Speaker 1: I want to talk about a weird topic, but it's
Speaker 1: something that's in Catholic circles and it interests me. So
Speaker 1: if you get your own radio show, you can talk
Speaker 1: about what interests you. But I'm going to talk about
Speaker 1: what interests me. And it's the topic of kind of
Speaker 1: anti semitism, and this somewhat growing anti semitism on the right.
Speaker 1: There is plenty of anti Semitism on the left that
Speaker 1: seems to be kind of sort of out of such
Speaker 1: sympathy for Islam and so much sympathy for Islam and
Speaker 1: so much anti colonialism, and you looking at the Israel
Speaker 1: Palestine conflict through the lens of anti colonialism, it gets
Speaker 1: to such a point that basically Israel is blamed for everything,
Speaker 1: and and it crosses over from disliking the colonialism or
Speaker 1: perceived colonialism of the Jewish State of Israel to just
Speaker 1: disliking Jews in general, and certainly when you get over
Speaker 1: into Islam. Whatever fine line there may be between disliking
Speaker 1: the state of Israel and outright anti semitism, that line
Speaker 1: basically goes away. Hamas hates Jews, they don't. It's not
Speaker 1: just that they hate the state of Israel. They hate Jews,
Speaker 1: They think Jews are bad and awful. And the American
Speaker 1: left has so much sympathy for the anti colonialist idea,
Speaker 1: the idea that any situation that involves a European power
Speaker 1: imposing on some kind of indigenous population its political structure
Speaker 1: is evil and horrible and must be resistant. Even though like,
Speaker 1: if we're gonna this is my general opinion about the
Speaker 1: Israel Palestine conflict, if we're gonna get our panties in
Speaker 1: a twist over every people group that got rightly or
Speaker 1: wrongly displaced after World War II, then we're never gonna
Speaker 1: get over ourselves. There has to be some kind of
Speaker 1: statute of limitations. Jews have been living in the area
Speaker 1: of Palestine since time immemorial, A bunch of European Jews.
Speaker 1: After this little thing that happened that maybe some of
Speaker 1: you remember that was pretty unjust that happened to the
Speaker 1: Jews during World War Two, this little thing called the Holocaust,
Speaker 1: A bunch of European Jews wound up settling in Palestine.
Speaker 1: There were some Palestinians or trans Jordanians, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call them, who were living in that area who
Speaker 1: got displaced, and it's unfair, and it's unjust that some
Speaker 1: of them got displaced. And I guess I just don't
Speaker 1: want to keep fighting that war over the injustice of
Speaker 1: people groups that got moved eighty years ago, when plenty
Speaker 1: of people groups got moved unjustly eighty years ago, and
Speaker 1: we're not fighting wars over We're not fighting wars over
Speaker 1: the injustice of the Volga River Germans who got moved.
Speaker 1: Plenty of people groups got moved and displaced unjustly after
Speaker 1: World during and after World War Two. Anyway, that's the
Speaker 1: anti Semitism of the left, anti colonialism on the part
Speaker 1: of American and European academics who and who for some
Speaker 1: reason they perceived the Israelis as white and the Palestinians
Speaker 1: as a person of color. I don't know why that
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily make all this. I'm from what I have heard.
Speaker 1: I have never been to Israel, I've never been to Palestine.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that it's such a clean cut
Speaker 1: distinction between white Israelis and people of color of Palestinians.
Speaker 1: I think the ethnic situation is a bit more mixed
Speaker 1: up than that. Anyway, on the left, there's anti colonialism
Speaker 1: that can maybe lead to anti Semitism. There's sympathy for Islam.
Speaker 1: Many expressions of Islam are quite anti Semitic. But there's
Speaker 1: this little growing anti semitism on the right too. Now.
Speaker 1: Some of it on the right is just tied to
Speaker 1: people being cranks on the internet and just wanting attention.
Speaker 1: Some of it on the right it seems like when
Speaker 1: people get really hardcore anti American intervention militarily in Israel's affairs,
Speaker 1: a position with which I very much sympathize. There's so
Speaker 1: many people who are like that, who sort of devolve
Speaker 1: into like these very unfair standards for judging the Jewish state,
Speaker 1: and it slips into anti Semitism. Sometimes not every single person,
Speaker 1: but I think it often slips into anti Semitism. My
Speaker 1: own position is I dislike the fact that we're involved
Speaker 1: in that whole region of the world at all. I
Speaker 1: don't like it. I don't like being involved over there. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I wish we didn't have anything to do with the
Speaker 1: entire Middle East whatsoever. If Israel has enough big boy
Speaker 1: weapons to take care of itself, that's fine. We have
Speaker 1: gotten nothing that positive out of our intervention and involvement
Speaker 1: in the Middle East. We've gotten a lot of negative
Speaker 1: We've got whole regions of the world that hate us
Speaker 1: because we keep funding Israel militarily. I guess I have
Speaker 1: sympathy for Israel as a you know, some sympathy for
Speaker 1: Israel as a democracy. Is one of the few places
Speaker 1: that has toleration for Christianity within the Middle East, total
Speaker 1: toleration for Christianity. But I just it's an ocean and
Speaker 1: a continent away. I don't want America to be involved
Speaker 1: in it. I am tired of America being involved in it.
Speaker 1: If the Israelis have enough military might to defend themselves,
Speaker 1: let them defend themselves. I'm just tired of the whole
Speaker 1: region and of Americans involvement. I think Israel had the
Speaker 1: right to defend itself after October seventh, and after other
Speaker 1: kinds of terrorist attacks. I don't understand why we have
Speaker 1: to pay for it. Just tired of America getting involved
Speaker 1: in proxy wars, which is really what this is. A
Speaker 1: proxy war is a war that you fight through a proxy,
Speaker 1: through some other actor acting on your behalf. And whatever
Speaker 1: excesses Israel may have done is on us because we
Speaker 1: gave them all the money and it's going to inflame
Speaker 1: anger against us for something that I don't feel like
Speaker 1: is really in our national interest. The geopolitical makeup of
Speaker 1: the Levant is not something that impacts the national interest,
Speaker 1: I don't think, only in so far as it makes
Speaker 1: it easier or harder for us to engage in more silly,
Speaker 1: unwise adventures in the Middle East, to keep buying more
Speaker 1: oil from the Middle East, which we shouldn't be buying
Speaker 1: at all. We should just be producing our own oil.
Speaker 1: We have more than they do anyway. However, on the
Speaker 1: right though, there are more and more of sort of
Speaker 1: people who are expressing anti Semitic views, and some of
Speaker 1: this came into Catholicism over the weekend with people chattering
Speaker 1: on Twitter. So any of you who are Catholics know
Speaker 1: that yesterday was Palm Sunday, and on Palm Sunday Catholics
Speaker 1: Roman Catholics have during the Mass every Sunday, during Mass,
Speaker 1: we read a passage from one of the Gospels, and
Speaker 1: on Palm Sunday we read the Passion narrative from one
Speaker 1: of the three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark or Luke. Traditionally
Speaker 1: it was just Matthew, but then in the modern right
Speaker 1: of mouse that we have currently, it'side of the Matthew
Speaker 1: Marker Luke, and it just rotates on a three year cycle.
Speaker 1: Yesterday we read the Passion narrative from Saint Luke, which
Speaker 1: is beautiful, and I've started doing this lately, but I'd
Speaker 1: recommend to all of you who may be christianly inclined,
Speaker 1: try to read through the passion narratives from all four
Speaker 1: Gospels this week. I think it's a really beautiful practice.
Speaker 1: The older traditional Catholic practice was you'd read Matthew on Sunday,
Speaker 1: Mark I think on Tuesday, Luke on Wednesday, or those
Speaker 1: passion narratives would be read during Mass or chanted during Mass.
Speaker 1: So Matthew on Sunday, Mark On I believe Tuesday, Luke
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, and then John on Good Friday. I'd encourage
Speaker 1: all of you to do it. I think it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful practice and it really helps you enter into the
Speaker 1: spirit of Holy Week and Good Friday and then prepare
Speaker 1: you for Easter Sunday. In the modern right of Mass,
Speaker 1: if the Passion narrative is read, there are certain portions
Speaker 1: of the Passion narrative that are that can be read
Speaker 1: out out loud by the whole congregation saying the words.
Speaker 1: We have little booklets in the pews, with little books
Speaker 1: in the pews that have the whole reading, and people
Speaker 1: read along with the use of the priests and the
Speaker 1: deacons who are reading the Passion narrative. And there are
Speaker 1: certain points in the narrative where there's a crowd of
Speaker 1: people speaking where the whole congregation can join in, including
Speaker 1: certain things read said by the Jewish crowd, the crowd
Speaker 1: of people in Jerusalem who ultimately wound up kind of
Speaker 1: swaying conscious pilot to okay, the execution of Jesus, Crucify him,
Speaker 1: crucify him. We want Barabbas, not Jesus. Okay, those passages
Speaker 1: which are found in all four Gospels. So in the
Speaker 1: modern right of mouth, most of the time this narrative
Speaker 1: is read out loud, and the people read those parts
Speaker 1: out loud. Traditionally, the Passion narrative would be chanted. So
Speaker 1: remember that for about nineteen hundred years of Christianity. We
Speaker 1: made it through about nineteen hundred years of Christianity with
Speaker 1: no microphones. So if you're at church and you wanted
Speaker 1: to have something read out loud for people to hear it,
Speaker 1: how would you do it well, you either needed to
Speaker 1: shout or you needed to sing. And so most of
Speaker 1: Roman Catholicism Eastern Christianity opted for the singing option, and
Speaker 1: so they would chant the whole passion narrative. And the
Speaker 1: traditional way it was done, you'd have three deacons chant
Speaker 1: the passion narrative, and one deacon would be the narrator,
Speaker 1: one deacon would play the part of Jesus, and one
Speaker 1: deacon would play the part of everybody else, okay, including
Speaker 1: the crowd saying crucify him. Now, for those parts that
Speaker 1: involved a crowd, they're developed these beautiful musical traditions within
Speaker 1: Roman Catholicism, these beautiful polyphony or choral settings of some
Speaker 1: of those parts. And I think it was particularly for
Speaker 1: Matthew's Gospel and John's Gospel, beautiful choral settings of some
Speaker 1: of those exclamations by the crowd send us Barabbas, not Jesus,
Speaker 1: crucify him, crucify him. Beautiful and elaborate musical settings by
Speaker 1: some of the greatest proposers composers in the Western tradition.
Speaker 1: So there's this long standing tradition of not just one
Speaker 1: of the deacons reading it, not just elector reading it,
Speaker 1: but of acchoir joining in, lots of people joining it.
Speaker 1: We have this tradition now in the modern Catholicism where
Speaker 1: everyone's reading it, and all of a sudden you get
Speaker 1: these cranks on the right saying no, no, Catholics should
Speaker 1: be saying crucify him during church. That's horrible, and then
Speaker 1: going on to insert the Jews are the Jews even
Speaker 1: today are still responsible for the death of Jesus. It's
Speaker 1: you know, they carry the blood guilt of their ancestors.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. Now I'm not gonna, I guess I
Speaker 1: am going to dignify it, because I think it's nonsense.
Speaker 1: The Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint John Chris Sistem, plenty of
Speaker 1: Catholic authors throughout the ages took the opinion that, no,
Speaker 1: the Jews of today are not still cursed by what
Speaker 1: the Jews? Why, why by what? That crowd of Jews
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem and that crowd of Jewish leadership at that
Speaker 1: time in Jerusalem, They're not still guilt carrying the blood
Speaker 1: guilt of Christ. Chris Fixion, Saint John Christistom, who was
Speaker 1: the great Bishop of Constantinople and one of the great
Speaker 1: theologians in all of Christian history, certainly one of the
Speaker 1: great theologians of Eastern Christian history. He took the opinion
Speaker 1: which Saint Thomas Aquina is very favorably quoted Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Speaker 1: who's the greatest theologian of Western Latin Catholicism, that basically
Speaker 1: God refused to put that sentence on the Jewish crowds.
Speaker 1: One of the expressions from the Gospels is may His
Speaker 1: blood be on our heads and on our children's And
Speaker 1: Saint John christ system says, no, there's still a role
Speaker 1: for the Jewish people. God refused to put that condemnation
Speaker 1: on them, and salvation is still you know, the universality
Speaker 1: of Christianity, its openness to all persons, is also open
Speaker 1: also to the Jewish people. Now there are some people
Speaker 1: who I there's this strain of liberal Catholicism that I
Speaker 1: think it was so urgently not wanting to be antisemitic
Speaker 1: that they would say silly things. They would say, well,
Speaker 1: the Jews, the Jews didn't kill Jesus. The Romans did well. Again,
Speaker 1: not saying all Jewish people everywhere, through all times killed Jesus,
Speaker 1: but clearly Jesus's death was precipitated by some of the
Speaker 1: Pharisees and priestly class prominent in Jerusalem at that time,
Speaker 1: and by the crowds of people in Jerusalem, any of
Speaker 1: whom were Jews. Yes, they needed Ponscious Pilot as the
Speaker 1: Roman representative to actually okay his actual execution. The Jewish
Speaker 1: people were not allowed just to ex acute people without
Speaker 1: permission from the Roman authorities. But if we're talking about
Speaker 1: who killed Jesus, the historical question, there are certainly yes,
Speaker 1: certainly there were Jewish people who were responsible. But the
Speaker 1: overriding point that Catholicism has made, and I think all
Speaker 1: of us, of whatever Christian stripe we belong to, will
Speaker 1: probably agree with me on this The point I think
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church is making by allowing some of those
Speaker 1: words like crucify him, allowing all of the members of
Speaker 1: the church to say that, all the members of the
Speaker 1: of a choir to sing, that is to make the
Speaker 1: point I christified Jesus, You christified Jesus. Jesus came to
Speaker 1: this earth to die for my sins and yours and
Speaker 1: yours and yours and yours and yours, And it shows
Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of me and every other Christian that you know.
Speaker 1: In the Palm Sunday Mass, we begin by processing, marching
Speaker 1: into the church in a procession, waving, holding palms in
Speaker 1: our hands, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David.
Speaker 1: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: We imitate the people of Jerusalem who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: As he wrote in on a Donkey, singing Hosanna to
Speaker 1: the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in
Speaker 1: the name of the Lord might have been the same
Speaker 1: members of a crowd who were singing that on Palm
Speaker 1: Sunday and chanting crucify him on Good Friday. And isn't
Speaker 1: that the Christian struggle? We proclaim our love for God,
Speaker 1: we proclaim our following Jesus, and at the same time
Speaker 1: we betray Him with our own sinfulness and growing as
Speaker 1: Christian means growing in repentance and growing in conversion. So
Speaker 1: this stupid anti Semitic thing that's kind of gaining more traction,
Speaker 1: it's probably just gaining more traction online, honestly, but it
Speaker 1: helped me sort of think through more of Holy Week
Speaker 1: than I had before. And I just thought i'd share
Speaker 1: it with all of you all right when we return
Speaker 1: Holy Week. Recommended reading from yours truly. Next on the
Speaker 1: John Girardi Show, Well, we just had Palm Sunday yesterday
Speaker 1: and we are entering into Holy Week. Thought i'd give
Speaker 1: you guys some recommended reading for the week. So I'm
Speaker 1: basing this a lot of in sort of the traditional
Speaker 1: Catholic sort of cycle of stuff that is read or sung.
Speaker 1: I'd recommend throughout Holy Week. This is sort of the
Speaker 1: preparation stuff for Easter. First, go through all four Gospels
Speaker 1: and read their passion narratives sort of starting with the
Speaker 1: Last Supper narrative through to just before the Resurrection. And
Speaker 1: you can do that through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Speaker 1: As I said, the older form of the Catholic Roman
Speaker 1: Catholic Mass, you would read or chant Matthew's Gospel at
Speaker 1: Mass on Palm Sunday, Mark's Gospel on Tuesday, Luke's Gospel
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, and then John's Gospel on Good Friday. So
Speaker 1: I try to do that or something like that myself
Speaker 1: during Holy Week. Let's go through the four Gospels. Passion
Speaker 1: narratives also a great thing to look at is the
Speaker 1: beginning of the Book of Lamentations, which is sung in
Speaker 1: a lot of Catholic churches. They do this office called Tenebrae,
Speaker 1: which is basically a nighttime service of prayer. Psalm's scripture
Speaker 1: readings that focus a lot on the passion. Psalm twenty
Speaker 1: two is definitely worth looking through, so you get started there.
Speaker 1: I think it certainly has helped me over the course
Speaker 1: of many Holy weeks kind of enter more deeply into
Speaker 1: the spirit of the thing. So anyway, my recommendations to you,
Speaker 1: the Four Passion Narratives, Book of Lamentations, the Psalm twenty two.
Speaker 1: Check them out. All right, when we return, I'm going
Speaker 1: to dive into more Fresno Unified stuff. Enough of this
Speaker 1: theological nonsense. Let's talk about Fresno Unified and how oh
Speaker 1: there's this haggling over this designated extended hours schools. Guess
Speaker 1: what it's about? Money? That's next On the John Drardy Show,
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot last week about Fresne Unified and
Speaker 1: the ongoing search for its new superintendent. It sounds like
Speaker 1: Misty her might be indeed the pick to be the
Speaker 1: next permanent superintendent. She's currently the interim superintendent. She was
Speaker 1: the assistant superintendent. Basically, they had settled on hiring Misty
Speaker 1: Her to be the superintendent, and then several members of
Speaker 1: the Fresne Unified Board of Trustees sort of blew up
Speaker 1: over this and said, wait a minute, Like this, this
Speaker 1: is a massively underachieving district. We're only hiring internally for
Speaker 1: the supervisor position. This is the third largest school district
Speaker 1: in California. We really can't do a national search. We
Speaker 1: really can't do a broader than Fresne Unified search. Like
Speaker 1: Presne Unified is failing. Why would we just promote people
Speaker 1: from within? Who are you, for good or for ill,
Speaker 1: fairly or unfairly part of this failing system? Why don't
Speaker 1: we bring someone from the outside. This basically has led
Speaker 1: to a year's worth of search and investigation and the
Speaker 1: board doing, the Board of trustees doing like a board
Speaker 1: retreat to help understand better the responsibilities as board trustee members,
Speaker 1: which I sort of have thought, well, what on earth
Speaker 1: are we talking about? What? Why on earth is the
Speaker 1: president Unified Board of Trustees doing such a thing, given that,
Speaker 1: like you're it's an elected position. You ran for this job,
Speaker 1: presumably because you understood the purpose of the job. Why
Speaker 1: is the taxpayer paying, you know, one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for consultants to help you guys figure out your job anyway,
Speaker 1: so they're going to be in the news. And Misty
Speaker 1: her possibly being the next permanent pick, I think is
Speaker 1: going to cause another local brew haha, given that, well
Speaker 1: she was going to be the pick, they did a
Speaker 1: national search and now they're still just sticking with her.
Speaker 1: I don't know, seems it seems weird to me. But
Speaker 1: one of the points I've made is one of the
Speaker 1: challenges President Unified faces is from a unionized workforce. President
Speaker 1: Unified as a unionized workforce, and I think so much
Speaker 1: of President Unified's policy, the news that's driven about President Unified,
Speaker 1: the things that the Board of Trustees winds up having
Speaker 1: to care about, is driven by the union. It's the
Speaker 1: union on one side and the Board of Trustees on
Speaker 1: the other. And the thing I always try to emphasize
Speaker 1: to people the point of a union, the point of
Speaker 1: a teacher's union is not actually to teach kids. An
Speaker 1: individual teacher might have as a goal teaching kids. That
Speaker 1: is the tellos of a teacher. That is the job
Speaker 1: the end goal towards which the teacher is ordered teaching
Speaker 1: a kid. But it's not the end goal the tellos
Speaker 1: towards which a union is ordered. Unions are ordered. A
Speaker 1: good union one that is appropriately ordered towards its end.
Speaker 1: It's Greek word tellos. Okay, A good union is one
Speaker 1: that gets as much of the pie for its members
Speaker 1: as it can. It gets its members high pay, it
Speaker 1: creates more and more jobs for the workers within that
Speaker 1: that that union represents. So if there's more workers, it
Speaker 1: means more dues to the union, more power for the union,
Speaker 1: more jobs, higher pay, fewer hours, better benefits, better conditions.
Speaker 1: That's the job of a union. Okay, that's the end
Speaker 1: goal towards which it is ordered. If a kid happens
Speaker 1: to learn something, well, that might be a happy byproduct
Speaker 1: of the union doing its job, but its job is
Speaker 1: fundamentally not educating kids. The union's job fundamentally is getting
Speaker 1: money for adults. And this is what causes us to
Speaker 1: lose sight and causes I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: in left wing politics to their because they're so pro union,
Speaker 1: they're so in favor of labor rights, ro workers' rights, labor,
Speaker 1: they get so focused on that that they forget all right,
Speaker 1: this is like a public service job. There's a public
Speaker 1: good that public education is ordered towards it. We have
Speaker 1: a certain sort of, i'd say over idealistic vision in
Speaker 1: America of the role that a public school is supposed
Speaker 1: to play, the idea that no public schools are about.
Speaker 1: It's about more than simply preparing young people for the
Speaker 1: job market or for college. It is forming the next
Speaker 1: generation of responsible citizenry, providing a generation of citizenry with
Speaker 1: enough intelligence and basic educational formation to be able to
Speaker 1: contribute to a democratic form of government, a form of
Speaker 1: government that has democratic elements to it. In California, we
Speaker 1: have a lot of direct democracy where the people are
Speaker 1: straight up voting up or down on laws. Everyone has
Speaker 1: the right to vote. People have the right to vote
Speaker 1: for the people who will represent them in Congress, in
Speaker 1: the state Assembly, in the state Senate, vote for the
Speaker 1: US senators, vote for the governors. And basically, if you
Speaker 1: have a populace who is completely unformed and uninformed and uneducated,
Speaker 1: that is a populace that is really not suited for democracy,
Speaker 1: because if they don't actually know cow excrement from shinola,
Speaker 1: then how can they meaningfully contribute to governance, How can
Speaker 1: they meaningfully play a part in a democratic society if
Speaker 1: they're not well educated. So this is part of the
Speaker 1: great motivation for compulsory public funded K through twelve education
Speaker 1: is that we need an educated citizen rate if we're
Speaker 1: gonna do if we're going to have this sort of
Speaker 1: democratic experiment, we need an educated citizen. Right, It's an
Speaker 1: urgent must, so that there is an element of service
Speaker 1: to this. And if so much of our conversations about teachers,
Speaker 1: so much of our conversation about in the specific context
Speaker 1: of President Unified, if so much of our conversation is
Speaker 1: dominated by the union and its debates with the board
Speaker 1: of trustees, and really our main focus, that the main
Speaker 1: focus of such discussions is money for adults. That's the
Speaker 1: main focus, money for adults. If that continues to be
Speaker 1: the main focus, then we run the risk of missing
Speaker 1: the forest for the trees, missing what is the whole
Speaker 1: point of this enterprise. It's a public service. It's not
Speaker 1: a revenue generating business where you have management, capital ownership
Speaker 1: trying to get as much of the profit pie for
Speaker 1: itself as it can, and labor trying to get as
Speaker 1: much of the profit pie for itself as it can.
Speaker 1: That's the case in a private business. In a private business, therefore,
Speaker 1: I think labor unions make all the sense in the world.
Speaker 1: Where there is risk, that there's serious risks of worker exploitation. Well,
Speaker 1: what is the risk of worker exploitation when you're talking
Speaker 1: about an enterprise that we know is losing money? That
Speaker 1: is about public service. We want to pay that. There
Speaker 1: is a there is a natural politically motivated instinct to
Speaker 1: want to pay teachers better. They're not fighting with anybody.
Speaker 1: Politicians wo support from teachers, and thus the focus of
Speaker 1: these things, the focus of boards of trustees should be
Speaker 1: very squarely on improving educational outcomes rather than haggling over money.
Speaker 1: How much money adults are going to get? And I
Speaker 1: kind of don't believe in the walk and chew gum theory,
Speaker 1: the idea, well, they can have productive discussions about paying
Speaker 1: adults well and be focused on educating kids when so
Speaker 1: much of policy effort attention is focused on the CBA
Speaker 1: negotiating things with the union. I think people only have
Speaker 1: a certain quantum of attention. I really do believe this.
Speaker 1: I think human beings have a certain quantum of attention, care, concern,
Speaker 1: and more and more as I've grown as an employer.
Speaker 1: You know, if people in their workplace are focused on
Speaker 1: one thing, say well I have time for this, Well, no,
Speaker 1: I don't know that you do. I really think human
Speaker 1: beings only have a certain quantum, and certainly some human
Speaker 1: beings make that quantum much bigger and they have a bigger,
Speaker 1: broader capacity to do a lot a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But I think attention is time is effort, and I
Speaker 1: think President Unified has been great in its focus on
Speaker 1: paying adults. God knows that teachers in California make significantly
Speaker 1: more on average then President Unified. Teachers make more on
Speaker 1: average than similarly situated, similarly educated adults in Fresno County.
Speaker 1: They do. Now, a lot of that is stacked towards
Speaker 1: the people with a lot of seniority, and new teachers
Speaker 1: aren't paid very much. But on average, teachers in President
Speaker 1: Unified are making quite a bit of money. And this
Speaker 1: is one of a million stories about President Unified. This
Speaker 1: is not a huge story. Here's the headline from GV
Speaker 1: wire story written by Anya ellis money, not instruction. Time
Speaker 1: is at the heart of a designated school of the
Speaker 1: Designated Schools negotiations. Close to a year, Presney Unified and
Speaker 1: its teachers' union have been haggling over the district's proposed
Speaker 1: elimination of its Designated Schools program. Money is at the
Speaker 1: heart of the ongoing dispute about the program that provides
Speaker 1: extended day learning for students at forty schools. The district
Speaker 1: says it is critical to cut costs due to declining
Speaker 1: enrollment and low average daily attendance. The Designated Schools program's
Speaker 1: thirty million dollar price tag is one money saving area.
Speaker 1: We need to save some to deal with the budget
Speaker 1: cuts we're facing, said Nicki Henry Fresney unfied's chief communications officer,
Speaker 1: in addition to the expense of paying teachers additional wages
Speaker 1: for their longer day ding ding ding, ding ding ding Ding.
Speaker 1: Fresne Unified says an analysis of the program indicated that
Speaker 1: it hasn't produced sufficient academic gains. However, Fresno Teachers Association
Speaker 1: president Manuel Bania says that dropping Designated Schools amounts to
Speaker 1: a salary cut for teachers at a time when the
Speaker 1: district should prioritize investing in them. No, no teacher salaries
Speaker 1: is probably a massive part of the president Unified budget.
Speaker 1: So here you see, here you see in black and white,
Speaker 1: we have forty schools in President Unified that provide this
Speaker 1: extended day learning. The district says, it's not actually helping
Speaker 1: improve outcomes. We're facing budget cuts, we want to cut
Speaker 1: these programs. If teachers were focused on the public service aspect,
Speaker 1: if teachers were ordered towards actually teaching kids, they would say, well,
Speaker 1: if it's not helping, then we don't need to do it.
Speaker 1: But that's not what's happening. The teachers are being represented
Speaker 1: by a union, and the role of the union is
Speaker 1: what keeping teachers salaries high. If you have extended day learning,
Speaker 1: it means teachers get more hours, means teachers get more pay,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, that's what the
Speaker 1: teacher's union cares about. So this is just another of
Speaker 1: an infinite number of stories that demonstrate this dynamic. The
Speaker 1: interest of the union is not necessarily the same as
Speaker 1: the interest of teaching kids. If it were, they'd probably
Speaker 1: if they were solely focused on the kids, they would say, okay, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: let's divert this money to something more useful. Let's, you know,
Speaker 1: let's work on this, but no, they want to sit
Speaker 1: around collecting pay for a program that isn't really helping.
Speaker 1: When we return, we'll talk more about this whole dynamic that, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Teachers' Union doesn't actually teach a kid, but they're
Speaker 1: the ones guiding the whole discussion sentence. Next on the
Speaker 1: John Girardi Show, let me give you another example of
Speaker 1: this whole phenomenon. The goal of the teachers Union is
Speaker 1: not actually to teach. The goal of the teachers Union
Speaker 1: is money. And you can see that priority when it
Speaker 1: comes to certain kinds of academic things, things involving allowing
Speaker 1: teachers to teach better. All right, this was around November
Speaker 1: of twenty three. November of twenty three, we have the
Speaker 1: big contract that finally got signed between President Teachers and
Speaker 1: Presney Unified. And it's a big collectively bargain agreement. And
Speaker 1: in a collectively bargain agreement between a labor union on
Speaker 1: one side and the business on the other side, or
Speaker 1: in this case, the Board of Trustees and the labor union.
Speaker 1: In this case, you can put all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: in a CBA. I look at like the CBA that
Speaker 1: the NFL Players Union signs with the NFL with the owners,
Speaker 1: and they put in all kinds of stuff to eat.
Speaker 1: The players have put in all kinds of stuff for
Speaker 1: player safety, limiting practices, limiting contact practices. There are all
Speaker 1: kinds of rules limiting stuff in the interest of player safety.
Speaker 1: Now that doesn't have to do with dollars and cents,
Speaker 1: but the union membership thought it was important, and so
Speaker 1: the union pushed for it, and that that became part
Speaker 1: of the negotiations, not just straight up compensation. We get
Speaker 1: X percentage of the profits. You get why percentage of
Speaker 1: the profits? You can put anything like that in a CBA.
Speaker 1: Like two months after that was signed, a big story
Speaker 1: came out about how Fresno teachers feel like they don't
Speaker 1: have backing from the district to enforce a no cell
Speaker 1: phones in class policy. We learned that one president Unified
Speaker 1: hasn't updated their cell phone policy since two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: which seems like a lapse, but when you look at
Speaker 1: the two thousand and four policy, it still works. It
Speaker 1: basically says, hey, students may not have out with them
Speaker 1: other than calculators, they may not have personal electronic devices.
Speaker 1: Now that was written pre iPhone in like two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, but I think it still holds. That's the
Speaker 1: rule that's still on the books. And you had teachers
Speaker 1: complaining that they didn't feel like the district was backing
Speaker 1: them and trying to get rid of smartphones, and they
Speaker 1: interview the head of the President Teachers' Union saying it's terrible,
Speaker 1: district's not supporting us. You just signed a CBA. Why
Speaker 1: didn't you put that in the CBA adopting a clear
Speaker 1: cut policy with clear cut enforcement standards updated for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, saying students may not have smart cell phones
Speaker 1: during class. Teachers may remove them. If we do X,
Speaker 1: Y and z, the district will back them. Blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. You could have put that in the CBA,
Speaker 1: but they didn't. Why Because the point of a teacher's
Speaker 1: union is not who teach. The key point the tell us.
Speaker 1: The end goal towards which a teacher's union is ordered
Speaker 1: is fundamentally getting money for adults. That's it, not teaching.
Speaker 1: That'll do it. John Dio already show see next time
Speaker 1: on Power Talk