Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The night.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA director talk.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie, You're doing a
heck of a job. The Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey broadcasting life from Denver, Colorado. It's the Weekend with
Michael Brown. Happy to have you with me. So if
you wantsten me at text message, the text line number
is three three one zero three three three one zero
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Mike or Michael. Text menything, ask me anything, get going
on that, and then be sure and follow me on X. Inact,
We're going to be using X quite a bit today
(00:31):
because I've got a lot of bookmarks that we're going
to be using. So if you'd like to see some
of those, those are at Michael Brown USA. So let's
get started. So one of the things that happened this
week is that Trump signed an executive voter to eliminate
the Department of Education. Now, fine, I think that's wonderful.
We've been trying to eliminate the Department of Education since
(00:54):
two years after it was created. Ronald Reagan himself one
of two dominate the Department of Education. I would say
maybe a couple of years after the after Jimmy Carter
decided he wanted to create the Department of Education in
nineteen seventy nine, and no one's been able to do
(01:19):
it since then. And why haven't they.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Done, you propose, and would have already started if your
hypothesis is correct, a planned and orderly transferred back to
the states and local communities of functions the federal government
as usurped and which it has proven it is incapable
of operating. And one of the first of those would
be welfare. One of the second would be in the
(01:44):
field of education. I would like to dissolve the ten
billion dollar National Department of Education.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Ten billion dollars.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Bucket change created by President Carter, and turned schools back
to the local school districts, where we built the greatest
public school system the world has ever seen. I think
I can make a case that the decline and the
quality of public education began when fedal aid became federal interference.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, I can make the case that the deterioration in
public education began when federal aid started pouring into the states.
And what have we got. I mean, since then, we've
spent over trillion dollars in the Department of Education, and
we have declining math scores, declining reading scores, declining science scores.
(02:33):
Everything is declining. Now, I know it's not all the
fault of public education, but have you ever thought, I mean,
I don't dang it, I don't have my pocketed, my
pocket education. I don't have my pocket constitution here in
the studio. But somebody tell me where education is a
(02:54):
function of the federal government. It's not. I think it's
a function of state, local government. If indeed, you want
me to be even more radical, if even indeed public
education is a government function. Now do I think we
ought to have education? Yes? Would I object if there
(03:15):
was a law somewhere, if every state had a law
that said every child under the age of eighteen must
complete some formal education, and then if states wanted to
offer public schools, they could do that. But if parents
wanted to homeschool their children. I noticed they stopped using
(03:36):
the term homeschool and they started using the term home educated.
And I think that's because homeschooling is starting to get
a bad rap from the teacher unions and from places
like Illinois, where they're trying to essentially eviscerate public education
or I'm sorry, homeschooling, so now it's home education. Whatever
(03:57):
you call it, I don't care. But what if the
law just said that every child in this country under
the age of eighteen must, you know, between the ages
of I don't know, six and fifteen, six and seventeen,
six and eighteen whatever it is, that they must somehow
obtain a degree at a high school. So the GED
(04:17):
or some equivalent of a high school diploma, that they
must obtain that somehow, and then a school if states
wanted to provide or for that matter, let's take it
even further. Forget states. Let's say that popping up in
different counties around your state, counties decided we think we'll
(04:39):
offer education and we'll take some taxes. First of all,
thing about this, you can just eliminate property taxes altogether.
Just totally eliminate property taxes because the majority of all
property taxes go to what educate, At least in Colorado,
they go to education. So you eliminate all property taxes,
and then every county could decide, you know what, we
(04:59):
want to provide as an opportunity for people that live
in this county education for their children, So we will increase,
say the sales tax, will increase the sales tax by
you zero point two five percent or whatever it might be.
Pick a number. I don't care what the number is.
And then they could offer in that county public education.
(05:19):
And then if they didn't, but there was still a
requirement that you somehow you must graduate from some sort
of school that's been accredited by by the state. They
would still have state accreditation. So you couldn't just have
some flag night operation, open up some school and say yeah,
well here's your tuition and your tuition is X and
uh so we'll provide your your rug rat with an education. Now,
(05:43):
you've got to have some standards. See I'm not a
complete radical. You have to have some standards. But let
the private sector. Let people compete. Hey, bring your kid,
bring your kid. And let's say we even have vouchers.
Say you don't get the property tax. I'm just obviously
thinking out loud here. You don't give the property tax,
(06:04):
but you keep the property tax, and instead you give
everyone who has a child that lives in your county,
you give them a voucher that's good that they can
take and they can use anywhere they could use it
a Catholic school, they could use it a private school,
a parchial school, they could use it a public school.
They could use it to some you know, some company
(06:24):
decides they're going to provide you know, schools around the country.
They decide to PLoP one down in your county, and
so they hire the best teachers and the best instructors,
and they get the best curriculum and the best equipment,
and you can take your voucher from your property taxes
in that county and you can you can take your
child to the school that you choose. Competition, absolute competition.
(06:47):
What do we have now? Well, what we have now
is not working. Bill Bennett, the first well, I shouldn't
say the first education secretary. I forget who the first
one was, but he was. Ron Reaganson, Education secretary, was
on Fox News earlier this week and he said that
he thinks that Trump's not going quite far enough that
(07:08):
what they ought to do is just eliminate all of
the department completely. Just quit transferring things out. And I
know the first thing that people say when I say
just completely eliminate the Department of Education, Oh my gosh, Well,
my kid has special needs or my kid, my kid
is learning disabled, or my kid has autism, or my
kid is learning you know, has has some sort of
learning disability. Okay, calm down, calm down. We just take
(07:34):
the money that we spend. And you know, there's there's
a movement and it's it's spreading fairly well across the country.
Arizona is one of the leaders in it where they
decide that they in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia,
is doing it where you fund the student, you don't
(07:55):
fund the school. So the student gets a voucher a
credit check. Well, I don't know how how it would work.
I don't care. Somebody can smarter than me can figure
it out. And so you get a voucher and the
vouchers worth X number of dollars and you then take
that voucher and you and you look in all the
choices you have, Well, there is a public school over here,
(08:18):
or there is this private school, or is this there's
this company of the owned school over here, or I
may just hire my own teacher. And I'm you know,
you know, I'm a Mormon or Catholic family, and I
got six kids, and so you know what I'm gonna
have them. I'm gonna hire a tutor and have them
come in every you know, five days a week and
teach my kids. Completely up ended, completely unended. Now the
(08:43):
teacher unions who have donated millions upon millions of dollars
over over the past decade, more several decades, and almost
always exclusively to Democratic candidates and obviously to left wing organizations.
So it's no wonder the demouch realizing that, oh, this
cash cow we got could be on the verge of
drying up. They're losing their minds over with Trump signing
(09:06):
an executive order to begin eradicating the Department event that
I think if Americans got a real taste of school choice,
the left knows that there'll be no going back. But
I find it astonishing, truly astonishing, that you look at
some of the numbers of the test results and you realize,
(09:28):
oh my gosh, the rest of the world is leaving
us behind. How are we going to compete? It's The
Weekend with Michael Brown. Thanks for joining me. To be
sure and follow me on x It's at Michael Brown USA,
and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your
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situation with Michael Brown. Hit that subscribe button, leave a
(09:49):
five star review. Hang tight, I'll be right back. Hey,
you stumbled into that. You have stumbach into the weekend
with Michael Brown, and I'm really glad that you have.
The text line number is three three one zero three
three three one zero three, So in your message app
use that number. Start, use keyword, use a keyword anywhere
(10:10):
Micha or Michael, tell me anything, ask me anything. So
for example, gooble number fifty nine nineteen, writes Michael. With
all the diverse educational opportunities you proposed, who would set
learning standards and how would adherents and accomplishment of the
standards be monitor insured? I still think the states would
have a role. But make the states do it, not
the federal government. Let the states, every single state legislature,
(10:34):
make their own standards, and then they would have to accredit.
Just like you know, there are private For example, I
went to a private law school. I didn't go to
a public university. I went to a private law school.
But that law school was still accredited by whoever credits
law schools. I'd have to go look it up, I
don't remember, and the same would be for these schools,
(10:55):
whether they were public or private. There would still be
an accrediting agency which could be up by every state government,
and then every state government would have their standards, and
the way it would work would be like any other creditation. Oh,
you want to send your kid to that school, Well,
that school is not accredited, So if your child graduates
(11:17):
from that school, that degree is not going to be
recognized by the state as having been from an accredited school.
Now you can still send your child there if you
wanted to, because for whatever reason, you think it's better,
but it wouldn't carry the accreditation of the state. I'm
pretty radical in this, and I know I'm radical, and
I know it to you. It makes people's heads hurt.
(11:39):
But tell me, what have we gotten for all the
money we've been spending nothing. I love the way I
had pulled this up because actually I wasn't on air yesterday,
but I planned to do this yesterday, so you guys
get yesterday's program today. I love. So there's something called
(12:01):
the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Association
of Education something at the NAEP. Anyway, both of these
organizations keep track of how well students are doing for
proficiency in reading, math, and science. Now, listen to this.
I just want to read to you this sentence from
(12:24):
the NAEP. In twenty twenty four, NAEP results showed a
decline in reading proficiency for both fourth and eighth graders,
with thirty one percent of fourth graders and thirty percent
of eighth graders performing at or above the proficient level,
(12:47):
marking a drop from twenty twenty two and twenty nineteen.
Math score saw slight improvements, with thirty nine percent of
fourth graders and twenty eight percent of eighth graders scoring
at or above proficient. Now, I hope you got the
drift of what I just read to you, And then
(13:08):
I hope you understood the truth I read a verbatim,
but with emphasis on.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Look, they're scoring out or above proficient. But did you
hear the numbers? Thirty one percent of fourth graders performing
at or above proficient levels for reading, the basic skill
to get through society. I mean, I think you need
(13:37):
math and science too, but reading. If you can't read,
you're going to be stuck doing manual labor the entirety
of your life. They're proud of this, thirty one percent
we're performing at or above proficient levels. That means sixty
nine percent are not. But they want you to read
(14:02):
this in goha, I ask, pretty, oh wow, good thirty
one percent and of eighth graders. So by the time,
by the time they get to the eighth grade, that
means that seventy percent of eighth graders are performing below
eighth grade reading proficient levels. A nation of idiots, a
nation of kids that cannot read. And then we expect
(14:26):
them to understand the US Constitution. We expect them to
understand federalism. We expect them to understand economics when they
can't even read, you know, a little footnote here. You know,
one thing, there are a lot of things about Trump
that drive me crazy. But you know one thing that
I absolutely love about Trump is the fact that he
(14:49):
comes out and he just says what he says. He
doesn't give a rats ask what people think about it,
and it causes people that are actually paying attention to go,
holy thesis, batman, that's really bad. Now, those numbers I
gave you thirty one percent of fourth graders and thirty
percent of eighth graders performing at above proficient level. That's
(15:12):
a drop from twenty twenty two to twenty nineteen math
scores Now again, I think math is a basic skill.
How do you keep track of your banking account? How
do you know how to open a banking account? How
do you keep of your credit card debt? If you
got credit card debt? How do you keep track of
you know? If you am I thinking, you can't even
(15:32):
read what I think? You're going to invest in stock somewhere,
or your company offers you a four oh one K,
and all you're doing is digging, digging ditches and you
have no clue. You get your you get your your
quarterly report about your four oh one K, and you
have no idea because you can't read, so you don't
know whether it's doing any good or not. All you
(15:52):
might see the dollar signs over here and they're okay,
well did I do better than the last time? I
don't know. I can do math. This ought to be
absolutely well, It should just be unacceptable, not even not
even reason, any reason to raise my voice. Just it
ought to be just unacceptable. And yet we just keep
(16:14):
doing the same thing.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Over and over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And I'm expecting a different result. It is truly insanity
in pr has Let's see yeah, now, let's see the
nation's report card. Uh the oh never mind that these
are all the same numbers. But I hope you get
the drift that the numbers are bad, the numbers are
(16:38):
real bad, and we just seem to think that, well,
you know, it is what it is. Chuck Schumer. I
don't know what role he is in the Democrat Party anymore.
He's in big Doodoo. But that's not the point of
the story. He called this executive order that Trump signed
last week to get to start Let's be clear, now,
(17:03):
all Trump did was he signed in an executive order
directing Lynda McMahon, who's the Secretary of Education, and all
the departments and agencies that have anything to do with
the Department of Education to start figuring out ways to
start eliminating the department. Now, one thing that does bug
me is they talk about taking, for example, some of
(17:23):
the special ed programs or the counseling programs, or some
of the other specialized programs and moving those into other departments. Well,
that doesn't really accomplish anything. I want more radical change
than what Trump is proposing here. Anyway, Chuck Schumer says
that this is one of the most destructive and devastating
steps that Donald Trump has ever taken. Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas
(17:47):
calls it a code read for every public school student, parent,
and teacher on the country who will pay a heavy price. No,
not if we fix it. If we fix it, will
pay a great price. It's the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Text line three three one zero three. Keyword Michael, Michael.
I'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Tonight.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Director talk show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie, You're
doing a heck of a job. The Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Hey, so weekeing with Michael Brown. Glad to have you
with me. I appreciate you tuning in. No'll be sure
and follow me on x formerly Twitter. It's at Michael
Brown USA, at Michael Brown USA. The text lines open
three three one zero three. Keyword is Mike or Michael.
Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
The budget plan I submit to you on February eighty
will realize major savings by dismantling the Departments of Energy
and Education and by eliminating ineffective subsidies for business. We
will continue to redirect our resources to our two highest
budget priorities, a strong national defense to keep America free
(18:52):
and at peace, and a reliable safety net of social
programs for those who have contributed and those who are
in need.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Nineteen eighty two, January twenty sixth, nineteen eighty two, Ronald
Ray And here we are, twenty twenty five, and Trump's
really going to try to do it. And I think
it's I think it's a wonderful thing, and I hope
that Trump can pull it off. And there are many ways,
(19:22):
and look, there are some. Let me go through some
text messages because I think they point out what I'm
trying to convince you of. Gouber number zero one ninety
five rights. My special needs sister had been going to
school for seven years and we lived in two different
states before Carter created the Department of Education. It existed before,
(19:45):
meaning programs for her and they can exist again or
Gouber number ooh, good number double seven. The influx of
illegal aliens into our country over the last thirty five
years is also a reason that our public schools are
not doing as well as other countries. We attempt to
educate those kids was basically the same funding that we
used to have in many common they're not literate in
(20:07):
their primary language and we have to teach them English,
and that takes away from teaching your children. It's simply
not going to work.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
But it can.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And here's a great example. Guber number twenty seven oh
three rights Mike good Saturday Morning Education. My grands, grandkids, grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Our home school.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
All three are at least bilingual, play musical instruments, excel
at sports belt levels in karate, stay up on current events,
and have equivalent of ab achievement. They started in charter
school where a teacher humiliated my eldest in front of
his peers. After that, parents dedicated to raising and educating
their children. My grands are socially astute, innovative and polite.
(20:56):
Their parents deserve awards award for being educators. They provide
and they don't complain that they need to be paid more. Oh,
they also have to pay school taxes for school. They
don't use from Sunny but Cole Michigan Uber number two
seven three and yes, Scober number eighty two twenty five.
This is a great point. Harvard Harvard Harvard University is
(21:22):
now providing a remedial math class because most of the
incoming students can't do basic math, yet they're going to
what is ostensibly the most elite school in the country, Harvard. Really,
I think maybe you could do better, and I think
(21:43):
we can do better. And the idea that somehow we
have to have the Department of Education is absolutely asidine,
why do we need the Department of Education? We need
the Department of Education because, like whether it's USAID, whether
it's Department of Energy, to EPA, whatever, this entire bureaucratic
administrator state that we have set up is nothing but
(22:04):
a giant grift. Is nothing but this giant money laundering scheme.
And Trump and Musk and all of those have not
just exposed it, but they have shown you and me
that we don't really need this. We don't need it
at all. Think of all of the money that we've
(22:28):
spent that could instead let's just say we kept the
same level of spending but instead gave it to students. Now,
you have to understand economics to understand this. So if
you don't understand economics, then I can't help you. But
if we took all the same money that we have
now you know, over the past couple of decades, the
(22:50):
trillions of dollars then we have funneled through the Department
of Education. Instead took that same money and put it
in the hands of parents and said, here is your voucher,
your check, your stipend, whatever you want to call it,
whatever form it comes in, and it can only it
(23:10):
can only be used for educational purposes. You know, just
like these, I forget what they're called. Every state has
one where you can put pre tax dollars into a
college savings fund. Well, it can only be used for
college related expenses, books, tuition, maybe room and board, I'm
not sure, but books and tuition. I know that my
(23:32):
son and daughter both have those programs going. Well, you
could do the same thing with these vouchers or stipends
or what again, whatever you call it. I don't care
what you call it, but it's funding the student. Now,
if you understand economics, that means that suddenly really bright
not even bright entrepreneurs, just entrepreneurs are going to recognize that,
(23:55):
Oh there's a bunch of cash out there. How can
I get my hand on that cash. I'm trying to
put it in really crude terms. Oh, I could build
a school and I could hire the best teachers. I
could put in the best chemistry labs, the best biology labs,
the best reading labs, the best computer labs. I can
(24:17):
have of the best physical ed labs, facilities. I can
do all these things, make it top notch, and I
can attract that money and make a profit on it.
Oh my gosh, we're gonna make a profit on education.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
If it improves reading, math, science proficiency scores. Why not
give somebody a chance to make some profit on it.
Because the system we're doing now is failing, absolutely failing.
And the scary part about the fact that the system
we have now is failing means that this nation is failing.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I know this.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Sometimes I feel it. I freely admit that sometimes I
sound like Clint Eastwood in and Tono sitting out of
my front yard.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Get off my yard, got got out of here, kids.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I get that, I understand that. But I'm speaking the
truth here, and you know it. It's just that it's uncomfortable,
and I know it's uncomfortable to think, Oh my gosh,
Michael Brown's talking about completely upending the way we do
public education in this country. If I could just get
you to buy into the concept, then we can work
(25:25):
out the details. But the money you're spending now, the money,
you know, I gotta pay my property taxes. I usually
just pay them in one lump sum chokes me to death,
but I do it if I wouldn't. I don't have
any kids in any schools. I got grandkids in school,
but not any children anymore. It pisses me off to
(25:48):
no end, even though they're my grandkids, are not even
in the school districts for which I'm paying the property taxes.
It just pisses me off to think that I'm paying
that much in property taxes. And these notional scores they're
trying to pack themselves on the back that we got
thirty nine and forty percent proficiency. First of all, think
about how stupid you have to be to read those
(26:10):
figures and think that that's good. That means that sixty
one and seven it was what was it was thirty
nine and and thirty tween fourth and eighth graders, So
sixty nine and seventy percent are not proficient. And somebody
(26:30):
on the text line made a great point, you know,
with the news that if it leads, it bleeds. Well,
if the government puts out a stat they weren't so
that it sounds good. Wow, we've got thirty nine percent
that are proficient. That's an absolutely devastating indictment of public education.
(26:51):
So we've got to rethink it. But yeah, you know,
so we know what the left thinks, and we know
what teacher unions and teachers think that, oh my god,
we can't change anything. And I know that's not true
because my wife, who's a school counselor, does believe that
we need to make drastic changes. But she also has
to keep her mouth shut because the unions will just
(27:13):
even though she's not a member of the union, they'll
all scream at her. But have we ever asked the question?
I mean, first of all, why do we care what
the teachers or the administrators think? First of all, there's
way too many administrators. We're way too hot top heavy.
But have we ever thought about asking what the students,
(27:34):
the parents themselves think, maybe even ask the teachers what
do you think? According to polling that's out, they overwhelmingly
want exactly what Trump is touting. Now, I go further
than Trump. Trump's touting and returning authority over education to
(27:55):
the state and local communities. I'm for turning over education
to the parents and the students. Now, yes, we still
need accreditation, we still need some standards, we still need
some enforcement, and that can all be done at the
state and local level. But in terms of funding, think
(28:16):
about what competition would do. If you had competition among
private and public institutions of education all trying to get
you to spend your voucher or your stipend at their
facility as opposed to the facility around the corner, they
would look, they would say, I mean, they would market
(28:37):
and say, come spend your voucher here, because here's our
graduation rates. Here are our teachers, their backgrounds, here's what
they do, and here's how our students do on test scores.
And here, by the way, after they've got a track
record of four, five, ten, twenty years, let's look at
(28:58):
what those students have gone on to accomplish in their lives.
How about that. It's the weekend with Michael Brown. The
text line three three one zero three keyword Mike or Michael.
Be sure and follow me on X. It's at Michael Brown, USA.
What's happening at colleges? I want you to listen to
Anne Rand coming up next. Welcome back to the Weekend
(29:25):
with Michael Brown. Glad to have you with me. Text
line three three one zero three keywords Mike or Michael
go follow me on x at Michael Brown, USA, Hein
Rand and but if you haven't read any of Ein
Rain's Hein Rand's books, you need to go do so.
Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead Anthem, Were you living? One of
(29:46):
the older books. They're all really good. And I don't
agree with her entire philosophy of objectivism. Nonetheless, she's she
points out some things that we ought to consider.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Here.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
She is.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Basically warning us decades ago about the problems with public education,
in particular universities.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Most dangerous thing in this country today are the universities
because they're teaching the kind of ideas that would necessarily
have to lead to the destruction of these country. Institutions
from Harvard on down are preaching collectivism, mysticism, and a
bubble altruism, self sacrifice of yourself, the giving up, the resignation.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Can you be a little bit more specific.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I've never been to Harvard, I've never been to class there,
but can you give me an advantage?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh? Thank you?
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Of how they are teaching sacrifice, how they are teaching altruism.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Open taily paper and look at mister carter way.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
She's referring to Jimmy Carter. So this is probably, you know,
nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Or so, good for their creature. Who is telling you
that we're going to.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Overcome the oil shortage by driving less, by giving up
let us?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
This is such utter brilliance, she's saying, Look at mister
carter you know, a peculiar creature in her opinion, who's
telling the country that we're going to overcome the oil
shortage by what not producing more oil? Not drill, baby, drill,
(31:35):
but by driving less. Remember the imposition of this, Oh
my god, this is going to date me. Remember the
imposition of the fifty five mile an hour speed limit,
all to save a few gallons of gas. If that
was the solution, turn down your thermostatic, puts on a sweater.
That's the exact opposite of what we ought to be thinking.
(31:57):
What we ought to be thinking is how do we change?
What are we doing to ourselves that we have a
gas shortage? Oh, we're too dependent upon sauty oil. We're
too dependent upon opek we have an abundance of oil
and natural gas, we have an abundance of fossil fuels.
But no, we're told by their lead leader of the
free world at the time, you need sacrifice. Now, I'm
(32:21):
not saying that sacrifice, you know, making sacrifices is always wrong,
but this is a completely perverted way of looking at it.
You know, oh, there's a shortage of something. Then entrepreneurs
ought to be able to step in and say, hmm,
there's an opportunity here to make make money, to make profit,
and at the same time do social good by providing cheap,
(32:45):
abundant energy so that people can drive and get to
work and they don't have to sacrifice. What a bunch
of bull crap. Now, I don't mean to say that
sacrificing is always bad. Sacrificing sometimes is good for the soul.
But as a public policy, it's.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Idiocy to all make a sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Let's lower our standard of living and we'll all be
living better. Now is that a proper philosophy to tell
a country that has pride and self esteem a Harvard
that would be preaching American ideas, more specifically reason individualism, capitalism.
(33:27):
If they were doing that you could have the biggest
renaissance in the world still not to lead even now,
you could have a better renaissance than the first one.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
And I think we could do that again if we
would just say, you know what, we look at these
lousy test scores, and we know that we've been We
spent trillions of dollars in the Department of Education, and
if you look at it, just draw a graph of
the amount of spending per pupil and how that continues
to increase and now gets us to some of the
highest per pupils in the entire world. And then you
(34:02):
look at the reading proficiency, math proficiency, science proficiency, and
that graph is just downward. They're just going in opposite directions.
So why would we ever say to ourselves we ought
to keep doing more of what we're doing. We ought
to be saying to ourselves what we're doing is absolutely wrong.
(34:23):
And if nothing else, well, actually I do have higher
expectations than nothing else. I was going to say something
stupid like if nothing else is Trump has at least
brought this to the national conversation, but it has to
be more than a national conversation. Congress, the President, governors,
including governors and Democrat states, like right here in Colorado,
(34:46):
the idiot governor we have, or if you live in Illinois,
stupid governor you have Pritzker, or the stupid governor you've
gotten out in California. They've all got to wake up
and realize that, you know what, we do have an
opportunity for a great you know, Trump calls them a
new Golden age. I think ain Rand was right. It's
more of a new American renaissance. And that's stop doing
(35:10):
things the way we've been doing it. Let's try something different.
Let's let's be radical about it, and instead of sacrificing
and throwing more money at it, let's do let's completely
invert this. You know, I don't I don't know how
much longer I have to live. I might have thirty years,
I might have forty years. I mean, who knows how
much longer I have to live. I might have you know,
(35:32):
I'll get hit by a bus leaving the studio today.
But I do know this, I don't want to live
in this country thirty or forty years from now if
we keep doing the same stupid stuff that we've been
doing since the days of Woodrow Wilson or FDR out
of debate. I don't care how far back you go
either one, because it's not working. It is simply not working,
(35:58):
and Trump is showing guys that let's try something different.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
It's easy for me to spell out things that we
could do, but all I can do is help inform
you so that because you have a sphere of influence,
you may know a school board member. You may know
a teacher, a counselor. You may know a school administrator.
You may know a state rep, state senator. You may
you may know the governor in your state. You may
(36:27):
you probably do, know a congressman or a senator. Tell
them things have to change, otherwise the country's doomed, it
said Weekend with Michael Brown. Text line three three one
zero three, keyword Mike or Michael. Go follow me on
X at Michael Brown USA
The night.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA director talk.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie, You're doing a
heck of a job. The Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey broadcasting life from Denver, Colorado. It's the Weekend with
Michael Brown. Happy to have you with me. So if
you wantsten me at text message, the text line number
is three three one zero three three three one zero
three on your message app, just use the keyword either
Mike or Michael. Text menything, ask me anything, get going
on that, and then be sure and follow me on X. Inact,
We're going to be using X quite a bit today
(00:31):
because I've got a lot of bookmarks that we're going
to be using. So if you'd like to see some
of those, those are at Michael Brown USA. So let's
get started. So one of the things that happened this
week is that Trump signed an executive voter to eliminate
the Department of Education. Now, fine, I think that's wonderful.
We've been trying to eliminate the Department of Education since
(00:54):
two years after it was created. Ronald Reagan himself one
of two dominate the Department of Education. I would say
maybe a couple of years after the after Jimmy Carter
decided he wanted to create the Department of Education in
nineteen seventy nine, and no one's been able to do
(01:19):
it since then. And why haven't they.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Done, you propose, and would have already started if your
hypothesis is correct, a planned and orderly transferred back to
the states and local communities of functions the federal government
as usurped and which it has proven it is incapable
of operating. And one of the first of those would
be welfare. One of the second would be in the
(01:44):
field of education. I would like to dissolve the ten
billion dollar National Department of Education.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Ten billion dollars.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Bucket change created by President Carter, and turned schools back
to the local school districts, where we built the greatest
public school system the world has ever seen. I think
I can make a case that the decline and the
quality of public education began when fedal aid became federal interference.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, I can make the case that the deterioration in
public education began when federal aid started pouring into the states.
And what have we got. I mean, since then, we've
spent over trillion dollars in the Department of Education, and
we have declining math scores, declining reading scores, declining science scores.
(02:33):
Everything is declining. Now, I know it's not all the
fault of public education, but have you ever thought, I mean,
I don't dang it, I don't have my pocketed, my
pocket education. I don't have my pocket constitution here in
the studio. But somebody tell me where education is a
(02:54):
function of the federal government. It's not. I think it's
a function of state, local government. If indeed, you want
me to be even more radical, if even indeed public
education is a government function. Now do I think we
ought to have education? Yes? Would I object if there
(03:15):
was a law somewhere, if every state had a law
that said every child under the age of eighteen must
complete some formal education, and then if states wanted to
offer public schools, they could do that. But if parents
wanted to homeschool their children. I noticed they stopped using
(03:36):
the term homeschool and they started using the term home educated.
And I think that's because homeschooling is starting to get
a bad rap from the teacher unions and from places
like Illinois, where they're trying to essentially eviscerate public education
or I'm sorry, homeschooling, so now it's home education. Whatever
(03:57):
you call it, I don't care. But what if the
law just said that every child in this country under
the age of eighteen must, you know, between the ages
of I don't know, six and fifteen, six and seventeen,
six and eighteen whatever it is, that they must somehow
obtain a degree at a high school. So the GED
(04:17):
or some equivalent of a high school diploma, that they
must obtain that somehow, and then a school if states
wanted to provide or for that matter, let's take it
even further. Forget states. Let's say that popping up in
different counties around your state, counties decided we think we'll
(04:39):
offer education and we'll take some taxes. First of all,
thing about this, you can just eliminate property taxes altogether.
Just totally eliminate property taxes because the majority of all
property taxes go to what educate, At least in Colorado,
they go to education. So you eliminate all property taxes,
and then every county could decide, you know what, we
(04:59):
want to provide as an opportunity for people that live
in this county education for their children, So we will increase,
say the sales tax, will increase the sales tax by
you zero point two five percent or whatever it might be.
Pick a number. I don't care what the number is.
And then they could offer in that county public education.
(05:19):
And then if they didn't, but there was still a
requirement that you somehow you must graduate from some sort
of school that's been accredited by by the state. They
would still have state accreditation. So you couldn't just have
some flag night operation, open up some school and say yeah,
well here's your tuition and your tuition is X and
uh so we'll provide your your rug rat with an education. Now,
(05:43):
you've got to have some standards. See I'm not a
complete radical. You have to have some standards. But let
the private sector. Let people compete. Hey, bring your kid,
bring your kid. And let's say we even have vouchers.
Say you don't get the property tax. I'm just obviously
thinking out loud here. You don't give the property tax,
(06:04):
but you keep the property tax, and instead you give
everyone who has a child that lives in your county,
you give them a voucher that's good that they can
take and they can use anywhere they could use it
a Catholic school, they could use it a private school,
a parchial school, they could use it a public school.
They could use it to some you know, some company
(06:24):
decides they're going to provide you know, schools around the country.
They decide to PLoP one down in your county, and
so they hire the best teachers and the best instructors,
and they get the best curriculum and the best equipment,
and you can take your voucher from your property taxes
in that county and you can you can take your
child to the school that you choose. Competition, absolute competition.
(06:47):
What do we have now? Well, what we have now
is not working. Bill Bennett, the first well, I shouldn't
say the first education secretary. I forget who the first
one was, but he was. Ron Reaganson, Education secretary, was
on Fox News earlier this week and he said that
he thinks that Trump's not going quite far enough that
(07:08):
what they ought to do is just eliminate all of
the department completely. Just quit transferring things out. And I
know the first thing that people say when I say
just completely eliminate the Department of Education, Oh my gosh, Well,
my kid has special needs or my kid, my kid
is learning disabled, or my kid has autism, or my
kid is learning you know, has has some sort of
learning disability. Okay, calm down, calm down. We just take
(07:34):
the money that we spend. And you know, there's there's
a movement and it's it's spreading fairly well across the country.
Arizona is one of the leaders in it where they
decide that they in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia,
is doing it where you fund the student, you don't
(07:55):
fund the school. So the student gets a voucher a
credit check. Well, I don't know how how it would work.
I don't care. Somebody can smarter than me can figure
it out. And so you get a voucher and the
vouchers worth X number of dollars and you then take
that voucher and you and you look in all the
choices you have, Well, there is a public school over here,
(08:18):
or there is this private school, or is this there's
this company of the owned school over here, or I
may just hire my own teacher. And I'm you know,
you know, I'm a Mormon or Catholic family, and I
got six kids, and so you know what I'm gonna
have them. I'm gonna hire a tutor and have them
come in every you know, five days a week and
teach my kids. Completely up ended, completely unended. Now the
(08:43):
teacher unions who have donated millions upon millions of dollars
over over the past decade, more several decades, and almost
always exclusively to Democratic candidates and obviously to left wing organizations.
So it's no wonder the demouch realizing that, oh, this
cash cow we got could be on the verge of
drying up. They're losing their minds over with Trump signing
(09:06):
an executive order to begin eradicating the Department event that
I think if Americans got a real taste of school choice,
the left knows that there'll be no going back. But
I find it astonishing, truly astonishing, that you look at
some of the numbers of the test results and you realize,
(09:28):
oh my gosh, the rest of the world is leaving
us behind. How are we going to compete? It's The
Weekend with Michael Brown. Thanks for joining me. To be
sure and follow me on x It's at Michael Brown USA,
and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your
podcast app search for the situation with Michael Brown, the
situation with Michael Brown. Hit that subscribe button, leave a
(09:49):
five star review. Hang tight, I'll be right back. Hey,
you stumbled into that. You have stumbach into the weekend
with Michael Brown, and I'm really glad that you have.
The text line number is three three one zero three
three three one zero three, So in your message app
use that number. Start, use keyword, use a keyword anywhere
(10:10):
Micha or Michael, tell me anything, ask me anything. So
for example, gooble number fifty nine nineteen, writes Michael. With
all the diverse educational opportunities you proposed, who would set
learning standards and how would adherents and accomplishment of the
standards be monitor insured? I still think the states would
have a role. But make the states do it, not
the federal government. Let the states, every single state legislature,
(10:34):
make their own standards, and then they would have to accredit.
Just like you know, there are private For example, I
went to a private law school. I didn't go to
a public university. I went to a private law school.
But that law school was still accredited by whoever credits
law schools. I'd have to go look it up, I
don't remember, and the same would be for these schools,
(10:55):
whether they were public or private. There would still be
an accrediting agency which could be up by every state government,
and then every state government would have their standards, and
the way it would work would be like any other creditation. Oh,
you want to send your kid to that school, Well,
that school is not accredited, So if your child graduates
(11:17):
from that school, that degree is not going to be
recognized by the state as having been from an accredited school.
Now you can still send your child there if you
wanted to, because for whatever reason, you think it's better,
but it wouldn't carry the accreditation of the state. I'm
pretty radical in this, and I know I'm radical, and
I know it to you. It makes people's heads hurt.
(11:39):
But tell me, what have we gotten for all the
money we've been spending nothing. I love the way I
had pulled this up because actually I wasn't on air yesterday,
but I planned to do this yesterday, so you guys
get yesterday's program today. I love. So there's something called
(12:01):
the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Association
of Education something at the NAEP. Anyway, both of these
organizations keep track of how well students are doing for
proficiency in reading, math, and science. Now, listen to this.
I just want to read to you this sentence from
(12:24):
the NAEP. In twenty twenty four, NAEP results showed a
decline in reading proficiency for both fourth and eighth graders,
with thirty one percent of fourth graders and thirty percent
of eighth graders performing at or above the proficient level,
(12:47):
marking a drop from twenty twenty two and twenty nineteen.
Math score saw slight improvements, with thirty nine percent of
fourth graders and twenty eight percent of eighth graders scoring
at or above proficient. Now, I hope you got the
drift of what I just read to you, And then
(13:08):
I hope you understood the truth I read a verbatim,
but with emphasis on.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Look, they're scoring out or above proficient. But did you
hear the numbers? Thirty one percent of fourth graders performing
at or above proficient levels for reading, the basic skill
to get through society. I mean, I think you need
(13:37):
math and science too, but reading. If you can't read,
you're going to be stuck doing manual labor the entirety
of your life. They're proud of this, thirty one percent
we're performing at or above proficient levels. That means sixty
nine percent are not. But they want you to read
(14:02):
this in goha, I ask, pretty, oh wow, good thirty
one percent and of eighth graders. So by the time,
by the time they get to the eighth grade, that
means that seventy percent of eighth graders are performing below
eighth grade reading proficient levels. A nation of idiots, a
nation of kids that cannot read. And then we expect
(14:26):
them to understand the US Constitution. We expect them to
understand federalism. We expect them to understand economics when they
can't even read, you know, a little footnote here. You know,
one thing, there are a lot of things about Trump
that drive me crazy. But you know one thing that
I absolutely love about Trump is the fact that he
(14:49):
comes out and he just says what he says. He
doesn't give a rats ask what people think about it,
and it causes people that are actually paying attention to go,
holy thesis, batman, that's really bad. Now, those numbers I
gave you thirty one percent of fourth graders and thirty
percent of eighth graders performing at above proficient level. That's
(15:12):
a drop from twenty twenty two to twenty nineteen math
scores Now again, I think math is a basic skill.
How do you keep track of your banking account? How
do you know how to open a banking account? How
do you keep of your credit card debt? If you
got credit card debt? How do you keep track of
you know? If you am I thinking, you can't even
(15:32):
read what I think? You're going to invest in stock somewhere,
or your company offers you a four oh one K,
and all you're doing is digging, digging ditches and you
have no clue. You get your you get your your
quarterly report about your four oh one K, and you
have no idea because you can't read, so you don't
know whether it's doing any good or not. All you
(15:52):
might see the dollar signs over here and they're okay,
well did I do better than the last time? I
don't know. I can do math. This ought to be
absolutely well, It should just be unacceptable, not even not
even reason, any reason to raise my voice. Just it
ought to be just unacceptable. And yet we just keep
(16:14):
doing the same thing.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Over and over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And I'm expecting a different result. It is truly insanity
in pr has Let's see yeah, now, let's see the
nation's report card. Uh the oh never mind that these
are all the same numbers. But I hope you get
the drift that the numbers are bad, the numbers are
(16:38):
real bad, and we just seem to think that, well,
you know, it is what it is. Chuck Schumer. I
don't know what role he is in the Democrat Party anymore.
He's in big Doodoo. But that's not the point of
the story. He called this executive order that Trump signed
last week to get to start Let's be clear, now,
(17:03):
all Trump did was he signed in an executive order
directing Lynda McMahon, who's the Secretary of Education, and all
the departments and agencies that have anything to do with
the Department of Education to start figuring out ways to
start eliminating the department. Now, one thing that does bug
me is they talk about taking, for example, some of
(17:23):
the special ed programs or the counseling programs, or some
of the other specialized programs and moving those into other departments. Well,
that doesn't really accomplish anything. I want more radical change
than what Trump is proposing here. Anyway, Chuck Schumer says
that this is one of the most destructive and devastating
steps that Donald Trump has ever taken. Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas
(17:47):
calls it a code read for every public school student, parent,
and teacher on the country who will pay a heavy price. No,
not if we fix it. If we fix it, will
pay a great price. It's the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Text line three three one zero three. Keyword Michael, Michael.
I'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Tonight.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Director talk show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie, You're
doing a heck of a job. The Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Hey, so weekeing with Michael Brown. Glad to have you
with me. I appreciate you tuning in. No'll be sure
and follow me on x formerly Twitter. It's at Michael
Brown USA, at Michael Brown USA. The text lines open
three three one zero three. Keyword is Mike or Michael.
Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
The budget plan I submit to you on February eighty
will realize major savings by dismantling the Departments of Energy
and Education and by eliminating ineffective subsidies for business. We
will continue to redirect our resources to our two highest
budget priorities, a strong national defense to keep America free
(18:52):
and at peace, and a reliable safety net of social
programs for those who have contributed and those who are
in need.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Nineteen eighty two, January twenty sixth, nineteen eighty two, Ronald
Ray And here we are, twenty twenty five, and Trump's
really going to try to do it. And I think
it's I think it's a wonderful thing, and I hope
that Trump can pull it off. And there are many ways,
(19:22):
and look, there are some. Let me go through some
text messages because I think they point out what I'm
trying to convince you of. Gouber number zero one ninety
five rights. My special needs sister had been going to
school for seven years and we lived in two different
states before Carter created the Department of Education. It existed before,
(19:45):
meaning programs for her and they can exist again or
Gouber number ooh, good number double seven. The influx of
illegal aliens into our country over the last thirty five
years is also a reason that our public schools are
not doing as well as other countries. We attempt to
educate those kids was basically the same funding that we
used to have in many common they're not literate in
(20:07):
their primary language and we have to teach them English,
and that takes away from teaching your children. It's simply
not going to work.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
But it can.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And here's a great example. Guber number twenty seven oh
three rights Mike good Saturday Morning Education. My grands, grandkids, grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Our home school.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
All three are at least bilingual, play musical instruments, excel
at sports belt levels in karate, stay up on current events,
and have equivalent of ab achievement. They started in charter
school where a teacher humiliated my eldest in front of
his peers. After that, parents dedicated to raising and educating
their children. My grands are socially astute, innovative and polite.
(20:56):
Their parents deserve awards award for being educators. They provide
and they don't complain that they need to be paid more. Oh,
they also have to pay school taxes for school. They
don't use from Sunny but Cole Michigan Uber number two
seven three and yes, Scober number eighty two twenty five.
This is a great point. Harvard Harvard Harvard University is
(21:22):
now providing a remedial math class because most of the
incoming students can't do basic math, yet they're going to
what is ostensibly the most elite school in the country, Harvard. Really,
I think maybe you could do better, and I think
(21:43):
we can do better. And the idea that somehow we
have to have the Department of Education is absolutely asidine,
why do we need the Department of Education? We need
the Department of Education because, like whether it's USAID, whether
it's Department of Energy, to EPA, whatever, this entire bureaucratic
administrator state that we have set up is nothing but
(22:04):
a giant grift. Is nothing but this giant money laundering scheme.
And Trump and Musk and all of those have not
just exposed it, but they have shown you and me
that we don't really need this. We don't need it
at all. Think of all of the money that we've
(22:28):
spent that could instead let's just say we kept the
same level of spending but instead gave it to students. Now,
you have to understand economics to understand this. So if
you don't understand economics, then I can't help you. But
if we took all the same money that we have
now you know, over the past couple of decades, the
(22:50):
trillions of dollars then we have funneled through the Department
of Education. Instead took that same money and put it
in the hands of parents and said, here is your voucher,
your check, your stipend, whatever you want to call it,
whatever form it comes in, and it can only it
(23:10):
can only be used for educational purposes. You know, just
like these, I forget what they're called. Every state has
one where you can put pre tax dollars into a
college savings fund. Well, it can only be used for
college related expenses, books, tuition, maybe room and board, I'm
not sure, but books and tuition. I know that my
(23:32):
son and daughter both have those programs going. Well, you
could do the same thing with these vouchers or stipends
or what again, whatever you call it. I don't care
what you call it, but it's funding the student. Now,
if you understand economics, that means that suddenly really bright
not even bright entrepreneurs, just entrepreneurs are going to recognize that,
(23:55):
Oh there's a bunch of cash out there. How can
I get my hand on that cash. I'm trying to
put it in really crude terms. Oh, I could build
a school and I could hire the best teachers. I
could put in the best chemistry labs, the best biology labs,
the best reading labs, the best computer labs. I can
(24:17):
have of the best physical ed labs, facilities. I can
do all these things, make it top notch, and I
can attract that money and make a profit on it.
Oh my gosh, we're gonna make a profit on education.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
If it improves reading, math, science proficiency scores. Why not
give somebody a chance to make some profit on it.
Because the system we're doing now is failing, absolutely failing.
And the scary part about the fact that the system
we have now is failing means that this nation is failing.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I know this.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Sometimes I feel it. I freely admit that sometimes I
sound like Clint Eastwood in and Tono sitting out of
my front yard.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Get off my yard, got got out of here, kids.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I get that, I understand that. But I'm speaking the
truth here, and you know it. It's just that it's uncomfortable,
and I know it's uncomfortable to think, Oh my gosh,
Michael Brown's talking about completely upending the way we do
public education in this country. If I could just get
you to buy into the concept, then we can work
(25:25):
out the details. But the money you're spending now, the money,
you know, I gotta pay my property taxes. I usually
just pay them in one lump sum chokes me to death,
but I do it if I wouldn't. I don't have
any kids in any schools. I got grandkids in school,
but not any children anymore. It pisses me off to
(25:48):
no end, even though they're my grandkids, are not even
in the school districts for which I'm paying the property taxes.
It just pisses me off to think that I'm paying
that much in property taxes. And these notional scores they're
trying to pack themselves on the back that we got
thirty nine and forty percent proficiency. First of all, think
about how stupid you have to be to read those
(26:10):
figures and think that that's good. That means that sixty
one and seven it was what was it was thirty
nine and and thirty tween fourth and eighth graders, So
sixty nine and seventy percent are not proficient. And somebody
(26:30):
on the text line made a great point, you know,
with the news that if it leads, it bleeds. Well,
if the government puts out a stat they weren't so
that it sounds good. Wow, we've got thirty nine percent
that are proficient. That's an absolutely devastating indictment of public education.
(26:51):
So we've got to rethink it. But yeah, you know,
so we know what the left thinks, and we know
what teacher unions and teachers think that, oh my god,
we can't change anything. And I know that's not true
because my wife, who's a school counselor, does believe that
we need to make drastic changes. But she also has
to keep her mouth shut because the unions will just
(27:13):
even though she's not a member of the union, they'll
all scream at her. But have we ever asked the question?
I mean, first of all, why do we care what
the teachers or the administrators think? First of all, there's
way too many administrators. We're way too hot top heavy.
But have we ever thought about asking what the students,
(27:34):
the parents themselves think, maybe even ask the teachers what
do you think? According to polling that's out, they overwhelmingly
want exactly what Trump is touting. Now, I go further
than Trump. Trump's touting and returning authority over education to
(27:55):
the state and local communities. I'm for turning over education
to the parents and the students. Now, yes, we still
need accreditation, we still need some standards, we still need
some enforcement, and that can all be done at the
state and local level. But in terms of funding, think
(28:16):
about what competition would do. If you had competition among
private and public institutions of education all trying to get
you to spend your voucher or your stipend at their
facility as opposed to the facility around the corner, they
would look, they would say, I mean, they would market
(28:37):
and say, come spend your voucher here, because here's our
graduation rates. Here are our teachers, their backgrounds, here's what
they do, and here's how our students do on test scores.
And here, by the way, after they've got a track
record of four, five, ten, twenty years, let's look at
(28:58):
what those students have gone on to accomplish in their lives.
How about that. It's the weekend with Michael Brown. The
text line three three one zero three keyword Mike or Michael.
Be sure and follow me on X. It's at Michael Brown, USA.
What's happening at colleges? I want you to listen to
Anne Rand coming up next. Welcome back to the Weekend
(29:25):
with Michael Brown. Glad to have you with me. Text
line three three one zero three keywords Mike or Michael
go follow me on x at Michael Brown, USA, Hein
Rand and but if you haven't read any of Ein
Rain's Hein Rand's books, you need to go do so.
Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead Anthem, Were you living? One of
(29:46):
the older books. They're all really good. And I don't
agree with her entire philosophy of objectivism. Nonetheless, she's she
points out some things that we ought to consider.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Here.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
She is.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Basically warning us decades ago about the problems with public education,
in particular universities.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Most dangerous thing in this country today are the universities
because they're teaching the kind of ideas that would necessarily
have to lead to the destruction of these country. Institutions
from Harvard on down are preaching collectivism, mysticism, and a
bubble altruism, self sacrifice of yourself, the giving up, the resignation.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Can you be a little bit more specific.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I've never been to Harvard, I've never been to class there,
but can you give me an advantage?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh? Thank you?
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Of how they are teaching sacrifice, how they are teaching altruism.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Open taily paper and look at mister carter way.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
She's referring to Jimmy Carter. So this is probably, you know,
nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Or so, good for their creature. Who is telling you
that we're going to.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Overcome the oil shortage by driving less, by giving up
let us?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
This is such utter brilliance, she's saying, Look at mister
carter you know, a peculiar creature in her opinion, who's
telling the country that we're going to overcome the oil
shortage by what not producing more oil? Not drill, baby, drill,
(31:35):
but by driving less. Remember the imposition of this, Oh
my god, this is going to date me. Remember the
imposition of the fifty five mile an hour speed limit,
all to save a few gallons of gas. If that
was the solution, turn down your thermostatic, puts on a sweater.
That's the exact opposite of what we ought to be thinking.
(31:57):
What we ought to be thinking is how do we change?
What are we doing to ourselves that we have a
gas shortage? Oh, we're too dependent upon sauty oil. We're
too dependent upon opek we have an abundance of oil
and natural gas, we have an abundance of fossil fuels.
But no, we're told by their lead leader of the
free world at the time, you need sacrifice. Now, I'm
(32:21):
not saying that sacrifice, you know, making sacrifices is always wrong,
but this is a completely perverted way of looking at it.
You know, oh, there's a shortage of something. Then entrepreneurs
ought to be able to step in and say, hmm,
there's an opportunity here to make make money, to make profit,
and at the same time do social good by providing cheap,
(32:45):
abundant energy so that people can drive and get to
work and they don't have to sacrifice. What a bunch
of bull crap. Now, I don't mean to say that
sacrificing is always bad. Sacrificing sometimes is good for the soul.
But as a public policy, it's.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Idiocy to all make a sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Let's lower our standard of living and we'll all be
living better. Now is that a proper philosophy to tell
a country that has pride and self esteem a Harvard
that would be preaching American ideas, more specifically reason individualism, capitalism.
(33:27):
If they were doing that you could have the biggest
renaissance in the world still not to lead even now,
you could have a better renaissance than the first one.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
And I think we could do that again if we
would just say, you know what, we look at these
lousy test scores, and we know that we've been We
spent trillions of dollars in the Department of Education, and
if you look at it, just draw a graph of
the amount of spending per pupil and how that continues
to increase and now gets us to some of the
highest per pupils in the entire world. And then you
(34:02):
look at the reading proficiency, math proficiency, science proficiency, and
that graph is just downward. They're just going in opposite directions.
So why would we ever say to ourselves we ought
to keep doing more of what we're doing. We ought
to be saying to ourselves what we're doing is absolutely wrong.
(34:23):
And if nothing else, well, actually I do have higher
expectations than nothing else. I was going to say something
stupid like if nothing else is Trump has at least
brought this to the national conversation, but it has to
be more than a national conversation. Congress, the President, governors,
including governors and Democrat states, like right here in Colorado,
(34:46):
the idiot governor we have, or if you live in Illinois,
stupid governor you have Pritzker, or the stupid governor you've
gotten out in California. They've all got to wake up
and realize that, you know what, we do have an
opportunity for a great you know, Trump calls them a
new Golden age. I think ain Rand was right. It's
more of a new American renaissance. And that's stop doing
(35:10):
things the way we've been doing it. Let's try something different.
Let's let's be radical about it, and instead of sacrificing
and throwing more money at it, let's do let's completely
invert this. You know, I don't I don't know how
much longer I have to live. I might have thirty years,
I might have forty years. I mean, who knows how
much longer I have to live. I might have you know,
(35:32):
I'll get hit by a bus leaving the studio today.
But I do know this, I don't want to live
in this country thirty or forty years from now if
we keep doing the same stupid stuff that we've been
doing since the days of Woodrow Wilson or FDR out
of debate. I don't care how far back you go
either one, because it's not working. It is simply not working,
(35:58):
and Trump is showing guys that let's try something different.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
It's easy for me to spell out things that we
could do, but all I can do is help inform
you so that because you have a sphere of influence,
you may know a school board member. You may know
a teacher, a counselor. You may know a school administrator.
You may know a state rep, state senator. You may
you may know the governor in your state. You may
(36:27):
you probably do, know a congressman or a senator. Tell
them things have to change, otherwise the country's doomed, it
said Weekend with Michael Brown. Text line three three one
zero three, keyword Mike or Michael. Go follow me on
X at Michael Brown USA
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