October 15, 2025 • 22 mins
(October 15, 2025)
Los Angeles declares state of emergency over immigration raids. US revokes visas for 6 foreigners over Charlie Kirk-related speech. America is sliding toward illiteracy.
Los Angeles declares state of emergency over immigration raids. US revokes visas for 6 foreigners over Charlie Kirk-related speech. America is sliding toward illiteracy.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're list Saints k i AM six forty The bill
handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio f i AM
six forty handle here on a Wednesday morning, October fifteenth.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More going on in Gaza.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hamas has not returned the majority of the dead. Israelis
the hostages pursuing to the ceasefire agreement. And I don't
know how good an idea that is, because once again
ha Hamas is doing no.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Favors for itself, to say the least.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right, Yesterday, moving to La County, Yesterday, La County
officials voted to declare a state of emergency that gives
them the power to provide assistance for residents they say
have suffered financially from ongoing federal immigration rates. Thousands of
people have been picked up, a few American citizens, a
(00:57):
few legal residents, the majority illegal residents. But as Christinomes said,
these are the worst of the worst, right, all of
the people that are picked up, thousands and thousands, they're
all vicious criminals, members of gangs. Well maybe not, probably
not as a matter of fact. And what it does
allow Ellie County Board of Supervisors to provide rent relief
(01:21):
for people who have fallen behind. So you know, that's
pretty generous and that makes sense to help people. However,
there is a big other side to this. So two
things are happening. One is that the raids have taken
away the breadwinners in the family. Two, the breadwinners that
are still here are afraid to go to work and
(01:44):
they're not leaving the house, especially if they work in
construction or they work at you know, they're in front
of home depot asking for labor, or they're working at
factories where there is a big population of Latino immigrants,
of which probably good portion are illegal. I've talked to
a lot of business owners who said, yeah, but without them,
(02:08):
we don't function. Okay, So funds are going to be
available for rent for people who apply these an online portal.
The La County Supervisors voted four to one in favor
of this extended ban. Well, it could be an extended ban,
(02:28):
it could be another moratorium. You've got money and you
have a moratorium. Those are the two issues. So the
money part, the apartment owners are saying, okay, we're fine
with that, although it's a tax issue, and how much
money is a county pay in taxes? The moratorium is
a very different issue because that means rent is not
paid during a moratorium, and those who are you in
(02:50):
favor say, yeah, but the rent is due at the
end of the moratorium. I asked Ann this morning to
give me a percentage of those who did not pay
their rent during the moratorium during COVID and could not
afford it. So here you have someone or a group
of people who do not pay rent and they're struggling
to pay the rent and they don't have to for
(03:14):
a year, which happened during COVID. And let's say you're
paying three thousand dollars a month the two thousand dollars
a month for an apartment here in southern California, La County.
So by the end of it, you owe twenty five
thousand dollars and you could barely scrape for the rent
in the first place. On handle on the wall, I
(03:35):
got a lot of phone calls saying, I'm in the moratorium.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I say, you take that money and you put it
in the bank, because when this ends, you are going
to owe the money. That is what the law says
right there, and the landlord will go after you.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
But here's the problem. You go after people that have
no assets.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
How many people actually have twenty five thousand dollars at
the end of it, of course, almost nobody. Landlord got
stuck all manned. The landlords get stuck on this one.
And now we're talking about the same thing. And here
is the real issue. Government in this case liberal government
(04:17):
board of supervisors say, real, simply illegal undocumented aliens are
more important to us than landlords. Even though landlords pay
the taxes, even though landlords pay mortgage payments, they keep
the banks going. It's the undocumented people we have to protect.
(04:42):
And so which way do you go on this one?
It is so tough. And I asked and this morning
to do a little bit of research during the course
of the show to ask what percentage of people who
did not pay their rent at the end of the
more at people that owed twenty twenty five thirty thousand
(05:05):
dollars because rent was due at the moment the moratorium
in fact ended. And we couldn't come up with the
exact figure because that specific figure is.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Not easy to come by.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
But if you look at the story and you extrapolate
other non payment of rent issues, a real good, big
percentage of people at the end of the moratorium, simply
didn't pay the rent and they were evicted or they
declared bankruptcy and the landlords got absolutely nailed. Most of
(05:41):
the apartments in La County and Orange County are.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Owned by small owners.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Now they're not owned by these huge corporations that owned
thousands of units. I mean there are some, but most
of them are owned by mom and poppers, people like me.
I had two units a while ago, and I got
rid of him because I didn't want to be a
landlord anymore. But how many people I know, people have
(06:10):
three units and four units and small duplexes, and how
do they pay the mortgage? Well, two bad guys. The
money is owed at the end of more, to the
end of more the moratorium, and you buy it, you
pick it up. Okay, Moving over to I guess first
Amendment issue. The Trump administration has just revoked the visas
of six foreigners who have been deemed to have made
(06:35):
derisive comments or made light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Yeah it was good he was assassinated, or what a
jerk he was, or look at the saw which side
he's on? Whatever derisive statement now saying you appreciate the assassination.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, it's disgusting. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Saying that you like the assassination of a thirty two
year old because you disagree with his politics is completely disgusting.
On the other hand, have you ever heard of the
First Amendment? And the State Department said they should lose
their visas after reviewing their online social media posts and
clips about Kirk. This is you're losing your visa because
(07:19):
you said something negative about Charlie Kirk, not that you're
a national risk, not that you have ties to isis.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's because you said something negative about Charlie Kirk. That
is scary.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And the administration is straight out targeting people for their
comments about Kirk and asking for the firings of journalists, teachers,
and others. And it raises all kinds of free speech concerns.
And the six foreigners were for the most part in
South America. And here is what the State Department said,
(07:57):
Trump and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio will defend
our borders, our culture, and our citizens by enforcing our
immigration laws.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You attack Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Verbally and somehow you're attacking our borders in our culture.
Aliens who take advantage of America's hospitality while celebrating the
assassination of our citizens will be removed. They don't have
First Amendment rights. Only American citizens have First Amendment rights.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
WHOA and JD.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Vance and other top officials have encouraged people to call
out the offensive language about Kirk they see online. You
tell us some of the offensive language and will throw
those people out.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And so the administration is ramped up its efforts to identify,
potentially expel thousands of foreigners in the United States, students
notably who have fonem in it or participated in unrest
in publicly supported protests. Now, it's already happened a couple
of times. So some guy from let's say a Mid
East country stands up and promotes gaza in the United
(09:14):
States just says, I believe the United States is wrong.
Is that deemed a security risk to this country? According
to the administration, it is. And it's getting pretty scary
because this administration is targeting people who are saying negative things,
(09:37):
not just acting out.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
If someone is out there and saying the US should
be attacked, okay, they're out. If someone although that's a
first Amendment right to say that. Did you know that
I can stand out there and I could say the
president should be assassinated.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I have a right to say that.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Now I'm going to get a nice, long, long visit
from the FBI.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That's going to happen. But do I have a right
to say that? Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Do? If I advocate, If I say, go ahead and
do it, that's a different animal. But giving your opinion,
that is that's allowed under our constitution. That's the first
Amendment right, it is.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And the courts have been very strict about the ability
to say things like that. We are allowed to in
this country. And here is presidential power going that way.
And the president has said outright, if you speak against Kirk,
We're going to throw you out if you have a visa.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
South Africa's ambassador of the US was thrown out for
comments critical of Trump. Palestinian President Mahmurabas was not given
a visa to attend you in General Assembly because he's
pro Palestinian.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Obviously he is Palestinian. I mean, this is scary stuff.
How far does it go?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
For example, the president has said that the cities of
Chicago Portland, LA are out of control.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Not any Southern cities. Not one is out of control.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
There is one Southern city in the United States or
pro Trump city. The voter a Republican that has a problem.
Only Democrat cities. And the President also said he is
cutting off funding for Democrat controlled programs. If there is
a literacy program that has been established by Democrats, he's
(11:36):
yankeing federal funding.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I got to tell you, I'm scared about this. I
genuinely am.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Now, is it a far jump for if you say
something negative about the president somehow that's going to be
deemed a treason unconstitutional?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Is that a far jump? No? Not to me. Not
to me. I'm pretty scared, I am. You know. Do
I think it's gonna happen? No? But let me ask
you something.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Would you think there would be a move that President
Trump would go for third term and Congress is going
to push it. How many members in the Republican Party
are going to push for a third term for President Trump?
And let's say he declares if do I think he's
gonna do it?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
But let's say he declares statements against the administration treason,
how many Republicans you think would join that all of them?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Of course, not some of them. Yeah, yeah, so there
I am.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I guess the b bails you right when you left
wing bastard.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You you're just part of.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
The radical far left, and you are destroying America. You
with this free First Amendment crap, are destroying this country.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Okay, I want to switch gears.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Let me go to the topic of illiteracy in the
United States now, and I've said this many times, I
am not an exceptionalist. When I hear America is the
greatest country in the world, you have to break it
down in many ways.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It is in many ways. It is not.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
When it comes to higher education, I mean really high
education Ivy League schools and the number of them, America
is the top of the heap. When it comes to research,
medical research, America is the top of the heap. You
can easily say America is the greatest country in the world.
When it comes to opportunity, it's certainly among the greatest
(13:45):
country in the world, among the greatest countries of the world,
and you can argue it is the greatest country in
the world. Now, let's go to a few other topics.
I bring up the topic of healthcare. Are you going
to tell me we're the greatest country in the world
in terms of health care?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
How about infant mortality?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Where we're number twenty two or twenty three among industrialized nations,
actually among the world? Are we the greatest country in
the world? How about a safety not how many poor
people we have? Are we the greatest country in the
world of industrialized world? How about the number of prisoners
we have? We have more people in prisoners prison not
(14:27):
only numbers, but per capita than any country in the
world by a long shot. Are we the greatest country
in the world. It depends on where you are and
depends on what you're looking at. You can't do this
with broad strokes. You have to do it with specificity.
So let me get specific for a moment. Illiteracy. Are
(14:51):
we the greatest country in the world? I can think
right off the bat, and that's without looking at sheer numbers.
Cuba as a high literacy rate. South Korea has a
highery literacy rate. The United States don't know what number
it is, but it ain't up there. And so let's
(15:13):
go back historically a little bit, with the United States
at the start of the century American students registered steady
improvement in math and reading okay from two thousand and on,
but around twenty thirteen the progress began to stall out
and then to backslide, and I mean dramatically. And by
the way, this decline began way before the pandemic. So
(15:37):
you can't explain COVID disruptions that alone to explain it.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So what are some of the reasons.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And some of them are logical, some of them are physical,
just what's going on physically, and some are culturally. Oh,
for example, maturity if you can somehow measure maturity, and
there are sociologists who can in my states, is not
anywhere near where other countries could be. Although you can
(16:09):
argue both sides of that. In that way, we're not
the greatest. And as I said, illiteracy not even close,
and we have dropped so dramatically. Smartphones and social media.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
One reason.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
A pervasive refusal to hold kids to high standards. I've
shared this story so many times. My kids, when they
were I think eight or nine, went to a birthday
party of a neighbor and it was at a bowling
alley and it was I mean that they had little leagues.
They separated the students, and they had individual achievement and
(16:49):
they had team achievement. At the end of it all,
every single kid got a trophy that said world's greatest bowler.
No one came in first, no one came in last,
No team did better than any other team. They were
all the world's greatest bowlers. Holding people accountable. That has
(17:15):
gone into the toilet. Pretty sobering stuff, it really is.
There's an organization called NAYIP and AEP National Assessment of
Educational Progress.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
This year they released a study.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Thirty three percent of eighth graders are reading at a
level below basic third, struggling to follow the order of
events in a passage or even summarize the main idea.
That's the highest share of students who are effectively illiterate
since nineteen ninety two. Fourth graders forty percent or below
(17:51):
basic in reading. That's the highest since two thousand. We're
way down the heat. Remember we're the greatest country in
the world. Except for a few areas, literacy is one
of them, certainly among kids. American school children have well
given up almost all the gains they achieved at the
start of the century. Where we really had gone up.
(18:13):
Now I'm going to share with you where the best
place to go to school is if you're really poor.
The best school systems in terms of grading and in
terms of achievement according to this test or according to
these metrics. First of all, as you would imagine, the
learning losses are not distributed equally. The results show the
(18:35):
top tenth of students are doing as well as they've
always done, those at the bottom are doing worse. The
disparity is hitting all over again. So let's look at
some of the reasons. One of them they're looking at
is insufficient spending. Now, the reality is, school spending did
not decline from twenty twelve to twenty twenty two. In fact,
(18:57):
it increased even after adjusting for inflation. It went from
fourteen thousand a year to more than sixteen thousand a
year per student.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
That's across the country.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And the large amount of money that was dropped on
schools in the world of.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The pandemic, well that has failed too.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Congress appropriated one hundred and ninety billion dollars to ameliorate
the loss the learning loss.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
But here's the problem.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
School district states were given complete latitude to spend the money,
so you had districts spend money for professional development or
capital expenditures such as replacing HVAC systems or getting electric buses.
That's where the money went, and it was supposed to
go to help students become well more literate. So here
(19:51):
and so so far, we've come up with a couple
of reasons. Smartphones, and I think that's a legitimate reason.
Expectations they're way down. What we want for excellence is
so less than what we did. There is no such
thing as true excellence anymore. You get nailed.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Who gets f's.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
By the way, when I was going to school, you
had a D average, you got tossed from high school.
Today you can have f's and you still graduate.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
You don't think there's other things, you know. You look
at the literacy rate by state handle. The lowest adult
literacy in the United States is California. The highest adult
literacy is New Hampshire. Yeah, so you have a lot
of immigrants. That's where California.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, you have you have immigrants come in in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You don't, right, that is a reason when you have
an average, because when you have kids that don't speak English.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
But no, and you're right, I'm not arguing.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Unfortunately, this is a national average, but it's still even
in California, even in New Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I'm guessing the rates have gone down.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I don't have those figures, but this is across the board,
and the study shows across economic grounds and across geographical
grounds it's still worse.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Now. Maybe it's better in New Hampshire. But then I
want to go to the question, and that.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Is, if you are poor, if you want the best
educational system, the best increase in terms of literacy from
twenty twenty three, which really dropped, or even twenty twelve,
where do you think those states would be for the
(21:37):
best advancement or the best place for these kids to
go to school?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
How about Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
They're calling it the Mississippi Miracle, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, the
Southern Southern Surge.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Reading performance declined among fourth graders in forty.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Six out of fifty states, including New Hampshire, including Massachusetts,
and only two states Mississippi and Louisiana, did they meaningly
improve as against the other states, not just from complete
ill literacy to moderate ill literacy. That's against New Hampshire,
that's against California, which, as you said, has among the
(22:23):
lowest because of the huge influx of immigrants where English
is a second language, but also the northeastern Eastern states.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Go figure, Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Wow, courses like how to make shoes because you don't
have any at home. All Right, we're out of here
on that one. This is KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're list Saints k i AM six forty The bill
handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio f i AM
six forty handle here on a Wednesday morning, October fifteenth.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More going on in Gaza.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hamas has not returned the majority of the dead. Israelis
the hostages pursuing to the ceasefire agreement. And I don't
know how good an idea that is, because once again
ha Hamas is doing no.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Favors for itself, to say the least.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right, Yesterday, moving to La County, Yesterday, La County
officials voted to declare a state of emergency that gives
them the power to provide assistance for residents they say
have suffered financially from ongoing federal immigration rates. Thousands of
people have been picked up, a few American citizens, a
(00:57):
few legal residents, the majority illegal residents. But as Christinomes said,
these are the worst of the worst, right, all of
the people that are picked up, thousands and thousands, they're
all vicious criminals, members of gangs. Well maybe not, probably
not as a matter of fact. And what it does
allow Ellie County Board of Supervisors to provide rent relief
(01:21):
for people who have fallen behind. So you know, that's
pretty generous and that makes sense to help people. However,
there is a big other side to this. So two
things are happening. One is that the raids have taken
away the breadwinners in the family. Two, the breadwinners that
are still here are afraid to go to work and
(01:44):
they're not leaving the house, especially if they work in
construction or they work at you know, they're in front
of home depot asking for labor, or they're working at
factories where there is a big population of Latino immigrants,
of which probably good portion are illegal. I've talked to
a lot of business owners who said, yeah, but without them,
(02:08):
we don't function. Okay, So funds are going to be
available for rent for people who apply these an online portal.
The La County Supervisors voted four to one in favor
of this extended ban. Well, it could be an extended ban,
(02:28):
it could be another moratorium. You've got money and you
have a moratorium. Those are the two issues. So the
money part, the apartment owners are saying, okay, we're fine
with that, although it's a tax issue, and how much
money is a county pay in taxes? The moratorium is
a very different issue because that means rent is not
paid during a moratorium, and those who are you in
(02:50):
favor say, yeah, but the rent is due at the
end of the moratorium. I asked Ann this morning to
give me a percentage of those who did not pay
their rent during the moratorium during COVID and could not
afford it. So here you have someone or a group
of people who do not pay rent and they're struggling
to pay the rent and they don't have to for
(03:14):
a year, which happened during COVID. And let's say you're
paying three thousand dollars a month the two thousand dollars
a month for an apartment here in southern California, La County.
So by the end of it, you owe twenty five
thousand dollars and you could barely scrape for the rent
in the first place. On handle on the wall, I
(03:35):
got a lot of phone calls saying, I'm in the moratorium.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I say, you take that money and you put it
in the bank, because when this ends, you are going
to owe the money. That is what the law says
right there, and the landlord will go after you.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
But here's the problem. You go after people that have
no assets.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
How many people actually have twenty five thousand dollars at
the end of it, of course, almost nobody. Landlord got
stuck all manned. The landlords get stuck on this one.
And now we're talking about the same thing. And here
is the real issue. Government in this case liberal government
(04:17):
board of supervisors say, real, simply illegal undocumented aliens are
more important to us than landlords. Even though landlords pay
the taxes, even though landlords pay mortgage payments, they keep
the banks going. It's the undocumented people we have to protect.
(04:42):
And so which way do you go on this one?
It is so tough. And I asked and this morning
to do a little bit of research during the course
of the show to ask what percentage of people who
did not pay their rent at the end of the
more at people that owed twenty twenty five thirty thousand
(05:05):
dollars because rent was due at the moment the moratorium
in fact ended. And we couldn't come up with the
exact figure because that specific figure is.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Not easy to come by.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
But if you look at the story and you extrapolate
other non payment of rent issues, a real good, big
percentage of people at the end of the moratorium, simply
didn't pay the rent and they were evicted or they
declared bankruptcy and the landlords got absolutely nailed. Most of
(05:41):
the apartments in La County and Orange County are.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Owned by small owners.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Now they're not owned by these huge corporations that owned
thousands of units. I mean there are some, but most
of them are owned by mom and poppers, people like me.
I had two units a while ago, and I got
rid of him because I didn't want to be a
landlord anymore. But how many people I know, people have
(06:10):
three units and four units and small duplexes, and how
do they pay the mortgage? Well, two bad guys. The
money is owed at the end of more, to the
end of more the moratorium, and you buy it, you
pick it up. Okay, Moving over to I guess first
Amendment issue. The Trump administration has just revoked the visas
of six foreigners who have been deemed to have made
(06:35):
derisive comments or made light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Yeah it was good he was assassinated, or what a
jerk he was, or look at the saw which side
he's on? Whatever derisive statement now saying you appreciate the assassination.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, it's disgusting. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Saying that you like the assassination of a thirty two
year old because you disagree with his politics is completely disgusting.
On the other hand, have you ever heard of the
First Amendment? And the State Department said they should lose
their visas after reviewing their online social media posts and
clips about Kirk. This is you're losing your visa because
(07:19):
you said something negative about Charlie Kirk, not that you're
a national risk, not that you have ties to isis.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's because you said something negative about Charlie Kirk. That
is scary.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And the administration is straight out targeting people for their
comments about Kirk and asking for the firings of journalists, teachers,
and others. And it raises all kinds of free speech concerns.
And the six foreigners were for the most part in
South America. And here is what the State Department said,
(07:57):
Trump and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio will defend
our borders, our culture, and our citizens by enforcing our
immigration laws.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You attack Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Verbally and somehow you're attacking our borders in our culture.
Aliens who take advantage of America's hospitality while celebrating the
assassination of our citizens will be removed. They don't have
First Amendment rights. Only American citizens have First Amendment rights.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
WHOA and JD.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Vance and other top officials have encouraged people to call
out the offensive language about Kirk they see online. You
tell us some of the offensive language and will throw
those people out.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And so the administration is ramped up its efforts to identify,
potentially expel thousands of foreigners in the United States, students
notably who have fonem in it or participated in unrest
in publicly supported protests. Now, it's already happened a couple
of times. So some guy from let's say a Mid
East country stands up and promotes gaza in the United
(09:14):
States just says, I believe the United States is wrong.
Is that deemed a security risk to this country? According
to the administration, it is. And it's getting pretty scary
because this administration is targeting people who are saying negative things,
(09:37):
not just acting out.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
If someone is out there and saying the US should
be attacked, okay, they're out. If someone although that's a
first Amendment right to say that. Did you know that
I can stand out there and I could say the
president should be assassinated.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I have a right to say that.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Now I'm going to get a nice, long, long visit
from the FBI.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That's going to happen. But do I have a right
to say that? Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Do? If I advocate, If I say, go ahead and
do it, that's a different animal. But giving your opinion,
that is that's allowed under our constitution. That's the first
Amendment right, it is.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And the courts have been very strict about the ability
to say things like that. We are allowed to in
this country. And here is presidential power going that way.
And the president has said outright, if you speak against Kirk,
We're going to throw you out if you have a visa.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
South Africa's ambassador of the US was thrown out for
comments critical of Trump. Palestinian President Mahmurabas was not given
a visa to attend you in General Assembly because he's
pro Palestinian.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Obviously he is Palestinian. I mean, this is scary stuff.
How far does it go?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
For example, the president has said that the cities of
Chicago Portland, LA are out of control.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Not any Southern cities. Not one is out of control.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
There is one Southern city in the United States or
pro Trump city. The voter a Republican that has a problem.
Only Democrat cities. And the President also said he is
cutting off funding for Democrat controlled programs. If there is
a literacy program that has been established by Democrats, he's
(11:36):
yankeing federal funding.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I got to tell you, I'm scared about this. I
genuinely am.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Now, is it a far jump for if you say
something negative about the president somehow that's going to be
deemed a treason unconstitutional?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Is that a far jump? No? Not to me. Not
to me. I'm pretty scared, I am. You know. Do
I think it's gonna happen? No? But let me ask
you something.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Would you think there would be a move that President
Trump would go for third term and Congress is going
to push it. How many members in the Republican Party
are going to push for a third term for President Trump?
And let's say he declares if do I think he's
gonna do it?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
But let's say he declares statements against the administration treason,
how many Republicans you think would join that all of them?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Of course, not some of them. Yeah, yeah, so there
I am.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I guess the b bails you right when you left
wing bastard.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You you're just part of.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
The radical far left, and you are destroying America. You
with this free First Amendment crap, are destroying this country.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Okay, I want to switch gears.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Let me go to the topic of illiteracy in the
United States now, and I've said this many times, I
am not an exceptionalist. When I hear America is the
greatest country in the world, you have to break it
down in many ways.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It is in many ways. It is not.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
When it comes to higher education, I mean really high
education Ivy League schools and the number of them, America
is the top of the heap. When it comes to research,
medical research, America is the top of the heap. You
can easily say America is the greatest country in the world.
When it comes to opportunity, it's certainly among the greatest
(13:45):
country in the world, among the greatest countries of the world,
and you can argue it is the greatest country in
the world. Now, let's go to a few other topics.
I bring up the topic of healthcare. Are you going
to tell me we're the greatest country in the world
in terms of health care?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
How about infant mortality?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Where we're number twenty two or twenty three among industrialized nations,
actually among the world? Are we the greatest country in
the world? How about a safety not how many poor
people we have? Are we the greatest country in the
world of industrialized world? How about the number of prisoners
we have? We have more people in prisoners prison not
(14:27):
only numbers, but per capita than any country in the
world by a long shot. Are we the greatest country
in the world. It depends on where you are and
depends on what you're looking at. You can't do this
with broad strokes. You have to do it with specificity.
So let me get specific for a moment. Illiteracy. Are
(14:51):
we the greatest country in the world? I can think
right off the bat, and that's without looking at sheer numbers.
Cuba as a high literacy rate. South Korea has a
highery literacy rate. The United States don't know what number
it is, but it ain't up there. And so let's
(15:13):
go back historically a little bit, with the United States
at the start of the century American students registered steady
improvement in math and reading okay from two thousand and on,
but around twenty thirteen the progress began to stall out
and then to backslide, and I mean dramatically. And by
the way, this decline began way before the pandemic. So
(15:37):
you can't explain COVID disruptions that alone to explain it.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So what are some of the reasons.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And some of them are logical, some of them are physical,
just what's going on physically, and some are culturally. Oh,
for example, maturity if you can somehow measure maturity, and
there are sociologists who can in my states, is not
anywhere near where other countries could be. Although you can
(16:09):
argue both sides of that. In that way, we're not
the greatest. And as I said, illiteracy not even close,
and we have dropped so dramatically. Smartphones and social media.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
One reason.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
A pervasive refusal to hold kids to high standards. I've
shared this story so many times. My kids, when they
were I think eight or nine, went to a birthday
party of a neighbor and it was at a bowling
alley and it was I mean that they had little leagues.
They separated the students, and they had individual achievement and
(16:49):
they had team achievement. At the end of it all,
every single kid got a trophy that said world's greatest bowler.
No one came in first, no one came in last,
No team did better than any other team. They were
all the world's greatest bowlers. Holding people accountable. That has
(17:15):
gone into the toilet. Pretty sobering stuff, it really is.
There's an organization called NAYIP and AEP National Assessment of
Educational Progress.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
This year they released a study.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Thirty three percent of eighth graders are reading at a
level below basic third, struggling to follow the order of
events in a passage or even summarize the main idea.
That's the highest share of students who are effectively illiterate
since nineteen ninety two. Fourth graders forty percent or below
(17:51):
basic in reading. That's the highest since two thousand. We're
way down the heat. Remember we're the greatest country in
the world. Except for a few areas, literacy is one
of them, certainly among kids. American school children have well
given up almost all the gains they achieved at the
start of the century. Where we really had gone up.
(18:13):
Now I'm going to share with you where the best
place to go to school is if you're really poor.
The best school systems in terms of grading and in
terms of achievement according to this test or according to
these metrics. First of all, as you would imagine, the
learning losses are not distributed equally. The results show the
(18:35):
top tenth of students are doing as well as they've
always done, those at the bottom are doing worse. The
disparity is hitting all over again. So let's look at
some of the reasons. One of them they're looking at
is insufficient spending. Now, the reality is, school spending did
not decline from twenty twelve to twenty twenty two. In fact,
(18:57):
it increased even after adjusting for inflation. It went from
fourteen thousand a year to more than sixteen thousand a
year per student.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
That's across the country.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And the large amount of money that was dropped on
schools in the world of.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The pandemic, well that has failed too.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Congress appropriated one hundred and ninety billion dollars to ameliorate
the loss the learning loss.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
But here's the problem.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
School district states were given complete latitude to spend the money,
so you had districts spend money for professional development or
capital expenditures such as replacing HVAC systems or getting electric buses.
That's where the money went, and it was supposed to
go to help students become well more literate. So here
(19:51):
and so so far, we've come up with a couple
of reasons. Smartphones, and I think that's a legitimate reason.
Expectations they're way down. What we want for excellence is
so less than what we did. There is no such
thing as true excellence anymore. You get nailed.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Who gets f's.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
By the way, when I was going to school, you
had a D average, you got tossed from high school.
Today you can have f's and you still graduate.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
You don't think there's other things, you know. You look
at the literacy rate by state handle. The lowest adult
literacy in the United States is California. The highest adult
literacy is New Hampshire. Yeah, so you have a lot
of immigrants. That's where California.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, you have you have immigrants come in in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You don't, right, that is a reason when you have
an average, because when you have kids that don't speak English.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
But no, and you're right, I'm not arguing.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Unfortunately, this is a national average, but it's still even
in California, even in New Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I'm guessing the rates have gone down.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I don't have those figures, but this is across the board,
and the study shows across economic grounds and across geographical
grounds it's still worse.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Now. Maybe it's better in New Hampshire. But then I
want to go to the question, and that.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Is, if you are poor, if you want the best
educational system, the best increase in terms of literacy from
twenty twenty three, which really dropped, or even twenty twelve,
where do you think those states would be for the
(21:37):
best advancement or the best place for these kids to
go to school?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
How about Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
They're calling it the Mississippi Miracle, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, the
Southern Southern Surge.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Reading performance declined among fourth graders in forty.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Six out of fifty states, including New Hampshire, including Massachusetts,
and only two states Mississippi and Louisiana, did they meaningly
improve as against the other states, not just from complete
ill literacy to moderate ill literacy. That's against New Hampshire,
that's against California, which, as you said, has among the
(22:23):
lowest because of the huge influx of immigrants where English
is a second language, but also the northeastern Eastern states.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Go figure, Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Wow, courses like how to make shoes because you don't
have any at home. All Right, we're out of here
on that one. This is KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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