Oh man, no matter where you are, it's chilly. Well, not time to eat chilly, but it's cold outside.
I don't worry. Busted pencils here. We're here to warm you inside, warm your hearts, you know,
throw a log on the fire if you want. Give us a call. Jacob is more than happy to bring a
cord of wood. Jacob, you said you were delivering cords of wood now as a side hustle.
Tim, it's called the gig economy and it's huge right now and I've been delivering wood to people
for their fireplaces out in the, the brutal cold. So you can count on me. If you've got questions
about education or you need wood delivered, call producer Jacob.
Producer, you know, man, speaking of it though, hey, it's busted pencils. We said that it is
Dr. Timselecker, Dr. Johnny Lupinachi and yes, wood deliverer gig economy, Jacob, producer
and wow, speaking of that, Jacob, it's your day today. You get to take over and invite
Johnny and I on our own show because it is producer weird. Jacob, take it away.
Choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo,
cheer it on the board, Jacob. I'm very excited. Guys, this is going to be a good one. It's going to
be an all-timer. So, you know what, I'm not even going to add any more ado. I think we've had
enough ado. Let's just get into the show for Choo. Just go. Producer, a Jacob's choice,
cheer it on the board. You and I will have two choices. Chairman of the board, Jacob.
Oh, Jacob's chairman of the board. I've got the board. It's spelled B-O-R-E-D.
We choose to go to the board. Life's full of tough choices in here.
Choo's warning. Welcome to the final producer's choice show of the month of January.
I'm your host, producer Jacob and today we're going to look back on the first month of this year
and see what trends we've noticed developing in the world of education. I have with me a handy
dandy list of four legal and policy trends to watch out for in 2026, provided by our friends
at K-12 dive. And I'm going to be revealing it with two education policy wonks. My guest,
Dr. Tim Slecker and Johnny Lupinachi Fellas. Thanks for coming on your own show.
Not only happy to be here. Yeah, we love it, man.
So let's kick things off by looking at the first anticipated trend in seeing if we've noticed
it develop in the month of January, trying to number one, uncertainty around federal support.
Here's a quote from K-12 dive. Tim, don't laugh. All right, but there's, we may or may not have
seen this develop. So we'll have to wait. Here's a quote from K-12 dive. The Trump administration's
push to return education to the state's quote unquote means that superintendents can expect less
federal support and more change in 2026. This ranges from less help with administering the national
assessment of education progress and managing federally funded programs to unpredictability around
the availability of federal funds and the makeup of the US Department of Education. Education policy
experts have said, I'm going to start with you, Mr. laughs a lot, Dr. Tim Slecker. Have you noticed
this happening in January of 2026? Uncertainty, confusion. No, oh my, Jacob, that one, just look,
listen, special education, special education funding, is the Department of Education still the
Department of Education, a dear colleague letter. Oh, maybe not a dear colleague letter.
How do we enforce dear colleague letters? Wow. Yeah, think, my question on this one is,
will the trend continue or potentially will school leaders say enoughs enough? I mean,
at some point, the business of, let's just take a superintendent of a suburban school district
outside of a thriving metropolis. And at what point are they going to say, I got work to do,
like like real work, like I've got families, I've got kids that need things, I've got teachers,
I've got principals. That maybe is, you know, a way that I would like to see going into February.
What point are school leaders going to say that this chaos is not manageable, but even more
importantly, this chaos has been directed intentionally. And at this point, you know, pull back,
lay off the chaos, and let us get back to the work of educating students, providing opportunities.
And my Johnny's going to get already say he's like Tim, he's saying, hey, that's wishful thinking,
dude. Well, yeah, same question for you, Johnny, have you noticed the uncertainty over federal support?
And what do you think about Tim's statement that he thinks school leaders need to step up? What can
they do if they should be doing something? Yeah, Jacob, I think, yeah, look, much more of what Tim
has said here, it's been clear, there's not a clear message, you know, as the Department of Education
dismantled, is it exist? What does its responsibilities, where do, you know, where their responsibilities go,
if it goes away, or it changes, what is the specific funding decisions, et cetera, et cetera.
I think Tim hits the nail on the head, you know, it's chaotic by design at this point.
You know, it's intentional, you know, to sort of as a form of deregulation of something that I
think should be, you know, pretty strong in any democracy is, you know, some common access to a
shared quality education, and that responsibility that's falling on governments.
So to make, you know, the government seemed like, ah, this is happening, that's happening,
it's really nilly, you know, it should just be privatized, seems the little too convenient for me.
And I'm similar, I have a similar sentiment as Tim. I think when things are like that, you just
set the compass and you go. So I'm looking for, you know, the trend to be, you know, decentralized
leadership, superintendent, school principal. So like Tim said, leaders just saying, okay,
enough's enough, you know, decentralized local control, you know, if you can't make sense of
what's above, then you just have to be active, you know, I don't necessarily mean like work
outside of the chain of command, because there is that in terms of, you know, education is a state
right. We have our office, office of superintendencies, state by state, and we certainly have a
relationship between states and the federal government, but we're not so sure what that federal
relationship looks like. So decentralized leadership step up, say, hey, okay, we don't know necessarily
what to expect from a federal level. So let's figure out what we do know, and we do know our states,
we do know our local school districts. And, and, and I think that's the trend. To me, that's the
optimism too, is I'm a big fan of decentralized, you know, decision making. So schools, you know,
school district states, this is your time to shine. We'll see what the federal government does,
but I mean, they're pretty busy right now doing a whole lot of things that we may or may not agree
with. But what we do know about it when it comes to education is that they haven't had a clear
message on certainty is something we continue to notice. And hopefully enough, like Tim said,
where school leaders locally, right, say enough's enough. We know what is best for kids. We'll figure
it out. Maybe just leave us alone and let us do our thing. I like that message for local activism
or local responsibility or taking control of a situation because you might look at a situation
or a problem that's impacting your community and say, well, this is mostly federal. This is
mostly, you know, the feds could fix this if they wanted to. But let's say 40% of it is in our
control. Are we going to do half of that 40% or are we going to make sure we do our whole 40%
of responsibility and do everything we can do here? I think that's a helpful place to be because
people get so hopeless thinking, ah, there's just nothing we can do here. Well, try to focus on
the things you can do, advocate for what you can't, but make it work. Johnny, I'm with you there.
I'm going to keep it with you for the second trend of 2026. A bigger religious footprint in public
education, quote, from K 12 dive recent years have seen a surge in first amendment lawsuits
related to the religious rights of parents and teachers, especially spurred on by the parental
choice movement, circling around these issues like curriculum and LGBTQ plus culture in schools.
Johnny, have you been seeing that so far in January of this year?
Um, you know, actually Jacob, I want to say like that it's, it's present, but it doesn't seem
to be any more increased than it's been for the last two years, I would say. And what I would
say, and I'm referring to, I think there's, you know, I don't think I've noticed a large rise
in not a populist movement, but more of a rise of Christian nationalism in terms of its
like, like, like, activity and policy. And one of those areas is, you know, to be very loud and
vocal on school boards in particular with with charter schools, right? And so, you know, with the
with that trend already happening in our country, I see it continued. I don't want to say it's
less present in January. There's again a lot going on. Yeah, but it, but it certainly has, you
know, I think lived up to the, you know, the, the momentum it had been building and it's present
and it's part of it. And, and I emphasize this, I think it's a minority voice that's gotten
pretty loud and emboldened. And in particular, with relationship to pushing boundaries of free
speech and, you know, this like parental rights discourse, which sounds about, right? Like parents
should have rights and they do. But the parental rights discourse is a little bit of overreach
that I'd say is continued trend into January, you know, through January 2026, with this idea that
like, because I'm a parent, I know best. There are certainly certain things that parents have rights
to and they know about, especially with regards to the needs of their children and to those things.
But there are then also experts in our districts, in our states and in our country, who speak on
behalf of say, child childhood development, pediatricians, school counselors, nurses, right? Curriculum
experts. I mean, I say this all the time, Jacob, like, you know, I, I know a little bit about cars.
I drive one. I have one. I got a couple in my family. I've had a handful of them over the years.
Right? But I don't go into my mechanics, you know, like, like shop and say, you know what,
I think you're doing the saw wrong, buddy. Like I've watched a YouTube video on how to fix and I know
this is through and all areas of work right now. People are feeling rather emboldened and expert
like because of, you know, maybe some information AI told it online about like, here's how you fix a
broken axle. But I think, you know, we have to return to trust and understand like that my mechanic
is an expert on things related to my, my, my vehicles. And so I trust that to go to that expert.
So I think the distrust and expertise across the board in our country is at an all time high.
And I would advocate that like, hey, if we want to address that trend, let's recognize
that people in our schools are experts, the teachers that teach our children, the principals
that lead those schools, the counselors that are working on great programs to support children
and the childhood development, the pediatricians in our community who are making sure not only kids
but our community stays healthy, that we trust their expertise, not blindly, right? That's the whole
thing about like democracy and, you know, having science and scientific consensus. But the idea is
like we establish a sense of trust in a democracy. We let experts be experts. So Jacob, that's my
long version of I see the trend continued. I don't see it's particularly spiking right now.
But again, all of us are pretty distracted in January while a lot of things happen. And whether
it's the weather or, you know, it's the political unrest of our country, you know, there's a lot of
things that are a bit louder than some of these trends right now. So I'll say it's a continued
momentum. So according to Johnny, he sees it happening. This prediction is for 2026 overall. So
we've got 11 more months to see if this turns into a bigger thing that it has been so far. I'm
wondering, Tim, how about you? What are you seeing in January? Has the religious aspect creeping
into public education hit a bullying point yet? Or are we going to have to wait a bit more?
You know, I don't think it has chilled or calmed down in one bit. I think the reality is,
is what Johnny just said, is that the news that is, you know, being covered that's in front of us
has, you know, taken kind of priority in front and center. And so it might potentially,
no, I think it really is, gives the appearance as if the push for, you know, religion,
particularly Christian and Jewish-based sentiments are still hardcore and really pushing
forward. We're just not seeing it in the news. Typically, we'll point out, though, that in fact,
you know, to understand the seriousness with people who want this, recall in 2024,
in Texas, there was a reading curriculum that was approved that focused on, it was a
curriculum called the blue bonnet curriculum, which has lots of readings from the Bible,
and a lot of those readings were not necessarily literature as much as they were much more
in the indoctrinating stance. And at the time that passed, the position of Texas was,
hey, what are you all getting worked up about? You don't have to use it, you can adopt it,
you can reject it, or you can adapt it in any way that you want. Guess what? In 2026,
now in Texas, most school districts opted for not adapting, adopting, or anything, and in fact,
rejecting it, and you know what? Here goes back to Johnny. Those people in schools don't know what
they're doing, because the legislature now in Texas is saying, guess what? The blue bonnet
curriculum is not for you to decide you silly administrators and teachers. Us legislators are
going to just mandate that the blue bonnet curriculum occur. That's a news item, Jacob,
that's happening currently right now, right? And so the fact that we're not hearing or seeing it,
I would say is just the reality of the focus on where we really see the news, Minneapolis,
Venezuela, the Ukraine, Iran, all of those things, right? But to think that it's slowing,
I think it's just the fact that we're just not seeing it. I think the earnestness to continue to
push largely a Christian perspective into public schools to mandate it is going to continue.
And I think we're going to continue to see that. And if it's not pushed through the public schools,
it's being elevated now in the big, beautiful bill through the school choice savings accounts
that have been implemented, of which we know what is the push there? The push there is to actually
drive students out of public schools, so not really trying to influence, but where does most of that
money go when it's used? And where do most private school students end up going when they take
the quote choice? They end up in religious schools, 90% of the time. That's by design. So the push
for religious indoctrination continues. And in fact, this new round that is going to be coming through
the big, beautiful bill. There were one million students in choice, the anticipation of this new
big, beautiful bill is that 1.5 million students will be using a choice option coming next year. So
I think this one will continue to grow because there is a powerful, well-funded movement
to get this type of curriculum or teaching and for some people might even say indoctrination as part
of the fabric of America, even some people saying, you know, getting back to true American roots
and being a Christian nation. So continue to watch for that. I, Johnny, like, you know, if it,
I know, I know. I think it's, it's a, it's a loud political minority. But, you know, it is
present and it is organized in a sense that believes deeply and well, well-funded, well-funded.
And on the topic of it being a minority opinion, we're talking about Texas, Tim, where you said that
most districts have chosen not to go in for this. Now, we're not talking about godless
heathens down in Texas, you know, no, no, that's the thing. The heavily Christian population of Texas,
most people are not seeking to impose a certain way of looking in things, you know, it's a minority
opinion, like you said. And that's the purpose of doing this roundup. It's to look at these stories,
we may have missed or not brought enough attention to. So Tim, thank you for embracing the concept behind
the January end of month wrap up. Tim, I wonder what you're going to have to say about this. I have
no idea based on that last answer. But trended number three, expansion of right to education cases.
Here's a quote from K-12 dive while right to educational lawsuits have been a constant in the
education finance sector. The right to education legal argument is expanding to specific subject
areas in the classroom, including literacy and civics education. The right to education is
guaranteed under almost every state constitution. And it has so far been used routinely by students
and advocacy groups to advocate for equitable education funding. Tim, has this been a big deal in
January of 2026? Are we going to have to keep waiting for the rest of the year? Oh, Jacob, are we
teasing what's going on in Kentucky? There's a potential. And in fact, hopefully we're going to
get a few guests on there. You know what? And what Kentucky's doing is what what a lot of states have
done. And sadly, what a lot of states have taken to court and already won the point, which is
constitutionally, a good education is mandated by the constitution. The best way to quote
measure that is then the state's contribution to funding that good education. Notice I'm not
using lawyer and litigious terms. It's a good education. You know, Wisconsin being one of them,
Pennsylvania, the state that I'm in right now, all have successfully sued in asking for and
essentially saying the state has not lived up to its required constitutional responsibilities. And
even in that face where they've been vindicated, the funding still has not followed. What I think
we're going to see and what I hope we're going to see is more of the depth of which Kentucky
is really pushing their effort in getting students involved and really putting on a media facing
forward on their topic to say, look, these are issues. And I love one of the things they're
pointing out is that the arts, the arts in Kentucky take front and center is saying an adequate
well-funded quality public education has to include the arts and in Kentucky that hasn't happened.
So I, you know, again, I think this is a trend. And I really hope that when the news of what's
going on in Kentucky and hey, stay, stay tuned, stay downloaded to busted pencils because we
would definitely want to bring more about what's happening in Kentucky. There's my answer.
Johnny, how about you? Have you seen right to education litigation become a bigger deal in January
so far this year? Or do you think this is something that might develop longer? Or are you not convinced
that this is going to be a big deal overall? Jacob, I actually think it's like just beginning.
We're just hitting the tip of the iceberg on this conversation and this is going to be an
increasing trend in 2026 and maybe even further. And it's related to, I think, the first trend that
you noted as well as just what's happening in our country right now, just for listeners,
right? The right to education is basically something that is built out of human rights or out of
children's rights and, you know, for to be a kid in the US, right? You have a right to education
ensures free access, non-discriminatory public school, right? And this is at the state level,
not the federal constitutional right, but generally it's part of, you know, the state's constitution,
right? And I would say, you know, that's currently under threat due to proposed federal cuts and,
chaos in the Department of Education or, you know, design dismantling of that. The state level
curriculum stuff we talked about when you, you know, mentioned the, you know, the religious
voice and the strength of that regarding curriculum and parents' rights stuff. So you're seeing,
you know, even still related to a very increased, you know, discourse or, you know, events related
to immigrants in our country, you know, it's a threat to immigrant students' access and
initiating, you know, civil rights, questions and protections. So I think this is one of those trends
in January, Jacob, that's, you know, we're just hitting the tip of a very large iceberg on,
right? And, and just a reminder for our listeners, you know, the US constitution does not
explicitly list education as a fundamental right, but it's typically guaranteed through state
constitutions, right? So that's an important thing when we come back around to saying like, I do
think this is a very big issue, especially with regarding, you know, like whether or not our
schools are sanctuary spaces, you know, who's allowed or who has access, safe, right? Open access
non-discriminatory schooling, right? Which brings into question the other two trends.
So I think this is a big one that ties it all together. And I do think it's going to be something
in 2026. We see continue through the months as, you know, a big trend is how are we handling
the right to education in the United States? And, and although constitutionally, that state to
certainly federal, you know, at the federal level, there is a large, very clear voice on this right
now. And that voice is that all children don't matter with regards to their safety in the spaces
where they go to learn. That's been made very clear by the federal government. However,
it's not our US constitution that makes decision on this. What's interesting though, Tim, we'll
get into this too, probably in future shows, which is what's interesting related to this specific
thing Jacob that you asked about the right to education. We do know that in 1982, the Supreme Court
ruled in the Plylar versus Doe case that all children, regardless of immigration status,
have the right to a free public education. Producer Jacob here in the editing suite after the show.
Now, you may be thinking that this sounds like a pretty radical development from the Supreme
Court back in the 1980s, but here's what George H. W. Bush had to say during the 1980 Republican
presidential primary. Yes, my name is David Grossberg and I'd like to know, do you think the
children of illegal aliens should be allowed to attend Texas public schools free? Or do you think
that their parents should pay for their education? I'd like to see something done about the illegal
alien problem that would be so sensitive and so understanding about labor needs and human needs
that that problem wouldn't come up. But today, if those people are here, I would reluctantly say,
I think they would get whatever it is that their society is giving to their neighbors.
But it has the problem has to be solved. The problem has to be solved because we have kind of made
illegal, sometimes a labor that I'd like to see illegal, we're doing two things. We're creating a
whole society of really honorable, decent family-loving people that are in violation of the law and
secondly, we're exacerbating relations with Mexico. The answer to your question is much more
fundamental than whether they attend Houston schools it seems to me. I don't want to see a whole,
if they're living here, I don't want to see a whole, I think, a six and eight year old kids
being made, you know, one totally uneducated and made to feel that they're living with outside
the law. Let's address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people.
And if you want something a little bit more heart-edged, here's what Ronald Reagan had to say during
that same debate. I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly
our neighbor to the south, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we've
ever had. And I think that we haven't been sensitive enough to our size and our power.
Rather than making them or talking about putting up a fence, why don't we work out some recognition
of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit,
and then while they're working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And when they go on
to go back, they can go back and they can cross and open the border both ways.
Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to hear what Republicans in the 1980s had to say on
this issue. Now back to Johnny.
All children, regardless of immigration status, have the right to a free public education.
Now, free, of course, that's not like free. It doesn't cost anything. It's generally out of,
you know, taxpayer dollars and all kinds of different ways of funded education. But we do have
legal precedents, you know, at the federal level. However, it's not directly insured in the U.S.
Constitution. However, generally it is in every state's constitution that all children
have access to a nondiscriminatory public education, free at the point of access,
kind of schooling. So I think that's very much being challenged when we're saying, is it safe
for kids to go to school, whether that's because of gun rules and laws, whether that's because of,
you know, immigration status and things happening in our country right now. You know,
I think we ought to be and we will be looking closely at the question, do we value a right to education
in this country? And if the answer is no, should we and how are we going to?
Man, I don't know, you know, I want to push, not push. John, he's absolutely right.
What I want to see continuing, and this is, I say, the exciting part about this, there hasn't been
some of the movement on, you know, again, these lawsuits, like I said, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,
many other states of their, their Supreme courts have all ruled that it's inadequate, the funding
that the state is providing. Why hasn't there been traction? And what I hope to see, and I have
this right here, what we have out of Kentucky, when we have this, the students of Kentucky are the
ones now filing these lawsuits. And even to the point here, now they're getting active,
in fact, this just came out on the 23rd, there was a bill put forward to take away the right
to vote for school boards in Fayette and Jefferson counties in Kentucky. And the students of
Kentucky now have sued the legislators for putting forward this bill. So here's the hope on this
one, to see this pushing students, you have the voice, the education that Johnny talks about that
is preserved, that is actually constitutionally in each of your states saying you are guaranteed.
Hey, if they're not going to listen to the adults, you the students have this moment to step up and
say, this is about us, this isn't about adults, the constitution provides us the children of the
states, the right to an education. We're suing now. I want to see more of that student involvement.
The United States is a very young country on the scale of the entire world when you look at
countries and their histories. And but it happens to be one of the oldest standing constitutions in the
world, oldest continually used written constitutions. There are good things about that. One of the bad
things is that our constitution was written before universal compulsory education was a big trend
in the world. And therefore, we're going to need an amendment if we want to get that in there,
which I could see that being a pretty good idea. I'm going to keep it here with you, Dr. Johnny
Lupinacci, for our fourth and final trend, 2026, that being more AI policies and guidance,
according to K 12, following the explosion in the development of artificial intelligence across
education and countless other sectors in 2025, districts can expect more guidance and policies
related to AI tools in 2026, according to education experts. Johnny, we're big fans of AI,
have you been seeing those policies and guidelines actually develop in 2026? Or is that still just to
hope? Well, Jacob, we've got a month under our belt in 2026. And I think the trend had begun pretty
heavily in 2025. And I don't see it slowing down. I think there's a big need for developing those
policies. And yeah, man, I think this will be a continued trend starting in 2025 and carrying
into 2026 and probably even further, but I would say I would anticipate it peaking this year,
because I don't think whether you're forer against it, the majority is in denial of its presence
and how it's changing both how we learn, the work we do in our different industries and especially
related to, you know, being a teacher or being a student, it's AI is a strong part of that at the
moment. And that's not changing. And so I do believe we'll see an increased, you know,
attention and energy put towards, you know, refining and making sure those policies aren't
just as simple as, are we allowing it or aren't we? Are we going to use it or aren't we going to
use it? It's here, it's being used, it's widespread, it's changing faster than we can even deliberate
and, you know, draft these policies. So I think yes, it will be an increase. And it certainly is
at a very high level. So I agree with that. I think my response is you're going to see even
more of it this year. And for good reason, we have to, we have to make decisions on how and what
we're doing related to, you know, the use of AI as a learner and as a teacher. And probably every
industry, you know, listening, we're specific to education, but everyone is going to be if they're
not already grappling with those policies will be this year. For sure. I invite guests onto
the producer's choice show because I think that they have expertise in the subject matter,
which is why I'm reluctant to ask you Tim, I don't know if you know much about AI or the
intersection between it and education, but I'll give you the question anyway. And you can feel
that as you as you're capable, do you think that there have been more AI policies and guidance
so far in 2026? Whether there are more policies and guidance, I don't know what I can
see now is absolutely what Johnny said. The need for policies to evolve very quickly,
away from particularly the can or can't use it types of policies that seem to, particularly in
education, that seem to be the first types of policies or when and when you cannot use it and
things like that. I think that's great guidance, but that there needs to really be a push for
policies with guidance recommendations and a realization that these policies, though,
are going to be fluid. They're going to need to change rapidly and quickly. And so if you're a leader
in a position right now, wondering, boy, should I update our AI policy? We put forth in November
2022 when Chatchee PT was released. Yes, you should update that policy. More importantly,
too, bring people to the table that understand that the update and the need for these policies
is not to bring forth a discussion about whether or not you're going to use it. The policies now
have to develop the whole sense of what does it mean now to be a society in which AI continues
to show up in ways that some of us aren't even aware of and understanding that there are
people currently right now who are prolific, proficient users, and there are some people still
who have not even touched and understand that, man, it's beyond here, it's time. So there has to
be a push for true policies that are grounded in a reality that understands that AI is part of
here now, and it is going to continue to evolve and policies need to have language that allows for
an evolution of those policies. Tim, I don't like the way you are looking at Johnny and I when you
said that some of us are AI experiences. Well, others are ignorant roobs. I felt that I saw what you
were doing. Again, it hurt my feelings, but we'll address it on the next producer's choice show.
Tim, Johnny, thank you so much for coming on your own show. It's always a pleasure to have you,
and before I can release you for recess, there's one last thing I have to do. Let's go!
We're going to start with Dr. Tim Slecker. Tim, 60 seconds. Give me one encouraging and one
troubling trend. You've noticed an education so far this year.
I'm going to say that it's related to the same thing. It's troubling and encouraging.
The continued push for the science of reading and now seeing more schools and more teachers
pushing back against the mandates in the science of reading, largely from the standpoint of acknowledging
truth, which is kids, when it comes to being taught to read, need a whole variety of opportunities
and teachers need a full toolkit that always allows for phonics, books, reading, all of those
things, and the emerging literacy. It's a very interesting time right now because
particularly now as the Mississippi miracle continues to now be revealed as largely
test score gains that were largely put to fourth by holding back third graders in retesting them,
and then acknowledging now that those third graders from years gone by who are now in eighth grade,
that their reading scores didn't continue to grow in eighth grade. Science of reading did not
produce a miracle. phonics in the science of reading has been great for a lot of kids, but it has
also hindered a lot of the continued development of kids who were already reading. So
there you go. Tim, thank you for your 134 second answer to the 60 second question. Dr. Johnny
Lupinachi, 60 seconds, give me one encouraging and one troubling trend that you've noticed in
education so far in January of 2026. I'll do it quickly and then we could probably make a whole
show of this and it will probably be something that we talk about with educators around the country.
But my optimistic one is that any time, at least in my entire teaching career where there's
been just cause for civil unrest in our country, it's not just only this particular political moment,
but my teachers taught about the civil rights movement. We had many different eras of whether we
call it protest or civil unrest. You know, we taught about it in so schools and youth voices a big
part of speaking truth to power and where our country is right now. And so my optimism in January
is that there are a lot of school boards and school community leaders, principal superintendents
who are listening to students and who are, you know, I think really doing a good job of saying,
hey, you aren't happy with the way things are in this country right now and we want to help you
voice that in a really healthy way to practice democracy. So I see that as an increasing trend
to optimism, great job school leaders and teachers out there listening to the students who are
concerned in your school and in your community and not just telling them to be quiet, sit down and
learn to read or learn more of their math like they care about the world they're in and that they
will be the leaders of and so their voice matters. So give them a healthy platform to be democratic
citizens is my optimism related is my, you know, my other trend that I think is the fact that they
have to still be, you know, going at this and so I worry about, you know, are all of our students
safe? Do they have a right to an education and how will their voices be heard given the current
context of where we're at as a country? And so, you know, I think that's a double-edged
sword right now. It's absolutely important. So ever more important that you school leaders,
teachers and people in the community, you know, listen to young people and help guide them to be
generative and productive with their voice. All right, that's it. Good answer, Johnny. Good answer,
Tim. Special thanks to K-12 dive for providing us with these four trends to keep an eye out for.
We will continue to keep an eye on these stories as they develop throughout the year,
shout out to all of our educators and administrators out there and now I will hand the show over to
my favorite educator, Dr. Tim Slecker. Well, Jacob, now it's time for your moment of sin.
In a system of intimidation and control, people do not show how much they know, how deeply they
feel. Until their practical sense informs them, they can do so without being destroyed.
Hey there, pencil busters. This is producer Jacob and thank you for listening to the producer's
choice show. If you enjoyed this show, check out all the busted pencils programs starting out
Monday with home room, Wednesday with class and session. And of course, you can always find us
every Saturday across the civic media network for one hour of your favorite blue collar scholars,
Tim Johnny and Jacob, and keep Bustin Pencils.