asian Americans outperform all other
Asian majority nations outside Singapore. White Americans did better than
every white majority country. Hispanic Americans outperformed all Latin Americans,
all Latin countries Latino majority countries. Black Americans outperformed all
Black and Caribbean majority countries. Our diversity brings us down
(06:43):
though in overall testing when you parse through the data.
But Americans are not at the bottom of the barrel,
not by close. Asian Americans score the second highest in
the world, as I said, only behind Singapore, and white
Americans are seventh in the world, and one of the
six ahead of them are Asian am Just Singapore, Japan,
(07:03):
Taiwan and the one province in China really score ahead
of them. I think it's important to highlight when discussing
the United States, how the United States States competes globally.
It's not that our education system is perfect in any
stretch of the imagination, but we are not ranking low
globally as some people suggest. It's just not true. But
(07:24):
let's get to the states. When it comes to ranking
how individual states performed, We're going to look at something
called the National Assessment for Educational Progress otherwise known as
the neap IT test kids in fourth and eighth grade reading,
and it just came out in January their annual review.
Our best states were reading a math and both fourth
and eighth grade is Massachusetts, with Florida, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Utah,
(07:46):
New Jersey, Colorado, Connecticut, and Minnesota all making the top
five in either fourth or eighth grade reading, which states
performed the worst though, and that is New Mexico. Mexico
is in dead last in every category, with other states
like West Virginia, Alaska, Oregon, Arkansas, Alabama, Delaware, and Oklahoma
also making the top five worst performing academic states in
(08:10):
either fourth or eighth grade either reading or math. I
mentioned Massachusetts was number one in all categories, but what
does that look like? It means that in the fourth grade,
forty one percent of Massachusetts fourth graders were reading at
or above proficiency level, with fifteen percent being advanced. Fifty
nine percent, though, were behind, with thirty two percent being
(08:32):
severely behind. That's our best state is where one in
three are severely behind. And the eighth grade math, thirteen
percent of students were advanced, but over sixty percent of
students were either behind or severely behind proficiency. Once again,
that's our best state. The twenty twenty four NEAP scores
(08:52):
show us that the COVID lockdowns devastated students. The percentage
of students base below basic reading levels grew two thirty
three percent, the highest in thirty years. And while some
students who are top achievers are still top achieving. Remember
when they do the math Olympics, the math Olympiads, whatever
it's called. I was never invited to it. But the
math Olympics, America is always competing and we're winning a lot.
(09:16):
So it's not like we don't have high performing students.
We still do. They're still doing well. It's that kids
that were on the cusp have fallen behind, and those
that were already failing are now way behind. They're at
historic lows. Basically, the median has declined because those on
the bottom have fallen further from the bottom, while those
(09:37):
at the top end are still performing. While they're still
they're still getting the grades. In fourth grade reading, students
who score below basic and AEP levels proficiency levels cannot
sequence events from a story or describe the effects of
a character's actions. In eighth grade, students who score below
basic can basic comprehension, cannot to determine a main idea
(10:01):
of a text or identifying differing sides of arguments. And
while there are some improvements in math, it wasn't enough
to offset what was lost in reading. Part of what's
fueling this crisis is the percentage of kids chronically missing
school has skyrocketed, with nearly a third of kids missing
at least three days in the last month, and that
brings me to my original premise with kids falling behind.
(10:25):
Not in the rest of the world, not as bad
as people sit there and say, but they are falling
behind in America, especially since COVID. What does it mean
for education? As President Trump is preparing to close the
Department of Education, many parents are worthy that these services
that provided by the government will be cut and that
states won't be able to do States will be able
to do whatever they want, so like blue states will
(10:45):
be hardcore left wing socialism and red states will teach
you that dinosaurs and humans walk the earth two thousand
years ago. I think that in order to take a
breath and have a break from that kind of rhetoric,
it's important to realize what the Education Department Education does
and doesn't do. The doees primary function is to provide
financial aid to students, collect data on American schools, make
(11:07):
recommendations on educational form, and enforce anti discrimination laws. The
Department of Education does not set curricula, it doesn't set
national standards, and it doesn't make academic standards. Anyone telling
you that all woke ideologies coming out of this bureaucracy
in Washington, DC is not telling you the truth. There
have been suggestions it's made, there's been recommendations that it's made,
(11:30):
it's attached to some aid. But everything that is primarily
happening in your kid's school, including standardized testing, is at
the discretion of the states, the school board, the administrators,
and the individual teachers. So what's going to happen with
its shutting down? Secretary McMahon did an interview with Face
the Nation where she said the department's going to move
(11:51):
its primary functions to other departments. She said that the
oversight over special needs education moved to the Department of
Health and Human Services. Small Business Administration will take over
federal student loans, she said she believes will actually cut
red tape and make and make it so schools and
needy students will get money faster than they had the
Department of Education. For those who can't imagine a country
(12:13):
without a Department of Education, I think it's important to
remember that we didn't have one until nineteen seventy nine,
when President Carter created it as a gift to the
teachers union for backing him in the last election. The
nineteen seventy six election. In certain parts of the federal
government's functions on education predates the creation of the Department
of Education. Like Title I, Title nine, the Education for
(12:36):
All Handicapped Children Act, data collection, all that happened way
before Carter created the Department nineteen seventy nine. While I
imagine there could be some disruption the immediate change, with
federal departments shifting gears and different departments taking over new
roles that were part of the DIE, I don't think
there's going to be fundamental change that people think someone
will dole out money for Title I, some department will
(12:59):
protect Title nine. Most of this issue of education will
remain local. In all of my experience of the seventeen
seventy six project packs speaking to literally hundreds of school
board members and parents and educators and everybody, there's a
lot to do on education that's essential. We need to
tackle the accreditation system. We need to have alternative associations
(13:20):
for school board members. We need to review the technology
that comes into classrooms and sells your kids data. We
need to address the safety concerns, and we need to
focus on the science of reading and math and not
about teaching that American history is something to be ashamed of.
That's what's essential. That's not coming out of the Department.
That's going to be your local swamp, not the swamp
(13:40):
in Washington, DC. You're listening to It's a numbers game
with Ryan Grodowsky. We'll be right back with me this week.
Is my friend and colleague Aidan Bazzetti. He runs the
nonprofit that I sit on the board of, the seventeen
seventy sixth Foundation. Aidan, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
For being here, thank you for having me on run
of course.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So Aiden, let's start with the Department of Education. It's
ending or it's closing stores. Trump can't end it by
executive order, but he's dismantling it. What do you think
the biggest impact, if any, will have on the local
school districts.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I think the majority of the impact on school districts
in particular will be fairly limited to the grants, with
a lot of these DEI initiatives attached to them. In
the first place, a lot of the department's activities focused
on loans and a state in local funding accounts for
(14:40):
the vast majority, over eighty percent of funding.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
For school districts.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So I think as they start winding down certain programs
in the Department, that we'll see less of an incentive
for school districts to pursue equity policies and resort of
justice policies that were tied to federal grants.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
But that's about it.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
What like, can you and if you don't know any
top of your head, then that's fine, but do you
know of any equity policies that the government spends on?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Federal prior administration, they listed equity as one of the
broader requirements for all federal grants coming out of the
Department and then and some of them had more specific initiatives.
I wouldn't be able to name all of them, but
it is not uncommon for the federal fundings to have
(15:32):
grants focused on equity or reviewing disciplinary practices with a
focus on resort of justice.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And things like that. But those are mostly holdovers from
the Bible.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
That's what happened under Obama, right.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And a lot of it did begin under the Obama
administration and then continued with the Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, specifically with the restorative justice. There was this old
liberal notion that there was a pipeline prison to school
pipeline that basically, you know, like the liberal reddick was
like a black kid got detention once and now he's
spending life in jail for smoking marijuana. Like this was
like the overall all ridiculous narrative they were putting out.
(16:13):
It wasn't exactly true, but the restorative justice thing that
you're talking about was they were saying, if a student
is Hispanic or black, because there's a higher percentage of
them to their overall population and in prison, to be
more leanient on them. And this is like the famous
case now is the was it Sandy Hook shooting? Great, No,
(16:34):
it wasn't Sandy Hook. It was the one in Florida,
the Stone Stone Douglas Yes Memorial, whatever it was that
was in Brower County shooting. That was the case where
the student had multiple, multiple, multiple infractures, including bringing dead
pets to school, talking about abusing animals, talking about you know,
(16:55):
attacking other kids, and it was never They had no
disciplinary records. So when he went to go buy a gun,
there was no there was nothing for cops. Is that
they're in flag and say, oh, this kid could be
a problem because there was all brushed on the rug.
So that way, if he went on to be arrested
for something lighter later on, there would be no record
or that he had a history of problematic behavior or anything.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
And that philosophy, unfortunately happens across hundreds, hopefully not thousands,
but potentially thousands of school districts where they intentionally decide
not to punish students oftentimes or due to their ethnicity,
because they're worried about some kind of disparate impact or
suspensions leading to a lifetime of them in prison for
(17:42):
whatever particular reason. And that's one of the problems that
schools are dealing with now, just these massive disciplinary issues
with their students. It's something that we found everybody cares about,
whether they're a parent or a teacher or a student,
the disciplinary situation, and a lot of schools across the
(18:04):
US School.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Of War right now.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
You know, we before Aiden ran the seventeen seventies foundation,
he worked for me at the seventeen seventy six Project
Pack and we would Aiden was in charge of like
meeting all the people who wanted to run for office.
So he has talked to thousands of people about local education,
which is he was a godsend for me for taking
(18:28):
that on for me. But what what what would shock
us often is how many red states and red districts
had this problem. There was one in Florida, Super Republican County.
Now I'm thinking of it Red Red Rivers, Red River
or something like that River County. I forget Indian River,
(18:48):
Indian River, Indian River, Florida. Yes, Aiden is also got
the only part of a brain that's working because mind
doesn't anymore. Indian River, Florida. They had this. They had
a desperate, intersperate impact on on students based on the race.
It wasn't it wasn't that the case, right, Aiden, It
was it.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Was racially based.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
They wanted so if you were, they wanted to do
a one to one ratio on disciplinary infractions based on
the race of the students. So and I think that
that district had a had a higher proportion of minority students,
so functionally it would mean that they would punish the
non non minority students more or the minority populations less.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Overall, it's an Asian specifically more than blacks and Hispanics.
It was. It was crazy, but it happens in red
districts too. You know, you talked to I said before
you talked to thousands of people who running for school
board to care local education. What's in your opinion, the
biggest misunderstanding in terms of rhetoric coming from talking heads
(19:55):
both liberal and conservative, to what actually frustrates teachers and princes,
bulls and parents at school boards.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah. I think on the conservative side, especially because of
what a lot of parents saw during the pandemic, they
have a large scaled mistrust or distrust in teachers and administrators.
And what we found is that especially in states like Louisiana,
who I think it was the only state really that
defied the general decline in education in the United States,
(20:26):
they actually gave more flexibility to teachers in the classroom.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So they had they.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Overhauled their curriculum, but they also allowed the teachers to
be a little more flexible and how they taught that
curriculum in addition to providing other services. But a lot
of teachers rebel on very strict rules, which is fine,
and a lot of parents don't understand that. But I
also think that in general, people don't understand just how
(20:56):
much the school board and the individual member and the
administrators run the day to day operations and set those policies.
Just because, for example, President Trump is doing all of
this action and setting out all these executive orders regarding
the Department of Education does not mean that the issue
has gone away. It has always been a local problem,
(21:19):
and people need to understand that it's going to take
local solutions to root out a lot of these devisive issues.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Right, And I think that that's you mentioned it before,
mentioned it in your answer. Administrators and the frustration around
administrators is what I would always hear the most often
about people who are unelected, hired by hired by superintendents
to sit there and make broad decision that really impacts teachers'
(21:48):
ability to teach in the classroom, and that would seem
overwhelmingly frustrating that no one really ever talked about. People
think it's always like the teachers being like the super
progressive ones when act is I would say nine times
out of ten administrators making teachers do things they don't
really want to do.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
That's why having school members who know how to oversee
the superintendent and the administrators is so important, because the
superintendent is basically the CEO of a school district. They're
doing most of the day to day work school members
in their current form do oversight. They're basically the board
(22:27):
of directors, right, so they can set the policies and
make sure the school district is going in the right direction.
But the superintendent has a lot of flexibility and if
you have the wrong person then they can lead to
a lot of damage, all the trickling all the way.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Through the system.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I like the way you put that. Yeah, in school districts,
school boards hire the superintendents or renew their contracts. What
is from talking to parents, what is the biggest concerns
in local education today?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
I think the number one The biggest concern that we've
seen is concern over school safety, not just from outside
threats but inside threats as well, but also generally students
can't read, and I think more parents are waking up
to the fact that their children can't read, and that's concerning.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean, we have to be able to read.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
We're very society and talking earlier about the school to
prison pipeline. If your kids can't read, they're more likely
to commit crime and end up in jail. So I
think there's a broader awareness now with parents that one,
schools aren't as safe as they used to be.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Or should be.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And two that schools by and large are starting to fail,
that we have had and poor performance.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And we're not even in a situation where the kids
are too big to get inside the school. Well, like,
what is this a school for ants? How can the
children learn to read if they can't inside the building?
That's from Zoolander If anyone's under the age of twenty
five and has never seen the movie anyway, But yeah,
I can really agree with that. But what are what
(24:16):
are the obstacles to innovation for most Let's say you
have a great person who's that wants to run for
school board, they get elected, what are the biggest obstacles
in the hurdles that we always see that you're hearing
now from running the foundation, that that school board members,
well intentioned ones who want to do the right thing,
are are dealing with.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, that's that's an interesting question. I think I would
say from a structural standpoint, the education community has dealt
with a lot of fads over the last couple of decades,
fads that haven't.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Necessarily talk about some of these fads.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
I mean, well, we used to teach site learning.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, we used to teach teachers, you know, three queuing
where they would point out, you know, the word on
the page and connected with a picture, and we know
that doesn't work. It was the subject of a lot
of debates several decades ago, but a lot of teachers
still use it. So there are parts of the education
system and teachers colleges that are still using outdated methods.
(25:20):
But because because those stuff around so long and we're
so damaging, there's also some resistance in the community or
the communities that are focused on education reform to looking
at new opportunities as well.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So that's a little bit of a wait.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
So what Aiden, wait? Wait, So what Aiden is talking
about right now is in the two thousands we have
you said something called phonics and a lot of classrooms
back in the eighties and nineties, and then in the
two thousands, Bush was all about phonics, and because Bush
was evil, you know, to a lot of liberals, a
lot of liberals embrace and then called site learning, which
(25:57):
is what Aidan mentioned, and that's basically where kids would
marize the word and that's how they would apply, but
they wouldn't actually learn the building blocks of sentence structure
and word structure. It was a terrible form we put
it in all the teachers colleges. We've adopted it in
most of our states. It set kids back tremendously in reading,
and teachers colleges, as Aiden said, still do it. Teachers
(26:20):
colleges are the root of so many educational issues, teachers
colleges and teachers' unions because the teacher's colleges are the
wild progressive places and the unions are what, in my opinion,
forward a lot of innovation because unions represent their workers,
they don't represent their students.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
And you know, Florida's done something interesting that they've started
to I think they passed the bill that required teachers
unions to recertify, so it gives the individual teachers and
the district a little bit more power on whether or
not they want to affiliate with the union. And then
if they don't hit a certain threshold, then that you
and has to dissolve. So that's one way that Florida
(27:02):
in particular has been pushing back on right teachers unions,
which has been really interesting to see. But yeah, the
teachers unions, they defend their interests, which is you know,
really the union administrators, not necessarily the teachers, which I
think has been problems with the problem with a lot
of these.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Public secuity unions. In the first place.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
They have they haven't really pushed for substantive reform. They
want to make sure that teachers are protected in their jobs.
So when conservatives try to fix the system by introducing
a little bit more personal accountability for teachers, they start
screaming and fight really hard against it.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
If you were advising a school board, let's say all
five members were or seven members, whatever the member is,
were elected and came to you and said, hey, we
want you to help us change. What are three things
a local government could do a local school board could
do to make their education better. And I know everything's
personalized and different, but an overall thing.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I think the first thing that we're actually starting to
see now is I would tell them to do a
comprehensive overview on what exactly is in their curriculum and
how much are they paying people to pull it together.
A lot of these school boards have massive budgets, sometimes
in billions and billions of dollars, so making sure that
(28:26):
they know where the money is going and what exactly
they're paying for is very important.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
When you're looking at the progress of the school district.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I would also inform them to set up a way
to track progress with the superintendent and introduce a little
bit more administrative accountability. Like I said before, the superintendent
really is the CEO and the board is just there
to make sure that everything stays on track. But I
think that they can really introduce a culture of accountability
(28:59):
and progress that.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
A lot of school districts don't have.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And the third thing is I would make sure that
the school board actually engages parents on a regular basis.
That's not necessarily strictly a policy change, but having printal
input in the school board is extremely important, especially now
because so many people don't trust public schools. And if
(29:23):
you're able to engage parents and see how certain policies
affect the day to day lives of those families and
their kids, then you'll be able to get a really
good handle on what exactly is and isn't working district.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So what does the seventeen seventy six Foundation do? What
is your goal from the non.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, so our goal on a nonprofit is to really
form a foundation for the turning school districts around in
a positive way.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We have.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
When I was working with the seventeen seventy six Project
Pack and I was talking with parents and school board
candidates from coast to coast across the country, we found
that basically everybody is dealing with the same problems. It differs,
of course from state to state depending on the laws there,
but broadly speaking, everyone is dealing with the same issues.
(30:17):
And so our goal is to get school board members
from across the country connected. We want to get them
mentorship and start providing them resources to actually turn their
school districts around and take that successful model and make
sure other people.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Can adopt it as well.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Aiden, that's great. Where can people go to read more
about what your stuff and the foundation?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, so I would visit the Foundation's website Foundation seventeen
seventy six dot org and you can follow me on
Twitter at Aiden Ai d E N.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Bizzetti b u z z e t T.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The great Aiden BEAZETI one of my favorite people I've
ever worked with. Aiden, Thank you for being on this
week's podcast. Hey, we'll be right back after this. Now
it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment of the show,
where I take questions from my audience about literally Anything,
and if you want to be part of the Ask
Me Anything segment, you can email Ryan at Numbers Game
(31:10):
Podcast dot com. That's Ryan at Numbers Plural Numbers Numbers
gamepodcast dot com And maybe next week I'll be reading
your question. Our question this week comes from Julie is Hi.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Ryan.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I found out about you through your appearances with the
Buck Sexton Show, which was great leading up to the election.
Thank you, Julie. I read your article, your article and
the Spectator about the distantass failed presidential run. My question
is whether you think he has another shot in twenty
twenty eight, What would need to change and do you
think he can rebound? So what? First of all, Julie,
(31:44):
thank you for listening to podcast. Thank you for reading
my articles. What I would say what Julie's talking about
was in twenty twenty three, I was invited to a
meeting with or beginning twenty twenty you know give me
twenty twenty twenty three, I was invited to a meeting
(32:04):
in Tallahassee with quote unquote influencers who were thinking about
supporting disantas. This was in I think March of twenty
twenty three March or early early April, but it was
one of the two and she was. I was invited
along with like a dozen or so quote unquote. I
hate the term influencers. I don't call myself an influencer,
(32:24):
but they did, so I'll use the term. I was
invited to Tallahassee with a bunch of influencers to meet
the governor and meet the team and talk about what
running for president was like. And it was supposed to
be a completely off the record meeting. And I went
there and I was a loud mouth like I always am.
I can't help myself. I do this for a living,
running elections and campaigns, and what I have learned from
(32:47):
being a consultant for the last two decades is that
you have to be bluntly honest with people. And I
don't mince words, and I don't have time. And if
you want someone who will just be a yes man
and kiss your r end, there's allion people you could hire,
but I'm not one of them. I would be much
further along in my career had I done that, but
I just don't do it. I don't have the time
(33:07):
or the energy. So anyway, we go to this meeting,
I meet the team, they sell me on their big
bag of nonsense. And then we go to meet the
governor and I was like this second. I told all
the influencers when we walked in the room, listen, the
Governor's not where he was in November when he was
leading in the polls against Trump. You have to be
(33:30):
very honest with him that things are not going well
and that he either needs to run like officially run
and run hard, or not run like. I told him
that he looks. I used the word pussy. I said,
you look like a pussy is Trump attacks you and
you don't say anything back to him. I told him
that his book was not good because it was not aspirational,
and I told him that he needed to connect more
(33:53):
with working class people by talking about his background as
a working class person. I think I specifically said to him,
as smart as you are and as good at playing
baseball as you were when you were younger, you would
probably not get into an Ivy League school today because
you're a white trade man, and they are discriminated against
white straight men at these universities. And you should address
that by speaking with your own experience. This is pre
(34:16):
Harvard case. And anyway, we had the meeting. Then we
had a dinner afterwards with the team the governor. The
governor was lovely, by the way, his wife was lovely.
I have nothing bad to say about them. He's a
great governor. But that was the meeting, and then we
went to the meeting with the team afterwards. I was
very unimpressed by what the team was saying. And the
(34:36):
general consultant said to me, like during the dinner, was like, so,
what do you think, And I said, I think we're
at an Irish funeral waiting for the body to drop.
Like I was not optimistic about what was going on.
I was like, this is not like I have no dey.
Anyone's like celebrating right now. So and then I had
one more call. I never worked for the Santus campaign.
By the way, I think it's important to say, like
people have accused me of working for DeSantis, and I
(34:57):
never did that. I never took a check, I never
I went to two meetings and I just gave them
my best advice. That's the only thing I ever done,
and that's what I think people. And I gave them
the profession advice I would give anybody. The meeting ends,
and then I get a call from the reporter several
months later, basically repeating what I had said during this meeting.
(35:18):
It was an off the record meeting, and I had
told by the way, I told all these quote unquote
influencers who loved as Santas, Hey, you need to be harsh,
you need to tell them the truth. And the minute
after I was speaking, I was the second person to speak.
The minute after I was done speaking, everyone was like,
You're so great, You're so wonderful. You're so great, You're
so wonderful. No one was telling the truth, and no
(35:40):
one was having an honest conversation. One of the influencers
were like, we need to talk about trans children. I'm like,
what the f are you all talking about? Like immigration, crime,
the economy, like brin cycle, repeat, AnyWho whatever. Deeply frustrated,
and the report had called and knew what I had
said and wanted me to go on records. So I said,
(36:02):
f this. If everyone's leaking about what I said, and
I didn't leak anyone's name, I'm going to just tell
the story from my perspective what I actually said. And
that's why I wrote the Spectator article. That's a very
long window way of saying of what happened anyway, we
do I think he has a chance to run in
twenty twenty eight. No, because people's window to run for
(36:23):
president is very, very small. Had Chris Christy not run,
had Chris Christi run in twenty twelve, I don't know
if he would have been the party's nominee. He would
have had a very good shot at being the party's nominee.
He had virtually no shot by twenty sixteen, and he
had really no shot by twenty twenty four when he
ran again. Twenty twenty four, when he ran again, your
(36:45):
window to be the new kid in town, to be
the shiny new toy, to be the one who has
earned it is literally very minimal. You have to know
when it happens, and you.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Have to do it.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Had George W. Bush Way four years or done it
four years previous, but during Bill Clinton's time, he likely
would have never become president. You know, it's just if it.
Had Clinton done it right after he was defeated his
first gugnatory second good natorial election, he likely wouldn't have
gotten it. So there are just times you have to
do it, and you if you don't do it, when
it's the time. And I think Desantas's time was twenty
(37:20):
twenty four. I don't I think if you wanted to run,
that was his only time to run. But he ran,
and he didn't do well. And I think he didn't
do well because and what I said to his team
and what I said to him, was your whole message
is about Florida. I don't ever want to live in Florida.
(37:40):
I don't like humidity. I really like cold weather. I'm
a Northeasterner. I talk fast, I'm aggressive, I'm abrasive. I
am a Northeasterner. That's who I am. It's part of
my identity. I want to live in the Northeast. What
are you going to do for me as someone who
lives somewhere like Pennsylvania or Michigan or New York or whatever.
You have to sell a national vision for where you're
(38:02):
taking this country. It can't only be Flora, the freestate
of Florida, over and over and over and over again.
And I think that that was missing. And I think
that his failure to connect to people in a way
that made them feel like they knew him. You know,
everyone says, oh, he's so icy, or he's so smart
(38:23):
and so he's a little cold. I would have leaned
more heavily into that when he there was a time
in the campaign trail where he said to a kid
like that ice cream is a lot of sugar. People
were like, oh, you know, look at him, he's so autistic. No,
I would have leaned into it. I think that's great.
I think that's actually who he is, and he should
have leaned into that. But it was very weird and
he just didn't do well. I mean, Nikki Haley performed him,
(38:44):
and she her campaign was on just absolutely nowhere in
the summer in twenty twenty three when she first ran.
So I don't think that he can rebound. I think
that history is littered with great men who would have
been great presidents, and ron de Santas will be one
of them, because he would have been a great president.
(39:05):
But I just don't see it that that's possible in
the future. And from my knowledge, there's only been one
former vice president who sought out his party's nomination and
didn't get it, and that was Mike Pence in twenty
and twenty four. Every other time a vice president has
sought his party's nomination, he's received it and JD Vance.
(39:27):
If he pursues his party's nomination, he's most likely going
to receive it, So that would push the can back
to at least twenty twenty eight or further. And by then,
no one's going to remember COVID. No one's going to
remember any of these things, or the war unwoke or
you know, there's not it's just time has passed. And
I wish him well. I wish him the best, and
(39:48):
I think he'd be, you know, great and almost anything,
because he's such a fabulous governor. But I just don't
think being presidents probably in the cards for him, and
I don't think that he can rebound from that. But
who knows. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think I am,
but that's my best mite. That's my personal take on
that anyway. Thank you so much for your email, Julie,
(40:11):
and once again, if you want to be part of
this segment on this show, please email me ryanat numbers
gamepodcast dot com. Thank you again for listening this week,
Like and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you to see you
guys next week.
Welcome back to a Numbers Game with Ryan Grodowski. I
want to thank you all for joining me yet again.
I have some big news to share. Because of your support,
many of you have subscribed or you're planning to after
you hear this episode and giving me a five star
review on Apple or Spotify, or you're planning to after
this episode, I can announce that beginning next week, this
(00:25):
podcast will go to two days a week instead of
just once. I'm very excited. It's a lot of work,
but I'm here because I want to bring you all
the numbers behind the narratives, and I want you to
be able to form a different opinion than what you're
just hearing on the news or social media. So I hope,
I hope that beginning next week, you'll join me twice
a week beginning in April, and once again, please like
(00:47):
and subscribe this podcast. It really really means a lot
to get us out there, and hopefully you will never
miss an episode twice a week starting the April. The
April episodes. Speaking of episodes, let's let's get to this one.
In nineteen seventy two, Alice Cooper sang the lyrics of
his most famous and iconic song schools out for the summer,
(01:08):
Schools out forever. And on March twentieth, twenty twenty five,
President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying the Department
of Education is out forever. Yes, President Donald Trump's on
the executive order directing the Education Secretary Linda McMahon to
begin dismantling the Department of Education. Now, I was walking
in the park with my best friend, who's a school
teacher and a pretty conservative Republican and a Trump supporter,
(01:31):
and he said that he's nervous over what happens when
the department ends, What happens when it starts dismantling, what
happens to the federal money and what's supposed to go
to districts for things like special education. Who's going to
be handling student loan debt? And then I have older
relatives who are very conservative, and they're like, this will
end far left wocism in our schools and we won't
(01:51):
be behind other countries in math and reading anymore. And
I think that it's important in a time of big
change to take us step back and evaluate the data.
Where are we, what are we doing, and where are
we going? I want to remind listeners that in the
last four years, I founded the nation's largest super pac
(02:12):
dedicated to electing conservatives to school boards, the seventeen seventy
six Project Pack. We supported hundreds of people across the country.
So this is a very important issue that I'm actually
decently informed on on America's education, and I hate the
fact that people bring it down to talking points because
I think that there's a lot that we could do
(02:32):
to improve education if we just really worked on it,
and I think the first step is to understanding it.
So first, what is the state of America's education? This
is an important part of the equation because both people
on the left and the right of the political ais'll
say that education and I'm talking about like K through twelve,
I'm not talking about college, but that K through twelve
education is just blatantly failing our kids, and that we
(02:54):
spend the most money in the world, and that we're
way behind everybody else. Are we that's the question, are
we actually behind the rest of the world. This narrative
that America is behind the rest of the globe comes
from an international study called the Program for International Student
Assessment or PISA. It's run by an intergovernmental organization, the
(03:15):
Organization for Economic Co Cooperation and Development. If you don't
need to know that, if you need to know about PISA.
PISA evaluate six hundred and ninety fifteen year olds on
their scholastic ability from different participating countries in a two
hour long test and engages their skills in math, science
and reading. Now, the important part of that sentence is
participating countries, because all countries do not participate in the
(03:40):
PISA and the international studies that sit there and say
who's up and who's down. For instance, India, the second
largest nation in the world, does not participate. The last
time they did was in two thousand and nine and
they scored second to last. So they chose not to
do it ever again. And I think it was actually
just two of their most educated providences the tests, and
(04:00):
they still scored second to last, I think, behind Kazakhstan.
Aside from India, almost all of China, I think, except
for one or two provinces, do not take the exam. Russia,
North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Syria, almost the entire continent
of Africa, and a lot of South and Central America.
Pockets of South and Central America also do not participate
(04:23):
in the test, so when we say it's a global test,
it's missing most of the world's population. Only eighty one
of one hundred and ninety five countries in the last
twenty twenty two tests participated. So according to the twenty
twenty two PISA numbers, the United States ranked ninth in
the world on reading, just behind Canada and ahead of
New Zealand. We rank sixteenth in science, ahead of Poland
(04:46):
and right behind Great Britain. And our worst score was
a math where we're actually behind international averages for thirty fourth,
behind Malta and ahead of Slovakia in every category. All
top ten countries are either from East Asia, Europe, or
North America, with Singapore coming in first in every category.
From twenty to twenty twenty two. The best years the
(05:10):
US scored internationally in reading and science was in twenty
twenty two. Like, we's gotten better over this time, but
we have fallen behind in math pretty significantly. Now, what
I'm going to say next is extremely politically incorrect and
very sensitive, but it is a reason, it is a
very very very important reason why our test scores look
(05:31):
different than other developed countries, and that is the racial
gap in outcomes and the racial gap in testing. From
two thousand and three to twenty fifteen, white and Asian
students basically scored close to the same number in math
around five hundred points. Hispanic students scored four forty, and
black students were close to four fifteen. In reading, once again,
(05:54):
whites and Asians were close to the same around five
hundred and thirty points, depending on the year. From two
thousand and three to twenty fifteen, Hispanics were four sixty
and climbing. I mean, his span numbers have been getting
up in that, but they still lag, and so do
Blacks with around four hundred and forty. The same is
also true for science. So in the PISA score in
twenty twenty two, split the races up Americans races and
(06:18):
compare them to other countries. Asian Americans outperform all other
Asian majority nations outside Singapore. White Americans did better than
every white majority country. Hispanic Americans outperformed all Latin Americans,
all Latin countries Latino majority countries. Black Americans outperformed all
Black and Caribbean majority countries. Our diversity brings us down
(06:43):
though in overall testing when you parse through the data.
But Americans are not at the bottom of the barrel,
not by close. Asian Americans score the second highest in
the world, as I said, only behind Singapore, and white
Americans are seventh in the world, and one of the
six ahead of them are Asian am Just Singapore, Japan,
(07:03):
Taiwan and the one province in China really score ahead
of them. I think it's important to highlight when discussing
the United States, how the United States States competes globally.
It's not that our education system is perfect in any
stretch of the imagination, but we are not ranking low
globally as some people suggest. It's just not true. But
(07:24):
let's get to the states. When it comes to ranking
how individual states performed, We're going to look at something
called the National Assessment for Educational Progress otherwise known as
the neap IT test kids in fourth and eighth grade reading,
and it just came out in January their annual review.
Our best states were reading a math and both fourth
and eighth grade is Massachusetts, with Florida, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Utah,
(07:46):
New Jersey, Colorado, Connecticut, and Minnesota all making the top
five in either fourth or eighth grade reading, which states
performed the worst though, and that is New Mexico. Mexico
is in dead last in every category, with other states
like West Virginia, Alaska, Oregon, Arkansas, Alabama, Delaware, and Oklahoma
also making the top five worst performing academic states in
(08:10):
either fourth or eighth grade either reading or math. I
mentioned Massachusetts was number one in all categories, but what
does that look like? It means that in the fourth grade,
forty one percent of Massachusetts fourth graders were reading at
or above proficiency level, with fifteen percent being advanced. Fifty
nine percent, though, were behind, with thirty two percent being
(08:32):
severely behind. That's our best state is where one in
three are severely behind. And the eighth grade math, thirteen
percent of students were advanced, but over sixty percent of
students were either behind or severely behind proficiency. Once again,
that's our best state. The twenty twenty four NEAP scores
(08:52):
show us that the COVID lockdowns devastated students. The percentage
of students base below basic reading levels grew two thirty
three percent, the highest in thirty years. And while some
students who are top achievers are still top achieving. Remember
when they do the math Olympics, the math Olympiads, whatever
it's called. I was never invited to it. But the
math Olympics, America is always competing and we're winning a lot.
(09:16):
So it's not like we don't have high performing students.
We still do. They're still doing well. It's that kids
that were on the cusp have fallen behind, and those
that were already failing are now way behind. They're at
historic lows. Basically, the median has declined because those on
the bottom have fallen further from the bottom, while those
(09:37):
at the top end are still performing. While they're still
they're still getting the grades. In fourth grade reading, students
who score below basic and AEP levels proficiency levels cannot
sequence events from a story or describe the effects of
a character's actions. In eighth grade, students who score below
basic can basic comprehension, cannot to determine a main idea
(10:01):
of a text or identifying differing sides of arguments. And
while there are some improvements in math, it wasn't enough
to offset what was lost in reading. Part of what's
fueling this crisis is the percentage of kids chronically missing
school has skyrocketed, with nearly a third of kids missing
at least three days in the last month, and that
brings me to my original premise with kids falling behind.
(10:25):
Not in the rest of the world, not as bad
as people sit there and say, but they are falling
behind in America, especially since COVID. What does it mean
for education? As President Trump is preparing to close the
Department of Education, many parents are worthy that these services
that provided by the government will be cut and that
states won't be able to do States will be able
to do whatever they want, so like blue states will
(10:45):
be hardcore left wing socialism and red states will teach
you that dinosaurs and humans walk the earth two thousand
years ago. I think that in order to take a
breath and have a break from that kind of rhetoric,
it's important to realize what the Education Department Education does
and doesn't do. The doees primary function is to provide
financial aid to students, collect data on American schools, make
(11:07):
recommendations on educational form, and enforce anti discrimination laws. The
Department of Education does not set curricula, it doesn't set
national standards, and it doesn't make academic standards. Anyone telling
you that all woke ideologies coming out of this bureaucracy
in Washington, DC is not telling you the truth. There
have been suggestions it's made, there's been recommendations that it's made,
(11:30):
it's attached to some aid. But everything that is primarily
happening in your kid's school, including standardized testing, is at
the discretion of the states, the school board, the administrators,
and the individual teachers. So what's going to happen with
its shutting down? Secretary McMahon did an interview with Face
the Nation where she said the department's going to move
(11:51):
its primary functions to other departments. She said that the
oversight over special needs education moved to the Department of
Health and Human Services. Small Business Administration will take over
federal student loans, she said she believes will actually cut
red tape and make and make it so schools and
needy students will get money faster than they had the
Department of Education. For those who can't imagine a country
(12:13):
without a Department of Education, I think it's important to
remember that we didn't have one until nineteen seventy nine,
when President Carter created it as a gift to the
teachers union for backing him in the last election. The
nineteen seventy six election. In certain parts of the federal
government's functions on education predates the creation of the Department
of Education. Like Title I, Title nine, the Education for
(12:36):
All Handicapped Children Act, data collection, all that happened way
before Carter created the Department nineteen seventy nine. While I
imagine there could be some disruption the immediate change, with
federal departments shifting gears and different departments taking over new
roles that were part of the DIE, I don't think
there's going to be fundamental change that people think someone
will dole out money for Title I, some department will
(12:59):
protect Title nine. Most of this issue of education will
remain local. In all of my experience of the seventeen
seventy six project packs speaking to literally hundreds of school
board members and parents and educators and everybody, there's a
lot to do on education that's essential. We need to
tackle the accreditation system. We need to have alternative associations
(13:20):
for school board members. We need to review the technology
that comes into classrooms and sells your kids data. We
need to address the safety concerns, and we need to
focus on the science of reading and math and not
about teaching that American history is something to be ashamed of.
That's what's essential. That's not coming out of the Department.
That's going to be your local swamp, not the swamp
(13:40):
in Washington, DC. You're listening to It's a numbers game
with Ryan Grodowsky. We'll be right back with me this week.
Is my friend and colleague Aidan Bazzetti. He runs the
nonprofit that I sit on the board of, the seventeen
seventy sixth Foundation. Aidan, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
For being here, thank you for having me on run
of course.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So Aiden, let's start with the Department of Education. It's
ending or it's closing stores. Trump can't end it by
executive order, but he's dismantling it. What do you think
the biggest impact, if any, will have on the local
school districts.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I think the majority of the impact on school districts
in particular will be fairly limited to the grants, with
a lot of these DEI initiatives attached to them. In
the first place, a lot of the department's activities focused
on loans and a state in local funding accounts for
(14:40):
the vast majority, over eighty percent of funding.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
For school districts.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So I think as they start winding down certain programs
in the Department, that we'll see less of an incentive
for school districts to pursue equity policies and resort of
justice policies that were tied to federal grants.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
But that's about it.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
What like, can you and if you don't know any
top of your head, then that's fine, but do you
know of any equity policies that the government spends on?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Federal prior administration, they listed equity as one of the
broader requirements for all federal grants coming out of the
Department and then and some of them had more specific initiatives.
I wouldn't be able to name all of them, but
it is not uncommon for the federal fundings to have
(15:32):
grants focused on equity or reviewing disciplinary practices with a
focus on resort of justice.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And things like that. But those are mostly holdovers from
the Bible.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
That's what happened under Obama, right.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And a lot of it did begin under the Obama
administration and then continued with the Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, specifically with the restorative justice. There was this old
liberal notion that there was a pipeline prison to school
pipeline that basically, you know, like the liberal reddick was
like a black kid got detention once and now he's
spending life in jail for smoking marijuana. Like this was
like the overall all ridiculous narrative they were putting out.
(16:13):
It wasn't exactly true, but the restorative justice thing that
you're talking about was they were saying, if a student
is Hispanic or black, because there's a higher percentage of
them to their overall population and in prison, to be
more leanient on them. And this is like the famous
case now is the was it Sandy Hook shooting? Great, No,
(16:34):
it wasn't Sandy Hook. It was the one in Florida,
the Stone Stone Douglas Yes Memorial, whatever it was that
was in Brower County shooting. That was the case where
the student had multiple, multiple, multiple infractures, including bringing dead
pets to school, talking about abusing animals, talking about you know,
(16:55):
attacking other kids, and it was never They had no
disciplinary records. So when he went to go buy a gun,
there was no there was nothing for cops. Is that
they're in flag and say, oh, this kid could be
a problem because there was all brushed on the rug.
So that way, if he went on to be arrested
for something lighter later on, there would be no record
or that he had a history of problematic behavior or anything.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
And that philosophy, unfortunately happens across hundreds, hopefully not thousands,
but potentially thousands of school districts where they intentionally decide
not to punish students oftentimes or due to their ethnicity,
because they're worried about some kind of disparate impact or
suspensions leading to a lifetime of them in prison for
(17:42):
whatever particular reason. And that's one of the problems that
schools are dealing with now, just these massive disciplinary issues
with their students. It's something that we found everybody cares about,
whether they're a parent or a teacher or a student,
the disciplinary situation, and a lot of schools across the
(18:04):
US School.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Of War right now.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
You know, we before Aiden ran the seventeen seventies foundation,
he worked for me at the seventeen seventy six Project
Pack and we would Aiden was in charge of like
meeting all the people who wanted to run for office.
So he has talked to thousands of people about local education,
which is he was a godsend for me for taking
(18:28):
that on for me. But what what what would shock
us often is how many red states and red districts
had this problem. There was one in Florida, Super Republican County.
Now I'm thinking of it Red Red Rivers, Red River
or something like that River County. I forget Indian River,
(18:48):
Indian River, Indian River, Florida. Yes, Aiden is also got
the only part of a brain that's working because mind
doesn't anymore. Indian River, Florida. They had this. They had
a desperate, intersperate impact on on students based on the race.
It wasn't it wasn't that the case, right, Aiden, It
was it.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Was racially based.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
They wanted so if you were, they wanted to do
a one to one ratio on disciplinary infractions based on
the race of the students. So and I think that
that district had a had a higher proportion of minority students,
so functionally it would mean that they would punish the
non non minority students more or the minority populations less.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Overall, it's an Asian specifically more than blacks and Hispanics.
It was. It was crazy, but it happens in red
districts too. You know, you talked to I said before
you talked to thousands of people who running for school
board to care local education. What's in your opinion, the
biggest misunderstanding in terms of rhetoric coming from talking heads
(19:55):
both liberal and conservative, to what actually frustrates teachers and princes,
bulls and parents at school boards.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah. I think on the conservative side, especially because of
what a lot of parents saw during the pandemic, they
have a large scaled mistrust or distrust in teachers and administrators.
And what we found is that especially in states like Louisiana,
who I think it was the only state really that
defied the general decline in education in the United States,
(20:26):
they actually gave more flexibility to teachers in the classroom.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So they had they.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Overhauled their curriculum, but they also allowed the teachers to
be a little more flexible and how they taught that
curriculum in addition to providing other services. But a lot
of teachers rebel on very strict rules, which is fine,
and a lot of parents don't understand that. But I
also think that in general, people don't understand just how
(20:56):
much the school board and the individual member and the
administrators run the day to day operations and set those policies.
Just because, for example, President Trump is doing all of
this action and setting out all these executive orders regarding
the Department of Education does not mean that the issue
has gone away. It has always been a local problem,
(21:19):
and people need to understand that it's going to take
local solutions to root out a lot of these devisive issues.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Right, And I think that that's you mentioned it before,
mentioned it in your answer. Administrators and the frustration around
administrators is what I would always hear the most often
about people who are unelected, hired by hired by superintendents
to sit there and make broad decision that really impacts teachers'
(21:48):
ability to teach in the classroom, and that would seem
overwhelmingly frustrating that no one really ever talked about. People
think it's always like the teachers being like the super
progressive ones when act is I would say nine times
out of ten administrators making teachers do things they don't
really want to do.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
That's why having school members who know how to oversee
the superintendent and the administrators is so important, because the
superintendent is basically the CEO of a school district. They're
doing most of the day to day work school members
in their current form do oversight. They're basically the board
(22:27):
of directors, right, so they can set the policies and
make sure the school district is going in the right direction.
But the superintendent has a lot of flexibility and if
you have the wrong person then they can lead to
a lot of damage, all the trickling all the way.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Through the system.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I like the way you put that. Yeah, in school districts,
school boards hire the superintendents or renew their contracts. What
is from talking to parents, what is the biggest concerns
in local education today?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
I think the number one The biggest concern that we've
seen is concern over school safety, not just from outside
threats but inside threats as well, but also generally students
can't read, and I think more parents are waking up
to the fact that their children can't read, and that's concerning.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean, we have to be able to read.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
We're very society and talking earlier about the school to
prison pipeline. If your kids can't read, they're more likely
to commit crime and end up in jail. So I
think there's a broader awareness now with parents that one,
schools aren't as safe as they used to be.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Or should be.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And two that schools by and large are starting to fail,
that we have had and poor performance.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And we're not even in a situation where the kids
are too big to get inside the school. Well, like,
what is this a school for ants? How can the
children learn to read if they can't inside the building?
That's from Zoolander If anyone's under the age of twenty
five and has never seen the movie anyway, But yeah,
I can really agree with that. But what are what
(24:16):
are the obstacles to innovation for most Let's say you
have a great person who's that wants to run for
school board, they get elected, what are the biggest obstacles
in the hurdles that we always see that you're hearing
now from running the foundation, that that school board members,
well intentioned ones who want to do the right thing,
are are dealing with.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, that's that's an interesting question. I think I would
say from a structural standpoint, the education community has dealt
with a lot of fads over the last couple of decades,
fads that haven't.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Necessarily talk about some of these fads.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
I mean, well, we used to teach site learning.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, we used to teach teachers, you know, three queuing
where they would point out, you know, the word on
the page and connected with a picture, and we know
that doesn't work. It was the subject of a lot
of debates several decades ago, but a lot of teachers
still use it. So there are parts of the education
system and teachers colleges that are still using outdated methods.
(25:20):
But because because those stuff around so long and we're
so damaging, there's also some resistance in the community or
the communities that are focused on education reform to looking
at new opportunities as well.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So that's a little bit of a wait.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
So what Aiden, wait? Wait, So what Aiden is talking
about right now is in the two thousands we have
you said something called phonics and a lot of classrooms
back in the eighties and nineties, and then in the
two thousands, Bush was all about phonics, and because Bush
was evil, you know, to a lot of liberals, a
lot of liberals embrace and then called site learning, which
(25:57):
is what Aidan mentioned, and that's basically where kids would
marize the word and that's how they would apply, but
they wouldn't actually learn the building blocks of sentence structure
and word structure. It was a terrible form we put
it in all the teachers colleges. We've adopted it in
most of our states. It set kids back tremendously in reading,
and teachers colleges, as Aiden said, still do it. Teachers
(26:20):
colleges are the root of so many educational issues, teachers
colleges and teachers' unions because the teacher's colleges are the
wild progressive places and the unions are what, in my opinion,
forward a lot of innovation because unions represent their workers,
they don't represent their students.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
And you know, Florida's done something interesting that they've started
to I think they passed the bill that required teachers
unions to recertify, so it gives the individual teachers and
the district a little bit more power on whether or
not they want to affiliate with the union. And then
if they don't hit a certain threshold, then that you
and has to dissolve. So that's one way that Florida
(27:02):
in particular has been pushing back on right teachers unions,
which has been really interesting to see. But yeah, the
teachers unions, they defend their interests, which is you know,
really the union administrators, not necessarily the teachers, which I
think has been problems with the problem with a lot
of these.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Public secuity unions. In the first place.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
They have they haven't really pushed for substantive reform. They
want to make sure that teachers are protected in their jobs.
So when conservatives try to fix the system by introducing
a little bit more personal accountability for teachers, they start
screaming and fight really hard against it.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
If you were advising a school board, let's say all
five members were or seven members, whatever the member is,
were elected and came to you and said, hey, we
want you to help us change. What are three things
a local government could do a local school board could
do to make their education better. And I know everything's
personalized and different, but an overall thing.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I think the first thing that we're actually starting to
see now is I would tell them to do a
comprehensive overview on what exactly is in their curriculum and
how much are they paying people to pull it together.
A lot of these school boards have massive budgets, sometimes
in billions and billions of dollars, so making sure that
(28:26):
they know where the money is going and what exactly
they're paying for is very important.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
When you're looking at the progress of the school district.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I would also inform them to set up a way
to track progress with the superintendent and introduce a little
bit more administrative accountability. Like I said before, the superintendent
really is the CEO and the board is just there
to make sure that everything stays on track. But I
think that they can really introduce a culture of accountability
(28:59):
and progress that.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
A lot of school districts don't have.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And the third thing is I would make sure that
the school board actually engages parents on a regular basis.
That's not necessarily strictly a policy change, but having printal
input in the school board is extremely important, especially now
because so many people don't trust public schools. And if
(29:23):
you're able to engage parents and see how certain policies
affect the day to day lives of those families and
their kids, then you'll be able to get a really
good handle on what exactly is and isn't working district.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So what does the seventeen seventy six Foundation do? What
is your goal from the non.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, so our goal on a nonprofit is to really
form a foundation for the turning school districts around in
a positive way.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We have.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
When I was working with the seventeen seventy six Project
Pack and I was talking with parents and school board
candidates from coast to coast across the country, we found
that basically everybody is dealing with the same problems. It differs,
of course from state to state depending on the laws there,
but broadly speaking, everyone is dealing with the same issues.
(30:17):
And so our goal is to get school board members
from across the country connected. We want to get them
mentorship and start providing them resources to actually turn their
school districts around and take that successful model and make
sure other people.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Can adopt it as well.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Aiden, that's great. Where can people go to read more
about what your stuff and the foundation?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, so I would visit the Foundation's website Foundation seventeen
seventy six dot org and you can follow me on
Twitter at Aiden Ai d E N.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Bizzetti b u z z e t T.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The great Aiden BEAZETI one of my favorite people I've
ever worked with. Aiden, Thank you for being on this
week's podcast. Hey, we'll be right back after this. Now
it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment of the show,
where I take questions from my audience about literally Anything,
and if you want to be part of the Ask
Me Anything segment, you can email Ryan at Numbers Game
(31:10):
Podcast dot com. That's Ryan at Numbers Plural Numbers Numbers
gamepodcast dot com And maybe next week I'll be reading
your question. Our question this week comes from Julie is Hi.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Ryan.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I found out about you through your appearances with the
Buck Sexton Show, which was great leading up to the election.
Thank you, Julie. I read your article, your article and
the Spectator about the distantass failed presidential run. My question
is whether you think he has another shot in twenty
twenty eight, What would need to change and do you
think he can rebound? So what? First of all, Julie,
(31:44):
thank you for listening to podcast. Thank you for reading
my articles. What I would say what Julie's talking about
was in twenty twenty three, I was invited to a
meeting with or beginning twenty twenty you know give me
twenty twenty twenty three, I was invited to a meeting
(32:04):
in Tallahassee with quote unquote influencers who were thinking about
supporting disantas. This was in I think March of twenty
twenty three March or early early April, but it was
one of the two and she was. I was invited
along with like a dozen or so quote unquote. I
hate the term influencers. I don't call myself an influencer,
(32:24):
but they did, so I'll use the term. I was
invited to Tallahassee with a bunch of influencers to meet
the governor and meet the team and talk about what
running for president was like. And it was supposed to
be a completely off the record meeting. And I went
there and I was a loud mouth like I always am.
I can't help myself. I do this for a living,
running elections and campaigns, and what I have learned from
(32:47):
being a consultant for the last two decades is that
you have to be bluntly honest with people. And I
don't mince words, and I don't have time. And if
you want someone who will just be a yes man
and kiss your r end, there's allion people you could hire,
but I'm not one of them. I would be much
further along in my career had I done that, but
I just don't do it. I don't have the time
(33:07):
or the energy. So anyway, we go to this meeting,
I meet the team, they sell me on their big
bag of nonsense. And then we go to meet the
governor and I was like this second. I told all
the influencers when we walked in the room, listen, the
Governor's not where he was in November when he was
leading in the polls against Trump. You have to be
(33:30):
very honest with him that things are not going well
and that he either needs to run like officially run
and run hard, or not run like. I told him
that he looks. I used the word pussy. I said,
you look like a pussy is Trump attacks you and
you don't say anything back to him. I told him
that his book was not good because it was not aspirational,
and I told him that he needed to connect more
(33:53):
with working class people by talking about his background as
a working class person. I think I specifically said to him,
as smart as you are and as good at playing
baseball as you were when you were younger, you would
probably not get into an Ivy League school today because
you're a white trade man, and they are discriminated against
white straight men at these universities. And you should address
that by speaking with your own experience. This is pre
(34:16):
Harvard case. And anyway, we had the meeting. Then we
had a dinner afterwards with the team the governor. The
governor was lovely, by the way, his wife was lovely.
I have nothing bad to say about them. He's a
great governor. But that was the meeting, and then we
went to the meeting with the team afterwards. I was
very unimpressed by what the team was saying. And the
(34:36):
general consultant said to me, like during the dinner, was like, so,
what do you think, And I said, I think we're
at an Irish funeral waiting for the body to drop.
Like I was not optimistic about what was going on.
I was like, this is not like I have no dey.
Anyone's like celebrating right now. So and then I had
one more call. I never worked for the Santus campaign.
By the way, I think it's important to say, like
people have accused me of working for DeSantis, and I
(34:57):
never did that. I never took a check, I never
I went to two meetings and I just gave them
my best advice. That's the only thing I ever done,
and that's what I think people. And I gave them
the profession advice I would give anybody. The meeting ends,
and then I get a call from the reporter several
months later, basically repeating what I had said during this meeting.
(35:18):
It was an off the record meeting, and I had
told by the way, I told all these quote unquote
influencers who loved as Santas, Hey, you need to be harsh,
you need to tell them the truth. And the minute
after I was speaking, I was the second person to speak.
The minute after I was done speaking, everyone was like,
You're so great, You're so wonderful. You're so great, You're
so wonderful. No one was telling the truth, and no
(35:40):
one was having an honest conversation. One of the influencers
were like, we need to talk about trans children. I'm like,
what the f are you all talking about? Like immigration, crime,
the economy, like brin cycle, repeat, AnyWho whatever. Deeply frustrated,
and the report had called and knew what I had
said and wanted me to go on records. So I said,
(36:02):
f this. If everyone's leaking about what I said, and
I didn't leak anyone's name, I'm going to just tell
the story from my perspective what I actually said. And
that's why I wrote the Spectator article. That's a very
long window way of saying of what happened anyway, we
do I think he has a chance to run in
twenty twenty eight. No, because people's window to run for
(36:23):
president is very, very small. Had Chris Christy not run,
had Chris Christi run in twenty twelve, I don't know
if he would have been the party's nominee. He would
have had a very good shot at being the party's nominee.
He had virtually no shot by twenty sixteen, and he
had really no shot by twenty twenty four when he
ran again. Twenty twenty four, when he ran again, your
(36:45):
window to be the new kid in town, to be
the shiny new toy, to be the one who has
earned it is literally very minimal. You have to know
when it happens, and you.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Have to do it.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Had George W. Bush Way four years or done it
four years previous, but during Bill Clinton's time, he likely
would have never become president. You know, it's just if it.
Had Clinton done it right after he was defeated his
first gugnatory second good natorial election, he likely wouldn't have
gotten it. So there are just times you have to
do it, and you if you don't do it, when
it's the time. And I think Desantas's time was twenty
(37:20):
twenty four. I don't I think if you wanted to run,
that was his only time to run. But he ran,
and he didn't do well. And I think he didn't
do well because and what I said to his team
and what I said to him, was your whole message
is about Florida. I don't ever want to live in Florida.
(37:40):
I don't like humidity. I really like cold weather. I'm
a Northeasterner. I talk fast, I'm aggressive, I'm abrasive. I
am a Northeasterner. That's who I am. It's part of
my identity. I want to live in the Northeast. What
are you going to do for me as someone who
lives somewhere like Pennsylvania or Michigan or New York or whatever.
You have to sell a national vision for where you're
(38:02):
taking this country. It can't only be Flora, the freestate
of Florida, over and over and over and over again.
And I think that that was missing. And I think
that his failure to connect to people in a way
that made them feel like they knew him. You know,
everyone says, oh, he's so icy, or he's so smart
(38:23):
and so he's a little cold. I would have leaned
more heavily into that when he there was a time
in the campaign trail where he said to a kid
like that ice cream is a lot of sugar. People
were like, oh, you know, look at him, he's so autistic. No,
I would have leaned into it. I think that's great.
I think that's actually who he is, and he should
have leaned into that. But it was very weird and
he just didn't do well. I mean, Nikki Haley performed him,
(38:44):
and she her campaign was on just absolutely nowhere in
the summer in twenty twenty three when she first ran.
So I don't think that he can rebound. I think
that history is littered with great men who would have
been great presidents, and ron de Santas will be one
of them, because he would have been a great president.
(39:05):
But I just don't see it that that's possible in
the future. And from my knowledge, there's only been one
former vice president who sought out his party's nomination and
didn't get it, and that was Mike Pence in twenty
and twenty four. Every other time a vice president has
sought his party's nomination, he's received it and JD Vance.
(39:27):
If he pursues his party's nomination, he's most likely going
to receive it, So that would push the can back
to at least twenty twenty eight or further. And by then,
no one's going to remember COVID. No one's going to
remember any of these things, or the war unwoke or
you know, there's not it's just time has passed. And
I wish him well. I wish him the best, and
(39:48):
I think he'd be, you know, great and almost anything,
because he's such a fabulous governor. But I just don't
think being presidents probably in the cards for him, and
I don't think that he can rebound from that. But
who knows. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think I am,
but that's my best mite. That's my personal take on
that anyway. Thank you so much for your email, Julie,
(40:11):
and once again, if you want to be part of
this segment on this show, please email me ryanat numbers
gamepodcast dot com. Thank you again for listening this week,
Like and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you to see you
guys next week.
Host
Gill Alexander
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!