The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3530 - Senate Sells Out Working Families w/ Randi Weingarten

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

It's hump day and everything is fine because Chuck Schumer got the bill's name changed! That'll show 'em. Way to go Cuck (sic). Today we are joined by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. With 1.8 million members, the AFT is one the largest public employee unions in the country. Randi talks about the need to fight this bill and administration now and how dangerous of a tactic it is to sit on our hands and wait for the midterms. Sen Murkowski from Alaska sells out working-class people across the country for some cheap harpoons. In the fun half we check in with our old friends Dave Rubin and Joe Rogan as they each continue to outdo themselves in displays of public stupidity. All that plus phone calls and a whole lot more.   Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors BLUELAND: Through 7/7, shop July 4th Sale and get up to 25% off! EXPRESS VPN: Get an extra 4 months free. Expressvpn.com/Majority SUNSET LAKE: Use the code LEFTISBEST to save 20% at SunsetLakeCBD.com  on all their farm fresh CBD products for people and pets. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza’s music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder – https://majorityreportradio.com/  

You are listening to a free version of the Majority Report with Sam Cedar. To support the show and get another 15 minutes of daily program, go to Majority.fm. Please. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday. July 2nd, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report.

We are broadcasting live steps from the Industrial Ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, representing 1.8 million members, third largest public sector union in the country.

Meanwhile, House Republican, take up the hugely unpopular, worst piece of legislation in decades with an eye to passage in one day. The bill, before mentioned bill, if passed, will bring a massive new wave of ice raids, millions uninsured, millions lacking food assistance, and massive tax cuts for billions. billionaires, among other sundry items. Trump administration now refusing to release $7 billion of funding for public schools that had already been appropriated. Federal judge rules that the health and human services firings unlawful and orders the Trump administration to halt its plans.

Trump regime also reverses on pledged military aid to Ukraine. Turns out that EU ass-kissing, notwithstanding. Despite Trump's ceasefire announcement, Israel continues its slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, particularly killing of aid seekers. To pave regulatory path to a sale, Paramount, pays Trump's $16 million to settle the junk 60 Minutes lawsuit. The ADP reports private sector lost 33,000 jobs, badly missing expectations last month.

Trump regime okays Florida's use of National Guard as immigration judges at its state gulog. UPenn bans trans women from sports teams caving to the Trump administration revokes Leah Thomas's awards, and a George W. Bush appointed judge blocks Trump regime's early rescission of temporary protected status for 500,000 Haitians. And lastly,

the now Republican defanged Consumer Financial Protection Bureau drops $95 million illegal fee settlement with Navy Fed. credit union because we just don't believe in that type of fraud accountability anymore. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, it is, oh, it's hump day.

He says, while Emma Vigland still out on her honeymoon. I mean, I don't know what else to say. It's sort of shocking. This is America. We don't take off. What do you mean time off? We don't take time off for things like honeymoons or really anything. GDP maybe.

It's just not the way we do it around here. But she'll be back apparently on Monday, having missed virtually no news. So I'll sure she'll be fine. We've got a lot to get to right now as we speak. It's another one of those days, folks, where we're trying to pay attention literally up until showtime as to what the status is of this bill. The last reports I saw were that the House Freedom Caucus

and this just came across the wires at 1144 a.m. Eastern that House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris doubted that the legislation is going to be completed by the July 4th deadline. Now, yesterday in the Rules Committee, Representative Jim McGovern was debating this bill a little bit with, I guess, debating, with Representative Brett Guthrie, Republican from Kentucky.

The bill has to go through the House Rules Committee before it becomes eligible to be voted on within the context of the House. There's a lot of like parliamentary stuff here and House rules stuff. But the bottom line is it just barely eeked out of this committee after nearly a dozen hours, two House Freedom Caucus members voted against it. Remember, now, that doesn't mean that they vote against the final passage of the bill. It's probably just a negotiation tactic. To what end we don't know. They have to accept the

Senate bill. There's just, there is no more negotiations. Now, They can also say, well, we want to massage it so that we can pass a different bill and then send that back to the Senate for ratification. But there's no time for them to do that. So it really remains to be seen whether the House Freedom Caucus will cave. And apparently Donald Trump's number one job is to convince them. But here is a clip of Jim McGovern, Democrat from Wusta Mass, chair of the House Rules Committee, with Representative Brett, not Chair, I should say, minority, senior minority leader on the House Rules Committee, and Representative Brett Guthrie.

Talked about with mental health, with all the other, they're exempted out, people with subsidies order. Well, according to the Joint Economic Committee, 184,526 people will lose their health care coverage in Kentucky. Are they all deserving to lose their health care benefits? Well, I would say if they're able to work and choose not to work, when I say under the restrictions that we have for eligibility, most Kentuckyans think,

I know there were some criticism that came out from the governor's office of our bill, but if they're defending people that are able to work and they're not working. There's an awful lot of people in Kentucky. Ranking member. Well, Kentucky has one of the lowest workforce participation rates, people who are eligible to work that are working, and they'll be better off if they're working. I want to make just one stand before that Mr. Colon.

this notion that, you know, all these millions and millions of Americans really are living the easy life, you know, staying home watching TV and being on Medicaid and being on SNAP is ludicrous. A food benefit that's on average $2 per meal for an individual. I mean, it's just like, it's so offensive to people in this country. And, you know, I mean, I don't know whether you talk to your constituents who are on Medicaid, but I'll tell you. their lives are oftentimes very, very complicated. And I think they're just, part of why this bill is so unpopular is because people think you're talking about them.

I agree. I mean, it sounds like he is talking about his own constituents. This bill is wildly unpopular. We know that the vast majority of folks who are unemployed and on Medicaid. In other words, they don't get paid. by Medicaid, Medicaid just covers their health insurance, just covers their health care. So there's nobody living large off of Medicaid

unless they have figured out some way of like having someone to pay them to be healthy. And to the extent that there are people unemployed on Medicaid, vast, the overwhelming majority of people on Medicaid are already employed. and perhaps they're unemployed at places where they're still not getting a living wage or they're caring for a loved one or they have some type of disability which doesn't rise or they've had trouble getting a disability benefits from Social Security

Apparently, these Republicans, they just don't care. The bottom line is get the bill passed, bump over 10 million people off of health insurance, not to mention the millions of people who are going to have less food assistance. It's barbaric. And it's all for tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires and other wealthy people. and concentration caps oh and we should also say yes it's funding um hundreds of billions of dollars in a new detention centers and new um uh brown shirted thugs to go round up working immigrants

and we should also say another hundred billion dollars for uh defense spending or you know military spending got to defend ourselves exactly uh we will talk more about this uh we have an amazing clip of lisa merkowski actually having to be held account i mean not even held to count really just asked the question about her uh cave on this bill for tax benefits for uh whaling captains that is not a joke in a moment we're going to be talking to randy winegarten she's a former New York City public school teacher now the president of the American Federation of Teachers like I say the third largest if I'm not mistaken public sector union in the country 1.8 million members first a couple of words from our sponsors are you putting microplastics into your box? I bet you are

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Thank you. You know, and I'm going to be able to be. Yeah. Thank you. You know, and I'm sorry, you know, and I'm going to be, you know, and I'm going to be. So it's going to be another couple minutes for Randy Winegarten. In the meantime, David Dane walked us through this yesterday, how the Senate essentially was one vote away from. the bill not passing, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, who has had a very rocky relationship

with Donald Trump, was holding out. And she caved, essentially, for some benefits, for a handful of benefits to some very narrow constituencies that she had, whaling captains, getting a greater tax break others the big um issue was on snap and it ended up incentivizing the one thing that republicans used as an excuse to cut snap which is you know waste and a fraud and abuse now the reality is that there is not extensive waste, fraud, and abuse in SNAP. However,

there are improper payment rates, and a lot of that gets clawed back. But because Alaska was one of those improper, high rate of improper payments, she managed to get a deal

where she would get a two-year basically stay on these cuts to snap because her state has a high improper payment rate. But to get it past the parliamentarian, they had to make it seem like it wasn't targeted just to buy her vote. So they made it for the top 10 states that have high improper payment rates, includes a lot of blue states. But now you can see the problem. If you are one of those states with a low improper payment rate, you are now incentivized to have more improper payments.

Efficiency. Efficiency. All right, look, we're going to take another break. We're going to play this Murkowski clip later in the program. But in a moment, we'll be talking to Randy Weingarten. We'll be right back.

Thank you. We are back, Sam Cedar on the majority report. It is a pleasure to welcome back to the program. Randy Weingarten, former New York City public school teacher and president of the American Federation of Teachers, which I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, is the third largest public. sector union in the country, 1.8 million members, not just teachers, but many public sectors across. We may actually now be the second, you know, depends how you call SEIU or whatever, but, you know, which is both private and public with us. But Sam, we are actually the fastest growing union in America right now. Where are, where is that growth coming from? I mean, I obviously

have some other questions, but I'm just curious. Well, it's coming in several different ways. First, there's a lot of the gigafication of higher education is huge, and we're seeing a lot of growth there in terms of adjuncts and non-tenured faculty track. We are now the highest, we are now the largest higher ed union. And then it's also happening in terms of health care. We're now the second largest nurse union. And what we're also saying is doctors are wanting to join as well.

The last of the big, big, big school districts that can actually get collective bargaining, Fairfax County joined both us and NEA last year. There is a real appetite. What I'm seeing out there is that there is a real appetite regardless of what positions people have in the country. to actually have a union and the gigification and the lack of rights and the lack of employment connection that a lot of contracted out employees have, contracted out workers have. People are really, really angry at their circumstances and the fact that they have no rights. And so we get more phone calls than we can answer. And what we try to do is make sure.

sure that there's a real organizing committee on the ground that really wants to organize because we can't do everything. I mean, as you know, I really believe in ground up. And so we have to do it ground up in terms of making sure there's a community that wants to organize and wants to fight for real values and real issues, you know, not just fight a particular employer. And with the range of members you have, I imagine this bill that's going to pass, I mean, more than likely going to pass, if not today, very soon, is going to hurt them across. And I want to get to that. But first, let's start here. You made some news a week or two ago, where you and Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME, the other.

big public sector union, a step down off of the committee, one of some of the leadership positions of the DNC. And I'm curious what that, both what motivated that and what you think needs to happen in terms of union's relationship with the Democratic Party. So, you know, I've tried not to, you know, talk about the he said she said what specifically led up to it because i don't find that you know that may be good for soap wrappers but it's not good for the moment that we're in right now let me just say that what i said in my letter and what lee said in his letter were that we have we we have a very sorry about my dog no worries um we have a very we have to make comments cause with the working class, with people who work in America.

And what you could see from the last election is that, and maybe Donald Trump is singular in this, or maybe this is a trend, that when people who have just done this bill have more credibility with working class workers and voters, then you know we're in trouble. And so we kept saying we need to actually not just talk the talk, but walk the walk, as my kids at Claire Barton used to say to me. You have to engage with people. It can't just be that you have good policy. You have to find a way that people hear it and believe it and change policy to make workers the most important,

not just critique what the other guy is doing, but change policy to make workers really understand that their pathway to a better life is what our party wants to do. So neither Lee nor I left the party, but if we're not going to be a respected voice in the leadership of the DNC, if we're just going to be there and people aren't listening, then we got a lot of other things to do. And so the David Hogstuff was just a symptom. It was not the reason, but that was an example of how do you expand the tent so that people see that the Democratic Party is for the strivers and the strugglers and people who want a better life for themselves and their families? And how do you do things that are different that people hear so that people see it?

And I'll say, again, this bill is a perfect example. The Senate in the last few days, Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen, Corey Booker, so many of them, Amy Klobuchar, if I didn't say Amy's name, they were out there full on making clear what the stakes were. night after night after night the same happened with the democrats in the house the week before two weeks before the democratic party the national party should have been surround sound i mean afl was out doing that we're out doing that um move on was out doing that indivisible was out doing that s e i you planned parenthood so many but where was the party itself with the podcast

and the ads and the 50 state strategy to make sure that people knew what is in this cruel bill. Because what this bill does is the biggest wealth transfer from the poor to the rich probably ever. And it's not only cruel to children, to immigrants, to millions on health care. It cuts jobs, it defunds schools, and it raises the deficit. And so ultimately, this was something that I thought the party should be full on out there every single day, making clear what this bill does. Because anybody who has read it, not that anybody's read it, but anybody who has seen what its effects are, hate it. that's what the party should be doing right now. Do I mean, do you think, I mean, because it feels like that strategy of just simply waiting for Trump to implode or that the Republicans have this sort of like revelation or they cut him loose, this, it feels like this has been the strategy in terms of the Republican Party, I mean, you know, we can go back to Obama in 2020.

saying the fever is going to break. Maybe he said that in 2008, and the fever has not broken. In fact, the patient has just been able to have an increasing fever, and it seems to have acclimated to it, this notion of like, you know, and I feel like, you know, that this happened at the beginning of the year, too, where the strategy was, we're just going to wait, and We're not going to get aggressive about anything and hope that they implode. It seems like there was an opportunity to even work on Red State Freedom Caucus, Congress people, because, you know, we see it in the context of elections, right? Like, we see where, you know, there will be attempts to paint, you know, to get the most conservative, the most, you know, the Tea Party-ish, akin to.

candidate, but you could have done the same play with those 30 Freedom Caucus members because they're the ones during the Obama administration sort of saved us by saying we're not going to take yes for an answer. You could rerun that. You are preaching to the choir, Sam, because look at what we've done. We've been out there, you know, March 4th. We were out there, you know, fighting about protecting our kids. We've been out April 5th. We've been out. April 5th. with Indivisible and others in terms of hands off. We were one of the, you know, key organizers in terms of no kings. Politics, the people who undermine democratic values,

I'm not talking about Democratic Party right now, the people who undermine democratic values, the people who want an autocratic rule here, they're out there 24-7. You have to be out there 24-7. And frankly, when things really hurt members or families, like just this week, the Department of Education, they normally, all the monies that normally go out for public schools around America, they go out on July 1st. They've already been appropriated. And Linda McMahon decides she's picking and choosing what's going out and what isn't.

So money for after school programs, she's not sending out to districts. It's appropriated. It's illegal what she's doing. So how do you wait to the next election? If you care about people, you have to fight it now. You have to fight what's going on now. You have to fight the police state now. You can't wait.

You know, I wanted to, obviously, to talk about this, it's $6.8 billion in funds. Title I for Migrate Education, $375 million. Title IIA for professional development for teachers, is $2.2 billion. Title 3A for English learner services, 890 million. Title A for Academic Enrichment, 1.3. And like you say, title 4B for before and after school programs,

$1.4 billion. It seems to me, I mean, this is rescission, right? Like we have statutory. We have both constitutional and 1974 statute, which has been reinforced by, I think it was New York City. I can't remember the court case, but it was in 74, that you can't do this. The money's been appropriated. Correct.

So, again, you know, I don't need to go back to this, but this strategy of, you know, signing off on the budget by Schumer several months ago, when people were like, you need to leverage this moment, because it's the only moment. And even if you get some type of, like, rider that says, the president must fulfill all appropriations. But it seems to me what happens. If I'm a school and I'm not getting this money in July 1st, I don't know what to do.

Exactly. These programs, like I'm frozen and it's not like I can make this decision on September 15th. So this is the only place where I think you and I diverged. I don't know. Look, I was of the opinion that, you know, similar to the House Democrats, that that was a moment to just say no. I was of that opinion. But I do without, you know, and I know many of your listeners were of,

and were of the same opinion, and clearly you are. But I'm not sure that we were ready for the fuselage that would happen after. And I think that's what Schumer was concerned about. And I don't know what the right answer was then, but I certainly know that right now, this was in the budget, and it is in the budget. And the mockery that these people make about schooling, look what they did. Their first piece of business, when they came into the White House, was to say they wanted to shut down opportunity for college.

and for college kids and for kids who went to public schools. And they got stopped by the courts, our suits, N-E-A suits, N-A-C-P suits, parents' suits, school district suits. They have gotten stopped time after time after time. And now they try this. This tells you they don't care about children. How do you not, if you have just said English should be the prime, language of the United States. How do you take the money away for English acquisition if you're not just trying to be cruel? How do you take money away from after-school programs that the school systems get to put out? How do you take money away when you say, Linda McMahon, I've heard her

say, oh, it's really important. Teachers are important. How do you take money away from training teachers. I mean, so it's just the mockery, the betrayal that they do, because this is money that goes basically to the people who voted for them. Yeah, it's stunning. I mean, I think, you know, McMahon is not too dissimilar from Betsy DeVos in that they want this money to go to parochial schools. They want this money ultimately. They want them, they want there to be public education, but only as far as dollars so they can, you know, send it to other type of schools. Actually, I think she may be worse than Betsy DeVos. It's hard for me to have said that, but I think she may actually be worse.

You know, Betsy DeVos at least understood that you had to actually deal with educators and public schools. And one of the first calls that I got after she was appointed was from her saying, let's go to a public school together. I have yet to have gotten a call from Linda McMahon. I mean, I would imagine this is a dynamic that's throughout the administration because they've had four years. Russell Vote had four years to essentially plan how do we go about methodically dismantling this. Exactly right. It is really a war. They are really dismantling. And you see it in this bill. they are dismantling opportunity for all people in America. When you go after and take away funding for our children,

after school funding that has been in that budget for years, funding for migrant kids, funding for English acquisition, funding for teacher training when you're complaining about test scores, you know this is to handicap public schools so that you're trying, you're trying to hurt them. And the second order issue is, again, they have no authority to do this. It's not just them cutting it from the budget. This is just them unilaterally deciding they're not going to send the checks.

Correct. I have two sort of like big issue silos that I still want to talk to you about. one is unions broadly speaking in terms of the relationship of the democratic party i mean putting aside like sort of the the dynamics of what the the the the dnc apparatus is doing but more largely speaking like how do unions leverage their ability to mobilize people i mean we just saw uh something really astonishing happen in new york and and and hopefully uh zoran mom Donnie will win as mayor, but the mobilization of 50,000 people volunteers in a primary, a New York City primary.

Like he got the highest vote totals. I think maybe with the exception of David Dinkins, he's gotten the highest vote totals in modernity, not only a primary, well, certainly in a primary. Yeah. And, and, and, you know, we'll see what, you know, we'll see. happens in the general. But the mobilization is what I found incredible. Because I mean, just, again, not the specific about the DNC. But the DNC was bragging 16,000 people nationally. He mobilized 50,000 volunteers. That's like a significant percentage of the electorate. All you need for them to do

is just tell everybody in their family almost at that point. And you've gotten the vote tallies. And what lesson do you take from this, and in terms of both what the Democratic Party has to do, but what unions need to do to leverage their power with the party? Right. So I would actually not use the word leverage. I think that's I would use the word connection. And I would use the word, like, what did he do that was so different? and frankly, very inspiring.

He had not just a message, but that he was a messenger that was believed by a whole bunch of people who want a better life. And that's what, frankly, I saw on the rallies on No Kings Day, too, and so many of the other times that my members and others have been out on the streets, they want something better for themselves and their families and they're willing to fight for it and the connection that he made

with not just young people if you know New York City there's swaths of the outer boroughs Queens Brooklyn who are now remaking themselves yes some of it is gentrification and and one and we need to have far more housing sorry I'm a city kid

We need to have far more housing in New York City. But when you go to Greenpoint, when you go to Richwood, you see a total remaking, a generational remaking of young people coming back to New York City and wanting to raise families. And Mandami got that vote of people who are saying, I want to stay here, I want better housing, I want to be able to afford it, I want to make sure that my kids have a decent life, and I want to make sure that transportation to and from my job is reliable and free. And this is what he said over and over and over again

in ways people heard it. His kind of diving into the, you know, to the ocean that one day was a little kooky, but a little crazy and a little wonderful magic, the walking through the entire length of Manhattan right before the election. It inspired people to say, he's acting on my behalf. I believe this. So that connection is golden. That's what we saw as a union movement after the Janus decision came down. we had worked really hard a year beforehand

to actually make sure we connected with members on a local basis, on a school basis, about what the right wing and the, you know, was trying to do to defund unions. And the day that decision came down, there were, I don't know, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of emails that went to our members in work.

Like if we had done that, we would gotten in great trouble. Right. But Freedom Foundation, doing all this stuff. And you know what happened? Virtually no one dropped. We should just remind people, the Janus ruling was one which basically said you could not charge agency fees. Unions negotiate on behalf of their members. And the court basically said, you know, unions don't have the ability to almost obligate their members to pay dues. And there was a big fear.

I talked about this quite a bit in the ruling. I remember you did. And we were spared actually by Scalia. I think it was the case before that that was pre-Janus. And that there was a real fear that people would walk away from their unions because they could basically be free riders. And it didn't happen because I think people appreciated and the numbers that people anticipated because people understood with the value of a union.

Exactly. But that is my, that's why I'm connecting these two things because you asked it about leverage in unions. You have to make a case to people about what's important. You can't just, you know, this is, you're constantly in this world where no, where there's very little local media anymore, where there's so much misinformation and disinformation. trust becomes really important. And trust happens with connection and with relationships. And Mondami made that connection with lots of voters and lots of volunteers who not only believe him but want him to succeed because his success means their success. And that is the same strategy we did in different ways, whether it's the Janus case or whether it's a

collective bargaining fight or whether it's a fight for child care or whether it's a fight for better curriculum or career tech ed or community schools or whatever issues we are trying to fight for to make sure that people have and kids in particular have the skills the knowledge they need for you know for for for their lives of today and tomorrow and and so I think what happens is we get very much into, and Mandami said it, we get very much into lecturing people instead of listening to people and creating a strategy or creating a campaign that really brings people into the tent and we're fighting together for what's right, for them, their families, for our country. And that's what I think he did. And that's what unions need to do, each

and every day, ground up, because we're a community. And we have to fight, not just fight back, but fight for a future. Imagine a future that can be better. I want to talk about education, too, because we've had conversations over the years. I remember in the wake of the Red State Revolt. I think I was at the AFT conference. And I feel like that changed the trajectory. unionism in this country.

I mean, maybe you could go back to, you know, Chicago in 2011, but regardless, but one of the things that has also changed over the years, we went from no child left behind to so-called race to the top, a corporate education reform agenda, which in 2017, 2018, the Rand Corporation basically said to the Gates Foundation, yeah, it was a big mistake. We should have probably listened to educators when we did this experiment. Where are we now? Because, you know, I have two public school children. One is already out of the system.

One still in the system. And I watched as this was all rolled out and it demoralized a lot of teachers. It created a lot of controversy about high stakes testing. And now we're just sort of like in the wake of that without any, it feels like there's a sort of like a rudderless quality in terms of of like, what kind of policy do we have for national, you know, for education nationally? Maybe it's just the function because we haven't had a chance with two Trump administrations and just one that was a cleanup. But where are we on that? I mean, you had you had two Trumps and COVID in between.

Yep. So I would say that, you know, what the Biden administration tried to do is stabilize and grow and deal with some of the, you know, some of the societal issues, including social media, gun violence, and things like that. This is, let me talk about where I think we should go as opposed to where,

because I think you, you know, what you're seeing nationally is that there is a fight for public education, a fight to protect it, to protect kids, to strengthen it, And then the right wing basically wants to dismantle and fragment it. So they want to defund fragment dismantled. But if you notice, they don't actually point to a whole bunch of schools in the private sector that is doing any better because they're facing the same issues that we're facing.

So I think we are the most important thing I can say, and then I'll tell you where I think we go. we are competing with this. This is my cell phone. This is my device. And what's happening, and Jonathan Haight and others are saying it, initially I thought it was really terrible about bullying and, you know, what happens with the algorithm. But we're really fighting against a loss of attention as well.

And so as the machines are getting smarter, we're seeing a loss of attention. And that's part of the reason why. and we're seeing a loss of relationships and a loss of empathy and it's part of the reason why a bunch of schools, including New York State, have basically said we're going to make schools

sell free during the school day. What I think we have to do is we have to make every public school a place that is safe and welcoming and a place that is relevant and engaging. And we have

focused on two strategies to do that. Because if you make every school a place that's safe and welcoming and relevant and engaging, then kids want to be there. Families want their kids to be there. And that any of the pathways that get you to a high school graduation are going to then become pathways to success. So take career tech ed. If you do, take a kid who's in welding or in hospitality, or are going through a health care pathway. Just like a kid who went like my kids, you know, I taught APGov. If you have kids that are doing project-based learning, they are learning critical thinking, they're learning problem-solving, they're learning resilience, they're learning

relationship building, they're learning empathy. These are the skills and knowledge that they need for whatever they're doing, whether they go into college or whether they go into another career pathway. But it also makes them feel good about their lives and it makes them feel like they want to be in school. So I think we have to actually think about this stuff in a really different way. How do we make schools safe and welcoming, relevant and engaging? And every single student should be in project-based learning or service learning or something that so sparks their fancy that they're like, I want to read, I want to be there. I want to be with friends. I want to learn if I trip how to how to stand up again and every single teacher I know would rather

teach in this regard rather than thinking testing testing testing testing testing and the sanctions about testing a lot more dewy and man than what we've had in the past few years it feels almost like it would be a luxury to be able to consider those questions at a time where public education is under such assault. And I would actually say we have to do both because we have to, just like what Mondami did, we have to imagine

a future and bring that future together. And frankly, we are doing this in career tech ed programs all across the country. I mean, we are, you know, there are some of us who are actually doing a lot of this work in Syracuse. We did this with Micron.

We have 10 school districts that are working on this pilot program to help kids become, you know, technicians in the chips industry. And this is the fact that before somebody says, oh, she's talking about old-time voc-ed, no, I am not, even though I taught at a voc-ed school, proudly so. APgov at a voc ed school, I'm still, frankly, on leave from teaching from that school. Because if you look at the high-quality career tech ed programs, 95% of kids graduate from those programs on time, and 70% go to college. So we're talking about finding different pathways for the skills and knowledge that kids need.

And yes, they need resources, but this is what parents want, and this is what we have to fight for, not only fight against the cuts right now, but imagine a different future that people want. Do you see any governors out there that are doing this type of work in terms of like, their education within the state? Yes. There's actually, we're just worked with career-wise to expand the work that career-wise, and we are doing on pre-apprenticeship, and six states have joined us in this endeavor. I see, for example, so New York has joined us, North Carolina has joined us,

there are several states that are joining us. I see these examples all over. Governor Bashir is doing this a lot in Kentucky. what we haven't done is we haven't made this a norm in terms of from high school on or junior high school on so that all kids have the opportunity to have project-based instruction or to have a kind of career pathway if they so choose. I think that's about it. I mean, I guess we're going to find out about this bill, which is going to impact, I would imagine, you know, across the board, your membership in a myriad of ways. the bill is a freaking disaster notice i did not curse i appreciate that though i think people would have enjoyed it cruel it is it is this you know if you think about how many of our i mean i'm of the

age that my grandparents and my parents have both passed but how many of us are in a sandwich generation where we're taking care of our kids and we're taking care of our parents and grandparents this bill hurts every nursing home in the country. So if you have to work and your father or mother is infirm and you don't have the money for 24-7 care at home and they are in a nursing home, what is going to happen now? If you have a kid who has a disability, how many kids do I see in the Capitol with disabilities in their wheelchairs, trying to go, you know, office to office, saying to these Republicans, what are you doing to my life? Taking all these kids off snap, creating paperwork after paperwork.

So people who are working 24-7 are not going to be able to figure out how to apply for Medicaid. I mean, it is so cruel what they are doing. Rural hospitals, we're seeing it all over. they are already on a shoestring. How are you going to have hospitals available for people, you know, within a catchment area of a hundred miles? I don't like what Lisa Murkowski did, believe me, but I understand what she did to try to create a carve-out for Alaska

after we can't get this for everyone else because Trump doesn't want to do it. The tax cuts for billionaires are more important than our future and our kids. That's what this bill does. It is horrible. It says to our future that this administration and these Republicans in Congress

do not care about you. Randy Weingarten, President AAPT, American Federation and Teachers. Thanks so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Randy. All right, folks.

We're going to take a quick break. head into the so-called fun half of the program we've got we'll get that Lisa Murkowski clip in a moment

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Check it out. Five days a week, email, three days free in the morning, always by 9 a.m. Get the top stories of the day, follow the insanity that's been going on, and we'll probably continue to go on. amquicky.com. Matt, left reckoning. Yeah, left reckoning last night. We had a big show, Ashikzdiki of the DSA talking about Zoran,

and the DSA difference for campaigning. Check that out, good 50 minutes with him. We also talked about Project 2029, the Democrats answered to Project 2025, which includes Jake Sullivan, a point man for Biden's Gaza policy, an economist who thought that people's concerns over the economy were in their head and partisan inflected and Adam Gentleson. And also Colin Allred running to make a lot of money for

consultants in Texas. So a lot of fun stuff last night. Check it out, patreon.com slash left reckoning. How did they get a hold of Project 2029, the name before anybody else did? I mean, this is sort of a monkey's paw situation because all of last year, I'm like the Democrats should have their own project 2025, and then

you see what they do with it, and it's near a tandem asking Biden's Gaza guy. And a milk toast economist. So maybe DSA just needs to do the Project 2029 thing themselves. I think there should be like six

Project 2029 just to dilute that project 2020. Exactly. I mean, there's two BBBs. Yeah. Until Schumer got a hold of it, I guess. Project 2029? You guys are in favor of nationalizing the entire energy grid? I'm confused.

Just like Zoranded with abundance. Abundance is actually free buses and building public units. Exactly. I love it. All right, folks. See you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now.

And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. what what is that going on it's nuts wait a second hold on for hold on for a second Emma welcome to the program hey what is up everyone fun what is up everyone no me keen you did it let's go brandon let's go brandon Bradley, you want to say hello?

Sorry to disappointment. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women's... Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.

Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? 7.8? Yes. Hi, me. Is this neat? Yes? It's a neat.

Is it me? It is you. I think it's me I think it is you who is you no sound every single freaking day

what's on your mind we can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism I'm gonna go out libertarians they're so stupid though common sense says of course gobbled e-gook

we fucking nailed him so what's 79 plus 21 challenge me I'm positively quivering I believe 96 I want to say 857, 210, 801, 501, 1 half, 3-8s, 9-11 for instance, $3,400, $1,000, $6,5,4, $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making me think less.

But let me say this. Poop. You can call satire, Sam goes to satire. On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. All right, folks, folks, folks. It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.

Yeah, sundown guns out. I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled folks. I love it.

I do love that. I got a jump I gotta be quick I get a jump I'm losing it bro Two o'clock We're already late And the guy's being a dick

So screw him Sent to a gulaw Outrageous What is wrong with you? Love you Bye Love you Bye