Man, that's an aggressive Monday home room. Wake up, everybody. It's busted pencils fully
let it education talk educated educators talking education. Yeah, rise and shine get that coffee.
And like I said, if you're downloading it at any time, have another cup of coffee, why not?
You know, always makes the day better when you can enjoy coffee and busted pencils. Dr. Johnny
Lupinati, Jacob chairman of the board, me, Dr. Tim Slecker. We are here and fellas, I want to jump
right into it because low and behold, the first amendment still applies to teachers,
at least according to a judge. And in fact, maybe instead of what the Trump administration
typically does, they are admitting that they're going to back off of this one. If I came out of
Los Angeles Times Trump administration drops their appeal over anti-DEE funding, DEI funding
threat to schools and colleges. And the summary here is that they're not allowed to go forward.
And in fact, a federal judge has said that this is creating a fear amongst teachers
infringing on their first amendment rights. And so, Johnny, this Monday morning home room,
is this mean teachers are free to get back to DEI?
I mean, yeah, Tim, I don't know why, or if I mean, I get the scare, I get the chilling effect.
Don't do DEI, it's bad, but I don't think Brian large teachers ever bought into the whole
that equity, inclusion, and valuing diversity weren't part of being a teacher. I mean, I've yet
to meet teachers, even that identify as Republican or conservative that say, you know what,
my goal and my job as a public school teacher is to not include kids, you know, to not be
equitable in the classroom and certainly not to teach about differences. I have yet to meet
that teacher out there. This is another case of, you know, political banter aimed at schools
and aimed at classrooms that has had an effect. I'm not saying it's, you know, it's nothing to
talk about here or to be concerned about. But, you know, the chilling effect of the political
dragging of teachers and students and schools into that arena, you know, it works to get people
thinking, wait, should I teach this? Should I not teach this? But by and large, no teacher changed
what they were doing. No principal said, you know, what we're not going to include kids
in our school. And we're certainly not going to include different kids in our school. So,
I think, you know, this is one step forward in terms of, hey, take this out of our classrooms
and out of our schools. And you guys want to, you know, have political discussions about what this
country should be about. You know, that's your agenda. But schools across this country, you know,
leave them sort of it. Don't make our classrooms the battleground for your political banter.
Well, in case anybody wonders, this is really referring to the, if everybody remembers,
the dear colleague memo, this one more specifically dealt with higher education. And then also,
quote, federal guidance that was sent out the K 12 schools that really ended up instead of
being guidance, it was a threat that, hey, if you're doing anything DEI, you're going to lose
federal money. And what happened was both of those documents were struck down as unenforceable.
And again, a potential that, you know, this is a first amendment issue. And democracy forward,
they were the ones who brought the suit. And their quote is today's dismissal confirms
what the data shows. Government attorneys are having an increasingly, increasingly difficult
time defending the lawlessness of the president and his cabinet. That may be a little, I don't
know, is it lawlessness or was it just pushing and pushing and pushing to see how much they could
get? Jacob, I know you're celebrating on this Monday morning, knowing that teachers now have
first amendment rights applied back to them. I'm very excited to hear that Tim because you guys,
Tim, Johnny, you have not been free to speak your minds about things on the show lately.
I know. So I'm glad to hear you're unshackled from the hostile tyrannical government apparatus.
But my question for you, Tim, is when it comes to the first amendment in the context of being a
teacher, what are we really talking about? Where are the lines for teachers to express themselves,
not just as people who are teachers, but in the classroom, specifically, what's going on there?
Oh, my God. Jacob, you brought it up. Yes, you took the bait because I, yeah, you know,
it's this woo. Man, teachers get to say what you want, Johnny. We've had many shows about,
hey, getting to say what you want, freedom of speech. It's not that simple. In fact,
we would always point out that teachers, it is not a political soap box, a fashion soap box,
a, you know, there's a curriculum and you are bound to teach by the curriculum. What's really
happening here, though, was is that diversity, equity, and inclusion, which was part of
curriculum across the country. This really, this memo and this federal guidance really created a
sense of, wow, we're not even allowed to teach what's in the curriculum. And here, no, diversity,
equity and inclusion is not, at least according to this judge, a violation of civil rights.
Because remember, this is where the Trump administration has been really pushing this,
is that practicing DEI is in, in fact, a form of discrimination because it signals out racial
identities and ethnic groups to the point that they were saying that, well, that's a violation
of civil rights. You're not allowed to do that. Here, it looks like potentially there's the sense
of saying, hmm, we're not really going to go after this right now because we got a big old ice
sheet called Greenland that really matters right now. And teachers talking about DEI,
and this is what I'm thinking, though, Johnny, it worked, though, because you're one, I don't feel
that I think it worked in silence. A lot of teachers and frightened a lot of administrators
and put a lot of colleges in a sense of saying, we're going to pull back on this. And okay, great.
Now this judge ruled, but actually there, this administration is getting the outcome
regardless of the fact that a judge ruled that this, that their appeal can't go forward.
And the administration and the Department of Education is saying, okay, fine, we're out of this.
They don't need to win because they won. And I was wondering, Johnny, if you were kind of saying,
I don't think anything ever really stopped anyway.
Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, I think for teachers, I think for teachers that there wasn't, you know,
I'm saying there wasn't a pause. I mean, I'm glad they're sorting this out in terms of, you know,
what freedom of speech means, you know, but, but to claim that de-practicing,
valuing diversity, you know, being equitable in your classroom and being inclusive in your
schools and classrooms was in any way discrimination or, you know, practicing prejudice is absolute
insanity. It's a dog whistle to rile up the conservative, you know, MAGA crew to be like, yeah,
bad things are happening in schools. We have things that teachers and schools are really working
on. And this took a lot of energy and took a lot, put a lot of stress on schools because they say,
wait, this is America, this is a democracy, this is a place where we, you know, uphold children's
rights and believe firmly that every kid deserves an equality education. Not some kids, every kid,
right? And so, you know, I think schools by and large did that do that and continue to do that,
but the stress of will there be some kind of rule or enforcement that changes how we
include children in the schools or some way dictates what we teach and how we teach.
And I think, you know, that that has had a chilling effect on schools and teachers in terms
of putting stress on them, but, you know, Tim, I'm glad to see that, you know, in fact, that that
memo that was sent out, the dear colleague letter, you know, is being further clarified in courts
say, hold on, you can't just say, that's the, you can't do that. These are core democratic practices.
Again, like diversity, valuing difference, isn't something that was invented by or belongs to
liberals or as an opposition to what, you know, Republican families want by and large. And if it is,
then we have to have a bigger conversation about, you know, what are this, this country's values?
And that shouldn't take place in our classrooms, you know, so it's again, you know, I get frustrated
because, you know, political leaders are dragging their particular battles into our classrooms
and children are in the crossfire of that and teachers are stressed out by it. So, you know,
I think this is good to hear some clarification that say, you know, you absolutely should be
including children. You actually should be equitable about how you approach teaching
all children. And, you know, what difference is, you know, diversity have said it over and over.
Diversity is a condition of difference upon which everything exists. So for any teacher to not
be valuing difference would be absolutely preposterous, you know, and that is not what people who
cry the D.I. is, you know, as a bad thing mantra, you know, that's not what they're addressing,
but that's like absolutely what they're, you know, attacking, you know, they are pushing a
particular political agenda. And I'm glad to hear that teachers can breathe a little bit and
continue to be great teachers because that's what every kid in this country deserves. And you need
to keep, we all need to keep doing that. Here's what I heard this judge saying, I'm sorry,
but I watched schoolhouse rock growing up and never once did it say a memo is the way or a
dear colleague, I did it was a, I'm just a dear colleague letter. No, that's not, you can't create
law by writing a dear letter. So with that, now it's time for your moment of sin.
But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is to tell the truth.
Thanks for listening to Busted Pencil's home room podcast today. And remember to grab other great
podcasts filled with more Busted Pencil's content on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and of course,
on the civic media website. Hey, and don't miss this week's class and session on Wednesday and
find our special drop of Jacob's producers choice on Friday. And of course, pencil busters,
you can catch the Busted Pencil's broadcast on Saturdays at 3 p.m. central time across all
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Jim and Johnny, and keep Busted Pencil's.