Speaker 1: It's night time with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Easy
Speaker 1: Boston's Radio.
Speaker 2: All right again, we're going to close the books on
Speaker 2: that story out of Connecticut. It was an appalling story.
Speaker 2: Not happy about it, but I wish more people responded
Speaker 2: to it because I think it was It is indicative
Speaker 2: of where we are, where we have gone as a
Speaker 2: country in terms of our concern for our physical neighbors.
Speaker 2: You know, the people who live on our block, in
Speaker 2: our streat, on our street, in our apartment complex. How
Speaker 2: many of those people do you really know? And take
Speaker 2: it into taking into some consideration, because I think that
Speaker 2: it's great to think about all great programs and all
Speaker 2: of that, but when it comes down to it, this country,
Speaker 2: and by extension, all of us left this young man. Now. Anyway,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to preach that. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: preach at you tonight, that's for sure. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about Donald Trump's effort to dismantle the Department of Education.
Speaker 2: So let's put some context on it here, and I'd
Speaker 2: love to hear from you. If you think it's a
Speaker 2: great idea, great if you think it's not a great idea,
Speaker 2: let me hear either way. The Department of Education has
Speaker 2: been a target of many Republican presidents over the years
Speaker 2: and and Republican presidential candidates. I do not know the
Speaker 2: precise scope of the department, but like any federal agency,
Speaker 2: the one word that you could use to describe it
Speaker 2: would be big. It was created by Congress in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy eight nineteen seventy nine, when Jimmy Carter was president.
Speaker 2: Now I have not gone back and read the Congressional
Speaker 2: record on this, but my suspicion is that at that
Speaker 2: time in our country, the feeling probably was that there
Speaker 2: were states like Massachusetts, and I guess probably Connecticut and
Speaker 2: New York, which are doing a pretty good job educating
Speaker 2: their students, and there were other states around the country
Speaker 2: that didn't have as much wealth as states like Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: New York, maybe New Jersey, Connecticut, and that it would
Speaker 2: be better for kids in whatever state they were born,
Speaker 2: children whichever a state they were born, who have support
Speaker 2: from the federal government. So the Department of Education was created,
Speaker 2: and of course it's been funded by Congress now for
Speaker 2: forty five forty six years. It has been funded by
Speaker 2: Democratic legislatures and Republican legislatures. It's been supported by Republican
Speaker 2: presidents and Democratic presidents. President Trump who is doing things
Speaker 2: at an incredible rate, whether you agree with him or not,
Speaker 2: I mean, it just seems that every day he's taking
Speaker 2: on four or five battles. He spoke today late today, however, earlier,
Speaker 2: his Press Secretary Caroline Levitt spoke about this, and we
Speaker 2: were a couple of soundbites from her addressing some of
Speaker 2: the concerns and the criticisms. First of all, before I
Speaker 2: go to that, the White House released a statement today,
Speaker 2: which they do a lot of statements. This one is
Speaker 2: on education and President Trump knows we can do better.
Speaker 2: This was released today. Since nineteen seventy nine, the Department
Speaker 2: of Education has spent over three trillion dollars with virtually
Speaker 2: nothing to show for it. Despite per pupil spending having
Speaker 2: increased by more than two hundred and forty five five
Speaker 2: percent over that period, there's been virtually no measurable improvements
Speaker 2: in student achievement. Talks about math and reading scores for
Speaker 2: thirteen year old's lowest level in decades, six and ten
Speaker 2: fourth graders are in Nearly three quarters of eighth graders
Speaker 2: are not proficient in math. That's bad. Seven and ten
Speaker 2: fourth graders, fourth and eighth graders are not proficient in reading,
Speaker 2: while forty percent of fourth grade students don't even meet
Speaker 2: basic reading levels. Now you can look back and say, well,
Speaker 2: these students, these were the kids who were most impacted
Speaker 2: by COVID nineteen, twenty twenty eight, twenty twenty one, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two. Standardized test scores have remained flat for decades.
Speaker 2: US students ranked twenty eight out of thirty seven countries
Speaker 2: in math. So, of course the president talks about his
Speaker 2: bold action. He's going to return education where it belongs
Speaker 2: with individual states, which your best positioned to administer affective
Speaker 2: programs in service is that benefit their own unique populations
Speaker 2: and needs, Instead of a bloated federal system that burdened
Speaker 2: schools with regulations in paperwork. The Trump administration believed states
Speaker 2: should be empowered to expand the educational freedom and opportunity
Speaker 2: for all families. Okay, those remarks were echoed by the
Speaker 2: White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt rob if you'd be
Speaker 2: so kind cut twenty four place.
Speaker 3: Where was their criticism of our nation's failing test scores
Speaker 3: for the last several decades? The Department of Education was
Speaker 3: founded in the nineteen seventies, and since then we have
Speaker 3: spent more than three trillion dollars at this federal bureaucracy.
Speaker 3: What has been the return on that investment for the
Speaker 3: American taxpayer? Levels that are less than ideal, less than proficient.
Speaker 3: Our children's test scores are incredibly concerning when it comes
Speaker 3: to reading rates, literacy rates, math and science test scores.
Speaker 3: The numbers prove that, and the President is finally, this
Speaker 3: president is by taking much needed action to return education
Speaker 3: to where it belongs, and that's to educators closest to
Speaker 3: students in their classrooms in their respective states.
Speaker 2: So that's pretty strong indictment of the federal rule over education.
Speaker 2: I mean, for the first two hundred years of the country,
Speaker 2: we did pretty well educationally without a Department of Education.
Speaker 2: Many of you, like me, completed our elementary, middle and
Speaker 2: high school education without benefit of a federal Department of Education.
Speaker 2: And like anything else ament once a government agency is created,
Speaker 2: they stick around for a long time. There are a
Speaker 2: lot of people who did very well had careers in
Speaker 2: Washington and elsewhere. But are kids any better off today?
Speaker 2: I don't know. This is one more sound bite from
Speaker 2: Caroline Levitt, which I think encapsulates what the Trump administration
Speaker 2: would like to do.
Speaker 3: Cut twenty five, so the Department of Education will be
Speaker 3: much smaller than it is today. As you know, the
Speaker 3: President's executive Order directed Linda McMahon to greatly minimize the agency.
Speaker 3: So when it comes to student loans and pelgrants, those
Speaker 3: will still be run out of the Department of Education.
Speaker 3: But we don't need to be spending more than three
Speaker 3: trillion dollars over the course of a few decades on
Speaker 3: a department that's clearly failing in its initial intention to
Speaker 3: educate our students.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she said, Pelgrant student loans will be administered by
Speaker 2: the Department of Education in a much stripped down form,
Speaker 2: and then other included of that will also, I guess
Speaker 2: be Title I and funding for students with disabilities, others
Speaker 2: funds which might be transferred other obligations of the Department
Speaker 2: of Education could be transferred to the Small Business Administration
Speaker 2: of Commerce Department. The bottom line is Donald Trump is
Speaker 2: thinking about doing things differently, and most people don't like change.
Speaker 2: I think that's and of course anybody who is working
Speaker 2: at the Department of Education does not like change. But
Speaker 2: when you look at the amount of money that we
Speaker 2: have spent on public education. When you look at the
Speaker 2: amount of money that has gone to teachers all over
Speaker 2: the country, we're talking about you know, billions of dollars,
Speaker 2: trillions of dollars. And most teachers I think do a
Speaker 2: great job. They do the best job they can. And
Speaker 2: I know that society has changed in the last few
Speaker 2: decades and all of that, but the bottom line is
Speaker 2: the teachers' unions, the union leadership has not allowed for
Speaker 2: as much innovation and opportunity as I would have liked.
Speaker 2: I would have liked to have seen more charter schools.
Speaker 2: I would like to see more private schools. I would
Speaker 2: like to see money that parents pay in their local taxes,
Speaker 2: your real estate taxes, for example, if you live in
Speaker 2: a city or a town, A lot of that goes
Speaker 2: to the up upkeep of the local middle schools, elementary schools,
Speaker 2: and high school So we're going to change it up.
Speaker 2: If our statistics were off the chart and the US
Speaker 2: was doing better than any country in the world, I
Speaker 2: would argue, why change it. But everything that we've seen,
Speaker 2: we keep seeing all of these scores that are not improving,
Speaker 2: and look, I like to joke. And I say this
Speaker 2: in all honesty. I want kids to be educated, and
Speaker 2: I've always wanted them to be educated as much as possible, uh,
Speaker 2: not necessarily at all. Go to college, Some going to
Speaker 2: go to college, some go to go to trade schools.
Speaker 2: I think we need more people who are looking to
Speaker 2: actually start businesses and uh and become electricians and plumbers
Speaker 2: and craftsmen and heating and ac uh technicians and roofers
Speaker 2: and all and plumbers and all the skills that we need.
Speaker 2: And those people will have a lifetime of occupational professional
Speaker 2: professional security. If you're a plumber, if you're an electrician,
Speaker 2: You're never going to be without a job. It's as
Speaker 2: simple as that. So are you worried? Are you worried?
Speaker 2: I'm not. I say I think it is time to,
Speaker 2: you know, change it up. Let's see if we can
Speaker 2: get our students in a better case. The final point
Speaker 2: I'd like to make, and I want to hear you
Speaker 2: whether you agree or disagree, is that each community, each
Speaker 2: state knows what type of education they need for their students.
Speaker 2: In a state like Massachusetts or Rhode Island or Connecticut,
Speaker 2: we have different needs than more rural states. I think
Speaker 2: not only of parts of New Hampshire and Vermont and Maine.
Speaker 2: You have New England. There's really six states, but three
Speaker 2: of more rural New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and three of
Speaker 2: more urban Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Doesn't mean we
Speaker 2: don't have rural areas, doesn't mean that New Hampshire and
Speaker 2: Vermont don't have cities and towns. But on a whole,
Speaker 2: it's quite different, very different feels to those states. Needless
Speaker 2: to say, states across the country go to Kansas, go
Speaker 2: to Oklahoma, go to Texas. Very different world. In Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: we don't need a one size fits all. And by
Speaker 2: the way, all the money that comes to Massachusett, it's
Speaker 2: from Washington that all the politicians are don't we're losing
Speaker 2: those money. Who are losing that money. Guess where Washington
Speaker 2: gets the money? They they don't have trees down their
Speaker 2: money trees. We send our taxes to Washington. People in
Speaker 2: all other states send their taxes to Washington. And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say the money gets laundered down there, which has
Speaker 2: of course a bad term. But the money, some of
Speaker 2: it goes to support Washington, and then we get some
Speaker 2: of it that comes back. Now, maybe there are some
Speaker 2: states that send less money and get more back, and
Speaker 2: I know that that argument is made, but I think
Speaker 2: Massachusetts sends, on a per capital basis, much more money
Speaker 2: down than we get back. You can't. You're only gonna
Speaker 2: be able to get so much, and you're never gonna
Speaker 2: get more than one hundred percent. In my opinion, six
Speaker 2: seven four thirty, six seven nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Is it time to bring the education of our kids
Speaker 2: in our respective states back home to our respective states.
Speaker 2: And if you're a teacher, talk to me. Tell me
Speaker 2: why I'm right, or tell me why I'm wrong. If
Speaker 2: you're an educational professional, tell me what the problem is.
Speaker 2: If some of these programs are brought back to each
Speaker 2: state and are patterned for the students in each at
Speaker 2: every at each and every different state. Back on nights
Speaker 2: out after.
Speaker 1: This, Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window
Speaker 1: World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Throw over, a couple of folks call and drop off.
Speaker 2: If you're too shy, don't call. And if you're going
Speaker 2: to call a talk show, Rob is not going to
Speaker 2: take a message from you and say, oh, one of
Speaker 2: our call has said this, No, this talk show gives
Speaker 2: you an opportunity to speak to the eastern half of
Speaker 2: the United States. That's all I can do for you.
Speaker 2: Six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty, six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. Education everything ends up. Look,
Speaker 2: here's the Washington has some responsibilities. There's no question about that.
Speaker 2: They have to run the government. Uh, they run Congress.
Speaker 2: They they we have to support the White House. When
Speaker 2: I when I say the White House, we have to
Speaker 2: fund at the White House, fund the Supreme Court, fun Congress.
Speaker 2: We all need to pay for an army and a navy,
Speaker 2: and the Marines and the Air Force and all of that.
Speaker 2: But beyond that, there's a few other things that that
Speaker 2: I think are important. You know, federal programs, ocean programs
Speaker 2: are important, FDA programs are important. But when you get
Speaker 2: to education, I think that's a state obligation. I really do. Uh,
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm not freaked out about it. Maybe
Speaker 2: you are six one seven ten thirty or six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. Let me start off with
Speaker 2: Steven Lynn. Steve love to know what your thought is
Speaker 2: on this. Thanks so much for calling it right head.
Speaker 4: Hey, Dan, it seems like I always call you about
Speaker 4: education issues. I spoke to you a months ago.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm happy you do. Are you involved in education
Speaker 2: as well? Give me a perspective.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a wife who's a teacher, and you know, involved
Speaker 4: in the school systems and whatnot. But hey, so I
Speaker 4: agree that the Department of Education spends more money than
Speaker 4: the benefits that they generate. You've made a statement that
Speaker 4: you know the money goes to the teachers. It doesn't
Speaker 4: go to the teachers. It goes to bureaucrats and administrators.
Speaker 4: There's a superintendent, a super assistant superintendent, there's a curriculum instructor.
Speaker 4: There's all of these administrative positions that have been created
Speaker 4: because of the Department of Education that do not benefit
Speaker 4: students directly. And the money is certainly not going into
Speaker 4: the classrooms. It's going to everybody else but the people
Speaker 4: who need it. And I agree that block funding back
Speaker 4: to the States is the way to go.
Speaker 2: By the way, unless you have a question, don't hang up,
Speaker 2: because I want to make sure that I'm clear with you.
Speaker 2: First of all, thank you for that clarification. What I
Speaker 2: meant to say was that in order to have a
Speaker 2: school system, whether it's funded by in large part by
Speaker 2: the federal government or funded in large part by Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: The backbone of the school system are the teachers. I
Speaker 2: don't have a beef with the teachers because I've watched
Speaker 2: teachers I worked as when my kids were young, because
Speaker 2: I was working nights on Channel four, I worked as
Speaker 2: a teacher's aid once a month or so. Every parent
Speaker 2: had to be the teacher's aid, you know, in the
Speaker 2: school where my kids wet. But but you're right when
Speaker 2: you talk about the structure that has built, the superintendents
Speaker 2: and the assistant superintendents, You're absolutely right. That's the bureaucracy
Speaker 2: that does nothing to educate kids or very little to
Speaker 2: educate kids. The teacher. The education occurs in the classroom,
Speaker 2: There's no question about that. And all the money that
Speaker 2: either is taken out of your property taxes or comes
Speaker 2: back money that you sent in your income taxes to Washington,
Speaker 2: all of that does not go directly to the teachers.
Speaker 2: And what the most of it that doesn't go to
Speaker 2: teachers doesn't really help with education. So I agree with
Speaker 2: your pointed and I'll take your criticism if it was
Speaker 2: intended as a criticism.
Speaker 4: Now, just just a clarification that's fine.
Speaker 2: I like the word clarification better, but but I can
Speaker 2: still take it as a criticism. Don't worry about it, Okay.
Speaker 4: All right, thanks Dan, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks Steve, talk to you soon. Six triple eight nine
Speaker 2: ten thirty. I think this is an important question. Let
Speaker 2: me ask you this, and maybe I have to simplify
Speaker 2: it to get people to respond to this issue. The
Speaker 2: Trump administration is basically changing the relationship of the state
Speaker 2: to the federal government. Okay, A lot of power now
Speaker 2: is existing at the federal level. We've seen it in
Speaker 2: so many different ways. This is one that I agree
Speaker 2: with Trump on. I don't agree with all of them,
Speaker 2: but this is one that I think can be returned
Speaker 2: to the states, meaning the government that is closest to
Speaker 2: you in whether it's the Massachusetts government or even better
Speaker 2: than that, the town in which you live. If there
Speaker 2: are wealthy towns, they can provide they don't need support
Speaker 2: from Washington other federal government. As much as poorer communities
Speaker 2: want to support poorer communities, that's fine. We can. We
Speaker 2: can have programs like that that if the city has
Speaker 2: whatever the percentages of students that there were ways to
Speaker 2: figure this out. There are ways to get money either
Speaker 2: through the state camp or from Washington to communities to help.
Speaker 2: But the system we have right now is not working.
Speaker 2: And if the system isn't working that we have right now,
Speaker 2: and it seems to be taking us in the wrong direction,
Speaker 2: why stay with it? That's my question. Love to hear
Speaker 2: from you if you have an interest in the education system.
Speaker 2: One of the reasons I have a great interest in
Speaker 2: the education system is I have a grandson. He's only
Speaker 2: two and a half. He's going to be going into
Speaker 2: the education system. He's going to learn a lot for
Speaker 2: me and my family before he goes in the education system.
Speaker 2: I have sung the alphabet to him as I did
Speaker 2: to my own children. I want him to have every opportunity.
Speaker 2: I want every child to have every opportunity. But I
Speaker 2: don't think the best way to give kids an opportunity
Speaker 2: is to simply continue to send our money on a
Speaker 2: pipeline to Washington. Have Washington take a lot of that money,
Speaker 2: keep it, keep it in Washington, spend it on the
Speaker 2: bureaucrats or whatever in Washington, and then send some of
Speaker 2: it back to Massachusetts and the other forty nine states
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five, four, ten, thirty six, one, seven, nine, three, one,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. Here's a simple question. If you're satisfied with
Speaker 2: our public education system today, you should oppose what President
Speaker 2: Trump is doing. If you're dissatisfied with it, and whether
Speaker 2: you have kids in the school system or not, you
Speaker 2: can read the studies that say the kids are not
Speaker 2: doing well in math and reading scores. If you're dissatisfied
Speaker 2: with the public education system, and if you want more
Speaker 2: options for education generally I eat more charter schools, more,
Speaker 2: more opportunity for homeschooling, more parochial schools, all of that,
Speaker 2: all of that, you should support this. We'll be back
Speaker 2: on Night's side. I got a bunch of lines here,
Speaker 2: fill them up, coming back right after the news at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1: If you're on Night Side with Dan Ray on wz
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: If, by the way, you have kids in school right now,
Speaker 2: I'd love to know how you feel they're doing. And
Speaker 2: if they're in a public school, private school, or whatever.
Speaker 2: Love to know. And you don't have to tell us
Speaker 2: what school system they're in. If you want to, you can.
Speaker 2: And if you think your school system is doing a
Speaker 2: great job, for whatever, your taxes, your pay I love
Speaker 2: to know are you getting a bang for your buck,
Speaker 2: because I'll tell you your kids only have one shot at
Speaker 2: those twelve grades from first grade to twelve. It's as
Speaker 2: simple as that. And when it's over, it's over. Believe me,
Speaker 2: it can be over pretty quickly. I've gone through it.
Speaker 2: It doesn't when you don't. When you're there, it doesn't
Speaker 2: seem like it's going quickly, but it goes real quickly.
Speaker 2: Joe is in Revere. Hey Joe, next on Nightside, How are.
Speaker 5: You can thank you for taking my call?
Speaker 6: I welcome.
Speaker 5: One of the thing that's going on is a lot
Speaker 5: of people think mister Trump is trying to I'm sorry,
Speaker 5: President Trump is trying to cut benefits for kids in
Speaker 5: wheelchairs and stuff like that, and they're not going to
Speaker 5: get the education they need. They're totally wrong. He's just
Speaker 5: trying to transfer that into who's supposed to be taking
Speaker 5: care of it. So he's aliminating a department as like
Speaker 5: you said, they're not producing and the state and government
Speaker 5: is supposed to be handling these things anyway, not a
Speaker 5: total different department.
Speaker 2: Well, as I said, Joe as Education, you know, Joe,
Speaker 2: as I said, the Department of Education was founded. I
Speaker 2: was created in seven, in nineteen seventy nine, not seventeen
Speaker 2: seventy nine or eighteen seventy nine. So we dive as
Speaker 2: a country for over two hundred years without a department
Speaker 2: of education, and arguably we did better. We produced a
Speaker 2: lot of great business people, we produced great athletes, we
Speaker 2: produced great businesses, we create we produced great leaders in
Speaker 2: those two hundred years we didn't have a Department of education.
Speaker 2: And now we're looking at all of these reports that
Speaker 2: say the reading scores are down, the math scores are down,
Speaker 2: so you know a lot of kids are getting left behind.
Speaker 5: Yes, my son is in special education himself, graduating this
Speaker 5: year and I'm trying to do college for him.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: The forums and stuff very tough.
Speaker 2: Those Yeah, Okay, where's he looking at?
Speaker 7: Where's he looking to? All right?
Speaker 5: Dan, I can't send him an all his dame, buddy,
Speaker 5: He's going to try Trinity College.
Speaker 2: And what's wrong with that? Wait a second, what's wrong?
Speaker 5: I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't, Joe, Joe, There's nothing wrong with community. Joe,
Speaker 2: listen to me, please, I'm trying to have a conversation
Speaker 2: with you. This community colleges are great. First, First of all,
Speaker 2: you're not on the rat race where you got to
Speaker 2: get it done in four years. Maybe his pace of
Speaker 2: learning is a little faster, maybe it's a little slower,
Speaker 2: but you rack up those credits and then you take
Speaker 2: those credits to a state college. I graduated from Boston
Speaker 2: State College. That's not even in existence anymore. So, believe me,
Speaker 2: there are some of the most successful people I know.
Speaker 2: Some of the most successful people I know did not
Speaker 2: go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, did not go to Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: You know, So your son's your son's going to be fine.
Speaker 2: What is he? Yeah, we're having we're talking over each
Speaker 2: other here a lot you so this beer with me
Speaker 2: for a second? Do you have a headset on or
Speaker 2: something or are you having trouble hearing me?
Speaker 5: No, let me let me totally shut the way you
Speaker 5: off altogether.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The radio being shut off is a great idea
Speaker 2: because what happens, folks, as Rob has explained to you,
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's a ten second delay. So what happens
Speaker 2: is if you're listening to the radio, that kills the conversation, Joe,
Speaker 2: because that's ten seconds ahead of where you want to be. Okay,
Speaker 2: tell me when you get the radio off, Joe. I
Speaker 2: don't want to rush you take your time. It's off, off,
Speaker 2: it's off. Okay, now can you hear me pretty well?
Speaker 2: Absolutely excellent. There's stills a delay here. I don't know
Speaker 2: what sort of phone we're on. What does your son
Speaker 2: want to do? You said, he's got to.
Speaker 5: Look, I don't buy a motoroller and you'll be fine. Dan, Okay, yes, yes,
Speaker 5: you're killing my show, Joe.
Speaker 2: You're killing play show.
Speaker 7: Outside, Joe.
Speaker 2: Look, thank you, thank you for the call. Best of
Speaker 2: luck with your son. Get him into a community college
Speaker 2: and he's going to do great. Uh and he will.
Speaker 2: He will exceed your expectations. Trust me on that. Okay,
Speaker 2: and get a new phone. Get a new phone. Rob,
Speaker 2: you got to emphasize to everybody that, as I'm sure
Speaker 2: you do. Keep the radio off. Jennifer is in Brockdon Jennifer,
Speaker 2: you're next on Nights Side. I hope you got a
Speaker 2: better phone than Joe had. Go ahead, Jennifer.
Speaker 8: Hi, Dan, So, I have two daughters, ones in high school,
Speaker 8: ones in middle school. My older daughter has had a great,
Speaker 8: good experience in public school. She's done well, she was
Speaker 8: an honor she's in a vocational school. She's top of
Speaker 8: her class, she's working an electrical company, headed straight into
Speaker 8: the union, doing great. Yeah, the school system has done
Speaker 8: well for her, but in a district, it has not
Speaker 8: done the same for a majority of the students, you know,
Speaker 8: and you know, there's a lot of reasons that I
Speaker 8: can be a factor behind that. But really what I
Speaker 8: wanted to talk about was my younger daughter. My younger
Speaker 8: daughter was born with disability, so she had developmental delay
Speaker 8: and it you know, continued, so then it was persistent
Speaker 8: developmental delay. And then over the years we learned more
Speaker 8: about diagnoses and whatnot, and it took It was a process,
Speaker 8: and I had the support of many good teachers, and
Speaker 8: I felt trusted. I felt like I could trust the process.
Speaker 8: I felt like I could trust the team. I felt
Speaker 8: like we were all working together and that was great
Speaker 8: up until fifth grade. And then as she was getting
Speaker 8: ready for middle school, I didn't feel like she was
Speaker 8: ready prepared and that we needed to do more. We
Speaker 8: needed to learn more, do more, testing, understand more. And
Speaker 8: came to realization that she had actually had She was
Speaker 8: getting by, but turns out she has reading and writing
Speaker 8: disability dyslexia. So we had multiple meetings, and I agree
Speaker 8: with the problem about you know, administration taking a bulk
Speaker 8: of the money from the federal government that the state
Speaker 8: distributes and not get into the classroom. I agree with that,
Speaker 8: and but I worry about eliminating the Department of Education
Speaker 8: because there is a lot of protective mechanisms in place
Speaker 8: that I've utilized the last two years. So I've been,
Speaker 8: you know, managing all by myself her advocates for her
Speaker 8: whole life until last year where we talked about placement.
Speaker 8: I got the team to acknowledge her needs and that
Speaker 8: she would need certain type of instruction in the classroom.
Speaker 8: And I thought that we were all fat But when
Speaker 8: she reached the new school, nothing was in place as
Speaker 8: it was supposed to be. So called meeting blah blah blah.
Speaker 8: I knew my rights, but basically I felt dismissed, like
Speaker 8: completely totally.
Speaker 2: What grade level? What grade level is your daughter at
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 8: She's seventh now, so okay, so you.
Speaker 2: Have some time, Uh, you have some time? What grade?
Speaker 2: What grade level does she read at? Where? Where was
Speaker 2: she shared? Okay, so she's got a gap to ok Yeah,
Speaker 2: how much of that?
Speaker 8: We've also learned that she has just calculadys calcula dysgraphia.
Speaker 8: Her disabilities are, you know, not as simple as what
Speaker 8: I had understood. And how I got to that point
Speaker 8: was through hiring an advocate, learning more about my rights
Speaker 8: in the process, and kind of pushing the district they
Speaker 8: could like like literally like I felt like they were
Speaker 8: dismissing me. But once I got the advocate and then
Speaker 8: she knew what I what my rights were, and how
Speaker 8: to proceed and navigate, It's been difficult. It's funds like
Speaker 8: literally a year and a half of how but finally
Speaker 8: like we're in agreement. It's been a long process and
Speaker 8: oh man, I am so this year we've had good teachers.
Speaker 8: Last year not so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you sound exhausted just trying to have a conversation
Speaker 2: with you here, Jennifer You.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I know, I am.
Speaker 6: It's yea.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying that you've you've you've said so many
Speaker 2: things that I wanted to comment on and I've kind
Speaker 2: of let it go here. Uh, you sound to me
Speaker 2: like you're emotionally exhausted from what you've gone. Yeah, No,
Speaker 2: I unders said that. I'm just telling you that you
Speaker 2: sound to me that like you're emotionally exhausted, You have
Speaker 2: two daughters, your your older daughter is about to graduate.
Speaker 2: It sounds like she's she's pretty much all set right,
Speaker 2: pretty much? Yeah, pretty much? Okay? Who has come forward
Speaker 2: in the school department in Brockton to help you? Has
Speaker 2: anyone come forward? I mean, you know, obviously.
Speaker 8: I had to go outside of the school to the
Speaker 8: you know, the main headquarters, to the department all the
Speaker 8: way up like literally, like our meetings are now, you know,
Speaker 8: we're not just the usual team. We also have like
Speaker 8: you know, the chairs, the co chairs, the department heads.
Speaker 8: Those are the people that are in my meetings with
Speaker 8: me and my advocate.
Speaker 2: Now, so you got to the point I'm trying to make, Jennifer,
Speaker 2: is this your daughter? Instead of that money being used
Speaker 2: for uh, let's say, additional teachers or another you know,
Speaker 2: a teaching assistant who could be assigned to your daughter,
Speaker 2: it sounds to me like that that money is own
Speaker 2: to all of these people you're meeting with, and they're
Speaker 2: not doing anything for your daughter other than sitting in
Speaker 2: a meeting with you. And that's what's the problem with
Speaker 2: our system. It seems to me that there's just too much,
Speaker 2: too much administration. I mean, look, I don't know how
Speaker 2: many children in your school are like your daughter, but
Speaker 2: your daughter obviously is needs some additional assistance, okay, and
Speaker 2: it should have been provided to her. Go ahead. You
Speaker 2: said you had something you wanted to say. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to interrupt you. Go ahead, No, go right ahead,
Speaker 2: you go. No, no, no, you go because you got something.
Speaker 2: You want to say something else. I was going to
Speaker 2: say something, but go ahead.
Speaker 8: The whole district is struggling. Like I say, my daughter
Speaker 8: has disability, but she's doing well. We like I've made
Speaker 8: sure I meet with all her teachers. I am on
Speaker 8: top of things, and I'm making sure that we're doing
Speaker 8: the best that we can. But as far as like
Speaker 8: she does with her I don't want to compare her
Speaker 8: with her peers. But you know, there are children without
Speaker 8: disability that she's doing just as well as they are
Speaker 8: with a disability. So I don't want to make it
Speaker 8: seem like the you know, the special Department is stilled
Speaker 8: my daughter. They haven't entirely.
Speaker 2: Someone's failed your daughter, Jennifer. I don't think it's you,
Speaker 2: but but it sounds to me like your daughter did
Speaker 2: not get the help she needed first grade, second grade,
Speaker 2: third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade. Jennifer, I'm up
Speaker 2: on my break. I wish I could have more conversation
Speaker 2: with you, but I can't tell you how much, how
Speaker 2: badly I feel for you. Don't give up, don't.
Speaker 8: I wanted to give a different perspective because you know, Oh,
Speaker 8: I got it.
Speaker 2: I got the perspective. I got it. I got it, Jennifer.
Speaker 2: I wish I could have given you some some better,
Speaker 2: better advice, but I know that she's got a good
Speaker 2: advocate than you. Thanks, Thanks so much, thank you, good
Speaker 2: luck luck you two back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Let me get i Leen in here quickly. She's been
Speaker 2: waiting on the longest I lean. Next on Nightside. Your
Speaker 2: thoughts on what President Trump is doing.
Speaker 6: I think it's a very good idea. I am. I
Speaker 6: think that the the control needs to be more local,
Speaker 6: not not nationwide. And I just thought i'd share my
Speaker 6: own experience. I am. I went through teacher training at
Speaker 6: UMass Boston after the company I worked for went out
Speaker 6: of business, Digital Equipment Corporation, and then I was I
Speaker 6: had a wonderful, wonderful student teaching experience. But then I
Speaker 6: was unable to find a job because the jobs were
Speaker 6: all tied up in tenure. But I ended up with
Speaker 6: a level four class, which was these were children who
Speaker 6: were considered, you know, not educable.
Speaker 2: Or were you teaching? Were you teaching in Boston? Where
Speaker 2: were you teaching?
Speaker 6: Well, I was teaching in a suburb.
Speaker 2: No problem, okay, yeah, And so what happened.
Speaker 6: When I went into the class. I ended up taking
Speaker 6: over the class because the teacher had had tenure, but
Speaker 6: she was up against her last semester and just a
Speaker 6: that she wasn't going to work the last semester that
Speaker 6: she taught. So I inherited this class. And I loved those.
Speaker 2: Early early retirement I guess right.
Speaker 6: But these kids said to me, we don't want to
Speaker 6: learn any We don't want to learn nothing, they said.
Speaker 8: And I said, but.
Speaker 6: Anyway, I I explored with them subjects areas that might
Speaker 6: be of interest, like well, you know, this was I
Speaker 6: was teaching chemistry in high school. So I said, oh,
Speaker 6: chemistry is cover so many interesting fields. And you know,
Speaker 6: I made a few suggestions nah, And then I said,
Speaker 6: well what about drugs?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, man drugs.
Speaker 2: That you found out something they were interested in. Well again, teachers,
Speaker 2: you have to you were innovative and that's and that
Speaker 2: you should have. You would have been a great teacher
Speaker 2: if you stuck with it. Eileen, I got my friend
Speaker 2: Harvey Silverglada on here and I want to get him
Speaker 2: in just before the eleven o'clock news. As always, thank
Speaker 2: you for that's a very interesting occupational experience you've shared
Speaker 2: with us tonight. Thanks for what you did.
Speaker 6: Okay, thanks appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Good night. Let's go to Harvey. Harvey, gonna get you
Speaker 2: in here before the eleven o'clock news. Going ahead, Harvey.
Speaker 7: The Department of Education has nothing to do with a
Speaker 7: solution to public education. Just like a clock that's right
Speaker 7: twice a day that where it's not working. The Trump
Speaker 7: administration is right about this one. The problem of the
Speaker 7: teachers unions. If you have a reader teachers union's contract,
Speaker 7: it's unbelievable. You cannot get rid of a bad teacher.
Speaker 7: The solutions to public education is to get rid of
Speaker 7: the unions. I'm a great supporter of unions in the
Speaker 7: private sector and a great opponent in the public sector.
Speaker 7: And that's because in the public sector. There's only one side.
Speaker 7: In the private sector. Management is operating with the shareholders
Speaker 7: money and the teachers' union and the lady union is
Speaker 7: on the other side for own financial interest. The public schools,
Speaker 7: you have only one side, it's the taxpayers. And so
Speaker 7: public education has a huge union problem and the Trump
Speaker 7: administration has zero to do with it.
Speaker 2: And by the way, we're going to see here in
Speaker 2: Massachusetts in the years ahead and maybe in the very
Speaker 2: near years ahead, a push to legal teacher strikes here
Speaker 2: at Massachusetts, and when that happens, it's going to get
Speaker 2: real ugly in terms of education in my opinion.
Speaker 7: Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's the analysis. Harvey is, as always is
Speaker 2: right right on the money. I almost called you last
Speaker 2: week on a couple of the constitutional issues, and maybe
Speaker 2: we can talk sometime in the next couple of days
Speaker 2: over some of the deportations that are being considered and
Speaker 2: obviously some of the cases that are being brought up
Speaker 2: by various district court judges around the country, and I'd
Speaker 2: love to get your perspective on that as well, if
Speaker 2: you if you have some time, yep.
Speaker 9: All right, thanks, Harvey. I will talk to you in
Speaker 9: the next few days. Thank you, my friend has always
Speaker 9: and thanks for weighing in on this tonight. You put
Speaker 9: it in perspective precisely. There's nothing that I can add
Speaker 9: to what you just set. Thanks my friend. We'll talk soon,
Speaker 9: Harvey Silver Glate. Ladies and gentlemen. Thanks Harvey. He nailed it.
Speaker 9: He nailed it. And again, I don't want to make
Speaker 9: this into an anti teachers union, but I think it's
Speaker 9: important that we at least consider it. We'll be back
Speaker 9: on Nightside right after the eleven.
Speaker 2: If you want to talk about this, great, If not,
Speaker 2: we can, we'll go to a couple of other topics.
Speaker 2: I think this is fascinating because it's our future. The
Speaker 2: kids we're educating today will pay your Social Security next tomorrow.
Speaker 2: That's why we all have a stake in the education
Speaker 2: of these kids. We're coming back on Nightside.