CSPAN - Washington Journal Open Phones
Aired: 2025-09-02
Duration: 10:57


=== Poll Results: 59% Opt for Private (08:00) ===

[00:00:00]  The argument as a free market person yourself, companies should be allowed to fail if they haven't done a good enough job to stay in business.
[00:00:07]  And that's one of the hallmarks of a free economy.
[00:00:10]  But yeah, it's a complicated issue.
[00:00:12]  I don't think I put student loans in the same breath in this.
[00:00:15]  EVs, a whole different story.
[00:00:17]  You're trying to start a new technology out there, so you gave tax credits for it.
[00:00:21]  Whether you like EVs or you don't like EVs, the idea was to try to get a new side of the business going.
[00:00:28]  But again, there's various definitions here, but I understand your point and I agree with it.
[00:00:33]  That's Paul Auslander, financial analyst and president of Seabridge Private Wealth.
[00:00:38]  Paul, thanks so much for joining us today.
[00:00:40]  Thanks, Jamie.
[00:00:41]  Thanks very much for having me.
[00:00:43]  Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
[00:00:45]  We'll start with a Hill article, and this is the headline: Public schools in a bind amid enrollment declines.
[00:00:53]  It says that K through 12 enrollment is on the decline between a combination of dropping birth rates and more school choice options, putting schools in a bind.
[00:01:05]  It says the public school system is expected to see a drop of millions of students over the next five years, a hit that will affect schools financially and potentially lead to the closure of more districts.
[00:01:18]  Ways to combat this phenomenon are limited, as experts say schools will have to look at scaling down operations or competing with other educational institutions.
[00:01:28]  And let's take a look at the poll results that I mentioned.
[00:01:33]  This is the PDK poll.
[00:01:36]  They take a poll every year.
[00:01:38]  This is their 57th annual poll.
[00:01:41]  That's been since 1969.
[00:01:43]  Take a look at Americans who give public schools an A or a B grade.
[00:01:49]  So when asked about their local schools, they rate those as 43%.
[00:01:58]  Now, it was in 2013 that that number went to its highest level, which was 53% for their local schools.
[00:02:06]  When asked about public schools nationally, how they would grade those, only 13% gave a grade of an A or a B, and that is the lowest number since the poll's history.
[00:02:22]  Another question they asked was about public funding for private or religious schools.
[00:02:30]  So here's what the question was: They said, if you were offered public funds to cover at least a portion of the cost to send your child to a private or religious school instead, do you think you would keep them in public school or would send them to a private or religious schools?
[00:02:50]  So overall, the number said 59% that they would send to private or a religious school if part of that, at least part of that money was paid for by the government.
[00:03:03]  Let's see broken down by party and its independents that were the highest number.
[00:03:10]  That was at 84%.
[00:03:12]  71% Republicans said that they would send their kids to private or religious schools and 47% of Democrats.
[00:03:23]  Let's take a look at what President Trump said in a cabinet meeting about education and his administration's policy.
[00:03:31]  So we're bringing education back to the states, to put it in a more simple fashion.
[00:03:38]  We're going to let the states educate our children again.
[00:03:42]  And, you know, we're rated out of 40 countries with 38, 39, or 40.
[00:03:48]  So obviously, it's not working what they've been doing for the last 30, 40 years.
[00:03:54]  And if you go back, the best are like Norway, Denmark, Sweden, some of the other Finland.
[00:04:03]  They're very highly rated.
[00:04:05]  If you go back to just take a look at anything you want to do, you just look at us in the past.
[00:04:11]  If we gave Iowa or gave Indiana or gave, and I don't say every one of them, you know, a guy like Gavin Newscomb is not going to do well.
[00:04:22]  Certain states won't do well.
[00:04:25]  But even California, you cut it up into sections.
[00:04:27]  You have Riverside, you have this, you have that.
[00:04:29]  You cut it into five sections.
[00:04:32]  And, you know, if you had a good governor, you'd be able to do well.
[00:04:35]  But certain states will be able to compete with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and everyone.
[00:04:41]  It'll be just as good.
[00:04:43]  So I figure you have close to 40 of those states.
[00:04:47]  And then you have 10.
[00:04:48]  You have five that won't be very good.
[00:04:50]  You have five disasters.
[00:04:52]  And we'll have to work on those disasters.
[00:04:54]  But for the most part, we will have education that will go zooming up in those charts just like we have in everything else we've done.
[00:05:02]  And I think it's one of the most important things we're doing at this table.
[00:05:06]  Getting your thoughts on your confidence level in America's public schools.
[00:05:11]  And we'll start with James, who's a Republican in Kataning, Pennsylvania.
[00:05:16]  Good morning, James.
[00:05:17]  Yes.
[00:05:19]  I just don't have much faith in the public schools or very little.
[00:05:28]  It seems that my life is an example of public schools.
[00:05:40]  There's no accountability.
[00:05:45]  Children are left on their own.
[00:05:48]  I mean, the schools need parents to be involved.
[00:05:54]  And I never had that.
[00:05:58]  And, well, that's all I'm going to say.
[00:06:04]  But we need the alternative of vouchers or people being able to choose their schools because there's no competition to a huge degree if you're at a bad school.
[00:06:23]  All right, James.
[00:06:24]  Here's Arthur in Florida, also a Republican.
[00:06:26]  Good morning, Arthur.
[00:06:28]  Yes, ma'am.
[00:06:31]  Basically, I don't have that much confidence in the public schools.
[00:06:37]  Part of the reason being that we have kicked God out of the public schools.
[00:06:44]  And also, it's almost like the parents are being told, you don't have anything to say about what we're doing.
[00:06:52]  So right there, that hurts any faith in the public school system.
[00:06:58]  And by the way, when my daddy went to school, this was a little one-room school up in the mountains.
[00:07:08]  They didn't have all that money for everything, but they taught them the basics of three R's, taught them morals, taught them to be good citizens.
[00:07:21]  I mean, now I don't know what they're teaching in the schools.
[00:07:24]  That's all I've got to say, Bob.
[00:07:27]  The Texas Tribune says that Texas will require public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments under a bill signed by the governor.
[00:07:37]  It says that Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, even though a similar Louisiana law was deemed unconstitutional.
[00:07:45]  Supporters say Christianity is core to U.S. history.

=== United States Bias (02:40) ===

[00:07:51]  And here is Drew in Chicago, Illinois, Independent.
[00:07:54]  Hi, Drew.
[00:07:56]  Hi.
[00:07:57]  Can you hear me?
[00:07:58]  Yes, I can.
[00:08:00]  Right.
[00:08:01]  So about the public schools, like, well, I, well, I myself am a student and I go to a public school in Chicago.
[00:08:08]  And, like, I mean, just what I've noticed is, like, I mean, in relation to, like, core subjects like math and reading and science and stuff like that, usually it's okay in relation to just, like, it's not, I don't know.
[00:08:27]  The big problem that I really see is in the social sciences, where for me personally, it's like a lot of the time it seems like it's just extremely biased against the United States.
[00:08:41]  It seems like there's constantly this drive to make people kind of hate ourselves and to kind of villainize ourselves.
[00:08:50]  And I think it's having a really bad effect.
[00:08:53]  What grade are you in, Drew?
[00:08:55]  Are you in high school?
[00:08:57]  Yeah, I'm in my junior year.
[00:08:59]  So give me an example of something you might have studied that is geared towards making Americans feel bad about themselves.
[00:09:09]  Well, the biggest thing would actually be the United States history course that I had, where the main source of information was actually this book by Howard Zinn called A People's History of the United States.
[00:09:30]  And the entire idea was that, well, that the United States has been extremely, I will just evil, I guess, or corrupt in the way that it's worked and that the whole system is bad.
[00:09:42]  And kind of the whole idea about slave-owning people creating the country and all this stuff and about how one of the ideas was that in World War II, we were no better than the Nazis.
[00:09:56]  And I mean, that's just obviously not true.
[00:09:58]  I mean, I don't really see how that's something that is even acceptable to be taught.
[00:10:04]  But it's just this constant idea that somehow we're supposed to not think that we're great.

=== Sources Limiting Thinking (00:45) ===

[00:10:13]  And I mean, I just don't think that that's true at all.
[00:10:16]  And do you feel that you can speak up in class, Drew?
[00:10:18]  I mean, like during this, when you were studying that, did you feel that you could raise your hand and say, I don't think that that's true?
[00:10:25]  What do you think?
[00:10:28]  No, no, I don't think that could.
[00:10:30]  Even in assignments, you know, I mean, you can only write about or answer questions with the sources that they give you.
[00:10:37]  And when all the sources are similar and saying those kinds of things, you can't really go against that.
[00:10:44]  All right.
[00:10:45]  Well, we appreciate you calling in.
[00:10:47]  And is today your first day of school?
[00:10:52]  No, it's like, this is like my third week.
[00:10:54]  Okay.
[00:10:56]  Well, good luck this year, Drew.