| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| And Democrat, good morning, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, this question is about Epstein. | |
| I'd like to know if there's any MAGA Z out there that could call in and explain to me why Donald Trump, a good friend of Epstein, why he would turn her loose from maximum security prison and put her into a club, club bed, they call it. | ||
| Basically, like a just little getaway camp for why would Donald Trump do that? | ||
| And don't say Pam Bondi was responsible for this because Pam Bondi does whatever Donald Trump wants her to do. | ||
| So please, MAGA, call in. | ||
| Let me know, because I'm a little bit confused here. | ||
| Why would Trump do that? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll start with a Hill article, and this is the headline. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Public schools in a bind amid enrollment declines. | |
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And let's take a look at the poll results that I mentioned. | |
| This is the PDK poll. | ||
| They take a poll every year. | ||
| This is their 57th annual poll. | ||
| That's been since 1969. | ||
| Let's take a look at Americans who give public schools an A or a B grade. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So when asked about their local schools, they rate those as 43%. | |
| Now, it was in 2013 that that number went to its highest level, which was 53% for their local schools. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Another question they asked was about public funding for private or religious schools. | ||
| 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? | ||
| 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's see broken down by party and its independents that were the highest number. | |
| That was at 84%. | ||
| 71% Republicans said that they would send their kids to private or religious schools and 47% of Democrats. | ||
| Let's take a look at what President Trump said in a cabinet meeting about education and his administration's policy. | ||
| So we're bringing education back to the states, to put it in a more simple fashion. | ||
| We're going to let the states educate our children again. | ||
| And you know, we're rated out of 40 countries with 38, 39, or 40. | ||
| So obviously, it's not working what they've been doing for the last 30, 40 years. | ||
| And if you go back, the best are like Norway, Denmark, Sweden, some of the other Finland. | ||
| They're very highly rated. | ||
| If you go back to just take a look at anything you want to do, you just look at us in the past. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Certain states won't do well. | ||
| But even California, you cut it up into sections. | ||
| You have Riverside, you have this, you have that. | ||
| You cut it into five sections. | ||
| And, you know, if you had a good governor, you'd be able to do well. | ||
| But certain states will be able to compete with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and everyone. | ||
| It'll be just as good. | ||
| So I figure you have close to 40 of those states. | ||
| And then you have 10. | ||
| You have five that won't be very good. | ||
| You have five disasters. | ||
| And we'll have to work on those disasters. | ||
| 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. | ||
| And I think it's one of the most important things we're doing at this table. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Getting your thoughts on your confidence level in America's public schools. | |
| And we'll start with James, who's a Republican in Kataning, Pennsylvania. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, James. | |
| Yes. | ||
| I just don't have much faith in the public schools or very little. | ||
| It seems that my life is an example of public schools. | ||
| There's no accountability. | ||
| Children are left on their own. | ||
| I mean, the schools need parents to be involved. | ||
| And I never had that. | ||
| And, well, that's all I'm going to say. | ||
| 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. | ||
| All right, James. | ||
| Here's Arthur in Florida, also a Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Arthur. | ||
| Yes, ma'am. | ||
| Basically, I don't have that much confidence in the public schools. | ||
| Part of the reason being that we have kicked God out of the public schools. | ||
| And also, it's almost like the parents are being told, you don't have anything to say about what we're doing. | ||
| So right there, that hurts any faith in the public school system. | ||
| And by the way, when my daddy went to school, this was a little one-room school up in the mountains. | ||
| They didn't have all that money for everything, but they taught them the basics of free R's, taught them morals, taught them to be good citizens. | ||
| I mean, now I don't know what they're teaching in the schools. | ||
| That's all I've got to say, Bob. | ||
| The Texas Tribune says that Texas will require public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments under a bill signed by the governor. | ||
| It says that Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, even though a similar Louisiana law was deemed unconstitutional. | ||
| Supporters say Christianity is core to U.S. history. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And here is Drew in Chicago, Illinois, Independent. | |
| Hi, Drew. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, I can. | ||
| Right. | ||
| So, about the public schools, like, well, I myself am a student, and I go to a public school in Chicago. | ||
| And just what I've noticed is, I mean, in relation to 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| It seems like there's constantly this drive to make people kind of hate ourselves and to kind of villainize ourselves. | ||
| And I think it's having a really bad effect. | ||
| What grade are you in, Drew? |