AM Show Hr 2 | Teacher Burnout & School Takeover Debate

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time, time, time.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Time, luck and load. So Michael Verie Show is on
the air, just.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
As with Houston. And I believe Dallas Late of Texas
has taken over the Beaumont Independent School District. And I
received an email from a listener who said, my daughter
has walked away from teaching. She was a passionate teacher,
very unhappy with how things turned out, and now she's
left teaching, and obviously that is always a source of

(00:46):
concern for everyone. And I said, well, I'd like to
talk to her on air. She didn't want to talk
on air, so when she's ready, if she's ever ready,
let me know. And I finally got a message that
she was. She has left teaching, and then he warned me,
y'all's politics don't exactly line up. You need to know

(01:07):
she is very different politically than you. And I said,
that's okay. She has an experience inside the classroom and
her her opinion is valid whether I agree with it
or not, and it's not important that I do. Halle Zanni,
welcome to the program. I pronouncing your name.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Right, Haley.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yes, I'm sorry. I was so focused on the Zannie
that I got the Halle Haley Zannie, welcome to the program.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Okay, I read your note and let's start with how
long were you at a bisD.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I was employed with the district for seven years.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
And what did you teach?

Speaker 3 (01:44):
When I first started? I taught English language arts and
transferred to teaching dance for a few years, and then
transferred back to teaching English language arts. Had some physical
limitations that were interfering with my job duties in the
dance position, so I went back to teaching English, which
is my second love.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Was teaching your original intention or did you end up
teaching after first wanting to do something else.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think I've always been a teacher. I've taught dance
starting when I was eighteen all the way through. Teaching
was just something that called me, because it is very
much a calling. It's not something that you just walked
blindly into. But I think that most of the time

(02:42):
the experiences, many of the experiences that I had were positive.
But I've always had the bug to be able to
relay information to other people in a way that helps
them understand it, especially with kids, and so it was
just something that I fell very naturally into when I

(03:05):
went to college. I got many different degrees. Has a
degree in communication, which public relation and marketing related. Along
with I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Where did you go to school?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Lamar University?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
And are you.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yes a law I'm from Fort Arthur actually?

Speaker 1 (03:24):
And where and where'd you go to high school?

Speaker 3 (03:27):
I went to high school at TJ. I was one
of the last graduating clauses.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, I grew up in orange so I went to Orangeville,
so I know I know all the high schools there.
So did you? So you were teaching at what school
when you left in bisD.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
When I left, I was teaching at Marshall Middle School,
but the majority of my time spent in the district
was at Otum Academy.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, Now what's interesting is and I don't want to
put words in your mouth. I want to understand your position.
So if I say something that's incorrect, correct me. My
understanding is walked away from teaching, but not because you
didn't like the teaching. You were philosophically opposed to the
state takeover. Is that right?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
I am philosophically opposed to many things that the state
is doing with education, exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I got that, But why walk away until you know
what's going to happen. What's your fear that will happen?
I noticed I made some notes on what you said.
I noticed that you were concerned about a scripted curriculum,
and I guess that would go back to the teaching,
to the testing. Why walk away? And by the way,
I'm gonna ask you some tough questions, nothing personal. I

(04:38):
want to learn, or at least learn your opinion. Why
walk away? Before they've implemented those things? Maybe it wouldn't
be as bad as you thought.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Well, I am fortunate enough to have many friends in
many different areas, and several of my friends actually worked
in Houston nasty. And my understanding is that Beaumont i
s D is going to be run under the same

(05:09):
type of system, and the same type of things that
were implemented in Houston will be implemented in Beaumont as well.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
And what would those.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Things like teachers really no longer having autonomy over their
own classrooms?

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, what would that look like to you? What would
be an area of autonomy that you would say, you
don't you don't need to do that for me. I'll
do that myself.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
You brought it up, the scripted curriculum, Okay, I don't
need your help knowing how to relay this information to
my students in the best way possible.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
But seeing at an inner city school, you've done it
for seven years, that's that's not for the feint of heart.
You've already endured a fair amount of paperwork and restrictions
and handcuffs on what you do. Why walk away at
that point? Because it's clear to me you love the kids.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
That was also an issue, to be honest with you.
You know these kids, and I'm not just talking about
kids in inner city schools.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
This generation is very, very different. But that is because
our society is different. I believe that education in many
ways is no longer valued as much as it once was.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
And I think that.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, frankly, the encounters and attitudes that I have had
with both parents and students in the last i would say,
probably about five years.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Or so, and I've been education and said to you
that that education is not important.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
They will, it seems like they will take even with
even when vented with evidence that it is contrary to
what their child is telling them. They will take their
child's side over everything, which makes it extremely hard to
do our jobs. You know, there is a certain level

(07:15):
of accountability and responsibility that goes along with education.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
So let me I'm not a teacher, but let me
guess that that's something like you say the kid is
is misbehaving or is distracting other kids, and they tell
mom that's not true, miss miss Zannie's picking on me.
Or is it that they say they turned in their
work and you say, no, the kid didn't turn the
work in, or they say I've had both things. So

(07:40):
how does the state take over effect that? Well, let
me ask you this. Let me step back and look,
it's pretty clear to me you don't like Greg Abott.
I read the last line of the email. Pretty clear
you don't like Republicans. And that's okay, but I want
to toss all.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
That I have voted for candidates of both.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Making that's not important.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
I get the more conservative views.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
That but but it strikes me that you have a
view that the state takeover is all wrong from a
teacher's perspective, and I will understand why that is. Hold
with me for this case, Okay, for this moment. Hailey'sani
is our guest. She's a former teacher with the Hailey's

(08:26):
Annie is our guest. Hailey, I'm going to be completely
honest when I tell you that I don't think you
are sharing as fully as you would like to, and
I want you to feel comfortable to do that. You
and I can disagree, that's okay. But I read your
Facebook post and it was rather harsh and direct and opinionated,

(08:47):
and I want to get into some of those things
from a teacher's perspective. Was seven years of teaching, which
which is significant. I think you got the swing of
it at that point.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
You speak from some experience that seven years in Beaumont
I had.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
It sounds like it tell me about the demographic makeup
of your school, because there were some references to that
without specifics in your message in your post, it is
extremely diverse.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
I have students who are from lots of different countries,
some of whom don't speak very much English.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Would those be like Vietnamese, Cambodian, or.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Mexican or Hispanic, also Indian as well. So there the
classroom itself, the makeup of the classrooms, it was at
a very very.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Diverse makeup a right, so just a very rough estimate,
it doesn't have to be scientific. What percentage would you
say are white.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Probably the smallest. I would say maybe two three percent.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Okay, what percentage you're black, the majority fifty or eighty?

Speaker 3 (10:05):
I would say sixty sixty five Okay, Hispanic it's probably
closer to fifteen or twenty.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
And Asian Asian.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Right around there with with white.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Oh so two percent okay? Yeah, And who am I
leaving out? I think that's probably that is uh. I
mean that is diverse, but sometimes we use diverse for black.
That is almost two thirds black. That that is a
that is a largely black school, right, so it's an

(10:44):
inner city school. And uh, from what I understand of
where that is, that's that these are kids, These are
not well to do kids. Right, We're gonna have some
single moms, We're gonna have some last key kids, We're
gonna have some kids that are ruggling financially. Is that
fair to say yes?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
That's sure to say absolutely.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
So I want to really understand. I want to drill
down on this. I want I want Hailey Zonie to
be the schools are for a moment based on your experience,
and nobody gets to question your opinion. You're unhappy with
the state takeover, and I get that. I don't know
that I blame you for what you're doing. You also
clearly want the best for the kids. What kept that

(11:28):
from happening because you made the point that you spoke
to doctor Allen, who I guess is the superintendent. Yes,
you don't like vouchers. We'll talk about that in a moment.
Most public school teachers don't. But you talked about there
being real problems. Sounds like some discipline problems. I don't
know if that was resource problems. What would you do
to fix the school? Caring as you do about the kids.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I would make them accountable, and how do you get
them consequences and actually follow through?

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Okay, what would those consequences be? This isn't a cross
I'm actually trying to learn.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
There are different there are different possibilities as far as
that is concerned right now. It takes, you know, a
couple of different referrals and a couple of different instances
for them to be given really a consequence at all.
I would say putting them in school suspension or having
them serve detention after school or during lunch? Would they No,

(12:24):
they don't. That's That's what I'm getting to. So what's
the point that I'm working my way forward.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Ahead they for so long now, and it started actually
with no child left behind. We started slowly seeing, uh
what the lack of accountability and the lack of consequences
are now doing to to students. They know that, especially

(12:52):
now in today's time, when they walk into a classroom,
they can pretty much do whatever they want and get
away with it. And they know even if they have
consequences that are attached to the school, they're not going
to have the same consequences at home, and that plays
a huge part. You know, education should always be cooperative

(13:12):
between the teacher and the parents, and that is virtually
non existent in today's time.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
I'm not saying that.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I think it's I think it very much has a
lot to do with a breakdown as a family and
also the fact that even if you have a mother
and a father in the household, nine times out of ten,
both mother and father are having to work full time job.
And so, you know, we can only run on empty

(13:43):
tanks for so long before it starts to affect what
happens outside of our jobs. You know, especially as teachers,
we give everything that we have and at the end
of the day when you come home. You know, the
energy for your own children is not always.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Present, right, I know that school parents.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
I blame it more on the country and the economy
and where everything stands.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Right, But we're talking about how to fix the schools,
and that's just now. You're just tzar of the school.
So I say, Haley, I trust you. You care about
the kids you have experienced, implement the consequences that you need.
You can't affect the economy, you can't affect what's going on.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
And implementing the consequences that we need will not work
without parent cooperation.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Okay, but we know, and you kind of allude to this,
that some of the parents are simply not going to cooperate.
They're non existent. They may not even be available to
come to the school or willing to come to the school,
or their grandmother whoever is raising them. So as a school, now,
let let's make you governor zar And you say I
want to fix this problem. You only have the seven
or eight hours a day and the four walls of

(14:54):
your school and the foot soldiers like Haley Zani who
are trying to do their best, and these kids are
showing up not prepared no support, maybe poorly fed, no
consequences at home. I'm not hearing that as a state problem.
I'm hearing that as a as a the kid. The
kids already got everything stacked against them when they arrive.

(15:16):
But I don't see how the school, how the state takeover,
makes that kid's life any worse. Help me, Well, have you.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Ever tried to do you have children, or have you do?

Speaker 4 (15:29):
I do?

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Okay? Do you remember when they were younger and you
would try to get them interested in something that you
really wanted them to like, or you really wanted to
teach them about it, and they wanted to have nothing
to do with it. Yes, uh huh, there you go.
And it makes it especially even harder when the child

(15:50):
is operating. Let's say the child is in seventh grade
and they are operating at maybe a second or a
third grade level. We're trying to teach them seventh grade,
correct them, but they can't. They don't have the capacity
with that.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Okay, Hold on a second. Hailee Zani as our guest.
She's a former teacher in Beaumont Independent School District. Hailee
Zanni wrote a Facebook poach She's very unhappy she's leaving
Beaumont Independent School District. There's a state takeover. Her father said, Hey,
my daughter left teaching. You might like to talk to her.

(16:24):
We had some conversations. I think we'd probably disagree on
a lot of things, but I think it's a good
conversation to have, and I appreciate that she's willing to
do that. Hailey, I want to read a couple of
lines from your post, and I know you were aggravated
when you say this. You say there is a pattern here. Yes,

(16:44):
the Virgo caught that they seem to be taking over
the larger districts in the state. Huh. I know that
Beaumont had already addressed the problems at the underperforming schools
and the district was implementing many things to help combat
these issues. I don't want you to hold back. I
get the sense I'm not going to put words in
your mouth that you think this is a racial slash
political thing of state takeovers and that's why we have Dallas,

(17:09):
Houston and now Beaumont. Is that fair? Do you feel
that way?

Speaker 3 (17:13):
I wouldn't say racial, what do you think it is?
I would say political? Yes, I think that plays a
large part in it, just like it does with everything
that is regulated by any government.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
All right, well, help me understand this. If I'm the governor,
and by the way, I'm not a Greg Abbot supporter.
I am a Republican and I will end up having
to vote for him in November, but I am al.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
That's the beauty of democracy, right.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
But I am not opposed to the school takeovers. I
want to be clear on that. I don't want to
pose with you. I am a big one. I'm passionate
about education, but I'm in the classroom and I do
understand the day to day's got to be difficult, and
some of what you lay out here really really gives
vent to that. But I see this as if you
are a Republican, if you're a conservat to Republican governor,

(18:01):
it's you don't win points by taking over the inner
city schools. You win points by abandoning the schools and
putting your effort into suburban and rural schools because that's
where your voters are. I don't think Greg Abbott is
going to win any votes by a tea takeover of
Bama Independent School District, So politically, I don't think it's

(18:22):
a way to punish people politically, I think it's a
way to wade into the waters of something that's not
going to help you. This is a tough situation. You
make that clear. You got almost two thirds of these
kids our inner city black kids, and we can assume
I think it's fair to say that they're coming from
tougher backgrounds and that they don't have the same chance

(18:43):
that maybe a suburban or rural kid does on the
first day they show up to school, and as a teacher,
you're frustrated. But I just don't see that as something
that a takeover is necessarily going to make any worse.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Okay, here we go. So what is going to happen
is that as far as public education it's concerned and
school vouchers, Okay, there are a couple of problems with
it though. Number one, the money that is being offered
is not enough money to be able to take your
child to a private school. I went to private school

(19:20):
myself when I was younger, all the way through eighth grade.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
You go to do you go to Kelly?

Speaker 3 (19:26):
I went to no. I went to Saint Catharine's up
until eighth grade, and then we couldn't afford the tuition
at Kelly. So I ended up going to TJ. But
I remember my tuition alone, and this was in the
eighties and nineties, was a mortgage payment and a car
payment put together just for my monthly tuition every single month.

(19:50):
I can only imagine what that tuition has risen to now.
Ten thousand dollars is not going to be enough to
cover a year's worth of tuition. On top of that,
those schools also have to accept the student themselves. So
if those schools choose not to accept the students, then
that student has no choice but to attend public schools.

(20:11):
And if you take resources away from public school which
ultimately will happen, then those kids aren't going to have
the kind of opportunities that they would have had otherwise.
And so there are many fundamental problems, and I'm honestly,
even as a public school teacher, all about school choice.

(20:33):
I think that parents should be able to choose where
their kids get to be educated and where they don't.
But at the same time, I think that the taking
away or the redirection that can potentially happen from those
decisions that are made by politicians, that are made by

(20:55):
senators and presidents and all the things you know, they
never I've never seen a politician want to speak to
teachers and figure out from their perspective. It's always people
who make the decisions for education either have never been

(21:18):
an educator or haven't been in the classroom in so
long that they have no idea that the issues these
students with are, that these students are facing now are
not the same issues that I faced, you know, as
high school.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
I think you'd have to admit if you look at teachers'
unions across the state, and Texas is not a union.
It is different. But when you look at people speaking
on behalf of teachers, they're not exactly a core constituency
of the Republican Party today. No, you're talking about people

(21:53):
and I think you would probably fit somewhere in there
that are somewhere to center to left of center. So well,
it's not that you avoid those people because you don't
want their vote, it's that you don't necessarily solve problems
with those individuals the same way you would for the
center right or center construction worker.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
I'm so glad you brought that up, because that is
the exact problem that we have as teachers in the classroom.
I have a mixture of.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Students that are some of them are in the sixth
grade and they read at a ninth grade level. Some
of them are reading at a first grade level. Some
of them have independent educational or individualized educational plans, some
of them don't. Some of them have behavioral plans and accommodations,
some of them don't. Where ten years ago, the majority

(22:45):
of the class was relatively on level and not so
much of a discipline problem. Now that has split well.
Now the majority of what we see in the classroom
are these kids who either have these accommodations or who
don't care about education or who you know. And now

(23:07):
it becomes a classroom management issue more than and I'm
trying to educate you issue, because you can't teach if
they're constantly disrupting you or rage getting you right. But
even still, we as teachers are expected to differentiate in
between all of those levels. And when you have thirty
kids in a class and one person trying to teach

(23:31):
everything from first grade all the way through seventh grade
curriculum to get them to understand, it becomes difficult. And
that started that system started politically. It didn't start in
the education department. It started politically with no child left behind,
at least in my opinion, and we are.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Over.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
But let's take that kid. Let let's okay, you and
I I think we can. We can stipulate a few things.
Is fact. And if I say something that's not, you
tell me you got You've got a number of kids,
some percentage of kids showing up to your class who
are not prepared emotionally, academically, perhaps even intellectually. This okay,
the majority. So we've got the majority of those kids,

(24:15):
which creates a challenge for the classroom. But let's let's
let's leave that aside for just a moment, and let's
take that kid who you said is a sixth grader
reading at the ninth grade level. I submit that that's
the kid that is being cheated. That a voucher is
designed to help, because that kid having to sit through

(24:36):
remedial classroom fights, remedial English, the distractions, the disruptions, that
kid is losing out and that may be the only
kid that you have a shot at helping. Maybe I'm wrong,
but but let's talk about that. Wait, wait right there, helly,

(24:57):
And what I see.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
All over the place is people who care about looking
good while doing evil.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
The Michael Very Shoe.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Hailey Zani is a recently exited school teacher from Beaumont
Independent School District. I want to read from your Facebook
post you say, look, these kids in Beaumont are tough
as nails and you have to be tough to handle them.
It's not easy and there were many times I wanted
to punch the living out of those smart mouthed no

(25:27):
consequence having little monsters. No, I get it, But the
next day the same kid I wanted to punch would
give me a hug. That's teaching. Many of these kids
have no guidance at home. You as an educator, have
to be the moral compass. We shouldn't have to be
parent too, but that's the reality. If the state takes
away the ability of educators to have full autonomy over

(25:48):
their own classrooms, forget any kind of social emotional learning,
forget having libraries in schools to go to, forget being
able to further help this kid or that when when
they need it. The state will take all those options away. Helly,
I hear in you a frustrated veteran school teacher who
went in with the best of intentions, kind of a

(26:09):
Peace Corps, Pollyanna idealism that we as a society want
to encourage because I don't want to teach in the
inner school, inner city school. And you went in with
the best of intentions, and now you've come out beat
up and scarred and frustrated and cynical. And that's completely understandable.
But what I see that we're arguing over or disagreeing over,
or the crux of the issue, is really that we've

(26:32):
got certain kids in the state of Texas who are
showing up at the public school, who are in communities
where they are underserved before they go to school and
after they go to school, and the question is what
we do with them during that day. And you, as
a teacher, are saying partly, hey, state, don't tell me
what to do, but you're also bundling into all of that,

(26:54):
y'all to understand how bad off these kids are. So
I think there has to be the recognition that this
isn't all the question of the state screwing up there.
We talk about accountability, we're talking about a challenge arriving
on the doorstep of the school. We argue over how
to solve the problem, But this is a challenge much
bigger than the school or the state can ever solve.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Absolutely, and it's a nationwide problem. It's not just a
problem in the state of Texas.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
OK.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
You see teachers leaving en mass in many many states,
and a lot of it is for the same reasons.
You know, things that are happening inside of the classroom
that our hands are tied on a lot of things.
And it goes back to the old saying, you can
lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

(27:45):
And so what we are now finding as teachers in
education is that sort of apathy that is much more prevalent,
not just in the student themselves, but in the parents
as well. And it goes back to the autonomy of
how a teacher chooses to conduct her class, being able

(28:08):
to have a student understand something, you have to know
that student. You have to know how they learn, You
have to know what works best for them and what doesn't.
And if you are no longer allowed to have the
type of environment that you can as an educator facilitate that.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
How does the state take over affect that?

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well, let's say scripted curriculum. When I was a teaching
when I thought I literally put on a comedy show
for forty five minutes or an hour and a half,
however long that section of class was at that time.
And I did that to keep them engaged, to keep
them on task and on topic. I also did that

(28:52):
to find the many different ways, as many different ways
as I could hit in one lesson of how to
reach as any people as I could with this information.
That's our job, that's what we're trained to do, and
a lot of times you do have to be entertaining
to do that. I mean, think about it, when you
go to a comedy show. If the comic is standing

(29:14):
up there delivering their material and their monotone, there's no inflection,
there's no you know, like they're reading from a note card.
You're not going to pay attention to that person, not
as much as you would if that person was up
and moving around and in your face and making you laugh,
would you know? You're not going to And so that's

(29:36):
one of the ways. Another one of the ways actually
goes in direct violation of safety regulations. That's the state
itself put in place after the incident in Uvaldi, you know,
making teachers have their classroom doors open at all times,
that's a violation of a safety issue. Being videotaped all

(29:57):
the time. While there are pros and cons to that,
I actually wouldn't have minded being videotaped all day long,
giving you know, my lectures. That wouldn't have bothered me.
But it would make some people a lot more timid,
and they wouldn't maybe necessarily do some of the things
that they normally would help these these kids understand and

(30:19):
maybe get on their level a little bit.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Haley, my kids take.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
To that economy away, which is what would happen once
those things started going.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Into place, Hayley, let me ask you this. My kids
had to improve.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
It may improve a test score because you're drilling nothing
but to test into them, but it's not going to
improve their overall education.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
My kids had teachers who took up the phones at
the beginning of the class, and there was a pouch.
You'd go and you'd put your phone in the pouch
and then the teacher could look over and see and
they had no no phones. And I asked my kids
if that made a difference. One is a sophomore in
college now, one is about to graduate in a couple
week from high school. But the teachers told me that

(30:59):
it makes a world difference. The kids didn't think it
did because they'd like to play on their phone. Do
you do that, Do you think that would make a difference?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Well, I did when before the state made the decision
to not have the cell phones and Beaumont ended up
getting the Yonder pouches. But I would take their phones
up before class.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Okay, so that's something that the state did that was
a good thing.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yes. Absolutely, there are good and bad things all around here.
I think things that this could improve as well as
things that it's going to take away from. But that
was one of the things that every teacher was like, yes,
thank God because it was a problem.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Haley, do you think a family Do you think a
mother or father is capable of homeschooling a child to
the same educational quality that the public school provides.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Depends on the individual, so in.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Some cases, yes, yes. One of the things about vouchers
is I see some of these local schools and they're
not all Kelly High School that you would know, or
Saint John's or Episcopal or a Second Baptist or Kincaid
or these schools in Houston. I see these schools that
are at a little Jewish temple or a little Catholic church,

(32:20):
a parish school, and they deliver in less than ten
thousand dollars a year a very affordable quality education. But
I'll tell you it goes back to the teachers are
all the same. You're removing the negative element. And it
strikes me when you talk about accountabilion all this, it
strikes me that at the end of the day, the
question is what do you do with kids that are
a problem.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
You have to find out how to reach them.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
But should every other kid suffer through the class while
Haley is doing the yeoman's job, the noble job of
trying to reach that kid, No, And how do we
get that kid out to a school where he does
doesn't have to be or she doesn't have to be
a part of that?

Speaker 3 (33:04):
And that, in many cases is where the vouchers are
going to come in to help.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
So we have alternative schools in Houston, which became a
big racket where you had basically you just took they
started putting kids out of that. Was you're trying to
do is take the bad element out. Haley Zanni, thanks
for being our guest.