The Mississippi Miracle proves what works for students (07-15-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendarshow dot com, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All right, So, talking a little bit about education, came across a tweet from Brian Balfour, he is with the John Locke Foundation, talking about North Carolina education funding this morning, and he pointed out that in the last decade, total spending on North Carolina public schools increased by forty eight percent over ten years. Forty eight percent increase in public education funding, total enrollment growth. Oh, actually that's not true. It wasn't. It wasn't growth. It's down four and a half percent in the last decade. So while the number of students has declined, the number of or the amount of money has increased. Forty eight percent increase in funding and a four and a half percent decline in student enrollment. So It's not the money, folks, It's not the money, unless, of course, you want to make the argument that the school districts are spending the money on the wrong things, which, as I mentioned at the end of the last hour. You know, parents in Carlsbad, California did not like their money being used to bring in a science of BDSM expert named Mita Beach. I don't know if that's a plan on words, I really don't a self described BDSM expert. The parents requested that this event be canceled. The school denied their request to even sit in on the event or any other presentation, or even allow them to pull their kids out of this important educational event that would include god knows what about sexuality, sexually deviant behavior, or how best to get gender affirming care. Quote unquote, David Strom at hot air dot com says, after all, the kids might kill themselves if they missed out on Mita's body modification lesson. Yeah, because what Mita Beach quote teaches in the workshops kink one oh one? Examining self injurious behavior? What does that mean? Examine self mutilation, cutting yourself, hurting yourself right, Examining self injurious behavior, erotic play, and body modification, and so the parents were like, hey, can we can we attend this thing if you're not going to cancel it. So, in response to the parental complaints, the school reportedly doubled down on their position, claiming they will not provide any kind of an opt out for students and will not inform parents about speakers or let them on campus to hear the speakers. After the parents plan to attend the event anyway, the school notified them that the event was canceled. So, parents, that might be the way to do it right. That might be a tactic in the toolkit that you could use if you're being denied access to some program that you find objectionable like this. Within twenty four hours of the social media post and the news that the parents were to attend this event, Beach's appearance was canceled, but it still moved forward with at least two other speakers from other organizations that helped facilitate gender transitions and surgeries. David Strom says over the past couple of decades, we have seen a substantial increase in schools delving deeper and deeper into sexuality and gender identity issues, and all of this is part of a movement called Social and Emotional learning or SEL. It really took off over the last fifteen years or so. I was actually talking to a family member, my niece who's in college, and we were talking about some of this stuff while I was on vacation up in New York, and I tried to convey to her that you know, you don't You're the I told her, I said, you're the fish that doesn't know it's wet, because this is the only thing you've known. You grew up in all of this. But your dad and me, we remember fifteen years and before, before all of this stuff started just rolling out into the K twelve education scene. The claim is that SEL exists to support the mental health of children. But a funny thing happens when you look into the statistics. Suicide and suicidal ideation among students have skyrocketed along with the spread of SEL. He says, you cannot argue that SEL has done anything to improve mental health among kids, which has seen a sharp decline, especially in the past few years. I did have a message here from Russ. Oh two messages actually hang on a second. Russ says, you mentioned the mental health grants that are being frozen. I don't know if it's the same ones, but I had read that many states were taking grants from that awful Biden gun bill earmarked to address the mental health issues that lead to school shootings and the rise in depression and anxiety, and they were diverting the money to promote LGBTQ and especially the trans ideology. That would not surprise me. And also, Russ says in the other message regarding the school money, based on most recent reading proficiency, English learners really could be everybody, not just e SL students. That's no, that's fair terrible grades. Among Trump's first executive orders was one that barred the grooming of kids into destructive ideologies, and the schools and blue state politicians are now fighting back hard. Strom says, I suppose they want to protect their unblemished record in improving child mental health and stuff. Okay, so much so that they don't even they don't want even pesky parents to know what they are doing or to have a say in whether their kids are subjected. I mean, education hated with the brainwashing BDSM training for the kids. Russ mentioned the grades. A couple of months ago, Helen Raleigh at the Federalist dot Com took a look at the National Assessment of Educational Progress test results. This is the NAPE scores and AEP known as the nation's report card. Okay. It assesses the reading and math skills of America's fourth graders and eighth graders. The reading and math scores of students in Mississippi and Louisiana have surpassed those in California and New York. When I grew up the New York high school diploma system, they had tracks. We had tracks. There was first track AP basically second track that was the middle of the curve. Most of the kids were there. But you could get a region's diploma, and that region's diploma meant something because it meant that you were taking solid coursework, challenging stuff, minimum requirements and all that. And then there was the local diploma. If you did not get the regents or you didn't go for the AP, then you would be in. You would just get a local diploma, not a region's diploma. Well, apparently that system's now trash to heavily Republican states and among the poorest in the nation. Mississippi and Louisiana have surpassed California and New York. New York I think spends somewhere close to forty thousand dollars per pupil per year. The secret of Mississippi and Louisiana's educational success is not actually a secret. You may be shocked to learn this. It's about returning to the fundamentals and following the evidence. Mississippi's Republican led legislature has implemented effective education reforms starting back in twenty twelve. They prioritized phonics, which teaches kids to read by sounding out the word, and they have a policy for retaining or holding back third graders who do not meet essential reading benchmarks. By the way, this is something that the left has talked about for a long time. Education progressives in the education industry they talk about the school to prison pipeline. This is one of those data points. Kids who do not achieve at grade level in reading at grade three are way more likely to be in prison when they're adults or before, but not in Mecklenburg obviously way more likely. So if you can make the kid at grade level grade three, they got better prospects for the rest of their education, career, and the rest of their life. Why wouldn't you do that? All right? If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. 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Alrighty, So this story at the Federalist dot com about the Mississippi Miracle and the Louisiana Miracle. But I guess I don't know. Louisiana is I guess a little bit behind Mississippi on this, but they both now have higher reading scores and math scores than California and New York and they are like among the poorest, if not the poorest, in the country. And what they did was in twenty twelve, they prioritized phonics, teaching kids to sound out words because it works, it always did work, worked for the vast majority of students, rather than adopting the whole language model that then broke everybody's brains. And then we find out later years later. I covered this when the story came out, the interview with the woman who created it, and she was like, oh, yeah, I don't even know if it works, Like, oh okay. But the reason why this happens is that every like ten or fifteen years, you get this overhaul in K twelve education circles and the cottage industry that surrounds this industry, and they sell their crap to the K twelve edocrats, Oh, we got to get new books, We have to do new teacher trainings, right, because they make money off of all of that stuff. So if you have a program, you have a model that works, it's not in their interest to continue that model because once you get the software or you get the books, you get the training, you don't need it anymore. And now you don't need them anymore. Also, they implemented and enforced a retention policy for third graders who do not meet essential reading benchmarks. Also, the state invests fifteen million dollars each year, which is about thirty two dollars a student, into training teachers on literacy and providing dedicated reading coaches in schools. That's it. Thirty two bucks a kid and you two can have these kinds of results. Now will large districts like cms will they look to the Mississippi miracle and say, hey, maybe we should do that. I doubt it. Mississippi's fourth grader's reading scores went from forty ninth in the nation back in twenty thirteen. They are now at the top. So in eleven years they went from second to last to number one reading scores. Governor Tate Reeves said, the state's black fourth graders have improved from forty fifth in the nation to third place, a learning gain equivalent to a full year of schooling and an extra year of schooling. Moreover, the state's graduation rate has seen a significant rise, going from seventy two percent back in twenty thirteen. It's now at eighty nine point nine percent, or ninety percent last year. The Mississippi miracle. Governor Reeves declared in an interview that the education out comes in his state is really not a miracle at all. It's really a result of conservative reforms implemented in public education. He said. So Louisiana, because it's so close to Mississippi, they could see it just by standing on their tiptoes, and they were like, hey, why don't we do that. That looks like it's working right there. So they implemented similar education reforms they did theirs. In twenty nineteen, the state focused on phonics instruction and providing content rich literacy curriculums. Additionally, Louisiana has invested in training programs for principles teachers and reading coaches on teaching kids how to learn to read. It was the only state Louisiana was the only state where fourth grade reading scores were higher last year than they were five years ago. What does that mean? Every other state saw a decline in reading scores over the last five years, which makes sense because there was COVID and we had to lock all the kids in their homes and such. The California reading scores for fourth and eighth graders have plummeted yet again. Last year. They remained lower than those in twenty seventeen, lower last year than five years prior. While there was a slight improvement in fourth grade math scores, they still lag behind the scores from five years ago. California's experiments with alternatives to teaching phonics, despite extensive research that phonics works best, have obviously failed. Obviously, less than half of all public school students in California met state grade level standards for English Language Arts, which is what they call it now reading ELA. Forty seven percent can can meet the grade level standard for reading. The reading scores of Black and Spanic students are even worse. Thirty percent of Black students and thirty six percent of Hispanic students are at grade level. So tell me who actually cares about the kids who actually cares particularly right about minority kids who's closing the achievement gap? How are they doing it right? If if you can't identify the answers in this piece that I have just given you, I would submit you should be nowhere near K twelve education. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a real special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. 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It's just using the models that have worked in the past. Legislation requiring schools to implement more phonics based reading curricula failed to pass in California's legislature last year. Why good question, Want to take a guess I'll give you three guesses. First two don't count. That's right. It's the unions, right, the unions didn't think about that. Why Why on earth would you be opposed to using phonics. This was primarily due to opposition from Democrat party leadership, teachers, unions, and advocacy groups, so leftists. The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board lamented, quote, the California childhood literacy rates have fallen significantly beneath those of the poorest states in the nation should be considered a stain on progressive values. This state claims to stand for no, no, no, no, no. That's the These are the progressive values because the performance, the merit doesn't matter. And you know what if that means kids don't know how to read and do math and you damn them to a life of either prison or poverty, well, you know you got to break some eggs to make the omelet, the utopian omelet, the perfect omelet. Editorial board said, insuring Californian kids receive the most effective reading lessons didn't even merit a discussion among Democrats in the face of union opposition. And then there's this from Nicole Russell. This was at USA today. Yesterday, k twelve students in America lag peers in other industrialized countries in math and reading skills, and they've hit a new low. And while students struggle in core subjects, many parents say their children have been indoctrinated with a liberal political bias. If you doubt that last point, she says, listen to the NEAs. That's the Teachers' Union National Education Association's Teacher of the Year. I watched this woman's speech. It was her name is Ashley or cross On or Croissant, and anyway, she delivered her speech that hailed education as a political endeavor. That was her speech. She's an English teacher at Mifflin County High School in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, and said what teachers want is the same as what students want. No, No, I know, I don't think that's accurate. I think that if you were to draw a Kamala Harris approved ven diagram, there would be some overlapping of the circles. But it's not all the same obviously. I mean, a kindergartener doesn't care about whether or not she's going to get a pension, you know, the teacher does stuff like that. But anyway, crossing or Croissant told her fellow union members, quote, what's good for educators is what's good for students. The best way to advocate or our students, truly is to advocate for ourselves. Oh my gosh, you narcissistic sociopath. No, you are not the same as the kids your interests, and the way to advocate for kids is not to advocate for yourself. Okay, you are a different person. Stop trying to live vicariously through these kids, or to try to use them as props to get what you want. It's understandable that the NEA's Teacher of the Year is pro union, obviously, but the idea that the same things that are good for teachers and their unions are also good for students that is utter nonsense. Exhibit a my previous story from The Federalist about the Mississippi miracle. Unions actually shield their members from the consequences of poor performance and even bad behavior. How does that help students. Croissant also said teaching is a political endeavor, and it always has been so. Now that the NEA's Teacher of the Year admits this, maybe lefties, you can stop attacking me when I say that because I've been saying that for years. Obviously, obviously K twelve education is being used to promote political ideology. Has been my schooling. When I was in school, I remember it. I would have arguments with teachers about it. I know that's hard to believe, but it's true. I would have arguments with teachers about them injecting politics. Had a had a this was in college, I will say this. I had a professor who made us read a book and I forget the name of the book now, but it was a book by or about the Vietnam War. And the final exam, she gives us a multiple choice essay question why why was America destined to lose the Vietnam War? And then she gave you know, was it? This? Was it? This? Was it? This? And the correct answer was none of the above. She did a trick question on us on the final exam, and the reason why is because none of the above the right answer, according to her, because she was a leftist who was like hungover after Bill Clinton one election came to class, though, I will say, but it was a short class. She cut it short because she was hungover. Anyway, she she made the answer it was an unwinnable war because it was a people's war. That was the right answer, according to her, but she didn't offer that as one of the options to write about. Education should not be political and certainly not partisan. But according to the Pew Research Center, about sixty percent of teachers identify with or leaned toward the Democrat Party. The NEA's partisanship has grown so extreme that even the union admitted that it has to do a better job of representing its Republican members. Randy Weingarten, remember this, a couple of weeks ago, president of the American Federation of Teachers Union. She served as a member of the Democrat National Committee for more than two decades, and she resigned in June. And don't tell me that what's good for students is good for teachers and vice versa. So we're all the same. And to advocate for kids, truly, you got to advocate for teachers because the teachers' unions, I'm old enough to remember, pushed to keep the schools closed, which was not in the student's best interests, which we knew, and some of us like myself were saying at that time during the pandemic. You know, stories are powerful They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Got a message here. It's a Pete tweet from Melissa. She says, I take my seven year old to a reading and math program called cumin. Is that how you pronounce it? Or come on, it's k umn. I don't know which one sounds funnier, but they're both funny in their own way. So it's kumn. And she says anecdotally, the parents and grandparents bringing their kids there are predominantly non white. These kids will be head and shoulders above their fellow students and successful. My kid just turns seven and is doing multiplication and now reading three grade levels above her level. Phonics and math memorization, that's the key. Yeah, I tend to agree. Oh, and then there was this Teresa Opeka at the Carolina Journal. This is hilarious over if you go to the website of the North Carolina Governor Josh Stein and look at the very top of his web page again, it's back, everybody. At the very top of the website page, there's a red bar across the whole top, and there's a little exclamation point in a triangle, and it says a state of emergency for public education. Governor Cooper has declared that wait, what that's right? It says Governor Cooper has declared that public education in North Carolina is facing a state of emergency and de urges North Carolinians to contact legislators read more about how to protect public schools, and then there's a link. It's literally the banner from my good friend Ray Cooper's his his stunt of emergency is what I called it, because it wasn't an actual state of emergency. But he declared quote unquote a state of emergency for public education because he wanted more money to go to K twelve spending than what the Republican legislature had allocated. And so he has a big press conference and declares a stunt of emergency or state of emergency. It was a stunt. There wasn't an actual state of emergency. He literally So now you got Josh Stein up there, who literally does the exact same thing, to the point where they just copied and pasted Cooper's thing. And when you go there, yeah, here it is. Teresa Opika follows up. Governor Cooper had the banner on his web page when the state legislators pushed for and got opportunity scholarships for parents to send their children to schools of their choice. And if you click on the banner, it has all of the old information about the general Assembly wanting to make the quote unquote cuts. Yeah, there you go, that's our governor, Josh Stein. Good lord, what a joke. Then you've got Oh, this was interesting. I did not know. I guess the NAACP. I guess they paid for a whole bunch of sponsorships over at the Charlotte Observer because man, like you go over onto that website, the Charlotte Observer website, and it's just like they became the press shop for the NAACP, which is in town. So I understand why you've got a bunch of stories there, but I mean, this is a little bit over the top. You know, you're just you're quoting everybody in their panel discussions and you're not doing any kind of pushback or anything. It's you're just acting as stenographers for this event. So one of the stories, one of the many stories that they churned out of this event. NAACP events call for pro union voting in the North Carolina midterm elections. Labor unions speaking on Monday, called for attendees to vote for candidates who are in favor of labor unions in the upcoming North Carolina midterm elections. In other words, Democrats right, they're out there politicking for Democrats. By the way, they did not invite Donald Trump to attend, which in years past, I think they've always invited the presidents to attend, and they did not invite Trump. The afl CIOs nationwide bus Tour began here in Charlotte. The name of the tour is quote, it's a better union. Sorry, it's better in a union fighting for freedom, fairness and security. Bus Tour. Okay, that's the name of it. Guys might want to work on that. It's it's not very memorable anyway. It began on July ninth, first off at the annual convention here in Charlotte. Altogether, the bus tour will visit twenty six states over the next two months, using three buses. That's what your dues are being used for. Charles Clark, Southern Regional director for the National afl CIO, said the tourist mission is to bring awareness to how labor workers are being affected by the Trump administration. He said the executive orders firing federal workers and ending the Collective Bargaining Agreement, along with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are some of the changes that most affect them. Did you see, by the way, the layoffs at the State Department. You see those videos, these people walking out like they're being celebrated and applauded, and they're weeping in the streets and look full disclosure. As a radio industry veteran now for almost thirty years, I have seen a lot of mass firings. I have been part of mass firings. Nobody gets this kind of Nobody gets this kind of riff party. On the way out the door, You're lucky if you get a box to put your stuff in. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.