Episode Transcript
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The mainstream stories of the day withoutthe mainstream lives. The top three takeaways.
This is the Brian mud Show.You got to talk about some good
news today. We got plenty goingon with a lot of the usual that
is out there. But Florida's economyand education system are winning again. They're
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winning again, and I want tohighlight this my top three takeaways today.
My top one is I'm not tiredof winning, Joel. Are you exhausted
yet with winning? Not at all. We haven't had enough of it naturally
anyway, So you can handle thewinning in Florida to offset the lack of
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winning. Yeah, you know that'sa good way to put it. Yes,
got it. I think that's actuallya pretty good way. I talk
about my sanity being maintained because ofFlorida in light of what goes on in
the world around us. So yeah, my top takeaway is not tired of
winning, because the one thing that'sbetter than winning is to consistently improve year
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after year after having won. That'snot only how you create a dynasty for
talking sports. You know, thinkThink Brady, Think Patriots. I didn't
get a reaction on Joel, youreally are over it now? This is
this is growth on your part.It started when he when he when he
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left for Tampa, and then Iwas still holding the grudge. And you
know now that he's been roasted forthree hours and what an amazing by the
way, roast on Netflix the othernight, raunchy is all the ones from
Comedy Central years ago, no wokestuff, and anyway, I'm over it.
I'm over it. I'm good aslong as he doesn't come back to
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football. There used to be atime where you mentioned his name or Patriots,
Joel would have had like a visceralreaction. Actually not crazy about the
Patriots. But although Robert Crafts wonme over a little bit, so long
as he stays out of Bayspas,well yeah, and it's still there's always
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that. But all right, look, so I really will focus my takeaways
now. The one thing, asmentioned that's better than winning is just to
consistently improve after you've done it,because that's how you remain on top,
regardless of the competition that you're talkingabout. You know, importantly, if
we're talking about the quality of life, which we are here, it also
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means the opportunity for an ever improvingquality of life exists and that's what Florida
continues to provide, one of thebest states to live in that only continues
to get better, at least thisside of the traffic. US News World
reports annual rankings for states once againhighlights how truly great the state of Florida
is. And while Florida's overall rankingthis year, which is ninth, is
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both higher than a year ago whichwas tenth and generally excellent, there's a
much bigger and better specific story.The only reason that Florida is not the
top state overall is due to ourstate's higher rate of inflation, which causes
a higher than average cost of living, combined with below average median incomes.
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Now, those aren't insignificant concerns byany means, but the good news is
Florida may progress there too after thepast year, with Florida's job growth rate
and wage growth rate being close todouble the national average. What makes Florida's
good story a great one is wherewe're really just kind of running up the
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score. Florida's economy an education system, the two that are the most important
to people when sampled. If youtake the eight big issues, eight big
aspects of things, crime, nodoubt is way up there. Two,
but the economy and education are wayway up there. They're always if you
sample these things, two of thetop three, and those two are the
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best in the country. Cannot getbetter than Florida, and they're better than
last year and better than they've everbeen. Second takeaway today, starting with
Florida's economy, the combination of providinga great business environment which continues to attract
businesses and jobs at a best inthe country rate, combined with the country's
top overall growth rate for a largestate which is second overall, and Florida's
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employment opportunities which are also among thebest of the nation, our state's economy
is just unrivaled. Speaking to itssuccess, US News and World repoard had
this today say. They said inthe Best State's rankings, strong job and
overall economic growth helped Florida to itstop position in the category. On jobs,
the state was number two in thenation with a a bound annual growth
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rate over three of over three yearsat close to five percent, taught the
nation with a similar rate of GDPgrowth and more than six percent. And
as for education, never been better. Third takeaway. Having lived in Florida,
for decades and having covered Florida fordecades, there's still one number it
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sticks out to me above all others. And that's saying something because I'm a
numbers guy. But one number,and that number is fifty nine point two
percent. Fifty nine point two percent. Know what that number, specifically in
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education represents in Florida. Fifty ninepoint two percent. That is the all
time bottom of the barrel high schoolgraduation rate. In two thousand and four,
Florida's graduation rate was fifty nine pointtwo percent. I still remember seeing
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that number. I remember doing adouble take, checking multiple times to make
sure it's a mistake, because itjust blew my mind that you could have
fewer than six and ten kids onaverage graduate from high school and just thinking
something along the lines of, holycrap, this is way worse than I
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ever knew. I just it's afailing grade. And I mean it's like
the average outcome in K three twelveeducation in Florida was an F and like
a low F. I mean Iknow that, like you know the way
that curves go anymore? You knowyou could? Is it true? Joe?
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You kind of remember these things?Where where does the D start?
Again, I want to say theD starts at like sixty nine or something
like or sixties, somewhere in thelow sixties. Maybe that's what I thought
the last time you Yeah, maybeit was sixty one. Yeah, now
I mean sixty one. I thinkis where the D is. I mean,
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quite literally where I come from.But also if I had ever anything
in the sixties, to me,is an is an f regardless of where
the curve is and schools these days, let alone talking fifties, I just
wow. Twenty years ago, twentyyears ago, Florida was truly just about
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bottom of the barrel educationally in thiscountry. No high school graduation rates don't
come close to telling the entire storybecause it doesn't mean obviously that you know,
there weren't exceptional students coming out ofour state. But when barely more
than half of students are graduating fromhigh school, I mean, there's just
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not much more of a story that'sleft unsaid as a failing education system.
Today, with Florida's high school graduationrate at non pandemic records near ninety percent,
it doesn't tell the entire story.However, that massive improvement going from
fifty nine point two percent to eightyeight plus where we are now. It
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really is endemic of everything else thatwe've seen over the past twenty years.
Florida's education system has only continued tobecome considerably better with time. Once again,
Florida's higher education system is number onenationally. That's been the case for
years now. But what's new thisyear is that for the first time ever,
first time ever, Florida's K throughtwelve education system ranks in the top
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ten nationally. Who would have thoughtthat would have been possible twenty years ago
and has noted in the US Newsand World Report. In higher education,
Florida, which is number nine andthe overall best staid rankings, hosted the
second highest rates of timely graduation amongstudents at public institutions pursuing two and four
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year degrees, respectively. Students attendingits public four year institutions also faced the
lowest average amount in the country forin state tuition and fees and metrics reflecting
pre K through high school. Floridaexcelled the most in college readiness, an
assessment of the share of twelfth graderswho scored highly on the SAT ACT or
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both. Now we're number twelve forpreschool enrollment in the US tied alongside Illinois
with the number nineteen ranking for highschool graduation rate and number twenty one in
number twenty three I'm sorry, numbertwenty one and number thirty two for eighth
grade reading and math scores, respectively. So obviously there's still room to improve.
But think about this, you goback to our start of fifty nine
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point two percent just graduating at allin Florida is now number one for college
readiness for twelfth grade students in thecountry. I mean again, it's just
like, wow, that is huge. So yeah, given Florida's recent history,
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I mean, the areas that weneed to improve, but given our
recent history, the trajectory, there'severy reason to think that it's going to
continue. For his laser focus oneducation as opposed to indoctor nation frequently fodder
for those on the political left,which includes their allies and most news media.
But while many states are busy teachingDEI initiatives, Florida has taken the
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initiative to focus on providing a straightforward agenda free education. Guess what it's
working. All these cracks for asprints are rights and education. All these
cracks and what Florida's been doing educationallyfor years now. What's happened? Nothing
but success, nothing but improvement,and the best this state has ever been
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any questions. So yeah, Forthe second straight year, Florida is number
one for education, but for thesecond straight year, Florida is also the
top overall gainer in education. Whatoften makes the news his noise. What
matters most in Florida is that we'rewinning, and uh, I'll never get
tired of that. And Joel apparentlyeither seems like very contented with winning