Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on Closing Achievement Gaps and Fixing Student Loan Programs

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

DEK: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay welcome Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to discuss the closing of achievement disparities (31:44), safely reopening schools (34:33), and why we need algebra (40:47). Plus, convictions in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case come down (56:41) and Urban Meyer’s an even bigger POS than we thought (1:01:44).  Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Producers: Trudy Joseph and Donnie Beacham Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on. It is I, Van Lathen. And it's me, Rachel, Lynn, Lindsay. Rachel, you're on the road. I'm on the road. And then you hear my voice so you know what's going on.

It's this, you know, I'm having a good time. That's all that means. Yeah, you're doing your thing. Don't you think that the voice thing is a concern. Don't, don't do it? that to me. I'm just saying, like, don't, like, you can't go have a good time without getting your voice in a tangle. Isn't this something that should be looked into? Do they have things that you can do to strengthen your voice or to make your voice more formidable? Like, you want me to go to a doctor

because, see, this is what you would do. You, you am, you and you, you and, you know, like, any, any concern, like, your anxiety will hit you and you, like, got to go get checked out. We talked about this. Right. Ryan is the same way. Ryan is the exact same way as you. I mean, I can explain why my voice is like this. It's not just because I'm traveling. I've been at concerts. I announced 21 pilots on the stage last night. It was like screaming to the audience.

You know what I mean? 21 pilots. Yeah, they were performed. Doja Cap perform. So what did you say? Pink sweats. Pink sweats. Well, here's the thing.

Wait, wait. You just want to laugh at me. No, no, I want you to announce them. And now coming to the same. stage to rock your socks off. I wish I would have said that. Put your hands together for 21 pilots. Boy, here's the thing.

These people have been outside in Indianapolis. It's freezing. It was raining and freezing when Doja Cat and AJR and pink sweats performed. But this was, it was just cold. No rain. Right. They're standing out there. They've been out there since 5 o'clock.

I come on this stage at 9 o'clock and they're ready, right? They don't want to see another person except for. for 21 pilots. So I'm just like, all right, football fans, it's the moments you've all been waiting for. Oh, yeah. In just a second, or whatever I said, I was like, 21 pilots will be taking the stage. They go crazy. You start to think they're cheering for you. So I'm supposed to run out. I was supposed to just say, but first, check this performance out at the top of this building. Then I was like, wow, those are a lot of screams. And I go. So I just got one question for you guys. That's when I was like, are you ready? They go crazy.

And I go, you guys, you know they're right there. You know they can hear you right. And I was like, you gotta go louder than that. They go wild. I start jumping up and down, pumping up my arms. And then I'm like, okay, but first, if I can direct your attention to the screen, I heard some booze.

I heard some booze. But here's the thing. So people have to understand. Apparently, a lot of artists want to do their own opening and they don't want somebody announcing them or reading their bio. They want to do it their way. So it's a soft introduction.

So they can do their actual thing. Right. So it was great. I would like to introduce people in a measured way. I would like to say like, hey, look, you guys are here. Where else you're going to be? Look, you might like them. You might not.

You never know with a performance, you know. They might give it their all or, you know, they might be hungover from the night before. but I'm going to give you the opportunity to get excited. You don't have to get excited, but if you want to, get excited for 21 pilots, it's about to take the stage right now, 21 pilots is a band. You've heard of them before, 21 pilots come out here. That's the way I would do it. I want to make sure that I don't oversell.

I hate oversell it. That's not your job. You ain't perform it. That's on them. But I want people to have realistic expectations for what they're going to get. Because what if I, what if I jump up, they might lose faith in me. If I jump up and go crazy, right? And then 21 pilots comes out and 21 pilots.

Sucks. Then they might say, hey, Van told us to get excited for 21 pilots and 21 pilots wasn't even into it. Wow, you're putting way too much thought in this. And you would never be asked to introduce anybody else after that. I'm here to say 21 pilots was outstanding and went even longer. And they were supposed to go. I don't even know who they are.

What do they see? Yeah, you know, all my friends are from Suicide Squad. Isn't that Marvel? D.C? As soon as that squad is D.C., but what do they, what do the 21 pilots do? It's like the theme song.

They were like, it's like the theme song behind it. All my friends are heathen something. Okay, I don't know them. I got to be honest with you. I probably would know the songs. Are they like white rock band?

Like two guys, but then they had like a, oh yeah. Yeah. And they, they were at the, Grammy's in their underwear or something like that or they came out. I don't know, but I wouldn't be shocked. 21 pilots.

Yeah, they were fantastic. It's like a lot of pilots. The plane is not going to get where it needs to go because you got too many people yellow directions. Anyway, so you having fun out there in Indianapolis. Tonight is the college football playoff championship by the time this podcast airs for the people's. Yes.

There will have been an actual winner in that game. Yes. Alabama versus Georgia. So what I need from you right now, Rachel, even though people hate when we talk about football, look, I got to go into this real quick. They do. Some people hate when we talk about football. It's a savage sport. I read some stuff on the Reddit that said that the, remember the guy who sent out the tweet about John Madden?

Oh, yeah. That we should have attacked that more intellectually. and just not giving our opinion on the tweet. We should have, I guess we should have parsed through what he said about the dangers of football. Rachel, before we even talk about the game, what do you feel about the dangers of playing football?

Well, it's just such more of a, it's a deeper, I didn't want to on that subject when we were talking about it because I just feel like it's a deeper issue of the why. But I personally, and I actually said this this weekend, I don't, I'm not, I don't plan on introducing football to my kids. Now, if they eventually want to play, I don't, I'm not going to stop them, but I'm not going to say, and I used to be this way. It's like, oh, I'm going to put them in like popcorn football and like, you know, they're going

to play and I can't wait to go to their games and I want to see them in all positions so they can figure out what they're good at. I don't feel that way now. I do think that football is an extremely dangerous game. And I watch it, especially after that movie concussion, even though we knew with C. he is, but just like seeing the breakdown of it and the discovery and then just the way that the league you know, got, was slow to recognize that even though they knew it was real, they didn't want to recognize that. I don't know, just watching that. I'll never forget him having the jar and the brain

in the jar with the water and showing what happens to the brain on impact. And it's like you're not supposed to be hit that way. That was jarring to me. So for me personally, I don't want, I was, would like to not see my kids play, which I'm a hypocrite because I watch it. I will be attending the game tonight. I will be cheering on. So I'm a hypocrite. I know. But if I can control something, I would like for my child to not play. Your life of your child, I'd like to play football. I had a lot fun playing football. So it would be hard for me to say that I wouldn't want my kid to play football. I don't really care whether or not my kids play sports or not. I think it's like, you know, it's great.

I love for kids to play sports. I think it's good for your social stuff. It's good for team building. It's good for that. But at the same time, now that I look at my life, it took so much time away from me where I could be doing other stuff, you know? You have something to say?

No, I'm just saying, but as kids, you don't think like that, right? Kids you don't think like that. That's you talking about it as a 40-year-old man. Yeah, and now I'm addicted to sports. which I think is another thing. I think because I'm addicted to sports, I'm not just addicted to watching sports. I'm addicted to still playing them.

When I have time to fill in gaps in my life, that I could be filling in by reading or walking in nature or looking at birds or doing other things, I fill them in with, yo, I need a pickup game. You know, I need to go box somebody. You know, and it becomes like this lifelong obsession. And you wonder sometimes if you're getting out of it, what you're giving. And I might be, you know, you get physical fitness. You meet people.

You, yeah, I guess I do. I guess I do. It's a question. I was going to say literally on the podcast, you have talked about what playing in a basketball league did for you when you moved to LA and the people that you met and the lifelong friends that you've established. I mean, there's obviously positive things with sports with teamwork and communication and the camaraderie of it. Plus the physical activity you're working out. You know what I mean? It's like teaches you certain things. So I get it. It's just that sport for me doesn't have to be football for the kids. But again, if they really want to play, I'm not going to stop them. I'll say this about football. I'll say this about specifically black American youths playing football. I think that for me personally,

there are a couple of ways that you can at least try to mitigate the amount of damage that football does to your body. I've known a lot of football players that have done a lot of damage to their body. right. Number one, I would never allow a child of mine to play football before the ninth grade. Now, that might put them behind in their football career, but you just don't need to be taking shots to the head and hits to the head when you're 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 years old, you know, you take the fewest amount of hits as possible. Hopefully the NFL, and I've watched a lot and read a lot on how they're dealing with CTE. Hopefully the NFL is, uh, dedicated to funding different organizations who are trying to make the game safer.

Now, there are different ways you do that. One is to introduce different tackling techniques to the game, changing the way people tackle. One might be helmet technology. One might be the elimination of the helmet. You never know. And others might, yeah, there's this wacky group that believes taking the hands. helmets away will make the game safer. It's the most fascinating thing.

There's no way. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's the most fascinating thing that you can watch anybody that's out there, you got some time to kill, go, uh, just type into YouTube or there's, there's a school of thought that removing the helmets from the game will make the hell, will make the game more safer because the helmet itself is seen to some people as a battering ram. And it increases the likelihood that you're going to go out there and

smack somebody and then that's going to jar your spine around and give you a concussion and all that stuff like that. But I'll say all that to say this. Look, every single sporting league in America besides baseball, which doesn't exploit black Americans here, but exploits them, exploits black people in the islands and all over the place, will get their primary workforce from young black males who don't have the financial incentive to go into other sort of occupations, right? It's a lot easier to see yourself as a football player than it is to see yourself as a small business owner, as a professional,

because you don't see that many of those things around. And the NFL knows that and the coaches know that. And it's up to them to make sure that they continue to keep the talent pool wide so they don't care about people playing a dangerous game. As a football fan, there's a way to be a football fan responsibly and then there's a way to be a football fan irresponsibly. Okay. Talk to me. So being a responsible football fan is acknowledging that the game is dangerous and making sure that as you acknowledge that the game is dangerous, right, that you impress upon the

people's and the higher ups, not only at the college level, but the high school level, the fact that you won't support a product that doesn't care at all about the safety of the players. It's up to, by being a responsible football fan, it means you don't bemoan and like, and bellyache about the fact that the game isn't as hard as anymore. You don't get mad at targeting calls. You don't get mad at things like that because those things are put there to make the game safer. And you have to, and that's with anything. At the same time, to those football players, a lot of them, this is their way out of poverty. So I understand the conundrum and I get it. My thing is being that the game is such a big part of me.

The game that was a big part of the relationship I had with my father. It's a big part of life in Louisiana. What I have to do is be an advocate for the players that are playing in the game, an advocate for the players that want a safer game, an advocate for people who want to see football be safer. And if we get to a point to where we decide that football can't continue to exist as a sport, that it's too dangerous, then I have to be on the side of eliminating football from the American consciousness. And I'm not against that.

But I'm saying right now, I'm watching the game tonight, baby. So what's your prediction? What's your prediction? I can't see it being any different than it was a couple of weeks ago. Really? Even though they say it's harder to beat a team twice. It's harder to beat the team twice. Yeah, it's harder to beat a team twice.

But I guess for me, in case you guys don't know, Alabama played Georgia in the SEC championship game. and it was slaughter-rific. So for me, I don't see much being different here. I saw what Georgia did to Michigan, and I would like to believe that something clicked and that Stetson Bennett, the quarterback of Georgia, found something that they were able to see something on tape that they liked

and that they'll come out and they'll be different. I think the game would be a tighter game. but Arkansas dominated them. They dominated them. So I don't see what will be different. What do you think? I want to see Georgia win. And that's just because I'm a little bit of an Alabama hater.

I like to change up. I was at the championship national championship game, 2018, when it was Georgia versus Alabama in Georgia. It was a big deal. Georgia was winning. And then all of a sudden, you know, they benched Jalen. They brought in two, I believe.

and he threw that touchdown and it was at the last, I mean, literally I had turned and then bam, they were scoring a touchdown. Won the game. Alabama won the game. So I'm hoping like this is a rematch. Hopefully Georgia can take it this time.

And I just like to see the underdog win unless it's my team, unless it's my team. Yeah. Alabama's been going. As Greg McElroy pointed out to me when I was moderating the panel the other day, they've been going on this journey since 2009, when they beat the Texas longhorns.

It was a dagger when he's like, oh, my most memorable game is when we did this. So it's 13 years later. It's time. Let's change it up. It's the last time Texas was there. Yes, I remember. Yeah. LSU's been twice since.

Texas was the last time Texas was viable. Okay, but we went four years before that. So stop. Yeah, and LSU went in 03. So we've had more success. Stop. The conversation didn't need to turn there. We're talking about Alabama and Georgia.

Is it true or not that we've had more success? No. What's the topic? Remember, they hate when we talk football. They hate when we talk about it. Hey, guess what? But guess what? But also, you know what? And I'll say all that and I understand the football.

But also, Thought Warriors, man, don't be fucking wet blankets all the time, man. I love you guys, but don't fucking be fucking wet blanket. A nigger likes football, all right? But you're the thing, though, Dan. No. I'm telling you that it's a problem.

It's a nigga likes football. You know what else? I like. I like fucking brownies. I shouldn't be eating them. Listen, as a person who gets a lot of criticism publicly, you're not going to please everybody. So it's okay that some people don't like that we talk sports sometimes.

Just like some people might not like when we talk about other things, whatever it may be. So it's okay. It's okay. Speaking of things that are divisive to the audience, Trudy Trudy, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? I want to ask you a question

on the heels of the whole fresh and fit debacle that we just talked about. What? We're still here that? We're not talking about it anymore. We're talking about it specifically. Trudy, you're what I like to call a yow. A young, a yaw. a yow.

A young a yow. That's what I call them. I've always called them this since college. A yow. A young African-American woman. Yows. That's what you are.

Do you personally believe, Trudy, as a young African-American woman, a yow? That you see young black men who are migrating and moving towards dating white women more than you. Do you feel the love from the brothers as a young African-American woman? Yes, I personally do, but I will say that I, so you asked me when this first started,

like, what my red flags were, and I gave you two, you know, kind of hot button ones, but my third red flag is if a because I'm my father is dark skin my father is Haitian my mom is black and Filipino so I ended up somewhere in the middle um and so my complexion is lighter and so there are men that say oh you know your light skin so like I'll date you that's always been my experience and when that happens if that happens that to me is a red flag and that's like a guy that I would not do not want to date. I don't want to be your friend. I don't want any of that.

I think that my experience is that they make me like a token and you're just like wouldn't even want that type of guy around us. So your mom is black and Filipino? That's all he heard out of what you said, Trudy.

Oh my, my God. I was heard it all. No, I heard it all. I heard it all. I heard it all, but I have to ask you a question. So then your mother's, so then your grandparents, one of them is black and one of them is Filipino. So my mom's grandfather is Filipino, like was in the Navy or something like that, I want to say. and then her grandmother is black and white,

but she looks like, if you would see a picture of her, we call her Big Ma. Big Ma probably looks like a white woman to most people. Wow. You said it like it's a stat. She looks like a white woman. Like it's something. She's giving you a description.

I can't believe you. So the point that fresh and fit made was that women having preferences, it's the same as men having preferences. So whereas a guy might tell you that, you know, he feels a certain way about women based upon skin tone, that that is the same as you saying that you don't want a guy with a suspect hairline. What do you say to that?

First off, that's the most low IQ comparison I have ever heard. The two are not even in the same. seen stratosphere and fresh and fit or whatever I couldn't figure out if it was fit and fresh or fresh and fit first off that's a dumbass name for a podcast um but number two I just feel like that to even put the two in the same wheelhouse is just making a concerted effort to like misunderstand what a preference actually is like the hair line and all that like that's a preference I think rachel said it best um last week that they are using preference as like a mystique to really say, like, you really don't like black women.

You're repulsed by black women. Like, that's what is. I'm not repulsed by, like, a crooked hairline. And they're trash, period. She said crooked. She said... Last thing for Trudy. It's even worse.

Trudy, crooked is worse than no airline. It's just tough. It's just tough. I can't get the visual out of my name. It's just tough. The whole, all of it's tough. Last thing for Trudy. Yes.

This comes from J.E.619. I've been crushing on this guy at the gym from afar. We speak because we literally see each other almost every day. He's tall, dark, handsome, tatted, very friendly to everyone. Nice smile and has great vibes. Granted, I don't even know his name, status, etc. But you know, in my mind, we go together.

Today, he took off his hat. my first instant my coffee oh my god just listen listen to what you've done listen to what's happening here today he took off his hat

and my first instant was to look at his hair line it's not terrible but he's definitely not bald by choice we still go together though from afar true there's a couple things

from afar like so this is like her boyfriend in her head She's her boyfriend in her head. Yeah. So Trudy, just let you know. This guy is tall, dark, handsome, tatted. He's friendly.

Has a nice smile and great vibes. But this lady is putting him off. But she is having negative energy towards him because of a hat. I submit right now, Trudy, your superficial nature is stopping black women from finding happiness. So let me just say, you got to be the captain,

you got to be the captain of your own ship. Like if that was me, he's checking all the boxes, whatever, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to go on a date with you because maybe the attraction will grow for me. Like, it's happened.

I honestly, I'm going to keep you funky. And this might be something that people are like, what or like girls will applaud to. I like my niggas a little ugly. I don't want to date nobody that's too fine because that is just not what I'm interested in. So I feel like if you got the hairline's a little suspect,

I feel, and everything else is on point, don't block your blessing and go on a date and maybe you'll see, you'll find something amazing about him because you can go on a date with a guy with the perfect hairline and then he choose funny. Like anything can happen. He choose funny. Yes.

It's a real thing. The time. They like, I can't, it's like the saliva. I know exactly what you're saying. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. So there are more, there are worse things in the world than a hairline. I wouldn't let the hairline stop me from going on a date.

But I said if you met me in the club and came up to me, that would have been my first thought. And I would have had to just rely on my laser vision. So before we move on from this fucking ridiculous shit that you're talking right now, I just want to, when you say, when you say, you say, you like your niggas a little ugly. A little ugly. I want to, I want, I want you to explain why, and I want to know if the women that are listening to the podcast feel this same way.

You say you like your niggas a little ugly. Just a little bit. What does that mean and why? Oh, man, because I feel like, I've dated like a super, super fine guy before and whatever, and I just feel like you, like, he thought he was prettier than me and it was a problem for me. I like I didn't like it. It was like two divas in the room and somebody has to, one person can be the diva, the other person can't be the diva.

It can't be two divas in a relationship. So I didn't like it for that reason. Also, niggas little ugly. I feel like they just tend to have like better personalities. And I'm here for like a strong 7.5 leaning more towards the eight neighborhood with an amazing personality. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Let me tell you some.

Oh, Rachel, now. First off, she, I know what you made. It's more of like a pretty boy mentality. Yes. Right? Because you can be attractive but not carry yourself in a way where you just know you're the shit or think you're the prettiest person in the room. And I know what you mean about them not being as attractive because here's the thing.

They have better personality sometimes because they have to work for it, right? As opposed to people who are just like beautiful or attractive, they're used to people coming to them. They don't have to try hard, right? Because they're just pretty. whereas somebody else might have a better personality because they got to work for it. They got to put in work.

They got to show you that they working with more than just their appearance. I get you, Trudy. I got you. And I'm going to keep it funky. When we go on a date, don't ask me to flick you up because that's happened. And I feel like it tends to happen with.

So what? They asked me to flick them up. Can you catch this pick right here? Like, this literally happening in Santa Monica. That is new generation. That is new generation. It was a horrible. I want my soul wanted to evaporate.

Like it was, it was horrible. So you go on a day with a guy, he asked you to take a picture of him. Huge red flag. No, no, no, no. Flick him up. That's different. What is Flick him up is a full on, like, photo shoot. Yeah, for the, for the gram.

For the gram. And I don't even get photo cred. Come on. Yeah, you don't even get photo credit. You know what? You're getting no crit. You've made my skin crawl with your opinions. I call that.

Like, you've, you've upset me. And now you must. Let's go. Thank you for joining us right now. Trudy's Corner. Trudy's Corner. Love it. I hate it.

It's here to stay, baby. Okay. Treat for you guys. We have actually a very, very special guest joining us today on Higher Learning. He is the Secretary of Education, an actual real-life cabinet member, here on Higher Learning. Dr. Miguel Cardona is going to join us on the other side of this break.

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See terms at Fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Okay. Hey, higher learning. We have a very special guest joining us today. Extremely special. I mean, this is very official. We have the, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's weird that we have a member of the cabinet. We have to the 12th Secretary of Education.

Wow. That's a big gift for us. Dr. Miguel Cardona is joining us today on higher learning. Doc, thank you so much for. joining us. This is a big honor and a big tree for us to have you in the house today, man. Thanks. Honor to be with you. Glad to be a part of the festivities this weekend and happy to be with you for an interview. Okay. So in case you guys don't know, I am here in L.A. Rache is actually there in the same room with Dr. Cordona. So because of that,

Rach, uh, go ahead and kick it off. You guys are sitting right across. This is very meta. very meta. It's like I'm watching them but I'm also like taking part very, very meta. So, Rachel, you go ahead and get started. I'll come in with my second question after you. Yeah, well, I think that it would be great for our audience to just get to know. One, we're here right now.

It's the college football playoff weekend. But I'm an ambassador for the College Football Playoff Foundation. And through that, the foundation is all about empowering, uplifting, inspiring, educators. And so it's a really fun weekend to celebrate our teachers and you are a part of this, which is such a huge deal. I've been doing this for four years. It's a very, very big deal. So if you can't just talk a little bit about one, why you're here, but then also how you got to this place to being a part of the cabinet, to being the Secretary of Education.

Oh, of course. Thank you for having me. First of all, once a teacher, always a teacher. You know, I was a fourth grade teacher. I loved it. And my values haven't changed. So to be able to be here today to celebrate teachers to honor them for their hard work, not just during the pandemic, but we know.

Teachers bend over backwards for their kids. They love their kids. They do whatever they need to do. So when I was given an opportunity to be here to celebrate with them to help empower our teachers, I said, of course I'm going to be here. So I've had a great weekend hanging out with these teachers of the year, celebrating their successes, talking about what we need to do moving forward in education. For me, I went into teaching.

because I went to a high school, a technical high school. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I studied automotive. And I had a teacher tap me on the shoulder and say, would you ever consider a career in teaching? And I was like, wow, that was the first time somebody asked me. So I went in. I wanted to be an art teacher at first.

And then I gravitated toward elementary, loved it. And honestly, I've been blessed with opportunities. I was a principal. And then I served in that same community as an assistant superintendent, really focusing on closing achievement disparity. make sure all students have opportunities to succeed. And then the governor called me in Connecticut and asked if I could lead the state.

So I was like, of course. So I did that. It was amazing. And then the pandemic hit. We worked really hard to reopen our schools safely because we know schools are closed. Achievement gaps are going to get worse. So we did that.

We grinded there. And then it got the attention of the President Biden and I was asked to serve as Secretary of Education I'm here today. Wow. Got the attention of the president. So President Biden. President Biden.

It's hard to get his attention sometimes. You know, he's hard to, it's hard to he's the president. There's a lot of stuff going on. Okay, let's start. Let's start right there. I don't know if you can see me right now, but I'm black, you know. I'm a black person. So I definitely care about some of the disparities that we see in test scores.

between white students and black and Latino students. And because I know in my heart that these are bright kids that we are dealing with, I am incredibly concerned with the fact that these disparities exist. How do we attack this issue? Because outcomes in America are definitely going to be connected to these disparities in achievement, between these students that really need our help. What do you think that comes from and how do we address it? Thanks for that.

You know, I stay passionate in education because as a Latino and a father, I have two children in high school, public high school, I want to make sure that the work that I do changes the trajectory of students like mine and like students that look like my children. In America today, race and place, are better indicators of where you're going to end up sadly than many other indicators. We have to have a level of urgency in this country about that we currently don't have. So for me, what that translates into is ensuring that all of our students have access to career and college pathway programs,

that they have access to affordable college, that they have access to high-quality teachers, high quality, rigorous content and high standard. We need to have people in front of the classroom that believe that all children can achieve. And we need to make sure that our systems are working for our students, keeping the students at the center of it. You know, I could go into some of the things that we've done to ensure, especially with this pandemic, right? Everybody's talking about school reopening.

Sure. Why is school reopening so important? Because students that look like you then are more likely to fall behind if our schools are closed. So for us, if we're not reopening our school safely and doing everything we can, we're making the gap worse. That's the reality. So my push, the first several months of Secretary of Education is to safely reopen schools because, unfortunately, being out of school affects some students more than others. So we've got to start there, but we can't stop there.

We know before the pandemic there were gaps. So we've got to do more to be honest about it, be open about it, and say we're going to address it by putting more resources to those students that needed the most. I know that your job is hard, period. But right now, education is a huge topic just because of what you were saying with COVID and about reopening schools, but also because everybody's talking about critical race theory without even actually understanding what it is. And it's not even being taught in our classrooms.

And I'm from Texas. And if you're watching what's happening in Texas on all levels, it's just getting wild from there. And one of the issues also is that they have these bills that they're proposing where they want to remove books from school libraries. I'm just wondering on the federal level, how do you plan? Because education is going to be a hot issue coming up in 2024 as well. Is there a plan? What is kind of your take on that?

As much as you can say in regards to it. Look, you know, statutorily, Secretary of Education, Department of Education has no role in curriculum. That's a state and local issue. When I was commissioner, I had more role there. When I was in a city level assistant superintendent, I have more of a role there. But what I can't tell you as an educator sitting in the role of secretary of education is, if we're serious about engaging all students, we need to make sure that they're exposed to curriculum where they can see themselves.

I talk about Dr. Reed Sims-Bishol. She talks about windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. Curriculum should be a window into other cultures. It should be a mirror so that when my children are reading a book, they could see people that look like them that have contributed to this country's growth. And sliding glass doors where I could take a walk into another culture through literature. That's good education. And I trust that teachers across the country get that. You know, it's become politicized.

I'm not going to lie, but I don't walk into that narrative. I keep it on mind. We know what to do, educators. We know how to meet our students' needs. We know how to engage our students. And we need to trust our educators to do their jobs. Yeah. So I know that a lot of the things that have to do with the quality of learning that kids get,

there are issues that overlap. For example, I know kids in rural areas in Louisiana and South Carolina and places where I'm from Louisiana and South Carolina, a place where I have a lot of friends and relatives that don't have the same access to high-speed Internet to be able to actually do some of the essential. that they have right now. And this goes all the way up to the collegiate level. How does the, for people that are wondering about those types of things, that's like an infrastructure thing, right? That's like a different, but might not be in the wheelhouse of the Department of Education. How do you guys work with other areas of the government to make sure that kids have things that they need all over the place so they can even have close to an equal playing field in some of these

issues. So I remember a month after the pandemic hit, right? April 2020, I called two superintendents in Connecticut. One home was from a very affluent community. I said, how's it going? He goes, we're good. We just flipped the switch. Every kid has an eye math. They have broadband internet. They have quality curriculum on the other side of the screen. I called another superintendent from a more impoverished community. Many students would call it. I said, how's it going? Four weeks after the pandemic kid, I still haven't reached all my kids. I don't know where they are. So you're absolutely right. This is an issue that we have to address as a country. The internet should be as common as a pencil in our schools, in our community. It's no longer a luxury, not only for academics,

but for many families, see their doctors through that telehealth. But to your point, yes, we are working as whole government to make sure that the infrastructure plan addresses bandwidth needs in those communities that don't have it, so that all students can have access to internet, high-quality internet. That's part of the infrastructure plan that President Biden put forward. So it does benefit our kids,

but I'm going to go a step further than. The infrastructure plan is going to help in a lot of our communities, including 400,000 schools and over 10 million households. They don't even have pikes that are lead-free. Think about the communities that affects the most, too. When we have lead pipes in our communities,

lack of bandwidth. This infrastructure plan will help children, will help families, will help schools. Can you talk a little bit more about, because I feel like sometimes we get lost in maybe the politics of things and we don't understand necessarily what's being put out there in regards to, and I'm going to say it wrong, build back better, build back. It's okay. Mess it up every single time. Build back better, yeah. The build back better plan, what has been done in regards to helping. teachers and educators in our school systems. Yeah.

If you think about the infrastructure plan as like fixing pipes and internet and bridges and stuff like that, that's, think of infrastructure like that. The build back better is helping the family infrastructure, childcare, access to health care, schools. So what it's doing for schools, in addition to promoting early childhood, education for three and four-year-olds across the country, which is a game changer when it comes to closing achievement gaps. It's also providing funds to support teachers. We talk a lot about supporting teachers. What does that mean? Well, the president put forward something that actually

puts money to it. There's about a half a billion dollars to support teacher pipeline programs to promote diversity in education, professional development. We talk a lot about making sure we're supporting our students. What are we doing to support our teachers so they can support our students? All our teachers now have to bring students in that have had trauma over the last year and a half. How are we supporting our teachers in their capacity to be able to meet those needs of those students? And we're also funding institutions like HBCUs that are creating programs to develop teachers too. So there are real dollars in this build-back better plan to support teachers, but also to support families. All right.

So I know we don't have an infinite amount of time. with you so I'm going to ask you a double whammy of questions right here okay it's easier a little easier here all right now you've you're a teacher and you were principal I worked my ass off Dr. Cordona in high school to understand algebra trigonometry and all those things and guess what I never use it I never use it I just want you to answer this question yes or no be real from the Secretary of Education. We don't need algebra, do we? Let's keep it real.

Let's keep it gangster. Let's keep against it, Dr. Cardona. Let's keep against it. We don't need algebra. I just want you to be like, like, look, it's something cool and it's something nice. Can we keep pre-algebra? We can keep pre-algebra.

Pre-algebra is fine. You know what I'm saying? Like, pre-algebra is fine, but let's keep it real. Like, what am I doing here, man? We don't really need it. Be honest, Dr. I hear you, man. So let me give you a two first.

Okay. How about we keep the calculus? We keep high rigorous standards because we're going to be the top in the world. Not just top in the country. We're going to be the top in the world. And we need our scientists and get people on Mars before anybody else. We're going to keep that. But we're also going to increase, which is what I hear you saying,

we need to increase financial literacy and practical uses for how to use math, how to balance a checkbook, how to pay for your mortgage. Credit score. Credit score. score, like keeping track of a credit score, understanding what's going to, those are the things, Dr. Cardona, you know what? Have you thought about what you're going to do in 2024, maybe take a shot at the presidency? Because with the way you're talking right now, I'm not going to be open school right now,

but I hear you, and I heard it, not only do I hear it from you, I hear it from everyone, I hear from my own children. Yeah. So we need to really be real about preparing our students for life after high school, which means the workforce, college, and life, right? and that includes credit scores and how to calculate it, how to keep it good. Totally with you there.

Okay, we'll type of one more question. I have to ask for this. We've talked about it a lot on the podcast. It affects me personally. Where are we with student law? Yes, yes. And, you know, it's from day one when the president took office and when I was hired.

It was very clear. We've got to be student-centered at the Department of Education. There's a program called Public Service Loan Forgiveness. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that program. Let me write it down. Public service loan forgiveness. Before I was hired,

98% of the students that asked for loan forgiveness were denying. 98%. It's broken. So we're fixing it. Just in the last three months, there was about $3 billion in loan forgiveness just out of that program. We're fixing it.

It's for teachers, for nurses, for veterans. If you did 10 years of paying loans and you're working, serving in the public, like those jobs, your loans will be forgiven. There was about $13 billion total in loan forgiveness for people with total permanent disabilities. People that would take advantage of by their school, like, you know, you've heard of ITT and what they did. 35% of their students are black students. We wiped out the debt of the students that were in there.

We are on a mission to put students first. Now, we're not totally done. I mean, he's been president not even a hear yet. We're not done. We're still having conversations about more broad loan forgiveness. but over $13 billion already in loan forgiveness from day one. We're trying to make it so that our students are first. And we also want to fix the issue so that five years from now,

we're not in the same position where so many people are dead. So we got you. We're going to continue working for you. And for so many of those students who have a lot of debt. I need a part-time public service, John. We're going to hook you over public service loan forgiveness. Check it out. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Dr. Cardona. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Cardona, thank you so much for joining us to Delano Higher Learning. I know I was going to ask you what your favorite HBCU is,

but that's okay. I know it's Southern University in Baton Rouge, Ron Furma. I know that's your favorite HBCU. He's on the record. He's on the record. He's on the record. I love you all. Thank you so much for joining us,

a day on higher learning. Very important work that you do. And we are, we're with you, we're with you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you so much. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business,

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimphia. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimphia, including important safety information. All right. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad stuff happening over the last couple of days. When I tell you sad stuff, I mean sad stuff happening over the last couple of days. We lost an absolute giant in entertainment. Someone whose importance cannot be overstated.

His name was Sidney Portier. He was the first black man to win the Best Actor Academy Award. He was an activist. He was a genius. He was an in. and remains and always will be a legend he died. At the age of 94, a life insanely well lived. He won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1963 for an amazing film called Lillies in the

field. And he made it his job, his goal, to attack roles that had social commentary in them. It was part of what Sidney Portier's life. life was about growing up. Sydney Portier for me was somebody who was revered alongside of all the greats in the civil rights era. My parents show me, guess who's coming to dinner? We watch lilies in the field.

We watch a raisin in the sun. We watch uptown Saturday night. We watch Let's Do It Again. We watch all of these films. And we enjoyed. paying homage to this amazing performer who meant so much more to us than just an actor. So we have to say rest and peace to Sidney Portier. Rachel, when you heard this, what did you think?

Sydney Portier was 94, and I just thought about his life. Like, what a life, you know, and hearing you say that you grew up, your parents having you watch movies, same with me. I think many black people share the same sentiments as you that they grew up learning about who Sydney Portier was through watching his films. We watched, you all watched them. I remember being young, not wanting to watch. And then my mom's like telling me how important it is. And then me getting older and appreciating that my parents instilled that in me because they recognize the importance and the impact of him.

You know, it's interesting when you talk to about the roles that he took because he's also spoken about how he would have liked to have taken other roles. And because he was the first, because he was a trailblazer breaking down those doors, he couldn't have the same luxury that actors after him that have had. And it's really interesting, too, to see the tributes from black actors and black actresses talk about the importance of Sydney in their life. and how he impacted him. I was watching a montage that was put together of Denzel talking about the very first time that he met him in a bookstore. And although he didn't get a job from Sydney, he got his time.

And he took the time to talk to him and about the business and about acting. And then a full circle moment, you know, they end up both getting Oscars on the same night. So it's just really beautiful to learn about him, too, through other people's eyes and what he meant. and just to reflect on his life, you know? Not that we ever forgot. And maybe it's a reminder that we need to do it more often, right?

Think about those people who have made such a difference and made it easier for you and me in this industry. Yeah, yeah. Look, you can't really overstate what the guy meant to black culture. And black culture, which is American culture, you know. You think about it being 1963 when he brought that door down

That's amazing, man This, this It's a life well lived But You know, I was, I was sad, man I was sad to I never got a chance To tell Sidney Porte

How much he meant to me And he meant a lot I saw him one time Where? Tell the story He was going into He was going into a restaurant And

Were you TMZ? No, no, no, no No, no, no. I was just going to a restaurant, you know. I got to see a lot of cool, older brothers around Beverly Hills at TN when I was working for TMZ. But I just saw Sidney, he was going into a restaurant. And I was like, Jesus. Like, he looked like a piece of art. I was like, man, that's Sydney 48.

My God, what the hell? Like, what do I say? What do you say to Sydney 48? We're like, what do you say? I was, hello, sir. How are you? Hello, y'all, man. It goes into the thing, you know?

But I got to see a couple of guys. I saw Billy D. Williams driving in his car around one time. William December Williams. I just, these, I just wish really more than anything. And I don't know that if there's a way to do it. I just wish and hope that these individuals know how much they mean to us, man. Yeah, I think they did. Okay.

I just, I hope that Sydney, more than anything, I hope that Sydney knew how much he meant to us, man. I really do. I really hope that. More terrible news yesterday. We lost a couple of people, James M. Tume, legendary jazz and R&B musician. You guys, if you guys have ever heard the song, Juicy, by the notorious BIG, then you know, you know his work because the original Juicy.

was, he wrote and produced the song. He wrote and produced the song, but he was a legendary jazz and R&B musician. He was part of the group, the R&B group, him to me. It's like, my mom used to love him. He'd hear the music all the time. He passed away along with Bob Sagitt, who died at just 65, Danny Tanner.

man that's super duper sad i don't want to say what's going on and all of this stuff but god damn life is taking a chunk out of eyes these last couple of months man these last couple of years just like god damn it's almost like i saw i saw dj paul say something And there are no details on Bob Sagitt's death. So the only thing that's left is to say, you know, rest and peace to his family. I know I have friends that he was very close to and everyone has great and amazing memories of Bob Sagitt. But I saw DJ Paul say something on Instagram yesterday. And it made me laugh, even though it was a sad thing.

He said, man, I got on Instagram back in 2012 because people told me, It was a bunch of people clowning and naked girls on here. He's like, now it's nothing but a page for saying rip to people. And I'm like, I know that there's, he's clouding how he feels in, in humor. But my God, what he's really saying is just being bombarded with bad news. Just being bombarded with bad news. It's tough. It just seems like though, when you hear about one,

it just keeps going and going. And I know that people say that before, but I think it's like it just all happened so quickly. Especially last night too, Bob Sagitt. I thought I was dreaming. I was a little drunk. But I thought that I was making it up. I was confused.

Even when I woke up this morning, I was confused. I was like, did that really happen? And I was trying to find out the details. on it and it does seem like it was something that was just so sudden. And then, of course, I got caught up and looking at what he meant to people. You know, I was looking at a video with Tiffany Haddish had him on recently. I didn't know he said something to her that was very influential to her at the beginning of her year.

And it's, you know, I grew up with Bob Sagitt as the dad, Danny Tanner from Full House. And that's all I really knew of him. It wasn't until I got older that I realized, you know, he's more than a kid. Academy Award before. He's really been influential on the scene and so many comedians old and young respected him, went to him for advice. So yeah, it's again, same thing I said with Sydney. It's like you start going down the life of, hold on as I'm sitting here talking CNN just said, Bob Sagitt, they find no autopsy finds no evidence of drug use. or foul play

medical examiner says so the cause of death is still pending. But no, I was just saying. When you said he won a Grammy award, is what you mean. Was it a Grammy? Okay. Grammy, yeah, yeah.

He won a Grammy. I had no idea. No idea that he won a Grammy. But no, I just was saying, the same thing I said with Sydney is that, you know, sometimes you just, you forget how the impact

that people have doesn't mean that you don't respect it. It's just you get caught up in your life and you forget what they meant to you or what they meant to other people and how, what a difference that they made. So anyways, he was super influential and behind a lot of people's careers. So, you know, rest of these, Bob's idea. And it looks, it looks like he was nominated for a Grammy Award. Okay, so shout out to Bob.

He's somewhere laughing at us right now. He went from winning an Academy Award to winning the Grammy Award to having been nominated for. He won a student Oscar. That must have been what I had. A student Oscar, I see. I see. Well, we just want to give him everything, okay? He was a talented.

Talented, amazing, and very nice guy. I was able to meet... Very diverse. Yeah. I was able to meet Bob Saggett over at the Willhouse Mansion a couple of times. Great guy. Very funny guy. Funny in a way that you wouldn't have expected.

You know, we all know now that Bob Sagitt wasn't exactly Danny Tanner in terms of the wholesomeness. He was a little bit more of an edgy comic. But he really did go there. Whenever you met him, he was a funny dude. But who put that out there? Because I feel like, I don't know, did he do a special or what? He did a couple of specials, yeah.

No, no, no, but I mean, like, it's like he went from the Danny Tanner image to all a sudden they were like, boss, it's like the dirtiest comedians ever. And I was like, what did it happen after a special? Did somebody say it in the interview? I can't remember it. But I remember everyone being so shot. All right. So rest in peace to James, rest in peace to Bob, rest in peace to Sydney, 48.

Let's take a break. All right. Three men have been sentenced to life in prison for the Ahmaud Arbery killings. Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and their neighbor, William Bryan, 35 years old, Travis McMichael is. Gregory McMichael is 66. William Bryan is 52. They were convicted of murder back in November. remember, they have now been giving life in prison, the three of them.

One of them has the possibility of parole. So Travis McMichael and his dad both got life in prison without the possibility of parole, but their neighbor, William Bryan, got lesser sentence with life, the possibility of parole, for murdering Ahmad Arbery. So at least illegally, this is finished. They could appeal. Interesting.

Tell us. I think I read that. And I don't, you know, they'll be coming after me. Mm-hmm. They might try to appeal. I'm sure they,

I'm sure they'll try to appeal, but. But I mean, like, legally, it's not over if they appeal. And, you know, I mean, the decision, could be like they keep what, what, you know, the court decided, but it's not over, over, you know, but at least we have, at least we know what the sentencing is in this case.

You have to wonder about that. So, yes, parts of it in some ways, yes. But legally, no. So to that end, you want justice, you want the legal system to run its course. So I guess the question becomes And so many of these things are in our faces now So now what do we do? Do we move on? It's hard. So understand what I'm trying to ask this.

I'm asking this question to the audience as well. I'm just at a weird point in my life Where it's just hard to move on. I know you have to move on. But yeah, they get to spend the rest of their life jail and maybe they will, maybe they won't, maybe something will happen on a pill, but they killed him. I guess this is just the way life is. Like, there's, I don't know.

You're searching for something that you're never going to get because the only way you're going to feel right is if he was still here with us. You know what I mean? And it's like, so you're never going to feel satisfied with that, if they all got life, if they got the deaths in it's because it doesn't bring him back. And I think that's what's the tough pill to swallow and you're looking at this family and you're watching them give their statements. And it's heartbreaking. I should not have watched, but I saw a portion of the dad talking and saying that, you know, I watched this man sit next to his son,

this entire trial. And I thought, I'm never going to get to do that. That's tough to watch. So I think to answer your question, you're right and how you feel. And I think so many of us feel that way. And I think the only thing you can do is keep going, but keep fighting for accountability when something, a tragedy like this happens again. As a community, we were very involved with what was happening with when we saw the video, making sure that they were held accountable, paying attention to the trial. You know what I mean? We're big about the prosecutor who was initially involved getting her removed because she was friendly with them. So I think that that's all you can do is not forget Amman and anybody else who has lost

their life in such a tragic way and then continue to fight that the people who do these terrible things are out of calm. That's all you can do. And I know that doesn't make you feel any better. I mean, look, I mean, it's just sadly, that is the reality. Yeah, that's definitely the reality. But let's not forget. Let's not forget.

Amon. Yeah, not forget Amon. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, we wanted justice and justice was served, but it seems hollow, you know, when these things continue to happen. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, catch up.

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Exclusions apply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. So it's, we've long suspected something that I think now has been pretty well established. Urban Meyer, former coach of the Ohio State They Buckeyes and the Florida Gators, the Utah Uts, and most recently the Jacksonfield

Jaguars is the biggest piece of fucking shit that has existed in a long time in coaching circles. He's fucked in the head. All right. There was a guy that I want you guys to look up. His name is Bobby Petrino. He's the former coach of the Louisville Cardinals and the Arkansas Razorbacks and the the Atlanta Falcons, he's a big fucking piece of shit. Urban Meyer is even the bigger piece of shit.

It was alleged that Urban Meyer used the photo of Trayvon Martin to implement a no hoodie policy with the Ohio State Buckeye University's football team. Going through slides, they say no hoodies, picture of Trayvon Martin pops up. Now, Urban Meyer initially denied these reports, he's recanted his statements his statements

um uh former Ohio state defensive back Marcus Williams's detailed incident um on Twitter to where he elaborated how educational institutions mistreat black student

athletes all right in his tweets he also called out Urban Meyer now Urban Meyer says uh that a support staff is actually the one that was responsible for it. But at first he denied that it ever happened.

And now he admits that it actually did happen. That an Ohio State University, they used a picture of Trayvon Martin to enforce their no hoodie policy. I admit, I just got to check in real quick with the audience who's listening to us. This show has been a downer so far. Like, and I just got to be.

Wait, I don't know that you guys were out there. It's actually taking a toe on knee. It's got to be the downer. This is fucking disgusting. Like, this is what I want to know. From black student athletes that are listening to this, I am opening it up the floor. This is what I'm doing right now.

And Rachel, hopefully you'll support this idea. Black student athletes that have played any sport anywhere at any time. I am giving you an open forum to come on higher learning and tell your tales of mistreatment. Because something like this, I cannot imagine what it was like

for those brothers to be in there and see something like this. So anybody anywhere that has a story to tell about being mistreaty, at a university or a place that is required that is relying on you

for all of this money that they make off these sports you can come on here and hire learning to talk about it because this shit is going too fucking far Rachel what do you think what the fuck I don't know if I've ever heard anything this egregious I mean like in a long time I'm sure it's happened before not this but something on this level I'm telling you

it's shocking to me that this didn't come out sooner because apparently this happened in 2017 I believe but I think the fact that it didn't shows how much control these coaches and these programs have over these student athletes because they were probably terrified to say something because they thought that they would be punished and it would take away their opportunity they were probably scared to challenge urban mire or any other of the other coaches or this staffer because let's be honest this is an urban mire program. He knows this program from the top to the bottom. That video was not shown without his

knowledge, without his approval. This was not just some... You don't think that's possible. I do not believe. And even if he just said, hey, no, no hoodie policy that a staffer did, there's no way that he didn't have knowledge that this happened. Somebody talked about. You know what I mean? And was this staffer, did he, the fact that he denied it and then he was like, oh, yeah, no, no, no, No, no, no, no. To me, there is no way that he didn't know this didn't happen. I think it just shows how much he didn't care. The fact that you could have said, hey, we have a no hoodie policy.

It could have been a bullet point. It could have just been a word of slide. But instead, you chose to emphasize that by putting up a picture of Trayvon Martin. I cannot imagine how triggering that must have been for those black student athletes who were sitting in that classroom or coaches on the staff. I know it's not an all white team. I mean, a team of coaches at that time. And I'm thinking he has no respect or regard for black students and student athletes,

but we knew this. This is just now coupled with how he handled the hiring of Chris Doyle. At a time when this country, he hired Chris Doyle, the strength and conditioning coach, to be that coach of, to hold that position for the Jacksonville Jaguars, if you guys don't know this, when this guy was the head strength and conditioning coach for Iowa, University of Iowa, he was fired from that in June 2020 when it came out that after dozens and dozens of black players said he was racist and abusive towards them. He would say things to them like he preferred the white athletes over the black ones and would say things to the black players

like, hey, go back to the ghetto. He was fired for that after this country went through a racial racial awakening in 2020. And the school was recognizing he was problematic and took action, even though they probably already knew it before. That was their response to what was happening in the country. And what does Urban Meyer do? He hires him after that. So did not care who he was offending.

Specifically, black people, he didn't give a fuck about them. So now you couple that with what he did with this Trayvon Martin, goody picture. he don't care he don't care about black people their feelings what they're going through in this country or them as his student athletes or professional players he's a piece of shit

we never we never see him on our screens again you will this is so disgusting you will who do you think is going to hire tell me who you think would hire oh he'll get hired somewhere

who would be that that's a bold move Oh, they'll definitely hire Urban Meyer. But like, who? Like a bar stools? No, no, no, no, no. I'm not talking like, bar stools, multiple.

Not just one bar stool. Bar stools, sports. Like, it's multiple, multiple schools. No, but so Urban Meyer's going to get a job somewhere. The television, the television thing, to be your point, might be a little tougher sell, but if you're, let's say, let's say, let's say right now, you're,

your, you're like the University of Ohio Bobcats or you're like Colorado State or Utah State or one of those programs which are great programs for what they are in the group of five and you want to win some games

and you'll hire Urban Meyer. And then after he wins there for a couple years in a spot like that, Urban Meyer could get another par or five job. If Urban Meyer, if Urban Meyer wants to coach high-level college football again, he will get the opportunity. He is,

just the way it goes. Now, there are other guys like Art, there are other guys like Art Bryels and guys like that that probably never will again. But like Urban Meyer, he's won everywhere he's been. Two national championships in Florida,

one at Ohio State. everywhere he's been. Like he's, there's some program out there right. You mean tell me right now, you mean to tell me right now, if Florida State, if Florida State three,

four years down the line, keeps losing like they're losing right now, and they can have Urban Meyer, turn it back around. He's still in his 50s. They wouldn't hire him. I don't believe if they would. You guys, don't play for him.

He has already, and you don't want to be a part of a program that disregards everything that Urban Meyer has done. So if a school, if any program hires him, they're basically telling you they don't give a fuck about you as a student athlete. They're basically telling you that.

Because he's kicking white players. He's kicking white players and he's like disrespect to black ones. Texas would hire. Don't do my school like that. Don't do that because we haven't done that yet. We have morals. We have standards. Don't do that.

Texas will hire. Don't do that. Texas is giving them a shot. You get down there to Texas. While I'm talking about that, the school that would probably be more likely to give a shot with BLSU, we don't give off fuck. Irma is a piece of shit, though. Rest and peace to Trayvon Martin. There's a Kentucky teacher that got into physical altercation with a black student.

His name is William Bennett. As a science teacher at Marlon Seymour's school in Louisville, it was fired in December. He's called on video fighting the 16-year-old student named Jemir Strain. He apparently told Jemir Strain that he was. just another black boy that got shot. He told him you're going to end up in the streets dead. There's video of this out there. We talked to the Secretary of Education earlier today.

I am wondering about the, when we think about this in the urban Maya situation, about the environments that our students are learning in all the time. Are they learning how to be students and express what's going on in their minds? and hearts, or are they learning how to be servants of the state and victims of white supremacy? I have no word. I have no word.

Yeah. Listen, it just makes you think, what are we not seeing? You know what I mean? This, if this, if this, and it doesn't even have to be what are we seeing. What kind of mentality do our teachers have when they're dealing with students of color? You know, like I just, the fact that you can fight, put your hand, initiate a fight, because that's what the act is. are he initiated this fight with the student over a mask it's like what's the what kind of mentality do you have when you are educating the our students black and brown i just this is wild

to me i like we should keep everyone updated on the developments of the story because right now teacher's saying one thing students are saying something else um yeah i want to know how this develops yeah um there's no vans very serious question of the week this week I'm not going to lie, the last couple of days have been a bummer. And I got to be honest with you guys, this podcast had a lot of negative stuff in it. I'll be real with you. I'll be real with you. When you do a pod and the most positive thing that you had in the pod was Trudy, once again, showing us that, let's be honest, there's not a lot of depth there when it goes on with Trudy.

She's not a lot of depth there. If y'all just in my face, what? Take it back. Take it back. I'm not saying that... I was chewing, so I couldn't... I'm not, look. I'm not saying we... I'm not saying in any way that Trudy is not, doesn't have a lot of death. But as far as dating,

it's kind of shallow. Let's be honest. It's kind of... Like, wait! The niggas love me. They love you, Trudy? They love me. Trudy's got a whole tribe now I do

I have a story for you but like I just know I don't tell on the spot so We need it We need it We need it we need it We need it because

We like three of our three We lost three people We you know You know what I mean We fucking talked about Amont Arbery I am I need to pick me up

This was a lot of weird news What happened? What's your story? Give it to me now Trudy No like I literally can't Is it Does it involve somebody we know no but like I should tell you after okay well that's fine I just want to go

up and say that I slapped the ass on my chest for this podcast because it wasn't down there so yeah it was true it was like look this is what I tell you guys and sometimes we have to do this as far as as podcast be gentle with you with yourselves guys there's a lot of stuff going on uh there's a lot of news happening we didn't even talk about the fact that the January 6th commission right now is getting railroaded. We didn't even talk about the fact that the Republicans are turning on into a full-on. I don't even want to tell you what the way the way things are going right now in Washington is very, very, very, very depressing and it looks like it's going to reach a critical mass pretty soon. But I'm going to tell you something right now.

There's your friend Van here. Your van's talking to you. There are other things. There's always matting. There's always something that you can go do to, to, to, to, to, to, to, you. To make yourself feel good. Rachel, what do you do? You literally brought it back to playing football.

We talked about how problematic football is. And you said, you know what, guys, there's always the NFL. That's what you just said. Rachel, the reality is you can't fucking do anything anymore without it being fucking problematic. Everything's fucking problematic. I can't even watch the game tonight because I'm thinking about the players and chronic traumatic and cephalopathy and what's going on in their head and things like that.

What do you do, Rachel? what's the most unproblematic, wholesome, fun thing that you can do? What is it? And then thought warriors, pick in a fucking part. Tell her why she's wrong. Rachel, like, before we go, tell people what you're going to do tonight to blow off steam. What do you do, Rachel? It can't be problematic, though.

Okay. I'll tell you. I'm going to pray. To what God, though. Go for it. To what God, though. Don't try to pray. God you're going to provide something. I can find something that they would make fun of that about.

I can find something they would talk to. They would talk about organized religion. They'll talk about the fact that the Christians were heavily involved in slave, which is true. Prayer does not have to be affiliated with a religion. People pray who aren't religious at all. They're spiritual. So come on. Come at me again. So what do they, so when you pray and you don't pray to a specific God, what are you just throwing thoughts out there and hoping that the right God hears them? Like, what do you think? Sometimes people are manifesting. Sometimes people are speaking things into the to existence. I know people who. pray to their ancestors and ask for wisdom.

And oh, come on now. It's a lot of doing that. You're right. You're right. I can be honest with you. My father never liked that. Oh, the ancestors. That never liked it.

He was a very specific prayer, man. He'd be like, if you said, rest and peace, dad, I know he's going to like this, right? If you said, yo, I speak into the universe, he'd be like, Satan is in the universe. I would say I'll just put it out there, the universe. And he'd be like, be careful, boy. You know, Satan is in the universe, too. There's a lot of dark forces in the universe. I don't pray to the universe.

My dad would always say things. It would be like, it was always, it was just never good enough. He'd be like, that's a blessing. He'd be like, from who, though? I'd be like, it's a blessing. It's from God. Satan can bless you too, boy. You have to ask for the right place.

He'd be like, God. Damn. It's a blessing. I mean, it's a good thing. It's only a good thing. I don't think we call it a blessing if it came from Satan. He said Satan can bless you. He meant it too.

All right, guys, look. Oh, there's a very serious question before we go. I just got hit up that Dr. Fauci might want to come on the podcast. That's amazing. I've met with you, Dr. Fauci before. That's great. But here's the thing. I appreciate you.

on me. Oh, but I never have every other podcast, but this is what I'll tell you. It is, you're not going to like it. Because when we had, when we had Dr. Fauci on, it was submit your questions. You have this amount of time. You have to ask your questions in this order. They have to approve the questions. You can't deter away from it. So I don't know. I don't know if you don't like it. That works for extra. That would not work for higher learning. Question for the thought warriors. Do we even want Dr. Fauci on at this point? Yes, I think they would if we could be Rachel and Van. And I'm talking Rachel from higher learning, not Rachel from Extra.

If we can be ourselves, I think they would want us to interview him. Am I right, thought lawyers? Let us know on Reddit. Let us know on Reddit, whether or not you guys want us to even interview Dr. Fauci. I say yes. But at the same time, I don't know, man. I say yes if we can go off script. Yeah.

All right, cool. All right, you guys go do something amazing. I'm going to watch the football game tonight. You guys can flame me about it tomorrow. I'm choosing the final score. I think the final score is going to be Atlanta, Alabama, 28, and Georgia 24. That's the final score of the national championship game tonight. Rachel, what's your final score?

Oh, do you say 2814? I said 2824. Okay, good. You're a close game. I think it's going to be higher than that. I'm going to go, I'm going to go what I want. I'm going to go Alabama 38. I mean, sorry, Georgia 38, Alabama 35.

Okay. Oh, girl, that'll be a fun game. Right, right. That'll be a fun game. All right. Last minute, field goal. Last minute field goal. Take thing caps off with the nine-stop.

I am Van Lathan Jr. I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.