#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Environmental Justice Eliminated, Ill. AG Stops Teacher Prep Cuts, School Choice Debate

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

3.13.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Environmental Justice Eliminated, Ill. AG Stops Teacher Prep Cuts, School Choice Debate The Environmental Protection Agency is shutting down its division that helps low-income communities overwhelmed by pollution. Dr. Mustafa Ali will explain the devastating impact this will have on Black communities. The Illinois Attorney General has successfully fought against the Department of Education's attempt to cut off millions of dollars in grants to train and support new teachers. Kwame Raoul will discuss the case and what's next as the DOE approaches elimination. We will also examine the DOE's recent cuts and what they mean for those receiving financial assistance and those who need to pay off student loans. The issue of school choice continues to spark heated debates. You'll hear from a Black Texas State Representative on the topic, as well as insights from Congresswoman Summer Lee, who argues that the school choice agenda being pushed by conservatives will only expand existing inequalities. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Thursday, March 13th, 2025, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

I told y'all Donald Trump and MAGA, they detest black people. His Environmental Protection Agency is shutting down the division that helps low-income communities overwhelmed by pollution. We'll be joined by Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, who used to work at the EPA, to talk about the devastating impact this is going to have on Black communities. Will Democrats in the Senate stand firm and vote against the Republicans' continuing resolution? A lot of people are putting pressure on them to do so. We'll talk about that right here on today's show. The Illinois Attorney General has successfully fought against the Department of Education's attempt to cut off millions of dollars in grants to train and support new teachers. Kwame Raul will join us on the show.

We'll also examine the Department of Education's recent cuts and what they mean for those receiving financial assistance and those who look to pay off student loans. The issue of school choice continues to spark a heated debate. You'll hear from a black Texas state representative on the topic, as well as insights from Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee, who argues that the school choice agenda being pushed by conservatives will only expand existing inequalities. Folks, it's a lot we've got to break down.

It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah

Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling. Martin. Martin. Earlier in the week, we told you Donald Trump's Department of Justice, they stopped the lawsuit against a petrochemical company in Louisiana's Cancer Alley.

That is a 130-mile stretch and is home to more than 200 plastic manufacturing plants, chemical facilities and oil refineries. They released hazardous emissions that have had a devastating impact on the health of residents, including lots of black people. Well, guess what? Now Trump's Environmental Protection Agency ain't protecting black people because they're shutting down their environmental justice division. Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali joins us right now. Of course, former worker with the Environmental Justice Department at the EPA. And the reality, Mustafa, is that Warren County, North Carolina, we were there a couple of years ago with Michael Regan, head of the EPA.

You were there as well. That is the birthplace of environmental justice. When we talk about environmental justice, this was created by black people, black people in North Carolina in the 1970s, where the state illegally disposed of 6,000 truckloads of contaminated soil that caused cancer chemicals to just infiltrate a low income black community. Well, as a result of this decision here, you're not going to have the protections. This is a part of MAGA's attack on DEI. Anything that says justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, doesn't matter, they're getting rid of.

And I keep saying this. When it came to Cancer Alley, when it came to this other stuff, these folks do not give a damn about black people. And you know who's silent, Mustafa? Tim Scott, Byron Donalds,

Wesley Hunt, and all of those black, all of those Negroes who were dancing at the White House Black History Month reception, they have said nothing about any of this. Yeah, and it's unfortunate that they haven't, because I'm sure that they have family members or other folks who they know who come from these communities, who come from these sacrifice zones. And this current administration is placing a crosshair on the lives of black folks. And they're creating the additional sacrifice zones that will be there.

So all those are words that get your attention. But what does that really mean? We know that in our communities that we have elevated levels of cancer because of the exposures to many of these toxic chemicals that are coming out. We also know that many of our communities were pushed because of redlining and restrictive covenants and all these different tools that were used to put us in certain areas and then to pull back the protections that were necessary to pull back the resources for infrastructure. So now you have individuals with cancers, liver and kidney diseases,

with all kinds of lung diseases and breathing difficulties, with asthma. We've got 24 million folks in this country who have asthma. And we look, it's disproportionately Black folks and brown folks are the ones who are going to the emergency rooms and the ones who are dying prematurely. There is literally, when I first started doing this work, there were just a handful of studies that were out there. There are now thousands of studies that talk about the disproportionate impacts that are happening to our most vulnerable communities, these people who are on the front lines. So when they say one thing we have to clear up is that environmental justice and DEI are

two completely different things, but they like to just throw environmental justice on the end of executive orders and these other things that they're doing. The other thing is that they have no plan. Administrations often come in and they may have a different set of priorities and a different set of ways of getting at them. But you don't just leave people vulnerable by these cuts that you're making that literally are life and death cuts. The individuals who work in environmental justice work and the ones who work in the office have built relationship with communities for decades. And why that is important, Roland, is because people for the longest time didn't pay attention

to these communities. They literally left them out there by themselves. They left them to be sacrificed. And it just took years to be to make sure that people understood that folks were serious and that they were going to stick and stay with you to help you to be able to move from surviving to thriving. That people really need to understand is that we're talking about regular ordinary people who are being impacted by by landfills, by environmental racism. And here's the problem. The problem for Republicans, MAGA, and Trump, they don't believe in any of this. They don't believe that racism exists.

They don't actually believe that black parts of this country, low-income areas, are purposely targeted by these companies to serve as dumping ground for their chemicals. Yeah, it's true, but they don't want to believe it, right? The science is there. There's a reason why there is an attack on science. There is also a reason why they are attacking these frontline communities, these environmental justice communities. And let me just unpack that for you. These are the individuals who have been standing up to the petrochemical companies, to all of these various types of

businesses and industries and companies that are playing a role in the climate crisis. And what they've done is they know that if they can begin to get rid of the protections for these communities where those facilities are, then those facilities can maximize profit. They also know that if they can address what's going on here and continue to weaken these communities, that they can also still continue to move forward on this fighting against the climate crisis that's currently going on. So this is a very well thought out set of actions that they're doing. People just really need to understand the game that's going on. So first, you discredit what's going on in these communities, and you say that they are not being impacted, that their lives are not being shortened.

Then you take the money away. You cut all these grants that you see them doing so that folks can't have the capacity to be able to get the information that they need, to be able to push back against these injustices that are currently going on. Then you get rid of the folks who work inside of these agencies so that they can no longer support you and they can no longer move the grants whenever these judges say, you can't just cut these funds for no reason. You've got to live up to the commitments that you've made with these contracts and grants and cooperative agreements. And then it just continues to play out more and more. And folks need to pay attention

because what's happening to black communities now will be coming to your community in not so distant future. You know, people got all up in arms and they should when the train derailment happened in East Palestine. Why do I bring that into our conversation? Because the chemicals that hit that white community, that lower wealth, working class white community, are similar communities that have been going on in Cancer Alley for 20 or 30 years. So we've got to make sure, one, that everyone is protected, but we've got to put very intentionality in how we are addressing these long-term impacts that are happening in these black communities and places like Cancer Alley, all throughout really the Gulf Coast and a number of other locations across our country. And this is a perfect example of what we're

always saying, elections have consequences. And so we're talking about, one, being able to go after these companies in these areas. We're talking about folks being able to sue. There's so many ramifications here that people don't really understand what happens. If black neighborhoods become dumping grounds, the federal government has basically said, hey, whatever, we don't care, because they're shutting down all 10 of the regional offices. Yeah. So, you know, there's a couple of different dynamics that are going on. So today they actually said they're going to start bringing back some of the folks in some of the regional offices. Nobody knows exactly what that looks like at what level and move people around

to do other jobs, which have got to be laser focused on environmental justice because that's where, you know, many of the, just the injustices are happening. But when we look at the criminal cases that are going on, the civil cases that are going on, when we look at a number of the different sets of impacts, these are the areas that most need the focus. These are also the areas, because I also helped run the enforcement division at one time, these are also the areas where you get some of the biggest bang for your buck if you're serious about trying to make sure that we have cleaner air and cleaner water. So we need to understand what's happening on the regional side of the equation, and we also need to make sure that we're understanding what's happening at headquarters,

because both of them are critically important in making sure that you have that full safety net for the communities that have been unseen and unheard and disinvested in for decades. Again, people just don't realize how significant this is going on. All of this is. I mean, it's so much, uh, that we can break down here. I want to bring in my panel, Recy Colbert, host of the Recy Colbert show, uh, on Sirius XM radio out of Washington, DC, Dr. Greg Carr, department of Afro-American studies, Howard university, host of the black table, the black star network, also out of DC, Jade Mathis, Jade Mathis law firm out of Washington, DC. Glad to have all three of you here.

Uh, Greg, I want to start with you. Comment, but also a question if you have one for Mustafa. Yeah, it's always good to hear you, Brother Mustafa, and we need this level of specificity and expertise at this moment. Yeah, rereading that chapter in Project 2025, you laid it out beautifully, Brother. This is all about business and money, and they don't want anybody in their way. Question. Since we know that they are trying to withdraw into themselves, disengage with the entire world across the spectrum, including on this issue, how do you see other countries stepping in, stepping up, forming different relationships, alliances in this moment?

I mean, you've got a couple of different dynamics that are going on. So you've had some relationships underneath of the environmental justice paradigm that have been built with some African countries who are also, you know, the fossil fuel industry, you know, has moved into those spaces. And now they're seeing some of the impacts and those countries are trying to balance out because folks have stripped away you know many of the opportunities and stripped away a lot of natural resources so you've got that dynamic when you come up to the climate level you know when you have the president who removes himself from the paris climate agreement and many of these um you know important sets of treaties and other types of things, a part of that also is vulnerable communities that are inside of there. So that is also not just removing people from the work that

needs to happen to address the climate crisis, but also the vulnerable communities are being impacted, one from the storms and these extreme weather events, but also from the impacts that that happened from exposure to these toxic chemicals. So, Greg, you've got, you know, you've got this double whammy thing that's going on, but there are folks who are stepping up. You've got folks in Brazil and other places who are stepping up. Good. Thank you, brother. Recy. Oh, it's good to be with you, Mustafa. I'm curious about your—what do you think the impact of this will be on the pipeline in terms of this industry?

We're seeing this administration hollowing out various industries. I know there are reports about them potentially looking to cut 50 percent of NASA's budget, which will decimate the aerospace industry. So, I'm curious if part of this is to not just have an immediate impact in terms of the environmental justice work being done. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the war on drugs. We are back in In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

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It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at TaylorPaperCeiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. But also to get people to perhaps reconsider going into the field around environmental justice and climate change work. Yeah. Thank you, Recy, for that. You know, let's let's let's unpack that in two different ways. So one is the fact that, you know, all these kids who are out in these communities are now dealing with are going to get these additional exposures, right? And these exposures have all kinds of problems with the neurological problems that come from certain exposures to certain chemicals, makes it more difficult to learn, which means that more than likely you may not make it to

college. So you may not become an engineer or a scientist or a lawyer or a number of different positions that are incredibly necessary. So it has these direct impacts inside of our communities. When it comes to the agency, there is an intergenerational paradigm that's so critically needed because you're going to have those folks who have been around for 20 or 30 years who are going to end up retiring in a natural cycle. And then you have these younger people who learn from folks who have been there so that they're prepared to be able to continue the work and expand the work and take it to a whole nother level because they're bringing all kinds of additional information, you know, that comes through innovation and ingenuity. So you also break that bridge, if you will. So they understand this dynamic. When you see them

going after folks who are probationary, and many times those are younger people who are, you know, excited about being able to give back to their country, to take that oath and to do work that is protective. So you take that you take that part out. And then, of course, when you look at EJ and they're different, all kinds of different folks who have been working on EJ at different percentages, you know, it helps to make sure that it's fully integrated. So there's intentionality in, you know, these cuts that they're making, understanding that not only in this moment does it have impacts, but it has impacts for decades to come. Jade? Yeah, thank you for having me, Roland. So for three years, I worked with the National Institute of Health, and I worked on their All of Us research program. And we traveled to marginalized communities, particularly in states, southern states like Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, where there are a lot of health impacts, as you said, who live in those environments and that have those political communities, right?

And I saw firsthand how many people were diagnosed with cancer, how many babies were diagnosed with asthma, right? And unfortunately, as you said as well, how many psychological conditions. And what we were doing at that time was working with physicians and clinicians and researchers to find cures for these conditions, right? That's precision medicine for our community. But one of the main things that I noticed during that is that we already know there's a big, you know, huge mistrust in our community when it comes to medicine and physicians and that type of thing. Do you think that this just made it, the mistrust, even worse with those states or our community and marginalized community? Oh, without a doubt. I mean, you know, again, it takes time to build trust. And once you've severed that trust, we know how easy it is, right, to no longer have faith in the government,

whether you're talking about the federal government, the state government, or local governments. So they understand that all of these cuts that they're making, when I say cuts, not just cuts to budgets, I want you to think about it in each and every aspect of a relationship with a government. They know what they're doing. So not only does it break the trust, but it also is going to impact long-term people's health. Because if you really start to unpack this stuff, and Roland is one of the only places that is actually talking about environmental injustice, environmental racism of all the media networks that are out there. And they're making a big mistake by not focusing here. Because you also see that they're making cuts to a number of the universities and research entities as well.

And if they can do that, that means that when, you know, black folks and brown folks bring information forward through community-based knowledge, that now folks no longer also can help to validate that through some of the universities, because many communities don't have the capacity to do full-out, you know, multiyear studies. So they understand this game that they're doing. And, of course, it's also related to other issues. But environmental justice talks about economics, talks about transportation, talks about housing, talks about our public health. It talks about, even though it's not an official component of it, about generational wealth, because they know that if they can devalue the land, then our people,

you know, can no longer afford sometimes to be there, can't afford the additional infrastructure. So then they have the ability, as we see with the stock market stuff that's going on, for people to then be able to swoop in and purchase the land for cheap, because they know our housing values won't go in. They know that if you're poisoning the land, that our folks who are traditionally folks who grew their own food can no longer grow their own food because they're now planting stuff in toxic lands. So we've just got to understand, sister, the whole totality of what's going on and help people also to understand not just the impact side of this equation, but also the opportunity

side of the equation. We need to be highlighting all these amazing organizations, some for years with shoestrings that have been able to make real change happen. And only the last, you know, in the last administration was the first time there was ever any significant resources that actually went back into our communities, our tax dollars actually making it back into our communities, because for decades upon decades before then, people were poisoning us and at the same time extracting dollars out of our community. So, you know, we've got a chance now to really put a spotlight on what's going on,

both the injustice side of what this administration is doing, but also highlight all the amazing folks on the ground who've been able to make some positive moves and positive change. But, you know, if you continue to just place these types of burdens on people's backs, eventually, you know, even though we are resilient people, we can only do but so much. Indeed, indeed. We were there, of course, like covering that huge announcement that Michael Reagan made. We were the only national outlet there that was actually live streaming that particular event. And yeah, it doesn't get any attention. I can guarantee you the shutting down of these offices won't get any attention on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, and this goes to show you why it's important to have black-owned media to amplify this particular issue

because we were impacted. And as I keep saying, all of these pro-life conservatives, it's amazing how you can't find them anywhere. So they don't care if these black people are dying, these low-income people are dying because they don't care about life. What they care about are the profits they don't care about life, but they care about the profits of all of these major companies. And that's all Donald Trump and

Elon Musk and Republicans care about. They don't care about the economy. They don't care about the environment. It's all about how can these companies just rape the land and do whatever they want to without any consequence to our air quality or our water quality or our soil quality, as simple as that. So, Mustafa, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, going to break. We come back. Are Democrats in the Senate going to get a spine when it comes to opposing Republicans

and this continuing resolution? We're going to explain to that when we come back, because it looks like Senator Chuck Schumer and other Democrats are quickly caving. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. We're digging into the immigration crisis that's happening here right now. It can impact each and every one of us. We're going to break down the topic of this constitutional crisis that is being led by the Trump administration and with you as ordinary citizens can do to speak

up and speak out to fight back. This is the other side of change only on the Black Star Network. We begin tonight with the people who are really running the country right now. Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reeve's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Blackstar Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy and Reeve MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin unfiltered streaming on the Blackstar Network for news discussion of the issues that matter to you and the latest updates on the twice impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy,

as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Black Star Network app. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. There's a lot of talk about the inevitability of another civil war in this country. But on our next show, we'll talk to a noted author and scholar who says we're

actually in the middle of one right now. In fact, Steve Phillips says the first one that started back in 1861, well, it never ended. People carrying the Confederate flag, wearing sweatshirts saying MAGA Civil War, January 6th, 2021, stormed U.S. Capitol, hunted down the country's elected officials, built the gallows for the Vice President of the United States, and to block the peaceful transfer of power within this country. On the next Black Tape, here on the Black Star Network. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though. I ain't never known him to be filtered.

Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Thank you. There's a massive teacher shortage in the United States, and they by MAGA and DOE just going to make this worse. The Department of Education last month abruptly cut off millions of dollars in grants meant to train and support new teachers. This directly impacts schools, universities and aspiring educators, especially in areas like math, science and special education. Now, a group of state attorneys general, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raul, they filed a lawsuit and secured a court order to block the cuts while the case proceeds.

Kwame Raul joins us right now. Glad to have him here. A.G. Raul, first and foremost, the impetus, your impetus and the other A.G.'s for filing this lawsuit. Well, first off, it's a continuation of illegal acts by the federal government, federal government overreach. Certainly they have a right to govern, but Congress has enacted legislation to allow for the Department of Education to offer grants such as these teacher quality partnership grants. You know, one in eight teachers, teacher positions are either vacant or filled by uncertified teachers. So the investment in training a pipeline of teachers is a critical investment, certainly for communities in the state of Illinois and throughout the country. And again, the country just made willy-nilly as if we don't have a serious need to incentivize folks to teach.

Yeah, that's right. This is you know, there are certain universities, you know, you've been in Chicago before. So, you know, Chicago State University, University of Illinois, Chicago, DePaul University are partnering with school districts to make sure that they're training teachers and giving teachers a hands-on experience in some of our most vulnerable school districts. You know, these actions that are being taken are having dramatic impact on our most vulnerable citizens, our young students. I'm fine with government efficiency, tighten up your belt, but disinvesting where investment is needed most is not a wise approach to government. So, you have a temporary hold right now. It's obviously going to make its way, Republicans,

their whole goal is for everything to go to the United States Supreme Court. That's really what their aim is, because they think the conservative, the 6-3 conservative majority is going to rule in their favor every time. Well, yeah, Roland, that's throwing up as much against the wall. You know, they've made clear their intention. In fact, we filed another lawsuit today to fight the effective dismantling of the Department of Education. They've done these mass reduction in forces that undermines the ability for the Department of Education to function. So they're trying everything in an illegal manner. It's important to note that this is an illegal manner.

There's a separation of powers. Congress created the Department of Education. The executive branch cannot just, by way of reduction in force, take apart what Congress put in place. So, next steps, and what do you want from the public to do? Well, I want the public to be alerted. Part of the problem with all of these actions, Roland, is that it creates a lot of confusion for the public. What the Trump administration is doing, they're giving everybody somebody to hate, whether it's who's on your sports team, who's in your bathroom, whether it's blaming somebody of color for you not having an opportunity in a higher education institution or on the job or

blaming an immigrant. They're focusing so much, so many people on hating somebody else that people are not realizing how they're being harmed. Everybody relies on the Department of Education. Everybody should have an interest in making sure there are adequate number of teachers to teach our students. Everybody should make sure that we have a Department of Education and make sure that people who are applying for financial aid can have their financial aid process to make sure that people who may feel that they're being discriminated against can rely on the

Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Education to redress their claims. But if you've laid off all the people there, that's not going to happen. So that's effectively taking away the Department of Education. If they want to take away the Department of Education, they've got to do so through Congress. But I don't think they would have the votes to do so. So they're effectively trying to do it this way. So I want people to be alerted by the ways that they're being hurt. And this is not—I'm a Democrat, but not just Democrats. This administration is hurting Republicans just as many, just as much as they're hurting Democrats. And I just want people to wake up and be aware. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's go to my panel.

Questions for the Attorney General. Jade, you're first. Jade, your question. I can hear you. There you go. So I do have a question. What do you think, do you think that they're considering the fact that they always argue, and it's, you know, it's a known fact that a lot of people say we have some of the, we're not, our math and science scores, right, our students are not able, or the reading levels are not competitive, right, to other countries.

And this administration emphasizes that a lot. So do you think that's something that they factored in, that if you're cutting the student and you don't have the teachers who are trained to teach in these areas, and you have the larger class sizes where these students aren't able to get the education that we need to be competitive in that area. What does that look like on the other side? And, you know, when you're talking about areas, like you said, in Chicago and from Detroit, Detroit public schools, when you're talking about those type of environments already affected by the large class sizes, what does that do to those communities and those test scores? Yeah, you raise a good point. We obviously have an education gap within country, but we have a global education gap as

well. And to the extent that we disinvest in education, it will make things worse. It'll make things worse for the education gap within country. Those with means will simply go to private schools and be able to educate their kids, while those who do not have means will continue to suffer as a result of us not having an adequate number of teachers to teach them. But on the global education gap, it will certainly make it worse. Thank you. Recy. Thank you, Attorney General, for being here and for your leadership. How much of this administration's success in terms of the messaging around education and the shortcomings has been in convincing people that, you know,

it's things like woke and other culture war type of things that are the problem as opposed to, as you just put it, the disinvestment that we've seen in our education system? And how do you think that part of these lawsuits can help combat that? Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. There's a game being played to shift people's attention away from the harms that are being perpetrated by this administration. So they want to focus on the minimal number of people who may be on a sports team, who may be transgender or, you know, who may be in the bathroom instead of whether or not we're investing enough in educating our kids. And these individuals in the administration have other means to educate their kids.

Meanwhile, the masses, including, again, including those who voted for President Trump, are not getting access to adequate education. There's a teacher shortage, and these grants are aimed towards addressing that teacher shortage. Additionally, the Department of Education, which they're trying to dismantle, is there to make sure that there's no discrimination in education and to make sure that people have access, access to financial aid so that they can see. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King,

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.

We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

and the Ad Council. Take out higher education and make sure that there's fairness in our school Greg? Thank you, Roland, and thank you, General Raul. I'm going to follow up on what Jay put on the table. We know the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. By their international assessment, the U.S. ranks fifth in reading, tenth in science, 21st in math. One of my colleagues at Howard likes to remind the first-year class that there are more honor students in India than there are students in the United States. So I think United States is going to lose that battle. But my question really is to pick your brain a little bit, certainly from your days in the Illinois Senate and now as the attorney general of Illinois, about where you think they think this is going to end up. And I'm saying that with this in mind.

We know the Department of Education was a cabinet-level position because of Jimmy Carter, but that it goes back to Reconstruction. It goes back to the Office of Education, Andrew Johnson, which is, of course, the first time we as African people got a chance to be in this at all. Are these people really unconcerned about any notion of a United States of America as a concept and more concerned with preserving their status, whether it be within the confines of the United States or globally, and the hell with the rest of us? And if so, should we be rethinking some of the things that they claim to love so dear, perhaps even like charter schools and vouchers?

And you're there in Chicago, so you know the impact of the African-centered schools, like what Hockey and Saffisha Madabuti have. How should we be thinking? Should we be thinking more sophisticated and in a more sophisticated manner about maybe how to place some of this stuff that they're doing to advance our interests, since they're clearly not interested in a United States of America as a national concept? Well, it's important to note, yeah, I think you hit on a nail, first of all, that there's a turning back of the clock on a whole lot of fronts.

There's an attempt to erase history, to, you know, erase anything from school books or libraries that would make our people feel a sense of identity and a sense of pride. But more importantly, it's important to know that these are not—we often talk about government dollars. Government dollars are tax dollars. These dollars come from individuals within the state. This is not somebody else's money. This money is supposed to come back to help us do what we need to help the individuals in our community from which the tax dollars are coming from. And that's all of us who pay taxes. And so when they start talking about entitlements and we don't need to be wasting money instead of looking at it as investing money and adequately educating our kids, it is really growing out of not having a sense of caring for certain communities. And it's been clear which communities those are, whether it's the attack on diversity,

equity, inclusion. A lot of these cuts in grants have been clothed in the notion that they're embracing DEI as if DEI has become a bad word. We've heard DEI candidates, DEI hire, and now they're talking about DEI programs so as to make cuts to needed programs. As I said before, one in eight teacher positions are either vacant or filled by somebody who's not certified to be a teacher. given the education gap that you all talked about globally and certainly the education gap that we have within the nation between races. Thank you. All right, A.G. Rowe, we certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much for joining us. Keep up the good work. All right. Good luck to you, Aggies, there. Well, you know, hey, SEC term in March Madness is coming up. We'll see what happens.

I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Our folks are going to go to break. We come back. What the hell are Senate Democrats doing? It looks like eight Democrats are going to vote to end closure and allow the Republicans to continue resolution to go forward and not shut the government down. We're going to talk about that coming up next. But before we do that, don't forget to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Let me tell y'all what happens when you are handling your business. So Kenan, my digital director, sent me this earlier. He said, I just finished talking with the YouTube rep. So we have a YouTube person assigned to us to handle our channel. He said the State of Our Union live stream came in at number five of all of the live streamed live broadcasts on March 4th covering Trump's address. Only major broadcasters had higher numbers than the Black Star Network. Number one was live now from Fox News, the White House. Fox News was number three. Associated Press was four. And our channel was number five.

He said they have never seen anything like this. And so, folks, that's the power of Black-owned media. So when you support this show and this network, that's what we're making possible. We don't have millionaires and billionaires cutting us checks. We're just out here doing the work every single day and, again, doing amazing things.

And that was all organic. We didn't have a publicist sending stuff out uh we didn't sit here and uh we were you know buying ads and billboards and promos things along those lines that was regular ordinary folk just sending a text message around that thing went all around the country and all family chats and at one point we had 250,000 people watching us live that night. And we didn't even show the speech of the twice impeached, criminally convicted felony chief, Donald the con man, Trump. And so that shows you the power of African-Americans when we unify.

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So R Martin unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zale, Roland at Roland S Martin dot com. Roland at Roland Martin unfiltered dot com. We'll be right back. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and led by the Trump administration and what you as ordinary citizens can do to speak up and speak out to fight back. This is the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, Saras. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Cheryl

Lundgren Show. Well, should it be the Cheryl Lundgren Show and the Roland Martin Show? Well, whatever show it's going to be, it's going to be good. Open southern border are through the mail over the last couple years. Live from the United States Senate, where they are, of course, debating the continuing resolution to keep the government open. It was passed in the House, and what they did is the Republicans had a recess. They all left town to force the Senate to vote by Friday. And they think this was their way of, you know, of forcing them to actually step up.

A day ago, 23, no, 23 hours ago, Senator Chuck Schumer signaled that Democrats were not going to support this, that Republicans did not have the vote. That seemed to really be a ruse. We now have Schumer in a closed-door session announced that he was indeed going to vote for it, along with Senators John Fetterman, King, Peters, Schatz, Gillibrand, Shaheen, Cortez, Masto. And so what the hell is going on? I'm going to go to my panel. I'm going to start with you, Recy.

You know, a lot of people have been demanding, I mean, House members, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others, have been putting pressure on these Senate Dems saying, man, stand the hell up, that you're making it worse. Even Senator Cory Booker said that if they vote for this continuing resolution, they're giving the White House, they're giving MAGA more power to screw over the American people. Other reports say that Elon Musk say, hey, sure, let's have a government shutdown. It's going to be easier for us to get rid of federal workers. But what I mean, you're going to vote for it. What the hell was that BS 24 hours ago? Make it a big grand stand that, oh, no, Democrats are not going to support support this Republican measure. Chad, the cavalry is not coming. And so, you know what, if Dems are too fucking incompetent

and flailing to negotiate and extract any kind of concessions for their votes for this continuing resolution, then I'm not confident in what they would have been able to do if we did shut down. So if you can't do shit, then just, I guess, let's just throw in a towel right now. You know, I just don't have any faith in their ability to really see us through this crisis, to be that resistance and to really extract anything meaningful out of it. And we know that Republicans have gamed this out multiple ways of what kind of damage they were going to inflict with a government shutdown. And so if you're not up to the task, you're not up to the task.

So, I mean, it's disappointing, obviously, that they're so flatfoot, that they've been caught so flatfooted in this situation. We know when the funding is going to run out. I don't know why. Every time it's a fucking crisis for Democrats, like they're caught off guard. It's just terrible leadership. But this is the cards that we've been dealt. And so I guess we're just going to have to see what more the Republicans have in store for us.

But I'm not entirely upset about them moving forward because I just don't I never heard a plan of how to get out of the shutdown. And I just haven't seen the Democrats and the Senate side be able to execute anything that would suggest that they would be able to stop whatever the Republicans have in store. And so at least for seven months, we know the devil that we're going to get with this continuing resolution. And that's not to excuse them. That's not to justify it. least for seven months, we know the devil that we're going to get with this continuing resolution. And that's not to excuse them. That's not to justify it. But I'm just saying we ain't got shit with the Democrats right now, unfortunately.

And they're showing that, especially. Jade, Jade, this is, Jade, this is the Wall Street Journal. They said the headline was Democrats clear way for GOP bill ending threat of shutdown. Senate Democrats threw in the towel on trying to block Republican stopgap bill funding the government following a grueling intraparty fight in which lawmakers struggle with how best to resist Donald Trump's, I don't call him president, fast paced efforts to slim down federal agencies. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would vote to advance the measure on Friday morning, saying a government shutdown was too risky. Earlier in a closed-door lunch, he also said that enough Democrats would join him to help Republicans clear the chamber's critical 60-vote hurdle. People familiar with the matter said, quote, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down, Schumer said on the Senate floor, characterizing Democrats' alternatives as a Hobson's choice with no

good option. He said that in a shutdown, Trump could decide, quote, to cherry pick which parts of the government to reopen in a protracted shutdown. Well, hell, he's doing that already. Yes, Roland. And you know what? I never thought I would see the day when, especially under this administration, the Democrats would be working with the ops, because that's essentially

what they're doing, right? And if you're scared, go home. And as the previous commentator said, I'm actually more scared of their poor decision-making skills and how easy you'll back down. So maybe the shut thing is the best thing to do. And this actually shows why we're in the situation that we're in now, right? Why we put it the way we failed to stand up the way we're supposed to stand up as a Democratic Party during the campaign and election. And what happened now resulted in Trump being in office. So this is an example of all of the mistakes we made leading up to this. And still 100 percent uncertainty with stepping up and fighting and using those voices. So this is just a clear example of why we're in this situation now, unfortunately. Greg, this is what, again, I'm reading the rest of this journal story.

So Democratic senators also worded a shutdown rather than forcing Republicans to the table would simply play into Trump's hands, potentially giving him enhanced power to shutter more parts of the federal government for good with no obvious way out. This is Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon posting a video on Twitter. You don't stop a bully by handing over your lunch money and you don't stop tyrant Trump by giving him more power. How are you giving him more power?

I mean, at the end of the day, Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate. They will get all the blame for a shutdown. And I'm sure in a society where people are intelligent, but we live in an idiocracy. They they have a propaganda machine that is in full full steam right now. The New York Times hasn't dropped that headline that you're reading from the Wall Street Journal yet, which leads me to believe, at least in part, that they may be still enough wavering for the propaganda units like Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal to try to drop this as inevitable. That having been said, they probably will vote for it. And Cory Booker is right, and so is Jeff Merk—well, Jeff Merk is not saying that.

Lisa Blunt Rochester just dropped a video where she says she's not going to vote yes. But it is indeed a Hobson's choice. If they were not to vote and if the government was shut down, I think that would give the fascist Elon Musk more leeway. They would use that as an opportunity to accelerate some things that I think as the courts continue to play out—and we just saw the judge ordering thousands more workers reinstated, even as we've just seen since this afternoon that the birthright citizenship case is now going to be heard by the Supreme Court—if you shut the government down, then it is potentially more havoc that they're going to wreak.

And as this thing is playing out, what we're seeing is the courts are at least beginning to show some signs of resistance in life. Now, I said all that as a backdrop to this. The elections in a year and a half, two years, the Senate elections don't look that good. Jeanne Shaheen has said she's not going to run again. You know, there are a couple of competitive district states, North Carolina being one, but the map doesn't look good for the Democrats. If you don't allow the government to be shut down, then you take away from the Republicans their propaganda to say the Democrats did it. And there are enough stupid people in the United States to absolutely repeat that, including too many people who look like us. And you allow this other process to play out.

Finally, the Democratic Party hasn't existed since the insurgent efforts of black folk back in 64, the convention, and then the voting rights out of 65, and then the last watershed moment, which was the Jackson campaigns of 84 and 88, at which point Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and the rest of them decide to become the Republican light party and continue to allow us to play along by telling us that they're the only home that we have. That kind of remains true, but any insurgents that would expect all the Democrats to act in the same way flies in the face of the reality that there hasn't been a Democratic Party like the one that we would support to advance

our interests really since the late 1980s. Well, it is, I mean, look, here's the thing have to, have to really understand that's at play here. Um, and that is you got elections next year. You got a house seats, you got city seats. You kind of need to have your base fired up and ready to go. That ain't what I'm seeing and feeling Jade.

I mean, I'm not, I'm not getting that sense. And I think the politicians in D.C. are totally misreading the base in what they're saying. And I ain't talking about Bill Maher. I ain't talking about James Carville. I'm talking about the people who you need to be fired up to mobilize and organize folk to get out and vote next year. Well, and I think it's going to be another F around and find out like it was for this past election. I think it's going to be another version of that if they don't get it together and get this together quickly. Recy?

Yeah, I mean, they are misreading the moment. But at the same time, the reality is that there is a lot of energy on the opposite side. And I think that maybe our side, some of us are missing that part as well. And that's not to excuse anything that's happening. But there are tons of protests happening. There are just as many people saying fund the government as there are saying shut down the government. There are protests for D.C. statehood and for the D.C. budget.

There are protests for freedom of speech and what's happening with the Syrian person whose green card was revoked. There's a lot of energy right now around D.C., and the fucking Democrats don't have a clue as to what to do with it. And they have a much bigger challenge because they have to harness all of these conflicting things in a way that Republicans don't have to.

They can march along the beat of being anti-immigrant, of being anti-woke, anti-DEI, and they don't have anything disrupting them from that. And so I do kind of sort of feel for the position that they're in, especially given that we have tens of millions of people on our side that sat their ass on the couch that cannot be relied upon, that you have to move heaven and earth just to get them out every eight years to vote. Forget about every four years. And so there is a lot that has to be done. And I don't think that the Democrats themselves are capable of doing it.

And so the question is, how much are people independent of any particular political party going to be sick and tired of the destruction that these people have in store, are currently inflicting on this country. How much destruction are they willing to take? We saw it with COVID. It was a different kind of destruction, and people didn't entirely blame Trump, but they were willing to get their ass out and say, we got to change course. That's what it's going to take. I don't have any faith at all in the Democratic Party, who come November 6th should have been preparing for this moment and every moment that we've seen prior to this potential shutdown, which seems to be averted. They've done nothing to show that they're up to the task.

And I don't see any evidence that come 2026 in November, they're going to be up to the task. It's going to be up to the American people to be up to the task to wrestle this power away from Republicans, despite the structural advantages they have in the Senate and in the House in maintaining it. Yeah. I have made this point repeatedly, Greg, that, and this is where all these idiots get this thing wrong when they go, oh my God,

you're shilling for the Democrats. No, I'm advocating for black people. And what that means is there needs to be a lot of folk who get challenged in the primaries. That means that, and this is what I have been saying this for years, that people, we have to be organizing and mobilizing ourselves. How many times have I said, don't send money to campaigns. Send that to third-party grassroots groups. I've been saying that for a very long time. Because why send the money to them?

Then you've got to beg to hope they fund black initiatives. Nope. Fund it ourselves. Look, when we raised money with Win With Black Men, we kept a lot of that money. We didn't send that money to the Harris campaign. We kept, damn near, $500,000 and then gave it to black male organizations.

And so what I keep telling people, look, stop waiting for a politician. Stop waiting for them to come save you. No, this is called save ourselves. That's absolutely right, Roland. The numbers that Kenan shared with you, hearing those, is stunning and unsurprising. The top four, billionaire-funded propaganda engines. Number five, the people.

The people always beat the billionaires when there are enough of us, and there are enough of us, potentially. But to organize us, you've got to have some type of vision. As I said, the Democratic Party is not a party that has one vision. It's basically everybody who's not an open, fascist, white supremacist. And there are a lot of soft white nationalists in the Democratic Party. Shout out to the cosplay trucker from western Pennsylvania, John Fetterman. That having been said, what you just described is the only thing that has made us have any

progress in this country. I take no pleasure in saying what I've been saying all along and which I will continue to say and which I'm about to say again. This project is nearing an end. It has never been a nation. The better angels for all of us would say we can live together as a species, we can do it in this country, we can come together, but that would require not only displacing but killing white nationalism. When this government is disintegrated, the autopsy is going to cause pain for all of us.

And I, for one, if I were sitting in the United States Senate, I might vote to allow the bill to pass and not have the government shut down. Because I know that the pain is going to fall not on the senators who will all be fined. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive.

But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Not on the congresspeople who will mostly be fine, but on the people who need their checks, the people who will continue to go to work

and not get a check and might not have a job when Elon Musk and his Musk rats, including Grape Nuts or whatever he calls himself, the 19-year-old, comes in and is vetting and looking and firing. And it might be more difficult, because there's another layer of legal action that has to be taken before any maybe even eventual reinstatement, because you did it when the government was shut down, which will exacerbate the power, which will amplify the power of the executive to do whatever needs to be done. All that as a backdrop to this.

African people in this country, as an act of self-defense, have engaged in the political process, not because we believed in this experiment, not because we believe in this country. It's all cosplay. We were in self-defense. If this government is disintegrated, if they succeed in privatizing everything, the top states that get most of that tax money that Kwame Roo was talking about, number one

is Alaska, 39.3%. For every dollar Alaska puts in, they get four back. Kentucky's number two. They get damn near four dollars for every dollar they put back. Vermont, number three. Then West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and then Arkansas, Louisiana, the Confederacy. Do you know who's going to be harmed? The hillbillies are going to be harmed. And I, for one, God bless our common humanity, but let's be clear. We have shown ourselves since we were brought here in human trafficking and in captivity that when left to our own devices,

we can take care of ourselves. And I'll bet on us and watch these other people break like the boss of where they have been since they started this criminal enterprise. I'm here for that. All right, folks. Hold tight one second. Going to a break. Lots more to cover here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

Trust me, it's craziness that's happening all across this country, and we're doing our best to break it down. We're going to talk about school choice. You got Governor Greg Abbott. Billionaires gave him about $10 million to push it through. He's doing everything he can to make that happen. But you've got Democrats fighting back vigorously against that. And lots of people have been testifying against it.

Then in the U.S. House, Congresswoman Summer Lee also went toe-to-toe on this issue. We're going to show you what she had to say as well on what she described, the fallacy of school choice by Republicans. You're watching the Black Star Network back in a moment. We begin tonight with the people who are really running the country right now. Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reeve's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation

to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reeve's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network for news discussion of the issues that matter to you. And the latest updates on the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon in chief Donald Trump is unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy and Reed and all folks who understand the power of black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Black Star Network app. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of the Proud Family, Louder of Proud Family. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of Proud Family, Louder and Prouder.

You're watching Roland Martin. Thank you. Thank you. North Carolina's St. Augustine University is entering a 90-day arbitration process after its appeal for accreditation was denied. SAU has been on probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges for two years. In December 2023, the SAC-SCLC Board of Trustees voted to remove SAU from membership due to financial and governance issues. After a successful appeal, the university was reinstated in July 2024, with the reinstatement remaining effective through the end of the year. However, on March 6, the historically black college and university announced its appeal to maintain accreditation was ultimately denied.

The university stated that the upcoming 90-day arbitration process would ensure that all students graduating by May 2025 receive degrees from an accredited institution. We have reached out to the school and they sent us the following statement. St. Augustine's University is dedicated to ensuring a strong and sustainable future. We are actively exploring all available options, including arbitration, to demonstrate our financial stability and maintain our accreditation.

Arbitration is our final opportunity to prove that we possess the resources and strategic vision necessary for long-term success. We are diligently securing additional funding and partnerships to strengthen our sustainability. Now more than ever, we need unity, positivity, and collective support from our alumni, supporters, and the broader community as we navigate this critical moment together. We can ensure that SAU continues to be a pillar of education and opportunity for future generations.

The community, the SAVE SAU Coalition, and other St. Augustine alums are meeting as we speak to discuss potential next steps. Greg, I want to go with you. I can deal with this line here, and I'll be honest with you, it sort of pisses me off. Now more than ever, we need unity, positivity, and collective support from our alumni supporters in the broader community. Okay. How about you not keep screwing up? See, see, see, here's the issue that I have, and I'm being, I'm being real clear here, and it bothers me. It bothers me that,

let's be honest, a lot of HBCUs were saved with the COVID resources that they received. And there were a lot of people who said, and I've talked to many, I've talked to many university presidents who said that they were able to get their fiscal house in order. They were able to pay off debt. They had debt forgiven. And they benefited significantly from what took place. And we've seen where St. Augustine's was doing well, then not, they're doing well, the change of leadership, then board trustees, whatever. At some point, an alumni,

potential students, have to have belief that the people in charge are doing what they are supposed to do to make sure the university is succeeding. And I'm sorry, we just got to go ahead and call it what it is. When you have this constant drop, it's like over and over and over again. That's not going to make somebody want to come to your university and is damn sure not going to want to make somebody to keep shelling out money. You can't get your act together. I know, Roland. I think we all know this again. It's a barometer of the tragedy of miseducation. And what we're facing is so, you know, listen to you.

It reminds me at a conversation about 10 years ago with with an elder. And he was telling me, he said, look at how the trustees, the boards of trustees have changed in the last two generations at HBCUs. He said, after you get past the era of white rule, which takes us up into the 1930s and 40s, and you start seeing the first black trustees at HBCUs at a critical mass, and then, of course, they become overwhelmingly black, these HBCU boards. He said many people who sat on those boards were institution builders. They were business owners. If you were on the board at North Carolina A&T or North Carolina Central, you had the person who ran North Carolina Mutual Insurance. So, you know, you had A.C. Gaston on the boards in Alabama, this kind of thing. He said, and then somewhere around the 19,

between the mid-70s and into the 80s, you get the Vernon Jordan types. These are the Negroes who were the first Negro to be on this corporate board of white people. And the mentality, he said, begins to change. You start moving from trustees who have built something in black communities to trustees who are happy to be in the room and who think that the approach is to be next to these white folks and make some money. He said, I'm not condemning them, but he said it's a different mentality. Now, put that in as a factor, because some of this decision-making is by people who, frankly,

haven't really been black institution builders. And although they are black, and I'm not questioning anybody's blackness, I'm saying their attitude toward how you defend black institutions is very different. It's more of a, I hate to say, begging mentality, but I'll leave it at that. But the other factor is the geography of HBCUs. Many of these institutions, and I think St. Aug fits right directly in this bullseye, my alma mater does too, Tennessee State for that matter, are in state capitals or places where the hillbilly horde behind the cotton curtain want to get their hands on that real estate. See, St. Aug is in a real estate war with the hillbilly horde in North Carolina. Tennessee State, particularly the downtown campuses, is in

a war with the hillbilly horde of Nashville. Eddie George went to Bowling Green as a head coach, not because he wanted to leave Tennessee State, but that hillbilly horde is going to try to hamstring everything out of that institution until they can try to break the will of black folk. Now, when you put those two things together, Jackson State, Jackson, Mississippi, FAMU, Tallahassee, state capitals, in other words, Baton Rouge, Southern University, then you have to have a type of black leadership board president that is going to punch these white boys in the face. But the era of Elias Blake, the era of Fred Humphreys at Florida A&M and Tennessee State, that era is gone.

And what you are increasingly seeing in terms of HBCU leadership is Black folk who want the best for the race, but who, quite frankly, are a little scared and a little timid. And when you combine that with the design on real estate, real estate violence is what Lamar King calls it, you know, real estate violence or gentrification, and Howard has been complicit as the gentrifiers come up and down Georgia Avenue in northwest D.C., then you then have a group, you have a mass of black people looking at these places, including alum, who are like, somebody fight. I'm not giving my money to that person.

This was the condition in the dorm, or this was how the food tasted, or I didn't like this professor. So I'm not giving any money, And it becomes a doom feedback loop. It becomes a vicious cycle. And I really don't know how we solve that, except you have to run to the fight. You can't run from it. And that is something that I, quite frankly, don't have an easy answer to. How you how you encourage people and inspire people to run to the fight, not away from it. But right now, I think we're in, if not full retreat, there's too many people in retreat to really do anything much more than kind of lament our condition.

See, I'm also going to say something, Jay, and let me just go ahead and be clear. You're going to have some folks out here. Look, I've been listening to this bullshit my whole adult life. Oh, you sitting here saying all that while you wearing a Texas A&M shirt. Yep, sure am. Sure am.

Oh, I had somebody on my Instagram page. One brother said, why you went to A&M? You didn't go to Howard. I said, why would I go to a private school 2,000 miles away when I went to a state school 90 minutes away because my parents couldn't even afford to see. Three of us were in college at one time. I'm like, that's a stupid-ass question. Texas Southern University, right across the street from my high school. I was named the best student in my magnet school of communications. TSU never even recruited me. And they were literally right across the street, and they got a school of communications. That ain't on me, okay?

So I'm going to say this, and I don't really give a shit what anybody thinks. There are 107 HBCUs. I have personally been to 61 of them. Sixty one of them. I've got a number of HBCU presidents on speed dial. this conversation with numerous boards of trustees, board chairs, donors, alumni, faculty, staff, president. And I'm just going to say this right now. There are some, there are individuals who are sitting on some of these HBCU boards who have no business being on any board. Facts. They don't know how to. They don't know how to

run a business. They don't know how to raise money. Let me be real clear, okay? If you are sitting on an HBCU board and you are personally not

bringing in a minimum of $25,000 a year to the school, you should be removed from the board of trustees. Oh, now I know somebody sitting here going, damn, Roland, that's cold

blooded. No, it's not. The Chicago Theological Seminary, they wanted me to sit on their board of trustees. They approached me. I declined. But they had a minimum amount that you had to either give or raise to be on their board. And when I look at some of these decisions, and I'm not talking about just St. Augustine's. It's a number

of institutions that I'm talking about that there have been people with massive egos, people again, who ain't never run shit, but now all of a sudden they got some power and they're running our institutions into

the ground. Now I know that's somebody who's again, they're sitting there going, damn man, that's cold-blooded. Okay, shall we assess some decision-making? I'm looking at the numbers right now. St. Augustine's

University received $35 million from the federal government during COVID. $35 million from the federal government during COVID. $19 million in the cap one forgiveness. No, let me correct that. $19,262,730.32 in cap one forgiveness. Meaning that's money they didn't have to pay back.

Okay. Which was taken out. That was loans. All right. So what I don't understand is what are these continuing problems we're talking about here? Not only that, uh, the university, the university, um, cut a deal. All right. So they, so first of all, they took out a seven million dollar loan last fall that had 24 percent interest rate. Come on. And a two percent managed management fee. Come on, Roland. The university put real estate up as collateral in case of a loan default.

OK, so let me explain something. y'all watching. Come on now. If you went out to get a $7 million loan and they charge you 24% interest rate, that means your credit ain't no good. When I went to Chicago

Defender, we couldn't even get stuff in the building fixed on credit because our name was so trash, they were like, no, y'all got to pay the full amount up front to fix the water heater, to fix all sorts of problems. I'm telling y'all straight up, okay? So what I don't understand, and we've had folks in the past on. But I would love for somebody with St. Augustine's to explain to me, how did you get thirty five million dollars from the federal government doing COVID? We're talking 2020, 2021, 2022.

And here we sit in 2025, and you damn near, if you lose accreditation, your students can't get financial aid because it has to be accredited. Now what you gonna do? I don't understand. And not only that, they then

announce... They then announce in November... Yeah, I do. And let me, and guys, let me just be real clear. Let me be real clear. And I want everybody to understand, again, I'm not asking for this. I'm not asking for this. I'm not asking for this at all.

I've actually never had a single HBCU approach me about sitting on a board of trustees. Now, let me be real clear. Let me be real clear. Let me be real clear. I want to be real clear. I'm not begging anybody to do it. I'm not asking anybody to do it. But here's the point I need y'all to understand, the point I'm trying to make. You pick folks to sit on your boards, not necessarily because they are a graduate of the institution.

You seek people for your boards who have relationships that can benefit the university in terms of fundraising, sponsorship, being able to generate corporate dollars for schools. Y'all, I'm just being just straight up. When Fisk University fired

Dr. Van Newkirk, I did a video and I went off on it. Within 15 minutes, boy, I got an Instagram DM of the board chair would like to talk to you. So I get this email and the board chair says he's an alpha and he's also

in the boule and I'm sitting there going, okay, that's great, but that don't mean damn thing to me because of my criticism. And so he said to me in the letter, in the email he sent me that, you know, the criticism that I levied against Fisk could have negative ramifications on schools for a long time. I said, no, you having seven university presidents in 22 years could have negative ramifications on your university. I said if you and one of them served like seven years, that was Hazel O'Leary.

So that means you had six presidents in 15 years. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

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But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council i said point blank i said hey if you have six presidents in 15 years either your board has no idea on how to pick presidents or your board ain't got no idea what the hell they doing. And all I'm saying is, I'm going to go to Jay, then I'm going to go to Reesey. I'm reading this story from Inside Higher Ed.

It said, in November, SAU officials also struck a $70 million deal with 50 Plus One Sports, a fledgling Florida company to lease its campus and develop university property for 99 years. That's it. The deal would have provided a much-needed financial lifeline

for the cash-strapped university that needs to urgently fix its finances before the accreditation review. Guess what? The North Carolina Attorney General's Office, which reviewed the deal due to state law on the transfer of assets from a nonprofit, announced it would not approve the arrangement with 50 plus one sports as written due to a lack of quote sufficient documentation to support the proposal and concerns that the payout quote is too low to justify transfer of the lease rights for SAU's campus which is appraised at $198 million.

The Attorney General's office also expressed concerns about SAU's, quote, ability to continue to operate. Now, Jade, this is just what, how Roland just looks at this here. If Roland is sitting in a room with St. Augustine's officials and your accreditation is about to get, you're about to lose it.

I'm sitting here, I just do basic math. Forgive me, I never understood trigonometry. I never understood geometry. I never understood algebra. But. I never understood geometry. I never understood algebra. But you know what I do understand? Five plus five, five times five, five times 50, 500 times. See, I know basic ass math. And if I'm sitting in a room, I'm sitting here going, okay, what are the existing liabilities at St. Augustine's? Who do we owe? What are the existing revenue streams that we have at St. Augustine's University?

Okay, how many students do we expect to be at this university next fall? Do we have any students who are going to be here online? What's going to be the cost of servicing those students? I'm looking at basic fundamental math. Then I'm looking at my board and control room. Y'all look it up for me because I ain't got time to look it up. Tell me how many people are sitting on their board. So if they got 10 board members, I need to see at least 200,000 coming in from the board every year. I just don't understand, Jade, how it can continue to be problem after problem after problem after problem after problem year after year. Whenever Ward was president, they had issues before then. How do you keep having issues for 8, 10, 15 years?

Jay, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I feel you. One of the biggest problems I think is going to be accountability, right, and awareness. And just being able to be real and call a spade a spade. I'm like you. So we want to be treated like the PWIs, right? Or comparable to the PWIs. However, we out here moving like micros, right? You got bad credit, you have bad financial decisions, financial mismanagement, those type of things. And you really can't heal what you won't reveal, right? In the words of the illustrious Jay-Z. So if you all aren't able to be real with yourself,

and one of the things I found most astonishing is that SAU said some of the things and some of the steps, they outlined some of the steps they were taking to resolve some of the financial problems. One of the steps said, including four audits and a reduction of half the staff, which resulted in $17 million in savings and obtaining $7 million in loans from Gothic Ventures. Number one, do you need another loan? It sounds like you had a lot of loans and some financial payments you don't have to pay back. But number two, is it going to affect the students, the half of the faculty staff? And if it's not, why didn't you think of this before? Why did you have to get to the point where you have to do a 90-day arbitration before you say, hey, maybe we

should get rid of half of the staff and that will allow us to have $17 million cleared up. Secondly, I actually spoke with an alumni who's a pretty good friend of mine and very active in that chapter. And one of the things she highlighted and some of the concerns is that poor, you know, including poor campus conditions, you know, they have to be real with that. Call a spade a spade. Financial mismanagement. And one of the number one things that you have been talking about is the board of trustees lack of transparency.

That's what she said is a known fact, is that there's an issue with the board of trustees lack of transparency. And in my opinion, one of the main things they do in a lot of these boards do, unfortunately, with HBCUs, is they use that title and that position as a resume filler, right? As a bragging right. And then you have the schools that are appointing them to be board of trustees based on titles, right? With their PhDs or doctorates. So I think it's a problem bigger than what they want the community to step in and solve. I think it's an internal problem of self-awareness and accountability. Reesey anybody who knows me knows I am a strong believer in black institutions

I am a strong believer in us supporting, in us funding, but here's what I also am a strong believer in I'm a strong believer in accountability I'm a strong believer in accountability. I'm a strong believer that if you're going to put people in charge of something,

that those people are going to be handling the business. I can tell you that one of the greatest issues that I have heard, not just from presidents, but I've heard this from actual board members. If there are too many HBCU board members who are trying to run the institution as opposed to the president, there are too many folk who want to decide, who want to control the athletic department, who want to control, like who? One HBCU president told me that he got in trouble with the board because he told his secretary that she could access his president at university email, but he would handle his own private emails.

She was talking to the board chair. Why in the hell is the secretary or the president having any conversation with the board chair about his business? This is the BS that I'm talking about. Now, I know somebody is going to, I know folks are going to say, but we hear the same thing at PWIs. Okay, but we ain't talking about them right now. We talking about black institutions. Because see, this ain't no different than our black organizations. I remember, Recy, the third time

I was on the board of directors of the National Association of Black Journalists. And so we had a break in the meeting and there were board members who were complaining about how much a particular staffer was being paid and how this person was still living in Atlanta, even though our national office was in Maryland. And so, again, I don't waste my time with BS

conversation. But finally, I turned around and said, hey, can y'all shut the hell up? They're like, excuse me? I said, did we allocate the budget for the national office? Yes. I said, well, I don't give a damn how the executive director chooses to spend it. If the executive director and we allocate five hundred thousand and he wants to give one staff or two hundred thousand and they want to work remotely. That's his that's his responsibility. We oversee him. Now, he handling the job. He going to end up having an answer for that. I said, but why are y'all getting in the business of the damn executive director? Well, that ain't your damn job. What the hell an office person does? I said, that is not what a board is supposed to do.

Your job is fiduciary responsibility and governance of the organization, not who the hell shows up in the damn office. And the whole room got quiet. I said, and this is the problem, because guess what? Every person I was talking to, not a single one of them was a boss. Not a single one of them had a job with a P&L responsibility. And that, to me, is one of the greatest struggles. When I look at people who sit on boards of trustees, the first thing I look at is what jobs hell they have before. What responsibilities have they had before? Have they ever had a job that had P&L responsibility? Everybody watching, it's called profit and loss. If they had jobs that had no P&L responsibility, they can't be on my

board. Period. Well, listen listen i have a business economics degree and accounting minor from ucla and an mba from northeastern and 20 something years in finance and so it's unfathomable to me that you can't balance a damn checkbook as a whole university when you're getting multiple get out of jail free. And so this is just negligence, and it's unacceptable. And we want to save our institutions, but we want our institutions to uphold their fiduciary responsibility, not just to the state and to all the different laws they have to abide by, but to the students. It's totally unfair that they're getting caught in the crosshairs, and their degree is losing prestige because of mismanagement. And so I do want to defer the rest of my time, though,

to Dr. Carr, because it seemed like he was on to something, and I ain't got... I wasn't picking up what he was picking up, so I want to see what Dr. Carr had to say about the whole sports thing, if you don't mind rolling. No. And Greg, before I go there,

before I go there, our frat brother, Dr. Walter Kimbrough, went down there to Talladega. And you know what he did? He got rid of several sports programs. You know what he said? We can't afford these. And yo, I'm with him 100%.

He was like, hey, let's stop trying. And again, I get it. There have been a number of HBCUs announced. They want a gymnastics program. They want a lacrosse program. This is real simple. If you cannot afford sports programs, stop trying to have sports programs.

Focus on what you can actually do. What Kimbrough did, on point. And guess what? He said, I'm sorry this is going to negatively impact coaches and players. He said, but if we can't afford the programs, why do we have them? Greg, go ahead. Roland, I mean, I spent my whole life teaching at black institutions and I went to one. And, Reesey, you did pick up on something.

The St. Aug thing to me is very simple. These white boys want the campus. They came at them with the sports thing for a gangster rate, and they had them between a rock and a hard place, because you can literally stand on the campus of St. Aug, as I've done several times. You can stand on the college of St. Aug University and throw a rock and hit the damn North Carolina legislature.

If anybody thinks these business boys ain't in bed with the government, then you're not paying attention because they did the same thing to Shaw which is even closer to the legislature downtown. They want the campus. So they sent these white boys in with the gangster thing, and they was like,

we'll do it, because they're between a rock and a hard place. The AG says, well, we can't allow you to do that. Then they come back around with the gangster loan. That interest rate is to ensure that they default. And what they put up for collateral? The same damn campus that the white boys tried to get the other way. This is all collusion.

We see the same thing down there with that punk-ass Jason Mumpower, that bastard who is the comptroller in Tennessee that tried to gangster Mason, Tennessee out of their property. He's the same one saying Tennessee State needs to sell its downtown campus. Why? Because you can spit from the A.R. Williams campus and hit the governor's

office. This is what's going on. So that's one, that's the side. But here's the dilemma for me. Walter can do that because his campus, Talladega, is in the middle of nowhere. You could do that. Michael Searle

at Paul Quinn came in, no HBCU background, no HBCU experience. You know, we're going to get out of the sports business. We're going to do this. Okay, fine. Makes perfect sense. If you're Gordon Gee, the chancellor at Vanderbilt who decided he wanted to take intramural sports, put that as the marquee flagship

thing for Vanderbilt, and they went apoplectic and stayed in the Southeastern Conference, well, you can play around with that because they got more money than God. But if you're Tennessee State, you're in between a rock and a hard place. And this is where I'm finally going to go with this because I just came back from Benedict. I was down there at Benedict. Rosalind Artis is president down there. I don't know President Artis, but I do know that the faculty

isn't very happy at this overemphasis on not just STEM, but cyber security, these kind of things. Very important, but at the expense of the humanities. Here's the dilemma. Here's the dilemma. Here's the dilemma. Our HBCUs are at the same place they were when Booker Washington said, leave all them books alone and let's just go get some job training. And Du Bois said, hold on, son.

I know you came out of slavery, so I'll give you some leeway. But do you understand that these white people think like masters of the world? You're thinking like a damn person looking for a job. And when you have the vocational education approach, whether it's 1890 or 2025, and you're up against people who don't see themselves as anything other than your rightful master, you don't have the mentality to play their game. And so, yes, the trustees are insane. You know, Howard's in court right now because the alumni are suing them because they got rid of the student, the trustee and the faculty representative to the board and claimed it was in the name of transparency.

It almost sounds Trumpian when I say it, but the point is this. When you, I mean, you know what I'm saying? But when you approach these things without a holistic sense of being a people, then you are in an impossible situation because you're facing forces like an accreditation board. SACS is no different than Middle States, which is what Howard is under, and Morgan and all those schools in the mid-Atlantic. SACS is no different than Middle States, which is what Howard is under, and Morgan and all those schools in the Mid-Atlantic. SACS is that equivalent. That's Morehouse, that's Spelman, that's St. Aug, that's North Carolina Central, that's Shaw. The accreditors had them over the fire about financial issues.

And Jay, you brought it up. I mean, when you start talking about faculty having the number of employees, what you're doing is a drumbeat undermining of the structural integrity of the institution because your long game is to take the institution. There is no board of trustees. I don't care if you have a board of trustees, all-time superstars. As long as Negro athletes go run for the University of Alabama instead of Tuskegee, as long as black women playing basketball for the University of South Carolina, and God bless Philly's

finest Dawn Staley. I got nothing but love for Dawn Staley. But as long as her girls are draining jump shots for South Carolina and not South Carolina State, as long as we don't think like a race, the destruction of HBCUs is inevitable. There's no superstar that can save it. No board,

no trustees, no president, no faculty. As long as we think the white man's ice is cold, we're going to take this L. The thing for me is very simple. And that is, you're right. And I've had people hit me about Shaw, the selling of the radio station, all kinds of stuff along those lines.

I mean, that's been happening for years. So, if I'm going to start with the premise that I know these white folks want this, what I'm not going to do is hand them the gun and the bullets and then put my finger on the trigger. No, I'm going to make, I'm going to make, I'm going to make them, I'm going to be dodging so hard. They're going to have to be an accurate shot. I'm not going to be standing still five feet away.

And this is the problem that I have. You play right into their hands by not handling your business. That's right. There are examples. You said it. Sorrell and Paul Quinn. There are other examples of HBCUs that have been revived because they brought in strong leadership and they allow them to lead. That's one of the great and I've heard this and I'm telling you, and I've heard this too from too many places. There have been some amazing individuals that have served as presidents of HBCUs, but they have been run off because boards of trustees have thought they knew better than the person who was picked to lead.

And I've had multiple individuals tell me I will never go back to work at an HBCU because I'm not dealing with that bullshit again. I have heard, and these are not, and I need people to understand. I know a number of people, highly talented, who would love to work at an institution, but they're like, yo, I'm not dealing with nonsense. Now, I know, again, I know there people are like, oh, man, you making generalities. No, I'm not. Because if I started saying names, some of y'all gonna get real upset.

You can say my name, brother. I know somebody who point blank. I know somebody major who left the Howard board who said, I don't have time for bullshit. Come on. And if I told you

this person's name and how much money they got, y'all would be like, see what? Person told me point blank, Roland, I don't have time to sit in meetings and deal with bullshit.

This is straight up what this person told me. And I was like, damn. And this is a person, not only every HBCU one on their board, it's probably half of the PWIs in America one of this person on their board. So all I'm saying is, I need black people.

If we're going to be in this situation right now, and we're talking about the maintaining and not surviving, but the thriving of black institutions, then I need us to do what a lot of us are unwilling to do. And that is to step back and say, we got to assess this whole thing. We got to assess students, faculty, staff, buildings, maintenance, endowment, leadership, board, the entire piece. Because that's how you actually rebuild an institution. Now again, I know somebody see the reason this is so personal because this reminds me of running black media, black owned media, walking into black

institutions. When I walked into the Chicago Defender, that was this historic black institution and folks were like, oh, the Defender's this, the Defender's that, the Defender's this. And I'm like, but y'all ain't made a profit in 20 years. Why is your nickname the Chicago Offender?

Because of all the misspellings and the errors in the paper. See, everybody had this whole historic view of a Chicago defender. And I was like, but y'all broken. You're in a building. you're only using 10% of the building. It's hot as hell during the summer. It's cold as hell during the winter. It's dusty. It's moldy. Why are we in this building?

And when I moved us, I had some folk protesting me. And it was a major historian. I can't remember his name right now. And he did an interview with NPR. He was sitting outside of our building. And this is a shame. He was arguing about the building. And I said, let me ask you a question, bro.

Do you want me to save the paper or the building? Because to refurbish the building would have cost $9 million. The entire company of four papers wasn't even worth seven. I said, so which one do you want? I said, because you know what? We moved twice before. So I'm confused why this is a problem. See, I need everybody listening to what I'm talking,

understand what I'm saying. They were fighting for the building. I was fighting for the institution. I was fighting for the institution. I was trying to save the institution and not the building. So I need us to understand that if we're going to have black institution saving conversations, then we have to have people who are in charge, who are serious about the business, who are going to watch every dollar like a hawk, who are going to make demands of alumni, of others to say what targets that we're setting. And the other thing is this here. When you go raise the money, you've got to make sure that you use it properly because why'd you ask for it in the first place?

And so this is all I'm saying to St. Augustine's leadership. If you're going to ask the community, and this applies to any HBCU and any black institution, whether it's a black church, whether it's a black organization. Matter of fact, I saw a video, a relative of Frederick Douglass was complaining that... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug

thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got Be Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree.

It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at TaylorPaperCeiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. After the U.S. Army pulled out of this parade they have every year, he was mad because the black community didn't step up and save this annual parade. This is the first thing I said. Bro, I never even heard about y'all having a parade. I'm trying to understand why y'all never reached out to black on media about this whole deal. See, I need people to stop coming to black people and saying, why aren't y'all helping us and saving us?

If y'all never come to black people with your plan of action as to why we should help and save you. And so I didn't mean to go on this long on this St. Augustine's issue, but this is what I'm going to need from St. Augustine's or any other black institution. If you want black people to step up and assist and support, then you better have a plan of action that we can see that's transparent and real. And you better have people who are in charge who can execute the vision of

their plan. Otherwise handing money to you is, is like just simply throwing it down, uh it into a fireplace. It's just going to get burned. It ain't going to benefit nobody. And that's what I don't want to see happen. And so, I would hope while St. Augustine's leadership is laying out this whole deal. I just had

the same conversation, y'all, with the sister who's the chair of the Black Lives Matter board. They've, like, cleaned their finances up, lawsuits over. I said, okay, y'all come back on. Tell me what y'all doing. I'm down with supporting black institutions, but I need black folks who run in black institutions to be clear and transparent with the public on how they're going to get the job done. That's all I'm saying. So, you know, I know, again, that was not

my intent. And if I step on some toes, I did it by design. If I stepped on some HBCU toes, I did it by design. And if you got a problem with what I had to say, well, handle your business. Because you notice the people who are handling their business, who don't have financial problems, who don't have accreditation problems, we ain't talking about them. Just something for folks to consider. Quick break.

We're going to come back, talk about this whole school choice issue. That's just insane. I support school choice. What these Republicans are doing, that ain't school choice. That's helping out rich white people. We'll explain next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. What's up, y'all? Look, fan base is more than a platform it's a movement to empower creators offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in black-owned tech infrastructure and

help shape the future of social media investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age the black community must not only consume tech we must own it discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly to rule their community through the jobs ad. This is Essence Atkins. This is Love King of R.B, Raheem Duvall. This is me, Sherri Shebron, and you know what you watch. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

I'm an advocate for school choice. I actually created the initiative. School choice is the black choice. But what you're seeing take place across the country in Texas and Tennessee, other places, y'all, that ain't school choice is the black choice. But what you're seeing take place across the country in Texas and Tennessee, other places, y'all, that ain't school choice. It's the destruction of public schools. It's giving money to largely white parents who already enrolled their kids in private schools and taking taxpayer money and giving it to them. In Texas, during a House Public Education Committee meeting, Republican Representative Charles Cunningham discussed how, y'all, listen to this.

And this dude black, he discussed how the 1957 school integration decision was fundamentally about school choice. Y'all, this Negro literally said this. Listen. We all know what 1957 was all about. 1957 was about school choice. The court got it wrong with integration.

And I'm just thinking only on my opinion. The same group that was fighting it then is the same group that's fighting it now. It hasn't changed. And so this is about choice, parental rights. The child belongs to the parent. That's who the child belongs to. And I think my counterpart here has already said that. We can all agree to that.

But it's where we're trying to go and where we're trying to get there. I raised four kids, nine grandkids. Gave them both the balance of both worlds. Some went to private, some went to public. I went to a private school. I went to a private college. So the blend is good. We just need to make sure that we get it right.

And so I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Chairman. Did this Negro just say the court got it wrong? Now, let me explain what this whole 1957 thing is, folk. That's when these white folks across America started to launch so-called school choice private academies because they did not want black kids in their schools they did not want black kids attending their public schools they wanted to maintain white control over the schools that's what this is all about okay now I remember I had this debate and Randy Weingarten of AFT, she said, you know, school choice goes back to Jim Crow. I said, Randy, ain't nothing in America white folks didn't create.

So, whatever. Now, here's the whole piece. I don't even understand. Why do I support school choice? Because if you're going to create a system like charter schools and we can control the curriculum and the budget and the hiring and the money from public charter schools, well, I want black people controlling those schools. I want black people controlling the education of black kids.

That's why I want control of the money. I don't want, I want a black KIPP. In fact, people need to understand, KIPP, their entire curriculum model was created by a black teacher. One of the KIPP founders walked across the hall and saw how she was using music and rhyme to teach the kids in her classroom, and that became their education model. So hell, black folk created that, but the sister wasn't one of the co-founders.

Two white guys were. Okay? But I need you to understand what's going on here. What these white billionaires, David Yass and others, what they're doing is they are trying, they're using the power of Republicans having super majorities in places like Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, to completely dismantle public education because what they want to do is they want to create a voucher program where everybody in the state gets vouchers. Here's the problem with that. If you go back and look at my interview with James Tallarico in Texas, you will see it.

5.5 million kids in school in Texas. You don't even have enough seats in private schools for all of those. So who's actually going to benefit? So sure, you're going to give these parents these vouchers. But who do y'all think? And the vouchers don't even cover the full private school tuition. So where the hell are they going to go to school? It's a scam. It's a sham. That's exactly what it is. Here's Congresswoman Summer Lee talking about this in Congress. Ms. Lee from Pennsylvania. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Public education is important to me, right?

I am a product of public education from pre-K through college, including programs like Head Start. When I listen to our colleagues on the other side, I'm always baffled by the conversation because I feel like sometimes it maybe intentionally misses the points. We've talked and we will continue to talk about good public schools or passing public schools versus failing public schools instead of talking about failing public policy,

failing funding schemes, failing bureaucracy. We know that we have a system of inequitably funded schools in this country where the quality of your education can largely be determined by your zip code or your family's wealth. In my home commonwealth of Pennsylvania, our funding scheme was so inequitable that the court said we needed to go back to the drawing board. Republicans would love to believe that the solution is dismantling the Department of Education to give us local choice.

But what they're actually giving us is the responsibility of subsidizing education to localities where people will pay higher property taxes to fund the discrimination of children. The burden of the federal government divesting from public education will be shouldered by first-time homebuyers, for instance, in Pittsburgh where homeownership is already becoming unsustainable or by seniors in my, you know, school, the home school district of Fulton Hills, those neighborhoods who are already strained and facing the loss of their social security benefits. These additional tax dollars will help charter and private schools hand select students that will improve schools outcomes while maximizing schools bottom line. Our tax dollars won't help the children who will never be able to avail themselves of discriminatory school choices.

Our public education system serves the child who is unhoused or transient, the child in the foster care system who doesn't have two well-connected parents to push for scholarships or the family facing the digital divide who will miss application deadlines reasonably, the child who didn't have access to his start or preschool like me because we didn't invest in those.

And it's behind, that child is behind in reading. We need to invest in public education because it's the only option for children that so-called parents' rights movement has decided are not worth investing in. It's also no coincidence that the school choice movement is financed by billionaires like Jeffrey Yaz from my commonwealth, who's trying to turn my state's education system into his own personal business. But a business's priority is to its stakeholders, and children have no stake in the economic model of school choice.

Ms. Levin, I want to ask you about charter schools run by for-profit management companies, as you ended in the last question line. If a company is maximizing profit, it's not spending all public dollars on students, especially students who require more resources, which is why charter schools educate fewer students with disabilities than traditional public schools. And in your opinion, Ms. Levin,

are these for-profit charter management companies maximizing profit at the cost of students and families? Yes. Related to moving education into the private sector, one of the rationales for school choice is this free market idea that school choice will force public schools to compete for funding, thereby for public schools will improve because of that. Does evidence support this? What does the research show? It does not, and neither does common sense. There's a lot of school choice right now in the public school system.

So if competition is good, we're already creating and getting those benefits. But providing high-quality education shouldn't be accomplished through cutthroat competition. It should be accomplished by giving every school the resources that it needs. Thank you. According to the 2022 GAO report, over 30% of Pennsylvania charters that receive federal charter schools program grant funding between 2006 and 2020 closed are never opened. I request unanimous consent for the 2022 GAO report on federally funded charter school closures to be entered into the record. Without objection. Thank you. I've heard countless stories about charter schools closing because of fraud mismanagement and voucher programs taking

advantage of the fact that they have no fiscal accountability. How concerned should we be about mismanagement, fraud, and corruption if we expand federal support and funding for charters and vouchers? We should be very concerned. You're right that there are numerous reports throughout the country of both charter and voucher schools engaging in fraud, waste, and abuse of public dollars. It's unconscionable to send billions more in a federal voucher program to schools that have almost no accountability or transparency requirements. Thank you, Ms. Levin. It's clear that school choice, the school choice fallacy we're talking about today just exacerbates the inequalities, the inequities we already have. Wealthy white families will continue to have their choices subsidized by depriving largely black and brown and other marginalized children of educational opportunities.

If school choice is going to work, children and families do need real choices. A for-profit charter school that closes a month after opening because of fraud and mismanagement is not a real choice. A private school where tuition is twice as much as a child scholarship amount, where a child is not entitled to an IEP, and where a child can be expelled, for instance, for having two moms is not a real choice. An underfunded neighborhood school with larger class sizes, fewer books, substandard wages for teachers, and deteriorating infrastructure because everyone's increasing tax dollars are being used to subsidize charters in private is It's also not a real choice.

Families and children are owed fully funded, high quality, well-resourced public schools. And we can accomplish that, but not by giving away more handouts to billionaires that will discriminate against the most marginalized students to turn a profit. I thank you all for your time, and I yield back. See, Recy, what I want people to understand what the Republicans are trying to do, they're trying to use the phrase school choice and parental choice to sell this. But when you have these billionaires who purposely are giving 10, 15, 20 million dollars to these Republican governors to push this, we know exactly what this is all about.

It has nothing to do with outcomes. I stood in front of a group in Washington, D.C. more than two decades ago, and I said, hmm, so y'all support vouchers. I said, okay, if you truly support vouchers, then you should only support vouchers for students who attend schools in the bottom 10%. I said, why don't you start there? I said, but when you start trying to push vouchers for all parents, I said, we know

what that's all about. That's about white suburban parents being able to get those tax dollars to send their kids to private schools so they don't have to keep forking over all the money themselves. And the room went real quiet. And I said, and if you don't support what I said first, that tells me you actually don't support vouchers for real. You're actually full of shit. Right. What we're seeing is wealth redistribution

and a caste system in our education system. That's what dismantling the Department of Education is for. That's where these Republican governors are bought and paid for by the so-called school choice, these charter schools. And that's all this is about. This country has not shown that it is interested in equally and equitably educating its students.

And we, for damn sure, are not heading down that path with Republicans in office holding the trifecta of control of the government. And so the gaslighting is not going to work. And pretty soon they're not even going to fill the needs of gaslight. They're just going to straight up say it and it's going to be deal with Bobby. He's going to check me, boo. See, the thing here, Jade, is folk got to recognize. In fact, what's happening is I'm actually going to be in Austin, the state capitol, on Wednesday. I'm being honored by the

Texas Legislative Black Caucus as an outstanding Texan. And I hit Representative Tallarico and said, hey, I'll be more than happy to do something, hold a news conference or whatever. I said to speak out against this because we know what this is. We know what this scam is. And these folks actually don't care about educational outcomes. They don't care about it because the numbers are the numbers.

You literally have finite number of private schools in the entire state. You have. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early

and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Huge areas, inner city and rural, but there are no private schools. Okay? And so all of a sudden, you're going to completely create a massive statewide voucher program in Texas for every public school student when a very small, small, small percentage can go to the private schools. So are you serious? No. We know what this is. This is about white, suburban parents.

And it's also about the right who want to decimate teachers' unions because they support Democrats. We know what this is. And so my whole deal is, just be upfront and say it. Stop trying to sell this as, oh, this is going to be great for parental choice.

Enrolling, you're right, because there's no parents or students at the table, right? This is for the need, like you said, we already know what this is for. And this is for the bureaucrats to continue to try to hold on to the power, every sense of the power that they have and that they've always had.

And like you said, the same ones who can afford to send their kids to private school. Also, I am so sick of this administration weaponizing education and treating education like a business, right? Instead of like a service that it really is. They're treating it like an option instead of it's a necessity. And what it's doing is these draconian efforts, they're really punishing. And not only are they punishing, they're dehumanizing the students, particularly the students who really need it and work for marginalized communities and who really kind of don't stand a chance generationally. And just like the Congresswoman

said, I always say that kids should not be punished because of their socioeconomic background or their zip code. And that's exactly what is happening here. And with their zip codes and their socioeconomic background, a lot of that we know in our communities can be generational. Right. So what does that look like in the future? What does that look like after they graduate high school? Does that look like going on to college? Right. What does that look like for our community in the future? It doesn't look like they're not even considering the well-being of our students in the future because it's not about us, as we know. Right. And most passionately to me, the IEP programs, that's something with the students with disability that is very, as a person who has a disability myself, that was accommodated while I was in school, in public school. That's something that I know is essential to any future, any successful, or any hint of successful future with public school students. So that is something that's near and dear to me, which I know that administration does not care about. See, Greg, the thing here that,

whenever I hear these people start talking about education, I mean, you see it right now with what's happened to DOE. Let's send the money to the states. First of all, 90% of school funding in America comes from local and state dollars. Okay. It ain't coming from the federal government, 90%. So when people, when I hear those Republicans say, well, I mean, look at these outcomes, look at these math and reading scores. So get rid of the department of education. The department of education federally is not responsible for math and reading scores.

That's the states. And the fact of the matter is when you look at some of the worst places in America when it comes to education, a lot of them are in southern states, red states. But it's amazing how they seem to forget that. But the next thing is when you start talking about educating kids, you start, it goes beyond just, you're talking about buildings, facilities. You're talking about kids who go to school hungry every single day. You talk about kids when it comes to healthcare. So the issue of education in America is not solely a school issue. The issue of education in America, it is a neighborhood issue, an economic issue, a parental issue. It is a widespread issue.

And it's not even just solely a funding issue. It's a lot of things that actually go into it. But the reality is the same people who all of a sudden now want to yell school choice are the same folks who never truly wanted to invest in non-white public schools. Yes, that's right. These are the same people who, if we were back in the days of captivity, would be the plantation owners. They want their people controlled. And you're absolutely right. I mean, and I love the way that we opened with the EPA.

It's the same playbook. You read Project 2025 at the Department of Education. What they don't like about the Department of Education is regulation and oversight. Regulation, meaning you get to manage these dollars, these federal loan dollars and all this stuff, you know. And oversight, K-12, part of that is data collection. So just like we were hearing earlier, you want to get rid of any oversight capacity

so you can smash the numbers and make anything, make whatever sense you need to make it make sense, and you want to steal all the public dollars. Now, our friend Chuck Cunningham, the pride of humble Texas, went to Our Lady of the Lake University. Chuck Cunningham, the pride of humble Texas, went to Our Lady of the Lake University. Chuck Cunningham, sir, I recommend to you one book. Here it is right here.

The Privateers, How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers. This just came out, Josh Cowan. But then again, I wouldn't recommend this to you because you already know. Because you're owned by the billionaires. Either that or you're stupid as hell and you wasted all your mom and daddy money to go to that school. Well, he was in the military, actually, so he probably wanted a GI Bill. Imagine that as they're eviscerating veterans in this country. What an embarrassment to the race you are, sir.

But when you start looking at these companies, the Cato Institute, the think tank, was formerly the Charles Koch Foundation, the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation, which is now the American Federation for Children. When you look at these foundations, you know what they are? They are think tanks designed for one purpose and one purpose only, to move public dollars to private schools. That's it. Now, here's the thing. and you've already laid this out, so we won't rehearse this again, Roland, but what you're raising is very important because education systems in a society are to bring into adulthood and to the responsibilities for

continuing society, young people. The reason that the American education system has never been uniform is because there are too many people here who people don't want to educate. It is the racism that's going to kill the American education system, just like it's going to be the racism that kills everything else. You said it absolutely right. This is the same rotten sickness that affects everything. And when you see this fight, and you know, Roland, you know, school choice, I am for, like Du Bois said, Du Bois said, I'm not for segregated education, I'm not for integrated education. I'm for education for black people, by any means necessary. I saw this play out. The Council for Independent Black Institutions, the African Senate schools,

some of which you know, you in Chicago, you know, Baba Haki and Mama Safisha Mahab and the African-centered schools there in Chicago, Roots Public Charter School here in D.C., Sankofa Freedom Academy, the K-12 Freedom School that I was one of the people who helped write the proposal to get it in Philadelphia. We took the charter school dollars because of exactly what you said. If we can get public dollars to control our curriculum, hire our teachers, then we want our money back to do exactly that. That has been the core, and I saw the debate in CB, the Council of Black Institutions, in the 90s, when some folk were like, yeah, that's not

how this is going to work. Finally, this is what it comes down to at the end of the day. Whether it be the 1990s in Milwaukee, which meant ultimately Wisconsin, where you had an old-school black nationalist, Awuku Sadaki, who his European name the 05s, in 06, when Indiana went public charter and voucher and got their money on that, got their hands on that. Mitch Daniels, remember, the governor of Indiana.

Or whether it be in 2022, when Moms for F-ing Liberty, these fascists, with a whole agenda, one agenda only, to eviscerate public dollars and put them in private hands, the agenda has always been the same in this capitalist country. It's profit. And the best way to protect profit in the United States of America is to go hardcore white nationalist and get these hillbillies who would rather have their whiteness over their lives, eviscerate the things that might lift them out of poverty through education, and bleep their votes over to people who couldn't

give less of a damn about them. And that's what we're seeing playing out in Texas yet again. And the last thing that they actually want to do, folks, they want to fund religious institutions, private institutions. That's right. That is also because they desire a conservative theocracy in America. So just understand the game that's being played

and the last point I'll make here that was a white woman over an organization in Texas. This probably was four or five years ago. I think it was pre-COVID. She had reached out to Dr. Steve Perry, who's doing amazing with his charter schools in Connecticut, in New York City with his charter schools in Connecticut,

in New York City. And so Steve was like, well, I don't know anything about Texas. He said, but you can call my man Roland. So they get me on the phone. It's a three-way. And so while the woman is talking, I can't remember naming the group. I'm looking at her website. And so they wanted Steve, and they wanted us to help with mobilizing black and Latino parents to support this was the initial voucher plan. And I said, well, baby, your plan ain't going to die. She's like, excuse me? I said, yeah, I happen to play in the golf tournament, the Texas Black Caucus Golf Tournament about three weeks ago, and y'all plan ain't going to die. It ain't going to go anywhere. I said, so the inner city folk and the rural folk going ago and y'all playing on die. It ain't going to go anywhere. I said,

so the inner city folk in the rural folk going to kill y'all playing. I said, but let me ask you a question. I said, do you know who I said, do you know who, what are the high performing black and Latino charter schools in Houston? She said, no. I said, do you know the high performing black and Latino charter schools in Dallas? She goes, no, I don't. I said, do you know the high performing black and Latino charter schools in Dallas? She goes, no, I don't. I said, well, do you happen to know the high performing black and Latino charter schools in San Antonio? She said, no, no, I don't. I said, I said, that's not surprising to me.

I said, because your whole board is white. I said, how are you? Y'all know I don't give a damn, okay? Because first of all, I ain't getting nothing from them. They ain't paying me nothing, so I'm going to just tell the truth. I said, baby, your whole board is white. I said, how are you trying to organize and mobilize black and Latino parents to come and support your initiative when you don't even know who the black and Latino charter schools are as we speak. I said, y'all gonna lose. So here's my

suggestion over the next two years, because the Texas legislature meets every two years. I said, my suggestion for the next two years, you go figure out who the black people are right now at those schools and go learn and talk with them. As opposed to only trying to get black and Latino people to come help y'all white folks out in Austin because you looking to actually

help white parents. Man, when I say this white woman was, ooh, Larisha, that child, she ain't know what the uh what mac truck just rolled over her ass but that's what i'm talking about i said baby you can't be asking for us to come stand and fight for you when you don't even know who the hell we are but that's what we're dealing with and what they did in Texas was it was rural Republicans conservatives

who voted against the voucher plan hell Greg Abbott and the billionaires targeted all eight of them beat five of them and now these rural white folks now they're about to realize because this thing is getting close to the passing in Texas and they don't even

realize how they're about to get screwed because this thing is getting closer to passing in Texas, and they don't even realize how they're about to get screwed. But like a lot of these crazy, dumbass white Republicans, they keep selling their souls because billionaires are funding the efforts. And then we just sit and look at them and go, yeah, we tried to tell you. We tried to tell you what's going on. So I just need people to understand, I will be in Texas on Wednesday. I am a native of Houston. Do I support this bullshit voucher bill down there? Hell no, because I know a scam when I see it. And so we should not allow ourselves to get pimped and

played by any of this. And last point, like I said earlier, I want black run, black control charter schools. I want our people running them, controlling them in charge, hiring as well. Because if you tell me right now that if I can control the school and the money and the curriculum and the contracts and the hiring, hell yeah, I want to take control of that as opposed to just yell and complain about it. So if you disagree with me, that's fine.

But I'm real clear. And I'm going to tell you, I was in a meeting. It was 30 people in the room, y'all. It was two black people. One Hispanic dude and I was talking. It was at the National Charter Alliance. We were in Nashville I think and we were in a meeting and the Hispanic guy goes well I keep hearing all this black

stuff. I believe in inclusion. I said hey man you are more than welcome to start. School choice is the Latino choice. Roland is here for black people. I looked at the whole room. I was like, I just want y'all to be clear.

I'm here for black people. And they were just like, damn. So I'm real clear why I stand on that. Y'all know I'm that ignorant. I said there was 30 people in the room. Two black people, one Latino dude. It was 27 white people. And I said, roll here for black people

only. So I ain't give a damn. All right. All right, Reesey. Why somebody else's hotel? Greg, I... Hey, hey, right. Hey, hey, dog.

Hey, dog. You can do whatever you want to do. You can start your own shit. Ro ain't here fighting for you. I'm here fighting for us. That's what I said. And meant every damn word. All right, y'all.

That's it. I appreciate y'all being on today's show. Thank you so very much. Folks, if y'all want to support, let me say again, y'all. Matter of fact, let me bring Reese, Jay, and Greg back up if they left yet. Greg was part of our studio. I know Reese was swamped that night. But y'all, March 4th, we did a State of Our Union.

And let me tell y'all why that thing was so powerful. That thing spread every black family group chat all across the country. We didn't buy no ads, no billboards. That was a one text message that I sent to some people and they just forward to their group and their group and that thing spread. And we were clear. Don't watch mainstream television. We're going to have Reverend Barber give our State of Our Union. When I tossed

to Reverend Barber, we hit 200,000 simultaneous live viewers. It hit 250,000 while he was speaking. Greg was sitting next to me. I wasn't even watching. Greg was like, man, we had 248. That thing kept going. My man Kenan sent me a text that just blew me away

and he said our YouTube representative told him point blank. He said that that night the State of Our Union live stream was number five of all live broadcasts on YouTube behind Fox

News' live stream, the White House, Fox News itself, the Associated Press, and we were number five. So all of the other progressive channels, all of the other news channels, we were higher than them. But that shows you

the power of black people. And see, this is what I always say. We do it once, it shows we can do it more than one time. And so don't let anybody tell you black folk are not interested in news and we don't care. But we have to make sure that we are creating the platform for them to access the information. And again, I purposely, and I know Recy, I see her tweet. Hey, if y'all want to watch them housewives shows and love and hip-hop and all that, go right ahead.

Even though I heard, Reesey, the ratings for the real Housewives of Atlanta were at a record low this year. But anyway, but again, you can watch all the shows you want to. But I purposely do not discuss those shows or gossip or entertainment or any of that stuff because there should be some place where we only talk about the news and issues. And so I want to thank y'all that participated. I want to thank everybody who watched it because that is huge. And y'all

remember, when I launched this show in 2018, YouTube told me that black news wasn't going to work. And I said, okay. Let's see. I don't know the answer to this, but you remember the that black news wasn't going to work. And I said, okay, let's see. Go ahead, Greg. I don't know the answer to this,

but you remember the minute you went off the air in the wee hours Wednesday morning, the number hit a million. So what does that, does that mean that at some point, I mean. So that's called total views. That's just total views. That's just total views. Remember at midnight, we still had 101,000 who were still watching.

So the total numbers, it was like 1.4 million views. But we had simultaneous 250,000 live viewers at the moment. Trump was speaking, but we were carrying Reverend William Barber. So that's why, so it's how they calculate in terms of how they determine views, but people were watching us literally simultaneously. They weren't just hopping on and off.

They were simultaneous and watching throughout. Okay. Thank you. So again, I want to thank everybody who did that. So Pamela, I appreciate it. All right. Thanks so much. I appreciate that. So Pamela, I appreciate it. All right. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Folks, if y'all want to support the work that we do here, listen, like I said, we ain't got millionaires, billionaires sending us money. Your support is critical. And so join our Bring the Funk fan club. We've had more than 35,000 people who have joined our Bring the Funk fan club since we launched. 35,000 individual donors. That's how people give in every year. But if you gave one time, you're listed on that. So if you want to support us by Cash App, use the Stripe QR code. Use Stripe. This is how you access it right here. This is the QR code. Point your phone to it, and then just click Cash App Pay button to contribute.

Also, you can see your check and money order. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle, roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV,

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forward slash fanbase, starkengine.com forward slash fanbase for more information. Folks, that's it. I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. How? Blackstar Network is a real

revolution right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black Owned Media and something like CNN. You can't be Black

Owned Media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.