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Speaker 1: Cable news is ripping us apart, dividing the nation, making

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Speaker 1: it impossible to function as a society and to know

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Speaker 1: what is true and what is false. The good news

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Speaker 1: the upcoming presidential election so we can provide unparalleled coverage

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Speaker 1: of what is sure to be one of the most

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Speaker 1: pivotal moments in American history. So what are you waiting for?

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Speaker 1: Go to Breakingpoints dot com to help us out. Alexandria

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Speaker 1: Cassia Cortes got the cover treatment over at GQ Big

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Speaker 1: interne sit down, interview and photo shoot and article and

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Speaker 1: companying interview by quote unquote journalist Wesley Lowry. I'll say

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Speaker 1: that because let me read you so several of AOC's

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Speaker 1: comments and I think, go ahead and put this first

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Speaker 1: piece up on the screen. Several of our comments a

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Speaker 1: lot of attention. In particular here she predicts she won't

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Speaker 1: be president because Americans quote hate women. Yep, that's the reason.

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Speaker 1: I'll read you that in just a minute. But before

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Speaker 1: I get to that, actually, the cringiest part of this

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Speaker 1: article was not AOC. It was Wesley lew I mean it,

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Speaker 1: really big skill. It's embarrassing. Here, let me just read

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Speaker 1: you a couple of excerpts from the saga he says

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Speaker 1: about AOC constitutionally opposed to sitting down, shutting up, and

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Speaker 1: conforming to the patriotic play. Theater of Washington, the right

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Speaker 1: wings night, terror in the flesh, too many foot soldiers

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Speaker 1: of the fractured, contradictory coalition that is the progressive left.

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Speaker 1: She represents something singular, the future, a revolutionary on the rise,

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Speaker 1: the clear air ascended to an ascendant progressive movement, the

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Speaker 1: best and possibly last, depending on how quickly some combination

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Speaker 1: of fascism, religious fundamentalism, and climate chain comes for us

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Speaker 1: all last chance, a source of hope that things can

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Speaker 1: better in their lifetime. At another place, he says, a

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Speaker 1: Casio Coortees knows well the power of personal testimony. She's

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Speaker 1: become the most talented political communicator of her generation by

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Speaker 1: being frank and relatable, using her social media channels, for example,

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Speaker 1: to explain policy in one moment, then share her struggles

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Speaker 1: building Ikia furniture the next. The whole thing is like this.

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Speaker 1: Let me just say, like, you know, I was a

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Speaker 1: fan supporter of Bernie Sanders. If I ever say anything

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Speaker 1: this cringy, like, please please drag my ass because this

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Speaker 1: is just embarrassing. And let me also say, listen, I

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Speaker 1: agree with AOC on like ninety percent of issues. I

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Speaker 1: am with her. I am there. You know, we have

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Speaker 1: some differences in terms of how she like the way

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Speaker 1: she sort of like approaches issues, the things she says,

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Speaker 1: the things she centers as her focus, the way she

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Speaker 1: talks about things, whatever. But to call her the most

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Speaker 1: talented political communicator of her generation, I looked at up

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Speaker 1: her approval rings like thirty three percent. If that's the

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Speaker 1: most talented political communicator her generation, and the left movement

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Speaker 1: has some really big problems here, So that's number one.

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Speaker 1: I'll let you react. I totally agree. My personal favorite

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Speaker 1: was this quote. Realistically, I can't even tell you if

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be alive in September, and that weighs

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Speaker 1: very heavily on me. It's not just the right wing.

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Speaker 1: Misogyny transcends political ideology left right and center. Yeah, apparently

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Speaker 1: an interview was given in September, but sorry, in the summer.

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Speaker 1: Just look. Yes, she has more death threats probably than

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Speaker 1: most members of Congress. Yeah, yes, she had a bad

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Speaker 1: experience on January six. And I'm not going to sit

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Speaker 1: here and say like that she's clearly used it for

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Speaker 1: political advantage, but I have no doubt that it was

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Speaker 1: probably very scary given her high profile. Absolutely that being

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Speaker 1: said to say that your life is literally in danger,

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Speaker 1: like imminently and I have a huge risk of being

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Speaker 1: killed and may not make it till September, that's ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: And as you said, the fact is is that she's

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Speaker 1: doubling down. This is always a problem right with this

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Speaker 1: type of politics, which is that, yeah, she might have

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Speaker 1: some great ideas on you know, economics and all this

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Speaker 1: other stuff, but when you sound like she does, you're

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Speaker 1: actually poisoning the well for that entire movement by being

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Speaker 1: an identitarian, by being just so unhinged in your commentary.

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Speaker 1: And that's the other thing to say. Anyone who is

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Speaker 1: acting and speaking this way is one of the most

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Speaker 1: talented politicians and communicators is a farce. Wesley Waway has

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Speaker 1: always been like this, though, to be clear, he's always

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Speaker 1: been an incredibly cringeworthy person. He was basically forced out

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Speaker 1: of the Washington Post because he would always argue that

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Speaker 1: it's not as a journalist, you shouldn't be fair and

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Speaker 1: you should take sides. And so I'm glad he found

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Speaker 1: his synecure at GQ. Also, why is she on the

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Speaker 1: cover of GQ as a man of male fashion? Like,

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Speaker 1: can't GQ just be about suits? Like for the good?

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is a whole other brand, but it's

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Speaker 1: like they've been putting people on there with dresses. Fine,

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Speaker 1: you know, okay, whatever, but you know, keep that somewhere

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Speaker 1: like that. This is Abouttion's political two sider, no avoiding it.

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Speaker 1: Men want to know. Hey, by the way, this I

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Speaker 1: got a ton of response whenever I was criticizing all

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Speaker 1: these politicians for not wearing suits, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: it was, Hey, I don't even know how to buy

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Speaker 1: a suit. That's what GQ used to be. I read

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Speaker 1: GQ when I want to learn. GQ was the first

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Speaker 1: person I remember. I came from Texas. Now I at

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Speaker 1: the grass fashion standards, moved to the East Coast, and

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Speaker 1: I had a black suit and my friend was like, dude,

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Speaker 1: why are you have a black suit? He's like everybody knows.

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Speaker 1: He's like, it's the two thousands, like you shouldn't be wearing.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, really, wish I read up more

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Speaker 1: about this, and he sent me a GUQ article about

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Speaker 1: how the black suit should be your last suit. It

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Speaker 1: used to be quite practical and useful, and now this

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Speaker 1: is what has turned in. I didn't get a side

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Speaker 1: anti GQ screed here about how GUS lost their way.

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Speaker 1: That aspect of it I can't really comment on because

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Speaker 1: I have never been much of a GQ consumer used

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Speaker 1: to be. However, I will say, okay, so let me

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Speaker 1: let me do the positive part. There was a piece

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Speaker 1: here where she was talking about the struggles and challenges

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Speaker 1: facing men that I thought was very poignant and very accurate,

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Speaker 1: where she was, you know, diagnosing a lot of issues.

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Speaker 1: We've been talking about some of them here as well,

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Speaker 1: and I thought that was really good. But I hate

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Speaker 1: this thing that she said about like how she doesn't

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Speaker 1: know if she can tell little girls that they can

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Speaker 1: run and be president because America hates women too much.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is just I really feel like and

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Speaker 1: I want to read you some of the whole quotes,

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Speaker 1: so you get the context and it's not like we're

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Speaker 1: just like taking it out of context or whatever. But

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Speaker 1: I really feel like this being in this very high profile,

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Speaker 1: very high stress, very high pressure position where she is

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Speaker 1: an absolute target of the right from day one, and

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Speaker 1: you know, certainly like Pelosi and Co hate her too,

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Speaker 1: and she talks about that here as well. She's been

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Speaker 1: you know, she has become this lightning rod and flashpoint,

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Speaker 1: and it really seems like it's gotten to her. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's that's what I come away with, is like, you know,

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Speaker 1: when she says things like I don't even know if

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be here in septembers, like Jesus Christ,

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Speaker 1: girl like that that's a horrible Whether that is an

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Speaker 1: accurate reflection of reality, I believe that she feels that,

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Speaker 1: and that is a horrible way to live. So she

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Speaker 1: talks here about like, you know, I think about all

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Speaker 1: the time whether I should do something else, whether there's

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Speaker 1: another way that I could be more effective, you know,

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Speaker 1: because she talks a lot about how like movements are

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Speaker 1: so critical and maybe she should just be a movement leader,

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Speaker 1: and I just I just feel like this role has

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Speaker 1: really taken a toll honor so that she's very, very defensive,

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Speaker 1: and honestly because she is so inundated with so much

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Speaker 1: ugly commentary and like you know, death threats and all

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Speaker 1: that all day long. It's a natural human response. And

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Speaker 1: then extrapolate that to say that's the character of the

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Speaker 1: American people. I think that's where it comes from. I

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Speaker 1: mean not to overly psychoanalyze here, but let me read

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Speaker 1: you the quote about you know what she says about

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Speaker 1: being president. She says, sometimes little girl will say, oh,

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Speaker 1: I want you to be president, or things like that.

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Speaker 1: It's very difficult for me to talk about because it

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Speaker 1: provokes a lot of inner conflict in that I never

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Speaker 1: want to tell a little girl what she can't do,

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Speaker 1: and I want to tell young people what's not possible.

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Speaker 1: I've never been in the business of doing that. But

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Speaker 1: at the same time, she goes on to say, I

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Speaker 1: hold two contradictory things in mind at the same time.

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Speaker 1: One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, experience here has given me

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Speaker 1: a front row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as

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Speaker 1: well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women,

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Speaker 1: and they hate women of color. People ask me questions

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Speaker 1: about the future, and realistically, I can't even tell you

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Speaker 1: if I'm going to be alive in September. That weighs

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Speaker 1: very heavily on me. It's not just the right wing.

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Speaker 1: Misogyny transcends political ideology left right center. This grip of

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Speaker 1: patriarchy affects all of us, not just women. And she

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Speaker 1: goes on from there, she says, I admit to sometimes

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Speaker 1: believing that I live in a country that would never

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Speaker 1: let that happen. That is a very sad and very

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Speaker 1: accurate assessment of the American people. I mean, listen, I'm

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Speaker 1: not a Barack Obama fan at this point, but we

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Speaker 1: did elect the first black president seven years after. Hillary

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Speaker 1: Clinton is like a horror show and a war criminal

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Speaker 1: and like a terrible like and just objectively like put

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Speaker 1: her ideology aside, just objectively bad at being a politician,

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Speaker 1: and that woman almost ended up as a popular president.

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Speaker 1: The fact that she was a woman wasn't the issue either,

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Speaker 1: by the way, same thing with Kamala Harris. Like the

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Speaker 1: fact that Kamala Harris was a woman of personal color,

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Speaker 1: that is not the issue for Kamala Harris. That's not

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Speaker 1: to say there isn't sexism. That's not to say there

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Speaker 1: aren't burriers in all of those things. But you have

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Speaker 1: women who are getting elected and ascending to high levels

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Speaker 1: of power and position to you know, win their party's

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Speaker 1: nominations and all of these things. So it's sad to

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Speaker 1: me to see her have such a dim view of

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Speaker 1: the American public. I agree with you. I think it

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Speaker 1: clearly got to her. I think news his attacks just

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Speaker 1: rotted her brain completely. January sixth. Clearly, I just think

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Speaker 1: she's not cut out for this, and I think that's fine.

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Speaker 1: You know, not everybody is. And honestly, she'd probably just

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Speaker 1: be better off she resigned from Congress. Sant Otar tweets

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Speaker 1: was a movement leader personally, like for her own mental health,

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Speaker 1: it's probably the best decision. I don't think she'll do it.

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Speaker 1: It's too much of a narcissist and unfortunately that's what

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Speaker 1: leads to that. And you know, speaking like from a

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Speaker 1: third party perspective, like that's very bad for the political

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Speaker 1: movement she's aligned with, because she's so much of the

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Speaker 1: face of it. It just feels like it just feels

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Speaker 1: like so much of her commentary is like very self focused. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I agree, you know, it's about her and her liftics

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Speaker 1: all that. Okay, I get it, Like that's an important

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Speaker 1: component of what you bring to the table. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's the impression that comes out, especially of these

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Speaker 1: in with all the you know, the photos of her

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Speaker 1: in these different outfits and whatever. I don't know, in

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Speaker 1: an interesting read. We'll just leave it at that, all right.

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Speaker 1: Hilarious article from the New York Times basically setting expectations.

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Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.

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Speaker 1: Quote Democrats fret as Stacy Abrams struggles in the Georgia

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Speaker 1: governor's race. Here's my personal favorite line. It alarms Democrats

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Speaker 1: who have celebrated her as the master strategist behind the

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Speaker 1: state's democratic shift, and they specifically point to the fat

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Speaker 1: crystal that Stacy Abrams is running behind Brian Kemp when

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Speaker 1: Raphael Warnock is running far ahead of herschel Walker. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to be this way. Stacy Abrams was the

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Speaker 1: heir apparent, she was anointed, she raised tens of millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars, She was hailed as the mastermind, when in reality,

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Speaker 1: here's what happened Trump? This guy you might have heard

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Speaker 1: of him, was really unpopular twenty eighteen, it led to

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Speaker 1: more Democratic votes. It was further more of an idiot

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty that led to rafaele Net Warnock winning.

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Speaker 1: He then even was more of an idiot and endorsed

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Speaker 1: a guy named herschel Walker, who is terrible. So now

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Speaker 1: Warnock has a chance. Meanwhile, Brian Kemp is well, he

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Speaker 1: did win in twenty eighteen and then he you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of had his third way with Trump won the

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Speaker 1: Republican primary, also got some credibility with Democratic voters. And

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Speaker 1: now the person who was supposedly the architect of all

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Speaker 1: of this is losing. And they point to the fact

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Speaker 1: that fundraising, polling wise, and just her general inability has

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Speaker 1: none of it has showed up from a political scale

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Speaker 1: that supposedly had existed almost that Remember she was almost

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Speaker 1: floated as the vice presidential candidate for Joe Biden. Was

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Speaker 1: the first comed she realized she wasn't going to get yes,

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Speaker 1: and she was like do you remember also when she

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Speaker 1: was like, well, I'm a very smart lady, even though

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Speaker 1: I have no experience. Yeah, she was auditioning. I mean

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Speaker 1: she was like outwardly auditioning. She's like, well, I took

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Speaker 1: a course once in college. Yeah, okay, she probably would

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Speaker 1: have done better than coming on. I think she is

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Speaker 1: much more politically talented than I agree, although I still

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Speaker 1: thinks she's terrible. So, I mean, there's a couple of

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Speaker 1: things to say about this. I mean, first of all,

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Speaker 1: I think the underlying dynamics of the race have less

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Speaker 1: to do with Rafael Warnock and Stacy Abrams than they

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Speaker 1: do with Herschel Walker, and Brian Kemp. Kemp is an

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Speaker 1: incumbent governor. The fact that he's an incumbent makes it harder.

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Speaker 1: Number one. Number two, he did even though from a

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Speaker 1: legislative perspective he's been very, you know, hard right conservative.

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Speaker 1: He did have that break with Trump and you know,

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Speaker 1: showed that he could be independent minded, and I think

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Speaker 1: that has helped him with independence and even some like

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Speaker 1: swing Democrats. They say, in particular, Abrams is underperforming with

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Speaker 1: black men. I mean, she's still winning like eighty percent

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Speaker 1: of black men, but last time Rounchie won like ninety

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Speaker 1: three percent of black men, So that is one thing

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Speaker 1: they're pointing to as an issue for her. So the

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Speaker 1: fact that He's been able to maintain his own independence

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Speaker 1: from Trump. He's relatively popular, he's an incumbent. Herschel Walker

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Speaker 1: is like walking disaster. That to me is the most

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Speaker 1: important factor that explains the difference here. But part of

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Speaker 1: why this is a big problem for her is because

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Speaker 1: she had her whole the whole. Stacy abrams mythology was

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Speaker 1: about how she built this machine in Jorge to register

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Speaker 1: voters and turn them out for Democrats in a way

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Speaker 1: that it had never been done before. And Democrats tend

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Speaker 1: to get obsessed with these sort of like procedural or

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Speaker 1: campaign mechanics rather than like a policy agenda that's going

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Speaker 1: to energize people to bring them out. And perfect contrast

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Speaker 1: here is Trump in twenty sixteen. Their campaign was a

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Speaker 1: mess and a disaster, but he, for better or worse,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, worse, resonated with larger view and brought

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Speaker 1: out new voters that weren't voting in the past. So

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Speaker 1: it's not so much about the mechanics of are you

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Speaker 1: registering and who are you and how is this all working?

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Speaker 1: What does that operation look like? You got to have

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Speaker 1: those mechanics in place. That helps, but you also have

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Speaker 1: to have something that is motivating people to want to

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Speaker 1: go and vote. Otherwise it's like, you know, you can

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Speaker 1: lead a horse to water, but you can't make them

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Speaker 1: drink it. So her theory of the case that just

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Speaker 1: having those mechanics without the overarching vision message material like

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Speaker 1: delivery for constituents, that you could just have those mechanics

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Speaker 1: and that would be a success that's being undermined by

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Speaker 1: the fact that she is underperforming where Warnock is exactly.

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Speaker 1: I completely agree with you on that one, But I

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Speaker 1: just do think it's good to dispel the myth of

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Speaker 1: Stacy Abrams and learn the hard lesson of politics, which

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Speaker 1: is sometimes it does have to do with candidate quality,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of the times it doesn't, and it

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Speaker 1: has to do with much more multifaceted factors. And you know,

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Speaker 1: people like her build entire narratives. I mean, she's become

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Speaker 1: a multimillionaire basically grifting and selling these fake books. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I didn't hear that thing I did about how she

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Speaker 1: has a book on how to be a good manager

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Speaker 1: in business. You never run a business in your life.

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Speaker 1: What are you talking about. Your greatest skill is raising

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Speaker 1: five million dollars from from Michael Bloomberg. Well, the charity,

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Speaker 1: that's really what you're good at. That was the thing

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Speaker 1: that always She was the perfect case in point of

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Speaker 1: like the just celebrity coverage approach politics. There was zero

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Speaker 1: analysis of like what does she actually stand for? What

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Speaker 1: did she actually do in the Georgia legislature. It was

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Speaker 1: all this very sort of it was like DMZ only

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Speaker 1: for politics and elevating Stacy Abrams. So anyway, it's it

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Speaker 1: is a I was a little bit surprised she even

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Speaker 1: ran for governor because to me, it was very predictable

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Speaker 1: that it would be a very tough slog and a

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Speaker 1: much harder road than it was last time around, just

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Speaker 1: facing an incumbent governor in a more difficult year. So

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Speaker 1: I was kind of I was kind of surprised that

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Speaker 1: she went for it, but I guess in some ways,

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Speaker 1: having not gotten pulled into the Biden administration, it was

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Speaker 1: her only move. Yeah, I think you're right. Got an

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Speaker 1: update for you on the Black Lives Matter organization, which

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Speaker 1: of course has had a lot of questionable I guess

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Speaker 1: financial trouble and this is a new revelation. Let's put

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Speaker 1: this up on the screen allegations, I should say, according

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Speaker 1: to LA Times, one Black Lives Matter leader has been

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Speaker 1: accused of stealing ten million dollars from the organganization. This

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Speaker 1: came out in a lawsuit filed by Black Lives Matter Grassroots.

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Speaker 1: So this is some of his former colleagues who are

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Speaker 1: saying that he siphoned off ten million dollars in donations.

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Speaker 1: Let me read you the beginning of this story from

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Speaker 1: the LA Times. The leader of the Black Lives Matter

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Speaker 1: Global Network Foundation has been accused by former colleagues of

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Speaker 1: stealing more than ten million dollars in donation from the

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Speaker 1: organization for personal use. That is according to that lawsuit

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Speaker 1: that was just fouled in court. Shallamayah Bowers, I'm sorry

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Speaker 1: if I'm getting the name pronunciation wrong was called in

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Speaker 1: the court filing a rogue administrator, a middleman turned usurper

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Speaker 1: who siphoned contributions to the nonprofit activist group to use

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Speaker 1: as a personal piggybank. Bowers actions led the foundation into

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Speaker 1: investigations by the IRS and various state attorney general, blazing

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Speaker 1: a path of irreparable harm to BLM in less than

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Speaker 1: eighteen months. They go on to say in this lawsuit,

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Speaker 1: while BLM leaders and movement workers were on the street

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Speaker 1: risking their lives, mister Bowers remained in his cushy offices

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Speaker 1: devising a scheme of fraud and misrepresentation to break the

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Speaker 1: implied in fact contract between donors and BLMS. So not

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Speaker 1: a lot of details in this lawsuit about specifically the

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Speaker 1: you know what this scheme looked like. These are all allegations.

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Speaker 1: Of course, he's innocent until proven guilty, but this is

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Speaker 1: far from the first allegation we've had of sort of

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Speaker 1: like financial improprieties in this organization. What happened is when

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Speaker 1: the George Floyd protests ignited it across the country. You

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Speaker 1: had this flood of energy and people wanting to donate

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Speaker 1: money to a cost that they believed in. And because

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Speaker 1: the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation or whatever it's called,

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Speaker 1: was sort of a catchup, people just assume like, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is the group, and so millions and dollars of

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Speaker 1: dollars came into this organization, which was relatively small, and

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Speaker 1: so you end up with, you know, a lot of

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Speaker 1: questions about how this money was being spent. And those

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Speaker 1: questions came originally from some of the mothers of the

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Speaker 1: movement and also some of the activists on the ground

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Speaker 1: who said, hey, we're out here doing the work. We're

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Speaker 1: not seeing any of these hundreds of millions of dollars

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Speaker 1: that y'all are raising. So what is this money going towards?

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Speaker 1: This is just the latest sort of development in questions

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Speaker 1: of what happened with their finance. Same thing. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the founder, Patrice Cooler, We've covered her before. She paid

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Speaker 1: like a million dollars to her brother for security services

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Speaker 1: she amassed at three point two million dollar mansion and

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Speaker 1: basically had to resign because so much financial impropriety on

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Speaker 1: her part. And look, no matter how you feel about it,

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Speaker 1: Americans donated money in good faith, not just Americans, people

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Speaker 1: all over the world to this organization. And you had

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Speaker 1: moms from Ferguson to Trayvon Martin Foundation and others being like, hey,

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Speaker 1: where is the money we're trying, we need some of

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Speaker 1: this money they actually support. Stop using our kids nids

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Speaker 1: to raise money for your things, which they were. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's outrageous. So this just puts him in the same

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Speaker 1: league as the founder of the organzation. I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it's true allegedly, don't come after me,

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Speaker 1: but you know, the allegations seem pretty substantial, and look,

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Speaker 1: if it's found true, he should go to jail. A

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Speaker 1: lot of these people should let me. Let me read

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Speaker 1: to you. His response, which I think is also telling,

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Speaker 1: he and his group denied all claims of financial misconduct,

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Speaker 1: and he chastises suing him for quote falling victim to

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Speaker 1: the carsoral logic and social violence that fuels the legal system,

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Speaker 1: saying quote they would rather take the same steps of

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Speaker 1: our white oppressors and utilize the criminal legal system which

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Speaker 1: is propped up by white supremacy, the same system they

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Speaker 1: say they want to dismantle to solve movement disputes. So

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Speaker 1: trying to weaponize the language of the movement to protect

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Speaker 1: himself from the allegations that he has stolen ten million

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Speaker 1: dollars from donations that we're supposed to go in to

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Speaker 1: furthering the cause of the movement. She did the same.

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Speaker 1: Shame shameful. She didn't do this. She was like his

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Speaker 1: white guilt blah blah blah. Mike. I mean, this again

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Speaker 1: started from the people who were in, the activists on

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Speaker 1: the ground, who were doing the work, and the movement mothers.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, very latest there. It is a sad story,

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Speaker 1: and we will continue to follow it and give you

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Speaker 1: any updates as they come. That's right, we'll see guys

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Speaker 1: there time now for our weekly partnership segment with the

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Speaker 1: Lever And joining us now is the man himself, David Serota,

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Speaker 1: founder of that news outlet. Right to see David, Good

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Speaker 1: to see you. So you are reporting this week on

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Speaker 1: kind of a moment of truth for democrats democratic establishment.

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Speaker 1: Let's go and put this up on the screen you're writing.

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Speaker 1: The DNC faces a vote on dark money. An anonymous

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Speaker 1: is anonymous cash buys democratic primaries. Party officials will be

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Speaker 1: forced to declare which side of the democracy crisis they

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Speaker 1: are on. Tell us more, David. So, the DNC is

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Speaker 1: having its meeting in Washington this week, and a group

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Speaker 1: of Democratic National Committee members, led by the state Chair

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Speaker 1: of Nevada, will put on to the DNC members a

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Speaker 1: resolution basically condemning and trying to, I guess, symbolically ban

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Speaker 1: dark money. I say symbolically because it's hard to know

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Speaker 1: how resolution like this would actually be enforced, but the

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Speaker 1: basic thrust of the resolution is the DNC would go

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Speaker 1: on record saying that dark money should have no place

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Speaker 1: in Democratic primaries right now. In this last election cycle,

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Speaker 1: the one that we're currently in, sixty percent of House

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Speaker 1: Democratic primary ads have been by groups that do not

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Speaker 1: disclose all of their donors. Point being that dark money

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Speaker 1: is really playing a particularly huge role in not only

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Speaker 1: in general elections, not only in lobbying and in campaigns

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Speaker 1: around issues, but it's playing a particular role inside of

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00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 1: democratic primaries where Democratic Party voters are selecting their nominees

429
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 1: for general elections. And so the DNC will face a

430
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 1: choice about whether to actually try to move the fight

431
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 1: against dark money forward this week at their meeting. Well,

432
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,160
Speaker 1: it seems noteworthy too that this fight is being led

433
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: by a sort of like rogue state party, the Nevada

434
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 1: Democratic Party. Could you talk to us about the significance

435
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:25,280
Speaker 1: of that. Sure, A few years ago, the Nevada Democratic

436
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 1: Party had a big fight between kind of the progressive activist,

437
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:36,160
Speaker 1: somewhat Bernie Sanders aligned wing of that party and Harry Reid,

438
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 1: former Senate Majority leader Harry Reid's machine in Nevada, and

439
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:44,679
Speaker 1: there was basically a takeover of the party by the

440
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:50,040
Speaker 1: now chair, Judith Whitmer, And so that's who is essentially

441
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 1: leading this resolution. So it's not necessarily a kind of

442
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: out and out fight between the progressive wing and the

443
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 1: established wing, because I think in Nevada there's been some

444
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:08,359
Speaker 1: coming together about this, there's been some healing reportedly, But

445
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 1: I do think it's important to know that the origin

446
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,159
Speaker 1: story of this that the more restive activist wing of

447
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 1: the party is now bringing its concerns about dark money

448
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,119
Speaker 1: to the middle of the party, to the belly of

449
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:25,919
Speaker 1: the beast, if you will. And we should remember that

450
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 1: the party platform, the overall DNC party platform says it

451
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,240
Speaker 1: that the party is against dark money, that it wants

452
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,399
Speaker 1: disclosure bills to disclose dark money the five oh one

453
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 1: C four groups, and there is democratic legislation in the Senate,

454
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 1: supported by fifty Democratic senators that would do that. Now

455
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 1: that legislation hasn't moved forward, and this week's vote will

456
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 1: be a chance to see if the DNC is willing

457
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,679
Speaker 1: to do something more than just have a kind of

458
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:54,920
Speaker 1: soft statement in its party platform. Well, and it does

459
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: seem like the efforts on the Democratic side to rein

460
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: in money and policy have kind of fizzled out, like

461
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,919
Speaker 1: to the extent that they were ever really serious about it,

462
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 1: which I think is a big question mark to start with.

463
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: You just don't hear this as a focus anymore. You

464
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,879
Speaker 1: see certainly sort of like the mainstream corporate side of

465
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,879
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party embracing dark money to get their chosen

466
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:20,159
Speaker 1: outcomes in these primaries. So it seems to me like

467
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,720
Speaker 1: it is an important moment for that reason as well.

468
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree, and I think you're right to sense

469
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: the fact that the party is kind of rhetorically on

470
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 1: record again fifty Democratic co sponsors of, for instance, the

471
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 1: Disclosed Act, and the Republicans they're nowhere to be found

472
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,359
Speaker 1: on these issues. But I think there is a sense

473
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:45,359
Speaker 1: that it is rhetoric only that it's not necessarily real.

474
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 1: And as you suggested, part of the reason is because

475
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 1: a part of the party, inside of the party benefits

476
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,439
Speaker 1: from dark money. If you are a corporate Democrat, you

477
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: are pretty happy that dark money grew are dropping into

478
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: congressional races to buy races for the corporate wing of

479
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 1: the party. So getting to an end of this, or

480
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: taking steps to end dark money this is it's not

481
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: just a battle between Democrats and Republicans. It's a battle

482
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,879
Speaker 1: between kind of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party

483
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: and kind of an unholy alliance between the corporate wing

484
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:27,440
Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party and the Republicans. Yeah, I mean,

485
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,359
Speaker 1: because let's take care. Look, everybody understands the difficulty of

486
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: getting a constitutional amendment through and the decisions that the

487
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: Supreme Court has made in the way that sort of

488
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: like Hamstring's efforts to get money in politics overall under control.

489
00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:42,119
Speaker 1: But the Democratic Party has a lot of say and

490
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: a lot of sway over how they conduct themselves. The

491
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,439
Speaker 1: problem for them is that if they actually took a

492
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: stand against dark money, it would need have their ability

493
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: to take out the progressive challengers that they want to

494
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,120
Speaker 1: be able to sideline and they want to be able

495
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,199
Speaker 1: to defeat. And let's underscore one other point, because I've

496
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: seen some of the reaction to this vote. Oh well,

497
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 1: the Democrats shouldn't have to unilaterally disarm in general elections.

498
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: What's interesting about this resolution is it's talking about democratic primaries.

499
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:15,919
Speaker 1: So if you separate out the we need to you know,

500
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,879
Speaker 1: we can't unilaterally disarm in general elections. Put that aside

501
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 1: for a second. The question really is should democratic party

502
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: primaries the process by which Democratic Party voters select their nominees.

503
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,879
Speaker 1: Should that process be dominated by dark money. Some of

504
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 1: the details that we know, and there's not all that

505
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: much of it because these donations are anonymous, but we

506
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:44,200
Speaker 1: know that Republican money, the big Republican donors have been

507
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 1: some of the donors funding some of the Democratic Party

508
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: primary spending in these races to get more conservative corporate Democrats.

509
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,080
Speaker 1: So again, the question here is how should the Democratic

510
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: Party itself, inside its own process, conduct itself and should

511
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 1: dark money be able to decide who the party's nominees are.

512
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,520
Speaker 1: That's what's at issue here. Lastly, David, I'd love it

513
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 1: if you could just remind the audience of an example

514
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: or two where dark money really played an ounce sized

515
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: role in some of these primaries. Oh. Sure, there's the

516
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 1: United Democracy Project. That's what the dark money group was called.

517
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,199
Speaker 1: It was a group that some of it discloses, some

518
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,880
Speaker 1: of its donors, doesn't disclose all of its donors. It's

519
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: funded in part by the American Israel Public Affairs Council.

520
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:32,920
Speaker 1: It has gone into races. It went into the race

521
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 1: in New York City recently, and part of that money

522
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: is not disclosed, and it's spent spent the progressive candidates

523
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 1: into the ground and an heir to the Levi Strauss

524
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: Empire ended up winning that primary with a huge boost

525
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: of dark money, and the sources of it weren't really

526
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 1: disclosed to voters. So I mean, we could go race

527
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: by race, but this is happening all over the country

528
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: again with anonymous Stark money putting the thumb on the

529
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: scale of the primary process, so that voters are getting

530
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: election communications funded anonymously that are attacking progressive candidates. I

531
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: think this is a very important and very revealing story

532
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 1: and moment for the Democratic Party, so we will see

533
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,960
Speaker 1: how they ultimately respond. I think we both know this

534
00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: is the vote is going to ultimately go down. David.

535
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: Great to see you, Thank you, thank you for the reporting,

536
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thanks for having me. Yeah, our pleasure. Hey there,

537
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: Welcome to another segment of fifty one to forty nine

538
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,719
Speaker 1: on Breaking Points, where we dive into different topics at

539
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: the intersection of business, politics, and society. And as school

540
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: is officially now in session, I want to take a

541
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: few minutes today to dive deeper into the teacher shortage

542
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: crisis facing public schools all over the United States. We're

543
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 1: going to cover what you've maybe been hearing in the

544
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 1: news about the teacher shortages, but also major aspects of

545
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 1: the issue that I think the media has been ignoring,

546
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 1: perhaps deliberately or unconsciously, due to certain underlying biases they have.

547
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: This morning, the school year's first bell, is also an

548
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 1: alarm belt a school's nationwide struggle to find enough teachers.

549
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: There is a growing crisis in American education and extreme

550
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: shortage of teachers. The US is coping with a nationwide

551
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:23,719
Speaker 1: shortage of teachers numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Men

552
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: and women who educate our children are increasingly burnt out,

553
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 1: struggling with the aftermath of two plus years the pandemic,

554
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: increasing scrutiny over curriculums that has put many of them

555
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: at the center of educational culture, wars not to mention,

556
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 1: fears for their own safety, and oh, by the way,

557
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: there's always that issue of low peck. Nationwide, there are

558
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: more than two hundred and eighty thousand fewer teachers now

559
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: than at the start of the pandemic. Two hundred and

560
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 1: eighty thousand. That's according to the Department of Labor. That

561
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: is a crisis that is impacting school systems in both

562
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 1: urban areas and rural areas. So just to provide some

563
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: additional context to that two hundred and eighty thousand number

564
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 1: reported in the media. Although we don't know exactly how

565
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: many US classrooms are short teachers for the next school year,

566
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 1: there is no national database that tracks the issue, we

567
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 1: can look at state and district level reports to try

568
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: to contextualize how bad things actually are. According to recent

569
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 1: reporting from the Washington Post quote the Nevada State Education

570
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 1: Association estimated that roughly three thousand teaching jobs remain unfilled

571
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 1: across the state seventeen school districts as of early August.

572
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 1: In a January report, the Illinois Association of Regional School

573
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: Superintendents found that eighty eight percent of school districts statewide

574
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: were having problems with teacher shortages, while two thousand and

575
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: forty teacher openings were either empty or filled with a

576
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: less than qualified hire. And in the Houston area, the

577
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: largest five school districts are all reporting that between two

578
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 1: hundred and one thousand teaching positions remain open. Now. I

579
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 1: talked about this exact issue on my YouTube channel a

580
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: few weeks ago and received a number of responses from

581
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: teachers that the problem is indeed widespread. So what exactly

582
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 1: is going on here and what are the solutions. We're

583
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:12,239
Speaker 1: calling for a federal government involvement, the state involvement. In

584
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 1: our state, we're seeing this investment in education. We had

585
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 1: a zero zero added to our public school funding in

586
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: terms of investment from our joint Finance committee. We can't

587
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 1: continue to do this Wisconsins right now, always within that

588
00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: one to three in terms of the lowest performance. That

589
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: was Carlton Jenkins, superintendent of Madison's Metropolitan School District, speaking

590
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: with Chuck Todd on NBC News to Meet the Press.

591
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 1: He talked about the lack of school funding being a

592
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: big problem, and there is an argument to be made here.

593
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: Money helps. With more money, you can immediately go out

594
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: and hire more teachers, more support staff, by supplies and

595
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: proof facilities, et cetera. However, simply saying we need more

596
00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 1: money to fix this issue is different than following the money,

597
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 1: and I think this is where mainstream coverage of this

598
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 1: issue has led us astray. According to data from the

599
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,080
Speaker 1: National Center for Education Statistics, the graph on your screen

600
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 1: plots expenditures per full time student for elementary and secondary

601
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: education of OECD countries by GDP per capita. The blue

602
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:22,160
Speaker 1: line indicates the linear relationship between education spending and GDP

603
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 1: per capita. For the most part, the higher the GDP,

604
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: the more a country spends on education. Makes logical sense. Now,

605
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 1: one important thing to notice here is that the US

606
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: is not an outlier. We are spending just as much

607
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 1: on education as other countries. Another thing to read into,

608
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: perhaps is which countries are falling above that regression line

609
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: and which ones are falling below. A country with a

610
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 1: plot above the regression means that they spend more on

611
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 1: education than what would maybe otherwise be expected on average

612
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: based on their GDP per capita, which could be interpreted

613
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: positively in that in this set of countries comparatively, they

614
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: might value public education more and see it as a

615
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: worthwhile investment to make The US is one of the

616
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 1: countries above that line, so it isn't entirely the case

617
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:12,919
Speaker 1: that the US isn't investing in public education. They are,

618
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,360
Speaker 1: but the overall spend is only a part of the

619
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,320
Speaker 1: equation that. Since we're talking about teachers here, let's examine

620
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 1: the teachers cut of the pie. According to reporting from

621
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,520
Speaker 1: the Reason Foundation quote, the United States already spends more

622
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 1: on public education per student than almost any other developed

623
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,399
Speaker 1: nation in the world. Yet the US does not make

624
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,040
Speaker 1: the top of the list for teacher salaries, lagging behind

625
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 1: nations like Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Canada, which also

626
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: spend less per pupil. So logically, the next thread that

627
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 1: we have to pull on is where is all the

628
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:45,840
Speaker 1: money going if not to teachers well. According to a

629
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:50,240
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen OECD report, America spends higher proportions of education

630
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 1: dollars on non teaching staff twenty seven percent of US

631
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,840
Speaker 1: spending compared to the OECD average of fifteen percent, and

632
00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 1: devotes a lower proportion of education spending to teachers compensation

633
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 1: fifty four percent compared to an OECD average of sixty

634
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 1: three percent. And these administrative and support staff costs continue

635
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: to grow. Administrative staff members have grown over five times

636
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 1: faster than student populations in public schools since two thousand.

637
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,319
Speaker 1: One of the major reasons behind these spending patterns is

638
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: American dependent on school districts. While many European and Asian

639
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 1: countries don't have separate elected bodies to administer public education,

640
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:28,439
Speaker 1: the United States is somewhat unique in that it has

641
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 1: thousands of locally elected school districts. Many of which are

642
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,360
Speaker 1: quite small. This equates to hundreds of thousands of administrators

643
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,040
Speaker 1: and to lots of dollars not going to teachers. Now.

644
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 1: The last time I spoke about this topic, I was asked, well,

645
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,400
Speaker 1: the US public schools have always been organized into many

646
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: local school districts, but the increase in non teaching staff

647
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 1: seems to be more recent. So what exactly is going

648
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:55,800
Speaker 1: on here that explains this change. It's a fantastic question,

649
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: and to answer it, I think we have to think

650
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: about what instead infrastructures are in place. In an article

651
00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:05,479
Speaker 1: in the Stanford Review addressing administrative bloat in the higher

652
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 1: education system, which suffers from I think a lot of

653
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:11,840
Speaker 1: the same issues as primary and secondary education, reporter berber

654
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:15,720
Speaker 1: Jin wrote quote, Unlike faculty who gained prestige through quality

655
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,720
Speaker 1: teaching and innovative research, administrators move up the career ladder

656
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: by expanding bureaucracy. In other words, an administrator's status is

657
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 1: proportional to the number of administrators she manages and the

658
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:30,359
Speaker 1: scale of her programs. I think his commentary there is

659
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,600
Speaker 1: incredibly insightful. Think about maybe your own job progression. Let's

660
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 1: say you want to go from a project coordinator to

661
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 1: a project manager. That prerequisite of that promotion is kind

662
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:44,360
Speaker 1: of predicated on the existence of another coordinator for you

663
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 1: to manage. In order to move up, you necessarily need

664
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: to increase the size of your team, and that's I

665
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,240
Speaker 1: think how headcounts can balloon over the course of years

666
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 1: and decades. Now, of course, in the private sector and

667
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,919
Speaker 1: the business world, budgets are a little bit easier to scrutinize.

668
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 1: Is your team contributing to the overall growth or the

669
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 1: profitability of the company. If it's not, headcount reductions are coming.

670
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 1: But with education, where there is no profit motive, that

671
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 1: admin team's performance metrics are probably a little bit harder

672
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 1: to come by, which leaves the institution exposed to administrative bloat.

673
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at the table on your screen

674
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 1: to examine the hard data, and this is once again

675
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: from the National Center for Education Statistics. Over the course

676
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 1: of about two decades, from the year two thousand to

677
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:35,359
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, school district administrative staff and that includes officials, administrators,

678
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:39,280
Speaker 1: and instruction coordinators have grown a whopping seventy five percent.

679
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:44,280
Speaker 1: While instructional staff and this cohort includes principles, assistant principles, teachers,

680
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: instructional aids, librarians, and guidance counselors. The folks who actually

681
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: interact with the students has only grown twelve percent over

682
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,520
Speaker 1: the same period. Those of the cold harfacts can't argue

683
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:59,800
Speaker 1: with it. But remember Carlton Jenkins from earlier. When NBC News,

684
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:03,920
Speaker 1: Meet the Press and other mainstream programs bring on school

685
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,839
Speaker 1: district superintendents like him to talk about solutions and how

686
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:11,400
Speaker 1: we can solve our education crisis, they're highly unlikely to

687
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,760
Speaker 1: call out the redundancies in their own department and suggest

688
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: a headcount reduction in their own teams as a solution.

689
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 1: So could it be possible that school district officials and

690
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:28,319
Speaker 1: administrators are okay with sacrificing teaching quality in order to

691
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 1: preserve their own jobs. Some believe so. Nancy Bailey, author

692
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:35,840
Speaker 1: of Losing America's Schools, The Fight to Reclaim Public Education,

693
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:38,880
Speaker 1: wrote back in twenty sixteen, quote those in charge of

694
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: public schools and politicians are hypocrites when it comes to

695
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,320
Speaker 1: the rhetoric surrounding a teacher shortage. School districts around the

696
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 1: country are describing hundreds of classrooms they can't seem to

697
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:51,720
Speaker 1: fill with qualified teachers. This has been a manipulated ploy

698
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: to get rid of veteran teachers and employ alternative revolving

699
00:38:56,040 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 1: door unqualified teachers who will settle for smaller salaries, so

700
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,719
Speaker 1: to put it bluntly, instead of properly dealing with a

701
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:09,040
Speaker 1: teacher shortage that arguably they manufactured, the large educational bureaucracy

702
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:11,759
Speaker 1: in order to preserve their own position of power, are

703
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:15,320
Speaker 1: choosing to deal with it in other ways, like creating

704
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:19,760
Speaker 1: an environment that creates a downward pressure on teacher's wages,

705
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 1: which has been happening for quite some time now, as

706
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 1: well as turning to privatization. I'll give you an example.

707
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 1: On your screen is a paper put out by DC's

708
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:33,440
Speaker 1: Office of the State Superintendent of Education entitled high Dosage

709
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:37,280
Speaker 1: Learning a proven strategy to accelerate student learning. High dosers

710
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: learning is a new buzzword that's kind of all the

711
00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 1: rage right now in the education world. That basically means

712
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: one on one tutoring and that apparently is the answer

713
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:50,439
Speaker 1: our school boards and our government are pushing. But which

714
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:54,279
Speaker 1: groups are funding this push? Future Ed a think tank

715
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 1: out of George Washington University, made of Teach for America types,

716
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,640
Speaker 1: some from the Broad Institute. Most tutors in the case

717
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,920
Speaker 1: for a national tutoring system, they're funded by the Bar Foundation,

718
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 1: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of

719
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: New York, the City Fund, the Joyce Foundation, the Overdeck

720
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: Family Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation. So is the

721
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 1: picture becoming more clear now? The push for tutors to

722
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 1: replace teachers comes down to advancing the interests of the

723
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 1: wealthy and the powerful. Because remember, nonprofits like the Bill

724
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,800
Speaker 1: and Melinda Gates Foundation don't exist to solve any fundamental

725
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:34,359
Speaker 1: problems in society, or at least that's definitely not at

726
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 1: the top of their list of priorities. But rather, those

727
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:41,360
Speaker 1: organizations exist to advance and protect their own status and

728
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:45,760
Speaker 1: that of its patrons. Perhaps worse, it injects a profit incentive,

729
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 1: of money making opportunity into public K through twelve education,

730
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:52,840
Speaker 1: something that could prove very beneficial to a certain group

731
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,799
Speaker 1: of folks who run in those elite circles. How lucrative

732
00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,400
Speaker 1: is the future of big tutoring. According to industry SITS,

733
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,640
Speaker 1: between twenty twenty and twenty twenty five, the private tutoring

734
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 1: market in the US is expected to grow by over

735
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: eight percent year over year roughly eight point three seven

736
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 1: billion dollars, so a lot of money to be made there,

737
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:17,920
Speaker 1: But the reality is promoting private tutoring as a mechanism

738
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:22,920
Speaker 1: to augment public education will only further entrench the country's

739
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 1: widening class divide, right, one group who has access to

740
00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:29,760
Speaker 1: a private tutor and another who doesn't. I'm a PhD

741
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: student who's studying teacher attrition. In the long term impacts

742
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,360
Speaker 1: it's having on our field, class sizes will be so

743
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,400
Speaker 1: large that individual teachers, either legally or physically or both

744
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: can't handle them, and so students are going to get

745
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:42,839
Speaker 1: pushed out into large group sessions that have a person

746
00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 1: who's supervising them. The person supervising them isn't necessarily going

747
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,240
Speaker 1: to be a teacher. Think more like a lunchroom monitor situation,

748
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:50,320
Speaker 1: and the students will be doing like a con academy

749
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 1: or otherwise online learning platform. This will likely take place

750
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:55,760
Speaker 1: in a cafeteria, in a gym, or just really large classroom,

751
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,200
Speaker 1: and they'll be in there on their headphones and laptops,

752
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,080
Speaker 1: learning and being supervised by a human. I'm using the

753
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 1: word teacher lightly because it's really just going to be

754
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: an adult in the room who may be passed the

755
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 1: background check. So school attendance will still be mandatory, but

756
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:10,520
Speaker 1: it won't truly be school. It won't be a place

757
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 1: of education, fostering learning, supporting disabilities. So what you're witnessing

758
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,399
Speaker 1: is the absolute deprofessionalization of teaching and shifting it from

759
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,279
Speaker 1: a career to a gig industry. Imagine that future a

760
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: country where teaching will no longer be a career but

761
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:29,640
Speaker 1: just a gig classroom staff with independent contractors who aren't

762
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:33,399
Speaker 1: at all invested in education, but who are simply there

763
00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:35,840
Speaker 1: to trade his or her time for an hourly wage,

764
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:40,480
Speaker 1: most likely with minimal benefits. I think public education maybe

765
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: is the quintessential example of a long term investment in

766
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,120
Speaker 1: the future of our country. Right you make that investment

767
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:50,120
Speaker 1: now to create a strong foundation from which to build

768
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:52,440
Speaker 1: a nation, and that's part of I think the legacy

769
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:56,839
Speaker 1: of America. Right now, we should be focused on eliminating

770
00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 1: administrative bloat within our public education system, finding better ways

771
00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 1: to allocate funding to teaching roles, and breaking up the

772
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:09,000
Speaker 1: parasitic relationship between private interests and public education. But instead

773
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: we're essentially trading away our long term prosperity for another

774
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 1: revenue stream for the rich and the wealthy. And if

775
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: you want to talk about free market competition, if we

776
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:21,839
Speaker 1: continue to allow our public education system to deteriorate through

777
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:26,080
Speaker 1: greed through privatization, not only will this have catastrophic effects

778
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:29,879
Speaker 1: on our own communities, but the US economy will not

779
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:33,360
Speaker 1: remain competitive. We may not feel it right away, but

780
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 1: it's inevitable. So to sum it up, yes, we have

781
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,400
Speaker 1: a teacher shortage, no doubt, but we also have a

782
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 1: large bureaucratic network of administrators and private interests siphoning off

783
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:48,360
Speaker 1: public resources, crippling teachers and students, all while pushing for

784
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: mass privatization of the public education system for the sake

785
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 1: of self preservation and profit generation. That is it for

786
00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:58,759
Speaker 1: me today. I hope you found this segment about the

787
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 1: teacher shortage crisis to be helpful and informative. There's a

788
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:04,399
Speaker 1: lot to cover about this topic, so I'm sure there

789
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,359
Speaker 1: are some things that I've missed, so I encourage you

790
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:10,239
Speaker 1: to comment below. I also encourage you to check out

791
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:12,839
Speaker 1: and subscribe to my YouTube channel fifty one forty nine

792
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,320
Speaker 1: with James Lee, where I make videos on topics related

793
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 1: to business politics, and society link will be in the

794
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 1: description below. Thank you for tuning into breaking points as

795
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:23,560
Speaker 1: as always, I appreciate your time today