#RolandMartinUnfiltered - The Assault on Public Education | Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Hello again, I'm Bill Peres, host of the Bill Peres Pod, and this is Trump's Project 2025 Up Close and Personal, Chapter 8, The Assault on Public Education. Perhaps you've heard the big headline. Yeah, Donald Trump and Project 2025 actually want to eliminate the Department of Education. I'm going to close the Department of Education. Now, that's bad, but that's not the worst of it. In addition to the rampant banning of books and the rewriting of history in a second Trump term, we'll see most federal education dollars used to double down on the attack on public education today already

Starting point is 00:00:46 taking place in Republican-controlled states. I'm talking about the unchecked, unregulated universal school voucher programs where states provide public dollars for children to attend private schools. With no income limits, most of the money in these red state programs is funneled to families who were already sending their kids to private schools and who could easily afford those schools. You know, it's like a coupon for well-off families to do what they've always done. It's also fueled the growth of hastily organized for-profit substandard schools that are just in it for the money. Think about those for-profit universities that scammed hundreds of thousands of people out of millions and millions of dollars for a worthless education or no education at all.

Starting point is 00:01:36 Kids who go to these schools are seeing their test scores fall and your tax dollars are paying for it. And all the money paying for these private vouchers is taken from state educational funds, leaving public schools scrambling to survive larger class sizes and higher local property taxes. Now Donald Trump and Project 2025 want to take this program nationwide,

Starting point is 00:02:02 diverting dollars that now support high-poverty public schools, as well as supporting kids with disabilities and turning them into vouchers for private schools. For this important episode about the future of public education, we're so honored to have two wonderful actors to tell the story. Don Cheadle, a key figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and George Clooney's Oceans films. He reads Part 2. Part 1 is read by Ever Carradine, the star of two Hulu series, The Handmaid's Tale and Marvel's Runaways. She tells the story of Martha Sheekly, the principal of a fictional Southeast middle school near Akron, Ohio, as she fights the book banning and the elimination of key

Starting point is 00:02:46 services at her school. Chapter 8, August. Martha Sheekley by Rose Cunningham. Ravenna, Ohio. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I feel guilty even doing it. Paige Parker, the petite 33-year-old school librarian. She held a book in her left with three tall piles of books stacked out in front of her. Several plastic bins full of books lay at her feet. Martha chicly sat down at a large rectangular table and nodded sympathetically. I know, it's ridiculous, Martha said. How's it going? Martha was beginning her fourth year as Southeast Middle School's principal. With classes starting in just two weeks, early August was always a frenetic time.

Starting point is 00:03:39 But this year it was as if school was already in full swing. The entire nation's insane politics thrown on her shoulders and only two weeks remained to solve it all. She wore her brown hair in a ponytail and donned old jeans and a Cleveland Browns t-shirt, but her hope that casual attire would ease her tension didn't pan out. Terrible. The standards are so vague. I'm literally throwing out classics. She gestured to two piles on her right. That stack is the CRT DEI stuff. The other stack is so-called pornography. A piece of paper lay in front of Paige, which Martha recognized as the district-wide legal guidance about what books to ban to avoid criminal prosecution. Martha squinted through her round glasses to scan the

Starting point is 00:04:31 titles. Toni Morrison, one of her favorite authors, had books in both stacks, and a book by Michelle Obama was on the DEI stack. The Handmaid's Tale and a book by Judy Blume were on the pornography stack. I mean, look at this one, Paige said, holding up the book in her hand. Martha eyed the cover. The book was called New Kid. What's wrong with it? Nothing. It's a graphic novel about a black seventh grader going to a mostly white school and the challenges that he faces. But you're gonna remove it? Yeah, several parents flagged it. She held up a piece of paper. And the memo defines critical race theory so broadly that I'm worried someone's gonna say that it breaks the law.

Starting point is 00:05:15 Martha spotted another stunner on the pornography pile. Wait, you're removing Anne Frank too? Paige frowned. It was on the parents list and it includes so-called sexual content as defined by the memo. Martha sighed, running her hand through her thick hair. To protect everyone, the school board had requested the legal opinion as they broke for summer. And to be doubly cautious, the district created a process allowing parents to request specific books to be banned. Most parents didn't respond, and many wrote emails saying that they trusted Paige and the teacher's judgment on what was appropriate.

Starting point is 00:05:54 But the small group of parents who'd been showing up at school board meetings for the past year had sent in long lists, clearly gathered online or from group chats they were in. And so under the school board's direction, Paige had to flag them all. Martha despised the process and resented the fact that she had to assign it to Paige, a school librarian and only her second year now deputized as a government censor. What the hell was happening in the world? But the new laws couldn't be more clear, and Paige herself would be the one locked up if they weren't careful, and permanently labeled a sex offender in the process. The young librarian who'd gotten married over the summer and was still tan from her honeymoon lifted her arms in frustration.

Starting point is 00:06:44 There are so many like this. Some were among our most popular books in the last few years, not just with the kids, but their parents. Why should some parents get to tell other parents what their kids can read? They shouldn't, Martha said, but we have to keep going. Pack them all in boxes and we'll find a place to store them. Let's hope we can bring them back when all this craziness is behind us, Martha thought, as she stood up to face her next meeting. As she sat down, the dead-eyed stares facing Martha told her all she needed to know. This would be a rough meeting, worse than the book banning fiasco.

Starting point is 00:07:23 They were in a small windowless conference room next to her office. Trey Butler, the school district's longtime treasurer, sat on the other end of the table, a binder in front of him. Even with everyone else casual, Trey wore his go-to blue suit and vest, which was already making him sweat. Bald on top with tufts of gray hair on each side of his head, Trey looked like the bad guy in a movie when he frowned. The district's deputy administrator sat next to him, her usually gleaming eyes red. A blue binder awaited Martha on the other side of the table.

Starting point is 00:07:58 She opened the cover and clenched her teeth as she scanned the table of contents on the first page. The agenda alone confirmed how bad the meeting was going to be. The first topic listed, enrollment. She turned the page where a graph in the page's center told the story. A relatively flat line going back a few years angled slightly upward on the charts far right, above the tab 2025-2026. I always assumed we'd lose kids due to those universal vouchers with all the private school

Starting point is 00:08:32 advertising, she said. You were right. Trey shook his head. We tried telling the state this for years, and you heard me tell the school board the same thing. As high as it is, the private voucher amount isn't close to the tuition of the high-end private schools. So with most of our students coming from working families, they can't afford to go to those schools even with the vouchers. But yet our overall funding is being squeezed because of the explosion of vouchers around the state. Who the heck's using them? Simple. It's almost entirely families in the better-off suburbs who are already sending their kids to the private schools. I mean, most Ohio counties, the rural ones,

Starting point is 00:09:16 they don't even have a private school anywhere near them, so even if the voucher covered the full cost, it would still be useless. He wiped sweat from his brow. It's all about the suburbs, he reiterated. Martha shifted in her chair. She lived in one of those suburbs, and many of the kids in their neighborhood had gone to those private schools since pre-k. So they used the voucher to keep going to the school they were already going to? Exactly. And we know from the data, most of these families could already afford the school.

Starting point is 00:10:05 It's basically an $8,000 coupon for the better off, but getting even higher now with the redirected federal money. down on it all, eliminating the Department of Education and diverting what used to be targeted federal support to this warped cause of big discounts for private school tuition. She looked again at the enrollment numbers. Bottom line, we have the same number of students, but less money to handle them all. Actually, the student population went up. Remember, a number of unvaccinated kids are showing up for the first time. Ugh, that's right, she said, nightmares of last spring replaying in her mind after the government threatened to withdraw all federal funding unless schools stopped requiring students to be vaccinated. Trey continued,

Starting point is 00:10:41 which takes us to the Binder's second section. Martha flipped to the next page. At the top were the words, wraparound services. Her temperature rose as she scanned the services listed below along with a dollar figure next to each them. Her stomach clenched. All? Yes, all. He paused. And we're not reducing them. We have to get rid of them entirely. She looked at the list again, wincing. Mental health counseling appeared first. Their two mental health counselors had made a huge difference with struggling students. Next on the list was the school's resource officer program. The two Ravenna police officers who served as SROs were part of the school community.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Role models knew every kid by name, but they also provided a critical blanket of safety. One year ago, Officer Willem locked down the school after observing an armed man walking through the parking lot. Police arrived minutes later, subdued the man, and found a full arsenal in the back of the man's pickup. Then there was the aftercare program, a partnership between the school and the local YMCA. In almost all Southeast households, both parents worked, which made their aftercare program a critical service for the entire community. Rather than being on the streets or home alone, the kids instead engaged in a variety of activities with younger teachers who stayed after for extra pay. We can't even do aftercare? I'm afraid not, Trace said. The amount we have to put into the Y along with the supplemental teacher pay, it's just, it's too much. It's got to go.

Starting point is 00:12:34 Honestly, Martha, it's not even close. The next two items listed brought Martha personal pain. The school's longtime reading and writing specialist had turned her son Jacob's life around. He was now a top student in his high school. And the school's EF specialist, EF was short for executive functioning, also appeared on the chopping block. Martha had brought Mrs. Trice in part-time three years ago, and she'd lifted countless kids who'd had trouble focusing or who had been formally diagnosed with ADHD. No more EF intervention? I'm afraid not. Martha's resignation was morphing into anger. The wraparound services that they'd brought into the school over the past

Starting point is 00:13:18 decade had changed the place. The campus was safer and the kids were faring better because of it. Martha could see it every day in the school hallways and recently in higher test scores as well. Trey, I need you to push harder. These are devastating cuts. He stared back, silent at first. I know they are, but we have no choice. Our top goal is not to overwhelm our classroom teachers with bigger numbers. So we have to be tough on everything else. In the high school, we're getting rid of all the same positions as well as college counselors.

Starting point is 00:13:54 But who's going to handle all of the kids with these extra needs? If the answer is nobody, that'll end up falling on the back of the classroom teachers anyway. It will fall on the families. We're preparing a list of all the resources they'll need and we'll send it out at the end of each week. Come on, Trey, they can't afford any of these things. He held his hands in the air. I'm just the messenger. I know, but I know this is awful. He stared back. Next page, she said as she flipped to the third section. The words IDEA Title I were written across the top of the page.

Starting point is 00:14:40 IDEA was the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Act, a lifesaver for special needs kids to stay in public school. Don't tell me we have to get rid of IDEA as well? Well, we don't have to because the federal government already did it for us. All the money we used to get for IDEA is now going to the state, which converts it into more voucher dollars. Martha slammed her hand on the table. Are you kidding me? She yelled, kids with disabilities and special needs aren't going to get help, so private school families

Starting point is 00:15:12 get a break on tuition that they could already afford? That's absolutely nuts. It's both nuts and it's what's happening. His lips trembled. You're just the messenger. I understand. And Title I funds? Title I provided a critical source of federal funding to account for the high poverty families in the district. It funded the salaries of many Southeast teachers. Same trick. Title I funding is being phased out and sent instead to the states, likely to become more private school vouchers. So what will that do? It will take its toll. It's one reason for the cuts above, and we'll need to

Starting point is 00:15:54 make up for it elsewhere as well. Three pages remained. Her heart sped up as she saw the title of the next page. Federal School Lunch. Don't tell me. So they're going to let our poorest kids starve? Not all. We've been getting a grant to pay for free and reduced school lunches for all our kids. That's been eliminated. So who gets free lunches now? Only our poorest kids. And what about the others? We're going to add a fee structure to make up the difference. So the sort of poor families are paying a new fee so their kids can eat? That's probably the nicest way to put it,

Starting point is 00:16:38 but I've also reached out to the local food banks and businesses to see if we can partner to get food for these kids. She nodded. Good. Let me know if we can partner to get food for these kids. She nodded. Good. Let me know if I can help with that. Will do. She turned to the second to last page. Pay to play. A tool Southeast had proudly avoided in recent years. No more. The page presented a long list of sports and other activities, each with a dollar sign next to it. Football, $750. Soccer, $500. Volleyball, $500. Arts, $350. Cheerleading, $500.

Starting point is 00:17:30 Debate club, $200. Yearbook, $250. The recorder, $250. Wait, we're charging kids for the arts? Band? Debate? I'm afraid so. We're just stuck. She did the math in her head. If Jake was still here, she'd owe an extra $1,300. At the bottom of the page, one final item appeared.

Starting point is 00:17:56 Nurse visit, 100 per. And we're charging families for nurse visits? We have to if we want to keep Nurse Thomas. Of course we need to keep her, especially with all these new unvaccinated kids. She's going to be busier than ever. I know. That's why we need that fee. And the $100 is the lowest we could go, cutting it very close as it is. Speechless, Martha turned to the last page. Classroom instruction. The words and numbers instantly made clear that Trey was proposing a permanent reduction in teachers and a big leap

Starting point is 00:18:32 in class sizes. But I thought the whole point was that we weren't touching classroom teachers or class size. That is the point, but all those other cuts minimize the impact. But this says we're going to have an average class size of 32 kids. We are. Since enrollment didn't go down and our state and federal funding did, that's the new number. The good news is we don't need to lay people off. The more senior teachers are getting out on their own. Of course they were, Martha thought. She talked to a number of them over the summer.

Starting point is 00:19:06 Some feared the risk to getting sick. Others were just plain exhausted and knew things were getting worse. Who could blame them? Years of political assaults on public school teachers had only accelerated under the new president. But in recent years, things had shifted from a caustic conversation

Starting point is 00:19:24 about public school teachers to a never-ending squeeze on the job itself. Martha had taught fifth grade for 12 years, and she'd chosen to be a teacher as a calling. But politics, endless cuts, and now absurdly large class sizes were making that original calling next to impossible to accomplish. Trey, this isn't going to be a place of learning anymore. More like a giant daycare. Every kid, the smartest kids included, is going to be held back by all of these changes. I know. It makes me sick as well. The room went silent.

Starting point is 00:20:02 There was nothing left to say. Martha spent the next two hours delivering the binder's bad news to those directly impacted. Coaches yelled at her about the added cost of kids playing on their teams. The arts teacher was livid as well. Classroom teachers complained about the impossibly large class sizes. Morale was already terrible ever since the new administration began attacking their union itself as illegal. And watching their most experienced colleagues and mentors walk away only made it worse. I'm just the messenger, Martha kept saying. They said they understood, but still yelled back. After a quick sandwich and a Diet Coke for lunch, the afternoon meetings only grew more painful.

Starting point is 00:20:55 She held a tearful meeting letting the mental health counselors go. They reminisced about the kids that they had worked so hard to turn around. Her meeting with the reading specialist was even tougher. More tears and memories of Jacob's remarkable turnaround. And she made calls to the YMCA and the EF specialists to let them know they wouldn't be needed anymore. Then a call to the Ravenna police chief. The SROs? Gone too. The only positive call was to the food bank and the local chamber of commerce who agreed to do all that they could to help the kids who needed free or reduced cost lunches. Just after four, as she ended the chamber call, a loud commotion boiled up in the hallway outside of her office. She rushed to open her office door. Three young sheriff's deputies were

Starting point is 00:21:46 marching down the hallway, boxes in their hands. Paige Parker was chasing them from behind, nearly in tears. Already exhausted and angry from all of her meetings, Martha stood in front of the deputies with her hands on her hips. Deputies, just what are you doing? Paigeuffing heavily answered first they barged into the library and they started taking my boxes of books martha threw her hands in the air what on earth gentlemen ma'am our sheriff has been tasked by the state and feds to enforce the new rules yes and i've tasked our librarian to follow those rules. She's working diligently to do so. The deputy shrugged. I'm just following orders, Mrs. Sheekly.

Starting point is 00:22:32 She did a double take. First, he sounded like her and Trey. They were just following orders while doing terrible things. But even more jarring was how he addressed her, Mrs. Sheekly, the way students addressed her. She glanced at his name badge, Mueller. She never taught a Mueller, but three Mueller boys had all gone through this middle school. You may be following orders. The page is already removing books. I watched her doing it this morning. He stood taller, towering over her. Ma'am, the law's very clear. He pulled a piece of paper out from his front pocket. It says it right here. Any books that violate the rules must be destroyed. Keeping them in boxes or on school property in any way is a violation of the law, and you all could be arrested as purveyors of pornography.

Starting point is 00:23:28 Martha steamed. Not only did they have a librarian and principal playing censor, but former students with badges were now doing it as well. Speechless, she and Paige watched as the three deputies walked outside lugging the boxes. Paige leaned down and began to cry. This is not what I signed on to do, she said. Martha hugged her tightly. Me neither, Paige. Me neither. Honey, thanks for meeting up tonight. I needed it after the day I had. After hearing her exhaustion over the phone, Martha's husband Nelson suggested they grab dinner and a glass of wine at the Summit Country Club, not far from their home. She didn't talk about her membership much, but with Nelson's success as a Cleveland litigator, they'd done well enough financially to join. It was their one luxury, along with the home they'd recently bought in a well-off suburb halfway between Cleveland and

Starting point is 00:24:29 Akron. It sounds terrible, he said as he pulled her chair out. What did they tell you? I don't want to talk about it. I need a break to process it all. How was your day, honey? Seconds after Nelson sat down, a server approached them. Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Sheepley. Will you do buffet or will you order from the menu? Buffet, please, Martha answered. She was famished. And a glass of Chardonnay, thank you. Minutes later, they entered the line behind several couples. What looked like two wives joining husbands who had just wrapped up rounds of golf. She didn't recognize them. One woman was gleefully telling the other about her family's stroke of good fortune. Can you believe it? The school confirmed it today. 16,000 off our tuition this year

Starting point is 00:25:20 and every year later. They even go up. It's like Christmas in August. The woman across the buffet from her laughed. I know. We're looking at $24,000 off. We didn't even realize until the school sent that memo reminding us to fill out that form. What a blessing! It so helps our church. And Jim and I are hoping to squeeze a cruise out of the savings. Fred wants a new car, but I told him this was for us.

Starting point is 00:25:51 She put her arm around a tall, bearded man with still-drying hair who Martha assumed was Fred. We'll see what we do with it, right, Fred? A cruise definitely sounds nice. The man kissed her on the cheek. Martha bitterly, holding back all she wanted to tell these people. She grabbed salad, prime rib, corn on the cob, and a piece of apple pie and returned to her seat. But after the first nibble of salad, she felt ill and hot and angry all at the same time. The next 40 minutes, largely in silence, she watched Nelson wolf down his meal. Forked down, she left her plate untouched. Cruises, new cars,

Starting point is 00:26:37 church's financial well-being. She scanned the room and wondered, what else would the kids at Southeast Middle School be paying for? When we come back after a short break, Don Cheadle will tell us the story of the fictional father, Marcus Phillips, hoping for a better education for his son, Jamal, enrolling him at one of these new scammy for-profit academies, sure to emerge as voucher programs ramp up in a second Trump term. 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.

Starting point is 00:27:38 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

Starting point is 00:27:50 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.

Starting point is 00:28:06 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.

Starting point is 00:28:32 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,

Starting point is 00:28:41 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 ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

Starting point is 00:29:03 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.

Starting point is 00:29:17 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. Later in the podcast, author David Pepper will tie each of the story elements you've heard today back to specific references in Project 2025 and Trump's own words and dangerous promises. But first, the second part of Trump's Project 2025, up close and personal, the assault on education. In this story, a father only wants what's best for his son, but runs into a

Starting point is 00:30:07 profit motive that should have no place in educating our children. Here's Don Cheadle. Chapter 8, Capital Journal, Marcus Phillips, by Calvin Stegman, Ohio City. I knew as soon as we pulled into the parking lot that first time. Jason Marsh and Corey Matthews sat across from them, looking as sheepish as Marcus felt. Yeah, us too, Jason said. Dropping your kid off at a strip mall definitely doesn't feel right, especially when the place looked nothing like the brochures, Corey added. Wendy and Marcus nodded in unison. The two couples were gathered at Lake Erie Coffee Shop in Ohio City, an historic and diverse middle-class neighborhood on Cleveland's near west side. They didn't know each other a month ago, but had bonded in recent weeks as

Starting point is 00:30:56 they'd pulled out of the parking lot of their kid's new school. At first, it was exchanging looks of alarm through their car windows. Then they'd shared a few words at the long red light leading back downtown. And now they were swapping notes in person after this morning's drop-off and strategizing before their Zoom call at noon. Jason laid the Blue Ribbon Academy brochure down on the table. Across the top were an American and Ohio flag, accompanied by the words, The United States and Ohio are sending you thousands

Starting point is 00:31:26 to change your kids' future. In the middle of the mailer was a photo of smiling black and white kids playing on a playground, then more words, use it for the Blue Ribbon Academy, the ideal place for your kids. Yeah, we got that as well, Marcus said. Three different times, actually. Marcus and Wendy had been torn about moving Jamal out of the local public school. They were both proud Cleveland public school grads, and their

Starting point is 00:31:51 neighborhood public elementary school had been the perfect fit for Jamal two years ago. But growing class sizes and cuts in support services had made things far more difficult, magnifying the challenges presented by Jamal's mild ADHD. Then those Blue Ribbon brochures began peppering their mailbox, along with flashy online ads popping up on both their phones and laptops. They'd followed that up with their own online research,

Starting point is 00:32:18 a meeting with a Blue Ribbon representative in downtown Cleveland, and chats with Blue Ribbon parents who'd been provided as references. They looked at their alternatives, but the private schools they knew best were way out of their price range, even with the voucher. So they made the switch to Blue Ribbon, which only required the voucher itself to attend. Jason and Corey described a very similar journey. And then came the jarring reality, dropping off their kids at a seedy strip mall in the middle of cavernous warehouses. Being told that only the kids could enter the school itself.

Starting point is 00:32:52 And then the steep downhill plunge that followed. Jason laid a book on the table. Three large dinosaurs on its cover. I assume you guys saw this so-called science book. Wendy nodded. Yes, horrifying. Marcus and I spend three hours in our church every Sunday. Jamal loves his Sunday school,

Starting point is 00:33:12 but this is not something for science class. From her bag, Wendy took out a history book. Pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the current president were on the cover. She flipped to a page where she'd stuck a yellow sticky note. Did you know that most slave owners treated their slaves well? She asked sarcastically. Oh and this is what they're teaching Jamal about the civil rights movement. She looked down and read out loud. Most black and white southerners had long lived

Starting point is 00:33:41 together in harmony until power-hungry individuals stirred up the people. Marcus shook his head. Someone should tell my grandparents about all that harmony. They didn't get the memo back in Macon. Honey, show them the KKK part. Wendy turned the page, then read out loud again. The Ku Klux Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform.

Starting point is 00:34:03 She paused, shaking. Fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife beaters, and immoral movies. Unreal, Corey said. Wendy hesitated for a moment then turned to the next yellow tab. You probably heard about... Yes, we did, Corey said. Apparently gay rights are part of a radical social agenda, and we don't deserve to be treated any better than child molesters. Jason shook his head. When Marisol told the teacher she had two dads,

Starting point is 00:34:36 she warned her never to talk about that again. I'm so sorry, Marcus said. Now we've dealt with that in other settings, but not at a school. Our own tax dollars are paying for it. I mean, what the hell? Marcus groaned. Jamal says they just sit by themselves and fill out workbooks all day.

Starting point is 00:34:53 Hardly any interaction with students or even teachers who apparently leave the room to check in on other classes. They stared at each other in silence. The guilt of having failed their kids clearly weighing on all of them. So what are we going to do? Marcus asked. Corey sipped his coffee, then spoke. Yesterday after drop-off, we actually met with local public school officials. Nice, what'd they say? That they've seen these fly-by-night-for-profit outfits popping up everywhere. Quick-to-pocket, nearly $10,000 per student, then doing as

Starting point is 00:35:25 little as possible for the students. But since public schools don't have the funds for counter marketing, they watch helplessly as families like us switch over and then see our kids' test scores plummet every year. By the time the kids return to the public schools, they've lost years from their education. Wendy shook her head. A friend connected me to a state education official last week. They sang a totally different tune. Said this was all about our choice, like we were buying any other product. Sounds great in theory, until you see false advertising in this nonsense.

Starting point is 00:36:00 Jason said, holding up the dinosaur book. Did they care about the materials? Not at all, Marcus replied. They said it's not for the government to police or monitor our choices. They don't even audit how any of the money is spent. Did you mention the memo about corporal punishment? Jason asked. That had come last week, which spurred the four parents to meet in person and demand

Starting point is 00:36:21 a call with Blue Ribbon Academy higher-ups. I did. Same response. Nothing they can do. Marcus ran a small music and recording studio five minutes from Lake Erie Coffee. At noon, the four of them sat in his conference room as he turned on a large wall monitor and logged onto the Zoom call,

Starting point is 00:36:41 which Blue Ribbon Academy scheduled in 15 minute increments. A young man in a dark suit appeared alone in a small conference room, a Blue Ribbon Academy banner hanging behind him. The words Shane Malloy, Austin, Texas appeared on the bottom of the Zoom screen. How can we help you? Shane asked, a plastic smile on his tan face. Marcus had set in on a lot of sales calls in his career, and that's what this felt like as opposed to a school meeting. Well, as we filled out on the electronic ticket, we share a number of concerns about your academy in Cleveland. Oh, he smiled. We are so excited to be in your

Starting point is 00:37:16 great city, and our principal tells me things are off to a great start. What seems to be the problem? Is that right? Wendy asked. We haven't met him yet. Silence from the other end. Marcus chimed in. To begin, some of the curriculum seems way off for the year 2025. How so? Shane asked, a look of skepticism on his face. Well, Marcus said, dinosaurs and human beings coexisting for one, and some of your history units are really distorting American history. Young Shane didn't flinch. We're sorry you feel that way. We strive to bring only the best and most rigorous materials and values to our students.

Starting point is 00:37:58 And unlike many public schools, we also believe it's important to bring a variety of perspectives. The same perspectives our students will encounter in the real world. We're also concerned that the kids barely interact with actual teachers. Jason added, our mix of self-study and teacher engagement is also something we take pride in. Blue Ribbon students are taught to be independent, self-starters, and years of research back up our approach. Marcus sighed. This kid's answers were so rehearsed, just like the pitch they'd gotten when they'd looked into Blue Ribbon in the first place. They had all the lingo down and presented it professionally. Sounded great on the surface. But these are third graders, Wendy said. They need adult guidance, supervision. Of course, and they receive it. We think very carefully about this mix. This kid had an answer for everything. These people are going to dupe so many. leaders of the company like a school board meeting? Shane chuckled. Sir, we are based in Austin, which is why we set this up as a Zoom. But Blue Ribbon Academy is a private company, so our board's

Starting point is 00:39:12 meetings are private, not for the public. So what can we do about our concerns? You're doing it, he said enthusiastically. This is our customer feedback process. Your concerns will be noted in your school's files. If changes are deemed worthy, you will see them in the near future. And that's it. He smiled. That is our process. Shane looked at his watch. My next appointment is in three minutes. Do you have any other concerns you'd like to raise? Only three minutes. And they had so much more to say. Marcus didn't know where to start, but Shane filled the silence. Oh, one thing, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips. One of our counselors determined that your son, Jamal, faces challenges due to ADHD. Finally, Marcus thought, they individualized the attention they were looking for.

Starting point is 00:40:00 Is that right? Shane asked. Yes. That's one reason we tried Blue Ribbon. Public schools cut all the programs for kids with his special needs. Shane frowned. I'm so sorry to hear that, sir, but our team worries a student with his needs may distract from other students learning. I'm afraid Jamal is not a good fit for Blue Ribbon. Wendy squeezed Marcus's hand. Jamal may have struggled to keep up once his prior school had ripped away added counseling, but he'd never once caused a problem for other students.

Starting point is 00:40:32 After we're done, Shane continued, you will get an email connecting you to our transfer team. Thank you again for your time. Marcus fumed. The lesson of recent months finally clear. Not a good fit, Shane had said. The young man had summed it up perfectly. Fancy private schools were now cheaper, but only for those who could already afford them.

Starting point is 00:40:56 The low-flying for-profits like Blue Ribbon were not only terrible, but they weren't about to spend dollars or time on kids like Jamal. And as public schools were hemorrhaging money to vouchers, they no longer could meet Jamal's needs. In America's new system of education, their son Jamal no longer fit anywhere. Okay, but while the stories in this episode are over, we're not done with Trump's Project 2025. In a moment, author David Pepper will link the real policies in Project 2025 and Trump's Project 2025, up close and personal, the threat

Starting point is 00:41:46 of Donald Trump sending the U.S. active duty military into cities run by Democrats. Huh, that's less than a threat. That's a promise. Here's Trump in 2020, while still president of the United States, promising to do exactly that. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. And here's a preview of the next episode.

Starting point is 00:42:23 Private Troy Marquis, in a unit operating under the 1807 Insurrection Act, is ordered to retake Philadelphia, which he was told was overrun by Antifa terrorists. This looked like a protest, a loud one, yes, tense, but peaceful and contained to a limited zone. No buildings look damaged. No flames or smoke or broken glass anywhere. An officer warns the crowd. We are the United States military. We have been ordered by the President of the United States to secure the city of Philadelphia from Antifa terrorists.

Starting point is 00:43:01 We are authorized to use lethal force if necessary. A rogue MAGA soldier shouts, Molotov cocktail! He's getting ready to throw! Hold your... But his next words were drowned out by the ear-splitting crackle of semi-automatic fire. After the shooting ends, Troy surveys the damage. Over the hellish morning, he kept account of what he and company D-mates found. 34 dead, 72 injured, and not a single Molotov cocktail. That story in Chapter 9 of Trump's Project 2025 Up Close and Personal, The Insurrection Act, is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. Now, if you recognize the voice of Mark Hamill, otherwise known as Luke Skywalker,

Starting point is 00:43:57 you were right. He narrates the next story in our series. Trump's Project 2025 Up Close and Personal is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. Again, we ask you to please subscribe, review, and most importantly, please share with all your friends and relatives this podcast series, those who've not yet been motivated to vote, because these undecided voters, undecided whether to vote or how to vote, can, with this kind of information, we think, be persuaded to cast their ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris or at least not vote for Donald Trump. And an important program note, if you missed any of the episodes, the first seven chapters you can find in your podcast app.

Starting point is 00:44:45 And we remind you again that the people and stories in this series are fictional, but the policies that would bring real chaos and pain to the entire country are very real. Next up after the break, the author of our series, David Pepper, lays out the connections between our stories and Trump's own promises and Project 2025. 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.

Starting point is 00:45:43 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 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Starting point is 00:46:24 I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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.

Starting point is 00:46:36 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. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Starting point is 00:47:02 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

Starting point is 00:47:17 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. Again, it's important to note that while this story is fiction, it's based on actual policies contained in Project 2025 and on Trump's own words. Here's author David Pepper with the specific links. Author's note by David Pepper, Chapter 8, The Assault on public education. In the foreword to Project 2025, Kevin Roberts writes that the long-term goal of Project 2025 is, quote, universal school choice, a goal all conservatives and conservative presidents must pursue. He then declares that, quote, states, cities, and counties,

Starting point is 00:48:19 school boards, union bosses, principals, and teachers who disagree should be immediately cut off from federal funds, end quote. That's on page five. The RNC platform uses the same language and is posted on Trump's website saying, quote, we support universal school choice in every state in America. And the education section of Project 2025 spells out how they would accomplish this. Elementary and secondary education, this is a quote, should follow the path outlined by Milton Friedman in 1955, dot, dot, dot. Ultimately, every parent should have the option to direct his or her child's share of education funding through an education savings account funded overwhelmingly by state and local taxpayers,

Starting point is 00:49:00 end quote. That's on page 319. The plan then cites approvingly states that are pursuing this exact model, in particular Arizona. So happens that Arizona is among the states experiencing catastrophic results from the very philosophy that Project 2025 embraces. Over the course of Project 2025, it pushes to move IDEA funding, which is meant for kids with disabilities, into voucher-like grants for states. It ultimately proposes getting rid of the Department of Education, and it also proposes putting Title I funds, which is for poorer school districts, also into grants for states. They would ultimately be converted into vouchers. Now, added all together, in Project 2025's embrace of a privatizing philosophy, Milton Friedman's philosophy,

Starting point is 00:49:53 is something that is actually already failing in states and will spell disaster for public education nationwide. As Forbes' analysis explains, the funding thrust is, quote, vouchers, vouchers, vouchers. El, eliminate the Federal Department of Education and turn the money for Title I and IDEA into block grants that states can use for anything education adjacent, parentheses, but Heritage is hoping it will be for vouchers, end of parentheses, with Title I ending within a decade. Just so folks know, this approach and its repeated praise of state-level policies glosses over the consistent pattern that these very approaches have resulted in colossal failure in the states where they're being tried. What's happening in states right now that are pushing these very policies and philosophies are a huge diversion of public school dollars to private schools, the disproportionate use of these funds by well-off families who are already attending

Starting point is 00:50:49 those private schools, and consistent and dramatic decline in the test scores of students who actually use a voucher to switch from a public to a private school. In many states, there is also little to no transparency on how these public funds are being spent. So overall, shifting federal funds to these states to continue to push a reckless and failing universal voucher experiment will only accelerate results that are already woeful in state after state. A couple other parts of this chapter I want to fact check for you. Project 2025 would also federalize the censorship efforts that have already wreaked havoc in red states. Again, back to the foreword by Kevin Roberts of Project 2025. He writes that, quote, the noxious tenets of critical race theory and gender ideology should be excised from

Starting point is 00:51:38 curricula at every public school in the country. The censorship that follows is fast and furious. Back to Project 2025, pages four and five. Quote, this starts with deleting the term sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency, regulation, contract, grant regulation, and piece of legislation that exists. That's pages four to five. All of that just simply removed from anything the federal government will support, any reference to those terms. Furthermore, the introduction defines, quote, pornography to include the omnipresent propagation

Starting point is 00:52:29 of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, which has, quote, no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders, end quote. State efforts to censor books and materials pursuant to the same ideology, we all have seen newspaper stories on this, have targeted the very types of books that are mentioned in Chapter 8, including Michelle Obama, Political Icon by Heather E. Schwartz, New Kid by Jerry Craft, Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and yes, Anne Frank itself. Another part of this chapter talks about free school lunches.

Starting point is 00:53:19 Project 2025 characterized school lunch programs as, quote, some of the most wasteful federal programs in Washington, end quote. The U.S. Department of Agriculture section of Project 2025 narrows the communities and families that are eligible for free or reduced-cost school lunch, including entirely eliminated what's called the community eligibility provision, which provides a school-wide grant to high-poverty school districts. On page 302, they proposed getting rid of it, and an analysis of this proposal found that this would impact more than 20 million children who attend a school that utilizes that provision. One Wisconsin superintendent explained that families no longer eligible for meal support will face a major hit to their wallet. As the superintendent said, quote, even for middle-class families, the cost to eat at school adds up. An average kid is probably $5 a day, so $25 a week per child, $100 per month. If you have three kids, that's $300 a month. That's a pretty big hit to the budget, end quote. Obviously, he's correct. Lastly, the pay-to-play

Starting point is 00:54:26 described in episode eight, where families are billed extra when their kids take part in sports or other activities, that's already a reality, especially in underfunded education states. Back to Arizona again, one of the states with the worst private universal voucher programs in the country. The brutal summary in Arizona is that, quote, ranking 49th nationally for education funding, Arizona's budget for public schools is a controversial issue in the state. Low teacher salaries and elective cutbacks are all impacted. So too are extracurricular activities. And with fall sports underway, parents are facing a rude awakening. More and more school districts are charging steep fees for athletics, more commonly referred to as pay-to-play. One family described paying $400 for their son to play baseball,

Starting point is 00:55:16 and believe it or not, $2,500 for their daughter to participate in cheerleading. In Ohio and Georgia, the pay-to-play fee for a sport can top $1,000 per athlete per season. Finally, for years, newspapers have documented the ideological and anti-science curriculum that's being propagated in schools where vouchers are paid for private school tuition. The chapter of public education is just the tip of the iceberg. Some examples. There have been books found that teach science that, quote, dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years. Books and materials involving history describe, quote, a few slaveholders were undeniably cruel.

Starting point is 00:56:03 Examples of slaves beat to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slaveholders treated their slaves well, end quote. One history book that was found a few years ago by a newspaper said the following, quote, the Ku Klux Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the Klein immorality and using the symbol of the cross. Clan targets were bootleggers, wife beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities, it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians, end quote. As one Florida newspaper explained, these lessons are often taught all at once, quote, some private schools in Florida that rely on

Starting point is 00:56:42 public funding teach students that dinosaurs and humans live together, that God's intervention prevented Catholics from dominating North America, and that slaves who, quote, knew Christ, end quote, were better off than free men who did not, end quote. So the descriptions of public education being under assault in Chapter 8 are precisely what are promised by Project 2025's authors, Donald Trump himself, and the RNC platform. A Time magazine analysis summed it all up well, quote, some of the many destructive proposals within the agenda include the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, along with federal education funding and any civil rights protections,

Starting point is 00:57:24 and the diversion of public money to private school voucher programs instead. Make no mistake, this analysis said, the goal is to end public education. Indeed it is. It could not be more clear. But we will not let it happen. Trump's Project 2025 Up Close and Personal is available on all the different podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. And we'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode. Ever Cara Dean and Don Cheadle, who read Chapter 8, and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by John Moser.

Starting point is 00:58:06 Trump's Project 2025, up close and personal, is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier, and Jay Feldman, and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and the Bill Press Pot. This is an iHeart Podcast.

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#RolandMartinUnfiltered - The Assault on Public Education | Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal

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