Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon
to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you
want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,
my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,
go to dpeteclendarshow dot com. Make sure you hit the
subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your
smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. Last hour I finished up by talking about
the impact of illegal immigration on education. So let's transition,
shall we to education? We're up in Raleigh. A new
bill has been filed, House Bill one n two the
Raise Teacher pay and dollar a lot I guess allotment study.
So a bill filed in the House look to raise
teacher pay and bring back master's degree pay and establish
a study of school funding. All right? This is according
to ap Dylan's piece at the North State Journal Online
n SJ online dot com. The primary sponsor is Representative
Aaron Pare from Wait County. She's a Republican, along with
three other Republicans, Donnie Lambeth from Forsyth County, Mike sheets
Out from Wait County and Trisha Cotham from here in Mecklenburg.
The legislation would implement a new monthly salary schedule for
the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six fiscal year. So
it would so fiscal year would start in July, So
I think this would apply to the next school year,
and it would start at teacher pay five grand per
month for ten months worth of work, so fifty thousand
dollars a year. It would raise teacher pay for beginning
teachers no experience, fifty thousand dollars a year for working
ten months. The current starting teacher salary right now, again
no experience, ten month work here forty one thousand dollars
per year, which is a pretty good salary for somebody
entering the workforce with no experience. I know people don't
want to hear that, but that's true. Forty one thousand
dollars a year to enter the workforce starting pay forty
one k. That's a pretty good deal. Plus you don't
work twelve months out of the year, right, you get
your summers off. You also get health insurance, like it's
a it's a pretty good deal. Right. They closed schools
down and stuff like yesterday they closed all the schools
because it was raining really hard and they were high winds.
You know, I I I came into work. Now, granted
I am essential personnel. Uh but and I'm not saying
this in order to denigrate or to attack teachers. I
have many family members who were teachers. I had a
lot of very good teachers that helped me greatly in
my uh in in my life. It's not it's not
about that. It's simply adding context, a little bit of
perspective that once again, you're asking people to fund, you know,
this profession at a certain level. And I think it's
important to keep in mind that there are people that
have different jobs that pay maybe a little bit less.
They don't get those kinds of perks, right, And so
you're trying to convince some of these people to agree
to pay you more with more perks, right. So you
just like try to keep that in mind. And also,
there aren't any kind of lobbying outfits that are out there,
you know, trying to get taxpayer dollars for like radio hosts.
I don't have a lobbying from I don't have any
kind of union that would help lobby lawmakers to increase
my pay or anything like that, right, and all I
say this the only reason I say this again, it's
not an attack. I'm simply, you know, pointing out that
all jobs have pros and cons. They all do. There
are things about any job that you have, and a
job at a particular place, like you could have a
great I could have a great job doing this radio
gig here at WBT, and if I were to work
at some other station, I might have a terrible experience
there because the downside the cons at that place were.
You know, We're different and way more. Every single job
has pros and cons. Right. So, current starting teacher salary
forty one thousand dollars, and remember there is a there
are automatic pay increases every single year for the first
fifteen years. I don't know if it's still a thousand.
Used to be a minimum of one thousand dollars, and
so it would. That was back when they first redid
the teacher's salary schedule. The Republicans did, and they boosted
the starting teacher pay to thirty five k, and then
it was one thousand dollars every year, minimum increase every
year for fifteen years. Now we get you to fifty
thousand dollars in fifteen years, and that did not include
any kind of like cost of living adjustments or supplemental
funding or at the county level, nothing like that. That's justus.
That was just state minimum. Okay, Now this bill would
take it to fifty thousand dollars. So again, if you're
in Charlotte Mecklenberg, you get the local supplement. On top
of this, the bill would also reinstate something that the
Republicans got rid of years ago, which was the extra
pay if you got National Board certification, if you had
a master's degree, right doctoral degree. And the argument was
always that, well, if you get all of these extra credentials,
you're a better teacher. That was the argument, and then
there were studies that found out no, actually, there there
is no difference when you look at student performance, like
you having a master's, a doctorate, and a certific a
National Board certification, like your kids are not actually learning
any more than your colleague that doesn't have any of those.
So they strip that stuff away, and this has been
an ongoing fight for the last I don't know what
ten years. I want to say they did this. So
now this would reinstate these supplements, which, by the way,
once you reinstate this stuff, they don't ever probably go away.
In fact, they will probably just grow. If Democrats, for example,
ever get in control, they will keep raising the percentages.
So right now this bill is pegging National Board certification.
You would get a twelve percent supplemental pay increase, so
that incentivizes teachers to go out and get the certifications,
which then you also have an incentive for local governments
to pay teachers to go get the certifications because once
you if you pay to send a teacher to get
the certification, they then get the state pay bump and
then you don't have to give them as much supplemental
local funding anymore. So it's a one time cost upfront.
But and you're done and the state has to pay more,
right so you're shifting some of the pay structure back
up to Raleigh. So this is an attractive thing for
local governments to do. There would be a pay bump
supplemental so ten percent if you have a master's degree,
and additional amounts for those with six year or doctoral degrees.
House Bill one ninety two appropriates one point six billion
dollars in recurring funds to increase the teacher's salaries, and
eight million to reinstate the supplements, so for the certifications
and the advanced degrees and stuff, that's only eight million.
Taking everybody from forty one thousand up to fifty thousand
costs one point six billion dollars. Additionally, every single year.
The legislature's twenty twenty three budget deal included a seven
percent pay raise for state employees. Teachers non certified staff
had an average raise of seven percent. Starting teacher pay
was then boosted to forty one k, which was an
eleven percent increase. According to Senate Republicans at that time,
the average teacher pay was supposed to increase up to
almost sixty one thousand dollars, which they said is on
par with the state median household income. So they want
they want the average teacher pay to be what the
median household income is. But you know what would really
help more DEI say, the teachers. All right, if you're
listening to this show, you know I try to keep
up with all sorts of current events, and I know
you do too, And you've probably heard me say get
your news from multiple sources. Why, well, because it's how
you detect media bias, which is why I've been so
impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website,
and it combines news from around the world in one place,
so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can
check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash Pete.
I put the link in the podcast description too. I
started using ground News a few months ago and more
recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because
it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and
by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories
get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself.
Check dot ground, dot news slash Pete. Subscribe through that
link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I
use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.
Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. All right, I have an email here from
Tim to Pete at the peteclendarshow dot com North Carolina
teacher pay increase. I think the teachers slash union are
one of the whiniest groups of people anywhere. If they
don't like it, go get a real job somewhere in
the private sector. But ninety nine point nine percent one
all right, So hang on, tim, I do recognize that
like the loudest voices in the education industry is the unions,
and I agree they are very, very whiny. However, being
a teacher is a real job, so I would disagree
with your framing of it. You know, go get a
real job somewhere. A teacher is a real job. Those
are real jobs. They are difficult jobs. I've always said
that teachers good ones. It's more of an art. It
is because you have to be able to communicate to
a bunch of kids with you know, brains that haven't
fully formed right, and you've got to try to teach
them stuff in an environment that may not actually be
suitable for those kids. Like we're still using in a
lot of these settings the same pedagogy or the model
of teaching, the method of teaching, this pedagogy of you know,
I stand in the front of a class and you
sit there with a bunch of twenty twenty five thirty
other students, and I just, you know, talk to you,
and then you write stuff down and then I test
you whatever, and you sit there for half an hour,
forty five minutes, whatever the case may be. Like that,
that model doesn't really work for a lot of kids.
It did not work for me. I can tell you
that That's why I was disruptive. I was so bored
in school and and I like, I look back now on,
I'm like, yeah, I was a pain because I would
ask questions of the of the teacher about the material.
I would derailer not I mean, not purposefully, but I
didn't understand, like, okay, well you're saying this, and why
I'm a why guy? I was a white kid. I
wanted to know why I was also a wise guy.
But whatever, So I said before the break there that
what might help solve all of the or what might
help I should say with the teachers more DEI like, Pete,
what are you talking about? That's crazy? Well, look this
is what the teachers say. At least according to this
piece at the Charlotte Observer, morale among North Carolina's teachers.
So this is morale, right, is above the national average?
Wait what wait? How does that happen? I thought this
state hated teachers. I thought that the General Assembly wanted
to fire all the teachers, wanted to run them all out.
How do they have how do we have an above
average morale score? And it's in the positive. It's in
the positive, which means, like most of the teachers pretty
good morale, they're happy with their jobs. You would not
know this, right. Once again, media doesn't report on like
the teachers that oh, I had a really good day today.
I usually have good days, and even the thrust of
this story doesn't doesn't tell that story. Right. We are
plus eighteen sorry, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. We are plus
twenty two. So on a scale of negative one hundred,
which means like, I guess you really hate your job,
you have zero morale, like you call it sick all
the time. That negative one hundred to positive one hundred,
and we are on the positive side of that. We're
at twenty two plus twenty two from the zero point,
and the national average is eighteen plus eighteen, so we're
above the national average on morale. So why wouldn't you
go around and talk to teachers and ask them why
they have such high morale? Right? Because I know you
would do that story if we came out with low morale,
if we were negative twenty two. I have no doubt
in my mind that the stories would be told of
the teachers who hate jobs because fill in the blank, right,
wouldn't that be the thrust of the story. As I've said,
in the old days, the kids standing on the street
corner waving the newspapers around would not sell any papers
by screaming absolutely nothing happened today, read all about it.
So there is there is a bias in media towards
telling this kind of a story, which is sort of
a who's to blame? Things are terrible? Beware of the catastrophe, right,
fear mongering, fear motivates. Media knows this, They've known it
for centuries, and when they made the printing press, they
were like, beware of the printing press. Education Week released
its first state by state look at teacher morale. It
gave North Carolina a rating of twenty two, compared to
the national average of plus eighteen. The new survey found
North Carolina was among the states where the major of
teachers said embracing diversity would help improve their morale. That
is not true. I don't know how this story made
it through editing, because that is not true. It's not
a majority. In fact, a majority of the teachers said
increasing DEI would have no impact or would lower their morale.
The no impact number was almost as high as the
number of those who said they wanted to see more DEI.
Here are the numbers nationally. Forty three percent of respondents
said embracing DEI would improve morale, forty one percent said
it would have no impact, and sixteen percent said it
would decrease their morale. So it's a losing proposition because
that's fifty seven percent. Fifty seven percent said it would
have no impact or it would make things worse. That's
that's not a majority or the fifty seven percent of majority. Right,
we need more DEI. I know. Donald Trump said that
woke is dead during his don't call it a State
of the Union address the other night. It is not, folks,
This crap is not. This stuff is alive and well.
It is still in the education system. The generations that
have been taught this garbage are in your classrooms now
and they are still at the teaching colleges. Do not
be deceived. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us
make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us
to the people of our past while transcending generations. They
help us process the meaning of life and art. Stories
are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with
Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven in Minhill, North Carolina.
It was the first company to provide this valuable service,
converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows,
videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at
Creative Video will go over all of the details with
you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them
off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in
a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones,
videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays,
or just your family stories all told through images. That's
what your photos and videos are. They are your life
told through the eyes of everyone around you and all
who came before you. And they will tell others to
come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. All
right from the Twitter machine. It's a pet tweet from
Dinah or Dina Dinah. The very liberal Teachers Union was
also so in cahoots with Roy Cooper. My good friend
Ray and joined in saying they supported his teacher pay
increase outrageous only Democrats are allowed to give pay increases
to teachers. Republicans have been raising pay for teachers for well,
they took over in twenty eleven, so this would be
fourteen years, and if they do this one, it'll be
fifteen years. They've been giving teacher pay raises. But the
standard operating procedure for the governor, Roy Cooper and now
probably Josh Stein will be to demand more teacher pay raises,
a higher raise, and then use that as an excuse
to veto the budget. Like Roy Cooper vetoed every single
pay raise in every budget until the final one, so
he was never attacked for that from the left right.
Everybody understood why he was doing it, because he wanted
a bigger pay raise. So you get nothing, right. It's
one of those double standards that that uh, you know,
Democrat privilege provides you. This is a tweet from Moral Compass.
Looking at the state teacher payscale, a teacher with the
same twenty six years of experience as me earns more
than I do. I wonder how many others would be
surprised to find themselves in the same situation, right, Like, yeah,
and I get it. I mean, this is people are
going to compare their own jobs to a you know,
a government job, whether it's teachers or administrative or whatever.
It doesn't matter. When you know, the public pay scales
are known, and people are going to compare, and they're
going to say, well, wait a minute, I'm working, I
do all of this work and I get paid less.
And they're gonna say, you know, my job's harder, I
work twelve months out of the year whatever like, and
they're going to do these comparisons. It's only natural to do.
So this is why I try to advise people in
the education field that when you're, you know, advocating for
more compensation, you have to keep in mind your audience.
It's not just those lawmakers, it's the taxpayers, right, and
you know, maybe adjust your messaging to be a little less.
I don't know union so and honestly, when you see
this sort of a story about how teachers are like
we should have more DEI in classrooms like that doesn't
make me want to give you more money. It tells
me that you haven't learned anything. Tells me that you
want to keep making our kids hate each other and
their country. Now, the Senate leader Phil Berger, along with
Senators Michael Lee out of New Hanover and brad Overcash
from Gaston have filed Senate Bill two two seven eliminating
DEI in Public Education to prohibit promoting discs rminatory policies
and practices in public schools. I will give you the
the quick definition of DEI as at as is promoted
by James Lindsay from New Discourses. The DEI industry is
easy to understand. Equity is a rebranding of socialism. That's it.
That's what that means. It's a rebrand on socialism. It's
an administered economy that makes outcomes equal. Diversity and inclusion
are tools used to install political officers and to censor
and remove dissidents. Okay. In other words, DEI is a
racket designed to install commissars for its ideology. Oh, come on, Pete,
that's crazy talk. It actually is not. He is exactly correct, right,
because the decisions about who gets what and how much,
which is at the core of the DEI right, those
would be administered by essentially the party. The party is
the one that controls and in K twelve government education,
right is that the teachers' union, administrative state democrats. It's
the left right. It's how you get leftists calling conservative
and Republican blacks or gays, they call them sellouts, or
they call them not authentic, right, because it's the ideology
that makes them an authentic member of their demographic group.
That's what it's all about. Okay. Now, in this bill
that seeks to remove divisive concepts and discriminatory practices from
public education, including prohibiting instruction on these topics that I
just mentioned devisive concepts discriminatory practice. Also, it prohibits compel
students or staff to profess a belief in divisive topics,
and it attempts to ensure that professional development trainings and
stuff for the educators does not include these topics. Berger said,
we cannot teach our nation's history without acknowledging our past,
but we can teach history without forcing educators and students
to embrace and adopt ideologies inconsistent with equality. Equality. It
prohibits schools from having a DEI office or any other
similar unit. And you got to say that because the
DEI folks have been rebranding. They've been renaming their offices
and their officers and their positions and such to strip
away the d the E and the I out of
their titles and out of the department names in order
to mask the continuation of this ideology. And they get
very specific in this law. They get specific, which is
important to do. They list a series of divisive concepts
that are prohibited. Here's a great idea. How about making
an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in
western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain
and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating
an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a
memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a
big old reunion, Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot
for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones
and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath
taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their
cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the
Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance
of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect
balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions,
with hot tubs, fire places, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi, grills,
outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from
thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge
with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the
ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have
pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three
six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there
is to offer at Cabins of Aashville dot com and
make memories that'll last a lifetime. Right Here's a tweet
from Logic and common Sense on Popular Opinion. We have
paid over seventy thousand dollars in Charlotte real estate taxes
since moving here in nineteen ninety eight. We homeschooled all
four kids from birth through twelfth grade, received zero benefit
from CMS government schools, including my athletes not allowed to
participate in their sports, and they want more money. Yeah, yeah, nuts,
That's why I'm a voucher proponent for those exact types
of situations. Yeah. Just seems to me like if people
want to not partake in the in the K twelve
government school model, they should be allowed to not partake
in it, that's all. Anyway, that's my compromise position, by
the way, because I recognize that most people would not
want to go along with what I would recommend. So anyway,
from the legislation filed in the Senate, and again this
is yeah, Senate Bill two two seven eliminating DEI in
public education. They identify discriminatory practices as treating an individual differently,
solely to advantage or disadvantage that individual as compared to
other individuals and groups. Okay, you cannot discriminate against people
based on their skin color, their sex, their ethnicity, whatever,
and that has occurred. This was actually the key component
of IBRAM x. Kendy that CMS brought in to teach
teachers and administrators how to be anti racist. And Kendy's
premise was that the way to address past discrimination is
current discrimination. And so here's the state legislator saying, no,
it's not, and you can't do that. You cannot discriminate.
You cannot exclude an individual from employment, exclude an individual
from participation in an educational program or activity either. And
here are the divisive concepts okay that they outline as prohibited.
These should not be controversial, but we live in very
stupid times, So they are divisive concept. One race or
sex is inherently superior to another. Yeah, can't teach that,
can't teach it. An individual solely by virtue of his
or her race or sex is inherently racist or sexist
or oppressive. An individual should be discriminated against or receive
adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her
race or sex. Also prohibited under a divisive concept definition
that an individual's moral character is necessarily determined by his
or her race or sex. Right, you being a certain
race doesn't make you good or bad. Right, your moral
character is not defined by your race or sex. Again,
this should be obvious. I thought we had learned this
stuff decades ago, But apparently not. An individual solely by
virtue of his or her race or sex bears responsibility
for actions committed in the past by other members of
that same race or sex. Kin' that's a divisive concept.
It's also not true. You are not guilty of the
sins of some generation that came before you. Any individual
solely by virtue of his or her race or sex
should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of
psychological distress. Right. You can't put people under psychological distress
solely based on their race or sex. Divisive concept A
meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist because it's not. It's
also false the United States was created by members of
a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing
members of another race or sex. That's not the purpose
of why America was founded. Particular character, traits, values, moral
or ethical codes, and privileges or beliefs should be ascribed
to a race or sex or to an individual because
of their race or sex. Right, you can't ascribe things
to people and assume things about people. You can't teach
these concepts that, oh, you know, that's how white people do.
Like No, because not all white people hashtag not all
white people. The rule of law does not exist, but
instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among
racial or other groups. That's Marxism, by the way, right there, right,
power dynamics. All Americans are not created equal and are
not endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. And finally, the final divisive concept,
prohibited governments should deny to any person within the government's jurisdiction,
the equal protection of the law. Right, these are foundational concepts.
I have said this for years. These are the concepts.
These are the ideas that have held our society together.
We are not a nation founded on blood and soil. Right.
What makes America America is the unifying concepts, these ideas.
And when you strip those ideas away, then there isn't
any longer any reason for us all to be bonded
together in this endeavor. That's what makes us unique, that's
what makes us different. The law also says public school
units shall not do any of the following, shall not
engage in or advocate for discriminatory practices, shall not compel students, teachers, administrators,
or other school employees to affirm or profess belief in
divisive concepts. And it shall not provide instruction to students
on divisive concepts. Shall not be And then they say
that this law should not be construed to limit free speech.
You can access material on an individual basis, right, instruction
on device of concepts like you can do that. Right.
That make clear the public school unit does not sponsor approve,
or endorse any of them. So this is how you like, Hey,
let's teach about the history of the like the civil
rights movement. You can talk about segregation, right, a divisive concept,
as long as you're not saying, like, let's keep segregating,
like you can't promote it. You can teach about these
things that happened in our history. You can teach about
the history of an ethnic group. You can have an
impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history. You can have
an impartial discussion of the historical oppression of a particular group.
You can do all of that. You can talk about
historical documents, right. But you can't make people profess belief
in certain things. Right. You cannot instruct them right. They're trying,
Like I never thought we'd have to get to this
point where you would have to tell teachers precisely what
to say and not what and what not to say
and what you know, don't do this to your kids.
Don't make them do privileged walks, right. Don't teach kids
that they are inherently guilty of some transgression that somebody
that they weren't even related to but happened to share
the same skin pigmentation as they did. You know, it
doesn't matter. Like I've got like my family genealogy encompasses
like all sorts of different groups of people. As far
as I know, no slave olders never had that one.
So but had people fought for the union side, right people?
I think there were some residents down in the South
at some point there was a story about somebody being
pat on the head by sherman and they spared her farm.
I don't know these are the stories. So yeah, Like,
I bear no responsibility for anything that any of those
people did, and the fact I have to say that
nowadays it's pretty sad. All right. That'll do it for
this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could
not do the show without your support and the support
of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if
you'd like, please support them too and tell them you
heard it here. You can also become a patron at
my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again,
thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.