Tom Horne and Luke Rosiak on the Shocking State of Public Education
50:16 Share

It's the new year and time for the new you. You've thought about running for political office but don't know where to start. Before you start any planning, you need to secure your name online with a yourname.vote web domain. This means your constituents will know they are learning about the real you when they surf the web. Secure your domain from godaddy.com today. Welcome to Breaking Battlegrounds with your hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone.

We have an education special today. First up, our first guest, Tom Horn, former superintendent of public instruction, former attorney general of the state of Arizona. He has also been a Paradise Valley school board member and president, legislator where he was chair of the Academic Accountability Committee.

And has a lengthy history of fighting against the radical progressivism here in Arizona, particularly famous for getting rid of the La Raza studies, which was really a precursor to some of the critical race theory stuff that we are seeing today.

and also for enforcing a mandate for English immersion for mostly Spanish-speaking children, which, if folks are not familiar, immersion is the fastest, best way for people to learn a new language. He got a lot of blowback over both of those things, stood strong throughout all of it. Tom, welcome to Breaking Battlegrounds.

Thank you. It's good to be with you. And let me just say that actually in the ethnic studies program, there was a curriculum that was a critical race theory curriculum and a shocking one at that. And so that played a big role in my getting it destroyed. And so I'm telling people I did it once. I can do it again. Great. Mr. Horn, a question for you. What do people not understand about the responsibilities regarding school board members?

I think it's one of the most underappreciated elected positions in American politics. You're talking about local school board members? Local school boards, yeah. And what did you learn from serving on the Paradise Valley School Board that you'll take to your job as superintendent for Arizona schools? Yeah, well, at the time...

Paradise Valley was the third largest district in the state. I served for 24 years, which means that either as a member or president of the school board, I attended over 2,000 school board meetings, so I'm very familiar with what goes on at school boards. And one of the things we did that I think is very important for... You know, I brought a focus on academics. Before that, the focus was on other things, and my first two years were all 4-to-1 motions and un-seconded motions, and then...

Two of my friends were elected, and we eliminated the need to second motions, so I retired the trophy for un-seconded motions. But...

You know, once we got a majority of three, we put a new focus on academics and the test scores came up. And part of that, which I think is an important role for the school board, is school discipline. Because students cannot learn when other students are able with impunity to disrupt classes.

And so I would say to the other school board members, you know, when some parent comes in and says, my little darling can do no wrong, don't listen to them. Listen to the vast majority of parents who want discipline in the classroom so their kids can learn. And so during those 24 years, we never overruled a teacher on discipline, not once in 24 years did we do that. As a result, we were known as the toughest school district around, and our academics and our test scores came up.

You know, Tom, when I was in Oklahoma, we worked with Martin Luther King High School there, which had the same kind of problem. And they isolated out 10 percent of that school was causing almost all the classroom problems. When they pulled those kids into a different curriculum, the other 2,700 who were left over, it was 300 kids who were causing the problems in a giant high school. The other 2,700, their learning shot up. Their test scores, their results went through the roof.

Those 300 kids also benefited by having extra focus on them. And then you had the federal government come in and shut it down and say we had to put – Oh, no. You know what? You can't listen to the federal government. I had this experience. This is a benefit of having a lawyer as state superintendent of schools. The federal government would tell me to do things, and I would say, you want me to do that?

Go to court and I'll meet you in court. I know where the courthouse is. And they never did. But then my my successor folded on everything. And I can give you examples if you want. I don't know if you want to use the time. Well, limited time we have. But so right now, though, we have a lot of these same problems cropping up in schools where, frankly, we need a superintendent who can take on the federal government because a lot of these programs are.

A lot of the craziness is coming down with the help of the federal government, with the help of the Fed, the National Department of Education. You have that experience as an attorney and state attorney general to actually be able to fight back against these things. Frankly, a lot of your opponents don't.

Yes. Fighting the federal government and fighting the teachers union are my two favorite sports. So tell us, what are the two or three issues as you run for this position? We're with Tom Hoard. What is your agenda that you're going to promote and campaign on this year?

First, let me say your listeners can see my whole agenda at TomHorne.com. Horne has an E at the end. And I'm glad you asked me for two or three because when I give speeches, I give six. And my political consultant tells me I give too much. I should limit it. So you're forcing me to limit it. Yes. Okay.

getting critical race theory out of the schools and as i said earlier i did once i can do it again uh... pre pre your listeners who who may not remember i was the super to schools from two thousand three to twenty eleven that i was attorney general and the uh...

the ethnic studies program in tucson uh... which i mentioned had a explicit critical race theory curriculum uh... i wrote a bill for the legislature which they passed put a stop to it and that that passed by last year's superintendent and i'm fortunate as attorney general and facing a cut off of funds this tucson school board voted four to one two eliminate the program so as i mentioned i did it once and i can do it again and that is my first priority because

because I believe that we're all individuals, we're brothers and sisters under the skin, and we need to teach our kids to treat each other as individuals, and that race is irrelevant. Whereas the Critical Race Theory program

is a identity politics program. They teach the kids the most important thing about them is their race. They divide kids between oppressors and oppressed, and the oppressors should feel guilty 24 hours a day, and the oppressed should not make any effort because they're oppressed, they can't achieve anything. And it's both a viciously racist program, and it is a

a program which is anti-merit because they say, you know, expecting kids to show up on time and do their homework is a white racist ideal. And so, you know, for those two big reasons, my first

priority in order to get our focus back on academics and teach our kids to not take race into account in any way is to get critical race theory out of the schools. Well, and they're going so far as to say that math is racist, right? And if there's anything that's not racist, it's mathematics, which crosses all cultures, all boundaries, and has actual absolutes. You're right or you're wrong.

That's why whenever I got to see a math, I thought it was racist. If we get to Mars, five times five will still be 25. Right. So, yeah, and there's a book in Paradise Valley School District, my old district, called Equity Math, believe it or not.

We're with Tom Horn, candidate for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, a position he served from 2003 to 2011. Tom has his agenda on his website. And Tom, I asked some people what questions should be asked of you. And one question I was asked, which repeatedly is, as the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, do you serve the parents or the kids?

Well, really both. That's what we call the fallacy of the false dichotomy, which translates as you can walk and chew gum at the same time. But, you know, I really think that...

And I've spoken to a lot of groups of, you know, parents have gotten angry because during COVID there was online teaching and they saw what was being taught and they were shocked by it and they got very angry about it. Now, when I talk to those groups, I urge them to be civil because you're more likely to persuade people by being civil than by being angry. But the internal anger is totally understandable. And during my 24 years on the school board, I

uh... we were not ever uncivil to patrons even if they were parents of even if they were uncivil to us we we said thank you for your input and we moved on uh... and to some school boards particularly the Scottsdale school board has become notorious for for being rude toward parents uh...

But I think that you have to listen to parents. But then you have to make a decision based on what you think is the right decision for the education of the kids, taking into account the parents' thoughts and taking into account the other information that you have. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of times, you know, kids don't necessarily – things that they might not like are things that are good for them, right? And that's true in education and spinach. Right.

Right. You know, you kind of have to push past that sometimes and really focus on delivering a quality education and not letting our schools be turned into

you know, progressive social experiments. Exactly. That's exactly right. The teachers are supposed to teach the kids science and math and factual patriotic history and English literature and the arts. They're not supposed to be talking about their personal lives or about the kids' personal lives. They're supposed to be teaching them academics.

China is number one now in international tests and the United States is number 25. If we don't turn this around as a national matter and focus on academics, the future belongs to the educated. China will be the world power calling the shots and will be a third world nation, will be the future of Ghana. So we've got to focus on academics and we've got to get this other junk out of our schools.

Oh, that's fantastic because I think that's all parents want. I think they want their children when they leave middle school, when they leave high school to be able to graduate and read, write, et cetera, at that grade level. So they can either a go get a job and be competent at it or go to college or technical school or something of that nature. You know, you're running for Arizona superintendent of public instruction. My question is, what is your role in that regarding school choice? Arizona seems to be ahead on that issue, like Florida on school choice.

what is your responsibility to manage those programs so our listeners know well i've i've i've long been an advocate on school choice and and and when i was a return to a deep and better than florida uh... when i was in the legislature in the nineteen nineties the senate passed a bill to limit the growth of charter schools even those republican senate uh... imparted the education omnibus bill which has a lot of different education provisions

the house pass an education of the pistol that did not have that i was the chair of the conference committee to resolve those two bills and the first thing i did was to kill the limit on the growth of charter schools i thought that uh... that that the market should prevail

Parents should have as many charter schools as they want for their kids. And as a result of my doing that, my last year as superintendent, Arizona was number one in the country in charter schools. We had 10% of our kids in charter schools, and Florida was second with 7% of their kids in charter schools. So I have always been and I always will be a champion for school choice. That's fantastic.

You know, Tom, we're going to bring you back here on the next segment. But go ahead and give people, again, your website address, how they follow you. And if you're listening, part of our audience in Florida, when you're asking why this matters,

Well, this is the future of our country. All these kids in Arizona or in Florida, they're not going to stay in these states. They're going to go all around the country, all around the world. And we need them to be well-educated. Tom? Yes, when I said Florida was second, I forgot that we were in Florida. So please don't anybody in Florida take that as a no. Yeah, we don't want to start a fight in Florida. The Florida man lives. The Florida man lives. Breaking Battlegrounds will be right back with Tom Horne.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren and Sam Stone on the line with us today. Tom Horn, former superintendent of the state of Arizona, former attorney general and candidate once again for superintendent, guy who got an awful lot done. When we went into the break, Chuck brought up an issue that is common to government everywhere across this country right now, which is bloat.

waste. Our government is spending huge amounts of money and they're not accomplishing a whole lot. That's true in every area, but especially in education. Tom, tell us what your experience is with that, because I know you've seen it up close and personal.

Yes. Efficiency has always been very high on my priority list. When I ran my law firm, people used to say that I could make the buffalo in a nickel scream. And I've previously told you about my history on the school board where I went from being on the wrong side of 4 to 1 to 3 to 2 on my side. And the first thing we did was we sent people from our district office back to the classroom

and we got our district office down to two and a half percent of the overall budget uh... and then what was it before what was it before it was much higher than that before i don't know about what you're going to double or triple it could be could be uh... uh... well let me just tell you what happened and i went to the legislature

presented a bill that would limit the other districts to five percent if you if we could do it for two and a half percent they could do it for five percent well the the the objections from the inefficient districts were so loud that i couldn't get the bill heard so that's something i'm going to continue to campaign on his get the money out of it out of administration

into the classroom for teacher salaries and class size and uh... and and that's and that's what we've got to do i have always as uh... i knew perhaps unusual for a conservative republican i've always advocated for more resources for education along with that has to go accountability and part of accountabilities academic accountability and part of his a financial cat uh... accountability are you spending the money on teacher salaries and smaller class size and not on administration

Tom, one of the things that I learned when I started digging into the education world that really shocked me is you hear schools all the time talk about how many master teachers they have. But shockingly, a lot of those master teachers aren't in the classroom anymore. They're in administrative positions, whether at the school or the district level.

And, you know, in education, there are huge amounts of study and literature that shows a great teacher is the single most important person outside of a parent for a student's education. So it makes total sense to get those folks back into the classroom.

Right? I couldn't agree more. When we used to meet the 50 state superintendents, the smartest one I met was from Ohio, and she taught me something very important. She said there are three things that are important in education. Number one, the quality of teachers and teacher leaders. Number two, the quality of the curriculum. And number three, the motivation of the students.

And sometimes we forget about that third part. And so when I was superintendent, I was the first superintendent to enforce a bill that had passed the legislature that students have to pass a statewide test to graduate. And when I left, they stopped doing it. And so teachers say to the kids, please do well on the test. I need you to do well. And the kids say, why should I? And they leave it early and don't make any effort. We need to...

emphasize having quality teachers and quality teacher leaders, quality curriculum, and work on the motivation of the students as well. That's great. Absolutely. One of the other things that I've seen a little bit, and maybe you can talk about this, is there anything we can do? These mega schools, when you're talking to 3,000 kids, I think they're too homogenizing. They try to treat all the kids the same. They treat

The special kids, the same as they treat the high learners or try to. And in a way, I think that's really inefficient, but it also damages those students. Are there ways for schools to focus on the needs of individual students, create pod programs within their larger institutions, that kind of thing?

Yeah, actually, I think it was a big foundation. I think maybe the Gates Foundation did a study where they gave money to divide big schools into smaller schools, and it didn't seem to make any difference. Really? So that was an experiment. Yeah, that was an experiment that didn't make much sense. But obviously your point is not to treat all kids the same. You know, we talk about the aim of high school education is to make kids career or

or college ready. So some kids need to be headed for college and have to have a vigorous academic program. Other kids are heading for a job. They shouldn't have to go to trade schools. They should get that in high school. And I put a big emphasis on what we call career technical education. And what we did was we integrated

the standards for the career technical education with the academic standards because if you want to be a auto mechanic you can right out of high school you can get a sixty thousand dollar salary but you better know math to do that and as a result of our doing that

the kids in career technical education scored higher on our statewide tests than the other kids did. Why? Because we integrated those standards with the academic standards and because they were motivated. They went to companies and did internships and they were motivated to do well and they ended up doing better on the statewide tests than the other kids. That's fantastic. We're with Tom Horn, Arizona Superintendent, Public Instruction Candidate. You can find him at electtomhorn.com.

Tom, why do you keep serving? I mean, you have a long, distinguished record. And I mean, it's a fair question because, you know, people are a bit schmucky nowadays. Right. And I'm sure you get lots of criticisms. People get angry. You've dedicated decades of your life to serving our education, our kids, our community, our state. Why do you keep doing it? Well, you know, my my my

My friends tell me I'm going backwards because I was an Arizona attorney general and I'm running for superintendent of schools again. But my response is the big problems in the schools now, and that's really what I want to work on. You know, I've made enough money as a lawyer to have a roof over my head and bread on the table. And the rest of it, in my mind, doesn't really matter. What matters to me is having a meaningful life, doing something for the country, doing something for the community. And that's what gives me satisfaction. And yeah, I get blamed.

believe me i get blamed for everything including bad weather but to achieve things and you know we we raise the academics when i was superintendent such an extent that when i left office uh... arizona students performed above the national average on the scholastic aptitude test which is a national test the states cannot manipulate it all three measures critical reading writing and math uh...

When's the last time in recent years that you heard that Arizona students perform above the national average? I can't remember. All I hear is that we're just, you know, even with the $3 or $4 billion extra we give into public education spending, they're still broke. I mean, it's all I hear. Yeah, we've got to get the emphasis on academics. So that kind of work is very satisfying and much more satisfying than earning more money would be. Tom, we have just about a minute left here.

I want to say one thing in particular. When you were in there, you faced a lot of fire. You took a lot of flack from the left. You took a lot of flack from Democrats, from the news media. And I think you need someone in there right now who's very, very tough and has that thick skin to take on this challenge. You've proven you have that, right? Yeah, I'm 6'6", but I only weigh 90 pounds because the rest of what you see is all thick skin. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Probably wise advice you need to give to everybody running for public office. Yeah. That's the first requirement for running for public office. You have to have a thick skin. I think it's critically important right now. And obviously, education is really maybe the issue in the country for so many reasons. Folks, I highly encourage you to follow Tom Horn at Tom. It's Tom Horn dot com with an E on the end. Sign his petition. Sign his petition.

Get him on the ballot. And you can contribute on there, too. It's T-O-M-H-O-R-N-E dot com. You've run before. I can tell you hit all the points. You contribute, contribute. Thanks, Tom. We appreciate you. The 2020 political field was intense. So don't get left behind in 2021. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to do list needs to be securing your name on the Web with a your name dot vote Web domain from GoDaddy dot com. Get yours now.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your hosts Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Today's a bit of an education special, and we've got a guy on the line next that I am personally very excited to talk about. I think he's done absolutely brilliant work in the last couple of years, Luke Rosiak.

investigative reporter for The Daily Wire and author of a new book released this week, Race to the Bottom. In Race to the Bottom, Luke uncovers the problems in K-12 schools and the shocking reason why American education is failing. I highly encourage folks to follow him on Twitter, at Luke Rosiak, R-O-S-I-A-K. Luke, thank you for joining us and welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. When you were doing, obviously, I think...

The thing you're most known for at the moment is uncovering the rape in Loudoun County schools that really blew up in the Virginia governor's race. But you were doing a lot of work leading up to that discovery that I think has national implications people really need to be aware of. So tell us a little bit about the book, what you've seen going on, because I saw some of these things starting back in 2014. They've really come to fruition in the last few years.

yeah that's exactly right on you know people kind of know about the loudon school board that i helped uncover but after two last two years of actually been working on a bigger project i've been working with peter schweitzer the author of clinton cash to do this map investigation of america school boards nationwide

And so I have basically 61 case studies that are kind of like what I did in Loudoun. We want to bring this thing national and kind of put out a roadmap for parents everywhere to kind of do what we did in Virginia with their own school boards. And so it details the variety of mechanisms in which these schools are hijacked from being places of learning to be vehicles for various special interests to advance their own agenda.

In a lot of ways, it's really progressive social experimentation programs that have taken over education that really have no interest in educating children but in sort of rebuilding society in a different image. And as you talk about in the book, it's being driven by a lot of very large, very well-funded organizations that are doing this.

Yeah, that's right. They've been working very hard over a period of decades to kind of entrench themselves in these schools and

It's funny because it's really pretty savvy. While most of us were kind of paying to national politics, what's our opinion about the president or whatever, there were these very clever operators that were kind of coming in through the back door. So while we're all looking at national, they're systematically taking over our local government. And one of the key sets of influencers there that people don't know about is the

uh... rockefeller foundation the car key foundation the kellogg foundation indicate foundation uh... going back ten years ago people kind of have a general sense that the gates foundation was behind common core big educational form around two thousand nine which is true uh... but i would say that in the last couple years

A similar thing has happened with Kellogg Foundation and these others as far as pushing these racial ideas that a lot of people refer to as CRT, which I usually like to call equity because that's what the school systems themselves call it. And these are penetrating not just school systems but local governments, municipal boards, county boards, all these types of things. And they're being embedded in those governments as part of the governing philosophy of

which really has nothing to do with the mission of any of those institutions. Yeah, it's a great takeover mechanism because, you know, everyone's got their little department. If you're a bureaucrat, you've got some department. But what they do is they set up these chief equity officers that have oversight over every single department. And they say every decision we make has to go through an equity lens. And so, you know, if you want to clean the street, suddenly you've got to do a racial analysis of that department.

uh... the problem is these people don't actually have a track record of making anything better anywhere uh... most of this stuff geographically speaking was piloted in the at all in minneapolis

over the last twenty years and the city's have done basically what you see in a place like arizona or florida now is what you know minneapolis was doing ten years ago the rest of the country is just kind of a uh... you know delayed playback of what those two cities are doing and this city now have some of the worst racial gaps in the country uh... it's not made anyone happier obviously in minneapolis we saw the young people they're literally setting their their city on fire because they feel a press

and that was uh... in spite of or maybe even because of depending on how you look at it uh... all of these constant equity programs that are like teaching everyone that the press without any solution for how to make things better

We just have one minute before we go to break here, and we're going to bring you back for our next segment. But I think this is absolutely a critical read for everybody. How do they get a hold of your book? I know you're on Amazon, all these kinds of things. Tell people a little bit more how they can get a hold of this and read it because they need to. Yeah, Amazon is probably the easiest way. It should be in local bookstores too. I think it's a great way to kind of get empowered. Knowledge is power, and it's going to give you the confidence to go before your local school board and see through their spin. Yeah.

Absolutely critical. We are seeing this at every level of our local government, particularly our school boards. And we're going to be talking some more with Luke Rosiak when Breaking Battlegrounds. Yeah, I almost slipped. We changed the show name. Breaking Battlegrounds coming right back. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Horner, with my co-host, Sam Stone. Today we have on with us Luke Rosiak. He is the investigative reporter for Daily Wire and just released a new book called Race to the Bottom. Yeah.

Luke, as you've done research on this book and your writings with The Daily Wire, what has surprised you about public schools that you just didn't know before and just sort of shocked you? Or was there anything that didn't shock you?

The very first thing that shocked me that really motivated me to write this book way back in 2019 was learning that there was, out of the 10 Democrats on my local school board, the Fairfax County Virginia board, not a single one of them had children in the school. Oh, that's weird. They were all there for the room. That's just weird. I've heard that before. So obviously I'm running for a social agenda because the kids really are very secondary to me.

Exactly. And then after I started writing it and everyone started thinking of the schools in terms of coronavirus shutdowns and the teachers union power that that displayed, and then CRT, I was thinking about it along the same lines, but I was surprised to learn that those are actually symptoms of a much longer, longstanding problem in the schools, which is probably the most surprising chart I ever saw. Plotted grades, like letter grades,

versus test scores and there was no correlation there to the teachers are routinely giving like top grade ticket the can't even read there's one school in new york city that only two percent of the kids past their math exams uh... but ninety-nine percent of them uh... pastor class

in that on the same project so what i realized is what this is actually about is hiding the academic performance figures for teachers so when they do see our key they said what test start real unit sas pepper racist

uh... objectivity that we are asking kids to get the right answer is a function of a white culture uh... more that's pretty convenient when we're spending seventeen thousand dollars a year per student and we've got thirty six percent literacy rate twenty four percent proficiency in math uh... coronavirus was kind of the same deal if you shut down schools and you can't you standardized testing because of this virus well suddenly you can cover up the incompetence so i kind of um...

view all of this as being actually the cynical use of racial rhetoric to cover up academic failures. It sounds a lot like our conversation with former Congressman Jason Chaffetz two weeks ago when he was chairman of the Oversight Committee. We asked him what his biggest surprise was. He said, the press doesn't do their job. They don't care about the truth. They just simply have an agenda. And he goes, I was really shocked and quite stunned by that.

And I think you go and you have these people going to school board, and it's really not about the students is what it sounds like. It's not really about them graduating at their grade level. It's about everything else but that, it seems like. And that has tragic long-term consequences for America. So one thing COVID's done and Loudoun County's done and others has really awakened parents who kids go to public schools. Sam and I have heard numerous times from parents who said,

Who've just been all fired up and just said, I feel bad. I have just simply thought this was being taken care of. Then we have COVID and I hear them on Zoom and it's a disaster. Right. What's being taught in these schools as these parents start going to school board meetings? What are the questions or things you think they should be asking or looking for?

I think you've got to stay focused on academics as demonstrated by objective test scores because they lie about everything else. So if they're talking about anything, say, excuse me, how does this relate to improving standardized test scores in math? And what's the proof of that?

uh... you know you get a one in the other various acronyms to learn which basically honestly all the acronyms just mean moving things like a subjective measures you want to bring it back to test scores i mean i want to pay real quick and i know you brought in this book touches on many different school districts of the broadcast in arizona uh...

it just to make the point that this stuff has been going on for longer than people realize in the chamber unified uh... school district at the phoenix uh... back in twenty fourteen they paid uh... four hundred and twenty thousand dollars for this

racial training called deep equity and uh... it companies really got quite a few m killing because the school board was putting a bond before voters then we don't have enough money to have built you know maintain our buildings please we need more money well they're giving four hundred and twenty thousand dollars to be a racial consultant

and these racial consultant acts with a built-in field mechanism they say if any parents question why we're spending money teachers are instructed to quote explicitly reject and resist those parents

So this dynamic that schools have been really treating parents like the enemy, it's been taking place for a long time, and there is a very cynical, self-serving, either monetary or, you know, for these consultants, and then opt it for the schools who just want to look good side to all this. It's like these companies sort of view it as Nike does overseas labor for their shoes. It's just simply, they're just there to help us make money or push an agenda. Yeah.

I wonder what percentage of parents in that school district know that the school district spent $420,000 on this. 2%? 5%? Yeah, and that's the thing. Yeah, it's really just the schools have been now, that's really, I was so surprised to learn that over the last two years of investigating all this, is the schools have always done this. It's

it's just that parents are just paying attention. Some people think all the racial stuff is new because of George Floyd and all that. They've been doing the weird racial stuff for quite a while in the schools. They've been pulling various, you know, deceiving parents in various ways. And really some of these activist groups, including the teachers unions, are willing to inflict emotional and physical abuse on kids to get their way. It's like, it's kind of frightening how cutthroat they are. Well,

What percentage of district budgets do you feel actually go to the classroom versus go to these type of programs or bloated administration? They call this classroom spending. Yeah, but what do you think they really are misappropriating for things other than actually teaching these kids the three R's? So let's think about it. The average, the United States spends on average $17,000 a year per student per

uh... this was before per year this is before coronavirus so let's say twenty thousand now because all the extra money they got if you've got twenty kids in the classroom that four hundred thousand dollars well the average teachers making about eighty thousand dollars so where is the other three hundred and twenty thousand dollars going each year because

all you really need is a you know uh... up a teacher and four wall but a couple of that uh... and forget the money's going to uh... really a bloated level of administrators and uh... basically these uh... you know a lot of these equity programs and uh...

uh... you know they it's amazing how dishonest they are to stay that it's just another example of the way that they are always looking for an excuse to hide the be at the poor academic performance if they'll say well the reason we've got thirty six percent literacy it could we need more funding

well what would you do with the funding uh... how would that help kids read could you've got four hundred thousand dollars per classroom already in it actually been the go back to the eighties one time in in uh... st louis there is this interesting situation where a federal judge took over the school district i'm sorry that the kid the city kid the city uh... was taken over by federal judge who basically gave unlimited money to the inner city schools to just kind of do a cat that he could money solve it

And the answer is money won't solve these problems. The issue is not money. It's just kind of an excuse that they use. Well, we've got a lot of school districts in this country that are spending $25,000, $30,000 per student, and their results are some of the very worst in the entire country. So I don't understand the money solves this argument at all.

But on top of which, you mentioned the testing. What we've seen here in Arizona, and we're on the air in Arizona and Florida, in Arizona, they have kept dumbing down the test and matching it to this equity curriculum. At that point, you're not talking about a legitimate measure. So there's a lot of levels that this has to be fought at, right?

Yes, exactly. I mean, there's a lot of bad stuff happening at the state level. Sometimes even when you have a good governor, it'll be like the state school board association will start injecting bad stuff. They have all these associations that the educators are a parallel infrastructure.

so they're always trying to undermine you know i mean even if parents get worked out you get a good governor you get parents are paying attention uh... you've really got to be vigilant because you're going up against these people that are basically paid full-time to manipulate things and then here we are the regular parents of course we've got our own job so we've got a watcher kid

And we're trying to do this on the side. I think parents can win because it isn't ultimately, it's not a Democrat versus Republican thing. It's a special interest versus children thing. But it is going to require kind of parents getting informed. And that's one of the things I hope to achieve with this book, as well as just kind of having the courage and the tenacity to keep showing up at these school board meetings. And Luke, on a meta level,

Really good education is a national security issue for us going forward, right? This is our national future is being tied up in a lot of really terrible education. The Chinese are not foisting this stuff on their kids. Those kids are learning high level math. They're learning multiple languages. They're learning real things, right?

it really frightened me i mean for a lot of it's not like this is about like making fun of woke people and how that silly idea and this is about national security this is about the quality of life that we all benefit from because of technological advances uh... this is about saving lives through medicine uh... and so you know even thinking back to a pandemic we had long ago that uh... polio uh... epidemic

uh... very smart guy named jonah salt comes around and and create this vaccine that wiped out polio across the world uh... he got it start through the specialized magnet school in in new york city and they're not trying to get rid of the past to get into the magnet schools because there's too many asian succeeding and i could just proportionate

and so they just can't standard because the asians are proving that the american dream is a real because we're succeeding through hard work and they basically try to say that somehow the exams are biased in favor of asians and against blacks uh... even though

part of the damn it uh... you language-based finger that uh... that uh... the test you in your you know you're writing field as well so i don't know how an exam in english could be biased towards speak non-native english speakers but that's the claim it's a total conspiracy theory

And I just think what you said is exactly right. We can't indulge these kind of conspiracy theories like tests are not actual means of evaluating whether a kid knows content. Because when you do that, people will die. We need to say merit is a real thing. We need to encourage our highest performers because all of us benefit from their hard work and their genius.

Well, it's absolutely ridiculous to me to say that this is a racial thing when you have East African and African immigrants more generally, their kids succeeding at a very high level. Right. So, I mean, to play that this is a racial component when it is so clearly not is absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah, and some of these schools, there used to be more blacks in them than there are now. And so, you know, I don't think we've become more racist since the 1950s as a society. I think we've become less racist, luckily. So I think it's hard to say, then, that racism is to blame for kids not being in these schools like Thomas Jefferson Magnet School here in Virginia or Stuyvesant in New York when...

you know uh... the black percentage of the client of the last fifty years it's hard to blame racism for that on the other i was at the fairfax county school board meeting last night and uh... asian parents were just uh... here's screaming racist racist racist at the school board uh... because they did get rid of the intrinsic into our magnet school here on a judge ruled last month that they broke the law by doing so by committing racism infusion

and school board double down they said they're going to appeal it uh... instead of school board was kind of a chaotic scene yesterday and it's again that that political alliances are shifting a bit here this isn't simple democrat versus republican the asians are kind of emerging as people are gonna stand up to this meritocracy and you'll see a lot of parents uh... who are just traditional democrat voters who were just disgusted by the fact that will shut down last year for so long and that can impact the way they think about local politics in the future

Luke, we've got two minutes here left. Quickly, tell us, how did you get involved with this subject? How did this become a specialty of yours? And then tell our folks again how they can find you and purchase your book and things of that nature.

well i was a reporter in washington doing investigative reporting about congress and yet the white house all that stuff and i thought it was you know the pinnacle of my career i thought there was a great opportunity because uh... washington is the most important after i realized that my local school board had to look at

No kids in the school system. And a couple other things. There was like a push for 1970s busing in this area that I realized had no academic benefit, and it really didn't help any of the kids. Kids don't benefit from busing, but it helped the administrators hide the fact that some schools were just total failures by just moving the kids around. I started realizing that local government was really important and that when people don't pay attention to it, that's when you have these takeovers of special interests.

So that's kind of when I started writing this book, Race to the Bottom. I spent two years on it. I think it's kind of the ultimate, it's a book of this moment. It's very timely to come out with this 300-page in-depth sort of narrative and investigative expose of schools all across our country.

Well, we appreciate your hard work. It's needed. Our producer will be in touch with you. We have some things we want you to see if you're interested in doing in the future. Folks, we are glad to have with us today Luke Rosiak, reporter for Daily Wire and the author of a newly released book, Race to the Bottom. Luke, thanks a million. Have a great day. Welcome back to the podcast-only segment of Breaking Battlegrounds. In the studio with us today, as always...

Our producer, the irrepressible Kylie Kipper. She's going to be bringing you your sunshine moment, which we need after that discussion of schools. Because, man. Boy, howdy. Boy, that stuff is scary. It is very scary. And I am excited to be back. It's been a little while. It has been a while since we've had any sunshine on this program. Yeah. Oh.

Oh. You even have my music for today. Okay. So this story is about a pooch named Ruby. And so Ruby was, well, is, she still is alive. So she's an Australian shepherd. Okay, but that makes the story sunnier. Yeah. Australian shepherd and border collie mix who ended up in a Rhode Island animal shelter as a puppy. She was adopted five times and returned five times because her energy, she was just,

Had too many behavioral problems. I had a kid in class back in the day who was like that. Was his name Ruby? Steve. Anyway, continue with Ruby. But a shelter volunteer, Patricia Inman, she repeatedly intervened and was like, I don't want to euthanize her. I'm going to find a family for her, etc. So then came along a state police sergeant, Daniel O'Neill, who needed a search and rescue dog. He was taken back by the eight month old Ruby's energy and intelligence. He actually described her as irrepressible.

Which is kind of... No, that's perfect. That is perfect. And after Patricia vouched for the canine, she ended up becoming a police canine. And she graduated at the top of her class.

Well, see, this is what happens if you don't medicate them to death. Yes. But this part of the story actually gave me the chills when I was reading it. So fast forward to October of 2017. A teenage boy got lost for 36 hours after going for a hike. And Ruby actually found him unconscious in a grave of medical condition in a medical condition. He actually turned out to be Patricia Inman's son.

Wow. Yes. Okay. Way to go on this week's sunshine moment, Kylie. I know. It's crazy. It's an irrepressible story. And it's going to be a Netflix movie, right? Yes, it is. On St. Paddy's Day. How did Hallmark miss out on that one? I know, right? They've got Christmas movies to do. Let's let them focus on what they focus on. It's called Rescued by Ruby, and it comes out on March 17th. So O'Neal and Ruby have been partners for 11 years, and they've teamed up on numerous successful rescues and helped convict two murderers.

But they've also had some rough times. A drunk driver actually hit them in 2020. And O'Neal suffered five broken ribs. But Ruby was luckily OK. Ruby should have her own Disney Junior show or Nickelodeon or something. This super dog that saves people, solves murders, give them a little detective hat. I love the whole thing. Yeah. That's not a bad idea, Chuck. I think you're getting a pitch hat to somebody. TM, TM. Everybody's hearing this TM. Yes.

But this part actually kind of made me chuckle because O'Neill said Ruby is still Ruby. And then 23 years ago, she bolted in a state park, which prompted a 19-hour search. So we're searching for the search dog? Exactly. Okay. Okay.

And then the other day or a couple of years ago, she was out relieving herself in quotes. And she came back with a live skunk in her mouth. So she's still, you know, she's still Ruby. Ruby sounds like the prototypical American. Yeah. And we once had a dog who was like the nicest dog on earth. One day he got into it and apparently chased a porcupine. Oh, my gosh. The thing got him. He ended up getting it. Yeah. Oh, man.

Yeah, no. That's a great story today. Thank you for sharing that. Yes, no, that was a fantastic story. And everybody look for the story on Ruby on Netflix on March 17th. And folks, it's important to support those type of movies because Hollywood follows the dollar. Oh, that's true. So follow the movie, enjoy it, share it, so they'll produce more movies like that. Well, I'm ready for anything but woke superheroes at this point.

Well, Sam, today's show was darn depressing. But as you and I discussed on the show, I think public education, K-12, is something that common sense parents can get back on track. Absolutely. How on earth? Is it Fairfax County or Loudoun County? Loudoun County. Loudoun County has 10 schools.

School board members who have no kids is ridiculous. I mean, here's the reality. You've seen that here in Arizona. No, no. And I made this comment before. Some people go, you can't do that. We require people generally to live in their legislative district to run for that legislative seat. I really believe you should not be on a school board unless you have had kids or they're in school now.

I'm tempted to say you have a limited time. You know, you have to have them in that school and for only a limited time, like the end of your term. Well, you and I graduate. Well, you and I were talking today. No policy should come from anybody under 30 who doesn't have a mortgage. Right. Right. And because there's just certain things you learn through the progression of life. And unless you have children in school and have seen how they're taught and what their reaction is to it.

You don't know anything on that school board. I don't care how many books you read. Well, and it's the one thing I thank God, you know, over COVID for because it broke the dam on what was going on that nobody had any idea about. Well, sadly, many times when the darkness comes, light comes, and we've learned something new. And I think COVID has really changed the course of where public education was going. I do believe that. Well, and for folks who don't know, you have a –

A program here in Arizona, 1980, which is recruiting school board members to go in. And, you know, it's nonpartisan, but it is focused on quality education over indoctrination, over any kind of this, you know, whatever you want to call it. Critical race theory, social, emotional learning, equity. It doesn't matter. These are all names for we can't educate your kids worth a damn.

And we don't care. We're running a social experiment on them instead. Exactly. Well, great show this week. Kip, thanks for lining everything up. Jamie, as always, thank you very much. Folks, appreciate you listening to us. You can find us at BreakingBattlegrounds.boat. And we'll be back next week. Absolutely. Let's go.

The political field is all about reputation, so don't let someone squash yours online. Secure your name and political future with a yourname.vote web address from godaddy.com. Your political career depends on it.