Transcript
Retaining Teachers And Removing Government Officials (Hour 2)
Daybreak w/ Brian and Jamie · Fri Apr 10, 2026
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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.
We hope that your Friday is off to a great start.
We are expecting some warmer temperatures as the weekend and into next week progresses.
You should have a lovely day to go to a Brewers baseball game, by the way, Parker.
It'll be probably in the 50s, but we'll take that, especially if we're looking at upper 60s and 70s by next week.
I'm very excited for warm weather.
Yesterday was a precursor for
me.
some nice outdoor time because, well, I'm tired of being cooped up, let's be honest.
And we need something good to look forward to in this world, like some sunshine and some outdoor time, Brian, because, well, the news, it sucks.
Let's be honest.
So speaking of, let's welcome to the suck and find out what's going on over in Iran.
You know, the war trudges on even though there is...
A ceasefire?
Maybe?
I don't know.
It could be.
All the questions.
So some headlines from the Persian Gulf region.
Tehran-backed Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and in an Israeli border town.
The attacks come as Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon threaten to derail the U.S.
Iran's ceasefire.
Speaking of Netanyahu, he says Israel wants direct talks with Lebanon on disarming Hezbollah and insists Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire deal.
The Lebanese prime minister will travel to Washington DC in the coming days, according to a Lebanese government source and what they were telling CNN.
Well a few vests vessels are traveling through the Strait of Hormuz as analysts say it's still too risky to make the journey President Trump has warned Iran against charging tolls while Abu Dhabi's oil chief says the critical waterway is not open and If we're you know if we're not looking Partisan Lee at this issue Trump has no power to tell them what to do anymore he We've lost control of the straight the straight was
And again, it bears repeating for the people in the back who still have their red hat covering their ears.
The street was open until he started bombing.
There
We are not winning.
Negotiations between Iran and the U.S.
are set to take place from Saturday in Islamabad.
They will be the first talks between both sides since the war began.
Now, these are the talks, remember, that the U.S.
is sending its brain trust to.
That'll be fun.
All right, that's the Persian Gulf, but there is more stuff we need to know.
It's a wake up call in more ways than one.
Time for some shit you need to know.
Yes.
Well, we talked about Governor Evers signing the online gambling bill.
He was all about sports yesterday.
Tony was wearing his athleisure and he was signing a flurry of bills and this one he signed.
giving a badger state funding with a little bit of tweak with the NIL bill, the name, image, and likeness bill if you are not familiar.
Governor Evers signed a legislation that is going to provide $14.6 million in taxpayer funding for the UW Athletic Department along with codifying many existing NIL practices.
It came with a partial veto
to tweak some of the precise language regarding the funding the governor loves to tweak the language.
The partial veto removes what Evers described in his official letter to the assembly as, quote, potential confusion created by referring to maintenance in the funding that is intended to alleviate facility debt service.
He said that the greater flexibility is necessary to ensure this funding can be used effectively and allow the system to maximize the state's investment.
So UW Madison is getting the bulk of this state funding for athletic facility debt service.
The law does allocate an additional 200,000 each to UW Milwaukee and UW Green Bay's athletics departments.
For the same purpose, the partial veto did not affect any of the other aspects of the legislation, which formalizes existing rules around athletes ability to profit off their name, image and likeness.
It also forbids athletes from endorsing tobacco.
alcohol, gambling or illegal activity and creates a new public records exemption for NIL agreements and revenue allocations.
So and if you listened to the athletic director from UW Madison, he said, listen, if we don't get some money, we can't compete with these other states that are that are helping because, you know, you want Madison is the marquee school of the state.
whether you went to Marquette or not and don't want to admit it.
Yes, Madison is the marquee school, and part of that is the athletics program.
And that's what brings people in.
earn money
It's also gonna help the university stay competitive and it's not just the football on Saturdays, right?
It's gonna be about recruiting, it's the facilities, it's national exposure and it also then leads to the economy because big athletic programs, as you rightly pointed out, Brian, they're gonna bring in real dollars and
Hotels restaurants bars local businesses.
Yeah, it's all gonna be affected on game days and Surrounding game days because it's more of a destination than when you have this type of money
brilliant things
That's what gets that's what gets you national attention people from
People who didn't even go to Madison are watching Badger games.
Yeah, you're you that's that's what it's all about and if if you're trying to field top teams That will keep donor money coming in and keep everything else coming in you have to compete with these other states that are offering their athletes bigger NIL deals and you can disagree with NIL you want but it's here to stay and it makes sense
I
you
the bucket, you are
If you're a quarterback at a school and suddenly you're in
Heisman contention, the amount of extra money you're bringing into that institution and the amount of money that institution is making on hats and jerseys and posters and everything that has your face on it, you should get a little cut of
College athletics is already a business.
It's already a business.
This is it.
That's essentially what it is.
It's run like a business.
It is a business.
So this is really just Wisconsin deciding to stay in it instead of falling way behind all of the other schools and then losing out on talent because they don't have these offerings.
let's get to it.
So first, Lady Melania Trump, if you didn't see yesterday, blasted the lies that she said linked her to the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein in a very extraordinary and some rare remarks from the White House.
She was attempting to essentially distance herself from the convicted sex offender while calling on Congress to hold public hearings, allowing his victims to testify in Capitol Hill.
Her statements directly undercut ongoing...
messages from her husband and the West Wing, renewing attention on a topic that was fading from public discourse because of this war with Iran.
Now, a person familiar with the matter told CNN that Donald Trump was aware his wife planned to make Thursday statement.
The president, though, told MSNOW in an interview after her remarks that he did not know anything about it ahead of the First Lady's appearance.
We don't sleep in the same wing of the house.
I knew she was gonna say something.
I thought it was gonna be in that incoherent gibberish that she has.
You know, she's been in this country a long time.
Still sounds like she just got off the boat.
I don't understand
She said, quote, I've never been friends with Epstein.
Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach.
To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Elaine Maxwell.
And then she went ahead and called on Congress to provide a forum for Epstein's victims to testify in Capitol Hill, saying that each and every woman should have her day and tell her story to the public if she wishes.
testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record.
Melania also sought to downplay her relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell.
The House Oversight Committee's top Democrat, who is Representative Robert Garcia, said in a statement shortly afterwards that he agrees with the First Lady's call for public hearings with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.
He encourages Chairman Comer to come forward and respond to the First Lady's request and schedule a public hearing immediately.
So, here is why this was, to me, I'm not making light of Jeffrey Epstein.
I'm making light of this particular situation because this had essentially died for this administration.
The Epstein files, they were still
lingering.
I disagree.
They were still lingering, but nobody was talking about them to the extent that they were because Donald started a war in Iran.
Congress wasn't talking so much about the Epstein files.
They were trying to figure out these war power resolutions.
Uh, people still wanted these hearings.
They knew that they weren't going to happen.
Then here comes Melania and out of nowhere, basically to say.
We didn't have a relationship.
Let's bring this all to light.
Let's bring these women to the to the Capitol and let's have these hearings.
It was one of the most jarring situations I've ever seen and by the way, yes, she did know Jeffrey Epstein.
Yes, she did know Ghislaine Maxwell.
There are photos of her and Donald Trump circulating all over.
There are emails in those documents of her to Ghislaine Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell to Melania and even Jeffrey Epstein wishing her a wonderful day.
The emails prove it.
I just found this to be
hilarious yesterday on so many levels.
testimony.
They've told their story.
Their story has been ignored, so it's not on them to have to come out and run the investigation and put themselves in front.
They've had their names leaked because the DOJ did not redact them.
These women who were girls at the time of their victimization do not need to do any more.
No.
For this.
This is all on the Justice Department now.
It's all on the Republicans who keep bearing this.
And I don't think people forgot.
I think we've been, we've had to put it on the back burner for now.
Yeah.
But it's still, it's
still on the stove.
She just
it is Daybreak and this is the Civic Media Network.
It's on a Friday.
You have to do it.
It's good.
I promise.
So here's swipe or stay.
Here's how it's going to work.
I'm going to read some pop culture headlines for Brian and Jamie.
They're going to have to decide whether they want to stay and hear more or if they want to swipe on to the next one in the event of a tie.
Producer Parker will be the tiebreaker.
So we're gonna go to number one.
We may, there's, look, I've looked at it every which way to see if there's a vague way to write this and there just isn't.
We may have a presidential son's cage match.
Hey guys, Hunter Biden here.
I just got a call from Andrew Callahan.
He asked me to come out on the Channel 5 Carnival Tour at the end of the month.
I think he's trying to organize a cage match, me versus Eric and Don Jr.
I told him I'd do it, 100% in, if he can pull it off.
And if he can't, I'm still coming.
Hunter
company card,
Thank you.
It's not Rod Stewart.
No, OK.
good guess.
So
Oh, by the
Hmm.
to do about it?
We figured it out on the Civic Media Network.
Thank you so much for joining us today on Daybreak.
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We like to do other things too.
Sometimes.
so we
Yes,
I've stopped listening to a little as many news shows and just take Sunday morning
But you know what, I am always thinking about Jamie, especially as the school year winds down and coming from the classroom as I did.
What's going on with teachers not only in Wisconsin, but in the
everywhere but Wisconsin is facing a teacher shortage and one of the main contributors to the shortage is teacher retention which is keeping young teachers working in the state.
Now that's the biggest problem according to a new report released last week by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
According to the report almost 1,700 teachers who finished their training in Wisconsin in 2023 and 24 did not go on to teach in Wisconsin schools.
So
That's an issue.
How do we keep young educators in Wisconsin for the long haul?
Heather Dubois is the executive director of a Wisconsin Public Education Network, a nonpartisan alliance of parents, educators, and others from across the state who are committed to the ongoing success of public schools.
She joins us now to share some possible solutions.
Heather, thanks for being here.
We appreciate your time this morning.
When we talk about teacher shortages, what does that really mean and how is it affecting Wisconsin?
Well, first of all, good morning.
Thank you for having me.
And thanks for waking up to tackle one of the biggest questions.
Our kids in the Republic School have faced for many, many years in Wisconsin and nationally.
Why is it that we have this persistent challenge in attracting and retaining educators here?
there are so many reasons for this and unfortunately the the trail of breadcrumbs seems to lead straight back to the state capital every time but you know the fact is when we can't keep
teachers in our classrooms, students suffer.
We see bigger class sizes.
We see what we call churn in the education world, you know, lots of staff churn turnover that makes it, you know, that has a big impact on school climate and students and families experiences as they go through their academic careers.
We see, you know,
relationships come and go and that has a huge impact on teaching and learning and environments and on the way a student processes information as well.
And overall, the main impact is that we are just not able to provide the sort of education that we all strive to provide for all of the kids, which is consistent and reliable and excellent from
preschool to college.
And so this is a serious crisis across all of our districts.
And we see districts scrambling to pick up the pieces by asking voters to increase the amount that they're paying locally to fund our public schools since the state isn't paying its full share.
And, you know, how
It's an unsustainable model, right?
Like, there's an irresponsible way to do school funding, and so voters get frustrated, taxpayers get frustrated, parents and educators were already frustrated, and the cycle just seems to get deeper and deeper the longer we perpetuate these inequities.
Well, I have nothing disparaging to say about emergency license teachers.
We are deeply grateful for the service that they're providing.
But they are often not as adequately prepared.
It's like a stopgap, right?
Right.
It's a stopgap measure and a necessary one.
Um and and the real question is why is it why are there still so many hurdles to you know letting qualified educators you know get licensed um expediently or um to allow you know retired teachers to re-enter the classroom to help fill in these gaps as well um you know the state has created some barriers to to doing that which which
which makes it harder to get the most qualified educators in front of students.
But I think the bigger question for me is why are teachers leaving in that five to eight year mark?
And I think the answer is simple.
They can't afford to stay.
They can't afford.
to raise families in the communities that they want to live and teach in.
They can't afford childcare for their own children if they've started to have children by this time.
And when we look at what this report tells us about diminishing teacher pay, teachers are making less today than they were in 2010 when we adjust for inflation.
That is not okay.
These are highly qualified professionals who should be compensated as such.
Well, there's there's a lot of talk especially amongst teachers who say they're not in it for the money and money is the easy answer To you know and the logical answer as to why the retention problem exists But there's other factors that play into that besides the money because I think a lot of teachers would work not for what they're making out but for a good wage But there's a lot of different factors that come into those.
What are some of those other?
Things that are affecting the retention other than money
Okay, well I hear what you're saying, but but I don't want to poo poo the question of money
But
there's
things that play into this
Right.
But then we have to ask the question, why is the environment not conducive?
class sizes so big?
Why is it so hard to design and implement disciplinary structures that allow all kids to, you know, to meet all kids where they are and make sure that they are actively supported in every classroom?
Often it's because we don't have enough support staff in our buildings.
We don't have enough one-on-one supports for some of the kids who have special needs in some school districts.
We
don't
have large enough or adequate enough facilities in some of our schools to meet some of these needs.
And unfortunately, often, you know, these are questions of inadequate funding or inadequate resources in the district as well.
Things like school and district.
climate and teacher preparation are absolutely critical to the success of educators to the retention of educators and to, you know, whether or not we're creating thriving and joyful environments for our kids in their schools.
So, you know, these are the most important things, but we need to create the conditions that are necessary for us to implement those with fidelity
in
order to like have a good solid ground.
And that's really where I think Wisconsin has has failed to meet
the needs of its kids and its public schools because our teachers know what to do, they're trained to know what to do and then they enter teaching and learning environments where the conditions have not been met for them to do what they were trained to.
And so I think that's frustrating for young educators and I think that you know when they're then asked to you know pay more for their health insurance to
you know, do all of these extras and outside of school things.
They're often working multiple jobs and not just during the summer when they have a little bit of flex time, but during the school year as well.
It just becomes unsustainable for them.
And we hear that story so many times and I think, you know, our friends that we have.
have outlined this, you know, for years and have been warning us that, you know, we are not, we are not meeting the needs of our educators and there are all kinds of disparities and gender inequities in the field of education, which also contribute to these
Heather, how much of an issue was Act 10 in 2011?
Because that took away the teachers right, you know, I taught in a place where we had a strong teachers union.
Don't have that in Wisconsin.
How much
how much if that were to go away which it won't but how much would that change the dynamic because then teachers were able to advocate for themselves and not count on you know let's hope the voters give us a referendum let's hope the the assembly decides to give us some money
act 10 was absolutely devastating for wisconsin public schools and and wisconsin public schools environments it came with kind of a one-two punch of both
taking away of educators' rights and their right to collectively bargain for their own working conditions, but also the deepest cut to public school that we've ever seen in any state in one swoop.
And our kids are still paying the price for that.
We're currently in our 18th year in a row of state funding that hasn't even kept pace with inflation from the last year.
When we adjust for inflation, we're about $3,500 per student
behind where we were in state spending in 2009.
You know, that's absolutely unconscionable.
And so, you know, what this report shows is that teacher pay has declined in a similar way.
we don't need fewer students, even when enrollments decline, we still need to have enough students' staff every grade in our class buildings.
And so the needs have increased, but the funding has not kept pace with that.
So it really is a serious crisis.
And I think, you know, restoring collective bargaining rights to teachers would be a huge step forward in resolving some of the problems that we see today, in addition to adequately funding our public
the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Public Education Network joins us, Wisconsinnetwork.org, if you want to check out their organization.
But early on in this conversation, we have just a couple minutes left.
You mentioned the referendums.
We saw the referendums in several districts pass on Tuesday, but at the same time, we also saw some school districts that are looking at having to dissolution or consolidate.
So how much pressure is that now putting on districts when it comes to actually paying
and retaining teachers.
It's huge.
We hear from superintendents in school and building leaders every day who are just absolutely distraught that they cannot afford to pay teachers as much as neighboring districts, that their voters are not able to sustain increases in their property taxes and have rejected referenda.
They're looking at cuts.
They're looking at even more consolidation, which is not good for kids or families either.
We've got districts that are so big in this state.
We have 421 districts in Wisconsin and most of them are rural and sparse and kids are already on the bus for a long time during the day.
Consolidation is not the one size fits all answer it might look like from a distance and it's also not that cost saving when you factor in the cost of transportation and you know kind of the the costs on on teachers and families when they have to move move around like that.
Heather,
we come back,
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
on,
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, the vice president and the cabinet has to call for the removal of the president.
Well...
Then I started doing a little more reading and hearing a little bit more about Article 2, Section 4.
And I went to our professor and I said, Professor Martinson, can we do an elective on Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution?
Because I think this might be a little more apt for what we're talking about.
me
And that's totally okay, by the way, because here at Daybreak, we do all the hard work for you, so you can just sit back and listen to what we're about to say.
But Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution essentially explains how top government officials can be removed from office.
Now, what it essentially says is that the president, vice president, and other civil officers, meaning the cabinet, can be removed after impeachment and conviction for things like treason, bribery, or other high crimes.
and misdemeanors.
High crimes and misdemeanors.
doesn't just mean breaking the law, it can also mean abuse of power, corruption, or serious misconduct.
Say it again.
So here's how the process works.
There's two steps, which makes it so much easier than the 25th Amendment.
The House of Representatives has to vote to impeach, which is basically bringing the charges.
Then the Senate has to hold a trial and needs a two-thirds vote to remove someone from office.
Now, the system was designed as a final
checkpoint on power, especially if a leader abuses their position.
We
the
The courts generally do not get involved, so impeachment is handled almost entirely by Congress.
And over time,
It's been clear that impeachment is more about political wrongdoing than just criminal charges.
Now, one early example of that involves Andrew Johnson, and this shows how difficult it is to remove a president.
In current times, this section has been directly applied.
to Donald Trump.
Now, yes,
The charges included abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, and incitement of insurrection.
In both of those cases, the Senate did not reach the two thirds vote needed to convict, which is why he was able to run again, so he was not actually removed from office.
The cases also showed how much disagreement there
can be over what counts as high crimes and misdemeanors.
They also reinforce that impeachment applies to individual officials, not an entire administration.
That's another key takeaway in all of this.
A president can still be impeached and tried for actions taken while in office, even after leaving office.
Now that's a key because we remember what the Supreme Court did, right?
So you might
To be clear, I told you I did a lot of digging on this one.
The Supreme Court of the United States has not eliminated impeachment.
It has changed, however, the landscape around accountability.
So in Trump versus United States, the court ruled that presidents have broad protection from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Now that's not going to apply just to Donald Trump, to be clear.
That's going to apply to all presidents from here on out.
So the Supreme
Court,
all of this
Now, some particular critics say that this ruling literally just builds new legal barriers to things like
the article, article two, section four that we're talking about.
But at the same time, others warned that it could also encourage abuse of power because actions could be defended then as official.
The decision
was
We remember when that came down, the country was appalled.
There were so many people who were upset about that.
Now, practically speaking,
Article 2, Section 4 could make impeachment an even more important tool, but it also makes it a little bit more complicated to use.
Essentially, Article 2, Section 4 is still intact, but between politics and some of the new legal protections, holding a president accountable is going to be harder in practice, but not impossible.
That's going to also be the key.
And that's why it's going to be so important for people to vote.
Because remember, in all of these instances, it takes a two thirds.
majority vote.
So you're going to have to have enough people who believe that this needs to be done, Democrats, or even if you can bring Republicans into the fold, who are going to have to vote accordingly.
I'm going to project.
I know this is extra credit.
But if things go the way indicators show that they will go in November, and Democrats take control back of the House and the Senate,
There will be at that point, I think, enough Republicans who see the writing on the wall and say, this is over for us.
And I haven't been comfortable backing this guy for a while, but I was afraid of that may make the flip.
And that would be great.
All right, if you're listening on WMDX.
See you later where
you go listen to
not.
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