Edit Video DB

Title

Video URL

Length

Seconds

Transcript

Today on the dangerous ones, president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randy Weine, joins us right here at the
table to respond to your messages to the People's Hotline. People see what's going on. People are just pissed.
They're mad. Plus, Saturday's handsoff mass mobilization was epic. And we hit
the streets of downtown Portland and Seattle in solidarity with the nationwide movement. All of this and
more right here, right now on the Dangerous Ones.
The shots been fire, but the war ain't won. These white boys with money better
learn how to run. The wild hits your back, the blood's on your tongue. You
and me, baby. [Music]
Welcome to the Dangerous Ones. I'm your host, Jim Drastic of 11 Films. And as always, I'm joined by Tiffany Drastic of
11 Films. Hey, everybody. And executive director of Demcast USA, Nick Canudson. Hello. Hello. And we want to thank you
for ditching the corporate mainstream media Sunday news shows for America's alternative powered by you and the
people's hotline where your messages drive our conversation. Oh my god. Before I forget, James and I made a
little short film called Tomorrow is Too Late and we got nominated for a Webbby this year. Webby. It's like the Oscars
of the internet. So there's kind of a big deal. It is a big deal. Each category has two winners. uh one chosen
by judges and one chosen by your votes. So if you would, whether you are listening to this show or watching this
on YouTube, please scroll to this episode's description and click the link entitled Vote for 11 Films. It would
truly mean a lot to James and I. The voting is going to go on for about another two weeks. And I'm sorry, I'm
going to apologize ahead of time. I'm going to keep asking. Uh this is our third nomination over the last 5 years.
It is an incredibly uh uh it's it's a big deal for us. We don't make money uh
with these videos. Uh we do it just to help democracy and uh and it just really
is humbling to be uh recognized like that. So, if you would go to the description, click the link that says
vote for 11 films. Vote for Tomorrow is Too Late. It would sure mean a lot to us. And I'm going to be equally as
annoying. Yeah. Online and on this show, vote for them. They do. so sick of us
asking. I know. I'm going to let you know ahead of time. They're going to ask for your email address. Give them your brother's email address. Who cares? Give
them They're going to ask you to give them an email address and then uh like one other little small thing and then
and then you can just vote and then get out of there. Um so, uh that would just mean a ton to us. Thank you so much. Or
your MAGA dad. Give your MAGA dad's email. That's exactly right. Yeah. Right. Good call.
Next up, one of the great things about this podcast community is we get to meet other people who are trying to help save
democracy. And this last weekend, we got to hop on a call with some fellow podcasters and fellow Oregonians,
Lisa and Beaolf. Um, and they have a podcast called Good News for Lefties and
America. And these difficult times, if you believe in justice, progress, and
democracy, the news you read and listen to these days can be pretty depressing. And that's why there's a new podcast
called Good News for Lefties and America. Every day, it features positive
stories for progressive listeners. Because no matter how disturbing the headlines might be, there's always hope
that we can build on uh for a better tomorrow. Good news for lefties. You can
listen to it at goodnewsforlefties.com or wherever podcasts are heard and we'll put all of
their information into our description. Check them out. Positive News. Who would have thought? Oh, and Lisa and Beaolf
are like salt of the earth. Just the nicest, most kind people. You guys are going to love them. Check it out. You're
going to love them. And they were generous and and uh and they're going to do a little promo for us and and
nobody's paying anybody. This is all about growing this community.
Okay. So, shall we get to the heart of what's going on? Make sure to stick around after our interview with Randy
Weing Garden because we have some exclusive reports and footage from the
hands-off mass mobilizations here in Portland that Tiffany and I went to and
the one in Seattle where Nick was. And you don't want to miss that. Our guest
today is a true powerhouse in the fight for public education and working families. As president of the American
Federation of Teachers, she has spent decades on the front lines defending educators, students, and democracy
itself. And now with the Department of Education in turmoil and the Trump
administration waging an all-out assault on public schools, there's no one better
equipped or more battle tested to help us make sense of what is at stake. She's
not just an organizer, she's a force of nature. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us in studio, Randy Weine. Randy, welcome.
Oh my god, thank you. Thank you for coming in. So, just before
you came in, uh, some breaking news happened, and I'm just going to read the headline and get your reaction. Supreme
Court allows Trump to terminate teacher training grants as part of anti-dei
policy. What is that about and your reaction? Sigh.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm there's no real decision because this was on an
emergency order. I mean, you know, look at how many people are learning law
in the next in the last few weeks because but what happened is that the
states, you know, well, let me start and by saying Linda McMahon went on Fox and
saidnone of the cuts we're doing hurt classrooms, kids. I think she even said
teachers. No. No. And she saidnone of them. So everything that I've been doing
in response is to actually, you know, go to the facts, see what the cuts really mean.
And these cuts right now, they really hurt kids.
And and and this is what happened here. It's kind of like this juxtapositioning
between yesterday and today. You want your head to explode because this is now
not just the Department of Education and how they oversee grants. They are now taking money that's already in
districts. It's already there. It's already being used. These grants,
they're being used to pay new teachers or to have professional development for
teachers. And where are they? In rural areas. Oh my god. areas where people
couldn't get teachers, there's something called a teacher shortage. So, you know,
it's kind of grow your own programs where people from the community or you
lure somebody from somebody somebody from somewhere else to come. Maybe it's
a housing stipen, maybe it's an additional stipen to pay for courses.
They're basically saying it's April. No, no. My goodness. No, no more of this.
And so I don't care what you call a DEI or EIT or whatever you call it, it's
programs for children with teachers in classrooms in April and they took it
away. And so that's why the states rushed in to court and said, "No, you
can't take these grants away. We're using them." And the lower court said, "No, you can't take these grants away
right now." So the Trump administration goes up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court says basically what the
Supreme Court said is uh we need some more we need the court to actually make
a finding on this. The problem is the effect is it's school right April like
you're not talking about grants for next year you're talking about right now. So
the question becomes this is the cruelty of the Trump administration that the one
they did yesterday was basically to say if you are violating our DIE rules even
though they're really vague and no one knows what they actually mean but if
you're violating them then you're not going to get any more Title One money.
Yeah. And you have to sign a certification. So all of a sudden it's not what Congress wants. you now have to
sign a certification and if you sign that certification and some district in
like Oregon or New York State is doing something different then you get get penalized for lying. So and what's that?
So, so, so literally if somebody teaches about Jim
Crow, I don't know, right? Is that, you know, violation of their rules about
diversity, inclusion, and equity, right? We don't know. We don't know. We've
asked that question. We don't know. If you teach anything about history in the United States that involves anything
around race, does that mean a district loses all the summer school money for
the summer? Right. Does that mean if you're actually answering a question for
a student, like a student says, "I don't know, maybe I'm gay." So, you answer
that question. You say basically, "Have you talked to your parents? Have you talked to friends? If you engage in a
conversation like that, does that mean the whole district loses their Title One
money, millions of dollars? So, this is what's going on in schools right now.
The it is the same thing as it's it's the version the school version of what
they did to law firms or what they did to universities. And and what are you
going to do? It's really hurting. It's it's creating fear, uncertainty. The
rules are really vague. You have no idea. I mean there the the the other piece. Sorry I'm on such a terrible. The
other piece they said it's that Harvard case we are interpreting the Harvard
case was about universities. It had nothing to do with K12, right? So what are they talking about? And in fact,
under the law, like the law, Title One,
IDA, all of these education laws, it's about, sorry, it's coming.
It's about opportunity for all. Mhm. It's about trying to help kids who have
been marginalized, whether they're white or black, whether they're poor or regardless of race. It's about that,
right? That's that's what Congress passed in the 1960s. So essentially what the Trump administration is doing by
using a DEI acronym which is diversity, equity, inclusion or opportunity for
all. Essentially they are erasing erasing 60 years of equity, 60 years of
opportunity and the magnitude of this is hundred billion.
My goodness. So this is now so they they know just like we know we've been
fighting for it that that you know 70% 65% of people in America don't want cuts
to education because you get these cuts to education. Who's going to pay for it? It's the taxpayers are in Oregon. Who's
gonna who's you think a school district, take Portland in the middle of the
school year in April is going to now take away those grants. You think that's
going to happen? Nobody's going to let that happen. So now all of a sudden the state is going to have to find more
money or property taxes are going to be increased. Right. Right. So they're
going to take this federal money or try to create this subtrifuge about it. And
what it will mean if you even want to get what we have right now and we need
more, right? It means property tax increases for people in America. So it's this. So
you want to talk Ponzi scheme? You want to talk bait and switch? Yeah. So you're going to give you're going to really rob
Peter to pay Elon. Wow. Right. Why Why do you believe that he's purposely
leaving the rules vague? Obviously, there's a reason. Why do you think the rules are so vague? I mean, these poor,
they don't know what they can say and what they can't say, you know? I think it's ultimately for, you know, so he has
ultimate power on, well, that was good. That was what he doesn't agree with, you know. Is that is that what you believe?
Look, when the rules are this vague, you're always on shifting sand. Mhm. You have no idea. And then it's only the
strongman that makes the rules. Right. So the rules being vague is part of the
fear. It's part of the anxiety. And what we have to do as schools people and look we all learned
this during co we have an obligation to make a school safe and welcoming for our
kids for their families for the people who work in schools. You want a school
to be safe. You want it to be welcoming. You want it to be home. I mean, after all, we're with kids almost as many
hours as their home, right? Yeah. So, and when you make rules that are vague
that you have no idea whether you're following them or not, it's the opposite of safe. Yeah. You're on shifting sand
all the time. You have no idea. It's kind of like, you know, when ICE pulls
when Trump pulled back the ruling, the norm that ICE agents, deportation
agents, don't go into churches, hospitals, or schools, right? Why?
Because they're sensitive areas. Because you don't want to do that to kids. We're in locust parents for this school day.
Mhm. The teachers are you're going to have a burly big ICE agent walk into a
school, scare the be Jesus out of people. Yeah. Out of kids. So why would
they why would they take away that sense of security? Yeah. So it's the same in
terms of these they're they're vague. They're void that I mean they're vague. You the the vagueness I think is the
point because the vagueness creates fear. Mhm. Yep. Yeah. It's ruling by fear. Yeah. I mean, authoritarians, it's
this is this is the map. This is the road map. Like you said, the same thing that they're doing to the universities.
It's like, I don't like how you're how you're handling X, Y, and Z. I'm pulling
back $500 million worth of grant funding from your from your It's bullying. It's bullying. Well, it's McCarthyism. Yeah.
It's about power. Yeah. It's power. It's bullying. and and you know we're we are
not used to in America I mean you know we've had different periods of sorry I
am a social studies teacher we we've had different periods of time of you know
great disscent and anger and there's been America first periods of time and
other you know there's been nivist periods of time but there's always been
I would say with the exception of intense war. I mean, you know, let's
talk about Japanese interament, which was awful. But with the exception of
intense wartime periods, there is a real um thread and
throughine in America that we believe in the first amendment and we believe that
people have a right to speak and express their views and even if their views are
antithetical to us, that's their right. That's part of democracy. And that was
key to what the framers and the founders said and did in, you know, in in
founding the country. They wanted these checks and balances. They didn't want a king and they wanted people whether they
were the majority minority to be able to express themselves. And I think that in the last, you know, since the 20th of of
um January, one of the most um pervasive and pernicious things that this
administration has done is it is really trying, I'll use Tim Snyder's line, to
get people to obey in advance and to be silent and to be afraid and to be
fearful. And that's why, you know, these these broad executive orders, which they
have no right to do many of these, I mean, they're basically taking away
congressional power. These broad executive orders are intended to silence
people, make them feel afraid and fearful, and to not protest or to not
say, "No, that's not what he voted for." I I'm I'm That's on the on the kind of
voice side, on the economic side. It I I it it baffles me all of the
self-inflicted wounds here. I mean this is I I read you know Financial Times I
think it was I don't remember it was last night or this morning that said that this is going to go down as one of
the biggest financial errors of of all
time. My goodness, this kind of sledgehammer tariffs and you know, so
you have all this financial uncertainty and now you have all these shifting sands and there's just a lot of people
that are saying, you know, even people a lot of people voted for him and not what I voted for. Yeah. Wow. That's for sure.
Um I know we have an email. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So, uh we we got an email from Josh in California. I'm going to read it
to you here. Uh he said, "President Weine, thank you for coming on the dangerous ones. There's a lot going on
with the Trump administration, but one of the things I'm most concerned about is the dismantling of the Department of
Education." So, and this is this is a great framing question for the rest of our conversation here. What does the DOE
do at the federal level? That's a great question, right? Most people don't know
even know fully. And what happens if it goes away? And what kind of impacts will people feel at the local level? Good.
Okay, that's a really fantastic question. So, number one, ever since our republic
started, virtually all control of education is at the state and local
level, not at the federal level. State and local level. It's really different
than Europe. The states and local school boards control education. Mhm. what the
Department of Education does and frankly what federal law started doing from the
civil rights um from the 1960s actually you would I would actually
argue probably with the GI Bill right after World War II was probably the first because that gave grants and
scholarships to veterans to go to college. So that was really the first time the federal government said okay
we're going to get into the business of education and but the through line for
federal government has always been we're going to deal with opportunity gaps. So
that was for veterans getting into college that they
couldn't afford. They got grants from the 60s on. first in the um
cabinet that was cabinet the department that was called HEW Health Education and
Welfare and then from the 80s on the cabinet that was called education
department all those grants that Congress passes title one which is for
poor kids 26 million kids IDA individuals with disabilities and
education act 7 and a half million kids 8 million kids English or 5 and a half
million kids English language learners about 10 million kids who get Perkins
career teched because every one of these laws is named for somebody then there's PEL grants
Clayborn PEL for that that you know from that's for kids who are going to college
who can't afford it so when you aggregate all of this you're talking about a hundred billion ion dollar and
all of that it's about one out of every $9 in K12 wow comes I mean Head Start in
preK 12 it's about one out of every $9 comes from the federal government and
it's for solving opportunity gaps for saying how do we help if we believe that
education is the great equalizer how do we make sure a poor community a rural
community has the funds they need to educate poor kids. How do we make sure
we have lunch for kids? So, that's what it's always been about. It's never been
about a substitute for local and state governments. And in fact, the first
government to do that was actually George W. Bush with no child left behind
when they then conditioned this big grant title one on creating academic
tests across the country. So it was a Republican government that basically
said that I mean you know it was also Ted Kennedy and others but it was you know it was so the first 25 years of
real federal intervention was Johnson to to to Clinton and it was a lot of money
and you saw scores rise because we were meeting the needs of kids. The second 25
years that was from like the 60s7s to the like 1990s. The second 2530 years
has been first Bush and then frankly Obama. They then conditioned this aid on
doing different things. All of which got changed in 2015 in a new
reauthorization of these elementary and secondary school acts which basically
took the federal government out of curriculum out of being the human resource director of a school and
basically put it right back into states and locals hands. So
Josh, it's the states that run schools. the federal government just basically
gives us additional dollars. And then there's one other thing in K12 that the federal government does which is they
call balls and strikes. Meaning so say you have a kid who you know it has some
disability. Say it's a motor disability and the school is an old school and is
like five stories and there's no elevator and the somebody said that
kid's classroom is on the fifth floor or the fourth floor and nobody in the school district is dealing with it. No,
that you know the bureaucrats are the bureaucrats. So then you go to the federal office of civil rights and say
this is not fair for my kid. That's what I mean by calling balls and strikes. That's what the Office of Civil Rights
does. Oddly enough, we're in an old school right now in the in the 1920s. And guess
what? There's no There's no elevator. So, three flights of stairs later. Yeah. Um, we've known each other since 1983,
since like third grade. Oh, wow. He tried to get me to go out with him in middle school. I tried. She kept saying no. I had long hair at the time. Yeah.
And listen to the absolute wrong type of music for me. I know. But now look at you. You're podcasting together. We
ended up We got married in our old middle school between our two classrooms. Wait, wait, wait. You got married together? Yes. After you
wouldn't go out together? Yes. I found her later in life and made her made her do it. We had married other people.
Yeah. Got it. So, so we rem as adults and we got married in our old school between our two classrooms by our old
teacher. Yep. Oh my god. And even to this day when we like you'll see old kids from the neighborhood, we always
end up talking about school or teachers. Old teachers. Yeah. And for me too, especially if you come from a bad home,
like teachers are your first heroes in real life, right? They're the first adults that you trust yourself with,
that you that you as a child can even um just that you feel comfortable
around. Yeah. And and that's what look that's that's our job. Yeah. Yeah. You
know, we're not we are kids second parents. Yes, we're
not kids first parents. And I often say we have to make sure that we're working
handinand glove with parents. But you're with teachers as adults, as kids. You're with
teachers more than virtually any other adult other than your parents or grandparents. Yeah. And so it's part of
what our job is. Our job are two things. And frankly, that's part of the reason why, you know, teachers really push back
hard on a testing regime. Cuz our first job is to make schools welcoming and
safe. Yeah. And so when somebody starts talking about diversity, equity, inclusion as bad words,
how do you create pluralism, which is what the founders wanted, the separation of church and
state, the freedom of religion? Now look, they were terrible about slavery and not so good about women. Sure. But
the but the this notion of schooling has to be safe and welcoming. Kids have to
feel safe in school. And if they don't,
if all of a sudden from on high people are saying, "No, you can't do this. No,
you can't do that." How is that going to make a kid feel? Yeah. How do you create that safety? And then the second thing
is you got to make school engaging and fun. Yes. rigorous but relevant and
engaging and and kids have to feel like I want to be there. Yeah. And and how do
you teach critical thinking and problem solving if you don't actually push kids
to think right and to think about things that are not in their comfort zone. So
if that's part of our job, so all of this, the not letting us teach history,
the not letting kids be seen or be who they are. All of this runs completely
counter to how do we prepare kids for their futures? I know you had a bit of a
followup with that. I did. Um but thank you for that. Yeah. Oh, well, thank you. Um, you talk to teachers every day. How
what is the morale out there now that they're dealing with all the chaos of the Department of Education, all the
chaos of just even school safety with how increased school shootings have been? What is the morale out there? How
are they feeling? What's going on? Pissed. Pissed. People are pissed. you know, initially,
um, I mean, we've gone through this in so many
different jurisdictions. I I was really wrong after CO. I really thought that we
would actually have a renaissance in public schooling after CO. I thought that CO broke all of us on so many
different levels. We haven't even dealt with it, you know. I mean, and and you know, and you know, I love I mean, I we
were the AFT was the basically the first organization to put out a report saying, "We got to reopen schools, but they have
to be done safely." And then the right-wing kept saying, "I want to close schools when I'm the first one to do
this in that April when people were saying, "What are you doing?" Like, look at the report, right? Pathway to opening
schools safely. But you know, but I thought that this big huge experiment in
remote, it it's it didn't work. We need to be relational with each other. But what
happened right after in several different states was first it became,
you know, all the culture wars. Yeah. To create division. And some of the people
from the right actually gave it up and said a guy by the name of Chris Rufo he said that in order to create the
fragmentation school choice vouchers all of that to create universal school cho
choice I forget exactly his words you have to create universal public school distrust. Mhm. So, so we as school
teachers and school people have been dealing with this literally since I
would say 2022. Like I mean who in in
K12 knew what CRT meant, right? Frankly, I mean and and most I mean any of us who
went to law school, okay, we studied, you know, critical race theory. It's an analysis of law a and I'm sure some
psychology and sociology majors and maybe masters in education did but not
in 11th grade not in 8th grade not in you know we no I mean I went back to my
I used to teach AP gov in the 1990s I went back to my old lesson plans to see if I ever used the word no in AP gov I
never used the word so so so it was first oh they're doing this Mhm. And
then it was, oh, there the books and then it was the masks and then it was the vaccines and then it was and then it
was and then it was so teachers, you know, feel like they've
been under and and and teachers don't get paid very well anyway. Teachers feel like they've been under assault instead
of people letting us teach the limitations first from testing and then from this instead of letting us teach.
So, I would say that now now because people see what's going on, people are
just pissed. They're mad. They're like, "What are you doing? Let us teach." And
and teachers really believe in pluralism and democracy. And and many conservative
teachers, like people who voted for Donald Trump said, "What do you mean they're taking away Title One? Like, how
can they take away the tutoring from our kids?" Like, why are you calling us? Why are you smearing us? So, it's it's been
interesting to watch. I was just in West Virginia um last weekend. It's been really interesting to watch just how
angry people are. So, on March 4th, for example, cuz people don't want the money taken away from us. It's already we
already don't have enough to help our kids. So, what you know, really, you're
going to take away Title One from 26 million kids? mostly mostly red states
that voted for Trump. I mean, it's 20% of Mississippi's education funding. Oh
my god. It's so in New York, my state, it's 7%. In Mississippi, it's 20%. So,
so there's a level of anger. So, that's why like on March 4th, we had 2,000 events all across the country that says
protect our kids. And there's going to be a lot of teachers out there tomorrow on April 5th saying hands off. So, it's
hands off social security, hands off Medicaid, don't take away collective bargaining, hands off our kids, hands
off Title One, you know, so there's a level of Yeah. fear, yes, but anger that
what are you doing? How dare you do this? How you you said you were going to
deal with the price of eggs, right? Why are you you you know you you found the
word groceries and you said you were going to deal with that. Why are you making it harder? Why is
there an assault on opportunity and education? And and most of us I mean
most teachers spoiler alert
here most teachers are not political. Yeah. Yeah. They want to teach they
don't see teaching about Jim Crow as political and they actually don't want
their schools to be political. They want us to be able to have the latitude to
meet kids needs to help kids problem solve, to help kids imagine, have some
joy in school, actually feel ready for their career or for the world. engage
that they want to teach civics. Yeah. But they really don't want to have
political arguments in their classroom unless you're the AP gov class and you're trying to set up a debate. Right.
Right. We got to know a lot of our teachers uh quite well in our adulthood. Obviously, we were married uh by one of
them and uh I remember being like by one of them you both had Yes. Yes. And I
remember I was lucky enough. I got him two years. You got him two years in middle school which was like saved my life I think. Okay. Was it a social
studies teacher, a science teacher, a math teacher? He was like a general like a general but uh he when about 10 years
before that he had taught my sister and he was a social studies teacher back then. Yeah. His name was Mr. Cummings
and uh but if Mr. Cummings or Mr. Etlin or Miss Nice or Mr. Weed, these are real names. uh these teachers of ours when
they would say things to us in classrooms that had anything to do with politics, they so rarely did that that
you listen to them cuz they were serious. They were like, "Listen, this is not good." You know, it was never like they were trying to like sway us
into when they were trying to teach us. And I can only imagine how what Mr.
Cummings would have had to deal with today. It's like being hamstrung cuz you teach it from a civil rights point of
view, not a left or right point of view. Exactly. I mean, I, you know, I, as I
said, I went back to, um, I taught in the 1990s in New York City in Brooklyn.
So, when all of these culture wars started, I still had my lesson plans in the basement. I still do. And I just
started, you know, kind of like rifling through them to see what and and you're
exactly right. So, you teach something from a civil rights perspective. you teach something like you teach um uh
let's say the right to an attorney Gideon versus Wayne Wright and you teach
it from what happened and you teach the story and why somebody has the right to
an attorney and if you can afford an attorney that an attorney has to be there for you and you know and why
that's an amendment in the constitution you teach about the first amendment and why that's an amendment in the
constitution and frankly in K12 you have a curriculum that has been given to you
from on high from you know the state and you know you you know and it's been
vetted a million times and there's parental engagement and you know
university engagement and on and on and you just that's what you you try to
create a texture so that people can actually see something. It's, you know,
there's a there's a term these days um uh about, you know, windows and, you
know, and and um you know, opening up the aperture so you could actually see
from different perspectives. And that's part of what we're trying to do. Yeah. Um but most of us, how do you teach? How
do you do debate anymore? Right. Right. I just was thinking that. I literally think that how do you do debate? I mean,
and and and part of what we really have to do is if you're in social studies or
if you're in English, um literacy or or social studies classes, you're really
teaching kids how to think, not what to think. But to teach kids how to think in
an age appropriate way, you have to push them to consider other things, right?
And and you really have to consider because if you're not helping kids consider something that they hadn't
thought about or that might push them because they have a different opinion
about it. How do you keep teach kids to deal with conflict? How do you teach
kids to deal with failure? How do you teach kids to be resilient if you're not
doing that? So everything that the Department of Education that that that Trump and McMahon and all of them are
doing now by saying no, you can't do this and yes, you can do this, but no, you can't do this is how do you actually
help kids learn to navigate the world? Yeah. Because what's then going to happen is okay, so you're not going to
learn it in school under the toutelage of a teacher. So, you're going to learn it on the street. Mhm. How is that going
to help you? Yeah. Or worse on Tik Tok, right? Right. Or Reddit, right? I can
only imagine that, you know, we call it the third the third monster now. The internet is out there for trend. Yeah.
Yeah. Right. Um I go ahead. Sorry. I think No, no, no. We are I digress. I
think we should tee up. I was going to say, uh that's kind of a nice segue into Jane from Pennsylvania. Yes, please.
Okay. So, uh, Jane called from Pennsylvania and she's, uh, involved,
she has been involved in fighting back against the Moms for Liberty. Bless you,
Jane. And, uh, and, uh, she's heard a lot of teachers express fear of retribution from the Trump
administration and the and the sort of threats coming from that. And so, let's play the call because it Yeah, that definitely connects with what we're just
talking about. Hi, Jane Kramer from Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. I'm calling because I was involved with fighting back against
monster liberty in my community. And one of the things I heard a lot from
teachers were fear of retribution of um
from the administration. So my question is how can teachers unions support
teachers in advocating for civil rights and for appropriate curriculum. Thank
you. It's a really good question, Jane. And first, let me just say thank you for
being involved in the community and fighting back. Um and what we've done
basically with parents and other community advocates and faith leaders
and small business is that over the course of the last couple of years we
basically have in schoolboard elections basically 75% to 85% have been won by
proublic education people over these mom for liberties type. In fact, you noticed
in the 2024 election, this was not an issue. As much as Trump keeps saying
this is an issue, you know, he had one event and maybe in many of his speeches,
one line about this. Oh, does he exaggerate? No way. In fact, in fact, two of the
three states that there were three states that voted on vouchers this in November.
all three of the voucher um uh amendments or um ballot initiatives went
down in two of the states the they voted heavily they voted for Trump and they
still voted against vouchers. There was you know in every county in Kentucky
they voted against vouchers. There was one county in Nebraska that voted for Trump by 80% and voted against vouchers
by 60%. So people want their public schools, people in rural So so Bucks
County. So, this is what this got me in big trouble with the right wing because a couple of years ago, we
said that we will protect legally or
otherwise every teacher who teaches honest history or meets the needs of
children. So, we said to our members, we're going to do that. Now
that doesn't stop all the fear, right? But that's we move resources to legal
our legal department and to legal services so that if somebody got bullied
or told you can't do this, we would do that. That's number one. Number two,
what we have actually um suggested to people is this really requires
organizing and education on a local level. And I often say these days, we
start with community. In a fight back, you start with community. You nurture community. And of course, we're using
courts to fight back. But the most important fight back is the court of public opinion. And that is both on the
streets, but it's also education. So what we've suggested to people is take a
group of people, go out for dinner first or get a drink afterwards. Don't go to a
schoolboard meeting alone. go with a group of people. Mhm. And it tends to be
if you stay for the end of the schoolboard meeting, you're going to actually be able to talk because the
naysayers come in at the beginning and then leave, right? Go to the schoolboard
meetings, raise an issue, do it in a way just like with your teacher voice. You
know how many times as teachers, it's not what we say, it's what's heard, it's
what's felt. You both, you know, you both told amazing stories about what was felt. Yeah. That impact, that emotional
impact, that kind of connection. So, talk to the schoolboard, ask questions,
ask what the impact is. And this is what we've actually seen in so many places like this. This group, Red, Red, White,
and Blue does this a lot. They do a lot of they do a lot of of webinars. They do
a lot of this work. But this is what they've said. So for every person that says, "I want this
book removed." There are many parents that say, "Okay, you remove that book from the library. What about my rights
for my kid to be able to read that book?" Mhm. It's in the library. You don't want somebody to have that book
then you don't let your kid Yeah. read it. But what about my kid? And so what
we started so so engage not in a heated battle but as a
community together. And what we saw in Bucks County, I love this story in Bucks
County. There is one time I think this was in Bucks County. I think it was in it may have been a New Hope. So Jane, if
I'm getting my places wrong, I'm I'm sorry. But it was that that the Moms for
Liberty people on the school board, you know, thought some portion of some book
was terrible, pornographic, you know, just went on and on, and then they sent
it to 17,000 people, mailed it as part
of their political argument. So, if you really thought it was that bad, why did
you politicize it? Why did you send it everywhere and why
did you spend the money doing that? Right. So, you know, it's it's kind of like really you're not serious people.
Yeah. Um that actually sort of uh teased up because you were mentioning vouchers.
That te's up our next one for uh another call uh in from Ohio. Yes. This is
Jennifer from Ohio and she is a professor who can no longer teach because of the governor's Yeah. that new
law was terrible. Yes. Yes. And um she's also a mom and she has a very poignant story about her son. So this is a little
bit of a longer message, but it gets down to the heart of what all of this is about, which is the kids.
Hi, this is Jennifer. Um I'm from a suburb of Youngsttown, Ohio, and I'm
calling in um for Randy Wegarten. This is an extremely personal and important
topic for me, both as an educator and a parent. I'm an English professor who can
no longer teach in Ohio's public universities because Governor DeWine signed a law that censors what we can
discuss in the classroom, banning so-called controversial topics like
climate change, politics, marriage, and abortion. They have gutted faculty union
bargaining rights, and we will now be forced to post syllabi online for public viewing, which puts educators like me at
risk. And it's a risk I'm not willing to take. But it's not just higher ed. My son is thrice exceptional. He's gifted
with ADHD and an unnamed executive functioning disorder that we've had him tested for. The public school system
here failed him miserably. There were no supports, no gifted programs, and no
understanding of his needs whatsoever. we had no choice but to enroll him in
the only private school for gifted students which luckily opened um the
year that he was in third grade. The teachers there were amazing and have
allowed him to succeed. Ohio schools are being systematically dismantled by these
MAGA Republicans. The new House GOP budget offers just 226 million in K
through2 funding when schools need over 800 million to fully fund the fair
school funding plan and to keep up with inflation. So instead of investing in our kids, they're flashing school meals,
bus safety grants, and shoving more money into private school vouchers and
the so-called education savings accounts. The schools fail year after year. Kids are growing up in a literal
food desert. There are no grocery stores there. Drug addiction is at an all-time
high. And it's so bad that I can even um and I do have a Narcan that I carry on
me that you can get from the public health department. Um and it really truly breaks my heart because I know the
potential in those classrooms is being wasted. This isn't just poor governance. It's
cruelty. It's betrayal. And our children are paying the price. Lastly, I would
just like to say I'm a huge fan of The Dangerous Ones and a longtime admirer of
Randy Weingarten, who is a warrior. Um, and I want to thank you all for always
getting in good trouble. My question is, I guess, what more can we do to fight
back? What more can we do to educate the public about voucher programs and their
dangers and how do we coalesce to make
things right again? Thank you for listening and for covering this topic
your reaction even other than crying. Uh, so
Jennifer, I actually spent the summer between my junior and senior year
at the Cornell ILR School in Warren, Ohio, and spent a lot of time with the
Lordstown, Ohio teachers. So Warren and Young and Lordstown are right next to
Youngsttown. um and spent a lot of time with the Lordstown teachers when we tried to get the
Lordstown plant, the GM plant to stay open. And we were doing this with some
of the local leaders, local UAW leaders and the Lordstown teachers, many of whom
happened to be married to each other. Um, and you know, and the then UAW
blocked us for whatever reasons. They are no longer the leadership there. But
so I spent a a lot of time a few years ago in Lordstown and in Warren and in
Youngstown. And I think what we have to start the story in that area of Ohio
with frankly one of the reasons why people are so angry which is you know
you don't expect a teacher to be saying this but neoliberalism and globalization and the
fact that and that's why you start seeing the level of hot anger in Ohio
that this is you know as much as I don't like him this is Trump's gift that he
was able to understand that anger and not solve the problems but exacerbate
the fear. M and so what happened you know the between the gas crisis and
other things how many steel plants how many auto plants um got shut down what
you know I was working in that summer in the in the you know in the electrical
plant that was in Warren the GM electrical plant and my summer internship was suspended because of the
you know everybody got fired in the like by the beginning of August or laid off.
So the so this level of how dare you
close these plants. Look, this is now private equity. Look what happened in East Palestine. Billionaires, look what
happened in West Virginia. They close the plants. They do all this. They don't
create what government ought to be doing in terms of what do we do for people and communities to replace these industries
to try to have an industrial policy. Frankly, that's what Joe Biden tried to do. He tried to create with chips and
other things an industrial policy. That's what China does. And so that we could bring manufacturing back. You
know, do what tariffs can be a tool. I'm not saying we shouldn't do tariffs. Tariffs can be an important tool if they
are targeted. But you don't just do, you know, sledgehammer tariffs. It's not the
tool. It's a political tool. It's not an economic tool. You need to have an economic policy that invests in people
and invests in jobs. And that was basically taken away. And so you have
that spiraling downward with basically um people being so angry at each other
that the culture wars substitute for hope. Yeah. The fear of the culture wars
substitute for hope. So what do we do to turn it around?
It's we we take baby steps. We take baby steps. We start by maybe
having a book group together outside of the university. This is what we
suggested to do frankly in in um in
Florida right after Dantis started banning books and things like that. The
NAACP chapter and we frankly the NAA contributed too. We contributed several
thousands of dollars so we could create a library, an emancipation library
outside of the schools and have book clubs. That's what Red, Wine, and Blue
now does. Have book clubs. Have it outside. Do it in somebody's house. Do
it in the church basement. Start creating community this way. And then
you start bringing people together on issues on school issues on human issues.
You don't let them dehumanize. And we have to get back to a majority of people
who believe. I mean, people want their lives to be better. People want to have
their kids have a better life than they did. This is the first generation that that's not going to happen. And if you
look back at statistics, the one that just gospacked me is that in the last 20
years, the in the last 45 years, sorry, men
without high without college diplomas make 20% less when you adjusted for
inflation than they did 45 years ago. Oh god. That's what we're talking about
when we see Youngsttown. That there's a sense of betrayal. It's corporate betrayal. It's political betrayal. Yeah.
But that betrayal was exploited by Trump. He's not doing anything to help.
But to fight back, it's little steps. bringing communities together, seeing
the value of each other in each other, and then acting in concert together on
an issue of mutual concern. One of the things I think we've all
learned about doing podcasts is how fast an hour goes by. And I literally could
listen to you talk about this for like many hours. You I know I have like more
pages of questions, but let me uh Sorry. And I also talk in paragraphs, not in sentences. Me, too. It's fantastic. I'm
We're sponges over here. So, uh, let's just end, uh, kind of wrap up with this.
Uh, first of all, you'll be out tomorrow, right? Yes. I will I I will
be, um, in Philadelphia tomorrow. Yes,
it is the other side of the country. Nothing wrong with that. Um but uh uh my union is very engaged
and we have locals all over that are going to be at these handsoff events and and the point of all of them is to
actually send a message a that people are not alone if they want to keep their
social security if they want to keep the rural hospital if they want to keep public education if they want people to
still have collective bargaining. not alone. And there's these, you know, over a thousand hands-off events. I think
500, half a million people have signed up. You're seeing just like you saw in
Wisconsin with Susan Crawford's election. You're seeing a ground swell of people that are just saying, "No,
this is not who we are." And that is really important in terms of fighting um
tyranny or authoritarianism and bullying and um the kind of you know the kind of
government that Trump has created. As we part, can you have any advice for
our listeners and the folks watching? How can even if they don't have children, even in school or whatnot, how
can they be helpful to teachers, students, and schools over the next two
and four years? So, number one, more than anything
else, public education is the foundation stone for
democracy. Mhm. Where else do we help create the
habits of humanization? Yeah. The habits of democracy, the habits of pluralism.
I'm not I'm talking about not what one believes but how you create a society
where people listen to each other where they engage with each other where they
believe everybody has value and how do you then also help kids have the skills
and knowledge they need they want and need for their own American dream that's
what we do in public education for every child. It's we don't have a
choice about who comes to our schools. Our job is every child, which is pretty
amazing that America still believes that this is not the school's choice, which
is what happens in private schools or and look, I'm married to a rabbi. I really believe in religious freedom and
that people should have religious freedom, but we need to have so we need
to have in public schools a real public school um community where we can teach
the habits of democracy, the habits of pluralism, and help each and every child
find his or her purpose and and and potential and lift
lifted out of them so that they can imagine their own
future. That's who we are. We don't always get it right. There's a lot of
things we have to do better. But that's the purpose. That's why everyone who
goes into teaching, they go into teaching because they want to make a difference in the lives of kids. So this
smearing and this sense of undermining who we are and what we do, we just need
people's support. And then when there are issues, help us. Help us. You know,
we're we're trying to get the rich guys to pay their fair share. So, you know,
so that property taxes don't go up, but help us help kids. Help us do our jobs.
and and and every now and then when you see a teacher, thank them. And you know,:03
we're we're we need the community support. We need to make sure communities stay together. And what:10
we're trying to do is make schools and and Portland is doing this with their community schools. We're doing this in:15
lots of different places. Make schools the hubs of community. Mhm. Make schools a place where you wrap services around,:23
where you have after school, you have summer school, you have debate, you have:28
robotics, you have great sports programs. Let's make schools fun. And let's make schools good for families,:35
too. Let's have career teched. Let's align. Let's not just make high school,:40
you know, college prep. High school should be career and or college. Let's:46
align with workforce opportunities so that kids in 11th and 12th grade can can:53
make their own choices. Project-based learning, experiential learning. There's lots of:00
things if we can imagine a future where our kids are our future. Look, they'll:06
be, you know, pulling and pushing the wheelchairs when we're trying to go up:11
three flights of stairs. The right thing, everybody. Yeah. So you know but they are our future but but what public:17
schooling does including public universities is we create the pathways for that. Let us do our job. Wow.:26
Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for for coming on the show and uh the:33
next time you're in town, you always have a an invitation here. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.:39
Thank you so much. Wow. Wow. That was incredible. I just love her. I know.:45
Just like uh Billy Ray last week, I could listen to her talk for hours. Oh my god. I had like four more pages of questions. Yeah. Well, she just has that:52
teacher vibe like you guys talking about Mr. Cummings and you know my for me it:58
was Mr. Willoughby. Yeah. Mr. Willoughby, my uh my uh math teacher in middle school was and Miss Dunlay. I:04
mean Yeah. Oh yeah. just we love our teachers and she's and she's one but she's also like such a fierce advocate:10
and she's smart as a whip and I'm just so glad that she's in this fight me with:16
us you know cuz I'm so grateful for her like she's going to be a target I mean of of this administration and and um you:24
know I just think she's got the metal to take it. Yeah. Yeah. It takes uh it takes iron shoulders to to to shoulder:31
what she's going to have to deal with over the next two and four years. I thought she had some great advice for everybody and the one thing that came:37
across this was just you can tell she's a teacher first because the the love uh:45
you know I mean it just the love came across the table you know and and as she was leaving it was just wow um really:52
really great. Um thank you for everybody who called and emailed. I know there:57
were more than that. We wanted to get to more, but like with everything, there are always time constraints. But, uh,:03
thank you to everybody who called, uh, the people's hotline and emailed that. Next up now, April 5th, hands off mass:12
mobilizations across the country. It was epic. Epic. Epic. Whoa. Um, you're not:18
going to believe I mean, I'm sure you've seen some of the footage online, but here's our footage. Here's our reports:23
from Portland and Seattle. Enjoy.:28
Hey everybody, it's Nick. I'm here in Seattle. Uh I'm at the hands-off protest at the Seattle Center right by the Space:35
Needle. Uh there it is. Uh the crowd here is absolutely amazing. I I would be:41
shocked if there were tens of thousands of people here. Um everybody's super lit:47
up. It's a really uh peaceful and and happy uh demonstration. Um just so many:55
people, great signs, uh great speakers. Permila Jipal spoke earlier and uh lit:01
this place up. Let let everybody in some chance. Uh I've I've seen a few people:06
here who I who I know from uh from just online spaces and activism. So, it's:13
nice to connect with folks. Uh but yeah, this this is the this is the biggest:18
rally I've been to since the Women's March, for sure. Uh and uh and it's got:23
that kind of vibe. It's very these everybody's very determined. Uh nobody's:29
backing down. Um and uh this is this is anti-fascism:36
uh personified here on the streets of Seattle. So way to way to go. Way to represent Seattle, Washington.:43
We're here at the uh Portland mobilization here in downtown Portland and there must be over 10,000 20,000:51
people here. It is packed. It is insane. This is what democracy looks like.:00
This is what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like.:05
Okay, Tiff. So, how was the mass mobilization? I'm so proud of Portland. I'm so proud of America right now. I:11
can't believe how many people showed up. I It It is a scene down there. There's tens of thousands of people. Everybody:18
came out to support each other. And do you feel uh inspired after this? Yeah, this is the beginning.:25
If you don't feel inspired after coming to something like this and realize that this country is definitely worth saving:31
and you're not alone, uh then you're blind. This has just been uh just a:36
fantastic uh Saturday. Well, here we are. We're just leaving the uh Portland mass mobilization for:43
Hands Off. You can still hear people honking. Uh it was incredible. I mean, look, people are still on the:51
bridge. It's just And the protest is actually down there. It's just it was:57
overflowing with people. Massive people everywhere. It was so great to see. It:02
was so great. There was I mean just a sea of humanity. Probably over 20,000.:08
Um, wow. It makes you feel like you're not alone. I think we might be okay, you guys. No violence. Everybody was cool as:15
hell. Uh, Portland came in hot, man. And I saw some instigators down there and they tried, but every one of us was:22
like, "No, not today." Satan, what' you think of the Portland uh, police situation, uniformed police didn't see a:28
lot of those, lot of undercover, but you know, what are you going to do? Y um, but it's everyone seemed like there was:35
no off vibe. Everyone seemed positive. It was good energy, lots of parents and kids. It just real beautiful to see. It:42
was just fantastic. I I I encourage everybody to go out as much as possible over the next two and four years. We got:50
to be doing this every day. Every day, you guys. It can't just be one day. We got to do it every day. Yep. All right.:55
Um well, with that, thank you for watching and listening to this episode of The Dangerous Ones. I hope you:01
enjoyed it, and we'll see you next week. Bye bye. The shots been fire, but the war:08
ain't won. These white boys with money better learn how to run. The wild hit:14
your back. Bloods on your tongue. You:21
Yeah. Heat.

Posting Date

Views

Comments

Likes

Channel

Update The Dangerous Ones Record

Results

Show What Now

NEW Video

Where to Now