Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rep Red Paquette is with us right now. Brett rep By,
you're you actually a former teacher yourself, and although I
don't think ever you know when you when you're when
you when you even when you take on a different profession,
you continue sort of with that heart of the teacher.
You're still a teacher at heart. And I know you're
probably trying to educate folks on what's going on with
education in Michigan. A lot of folks are unhappy with
(00:21):
the with the with the products. I mean, even our
our family. You know, we got two kids. I got
a four year old and a two year and my
wife and I, even with our background of the public
school system, we've we've really had to take a look
at home schooling. I don't know a lot of people
that have, because the product is just not where it
should be here, and I know that concerns a lot
of folks. Welcome in.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah. I was actually sitting
on committee and it reminded me of my teaching days
because if I was teaching, I'd be doing the job
for my life and soul into my classroom. And now
there's a union protected teacher making double what I'm making
using the same power point every year and teaching from
their desk, right, And so we have the two lead
years of our education system. You know, they're in committee,
(01:02):
the state superintendent and the president of the school board,
and they're using the same PowerPoint as well, in place
and blame on the legislatures, saying we don't have enough money.
And when I came in with doctor Rice twenty nineteen,
the thing that we've done is we've increased funding at
immense rates and they're still here complaining and placing blame.
And so that's unacceptable. They're the epitomes of the cult
(01:23):
of the average. They're what people resent in education, people
that are just blaming others and not taking accountability. And
so that's what we hammered on them a little bit,
lad yesterday. He get it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But you bring up a great point. It's not like
throwing more money at this problem is is always the answer.
Right now, They like to, you know, sort of say
that that is what we need to do. But I
got to tell you, I just I mean, we've seen it,
and so many people are tired of it. How much
of our money goes to fix those problems that seem
(01:53):
to get worse and worse every year. What is the
solution someone that was inside, you were on the ground floor,
and now you kind of get that thirty thousand foot
What do we need to do to get things back
on track here?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, that's a key. And this is one of the
things that frustrated me the most is that folks the department,
they've always stymied innovation. Right. I use the term culture
the average because that comes from the seventies and you
know some of the education reformers. Then we're talking about
the same problems we're talking about now, and so we're
approaching innovation and reform the same way that we've done
for the last couple decades. And that's the problem. So
(02:27):
we really need to put school choice on steroids. One
of the things that the department watered down a couple
of years back, we put into the budget when I
was sharing the budget, was this availability for parents to
be able to hire teachers directly. Right, parents who care
about their kids, they're always fighting for the best teachers already. Well,
let's put those teachers' resumes out there and let's have
parents be able to choose their teacher directly and pay
(02:48):
them accordingly. One of the big problems we have is
we have teachers that are right leaving the profession between
three and five years. Why because they get paid way
less than a teacher who's work in twenty twenty five years,
who might be checked out and probably way better than
one of these teachers that's ready to retire, and the
only way they can make more money is by just
(03:10):
putting in another ten to fifteen years. That's unacceptable and
one of the most stunting things in our teaching profession
right now. We've got to change that. But that's what
the union has a stranglehold on through collective bargaining, is
paying the top teachers that have been working there the longest,
the most, and then also securing them the best placements,
which is what the Dems did last time in law.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
What are some of those, you know, because you know
the other side of this, and again, you know, it's June,
it's Pride months, and we haven't spent a lot of
time talking about this. But there isn't a doctrination process,
and I think there's a lot of there's just a
lot of parents out there who say, you know, look,
we want you to teach our kids and one of
those things and we'd like to see you do is
(03:52):
teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and not so much of the
social stuff. I mean, just let's let's teach them the basics.
Let's get back to the basics, the fund the mentals.
One of the things that I think is so frustrating
about all of this, particularly is instead of teaching the
kids what to think, we really need to prepare those
kids and teach them.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
How to think wellundeniably. That's happening in small pockets around
the state. Obviously in my school, in my classroom, that
was one thing we're focusing on. How do you ask
the right questions in life? How do you trouble to
shoot your way to an answer that testable? Right, rigorous writing,
rigorous reading materials rout in the Federalist papers, right civics course.
(04:34):
But if you have kids that are coming into ninth, tenth,
eleventh grade that are just passed on, right the Democrats
and the individuals of the departments, they overturned our reading
retention law so that kids that aren't proficient in reading
are just passed on to the next grade. That puts
a lot of teachers in some trouble, Right, when they're
down the road, trying to teach them these critical thinking skills,
(04:55):
trying to look to these seminal documents that are really
important to understand pulled the American cause. And so if
you can't read and have these skills, then you're really
really set back in understanding how to really question the
world around you, and you're setting these kids up to fail.
So these laws are very instrumental in, you know, setting
kids up for success, and especially with the culture we
(05:17):
have just passing kids on when they don't have the
ability or the skills.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Some of the things I know that you heard yesterday,
and of course we're talking about with Rep. Brad Pockett
out of the Michigan House and as a Republican there
on that oversight committee. One of the quotes I said
from the midwesterner as from you all we're hearing is
stay the course. And that's problematic. And the headline here
is state education officials blame funding poverty class sizes for
(05:45):
failure to improve. So they've got lots of fingers to point,
but did they take any accountability or responsibility for any
of the outcomes?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Zero accountability, man, And that's why it's frustrating because, like
I said, I came in with these guys seven years
ago and we've been hammering on this problem for a
long time. The governor, you know, she used to talk
about transformational change in education and now she doesn't say
that at all. So the state of the course is
not acceptable. Like I said, these two leaders in education,
(06:15):
they're they're the faces of education in our state, and
we've given them the funding that they've asked for. We've
increased it at exponential rates. But they're saying stay the
course on a downward trajectory and that's unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, that's that was first right into the ground. Well, listen,
we know you're fighting for it. We get Republicans in
the House right now holding these hearings. Oversight is happening,
and that's one of the things that elections have consequences.
Folks voted for this and we're seeing the outcome and
we appreciate you continuing in that fight. Rep. Brad Pokette
is with us right now. Well, where can folks, Rep.
(06:49):
If people want to find out more about maybe stay
in touch with you and keep up with what you're
fighting for and what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, any anyone who wants to reach out to have
a discussion around this. I've been traveling schools all around
the States, in particular, especially because I think one of
the keys is we need to focus on what is good.
Those individuals, like I said, a lot of teachers who
are they're still on fire for the profession, but they're
not being seen. Those are the individuals we need to exult.
We've got to put a spotlight on them and their profession.
They want to be seen. Yeah, especially in the midst
(07:20):
of all this. Yeah, the negative that's filtering around education unfortunately. Yeah,
there's someone would love to put a spotlight on you
any way we can.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
There's some good ones out there. I know that. You know,
my dad is as retired forty almost forty some odd years,
and they're thinking about everything he saw. You know, I
heard those stories about the teachers like you just admitted,
the ones who were checked out, and some of the
ones that would like leave their they'd get there late,
they'd show up to work late, leave their classrooms for
long periods of times. And I know these aren't even
(07:48):
the worst of the worst stories, but his frustration with it,
even back then when he was still teaching, I can't
imagine how bad things have gotten today. We ought to
sign it light on the ones that are doing the
good work, the ones that are making things happened, because
I think when you do that, there is a tendency
for folks to see that get behind those people, and
then others say, we ought to maybe get in line
(08:09):
with this too and attract some of the right folks
back in the profession as well.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Undeniably, and in the teaching profession, we call that positive reinforcement,
and we don't do that professionally. Unfortunately. It's always the
squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and that's the top
echelon of the union, and those are just Democrat shills,
and the Dems have done the bidding of the union
the last couple of years. Undone a lot of big
reforms that you know they have in Mississippi. One of
the interesting aspects is that you know, doctor Rice and
(08:36):
Pamela Pew were pointing to Mississippi and some of the
laws over there, and you know what they've done with
their reading rates, and they just fought tooth and nail
the last four years to overturn a lot of the
reforms that we had in place here that Mississippi had
that haven't been able to take root and produce fruit.
So it's pretty crazy that these individuals brought up some
of the reforms over there in other states that they
(08:58):
just did everything they could to undo here.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Stay in a fight, Red Brad PA can't appreciate you
taking the time to be here with us. A Republican
from the Niles area and on the oversight Committee. We'll
have more on the way.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Thank you, sir, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Bye, You got it. God bless
Rep Red Paquette is with us right now. Brett rep By,
you're you actually a former teacher yourself, and although I
don't think ever you know when you when you're when
you when you even when you take on a different profession,
you continue sort of with that heart of the teacher.
You're still a teacher at heart. And I know you're
probably trying to educate folks on what's going on with
education in Michigan. A lot of folks are unhappy with
(00:21):
the with the with the products. I mean, even our
our family. You know, we got two kids. I got
a four year old and a two year and my
wife and I, even with our background of the public
school system, we've we've really had to take a look
at home schooling. I don't know a lot of people
that have, because the product is just not where it
should be here, and I know that concerns a lot
of folks. Welcome in.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah. I was actually sitting
on committee and it reminded me of my teaching days
because if I was teaching, I'd be doing the job
for my life and soul into my classroom. And now
there's a union protected teacher making double what I'm making
using the same power point every year and teaching from
their desk, right, And so we have the two lead
years of our education system. You know, they're in committee,
(01:02):
the state superintendent and the president of the school board,
and they're using the same PowerPoint as well, in place
and blame on the legislatures, saying we don't have enough money.
And when I came in with doctor Rice twenty nineteen,
the thing that we've done is we've increased funding at
immense rates and they're still here complaining and placing blame.
And so that's unacceptable. They're the epitomes of the cult
(01:23):
of the average. They're what people resent in education, people
that are just blaming others and not taking accountability. And
so that's what we hammered on them a little bit,
lad yesterday. He get it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But you bring up a great point. It's not like
throwing more money at this problem is is always the answer.
Right now, They like to, you know, sort of say
that that is what we need to do. But I
got to tell you, I just I mean, we've seen it,
and so many people are tired of it. How much
of our money goes to fix those problems that seem
(01:53):
to get worse and worse every year. What is the
solution someone that was inside, you were on the ground floor,
and now you kind of get that thirty thousand foot
What do we need to do to get things back
on track here?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, that's a key. And this is one of the
things that frustrated me the most is that folks the department,
they've always stymied innovation. Right. I use the term culture
the average because that comes from the seventies and you
know some of the education reformers. Then we're talking about
the same problems we're talking about now, and so we're
approaching innovation and reform the same way that we've done
for the last couple decades. And that's the problem. So
(02:27):
we really need to put school choice on steroids. One
of the things that the department watered down a couple
of years back, we put into the budget when I
was sharing the budget, was this availability for parents to
be able to hire teachers directly. Right, parents who care
about their kids, they're always fighting for the best teachers already. Well,
let's put those teachers' resumes out there and let's have
parents be able to choose their teacher directly and pay
(02:48):
them accordingly. One of the big problems we have is
we have teachers that are right leaving the profession between
three and five years. Why because they get paid way
less than a teacher who's work in twenty twenty five years,
who might be checked out and probably way better than
one of these teachers that's ready to retire, and the
only way they can make more money is by just
(03:10):
putting in another ten to fifteen years. That's unacceptable and
one of the most stunting things in our teaching profession
right now. We've got to change that. But that's what
the union has a stranglehold on through collective bargaining, is
paying the top teachers that have been working there the longest,
the most, and then also securing them the best placements,
which is what the Dems did last time in law.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
What are some of those, you know, because you know
the other side of this, and again, you know, it's June,
it's Pride months, and we haven't spent a lot of
time talking about this. But there isn't a doctrination process,
and I think there's a lot of there's just a
lot of parents out there who say, you know, look,
we want you to teach our kids and one of
those things and we'd like to see you do is
(03:52):
teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and not so much of the
social stuff. I mean, just let's let's teach them the basics.
Let's get back to the basics, the fund the mentals.
One of the things that I think is so frustrating
about all of this, particularly is instead of teaching the
kids what to think, we really need to prepare those
kids and teach them.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
How to think wellundeniably. That's happening in small pockets around
the state. Obviously in my school, in my classroom, that
was one thing we're focusing on. How do you ask
the right questions in life? How do you trouble to
shoot your way to an answer that testable? Right, rigorous writing,
rigorous reading materials rout in the Federalist papers, right civics course.
(04:34):
But if you have kids that are coming into ninth, tenth,
eleventh grade that are just passed on, right the Democrats
and the individuals of the departments, they overturned our reading
retention law so that kids that aren't proficient in reading
are just passed on to the next grade. That puts
a lot of teachers in some trouble, Right, when they're
down the road, trying to teach them these critical thinking skills,
(04:55):
trying to look to these seminal documents that are really
important to understand pulled the American cause. And so if
you can't read and have these skills, then you're really
really set back in understanding how to really question the
world around you, and you're setting these kids up to fail.
So these laws are very instrumental in, you know, setting
kids up for success, and especially with the culture we
(05:17):
have just passing kids on when they don't have the
ability or the skills.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Some of the things I know that you heard yesterday,
and of course we're talking about with Rep. Brad Pockett
out of the Michigan House and as a Republican there
on that oversight committee. One of the quotes I said
from the midwesterner as from you all we're hearing is
stay the course. And that's problematic. And the headline here
is state education officials blame funding poverty class sizes for
(05:45):
failure to improve. So they've got lots of fingers to point,
but did they take any accountability or responsibility for any
of the outcomes?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Zero accountability, man, And that's why it's frustrating because, like
I said, I came in with these guys seven years
ago and we've been hammering on this problem for a
long time. The governor, you know, she used to talk
about transformational change in education and now she doesn't say
that at all. So the state of the course is
not acceptable. Like I said, these two leaders in education,
(06:15):
they're they're the faces of education in our state, and
we've given them the funding that they've asked for. We've
increased it at exponential rates. But they're saying stay the
course on a downward trajectory and that's unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, that's that was first right into the ground. Well, listen,
we know you're fighting for it. We get Republicans in
the House right now holding these hearings. Oversight is happening,
and that's one of the things that elections have consequences.
Folks voted for this and we're seeing the outcome and
we appreciate you continuing in that fight. Rep. Brad Pokette
is with us right now. Well, where can folks, Rep.
(06:49):
If people want to find out more about maybe stay
in touch with you and keep up with what you're
fighting for and what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, any anyone who wants to reach out to have
a discussion around this. I've been traveling schools all around
the States, in particular, especially because I think one of
the keys is we need to focus on what is good.
Those individuals, like I said, a lot of teachers who
are they're still on fire for the profession, but they're
not being seen. Those are the individuals we need to exult.
We've got to put a spotlight on them and their profession.
They want to be seen. Yeah, especially in the midst
(07:20):
of all this. Yeah, the negative that's filtering around education unfortunately. Yeah,
there's someone would love to put a spotlight on you
any way we can.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
There's some good ones out there. I know that. You know,
my dad is as retired forty almost forty some odd years,
and they're thinking about everything he saw. You know, I
heard those stories about the teachers like you just admitted,
the ones who were checked out, and some of the
ones that would like leave their they'd get there late,
they'd show up to work late, leave their classrooms for
long periods of times. And I know these aren't even
(07:48):
the worst of the worst stories, but his frustration with it,
even back then when he was still teaching, I can't
imagine how bad things have gotten today. We ought to
sign it light on the ones that are doing the
good work, the ones that are making things happened, because
I think when you do that, there is a tendency
for folks to see that get behind those people, and
then others say, we ought to maybe get in line
(08:09):
with this too and attract some of the right folks
back in the profession as well.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Undeniably, and in the teaching profession, we call that positive reinforcement,
and we don't do that professionally. Unfortunately. It's always the
squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and that's the top
echelon of the union, and those are just Democrat shills,
and the Dems have done the bidding of the union
the last couple of years. Undone a lot of big
reforms that you know they have in Mississippi. One of
the interesting aspects is that you know, doctor Rice and
(08:36):
Pamela Pew were pointing to Mississippi and some of the
laws over there, and you know what they've done with
their reading rates, and they just fought tooth and nail
the last four years to overturn a lot of the
reforms that we had in place here that Mississippi had
that haven't been able to take root and produce fruit.
So it's pretty crazy that these individuals brought up some
of the reforms over there in other states that they
(08:58):
just did everything they could to undo here.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Stay in a fight, Red Brad PA can't appreciate you
taking the time to be here with us. A Republican
from the Niles area and on the oversight Committee. We'll
have more on the way.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Thank you, sir, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Bye, You got it. God bless
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