The Daily Signal - LA School Board Has No Excuse. Kids Should Be Back in Classroom, Father Says

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

The Los Angeles school board keeps moving the goal post for when students will be allowed to return to the classroom for in-person learning, says the founder of L.A. School Uprising. Ross Novie, the father of two school-age children, founded the coalition of parents and students calling for Los Angeles schools to reopen for optional, in-person instruction. He launched the grassroots movement after watching his own kids struggle with remote learning. Novie joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain why he has lost confidence in the Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education and other local and state leaders to put the needs of children above politics.  Also on today’s show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a couple who opened up their home to a stranded delivery driver during the winter storm in Texas. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This Black Friday, you've got a whole month to catch all the exclusive offers waiting for you. See your local Nissan dealer or nissan.ca for details. Conditions apply. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, March 1st. I'm Robert Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we talk with Ross Novi, a parent and founder of the group L.A. School Uprising.

Novi formed the coalition of students and parents to call upon the L.A. County School Board to reopen schools for in-person learning. He shares the impact distance learning has had on his own kids and why he's fighting for schools to open their doors. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a couple who opened up their home to a stranded delivery driver during the winter storm in Texas. Before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about the most popular resource on the Heritage Foundation website, the guide to the Constitution. More than 100 scholars have contributed to create a unique line-by-line analysis of our Constitution. The guide is intended to provide you with a brief and accurate explanation of each clause. of the Constitution as envisioned by the framers and as applied in contemporary law.

There has never been a more important time to have an understanding of our founding document. So if you want to learn more about the Constitution, go ahead and visit heritage.org slash constitution or simply search for Heritage Guide to the Constitution. Stay tuned for our interview coming up next. But you have to know, when you look back at this time and reflect on how you performed under the pressure of this pandemic, you will not like that. like what you see. L.A. schools during this time will forever be known as a cautionary tale, not New York or Florida or Chicago or the majority of all the other districts of nations

that somehow figured out how to make this happen. You will all own this, crushing the essential education of hundreds of thousands of kids to avoid making it difficult, painful, maybe even clear threatening choices that were required. That was Los Angeles County parent Ross Novi talking at the L.A. Unified School district board meeting on January 12th and asking school board members to reopen schools for students who want to return for in-person learning. Ross Novi is the founder of LA School Uprising, a group of parents and students who are and have been asking Los Angeles schools to reopen their doors. Ross Novi is here with us today to talk about his efforts to get schools reopen and share a little

bit of his own perspective as a parent. Ross, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. So if you would, you're a parent of two school-age kids. So just talk a little bit about what virtual learning has been like for your children. Well, it's the reason I was inspired to start this journey into social activism. Both kids, I have a 17-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, and they both were very motivated, engaged learners. And they were blossoming.

They're at the age in high school where you really find who you are. It's when I found my interest, joined clubs, and really started to. to grow in a substantial way. And instead, things shut down the spring. We understood that, but when we saw that fall wasn't gonna open up for them, and then we saw their grades dropping, and then my daughter had some psychological issues

starting to creep in. We really became concerned both for her and for my son, who's started spending all day on the screen because there's nothing else to do. And we knew that if this is bad, for us, it's going to be even worse for so many other families who are underserved or have parents who have to work or younger kids who are just learning how to learn, which you can't do on a screen. So that's what motivated us to start pushing back when we saw that if it was up to

the schools, maybe they'd never open. Maybe this is just the new way of doing it. And what have those conversations been that you've had with other parents? What are you hearing from other parents in your community? Well, it's a tremendous amount of anger and frustration, A lot with women in particular who have had to quit the workforce. We know that tens of thousands of women have had to do that. But people who are trying to do their jobs at home while taking care of their kids, kids with special needs in particular, there's a lot of anger and frustration, which is then compounded by charges by some people that were just lazy or selfish

or we want babysitters. And it's just really outrageous. Just everyone wants the best for our children. That's what's motivating us. And we want teachers to be safe. But we also know that virtually every other business in person has found a way to open up. So at what point did you decide, okay, I need to take a step further. And I actually need to start a group called L.A. school uprising.

I need to mobilize parents and students to really put pressure on school boards, on leaders to say, hey, we need the doors open. Well, I was going to do a movie because I work in television, and I actually wanted to do a movie that would be my, like, Magnum Opus, 1984 kind of dystopian, yet with a comedy touch. But then I was like, you know, I don't think this is the time for that. I feel like crisis is a test of character. And if I was really frustrated and concerned about my kids, and what I saw going on, I thought was just a travesty,

this is when you have to raise your voice and fight back and fight back, back and push back. And so I knew I had to sort of get in there to try and fix things. Because as someone who schedules film shoots, who organizes them, who produces them, I understand the logistics of it. And I saw that they were doing none of the lead work that you need to get kids back. And so it greatly concerned me. And unfortunately, my concerns have been borne out. So that's when I started just reaching out and finding other parent groups. But then I brought in just an energy they didn't have and a lot of organizational expertise in terms of getting people combined. I had taken a Photoshop course over the pandemic, so I was quick to make memes. I just

wanted to sort of reevaluate how we do social activism too, because I'm not a guy who wants to stand on a street corner and wave a sign. That's not my jam. I wanted to find other ways to get people to think differently, both about the fear that we've been told and the data we know about reopening schools. I love the approach that you've taken, you know, maybe, maybe in a couple years, it'll be time for that movie. I would certainly watch it. I hope you still first see that. But talk a little bit about what it actually is that, that you all are doing. I know LA School Uprising, it's a very grassroots movement. Can you share a little bit about the work you guys are doing there on the ground? Yeah, we're really, the first and foremost thing we do is we give other parents hope and a beacon

that they're not alone in suffering and watching their kids suffer. So that was the first thing that was important to me, and that's what we do is reach out to find other people who maybe thought, oh my God, what's wrong with my kid? I'm just not being a good parent. No, this whole situation is absurd and very hostile to learning and to kids' development. So we attract the parents,

then we give them outlets to push back. So that can be letter-writing campaigns where we make it easy for them to email all of our students. legislators and local officials, especially if there's bills being considered. We have phone call campaigns. We have a petition that people sign. And we, of course, have in-person rallies now that cases have dropped.

And what's great is now parents are self-organizing. At this point now, between our group and our associated group, and there's a dozen associated groups on Facebook, and we're all connected, and we all amplify each other. And I'm also part of Open Schools, California, which is the statewide group. group of groups. So we're all helping each other out. And now people throw up a flyer and 200 people show up like nothing. And it's really expanding quickly. That's exciting to hear. I'm glad you guys are getting so much traction. Well, you, as we listened to just a clip earlier, you spoke at the school board meeting about six weeks ago. And you said that as the second largest school district

in the country, LA Unified, they should really be leading the way on how to safely reopen schools. What appears to be the major roadblock in L.A. County for reopening schools? Well, before I get into the roadblock, I mean, the thing that gets me crazy is we should be leading. You're exactly right. And we are like in last place. I'm a big football fan and one of my favorite coaches, Bill Parcells had a saying you are what your record says you are. So you might think you're a playoff team, but if you're four and 12, that's what you are. And so for all of the talk that we have here in Los Angeles about being progressive and equity and and caring for other people, the fact is we are a failure of a school system that is completely letting down 600,000 kids,

480,000 of which are kids of color, and most of them are underserved. They're the poorest kids, the most vulnerable, and we've let them down. So you can talk all you want about what you'd like to do or what you think you can do. But when it came to serving them and taking care of them, we have utterly failed. And so that's a largest systemic issue that has to be rectified because the challenge came with the crisis and we failed. In terms of the blame, there's a lot of blame to go around.

And actually, I do memes almost daily on our Instagram. So again, try and visually point out the absurdity. And we aim fired everyone. The governor has not been strong at all. He could have provided the backstop. politically for everyone to, if he said, let's open up schools and took it on his shoulders, then everyone could have followed his lead. And everyone who has to negotiate locally would have been more empowered to do that. Our board of supervisors hasn't done enough. Our director of public

health, Barbara Ferrer, has consistently pushed fear and not shown the smartest way to deal with a pandemic when cases rose. She just treated like everyone was at risk equally everywhere. And so now we're dealing with the fear of people going back, where they can. can't even conceive of in-person education because they're afraid to go to the grocery store. I mean, I have neighbors who haven't left their house in a year and a half. So bad messaging from her. Then you have our Board of Education, none of whom who have school-age kids, who have consistently not planned so that the second they can open, because elementary schools can be open right now, as of a week ago, but they weren't ready. And that's inexcusable. They should have been ready to go,

knowing that cases would come down. So as soon as they hit, you don't lose a day you need to lose. And then, of course, at the base of all of this is the teachers union, both statewide and also locally, who started out with outrageous demands that had nothing to do with schooling in the summer. And instead of working with the schools to figure out a safe way to go back like my union did, the Directors Guild, we figured out how to go back. They have thrown up more and more obstacles to going back. At this point, even suggesting that the kids would have to be vaccinated to go back in addition to everyone. who works at the school, including all support, which is not what the CDC says you need to do and not what any other school system needs to do. So they have no interest in going back, also because they're being paid, so why would they go back? And the union, because they're so strong throughout

the state, that's why I know politicians want to push back on what should be a very obvious and easy thing to do, which is we have to educate our children the best way we can. So if you could sit down with some of these leaders, Mayor Garthetti, Governor Newsom, what would you want to say to them? If you get into politics, which I imagine they did, to help to serve the community, to make a difference, there comes a time when you have to be willing to give up your political career for things that matter. And, you know, most of the time you don't need to. But this is totally out of history. We have never done this. Every doctor, the pediatricians say know the damage that's going to be happening to these kids

and the repercussions that are going to happen for years. The amount of kids falling out of the system. They're turning to crime. By the way, shootings are way up in Los Angeles. That is absolutely linked to people not being in school and not having a regular schedule. So we know all of the damage. So at a certain point as a politician, hey, maybe you're going to get recalled or maybe you lose the support of the union,

maybe you won't get to go as far as you as you'd like. But if you can't stand up for the education of our children, well, then maybe you shouldn't be in politics at all. And unfortunately, no one has the guts to do that. And quite frankly, if they did have the guts, they'd probably go farther with their political career because people would respect that. So I'm just outraged that it takes a guy like me, a parent who had, We're just trying to live our lives and we accept all of the other messes that come with normal, bad governance.

That's fine. But this was just way too far. And it's going on even beyond our wildest nightmares. I think you're certainly not alone. It becomes really personal when you see it affecting your kids. And by the way, it's not controversial. There is no counter argument. There are no experts saying, no, we should keep them shut.

It is literally just the teachers union. because they're scared, and I understand that, right? I understand why they got there. But at a certain point, like, what are we doing? Like, there's every article, every scientist, every other country does this, and only in like Los Angeles, we're like, but how can we do it? What do you mean, how do we do it? Call Miami.

It's been done. It's been done for months. And so I don't even understand the pushback other than people who are scared, which, like, we can't be held by fear. What happened to keep calm and carry on mugs? What happened? There's nothing in fear but fear itself. What happened to all of these phrases?

Ask not what your country can do for you. Like what happened to all of this wisdom of the ages? Everyone has gotten completely selfish. All they care about is their own microcosm. And they think nothing of anyone else who might be suffering, including these children. It's crazy. Well, we know that on February 22nd, we saw that the superintendent of L.A. Unified School District He announced, okay, come April 9th, we're hoping to kind of reopen in some former fashion.

Do you know exactly what that reopening looks like that they're aiming for? And are you optimistic that that's actually going to happen? So we, one of the first things I did was called for Superintendent Buehner to resign because unfortunately he's shifted the goalposts. In November, he was talking about just getting the amount of testing and the PPE. And now we have the PPE and the testing and the case. The cases are down now became, he's just fully embraced, vaccinating all school workers,

which is, again, the teacher's position and against the CDC. His plan of April 9th, first of all, it's way too late. They could be open now, like I said, a week ago, they were cleared by the public health for K through 6, I believe. But also, Barbara Ferrer, who's our public health director, said that there's not going to be enough vaccines

for that to happen, because they have to share them with other frontline workers. of frontline workers who are at risk. So, you know, they're not all going to the teachers. So there's like 1.8 million people in that tier, and we only get like 200,000 vaccines a week. So like you do the math, it ain't going to happen. Like, it's just not going to happen.

He's just creating this fictional account. And he keeps portraying himself as like he's locked into these metrics that he himself is creating. So look, it's a very difficult situation to be any kind of manager in this situation. No one's had to manage a giant system with an $8 billion budget in a pandemic before. But we also know that when you look at a U.S. history, like in World War II and the Civil War, you know, when wars begin, usually those generals are the ones that get fired after a few months because they're bureaucrats. They're not the people who are the right fit to fight the war.

And unfortunately, between Newsom and Garcetti and Bouten or these guys are bureaucratic guys. They're not up to the challenge. They didn't plant their flag and say, well, no matter what, let's work backwards from. We got to get kids back in school as much as possible because it is destabilizing to society for the kids and the parents if they're not. That's where you work backwards from. And they haven't done that because they're just not up to it. They think this is a normal political game, just like the unions do. Oh, let's just do tip for tat and try and get some more funding. No, this is crazy. This is very, very bad. So what's next for you all then? I mean, if you're the goalposts to keep on moving throughout the spring. What is your movement and your coalition

going to continue to do to keep putting pressure on the schools, but really above all else, to take care of the kids? Well, we have to get back to some kind of in person this semester. And I know it's going to be some sort of horrendous hybrid system, but whatever. We'll take whatever it is, because if we don't do that this semester, then the horrible hybrid version of whatever we do will be in the fall. And so this will continue. on, you know, for nine more months, 10 more months. So we have to do that because we need five day a week in-person classes come the fall. We need that. And we should have no reason why not. At that point, everyone who can be vaccinated will be. And so there's no more excuses. But I don't

believe they'll do it if they don't open up this semester. So we need that. And we have some events coming up. It's unfortunately the year anniversary coming up in two weeks. So we're having two days of kids going back to school, going back to their original school, and then also a big rally. And we're doing that in conjunction with the Open Schools California group and groups all over the country. So we're really hoping that's a big stand. Yeah. Well, just so appreciate you coming on the show, Ross. Appreciate the fact that you're standing up and just letting your voice be heard on this issue standing up for your kids and kids all across California. So really, really appreciate you joining us. Thank you for having me.

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Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. As we have often found right here at the Daily Signal, there are usually stories of hope and joy that come out of difficult situations. We've all been watching as Texas has dealt with the extreme winter weather that has left so many without power and clean drinking water. but we're also hearing a lot about individuals who stepped up to help friends and strangers alike during the winter storm. Nina Richardson and Doug Condon ordered groceries to be delivered to their home in Austin, Texas, just as the winter weather was beginning to get much worse.

Delivery driver Chelsea Timmons decided Doug and Nina were going to be her last delivery of the day before she headed home to brace for the storm. But when Chelsea pulled down Doug and Nina's driveway to deliver the food, her car slid right on the ice into the couple's flower bed. Doug came out to see if he could help, but since the driveway is on a bit of a hill, every time Chelsea tried to drive back up the driveway, her car just slid right back down.

Doug told KXAN that it was then that he realized that Chelsea was probably going to need to wait out the storm with them for quite some time. At some point, we realized that we were probably going to have a house guest for a few days, which was fine. Nina and Doug said that having grown daughters of their own, they were not about to send Chelsea out into the cold. So they hosted her in their home for five days. She stayed in their guest room and the three enjoyed eating

meals together and building a friendship over the course of the storm. And as it turns out, it's a good thing Chelsea stay with Nina and Doug because the couple never lost power, but Chelsea's own apartment lost both power and clean water. The delivery driver told KVUE that while she felt bad for in her mind imposing on the couple, they made it clear that she was welcome to stay as long as she needed to. I kind of come to them with an extra exit strategy every morning during breakfast and every morning during breakfast they're just like, no, just stay. And then Doug even this morning, he was like, look, you can do what you want, but you don't have to leave. Just don't feel pressured. Chelsea has now returned to her home. But the three say that after being snowed in together for so

many days, they really feel like family now. And it's just so good to see a little bit of good news that so often comes out of the challenges that life throws at us. It sure is, Virginia. Wow, what a story. And it's just remarkable, the things that people do in times of adversity like that. So often, when we have natural disasters or storms like this, we see the best come out in people. And I'm glad that you shared the story with us today. Thanks so much, Rob. We're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal Podcast. on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All of our shows are available at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.

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