An Army of Normal Folks - It All Starts With Education

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

67% of America's students aren't reading at grade level. What is An Army of Normal Folks going to do about it? Coach Bill's latest Shop Talk.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, welcome to Shop Talk number 17. I'm going to venture off into a place that will probably make some people uncomfortable, but I don't care because I've kind of had it. We got to educate our children. And today's shop talk's gonna be about our failure to educate our children. We'll talk about that right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Late on the evening of March 8th, 1971, a group of anti-war activists did something

insane. Holy s***, we are really here. This is really happening. They weren't professional criminals. They were ordinary citizens, but they needed to know the truth about the FBI. Burglars forged blackmail letters and threats of violence were used to try to stop anti-war marches. Even if that meant risking everything. I just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon and it was just my job to stop the fire. I'm Ed Helms, host of Snafu, season two Medburg,

the story of a daring heist that exposed J. Edgar Hoover's secret FBI. If it meant some risks that were involved, well, that's what citizens sometimes have to do. Listen to season two of Snafu on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast, There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished. Nobody hears anything. Nobody sees anything. Did they run away?

Was it an accident or Or were they murdered? A truck and two people just don't disappear. The FBI called it murder for hire. It was definitely murder for hire for Danielle. Not for Richard. He's your son. And in your eyes he's innocent. But in my eyes he's just some guy my sister was with.

In this series, I dig into my own investigation to find answers for the families and get justice for Richard and Danielle. Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, host of Womanica, a daily podcast that introduces you

to the fascinating lives of women history has forgotten. This month, we're bringing you the stories of athletes. There's the Italian race car driver who courted danger and became the first woman to compete in Formula One. The sprinter who set a world record and protested racism and discrimination in the U.S. and around the world in the 1960s. The diver who was barred from swimming clubs due to her race and went on to become the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal.

She won gold twice. The mountaineer known in the Chinese press as the tallest woman in the world, and the ancient Greek charioteer who exploited a loophole to become the first ever woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Listen to Wamanica on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome back to Shop Talk. I'm going to try to do this without being preachy or getting on my soap box, but I think

it's time we wake up. In any political race, you list the top most important issues. It's almost always economy. James Carville, Bill Clinton's advisor, very famously said, it's about the economy, stupid. And the funny thing is, the closer you get toward an election day, the more the issues get heavier and heavier weighted toward the economy. That's always on the top. Safety is a big one. This year, abortion is a big one. There's all kinds of list of issues. Education is always given a spot among the issues of elections. And it's always low on the totem pole.

And what we got to understand is the economy, crime, poverty, all of the issues that exist above our attention to the issue of education exist because of a poor education. And the irony of it is the whole thing's flipped upside down in my opinion. If you listen to me long enough you know I'm a native Memphian. I love my city. I talk positively about it every time I can. I will talk about the Peabody and the Bass Pro Shop and I know that sounds ridiculous for anybody who hadn't been to Memphis but if you come go to the Bass Pro Shop. It's incredible. It's got the largest standing elevator in the world. Graceland Sun Studios, Bill Street, our barbecue, which is far better than anything else you're going to find in Kansas City, North Carolina or Texas.

It's just a no brainer. Sorry for those listeners from those areas. Just come on into Memphis. We'll show you how it's really done. The music heritage, our business heritage, the fact that FedEx was founded and started here and changed the way the world does business. AutoZone founded and headquartered here, Terminex founded here, Piggly Wiggly, the first supermarket ever made was founded here. The Way We Travel was founded here. Kimmins Wilson invented the first chain hotel called Holiday Inns and the Marriott and the Hiltons and

all of those things. We are born from Kimmins Wilson's idea. There is something in the water around Memphis that inspires entrepreneurism. Per capita, Memphis is always ranked in the top three of the most philanthropic cities on the planet. Just interviewed somebody told me we were there again, number one this year per capita we give more than any other city in the country. Memphis has a lot going for it. But it's got a lot. Oh, Elon Musk is building the world's largest supercomputer here.

I don't think Elon Musk would have put that here if Memphis didn't have some things going forward. We've got a natural aquifer. We've got the cleanest one of the cleanest water systems in the world. We've got a number of people who are from Memphis generationally who continue to fight and invest in the city. And it is a good place. But it also has its problems we

have out-of-control crime we have way too much poverty we have dilapidated neighborhoods that lead to blight we've got a lot of issues but they But they all start with education. And not long ago, this was shared with the Memphis public by the new school superintendent. And there are stark numbers that are scary, but are not at all unrepresentative of other school districts in large municipalities across our country. Not all, but many. And I want to share them with you. The district comprises about 110,000 students. That is the Shelby County School District. Shockingly, 78% of students are not reading proficiently as determined by the state of

Tennessee based on that enrollment figure of 110,000. That means that 85,800 students aren't reading proficiently. 85,078% can't read on grade level. 83% of students are not demonstrating proficiency in mathematics as determined by the state. That number is 91,300. Guys, we're not talking about people making A's and B's. We're just talking about proficient, meeting the minimum standard. Shelby County School System has a 51% absentee rate, that's chronic, and a 41% truancy rate. That absentee rate

translates to more than 56,000 kids and the truancy rate translates to more than The school system has nearly a 15% dropout rate. 76 schools receive a state designated letter grade or D or F, and fewer than 15 schools in the entire district reach a 90% or higher graduation rate. That's a dropout rate of more than 16,000 students annually. And where do those 16,000 students go? They go into poverty. They end up getting arrested for not being able to pay for a driver's license or a tag or getting two or three

citations and not paying them and getting a bench warrant and so goes the cycle. Certainly many of them get into other types of crime. And at the very least, hope is lost. Because when you can't read and you can't do basic math, and you don't go to school, and you're not held accountable to absenteeism and truancy. How in the hell do you ever think you're gonna keep a job if you're raised to understand that not showing up on time or showing up at all and then not doing what you're supposed to do when you get there leads to anything. But we are teaching between

45 and 78% of our students every single year that very lesson. Show up if you want to, don't if you don't. When you get here, you don't even have to, 80% of you don't even have to complete minimum standards. But because you age, we'll advance you and we'll push you through this broken system. And you either drop out or graduate, largely unprepared.

Forget for college. I'm prepared for a job. Because if truancy and absenteeism and not even meeting basic standards is what gets you through a system, why in the world would anybody ever think that you're ready to take on a job? And we all know that once you're out of that system and you reach the real world, and you are truant and absent and can't meet the basic standards for employment, you will end up fired. You will end up on the state's payroll either in prison or for your sustenance. And so goes our culture and so goes our society. How long do we put up with it? How long do we allow our property tax dollars, our sales tax dollars? How long do we allow our property tax dollars, our sales tax dollars?

How long do we can do? The largest single line item on a city or county's budget is their school system. The vast majority of the taxes we pay as citizens go to support the school system. And if your school system is operating like the Shelby County school system is, which in Chicago it is and Baltimore it is and Little Rock it is and Jackson Mississippi it is and in far more places it is operating this way. If the school system has the temerity or you have the gumption to go find out the real numbers, you will be shocked by our chronic failure. Yet, we continue election by election, cycle by cycle, to put the same people on the city council, to put the same people on the school board, to pay the same taxes, and that same money to be siphoned down the drain.

Yet, we find ourselves more interested in the economy, and crime prevention, and homelessness, and poverty. One of my guests recently said something that I love. You can pull babies out of the river so that they don't drown all you want, but eventually need to go up river and find out why they're dropping in the water in the first place. And it's happening in our education system and also in our families. Because if you've got a 41% truancy rate, what in goodness name are the parents doing? I don't know what the answer is on that. Maybe we should, we got to come up with a way to not only hold the children accountable,

but their children who aren't, that their parents who aren't holding them accountable 51% tardiness 41% truancy weight 78% can't read well 83% can't do basic math 15% dropout rate sure we're worried about the economy we're worried about, we're worried about the economy. We're worried about crime. We're worried about poverty. We're worried about blight. We're worried about all those things. But where's it getting into the river in the first place? Right here. In our school systems where we spend the most of our of our tax dollars on and continue to fail. Shame on us for failing our culture, our society, I am so frustrated with our unwillingness to really address this problem and all the lip service it gets and the fortunes we spend to continue to do the same thing year after year after year. And if you don't care about it socially, ask yourself

pragmatically. If we continue to develop students and put them out into our society with these numbers backing up who they are and what they will become pragmatically, what's your tax base in your town eventually going to look like when you got more people pulling out of it than putting into it? What's your property values gonna do? How taxed is your hospital system and your police department's gonna be? How do you raise revenue when people can't have a job and buy a house and pay property taxes and pay into the system to make it better? pay property taxes and pay into the system to make it better. This is out of control and I believe it starts with education and numbers like this in any analytics say we are failing.

And I love my city but it's failing in this regard. And I bet yours is too. I hope you'll check out where you live. I hope you find out what the numbers are. And I hope you will stick your foot in the dirt and say no more. We gotta have an army of normal folks that step up and speak and stand for better. We can do it at the ballot box, we can do it at board meetings, we can do it at school board meetings, we can do it at city council meetings, and we can do it with our pocketbooks. That's Shop Talk number 17.

Let's start educating our children so that we have a culture and society worth bringing more children into one day I'm bill Courtney. We'll see you next week Ever get the feeling someone's watching you Well in 1971 a group of anti-war activists had that feeling I was in the heart of the dragon And it was my job to stop the fire. So they decided to do something insane, break in to the FBI and expose J. Edgar Hoover's dirty secrets. We had some idea that this was pretty explosive. I'm Ed Helms.

Listen to season two of Snafu on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished. A truck and two people just don't disappear. The FBI called it murder for hire. But which victim was the intended target and why? Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Back in 96, Atlanta was booming with excitement around hosting the Centennial

Olympic Games. And then a deranged zealot willing to kill for a cause, lit a fuse that would change my life and so many others forever. Rippling out for generations. Listen to Flashpoint starting July 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.