Season 6, Episode 6
Today’s top three education stories, with a focus on ESA policy and Arizona state policy.
Topics: ESA; AZ/state policy
Transcript
Auto-generated transcript with light cleanup. Words may be imperfect; policy names and guest names reviewed where noted.
Okay Let's let's just jump right into it. I've got three new stories. By the way It's kind of cool of Grok is amazing for anyone that isn't using Elon Musk's AI platform in X or On Grok.com, but it's pretty amazing. I put in a specific set of parameters that I want followed for selection of news stories and You know like they need to be education-based.
They need to be primarily in the US unless there's a big story outside the US Anyway, a set of parameters that I put in and And then every morning I just jump in and I say I'm ready for my news update and it kicks out the top three news stories. Wow And today I swapped one in for the number one news story that it gave me, but That's rare, you know, I mean, I just I just say that's literally all I type now is I'm ready for my news update and it Pushes out three news stories for me. So someone someone this morning sent me like a research report that they Created using is it Gemini?
Maybe I don't know. I'm not familiar with AI And it was like what looked to be a very good research report. I'm kind of a niche question like it almost makes me a little nervous She is a researcher I need to be worried here You know what I'm still safe. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's cool I Was talking to Jay, but well you and I both were talking to Jay about this He got through what I think he said would probably be several weeks of just pouring through Data from an academic journal.
Yeah, and AI was able to To plow through it and what like a day a few hours. I think it was Yeah, no, it definitely like it has some clear benefits for you know for the researchers themselves You know, personally I have to admit I have not Like I've spent very little time playing around with it. I really got to learn it But yeah, definitely an amazing tool. Yeah, pretty cool.
So um I'm certainly not a pro at it. I'm I'm positive. I'm on the low end, but um So far it's been awesome for the small things I've used it for so yeah um Okay, oh hey on that note real quick It's kind of interesting um I downloaded the past three Elections cycles worth of um uh donor reports that are submitted by uh Politicians or political candidates to the secretary of state And I was doing this in um for candidates in Arizona I and you have to go through it's pretty tedious, you know, I mean you have to click through each quarter So one year you have to do you know for reports, but You only do them on each cycle so it's every other year, but anyway I did three years worth of that for statewide and for legislative candidates And then I plugged all of that uh um Well, what I did is I I put those all into a folder on my computer and then um I had I had Grock program me I'm not a programmer by the way Grock program me a Python app that would strip all of the data out of the pdf's that I had downloaded and combine them into one large uh excel spreadsheet And so I have three and then um You know once it's in a spreadsheet you can do all kinds of stuff with it obviously you can sort it by Name or or dollar amount or whatever, but I have um three years worth of donation data from Arizona Political candidates In spreadsheet form something that would have taken me I mean weeks it would have been weeks for sure And it just did it so I think we talked about this one of the things I'd like to look at at some point if it's possible is the Political affiliation or giving of staff of charter school authorizing offices Yeah, yeah, because I have a I have a theory about what that looks like and I don't think it's especially Representative of the United States or the states that they served if I had to take a guess um So You and I may need to chat later about if there's a way to do this using AI We should but that I think would be a really really important research topic because Matthew Lee's report that came out last year on this um Uh, well it kind of touched on it um, it kind of brushed up against this topic and uh, but didn't address it directly I think we absolutely need to dig into that so yeah, we should chat about that. Yeah, definitely Okay, um, let's jump in to our news stories um before we do I'm just gonna um repost this and see if we can get some Uh, a couple of visitors here Okay right here And on the conversation cool post that um and It listening cool.
All right um So news story number one is uh New Hampshire House Passes Universal School Choice following Senate passage so um That happened kind of after new and yesterday then we'll talk about federal K-12 funding um Faces budget cuts 4.5 billion in the upcoming Trump budget and then Detroit teachers rally against school closure threats so um There's the common theme here this week We're we're seeing a lot of the same uh type of stuff but um Back to the first story here New Hampshire House Passes Universal School Choice following Senate passage So it was 188 to 176 Uh, 12 vote margin on that total number is slim but it gets it done um And this makes the uh it removes the 350 percent means testing uh 350 percent of federal poverty level um It removes that And makes it universal and the governor is expected to sign that Yeah, I mean This one to me actually feels kind of significant in a way that Maybe people aren't appreciating you know, it's kind of a small state obviously And so it's not not gonna make the headlines that Texas does but New Hampshire politically is Is different from any state that has a universal ESA to date um, you know, yes It is politically contested in in national elections But it's been you know blue for several elections i goes on around now including i You know, I think Kamala carried the state by like three points um And I understand you know that they have Uh pretty solidly Republican legislature but still we are talking about what is fundamentally A politically contested state and I would say one where Especially people's proclivities on you know on Uh on issues tend to be somewhat libertarian or even maybe slightly You know slightly left leaning if you had to pick a side so uh You know this like this feels significant if you can If you can bring new Hampshire around then there is hope for places like Pennsylvania or Michigan, you know, it really it shows that the map is uh, you know, the map is is gonna still expand here I agree and I actually You know, I Don't want to make it sound like him being critical of the path that It's taken or the way that it's unfolded school choice generally Has unfolded across the country to to date because I think that The way that that happened was probably um It in some sense maybe had to be that way um unfolding in red states first And then moving into more purplish and then I was thinking about this this morning even before I um Uh You know pulled this in as one of our news stories To cover today I I actually think that We're gonna see blue states come along maybe sooner than we thought um and Don't ask me for survey data because I don't have it. This is totally me going off off of vibes which um You know, I'm I'm not necessarily known for a stellar track record in my Uh Still to make things interesting. I think you got to make a prediction here for a solidly blue state to adopt universal. Yes.
I let's go Oh, okay, who will be the first blue state? Well, I mean you you put up two good ones. I think actually Pennsylvania could be and I don't know if you can call them purple. No, that's purple.
So Um, I'm sorry new England. I'm not looking at you I'm gonna have to pick another blue state. Yeah um You know, like I guess I could see like uh um Washington or Oregon certainly before the New England states or Oregon would be my pick as well Yeah, I know they're interesting Their Nate results as I recall were disastrous Yeah, yeah, like bottom 10 overall Uh, and like if you're talking about, you know, demographic adjusted results like this is a state That like based on its demographic profile you would think would perform reasonably well Uh, right. So just totally.
Yeah. Yeah, so just terrible results Uh Well, that's what it takes. You know, this is this sad to say it shouldn't have to be this way, but That's I mean history tells us that's what it takes, right?
The what's the saying from uh noted business commentator Nito Kubain years ago said um We stay the same until the pain of change Is less than the pain of staying the same uh-huh and um And I that's sad but I think that that isn't just for you know Individuals and business and whatnot. I think this certainly applies to political life as well. I I'm with you. I think that uh Maybe that's just what's gonna put them over the edge and I think Yeah, maybe it's Oregon Yeah All right listeners heard it here first Oregon first blue first blue universal.
Yes, I say Market down. Let's go over to what's the um betting market Polly market. I know. Let's get it going Let's get it going.
That's good Okay, so um that's New Hampshire. I agree with you. I think that um Yeah, there's a special case um this isn't an Arizona or a Texas or even a West Virginia for that matter This is something a little different Um, and so I I think it's notable on that front Um a couple of other points we we before we move away from this. I want to just note um It says here That 5,321 students are currently enrolled and Critics including the National Education Association of New Hampshire Warned it could cost over a hundred million dollars now annually now They want budget increases for themselves Right yeah, it costs too much in a education program that isn't one that they have members in then they're against it Um, then they say Uh, the news story says um there is Public opposition to the tune of 3,165 granite status Who signed against it so um You've got 5,300 participants 3,000.
I'm just wondering how many of those 3,000 are NEA members Yeah, I want to know that it's not trivial Right, right. It's gotta be I'm guessing at least a plurality of that number But anyway, it's kind of funny. Yeah Okay, uh, news story number two Is federal k-12 funding faces came and do a little bit of reading on this one To kind of set it up, but uh, 4.5 billion dollar cut in the Trump budget so in his proposal Um, which was outlined yesterday It includes a 4.5 billion dollar cut to k-12 education funding targeting programs like title one And teacher training grants, which is title two um The NEA warns this could eliminate 80,000 teaching positions and reduce resources for 25 million students Supporters argue that cut streamline wasteful pro quote wasteful programs Redirecting funds to school drain choice initiatives The proposal has sparked fierce debate with urban districts like LA and Chicago Bracing for impact um I'm gonna while we talk about this. I'm just gonna do a little bit of digging and see exactly what Trump is calling to cut because title and title two doesn't tell me enough, right?
um Because if they're just cuts to the programs well um And then people have to kind of figure out what to do and pick up the pieces. I I just find that unlikely actually um That they wouldn't have specified something a little more uh Directed you know, where do you have to cut right? Yeah, I agree. There feels like maybe there's some context or or details missing here.
Who's reporting it? So this um The NEA is against it. Let's see NPR Well, there we go So yeah, surprise surprise. Yeah um Let's see We're gonna look here Let's just see this is this will be fun.
This is straight to the NEA's website Four ways Trump's budget proposal flashes public school funding um 4.5 billion in cuts to k12 Okay, here's the blueprint they give a link to whitehouse.gov Okay, so let's Susan Collins chair on the committee of for appropriations um Just do a little digging here real quick and see What they say major discretionary funding changes This is an increase an increase a decrease um economic support fund development assistance democracy fund Oh, this is not take k12. This is just the whole budget. Okay, let me check um I wonder you know, I'm talking about title one Is the proposal potentially to move it outside of the Department of Education And the NEA is calling that a cut, you know, because it's going to be um You know that it comes from or title one's not from ag right now. Is it Uh, no title one currently runs through department of ed.
Okay Um, here it is. I found the one that they're looking at Preserve title one and streamline k12 programs. This is from the White House's budget It says the budget provides streamlined flexible funding directly to states So that they have the discretion to support those activities that make the most sense for their respective communities This long overdue consolidation would lower substantially the cost of Both administration and compliance and ensure that a greater proportion of the funds provides Support for students and their families the k12 simplifying funding program Consolidates 18 competitive and formula grant programs Into a new two billion dollar formula grant designed to reduce education departments influence on schools And students and reduce bureaucracy At the same time the budget delivers on the president's promise by preserving full funding for title one Okay, well, that's a little different than what we just read. Yeah Full funding for title one the supplemental financial federal financial assistance to school districts for children from low income families This new simplified funding structure requires fewer federal staff and empowers states and districts to make spending decisions based on their needs Um So I don't see anything in there about Title So they were increasing title one Yeah, they're keeping that they're at least keeping that the same and then I don't see anything on title two Remember was it would the affordable care act or Nancy Pelosi said you'll have to read it to see what To see what are you off to pass it to see what's in it right.
I mean, I guess right You know, probably this isn't going to be clear for a little while here, but Uh, you know, the NEA is going to gripe about As we're talking about yesterday right the NEA is going to gripe about the budget no matter what so it's hard to yeah hard to know which of their You know, which of their criticisms have any validity to them Oh, here's so here's what it so the NEA says they don't like the cuts to teacher training which is May go through title two, but it doesn't say that here in the budget Proposal what it does say is that they're cutting And training materials including inappropriate and unnecessary topics such as CRTDI social justice activism anti-racism And instructive instruction on white privilege and white supremacy And then they give examples so they're cutting the grants these these are grant grants by the way so It's not title two which Which makes sense they that's why the NEA didn't say title two they said teacher training Which really is just cut grants given to non The government NGOs and nonprofit organizations so the federal government spending last money in A slash fund that ends up with the propagation of Gender ideology and critical theory in schools. It sounds good to me 100 percent. Yes. No, so so the NEA is kind of tilting at windmill Here it looks like but that's that's kind of standard practice.
Yeah, so Okay, so The federal K-12 funding Faces 4.5 billion dollar cut in Trump budget is a misnomer. I think we shouldn't But we're still working on Groc on how There's there's some improvement that can be made there yeah But um I'm okay with that Everything I just read on the white white houses budget I'm great with no problem. I agree All right Third story is Detroit teachers rally against school choice clothes sorry school closure threats Um on May 9th today Hundreds. This is how these all start by the way hundreds of Ha hundreds of Detroit public schools Community district teachers and parents protested a car outside district headquarters Against a plan to close up up to 10 schools Due to a 200 million dollar deficit and a 5,000 student enrollment drops since 2020 man These are the same story over and over yep um And Okay, and it's organized by the Detroit Federation of Teachers, which is the AFT's local Uh union the rally featured chance of kids over cuts And signs of handing stay intervention to boost funding Uh the district has 48,000 students But apparently just five years ago they were Uh up over 53,000 students so Uh what's your take on this one Ian Well, you know, it's uh It's similar to the story we were talking about yesterday in Seattle and Philly and this is gonna be playing out in In districts large and small across the country so uh You know, this is uh, this is just where we are, but uh, you got to love the cute slug and earring right of uh What did they say students over cuts or something?
Yeah kids over cuts. Yeah Yeah, it'd be nice. Maybe if teachers had to take some kind of like a counting class to get their certificate It would right I This is another thing. I don't know quite the angle we could take on this in a study but You know state superintendent not state superintendents them too, but district superintendents are responsible For the budgets that they present to their boards for approval Now they of course employ a CFO and and presumably that person is um competent But I don't know at what point you trade in some of your professional competence for um For For you know a seat at at the In the interview line for CFO at a district um Because it's evident clearly evident that Detroit and LA and San Francisco are not alone.
Yeah in Seattle for that matter. We read that one yesterday. So You know At what point do the fiduciaries of these school districts Take responsibility and say You know we have I can appreciate you don't want your 10 schools closed but We have to school we have to close these schools. We just can't afford it.
Yeah. Yeah So Yeah, I did this one um We've had a string of these this week uh, and it's obvious Why I mean these are all union organized so the the higher ups are saying okay, we're gonna This week we're unleashing all of the All of the protests that your district offices and and Fine whatever um, they're all kind of in unison here this week, but but it Just goes back to this um this bigger issue that I If there's one thing and I think I told you this the other day if there's one thing That I'm truly actually worried about in k-12 education in this country now that we You know have a little bit of momentum building On it with 17 states poised and the 17th state poised to To um go universal school choice. Yeah um Second only to To my concern and and effort behind that is Just again speaking for myself is this issue of Financial insolvency and I think that It's a big big issue and it's not going away and it's only going to get more severe. Yeah So yeah, I think so well and You know that art the economic Outlook or forecast remains a little bit uncertain right now um with some people you know talking about Possibility of recession this year uh You know boy if those if those tax receipts ends up going down emits the other factors that we're talking about like a decline in enrollment uh It's going to be You know it's going to be a real storm, but yeah, hey, uh, you know not to sound like Not to sound mean about it, but this is all the more reason why that Covid relief money should have been handled responsibly and not just uses a moon doggle to You know to staff up and and take on all of this extra permanent spending Right Well, and you know If there's a silver lining to this it's it is that The students and The teachers that are being affected by what I believe will actually materialize as school closures um and consolidation of of districts um the students and the teachers that are affected by those um Will be the ones I think that will in 18 months to 36 months from now be on The capital steps the the legislatures steps instead of the school district steps Calling for universal school choice.
Maybe in Oregon. Yeah, you know, so um, we'll see but uh I think that um this just maybe an encouragement to that and an added reason for Well, if my kid kid can't go to the ride their bike down the street to the school that That used to be there but but it's now closed Then maybe they ride their bike the other direction The same distance to a micro school, you know, it'll it'll be interesting to see How you know how this all plays out in in states that already have universally essays versus those that don't I mentioned yesterday how my district here earlier this year we had an 11-day teacher strike But it's kind of you know, it's hard to imagine that you would have something like that happen In Arizona because a lot of parents would just say to hell with it. We're out. Right So you know, actually you could envision in a place like Massachusetts that that this situation leads to even larger more dramatic tantrums Um, but that hopefully you know, hopefully in in those ESA states they're gonna they're gonna stay off that kind of nonsense Yeah, yeah, I think that's right, you know, where families have a choice and Um, it's easier to to switch horses when there's another horse, right?
Yeah um And in Massachusetts, there just really isn't Uh, Danny any significant degree anyway. I mean you have charter schools, but um Not not many so it's not like Arizona. Right Yeah, well, this will be interesting. I think you know, these rallies that are going on around the country that the unions are having to be careful About how far they push people, right?
I can imagine I mean, I would imagine that they're having conversations like okay, well we can We can push families this far. We can keep families out kids out of school and and do a two-day strike, but we can't do four or five because they'll Turn on us, you know, I I would imagine they have to be strategic about it. I mean you would think, right?
But there's a part of me also that feels like sometimes maybe we ascribe Too much political logic to unions. I mean I I can't make sense of anything that they've done over the past five years Right um, you know, not only not only with school coders, but with the With the cultural or ideological stuff, you know alienating so many people who Somebody families who attend their schools or would otherwise attend their schools But just feel so alienated by their political advocacy here in Massachusetts You know, there was a there was an article in the free press about this a couple months ago, but The Massachusetts Teachers Association Engaging in the most you know extreme anti-Israel advocacy that you can imagine and trafficking in explicit anti-Semitic tropes And I can tell you there are many families here who are very upset about this and you know have Looked into leaving the system or have left it So, you know, these are not these are not always pragmatic political actors sometimes these are You know, these are political zealots who who carry more about Trying to make good on an extreme agenda than than preserving their political power Yeah, it's a fair point, you know, I mean they If if they're not being strategic about it the other Possibility and other possibility is that they really actually believe what they're saying Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right. I think we've we've probably Discounted that too much.
I think ever you know data that we have over the last five years should make us believe that that actually is largely the case Yeah, yeah, that's a fair point Hi on their own supply if you will That's right That's right Okay, well um that's our three news stories for the day um We'll get this all packaged up for audio and uh push it out to Spotify and Apple podcasts and anywhere else you listen to your podcasts but um We're trying to make this a regular thing and uh would love for people to jump on and listen and from time to time even uh uh Jump in with some comments. So Thanks Ian for joining thanks David good to see on here um and uh We'll catch you again soon Thanks. That was fun. Take care.
Take care. Bye Thank you for listening you can find efi online at efinstitute.org on twitter at ef underscore institute and on Facebook at educational freedom institute
