Speaker 1: It's somewhat amazing to behold, but so much of the
Speaker 1: election is actually hinging not on how you know, how
Speaker 1: the ten thousand stupidest people in Pennsylvania are going to vote.
Speaker 1: I was actually looking at this the other day. It's
Speaker 1: all gonna come down to Pennsylvania. I'm now more and
Speaker 1: more convinced whoever wins Pennsylvania is winning this thing.
Speaker 2: That's it. That's like the long and short of it.
Speaker 1: Because it looks like Trump's gonna win a couple of
Speaker 1: states that he's winning, and the one state that's still
Speaker 1: standing on a knife is Pennsylvania. So this is the
Speaker 1: American way. The fate of the entire world, the fate
Speaker 1: of the free world, rests in the hands of the
Speaker 1: ten thousand stupidest people in Pennsylvania who still have not
Speaker 1: made up their minds about whether they like Donald Trump
Speaker 1: or not. Now regardless, there's another place that is basically
Speaker 1: the battleground for the country, and that is right here
Speaker 1: in California. I don't know how many of you, within
Speaker 1: the sound of my voice have turned on a television
Speaker 1: in the last month and a half, but you have
Speaker 1: been bombarded by non stop ads for or against two
Speaker 1: different people, John Duarte and David Valadeo. So, John Duarte
Speaker 1: is running for congress. He is up north, David Valadeo's
Speaker 1: down south. Duarte. His congressional seat involves a lot of
Speaker 1: pretty much all of them are Said County, a lot
Speaker 1: of Madera County, Santosous County, San Joaquin County up north.
Speaker 1: David Valadeo has King's County, parts of Toularry County. I
Speaker 1: think he goes into current county, et cetera. So David
Speaker 1: Valadeo South, John Darte North. Duarte is running against Adam Gray,
Speaker 1: a former member of the California State Legislature, as is
Speaker 1: David Valdeo running against Rudy Sallas, a longtime member of
Speaker 1: the California State Assembly. And you are seeing NonStop constant
Speaker 1: ads for or against these two people.
Speaker 2: Why well, the whole fate of much of.
Speaker 1: What could happen over the next four years is going
Speaker 1: to be determined by who wins those two races. Let
Speaker 1: me explain the ways. Right now, Republicans control the House
Speaker 1: Representatives by an incredibly narrow margin. It is with well
Speaker 1: within the realm of possibility that Democrats could take the House.
Speaker 1: And there are so many different outcomes that one side
Speaker 1: or the other controlling the House could alter. Allow me
Speaker 1: to relate all the ways. Let's suppose Donald Trump wins,
Speaker 1: but Democrats take the House. Trump will be impeached at
Speaker 1: least one more time, at least one more time, possibly
Speaker 1: two times.
Speaker 2: God knows.
Speaker 1: God knows how many times are they going to impeach him.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but that's on the table. They could
Speaker 1: have non stop impeachment inquiries because when you control one,
Speaker 1: when you control the House, you can start impeachment hearings.
Speaker 1: And when you control one house or the other, you
Speaker 1: have subpoena power. You can investigate things for the sake
Speaker 1: of legislation, you can interview witnesses, et cetera. So they
Speaker 1: could have January sixth Committee style hearings for all kinds
Speaker 1: of things. Plus with the January sixth Committee, they've now
Speaker 1: established this precedent that you know, if Democrats have a majority,
Speaker 1: they are going to they will, for some politically charged cause,
Speaker 1: they will set up committees where they will not allow
Speaker 1: Republicans to pick the people that they necessarily want to
Speaker 1: pick to be the minority on the committee. So you
Speaker 1: can have incredibly biased presentations of facts et cetera. Now,
Speaker 1: if Democrats take control of the House and Trump wins,
Speaker 1: that could happen. But here's the other big thing. Let's
Speaker 1: suppose Democrats get the trifecta. I think it's the most
Speaker 1: unlikely scenario is the idea of Democrats taking the Senate
Speaker 1: or retaining the Senate. I think pretty much universally people
Speaker 1: think Republicans are going to take and whole are going
Speaker 1: to take back the Senate. Democrats are certainly going to
Speaker 1: lose the race in West Virginia where Joe Manchin is
Speaker 1: going to be replaced by a Republican. That will be
Speaker 1: one guaranteed Republican pickup. It looks like Democrats are certainly
Speaker 1: going to lose in Montana where John Tester is going
Speaker 1: to lose. So right there, that's a switch that gives
Speaker 1: the Republicans the majority from forty. Republicans right now have
Speaker 1: forty nine Senate seats, and that would flip them to
Speaker 1: fifty one. It's a pretty favorable year for Republicans in
Speaker 1: the Senate. Democrats are defending more, far more seats than
Speaker 1: Republicans are. Maybe there's some scenario where also who is
Speaker 1: president plays into this. If Trump wins Republicans only need
Speaker 1: to get fifty votes to technically get the majority in
Speaker 1: the Senate, fifty votes plus Jade Vance as the tiebreaker.
Speaker 1: On the flip side, if Kamala Harris wins, Democrats only
Speaker 1: need fifty votes plus Tim Walls as the tiebreaker. But
Speaker 1: let's suppose Democrats get the majority in the Senate. They
Speaker 1: get at least they hold on to at least fifty seats,
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris wins, and Democrats win the House. What happens then, Well,
Speaker 1: if that happens, all hell is going to break loose
Speaker 1: because the Democrats will get rid of the filibuster rule
Speaker 1: in the Senate.
Speaker 2: So what does that mean.
Speaker 1: The filibuster rule in the Senate is the rule that says,
Speaker 1: in the Senate you actually need sixty votes, not just
Speaker 1: fifty plus a tiebreaker to advance most pieces of legislation.
Speaker 1: So this is a long standing Senate rule. It kind
Speaker 1: of requires more consensus. It makes it harder pass legislation
Speaker 1: in the Senate. You need actually sixty votes rather than
Speaker 1: just a simple fifty vote majority. The Democrats in the
Speaker 1: Senate have all pledged they will get rid of well
Speaker 1: at the very least forty nine of the fifty one
Speaker 1: Democrat senators right now have all said we will get
Speaker 1: rid of the filibuster rule for certain things. The only
Speaker 1: two Democrat senators who don't want to do that are
Speaker 1: Joe Manchin who's leaving, and Kirsten Cinema who's leaving. So
Speaker 1: the Democrats are like all in on this idea of
Speaker 1: getting rid of the philibuster rule in the Senate so
Speaker 1: that they can pass, for example, universal nationwide abortion. You
Speaker 1: know under what circumstance They won't do that though in
Speaker 1: the Senate. If Republicans have the House. That's the situation
Speaker 1: right now, Democrats have fifty one votes in the Senate.
Speaker 1: They could get rid of the philibuster rule in the
Speaker 1: Senate to pass things they want. Why aren't they doing it, Well,
Speaker 1: they're not doing it because it makes no sense right
Speaker 1: now to do that kind of enormous precedent breaking move
Speaker 1: when the House is not going to pass legislation they want.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. So basically, Republicans retaining control
Speaker 1: of the House, at least retaining control of the House,
Speaker 1: provides this break against Democrats doing the absolute worst things
Speaker 1: they can do. That's the only reason why Biden hasn't
Speaker 1: been able over the last two years to accomplish the
Speaker 1: worst things he wants to do. I think the first
Speaker 1: two years of the Biden administration he sort of was softly.
Speaker 1: He was okay with breaking the filibus but thank god
Speaker 1: Democrats didn't quite have the fifty didn't quite have the
Speaker 1: votes necessary to get rid of the philibuster. Kirston Cinema
Speaker 1: and Joe Manson basically saved the Republic and said, no,
Speaker 1: we're not going to abolish the filibuster rule just for
Speaker 1: the sake of accomplishing something in the short term. Now,
Speaker 1: they were going to do that with They were going
Speaker 1: to do that with their voting rights bill, so called
Speaker 1: voting rights bill that they wanted past, which would basically
Speaker 1: just export all of California's voting rules to the rest
Speaker 1: of the country. They were rattling their sabers to do
Speaker 1: that after roev Wade was overturned. After Rovy Wade was overturned,
Speaker 1: they wanted basically just to pass a new nationwide law
Speaker 1: to make abortion legal in all fifty states, override all
Speaker 1: the laws of all the fifty states regulating abortion. But
Speaker 1: again Kirston Cinema and Joe Manchin didn't want to break
Speaker 1: the filibuster in order.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 1: But Harris is so oh behold into abortion, so committed
Speaker 1: to it that she wants to do that. There won't
Speaker 1: be any of the ambivalents that Biden showed on the question.
Speaker 1: She desperately wants to do that.
Speaker 2: I think she.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's now open about wanting to do her
Speaker 1: scheme to pack the Supreme Court, like she wants to
Speaker 1: do all these insane things. To do these insane things,
Speaker 1: she needs to control both the House and the Senate.
Speaker 1: She needs to break the philibuster rule in the Senate.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna bother breaking the filibuster rule in the Senate. If,
Speaker 1: for example, John Duarte and David Valadei hold onto their seats.
Speaker 1: If John Duarte and David Valadeill hold onto their seats,
Speaker 1: it probably means Republicans are going to hold on to
Speaker 1: con I'll hold on to the House of Representatives. These are,
Speaker 1: honestly two of the top ten most hotly contested, most
Speaker 1: expensive races in the country are John Duarte and David
Speaker 1: Valdeo's races. Now, when we return, we'll be able to
Speaker 1: talk with We will be speaking with John Duarte We're
Speaker 1: going to talk with him about an sort of an
Speaker 1: interesting topic, a little bit of a side the importance
Speaker 1: the ongoing importance of AM radio Duarte's efforts to retain it,
Speaker 1: and will get an update from him on his race
Speaker 1: against Adam Gray. This is the John Girardi Show right
Speaker 1: here on Power Talk. A topic of kind of selfish
Speaker 1: interest for me, but non selfish interest for a lot
Speaker 1: of farmers out there, a lot of people dealing with
Speaker 1: emergency response is the ongoing existence of AM radio. For
Speaker 1: those of you listening to this, I know a lot
Speaker 1: of you are listening to this on Power Talk ninety
Speaker 1: six seven in Fresno. They're probably also though, a lot
Speaker 1: of you listening to this on AM thirteen sixty in
Speaker 1: Modesto and AM fourteen hundred in the South Valley. Here
Speaker 1: to talk with me about the effort to preserve AM
Speaker 1: radio in cars is still at least a third or
Speaker 1: more of the radio stations in the country or AM radio.
Speaker 1: Here to talk with me about it is Congressman John
Speaker 1: Duarte from the thirteenth District of California. Congressman, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for being on the John Girardi Show. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 3: The John Girardi Show and Congressman John Duarte. We got
Speaker 3: to keep that extra straight today, don't There we go?
Speaker 2: John? And John, there we go.
Speaker 1: So Congressman, Uh, tell me a little bit about this
Speaker 1: effort that I know you're signed on as a co
Speaker 1: sponsor to this legislation. Your district obviously comprises the very
Speaker 1: ag heavy I was pretty much everything between the ninety
Speaker 1: nine and the five from Fresno, almost almost reaching up
Speaker 1: to Stockton, so Olmer said, County Madera, County at Stanislaus County,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Tell me a little bit about why you're
Speaker 1: you're signed on to this effort to kind of keep
Speaker 1: AM radio preserved.
Speaker 3: Well, you touched on the most important part of it, John,
Speaker 3: This is a bypart is an effort to recognize that
Speaker 3: AM radio is the most reliable, flexible, already established system
Speaker 3: for people to get communications during emergencies and when you're
Speaker 3: up in Tahoe in the whole mountain snowed in and
Speaker 3: everyone's stuck in traffic, it's the AM radio stations that
Speaker 3: the caltrams direct you to listen to to find out
Speaker 3: what road conditions are and get emergency updates. This is
Speaker 3: true during fires, floods, everyone's got an AM radio and
Speaker 3: the emergency response folks can rely on radio AM radio.
Speaker 3: One AM radio tower can broadcast over and around mountains,
Speaker 3: that can broadcast hundreds of miles, that can cover many
Speaker 3: cities with a single radio station. So a generator in
Speaker 3: a radio broadcast station with AM radio can provide emergency
Speaker 3: information to hundreds and hundreds of thousd and if not
Speaker 3: millions of people. And that's why when you're when you're
Speaker 3: in your car and you're in an emergency or there's
Speaker 3: an evacuation, AM radio is what we.
Speaker 1: Go to, right, and the other, the big the other
Speaker 1: sort of big push for this. It seems to be
Speaker 1: coming from a lot of congressmen in rural areas, agricultu
Speaker 1: ag heavy areas. And maybe you could explain a little
Speaker 1: bit about how this is. I mean, certainly, any farmer
Speaker 1: is listening to this on an AM radio station probably
Speaker 1: already understands this. But maybe for our city slicker listeners,
Speaker 1: the ways in which AM radio is useful for especially
Speaker 1: for the ag community and farmers and such.
Speaker 3: Well, Yeah, AM radio is a very popular rural communications channel.
Speaker 3: So one of the side benefits to keep an aim
Speaker 3: radio around is that this is kind of the low
Speaker 3: rate zone. This is the local news, This is the
Speaker 3: ag report. These are the specialty radio station. Sometimes you
Speaker 3: find a local college campus has a socialist radio station
Speaker 3: or some some crazy thing like that. But this is
Speaker 3: where you can find a very democratized communication medium that
Speaker 3: can really serve local and niche needs. And I don't
Speaker 3: want to lose it. And I don't want big tech
Speaker 3: to take over any more of our communications. I don't
Speaker 3: want everyone to have to have a radio subscription to
Speaker 3: get media. I don't want everyone to have to go
Speaker 3: online or go into one of the podcast sources that
Speaker 3: can be edited or jocked around with. We've seen too
Speaker 3: much of that lately. AM radio has a long history
Speaker 3: of democratized niche and local content, and that's where're protected.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think this is a legitimate role
Speaker 1: of Congress. You know, I think a lot of conservatives
Speaker 1: complain about, you know, congressional congress overreaching. That's not what
Speaker 1: the framers want. Well, No, this is is interstate commerce.
Speaker 1: This is the airwaves that you know don't necessarily radio
Speaker 1: airwaves don't necessarily recognize state boundaries.
Speaker 2: This is interstate commerce.
Speaker 1: This is huge multi state you know businesses, car manufacturers,
Speaker 1: et cetera that are looking to you know that they
Speaker 1: have a profit mode of interest, and you're as a congressman,
Speaker 1: you're having to deal with questions of you know, nationwide
Speaker 1: public safety and things like that. Any thought sort of
Speaker 1: on that, you think this is an appropriate role for
Speaker 1: Congress to be stepping in here.
Speaker 3: As we talked about, John, I think that the public
Speaker 3: safety and public information system that FM radio uniquely plays
Speaker 3: is the most compelling argument in this bill. Right, we
Speaker 3: all want to be careful when we start to use
Speaker 3: government to structure the media markets, right, and you want
Speaker 3: to let that kind of flows. That flows. A lot
Speaker 3: of us listen to more podcasts now than we used to.
Speaker 3: Am Rady's still got a very strong role to play
Speaker 3: for a lot of listeners. But I certainly wouldn't make
Speaker 3: a move in Congress. There's full communication channels away from
Speaker 3: listeners who want to access the information of the entertainment
Speaker 3: that groups like yours provides. The biggest, most compelling part
Speaker 3: of this bill, though, truly, is the emergency communication system.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, well, Congressman, I appreciate all the insight on
Speaker 1: this Bill in particular. I think I'd be remiss though,
Speaker 1: to ask you about your campaign right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is one of the big most hotly contested races
Speaker 1: for the House of Representatives in the whole country, your
Speaker 1: race against Adam Gray. I just thought i'd ask how
Speaker 1: it's going, how are you feeling, and sort of what's
Speaker 1: sort of the choice for voters in.
Speaker 2: Within the thirteenth district.
Speaker 3: Well, the choice is clear. We can stay on the
Speaker 3: path of high taxes, high inflation, high gas prices, high
Speaker 3: grocery prices, and fleeing companies from California as well as
Speaker 3: the United States. Or we can go back to the
Speaker 3: policies of affordability, opportunity, bring the gas price of gas
Speaker 3: and groceries down, drill American oil, repatriot of manufacturing, because
Speaker 3: when you have low cost energy, you have manufacturers look
Speaker 3: at look at our nation differently when it comes to
Speaker 3: where they manufacture. Right now, in the thirteenth district, we've
Speaker 3: got families paying forty seven cents a kilowatt hour to
Speaker 3: pgene for electricity. Nobody is going to put great jobs
Speaker 3: and the energy intensive factory in a location that's got
Speaker 3: forty seven cent kilowatt today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's our Gavin Newsom fiber ten years them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Gavin Newsom is going to have that handled.
Speaker 1: He'll make sure that there's enough oil in all those
Speaker 1: refineries so that there will never be price fluctuations. It'll
Speaker 1: just always be high priced.
Speaker 3: So that's great. Do some ANPTI the checking account so
Speaker 3: he bought more checks?
Speaker 2: Right, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: I don't know how that works. You screw up the
Speaker 3: fossil fuel industry, so you build more tanks for fossil fuel.
Speaker 3: It makes no sense. But we don't expect much out
Speaker 3: of these guys.
Speaker 1: I love how the you know, the gas companies are
Speaker 1: telling him, do not do this.
Speaker 2: We will not keep investing here. That will increase all
Speaker 2: your prices.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm going to do this. Okay, good sounds great.
Speaker 1: Thanks thanks a lot for engaging honestly with us. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: at any rate, Congressman Duarte, we appreciate having you on.
Speaker 2: Good luck.
Speaker 1: We'll probably I assume Trevor and I will be checking
Speaker 1: in with you guys on election night.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: It's one of the how these California races you and
Speaker 1: David Valadeo goo that could determine the whole you know,
Speaker 1: whether Keem Jefferies or Mike Johnson is Speaker of the House.
Speaker 1: So we're we're going to be watching with great interest.
Speaker 3: I'm available over the weekend. Keep in touch, glad to
Speaker 3: connect with you.
Speaker 1: All Right, it sounds good, and we will be back
Speaker 1: with more right here on the John Girardi Show. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some more local elections stuff. The thing
Speaker 1: I want to talk about. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: some of the bond measures, specifically the Clovis Unified and.
Speaker 2: The President Unified bond measures.
Speaker 1: Now, my wife got in the mail because we live
Speaker 1: in kind of the Clovis Unified area. Yes, on measure
Speaker 1: A five proofs of a great bond. Now, I thought
Speaker 1: this was funny phrasing because five proofs is commonly used
Speaker 1: phrased in the.
Speaker 2: History of philosophy.
Speaker 1: That relates to the five proofs of the existence of
Speaker 1: God that Aristotle and Saint Thomas wrote about extensively in
Speaker 1: their works.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, oh, five proofs.
Speaker 1: Hey, you've heard of Aristotle and Saint Thomas giving five proofs.
Speaker 1: But here's five proofs on what a great bond measure A. Now,
Speaker 1: for those who are not aware If you live in
Speaker 1: Close Unified, you're voting on Measure A. If you live
Speaker 1: within the District of Fresno Unified, you're voting on Measure H.
Speaker 1: Measure A is a four hundred million dollar bond measure
Speaker 1: for construction projects. Measure H is a five hundred million
Speaker 1: bond for construction projects. Both of these bond measures are
Speaker 1: emanating from Proposition two. Proposition two is a statewide ten
Speaker 1: billion dollar bond measure for schools and community colleges. And
Speaker 1: that is maybe the chief reason why I don't want
Speaker 1: to vote yes on any of these local, individual school
Speaker 1: district bond measures. They're not Actually what they're doing is
Speaker 1: basically they know that Proposition two is on the table statewide.
Speaker 1: If Proposition two passes, they can get more money from
Speaker 1: the state, like matching money from the state, if they
Speaker 1: also raise money through a local bond measure. That's why
Speaker 1: every single school district in the region is issuing a
Speaker 1: bond measure right now. It's to capture the proposition to money.
Speaker 1: So I guess this just makes me skeptical and not
Speaker 1: really believe all these school districts when they say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we need the oh, all of a sudden we need
Speaker 1: the sort even though we just passed, you know, several
Speaker 1: hundred million dollar bond measures just four years ago and got.
Speaker 2: State funding for it.
Speaker 1: Even though we already got a bond measure and a
Speaker 1: ton of money just four years ago.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, we need it right now.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have anything to do with the Oh just
Speaker 1: klinky dink that the state bond measure is here. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sure people would like all the money all the time,
Speaker 1: all the time. And there's always things that school districts
Speaker 1: could spend money on. It. I mean, I've heard people
Speaker 1: from Clothes unifieds are, well, if we need this bond
Speaker 1: measure finish Clovis South. Why do you need it to
Speaker 1: finish Close South? Why did you start Clovis South without
Speaker 1: a clear roadmap of how you were going.
Speaker 2: To finish it.
Speaker 1: Well, prices increased for everything during COVID, so you know
Speaker 1: we couldn't have anticipated that, so we we really need
Speaker 1: this money. Well, you know what, maybe make Clovi South
Speaker 1: a little less grandiose. I don't know, one less Olympic
Speaker 1: sized swimming pool. I don't know, having to go to
Speaker 1: Close East for the swimming. I don't know, like tighten
Speaker 1: your belt. Why is it that school districts are the
Speaker 1: only ones who don't ever have to tighten their belts?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm spending a lot more money on everything.
Speaker 1: Why should I have to continue spending a lot on
Speaker 1: my property taxes just so that your grandiose designed for
Speaker 1: Clovis South.
Speaker 2: Like there's no fat you can cut out of Clovis South.
Speaker 2: How much of a shortfall are we at here? Anyway?
Speaker 1: Here's what the Measure A supporters say about Measure A,
Speaker 1: the five proofs of the existence of God. Note the
Speaker 1: five proofs of why it's a great bond measure. It
Speaker 1: starts out with a flat out deception. Maybe not a
Speaker 1: flat out lie, but it's certainly deceptive. Number one doesn't
Speaker 1: cost you an extra penny?
Speaker 2: Yes it does.
Speaker 1: I'm so sick of this messaging from the Clovis Unified
Speaker 1: crowd about how Measure A isn't going to cost you
Speaker 1: an extra penny. How the last bond measure they passed
Speaker 1: doesn't cost you an extra penny. It won't increase your
Speaker 1: taxes at all. Let me just explain what bond measures are,
Speaker 1: just to get rid of any illusions you guys might
Speaker 1: have about what bond measures are and how that work.
Speaker 2: A bond is a loan.
Speaker 1: It is a loan to a municipal entity, like in
Speaker 1: this case a school district could go to a state.
Speaker 2: Could go to a city, could go to a county.
Speaker 1: But a bond is a loan. That's what a bond is.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of I actually spoke for a
Speaker 1: group that was the local Republican Women's group, which I
Speaker 1: love all all my Republican ladies love the Republican women group,
Speaker 1: the Fresno County and City Republican Women Federated. I spoke
Speaker 1: to them and they had me and my buddy Jonathan
Speaker 1: Keller speak about all the different ballot initiatives and I
Speaker 1: was talking about proposition too, And I asked them and
Speaker 1: these are politically, you know, pretty politically engaged gals. And
Speaker 1: I said, you know, no shame in this, but let
Speaker 1: me just go around the room and ask you. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you, guys if I stuck this microphone in
Speaker 1: your face and put you on the spot and said,
Speaker 1: could you define for me succinctly what a bond is?
Speaker 1: And most of those get There were a few who
Speaker 1: did raise their hands, but most of those, most of
Speaker 1: the people in that audience and these are these are
Speaker 1: the Republican women federated. I don't think they're that's probably
Speaker 1: going to be the most politically engaged crowd of people.
Speaker 2: You're gonna find.
Speaker 1: They didn't really know what a bond is. They couldn't
Speaker 1: really succinctly define it for you. I think that's true
Speaker 1: of most people. I think most people see the word bond,
Speaker 1: they don't exactly understand what it means. They know it
Speaker 1: has something to do with taxes. They know it means
Speaker 1: somehow money goes to the school district, but they don't
Speaker 1: really understand it. A bond is just a loan. It's
Speaker 1: a loan to a school district.
Speaker 2: Like most loans. What do you have to pay back?
Speaker 2: You got to pay back.
Speaker 1: The principle, which for measure A is four hundred million dollars,
Speaker 1: and you've got to pay back the interest, which for
Speaker 1: Measure A could be as much as another four hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars. Who's paying that back and win? Well, it's
Speaker 1: I not the school district paying it back, it's you.
Speaker 1: It's the taxpayers. You pay it back in taxes. You
Speaker 1: pay it back in property taxes. So for the measure
Speaker 1: A folks to say, Measure A, this four hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars bond that's gonna cost the taxpayers approximately eight hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars. It doesn't cost you an extra penny. How
Speaker 1: are they able to say that, Well, it's because on
Speaker 1: your property tax statement.
Speaker 2: For those of you who live within the close unified area.
Speaker 1: You've got old bonds, old close unified bond measures that
Speaker 1: you're still paying for from the year two thousand. I
Speaker 1: think it's two thousand, two thousand and eight, twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and now we're gonna get twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: I believe that's the case. I might be off in
Speaker 1: some of those dates, but you've got multiple old bond
Speaker 1: measures that you're still paying over the you know, the
Speaker 1: life of these bonds. I think it could vary, but
Speaker 1: I think it's usually it's a thirty year long repayment. Basically,
Speaker 1: the way that the measure A folks tried to structure
Speaker 1: this is such that, well, this won't make your property
Speaker 1: taxes increase, They're just not gonna naturally decrease once we've
Speaker 1: paid off old bond measures. So that's how they're able
Speaker 1: to get away with saying Oh, it doesn't increase your taxes.
Speaker 1: It won't cost you an extra penny. Of course, it
Speaker 1: costs you an a quote extra penny. If you pay
Speaker 1: property taxes, you will be paying for this. Of course
Speaker 1: it's gonna cost you. You would if they just paid
Speaker 1: let existing bonds get paid off, you would begin to
Speaker 1: see a drop in your property tax right once, finally
Speaker 1: these flipping bonds are paid off. But no, no, they're
Speaker 1: not gonna get paid off. Next, build on past successes,
Speaker 1: a history of excellence in the classroom and on the field,
Speaker 1: leading the next generation even greater heights. All right, sure
Speaker 1: sounds good. Independent Oversight has a forty members Citizens Oversight
Speaker 1: Committee that monitors accountability and stewardship over your money. You
Speaker 1: know someone made that this arguments, Well, you know it's
Speaker 1: the money is monitored very carefully to make sure it's
Speaker 1: used the right way. Okay, bully for you. I just
Speaker 1: don't really trust. I mean, I'm not accusing Clovis Unified
Speaker 1: of laundering money or financial shenanigans. I'm just saying I
Speaker 1: don't want to pay for this stuff. I don't want
Speaker 1: to pay for a huge eight hundred million bond measure
Speaker 1: with four hundred million, spending eight hundred million dollars to
Speaker 1: get four hundred million dollars worth of benefit.
Speaker 2: I don't want to do that every four years.
Speaker 1: I just think it's silly. Number four Clear Benefits Measure
Speaker 1: A has a solid plan line out of my line
Speaker 1: on them of how to improve facilities, increase campus safety,
Speaker 1: and monetize our schools. We give this plan an A plus.
Speaker 1: Of course, you're the sponsors of the bill. Community trust
Speaker 1: you trusted us, and we built fabulous facilities, phenomenal pools,
Speaker 1: spectacular stadiums, and transformational technology. That's the other thing is,
Speaker 1: I don't think any of this stuff necessarily correlates with
Speaker 1: students actually learning more necessarily. I mean, I remember this.
Speaker 1: My wife and I were thinking about this one private.
Speaker 2: School a couple of years.
Speaker 1: Ago, and they're selling point.
Speaker 2: They were trying to sell, Oh, every student has an iPad. No.
Speaker 1: I that's the absolute opposite of what I want. I
Speaker 1: don't want kids all having iPads.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: Frankly, I don't know that you need much more other
Speaker 1: than an overhead projector jesuis like the idea that all
Speaker 1: of that an iPad for every kid, as if that's
Speaker 1: a selling point as if that's something that's gonna help
Speaker 1: kids learn better. Like, No, the iPad's literally the most
Speaker 1: intuitive piece of technology known to man. No, I just
Speaker 1: don't necessarily trust that all this money we're pouring in
Speaker 1: is necessarily correlated with student success. It certainly isn't in
Speaker 1: the context of Presdent Unified.
Speaker 2: And I get it.
Speaker 1: Look, if I get that the Clovis Unified areas population
Speaker 1: is growing, they're trying to build a new high school,
Speaker 1: all right, But.
Speaker 2: Again every four years, we have to do this.
Speaker 1: Every four years, we have to put in a new
Speaker 1: bond measure to get more money. And again the timing
Speaker 1: of it, it's it's you're only doing this because of
Speaker 1: the state wide bond measure. If the state wide bond
Speaker 1: measure weren't on the table, I don't think this bond
Speaker 1: measure would be on the table for us locally.
Speaker 2: Now, shifting gears away from clothes Unified.
Speaker 1: And also, by the way, just I hate the entire
Speaker 1: California public school system. I think the whole focus, the
Speaker 1: whole thrust of it is premised wrong. I think the
Speaker 1: whole thrust of American public high schools towards preparing kids
Speaker 1: for college. We ignore the fact that huge percentages of
Speaker 1: people will not actually graduate from college, and we don't
Speaker 1: pour the necessary investment into skilled labor, non college graduate
Speaker 1: kinds of work that could actually make eighteen year olds employable. Instead,
Speaker 1: what we're doing is we're preparing some kids that some
Speaker 1: of these kids can go to college, of which a
Speaker 1: percentage of them will get some flimflam useless degree and
Speaker 1: a bunch of student loan debt.
Speaker 2: Some kids will go to college but not graduate.
Speaker 1: A lot of kids will graduate high school and have
Speaker 1: this sort of flim flam existence of bopping around between
Speaker 1: kind of community college and maybe some classes at state
Speaker 1: and then wind up not graduating but having a bunch
Speaker 1: of student loan debt, and we're not serving those people. Well,
Speaker 1: I think there's an epidemic in this country of eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty three year olds living. As I say, I
Speaker 1: keep using this adjective, this flim flam existence of not
Speaker 1: really having much direction because high school prepared them for nothing.
Speaker 1: High school prepared them for college graduation, because that's the
Speaker 1: baby boomer model of just this is what success in
Speaker 1: America is. You go to high school, you get a
Speaker 1: college degree, you advance and that was very true for many, many,
Speaker 1: many families throughout the United States of America. Certainly was
Speaker 1: true for the Girardes that my great grandfather came here
Speaker 1: on a boat to Ellis Island as a shoemaker and
Speaker 1: a grocer, and his son went to college and became
Speaker 1: a CPA, and his son went to college and med
Speaker 1: school and became a doctor, and his son went to
Speaker 1: college in law school and now yaps on the radio.
Speaker 1: College higher education was the pathway to success in this
Speaker 1: current time, with it with college education being so watered
Speaker 1: down as far as its value, the degree inflation, great
Speaker 1: inflation and degree inflation of you know, the kinds of
Speaker 1: jobs that needed just a bachelor's degree thirty years ago
Speaker 1: now need a master's degree, that needed a high school
Speaker 1: diploma thirty years ago now.
Speaker 2: Need a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 1: The extravagant cost and debt load that college weighs on people.
Speaker 1: We need different priorities for public education, and I think
Speaker 1: the American model is just not a great model. I
Speaker 1: don't want to keep pouring money into public schools who
Speaker 1: are mandated. Also, just this other thing, I don't want
Speaker 1: to keep pouring money into public schools that are mandated
Speaker 1: by the state to teach things that are fundamentally contrary
Speaker 1: to Christianity, which is what the public schools do when
Speaker 1: it comes to anything relating to sexuality, sexual ethics, et cetera.
Speaker 1: They are mandated to teach things that are fundamentally contradictory
Speaker 1: to what I believe. Now, let's talk about Measure H
Speaker 1: real quick.
Speaker 2: You know what. Actually, we'll save it for the last segment.
Speaker 1: The no on Measure H and even more decisive no
Speaker 1: than the no on Close Unified Measure A that is
Speaker 1: next on the John Girardi Show. There's an editorial in
Speaker 1: gv wire written by Bill McEwen, who sort of directs
Speaker 1: news for GV wire. McEwan had been long time editor
Speaker 1: for the Fresno b NO on Measure H, and he
Speaker 1: lays out some of the big highlights for it. Measure
Speaker 1: H is the Fresno Unified Area five hundred million dollar
Speaker 1: bond measure that you know, with interest, is probably going
Speaker 1: to cost taxpayers in Fresne Unified about a billion a
Speaker 1: billion dollars principal plus interest. By the way, if you're
Speaker 1: a renter in president Unified rather than a homeowner, and
Speaker 1: you think, oh, property tax increase, So that's not going
Speaker 1: to impact me. Now, who do you think pays for
Speaker 1: property taxes. It's not your landlord. He's passing the cost
Speaker 1: on to you in rent. He increases he or she
Speaker 1: increases your rent for his property tax burden. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're not escaping the burden of higher property taxes just
Speaker 1: because you rent versus own a house. That is reflective
Speaker 1: in your rent.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: McEwan rights voters have backed more than one billion dollars
Speaker 1: in President Unified construction bonds since nineteen ninety five in
Speaker 1: the belief that new and updated facilities would enhance student learning. However,
Speaker 1: the record shows this investment has not significantly improved student
Speaker 1: achievement or fulfilled the district's goals of graduating high percentages
Speaker 1: of young men and women ready to succeed in.
Speaker 2: College or the workplace.
Speaker 1: The fact is President Unified remains one of the lowest
Speaker 1: performing school districts in the nation. The reasons for this
Speaker 1: startling lack of success are complex and many. The extreme
Speaker 1: poverty in some President neighborhoods creates big barriers to learning.
Speaker 1: A union contract that rewards veteran teachers with the perk
Speaker 1: of picking their assignments, robs students from impoverished homes of
Speaker 1: the chance to be taught by many of the best instructors. Finally,
Speaker 1: there's the overarching reason for Fresny Unified's long struggles, a
Speaker 1: complete failure by the school board to put students first
Speaker 1: by holding superintendents, other top administrators and teachers accountable.
Speaker 2: For educational achievement.
Speaker 1: The community has sent loud messages to district leaders of
Speaker 1: the past twenty five years the status quo is unacceptable.
Speaker 1: They go on on and on that Fresney Unified has
Speaker 1: had as basically its number one goal of preserving the
Speaker 1: bureaucracy at all costs. This op ed by McEwan, who
Speaker 1: I think has been a very close observer of Fresney
Speaker 1: Unified for the last thirty years. It's pretty devastating and
Speaker 1: he absolutely tears them apart and says, there's no way
Speaker 1: we should be spending this much money with such poor
Speaker 1: leadership in Fresdent Unified. No guarantee that it will actually
Speaker 1: help student success. So no unmeasured rates, no unmeasured rate,
Speaker 1: no one prop to that'll do it. John Girardy show
Speaker 1: see you next time on Power Talk