This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker, and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
Yes, it's Busted Pencils fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education.
Class is in session, so much to learn about.
But first, Dr. Johnny Lupinacci, Jess, how are you two doing?
Johnny.
I'm doing all right, Tim, you know, it's been insanely busy.
We had the election week, then, you know,
both swing hockey coach here, teacher.
So classes in session, win classes in session this time of year.
So, you know, it's great to be here with you both.
Awesome to be listening to some of the shows I couldn't be a part of.
So it's always fun to be a listener on the outside.
Hey, listeners, if you're thinking, hey, I want to be part of that conversation
because I'm always a listener from the outside.
When Tim, Johnny, and Jess chop it up with all their great guests,
hey, you can give us a call, leave us a message,
and we'll bring you into the conversation.
Call us or text us at 608-557-8577,
and bust some pencils with us.
Tim, Johnny, here, fully-ledded education talk.
So Tim, I'm doing all right.
Jess, how are you doing?
I'm doing pretty good.
You might be able to hear in my voice,
I'm still getting over one of those passing colds,
but it's so good to see you, Johnny.
I missed you last week, man.
But I know we've all got busy schedules
and just coming off of that election week,
everything was just,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
Oh, yeah, and, you know,
good to be here, good to be in class.
Let's get a learning.
Let's start doing some learning here.
And yeah, again, back in classes and sessions.
So lots going on.
But, Johnny, you know,
when we used to do the live show,
we used to do a little Civics 101 lesson.
Sure did.
And I was just thinking for a classes and session,
you know, no guests, it's just the three of us today.
And, you know, there's a, you know,
we've got this opportunity to do a little bit
of teaching while classes and session.
And putting it into the kind of current events
that are happening, well, guess what?
Yes, no, we're not going to talk about the Electoral College.
We're not going to talk about the election.
We're going to talk about the results of the election
and the implications now going forward.
Because if you've been paying attention to the news,
and I tell you that to you, Johnny, you, Jess,
and you, the listener out there,
you now know that, yes, it is true
that we now have president-elect Trump.
It's happening and that's already done deal,
history moving on.
He is now in the process of picking his cabinet.
And as my son said, you know, when he was younger,
why do presidents need cabinets that,
I mean, aren't there any in the White House already?
Seriously.
You know, he was really looking at the literal sense of that.
No, not that cabinet, but these advisors.
And so president Trump now has been putting forward names
over the past week of some people
who are going to serve in his cabinet as his secretaries.
And I thought, you know what, classes in session,
we should be talking about this whole process
of now that the president-elect,
they get to pick a cabinet.
Why do they get to pick a cabinet?
Who are these people?
Are there rules?
Because people are wondering, you know,
geez, what does it take to be on the cabinet?
Well, that could be a different answer
than what it takes to be picked, to be nominated.
But we're doing this and going forward.
And so what a great time to talk about, hey, president,
president picks cabinets.
How do they do it?
And no, they don't go to Loser Home Depot.
They actually go into their roll of decks
if they still have that or their iPhones.
And they start asking, just made that look like roll of decks
who says that Tim, you're too old.
Oh, I know, I know, I know, man.
You can see my funny facial reactants.
I can see what they say.
If you watch our videos on Facebook and YouTube
under civic media, in addition to our podcasts,
dropping on Spotify, Apple,
and of course, the civic media webpage,
our videos, when Tim's internet doesn't totally crap out,
those videos get posted at the same time as our podcasts.
Yes, there we go.
Look at Johnny.
Okay, so cabinet picks though.
So we've earned it.
We've done, we've done social studies,
we've done it in a lot of ways.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is one of one.
I'm on a backup just a little bit.
Okay.
Because this is actually really fun thing
that we review all the time.
Actually, we just reviewed it last week
in social studies education class.
So in an actual physical real in-person class
where teachers are learning how to teach
social studies to elementary teachers,
we did sort of like this.
So I'm glad we're having this content conversation today.
101, backup.
All right.
Like I love what you said.
We start talking cabinets.
Because immediately I do think about cabinets in my kitchen
and like I think about, you know, cabinets
that you pick out, you design and all that.
And it's not that different
because cabinets serve a function, right?
In our house, like they store things
and they're not necessarily in charge.
But what are the, like let's backup.
What are, what are the cabinets?
Let's talk about what are the branches of government?
We won't go into all of it.
101, cabinets are members of the executive branch
of government, right?
So let's talk the executive branch of government.
How many cabinets are there
in the executive branch of government?
10 or just how many cabinets?
Oh my goodness.
Johnny, you've got me.
Cabinets are coming at members.
Well, cabinet members, not cabinets in their house.
I just like, all the cabinets is, you know,
ones of the cupboard.
No, okay.
What do you think?
I think 16.
I don't know the answer to this one, Johnny Dupinachi.
So okay, so learn me something, man.
They're just as close, right?
So there are 15 executive departments.
So close.
So there are 15 people, right?
Who are essentially appointed,
and this gets to, I think, where Tim was like,
I'm one, oh, I'm like the tutor for 101, right?
I'm like, hold on, hold on.
Some people in the room, including me,
the first time we have this discussion,
might not exactly quite know what a cabinet member is.
Okay.
15 executive departments, right?
That's in the executive branch of government.
Essentially, the head of the executive branch of government
is the president of the United States, right?
So, and they, they're the head, right?
So they're the head of the executive branch of government.
But each, they get to a point, each member
to carry out the day-to-day administration
of the federal government, right?
So there are 15, right in that.
So 15 executive departments.
Should I say what they are?
Should we just get into this?
Okay, so we got 15, but we're saying,
I really like those two, Johnny, the 101 part
that you brought this back to, again,
locating it within that question,
or we say, what are the three branches of government?
It's a classic civics question that,
you know, they'd ask you on the street
and you'd sit there and go, oh, my God, I forgot.
Well, as you said, Johnny, the executive
is one of those branches, the legislative and the judicial.
And now, with a new president in the executive branch,
he now, of course, can't do everything
all by himself in the executive branch.
He needs to now bring on his cabinet,
or they say his advisors that are gonna be there,
15 of them.
And, you know, we're gonna use the department
of education as our illustration on this one
to kind of talk about it.
But, Johnny, the question now, as some of the nominees
that came out last week,
the comments are coming out going, well, my goodness,
do you need to have any qualifications?
I mean, what's the reality of what it takes to be,
and I'm gonna phrase this question,
what does it take to be nominated
to be a cabinet member?
Not what does it take to become a cabinet member,
but what does it take to be nominated
to be a cabinet member?
Do you have to submit your resume
in all of your background tests and things like that?
Well, no, I mean, the answer is be nice, we would like that.
But guess what, the executive, the president,
he gets to pick who he wants to be nominated.
He gets to nominate whoever he wants closest to there.
So you say qualifications,
yeah, they may or may not have them.
Typically, most presidents tend to pick cabinet members
that have some credentials that make us go,
oh, I don't like that person, but that makes sense.
Maybe I know the one right now, we'll just get it out of the way.
Yes, there's a, there's a big concern about math gates.
We're not talking about math gates today right now,
but the question put forward,
president Trump had every right to nominate
Matt Gaetz to be a secretary in his cabinet, okay?
The right.
That's why that was my 101, they're joining.
Well, that's good, that's true.
And it's a kind of important to note that, you know,
in the Constitution, there's really nothing that says a whole lot
about who can and can't be recommended by the president
or one of these executive, you know, branch positions.
So yeah, now the caveat is, so while we're one on one,
though, president and again, remember, it's sort of like the boss.
So the boss says, hey, we can all relate to this on the job.
We're at remember blue collar scholarship here.
The boss says, hey, this guy's working here.
We'd like, I'd like this guy to work here.
Well, like in theory, in the executive branch, right?
And in the three branches of government, Senate has a say.
So the Senate can say absolutely not or they have to say,
yeah, we approve that recommendation from the boss.
And so we can kind of with this, like just background here,
like we know the outcome of the Senate election as well.
And so we can kind of know that, like,
likely people are gonna go along with the boss.
However, in our government,
and we'll talk about this as these appointments come up,
these recommendations, right?
There is a civic duty of all elected representatives
to uphold democracy, to represent the best interest
of not only their constituents,
and likely not supposed to be just who's paying
them big bucks to their election campaign,
but we know about that, how money improves election.
But there is, I will say very little optimism
from me about this past the result to this election.
But I'm always an optimist, right?
And so I hope if we're allowed enough, we organize enough,
and we unify that representatives will represent
their constituency.
So we see some Democrats and Republicans
who say together, we stand for something different
than maybe this appointment.
And I do believe there is gonna be a little less green lighting
than typically a Senate has for a president
under this election.
I mean, I would hope it's hard to trust a criminal.
So there probably are gonna be some Republican folks
in the Senate who may say, you know what,
I'm not a big fan of this.
We don't have sort of a majority approval of this.
We'd like you to go back to the drawing board
and make a different pick.
That generally doesn't happen that often,
but hey, we can be hopeful.
And if there ever was an administration
where it might be likely,
at least from the position of the conversations I'm having
with some of my, I wouldn't call them adversaries,
but political adversaries, my Republican homies, right?
It's hard to put those two words together in a sentence,
but I'm working on it.
I'm working on it because we have to build bridges
and I'm my curiosity after last week was,
how can I be friends?
And how can I really genuinely trust
some of the people I do?
And here's the conflict, I mean, I do.
And I know that they're not hateful people.
And I know that they care for the women in their family
and in their community.
And I know that they're, in many cases,
no, absolutely not racist people,
but yet they support the Trump vote.
And this to me, I could write this off
and I could say, nope, you know,
they're just performing when they're around me,
but there could be all these reasons that still might be true.
But I said to him, I'm going to take the breath
and I'm going to figure it out.
Like I'm going to continue these,
to build these relationships and better understand,
what are the politics of the people supporting this election?
Because I was not only befuddled and disappointed
with this, but I also believe,
so now turning to some of those conversations
that some of our elected representatives
will do better by democracy
than maybe the head of the whole show,
which is a dangerous place to be in as a country.
But let's see where we end up.
So Tim, that's it.
So the Senate, I just want to say,
okay, it's not a green light completely
for the president to say,
I get to pick all the people who are in the cabinet.
They get to recommend.
There you go, right?
And then, but we know that recommendation generally comes
with, you know, some,
there's, there's a kind of like going like, look,
we got, we got, we got to give him what he wants, right?
But, you know, and just puts in the question there
if somebody can look up the answer to that
because I'm not exactly sure,
but Johnny points out the 101
that yes, presidents nominate their cabinet members
and then Senate confirms the cabinet members,
which then Johnny says Senate
being part of the legislative branch
is then supposedly speaking the voice of the people.
So the people, if we have a problem
with one of the nominees,
we should talk to our senators
and tell our senators to support either our dismay
at the nomination and or the support.
That's the democracy happening that right there.
That's the republic form of government.
That's how it works.
And so the nomination though is yes,
the president can nominate whoever he wants.
The Senate though has to confirm those nominations
so that they can become the secretary of blank.
Whatever name it is, 15 different cabinet members
there as Johnny pointed out.
So the confirmation process is going to go forward.
And people say most of the time,
yes, the Senate will typically do
what they will green light who the president wants.
The question now though is will there be resistance truly?
Will there be resistance truly?
Will the Senate put up any resistance
to any of these nominees?
Well, I don't know if the Senate will,
but maybe we can point out
Jess and Johnny a little bit of the process
because there's a lot going on.
One of those cabinet positions
is the secretary of education.
Now, President Trump has campaigned
on getting rid of the department of education.
And I mean, he's looking on,
but until they do that,
now he will need 60 votes in the Senate
to actually get rid of the department of education
in the Senate to get rid of the department.
So the reality is that that's not going to happen right away.
So there is going to be a department of education off the bat.
And so who's going to be the secretary?
A quick reminder of a traumatic nightmare
that happened back in 2016
when Betsy DeVos,
the wife of a billionaire was made nominated
and confirmed that she would be the secretary of education.
And again, talk about no qualifications.
There were none there.
And yet that person became that.
So the qualifications.
I think though there's speculation
on what's going on in education.
And I'm pretty sure that I want to put this out there.
In fact, remind people again, too.
What do you think's going to be the secretary of education nominee?
It's 608-557-8577.
608-557-8577.
If you have,
you know what, putting your vote for who you think will be nominated,
we're going to talk about one
because I am putting this out there
for the Busted Pencil listener.
I am saying that before Friday of this week,
there will be a nominee.
And I am saying it is going to be
the state superintendent from Oklahoma, Ryan Walters.
Ryan Walters will be the nominee of President Trump.
Now, what will he be doing?
Will he be tasked with tearing down the Department of Education?
I don't know, but that is what I'm putting
my Busted Pencil's prediction.
Is it before this week ends
that Ryan Walters, the state superintendent
of public instruction of the state of Oklahoma
is going to be the secretary of education nominee.
You heard it here first.
There it is.
Okay, reactions, thoughts.
What do we know?
Is this a person who let's start with this first thing?
If you're listening to this and you hear this,
Johnny and Jess, Jess, you hear this, right?
What's your first thought when you hear Ryan Walters?
Bibles in the classroom.
Bibles in the classroom.
This is one screaming that we can say
like this is not only an effort to ensure privatizing
more privatization, right?
The antithesis of what Jonathan Gerkow,
one of our guests who regularly talks about publicization.
This will be the movement and the opposite direction.
So the boss was for sure privatization candidate.
And maybe Loki, you know, a, you know,
a tinge of Christian nationalism.
But just a tinge.
I said, you know, I say just a tinge.
This one is like insurance of continued privatization
and like not a tinge, like a full dose
of Christian nationalism, public education,
no separation of merchant state in terms of
it's Christian nationalism.
It's neoconservatism at its finest, you know, deregulate
and strict regulations around religious beliefs
instilled in those classrooms and taught
via public education.
Which mind you, Jess, let me answer to it,
is one of the stalwarts of the founding of this country
is separation of church and state.
So these are true constitutional folks.
You're going against one of the,
the premiere features of the constitution
and the whole reason we had, you know,
the Revolutionary War in the United States
and over through the King of England
was based on yes taxation and unfair taxation,
but also because of a, of a desire for religious freedoms.
Yeah. So think about that, though.
Okay. So you guys are jumping a little bit ahead, though,
too. You're saying what are going to be the ramifications
or the results of this person?
I want to ask the first question here is,
does he meet the, is he qualified?
Is Ryan Walters qualified to be nominated?
Now, but I said, Jess, go on.
Well, I mean, you just told us Tim that the only qualification
that you need in order to be nominated
is for the president elect or president to tap you
to say, this is the person who I am nominating.
All you need is to be on good enough terms
and to have a high enough regard in that person's eyes
for the president or president elect to say,
this is my nominee.
That is the only requirement that you need.
So yeah, I guess sure.
Yes. Okay.
But see, I think this one,
and this is why I think president elect Trump
is going to do this because I see Ryan Walters as qualified
because this is a past history teacher.
I'm pretty sure he's won awards
for being a great history teacher.
He's come up through the ranks.
He's got that it's like, what does he know about education?
He was a principal,
and then he was the state superintendent of Oklahoma.
He's got the cred, the credentials of being
a secretary of education.
And if president Trump wants to avoid the,
this person isn't qualified,
well, he doesn't have to deal with that with Ryan Walters
because Ryan Walters actually mates
the qualification step public school teacher,
award-winning teacher, administrator,
and now an elected official in the state of Oklahoma
who has been charged with overseeing the public education
in the state of Oklahoma.
The question now is,
what's he been doing in Oklahoma
and what you guys are kind of putting forward there is
is that man, he's been putting out a lot of interesting,
I guess policies, things that he wants to do,
let's just be honest, he's been auditioning
to be the secretary of education under president Trump
for years.
This man is just that, right?
Okay, in fact, let's get to it right away
on Friday last week.
He released what I'm calling his
prime time audition video tape on YouTube
that was out to the world.
Just I think we have that audio, don't we?
We do.
I do want to put just a light disclaimer on it,
just listening to it.
It really does show the dangers of recording
in both a physical and metaphoric echo chamber.
So please don't blame me for that audio.
This is what I got.
All right, let's listen.
We are excited to announce a new office
in the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
That will be the office of our legislative liberty
and patriotism.
For too long in this country,
we've seen the radical left attack
individuals' religious liberty in our schools.
We will not tolerate that in Oklahoma.
Your religious liberties will be protected.
We've also seen patriotism mocked
and hatred for this country pushed
by woke teachers' unions.
We will not tolerate that in any school in Oklahoma.
We want our students to be patriotic.
We want our students to love this country.
And we want all students' religious liberty
to be protected.
I will now say a prayer.
And to be clear students, you don't have to join.
But if you so wish, I'm going to go ahead and pray.
Dear God, thank you for all the blessings
you've given our country.
I pray for our leaders to make the right decisions.
I pray in particular for President Donald Trump
and his team as they continue to bring about change
to the country.
I pray for our parents, teachers, and kids
that they get the best education possible
and live high quality lives.
I also pray that we continue to teach love of country
to our young people and that our students understand what
makes America great and that they
continue to love this country.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
There it is.
That's the part, the state superintendent
of the state of Oklahoma, Ryan Walters,
last Friday putting this forward policy,
announcing the office of religious liberties
in the state of Oklahoma.
And then we didn't have to join him if we didn't want to,
but then given us the ability to pray with him,
all right, was he auditioning Johnny Lupinacci
to be the Secretary of Education first question
and second question, what do you think about what he's
talking about?
Well, Tim, I mean, yes, he's not just auditioning.
He's given the general public kind of a sense.
These are like announcements of how he will be
as Secretary of Education.
So there's not much of a need for audition here,
but I would say more positioning.
More positioning and folks who pay attention
to superintendents of states and different state policies
because remember, education is a state right.
We've been paying close attention to this guy
for a little while now for this very reason.
But this is more of a coming out to the nation
like, hey, get ready because this is what I'm all about, right?
And fundamentally, I want to say like Tim, I hear that
and I'm not opposed to, hey, great,
you want to pray for the well-being of our country
and our leaders, that you're religious right too.
You're liberty, right?
So it sounds fine.
And this is a lot like what I mean when it come out.
But also remembering that we have a really strict commitment
and belief that is not relegated to one political party,
that there is a separation of church and state.
And I always get into that a little bit around like,
well, you can't fully, you know,
our religious beliefs are part of our cultural identities
and cultural identities are part of also what we bring
into our classrooms and schools.
But in a democracy and in a nation
with a separation of church and state,
you hold space for multiple different,
like for different religious beliefs.
We value religious freedom.
That's the liberty piece, right?
So you can't say life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness and be like,
well, only my liberty for my beliefs
and what I like, my own freedoms,
not other people's freedoms.
We know this is a confusion of the Trump administration, right?
It is not one of liberty for all, liberty for me.
And so I, I mean, what I'm hearing is,
you know, what I said at the beginning,
we can expect more privatization, of course.
That's stalwart of, you know,
all Republican administrations
and even some, there's some degree
the Democrats have been to privatizing
of our education system.
So more of that and actually the largest dose
we've probably had in my lifetime, right?
And it may be more of, you know,
a lack of religious freedom or, you know,
or disregard for the valuing of religious freedoms
and the devaluing of liberties.
This is a Christian nationalism movement here, Johnny.
You called it out earlier and this was the way I see it.
And so going back to then the nomination,
if President Trump makes this nomination of Ryan Walters,
then he will have to go through the process
of having the Senate confirm him
to become the Secretary of Education.
I wanted to position this one because we've said,
you know, well, what happens if you're not qualified?
I think Ryan Walters makes this a very challenging type
of way if we want to criticize
because the qualifications, yes, he's been a public school teacher,
he's been an award winning teacher,
he's been an administrator
and he has been running the state of Oklahoma's
public education system.
No senator is going to find any ability
to attack his quote qualifications,
but can they bring forth a potential conflict
of saying your job in enforcing public education at the state?
You can't do what you did in Oklahoma,
which was to say that you're going to create.
And again, I think in office of religious liberties, come on.
Let's be honest.
What you're saying is that you're trying to re-embed
religion back in the public schools.
It's not about upholding the right of all kids
to practice a religion that they want,
a religion of their choice,
that this is really bringing religion back in.
And it's a form of some form of more of a Christian nationalism
approach.
And then wrapping it together, the Christian nationalists,
because if you said also,
we're going to reestablish the teaching of patriotism
and love of our country,
because left-wing loonies have been teaching kids
to hate our country.
And also embedded in that is some form of hate
God and to hate religion.
So I think this coming forward is going to be,
well, first of all, it has to come true.
And Trump has to be listening to busted pencils,
which we know he does.
And he recognizes that Tim just gave him
a pretty good nomination pick right there, right?
Walter's just, anybody watching the video is like,
oh, my God, Jess is about ready to fall over on her chair
and smack Tim if she could.
Jess is about ready to find some way
to reach through to Ohio and go bam.
But I see this is going to happen.
And it'll be interesting when it does
to say what will be the confirmation process.
Let's watch this.
But Johnny, Jess, man, I tell you what,
classes and sessions, civics 101, great lesson.
Yeah, good lesson all the way around.
And great for listeners to hear kind of the little things
we pay attention to closely, not only
at social studies educators, but as people
who understand the political ramifications
of the decisions made by the executive branch
of public education, because it does matter.
And both of us, Tim, kind of have
a little side eye on our cameras when we are.
We're going to shut down the department of education.
And so we're like, is that what you are appointing Ryan
all this to do?
Right.
It shouldn't have been so interesting to watch,
or was that just put that in the category of hot air
with the other, hateful hot air statements said?
Remember, if you want to make a comment
or you want to join the conversation,
you have a question for us.
Or maybe you have a possible suggestion
for a civics 101 lesson.
Call us at 608-557-8577, right?
You can call and leave us a message.
And we'll get to that.
The number, again, folks, 608-557-8577.
Leave us a message.
We'll get to it.
This is Busted Pencils, fully-led at Education Talk.
Tim, Johnny, Jess, love breaking it down.
Class was in session.
Woof.
Yeah, it was.
And now, for your moment of zin.
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history,
not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice,
courage, and kindness.
Thanks, everybody, for listening to Busted Pencils classes
in session.
Stay tuned for the Friday Drop Friday Night Lights.
Yeah, you know, first downs in Friday nights
will be doing that.
And again, too, hoping everybody's staying around for Saturday
that drop on Civic Media, the Civic Media Apple,
full hour of Busted Pencils every Saturday.
Man, and everybody who put it out there,
keep Busted Pencils.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Still stop talking to me.