It's jarring. Man, well, you know, it's jarring. It's busted pencils fully. Let it education
tuck, educated educators tucking education, home room. Man, I cannot believe we are back in
home room again. Who you say? Who is we? We is Johnny Lupinacci, the doctor, chairman of
the board, Jacob, and me, the other doctor, Tim Slecker. And no, we cannot write you a prescription.
We're not those kinds of doctors. I'm out of here.
Jacob, you were looking like you needed a prescription on this home room morning there.
I, you know, I can give you some advice. Oh, great. Yeah, that's what I was looking for,
doctor advice. It's Monday morning. I thought you were doctor feel good. This is all thrown
apart. But oh, please, give me some sage advice. Motley crew, doctor feel good. I remember that.
You're not talking about, you know, the doctor feel good they were talking about was not
the doctor feel good for long term feeling good. I'm talking about a very reputable guy that
helped president, Kennedy get through some hard days. And if Jay of case, dude, it must be good.
I mean, that guy had a good head on his shoulders. All right. And we are going for it. Hey,
love this. And, you know, again, like home room because it's, you know, kind of random education
things that we're talking about just to get the week going. And I saw this and I was like, oh,
that's interesting. I'm higher ed dive Taco Bell Taco Bell. Yes. That stuff that you get and go,
wow. Did I really just eat that? Yeah. Check it out though. They have education benefits.
And that is driving retention. In other words, working at Taco Bell people tend to stay working
at Taco Bell longer because Taco Bell offers education benefits. What are education benefits?
No, not education on how to make things that might not look like food appear like something you
could eat that not that kind of education. They actually get money to go to college to get
advanced degrees. And a lot of people I've heard this. It's like, well, if you incentivize employees
to get an education, they'll just leave. And that's not what's happening at Taco Bell. Actually,
there are more people who take advantage of that education benefit and then come back and
stay at Taco Bell. And I would say Taco Bell is not alone. Walmart has had a very successful
education benefits program. So that's where we're at. Well, that's where I wanted to bring this up
and go, you know, so why aren't more places doing that if it's that good for retention? That's my
question on this home room morning. Johnny Jacob. Well, I don't know that I have an answer,
but I do have a follow up question. Why you hate Taco Bell so much, bro? Actually, I don't. I
you wouldn't know that if you were just listening. Listen to you. He's like, the stuff that might
not be food looks like food. I mean, the bean burrito. One of my oh, classic love that.
Love it. You know, and anyway, no, but education benefits. I think it's a great thing, Tim,
you know, like anytime any institution invests it invests in its people. This isn't a hard
equation. Like you laid it out, you know, you feel valued by your employer. You have a
clear pathway to your own improvement. You're in betterment. You're, you know, the skills you
not only could offer that that company that you work for, but also we've we've seen lots of
research on this, you know, states investing in their state employees, you know, getting
decreased to avoid brain drain, right, which is moving to other states, you know, like really
investing in your people, when you invest in your team, whatever it is, you tend to get really
great long term results. So it's great when I think it's great when we see these kinds of
programs. Another one, just a throw shot out there of many, I've had many students, especially
graduate students in the last decade, who got their bachelor's degree through Arizona State
Partnership and Starbucks. Many of my, you know, baristas, I think that's that's gender neutral
term. I need to check on that because it's, you know, ends in an A, could be like a, like,
maybe there's a, I don't know, there's people who serve coffees and those fancy drinks at Starbucks,
you know, also have a benefits package. That's how I always like to talk about it too. You know,
not like anyone's taking advantage of it. You know, you know, but they're they're exercising,
you know, a part of their employment benefit package. You know, I love that. Like a company
says, we invest in you and the hard labor you put in there, usually for, you know, a slightly
lower pay than might be desirable. So I don't know about if that's exactly the best thing,
but saying, hey, one of the things we provide for employees is an opportunity to further their
education, right, and have these partnerships by and large. I've seen do some pretty great things.
Some of my most accomplished students, right, have worked to their way through GED and into, you know,
associates and bachelor's degrees. And I've even heard stories of advanced graduate program
degrees where companies say, hey, you know, you're a really great computer programmer. Take it to
the next level further your education. In fact, we'll invest in that. And sometimes there's usually
a little bit of an expectation that like there's a return on that investment. Maybe it's a certain
number of years or whatnot. But even when there isn't that, we tend to see that people stick around.
And it's not, it's not hard to believe, Tim, right? Like you're valued and people believe in you
and you're fulfilled and you're, you know, better at what you do and they value you for that. Wow.
I've seen like that sounds like a pretty awesome place to stay working. And I don't know what it's
like to work at Taco Bell. So this is an endorsement for that. But Tim, I loved this program you shared.
I especially love the name goes intuition. I love that. I was just thinking like Jacob, you got
that look. I mean, Jacob, you're like, wait, man, tacos and tuition. That's a good deal. And
I think like 599, right? That's the number seven tacos and tuition. So you get a degree, you get a
case of loopa. It works out pretty well for everybody. I think that's great to him having a program
like that for Taco Bell. It's cool. I mean, like Johnny said, you've seen other places have similar
things like Starbucks and why not? I mean, if Shipper does it, I love Chipper. And I'm feeling
shipper now that we're talking about nice things happening in the world instead of, you know,
back on Saturday, we're talking about all the challenges in the world. It's cool. It's good to see.
But I see it. And then this here, I would, you know, hear higher education. Yeah, coming off the
Saturday show, if you listen to this, here's an opportunity, right? Local industries, Taco Bell,
you have them around, you know, is this a potential for a higher ed institution to be in partnership
with Taco Bell to say, you know, hey, we've got business degrees. We've got hospitality degrees.
You know, if you're giving tuition to your workers, well, we've got programs here that would benefit,
you know, them. And see, this is where you say, it's like, wait, if we were collaboratively
working together, you know, communities, industries, higher education, man, there's a lot that
can be done. So yeah, I know I was making fun of Taco Bell when actually, I've spent a lot of
time hitting the Taco Bell drive through when, you know, sometimes we're just, because it tastes so
good. I love that. But now the fact too, and now I'm even a little bit more encouraged because
I want to go to Taco Bell and support them even more because of the incredible work they're doing
with their employees and putting this forward. Yeah, Johnny, you mentioned Starbucks, Chipotle,
Walmart, you know, they're out there. And boy, think about that, you know, if you're,
you know, looking for that connection, because I will say one of the other criticisms, you know,
for higher ed institutions is, is that they isolate themselves that, you know, they're kind of
beacon on a hill. Well, you know what, get out of the hill, go down, get yourself, you know,
beam burrito and a chalupa. And I'll make a connection there and create a partnership because,
you know what, when it comes to education, hey, if somebody's putting forward the idea that they
support education, then if we're higher, if we're an education institution, that could be
trade school, that could be anything. Man, let's work together because you know what, more
education for more of our citizens, that just makes for a better place to live in America.
And now it's time for your moment of zin.
There's no such thing as a pure fact, innocent of interpretation behind every fact presented
to the world by a teacher, a writer, anyone is a judgment. The judgment that has been made
is that this fact is important and that other facts omitted. They're not important.
Hey, busted pencils listeners, you're important. And thank you for listening to today's home
role podcast. And remember, grab other great podcasts filled with more busted pencils content,
an apple podcast, Spotify, and of course, on the civic media website or at busted pencils.com.
And don't you miss this week's class and session on Wednesday and you find that special drop of
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Central time across all the civic media network stations for one hour of your favorite blue
colors, colors, timid Johnny and keep busted pencils.