We Can All Be Good At Math (Hour 2)

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair.

Greg Bach is here

and

Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio at Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us.

Call or text the number is the same 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter, lots of stuff coming up on the show today.

Brad Sturmer is the principal at Winskill Elementary School, which is in southwestern Wisconsin, kind of near B-town in that southwestern corner.

B-town.

B-town.

And they're trying a new way of teaching math.

Love it.

I'm very excited about this.

And

I'm really looking forward to hearing from a principal Sturmer about how this works.

What is different about this?

I remember a number of years ago when they started talking about new math.

Remember that?

Yes.

And I've heard my friends who are parents complain about it, pull their hair out like new math.

I'm like,

I don't know.

Yeah.

So I don't think that's what this is.

And you're right.

From everything that I had heard about that new math,

from what I had heard from various parents on the internet was basically it takes you three pages to get to the same answer.

I think it takes three pages for us to get to the answer, whereas kids are like, you're making it much harder than it is.

That it needs to be.

Yeah.

So Principal Brett Sturmer is going to be joining us in hour number two after the 10 o'clock news, so I hope you can stick around for that.

Rich Smith, longtime friend of mine and co-founder of the Sixth Street Theater

In Racine, co-founder of Over Our Head Players, they have done remarkable, remarkable things.

Oh, yeah.

What's

their big winter show again?

Oh, Snow Dance.

Snow Dance.

Which gets, they perform short plays.

They get entries from all over the world now.

Little

Racine.

It's a global hub for theater.

Racine is a great place that does not get their flowers enough in my opinion.

I would agree.

That's what I believe.

I would agree.

So Rich Smith joining us in hour number two after the 1030 news and we will wrap it all up as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.

Today it's the human popsicle edition.

Stick around for that.

Greg is just shaking his head.

Yeah, Europe.

Um, don't forget.

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Yes, it does.

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Wanted to start off with just talking a little bit about the situation in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles mayor Kieran Bass yesterday issued orders for a curfew for about a mile section

in

downtown Los Angeles.

started at eight o'clock last night, ended at six this morning in order to stop bad actors from taking advantage of the situation.

There were obviously some protests against ICE raids that had happened in Los Angeles.

I believe it was Friday this all started.

There has been some violence.

There has been some looting.

There were about a hundred people that were arrested, I believe, yesterday.

But for the most part...

This hasn't they're not burning down building downtown Los Angeles is not burning.

Yeah, it's a peaceful protest the people who are protesting with the The goal in mind which is to stop the ice raids in Los Angeles and and making a statement around the country.

This is this is Being peaceful and they're promoting it as such like please do not do those things You're not with us if you loot if you burn cars if you if you cause violence.

Yeah, you are you are

working at cross purposes.

So that is the situation right now.

Pretty interesting to see the difference things coming out of Washington, depending upon which side of the aisle you were on.

And this just made me stop yesterday when I saw this and go, what?

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talking to reporters on the difference in his attitude toward the protests going on in Los Angeles versus the attack.

against our capital on January 6th of 2021.

Here is Mike Johnson's quote from yesterday.

Everybody wants me to relitigate January 6th.

I'm not going to do that.

There's a very clear distinction between the two.

He says the LA rioters are destroying property, unquote.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there was over $2 million worth of damages done when the

Insurrectionists attacked the Capitol on January 6th of 2021.

Yep,

they did.

And they were attacking our officers.

And they were looking to attack elected officials.

That too.

And they were breaking windows and breaking structures and stealing things and defecating in certain spots of the building.

This was a violent attack on this country.

Not just a piece of property like I'm not for look I'm not for anyone getting their property stolen burned looted, but If he's making a case to say they're they're they're destroying property in Los Angeles.

Well last time I checked those now pardoned traders to this country

destroyed and burned a very valuable piece of property in this country, which is the U S capital.

So I think it's a lot.

There's a lot of comparisons that can be made.

And the fact that Mike Johnson doesn't want to quote, re litigate it.

It says a lot that he they just can't back away

from it fast enough.

No,

they really can't

know and it would have been honestly This is what would have been one of those things where like the first week after everyone pretty much agreed that this was a horrible after January.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes was a horrible horrible event and then it became fashionable to say well, we don't know We don't know who is really there.

Oh, then it became a tourist visit

Oh yeah, they were, cause they were, they were, they were walking between the velvet ropes.

So they of course were following the rules.

And then their big thing is like, well, no police officers died that day, that day, Jane, that day, but they don't talk about the five who are either either died or permanently affected by it.

But yeah, I'm sorry.

I get really, when we talk about January 6th, I get really mad because to me there's no clear case of traitorous insurrection that's ever happened in this country.

Period and to for Mike Johnson to hand wave it away to be like it's totally different and Los Angeles is incredibly worse

Yeah, everyone wants me to relitigate January 6.

Hey Mike Johnson You're the one who is still sitting on that plaque.

Yeah To honor the officers who protected our capital on January 6th.

There is a plaque that we're supposed to have gone up It's at least two years ago now

It's just still sitting there.

It's still sitting there.

Yeah.

Because they cannot admit that this was an attack on America and our Constitution because they were doing it in support of Donald Trump.

But back the blue, Jane.

Right.

Back the blue.

Well, and then Donald Trump, I believe, yesterday also said at one point in one of his messages about what's happening in Los Angeles, if you spit will hit.

Now for one thing, I don't know.

Spitting is revolting and I don't know why anyone would spit on another human being.

I think it's reprehensible.

But he didn't have a problem.

He pardoned all the people who attacked our officers on January 6th.

Yeah.

And for all we know, some of these guys are now part of ICE.

We don't know.

Yeah.

I think that if we're going to talk about Los Angeles, I mean,

The thing is, this is absolutely, once again, they did this with the BLM protests in 2020.

Any sort of rioting, any sort of violence that may have happened in this worldwide protest that brought in millions of people to march to the streets of cities all over the globe, the few people who did anything wrong.

in contrast to all the people who participated, they're the problem.

That's what they always focus on.

If there's a little bit of violence, if there's whatever, that's what they focus on because they don't want to sit there and say, well, maybe there's a problem with ICE just going in and raiding without identification, with masks on, going to ceremonies, going to workplaces, going to grocery stores, going to all these different places to just pick people off the street and throw them in jail in South America.

There's no self...

actualization or realization or self reflection on that, much like in 2020 where it was like, I don't want to make any sort of self reflective comment on the problem with the police and the community.

It's those, those.

tens of millions of people who protested around the country, they're terrible because they were rioting and looting, even though there's very few examples of that.

It's always going to be the worst actors are going to become the absolute example of what's happening.

And be representative of everyone

who was there, of everyone

who was there.

There was a protest in Milwaukee yesterday.

The crowd made their way to the U.S.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement offices.

Again, there were no reports of violence that I have seen.

Good.

Yes.

There's no excuse for that.

And unfortunately, when you set things on fire and you start looting, that plays into this narrative.

They're also saying, many people are saying, that these are paid protesters.

For some reason, it is impossible for some Republicans to get their head around the fact that not everyone is excited about the Trump agenda.

and that people would actually do this on their own.

We've asked numerous times, if anyone has ever gotten a check from George Soros, please send us the pay stub.

I would love to see it.

If you're going to make that claim, which goes also back to the original point of they don't have anything else.

So they have to make these wild, inaccurate, almost comically funny claims of

George Soros is paying them.

Okay.

Is he paying them cash?

That's a lot of physical cash.

Yeah,

there's a lot of

handoffs going on.

There has to be a paper trail.

I'm really surprised there hasn't been some kook liar nut bag who's just made one up, taken a picture of a $20 bill and said, I got my Soros money, but there's no check.

There's no paper trail.

There's never been, no one has.

And I'm talking about the people who

Don't like Donald Trump who march against Donald Trump.

They're not paid either.

They didn't get like, you know what I mean?

Like there's no proof whatsoever.

So this narrative of George Soros is paying everybody.

No, get a new line.

It would be, it would be refreshing.

Yeah.

If nothing else.

I, it's, it's exhausting Jane, because you would think at some point we would, those, those narratives would just wither away because.

a majority would have the opinion of like, that's ridiculous.

But there are a lot of people who still believe it.

They believe, they believe that all of Los Angeles is burning, is burning to the ground.

They think that the BLM protests were a terrorist.

They think January 6th was nothing more than FBI and, and Tifa.

Oh

yeah.

Right.

Right.

Right.

They were FBI agitators.

Yeah.

They still push it because they don't have their wait for it research done.

You are listening to Matt and Air on Air.

We will continue this.

You can also join us on the other side.

Stay close.

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Good

morning and welcome.

Welcome to matinee on air.

Jane Matinee, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board.

Coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine where you can join us caller text at 855-752-4842.

You can also leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

Coming up later on today too to forward Todd all the show across the network.

He will be joined by.

Pat quite low of mornings with Pat quite low nice and also trig v. Olson senior advisor of the Lincoln Projects at 230 Dan Schaefer gonna be joining Civic media's political editor founder of the recombobulation area has a new Peace out That we're gonna talk about after the after the bottom of the or news.

Yeah, and then in the three o'clock hour join Todd today for what's worse today it is the

end of it's end of life celebrations that should be fascinating end of

life celebrations

what's worse there's all kinds of possibilities there welcome to my i'm gonna die patty yesterday it was pizza today it's death yeah you never know what it's gonna be i know it's a great segment yeah it's kind of like our audio sorbet where they take a little

Take a little break away from the news.

Join Todd today from two to four PM across the civic media radio network.

Wanted to talk a little bit about prices.

We were talking about Los Angeles, of course, and the deployment of the National Guard and also some US troops not requested by Governor Newsom or the

California Attorney General or the mayor of Los Angeles or the LA police chief.

But the Pentagon has set the price tag for the 60-day LA troop deployment at $134 million.

60 days, too.

60

days.

60

days.

$134 million.

Well, Jane, what I would like to do with that $134 million is I'm going to take that because this is a performative show of force.

And I'm going to just, uh, tack that onto the $45 million that's going to cost us for the parade, the birthday party.

I'm sorry.

The birth, I guess, Chuck E. Cheese was booked up that

day.

Couldn't have it there.

So we're going

to have a birthday party on Saturday in DC for in DC for, uh, L president, a dear leader.

Um, so I'm just going to put that on top of it.

So 45 million on top of the 134 million.

So that's about a hundred and 79 million dollars so far,

but we don't have money

problems.

Don't have money problems.

You know we didn't need to take we don't need to cut snap or take food away from hungry children Or I don't know kick people off their health insurance or oh wait.

We are doing that Yeah, yep, but we've got almost 200 million dollars to shell out for this vanity parade Which is essentially what it is because we looked up it is not just the army that has their 250 birth 250th birthday this year

So does the Navy.

The Navy as well.

It's October the 13th.

And so do

the Marines.

The Marines.

Oh, they don't celebrate 250, I think.

But

still, they have birthdays

every year.

They have birthdays.

There are birthdays for other branches of the military this year.

Yeah.

Not having parades on those days.

Nah.

I wonder why that is.

It says a lot that they're not going to have one for the...

The Navy, there could be 250.

It's October the 13th.

That's Tiffany Trump's birthday.

There's a perfect excuse.

No birthday party happening for her, which says a lot about where she falls in the children's popularity.

Whatever.

What's really interesting about this is that there are reports this morning from Politico that a whole bunch of Republicans aren't going to be at the parade.

What?

Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

And Majority Whip John Barrasso will not be there.

Also not attending Dear Leader's Big Parade on Saturday House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

House Speaker Mike Johnson's office did not respond at the time.

Of course he'll be there.

He'll be there.

Of course he'll be there.

There will be

consequences if he doesn't.

Absolutely.

And you better bring a present.

Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma will not be there.

Senators Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott also not going to be there.

Also skipping out on the big beautiful parade to celebrate Trump's 79th birthday house freedom caucus chair Andy Harris, you know who will be there Marjorie Taylor green

I Just I I think it's cute that we're saying 45 million.

It's gonna be hot It's gonna be way more than

that much higher.

It's gonna be way more than that.

They're also going to be there also I

They're going to be outfitting actors to be in the parade.

They're going to be that the army has committed to repairing any damages that's caused to the streets or the properties,

which expect and that these tanks are expected to rip these streets

up.

And they're also shutting down at least DCA, which is the National Airport, AKA Ronald Reagan Airport, which I get yelled at every time I call it that.

But they're shutting that down for like three hours.

That's going to cost money, too.

They're going to have to divert flights because they were probably selling flights before this decision was made.

So yeah, this has a huge cost, a huge price.

And I would like once again, please anyone out there who thinks we're wrong, that we're liberal commie trash.

Tell us why this is a good idea.

And this is why this is justifiable.

And then tell me in the same breath you are fiscally responsible.

Calvin with a little correction here.

The Marine Corps turns 227 next month.

Ah, the never.

Thank you for that.

Never mind.

No parade for you.

But again, sorry, Navy.

Yeah.

You're 250th anniversary doesn't fall on Trump's birthday.

So you don't get a parade or maybe they will.

Yeah.

Maybe they won't.

That's not till October.

Maybe he'll have

maybe we'll just do these, you know, a couple of times a year.

Seasonal season.

Yeah, we'll just do like a couple of times a year for his big birthday parade.

I have a feeling and we can talk about this more tomorrow that year, that it's not going to be as available on the TVs as you think.

But well,

we're going to say, wait, hang on to that.

Yeah.

OK, we'll do

that.

We'll

talk about that tomorrow.

We have news coming up next.

And then we're going to talk about.

Dan Schaffer's column in the recombobulation area that dropped yesterday.

Stay with us.

You were listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media radio

network.

What a price I had to pay.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Bach and the Board Lord coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text.

The number is the same.

855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube.

and what used to be Twitter.

Coming up after 10 o'clock, we're gonna talk to the principle of wind skill elementary school, which is in the Southwestern part of Wisconsin.

Brad Sturmer is gonna join us to talk about the new way that they are teaching math.

And they also have a literacy program that we're gonna discuss, but I'm very, very curious about that.

They've had a lot of success with

this.

I'm assuming it's not just someone giving them answers because that's what I would go for.

I can improve your, I can improve your performance in math here.

The answers are in the back of the book.

Oh yeah, show your work.

Ah man.

Yes, Brad Sturmer will be joining us coming up after the 10 o'clock news.

Rich Smith after 1030, the co-founder of the Sixth Street Theater and over our head players and so very much more.

Sixth Street Theater located here in Racine and they're remarkable.

I have full disclosure.

I've known Rich for decades.

I've done shows with them.

Had the great honor of doing shows with them.

So we go back a long way.

But what they have helped bring to the Racine community and what they've done to help revitalize the downtown area and Sixth Street in particular has really been impressive.

So stick around for that.

Wanted to talk about this a little bit because this is making news as it should.

Dan Schaefer in the Recombobulation area where you can subscribe.

It's an absolute deal.

Dan Schaefer says, past the torch, Tony Evers should not run for a third term as Wisconsin governor.

Love to hear from you on this.

855-752-4842.

That's 855-75 Civic.

You can call and or text.

Should Governor Tony Evers run for term number three?

Or no, pretty Wisconsin way to phrase that.

I think that, um, I don't disagree with Dan.

I really don't.

And that comes from a, that statement is based in a bigger discussion on term limits on age on once again, passing towards, which I actually believe is applicable to both parties.

So any party really, when the people in charge or

either getting older or getting to the point where they're, they're not making the best decisions or they're like, you know, I'm thinking right now I'm thinking of Congress and Senate.

Like there are people in the Congress and Senate who are obviously making decisions that are not I feel in the best interest of the people.

And that goes for both sides of the aisle.

But with

Tony, Democrats have died in office so far this year.

Yeah.

It's a, I say it was, I think it was.

five, two have died in office, five, five politicians have died since the election, I believe.

And they're all Democrats.

I believe

they're all Democrats.

But I think that, you know, we, there is a problem at least in the Democratic party where there is not a lot of like looking for great candidates.

They're hoping that they'll pop up and appear, but the, the, the fielding of candidates, the, the, what's what I'm looking for.

you know going out there and looking for those recruiting recruiting thank you looking for older people or just looking for community leaders and saying all right so and so you are great we want to run you for this position and then in a few years we'll look at this and that but instead like right now you can name a bunch of democrats who can run for for the primary

but are they the best options right now?

And I'm afraid that Tony Evers is going to look at like and say this kind of the same thing Joe Biden did last year, which is, well, I can fix this.

I can take care of it.

Well, yeah, because there has been no link to anyone else taking over.

So Joe Biden was supposed to be a bridge.

He called himself that he was going to run for one term

and he's going

to be a

bridge.

Then

all of a sudden he's running again for office.

And I think that was a surprise to some people.

And then he's out and Kamala Harris gets 90 days.

I think with Tony Evers, he needs to make this decision now.

And I think that's,

that's part of the point in Dan's column.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's not, let's

not stretch this out.

But also I think there's a responsibility on Tony Evers as well as the, the Democratic party of Wisconsin, which is to say,

Let's not have a 10 person primary.

I'm not saying don't have a primary.

That's not what I'm saying at all Well, maybe I am and I'm sorry if you think that's undemocratic, but I also feel like in this day and age we need to rally the troops sooner than later and There is a bunch of comedy that comes along with watching a bunch of leaders in the same party dunk on each other for

two, three, four, five months.

And then they're all like, Oh, but the guy is

with

the best of friends.

Even though I

said he was mostly a Trump supporter, I was kidding.

So that's what that's the problem is.

I feel like regardless of what Dan says in the article, which is it says clearly in there, he does not think that Tony Ebers should run again.

I think that

it might get to the point where it's going to be too late.

He needs to make a decision now.

This is like, we're a little less than a year and a half away from the election itself, right?

But we have to go through a primary and you're, you got guys on the other side who are jumping up saying, I'll do it.

I'll be the, I'll be the, as the GOP governor.

Well, Antoni Evers has said that he's not going to announce until after the state budget is completed.

And last time I checked, they're not even talking about

that.

And that could be when?

Lots of comments coming in on the live stream.

John says, Boo, can't blame him as the pressures have to be immense.

He's not getting any younger, but who is on deck at this point?

And Tony also in the live stream, run Tony, run, but maybe have a primary to kick the tires.

I haven't seen any declines in Evers.

I would love for him to be able to actually enact his agenda.

for the benefit of the state.

I, for one thing, I think if you're saying maybe have a primary to kick the tires, that to me, that is saying have a primary just to see, just so you can have one.

If you want Tony Evers and you want Tony Evers and you're not going

to

entertain anybody in the primary, then you're doing it for show.

Can't blame him as the pressures have to be, but yes, absolutely.

Being the leader of a state, a city,

He's 73.

Yeah.

And

I don't want

to have to wait for cognitive decline.

I'm not talking, I'm not talking about cognitive decline.

Dan discussed that a lot in the article, especially in terms of Joe Biden and Tom on the live stream says Tony Evers is not Joe Biden.

That is very true.

That is a factual statement in reality.

But my point is, I think there is something to be said about any politician.

And I'm thinking of some Democrats in Congress right now where it's time to say it's time for me to go It's time for me to hand this off to somebody else someone I trust and this is the person or these are the individuals I see as the right people to entertain for the job I Think if he runs again the the point of a primary is almost pointless because he's gonna be the guy right he's gonna be the guy and Then there are people Democrats in this state

who might not want that, who might not want someone who's just a foregone conclusion.

And unless the Democrats make gains in the Senate and the Assembly, we're gonna be right back where we started from.

855-752-4842.

We're talking about Dan Schaeffer in the Reconpopulation area out with a new column.

We will discuss this more with him on Friday when

he

joins the show.

But should Tony Evers run for a third term?

855-752-4842.

Gene from Eau Claire on the line.

Good morning, Gene.

Thank you for joining us.

What do you think?

I think he should run.

I'm a big fan of Tony Evers.

Everybody would complain.

Oh, he's not from the TV enough.

He's not talking out enough.

He is a workhorse, not

a

soul horse.

Every time I call his office, I don't know him personally.

Don't know anybody in his office.

I get calls returned.

Most of the people I know that call his office.

He's an outstanding governor.

He was out there patching roads.

He's been down on our side of the state more than any other governor.

in the history of Wisconsin that I'm aware of.

He is a good governor and Republicans like him.

Independents like him.

I know some diehard Republicans.

They like him.

So I don't see any problem with this.

And I think starting out with somebody new with the way these people are and money that's going to be coming in, people feel secure with them.

You know, he may not be out there banging and drum, but he is doing work and he's talking to people and he comes to our side of the state frequently.

And he's good with kids and he cares about them.

And yeah, he's a great guy.

He can't ask for a better guy.

So that's just my opinion with the way things are right now in our country.

Really appreciate it, Gene.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

I like Tony Evers.

I think Tony Evers is a great guy and I

I especially love, and some people might use this to make fun of him, but I love the fact that he is not polished and slick and all of those things that we see from some other politicians.

He's a very genuine human being, I think.

I don't disagree with that, but I also disagree with what Gene was saying though.

It's like, if you're the governor and you are the head of the state and you are in a very tumultuous state with a lot of division politically,

you have to be a bit of a show horse.

And that's one of the things that Tony Evers has really not done well.

And that's to their detriment, which is- You mean to come out and say, here's what

I've done?

Here's what

I'm doing.

It's not bragging.

You're talking about your achievements.

That's a laudable thing.

That's important that people, you know, Gene talked about the independence and the Republicans that like him.

We need more people to know that.

And when you don't talk about those achievements, like Joe Biden did during his presidency, people are gonna be like, well, he's a terrible governor.

Do you know what he did?

He's done a lot for this state, and he's trying to do more for this state.

I don't dislike Tony Evers.

I like him as a governor, and I like him as a person.

But if he's going to run again, there has to be concerted effort to be the front guy, to be the one out there talking about his achievements at all costs.

He's got to shut down the narrative that he's done nothing because it's out there because anybody who doesn't like you is gonna say, well, what is he done?

Talk about it.

Say something.

That's

a good point.

8557.

He's got to be more braggy.

Yes.

Got to be a little more a little more braggadocious.

He doesn't even have to be send other people out there to do

it to talk about it.

Like it's it's not that hard.

How many times have we talked on this show about the time we're like, why aren't they talking about these things?

8557 524842.

Tom from LA.

Good morning, Tom.

Thank you for joining us.

What do you want to say about this?

Good morning.

First, we the people ultimately are the government and we must never forget that.

I think if the Democrats are going to have a primary that they need to stand on one thing and that's get all money out of politics and have public funding of campaigns.

And the thing is in Wisconsin, when you have how much money was spent in that Supreme Court race, that's just the regular race.

So I think what the Democrats need to do if they're serious about getting money out of politics,

And then you say in our primaries you are not gonna have money in politics

Yeah, okay, I mean I don't know how they're gonna do that and I think they want money in their politics right now because they need to run to survive But

well, especially if somebody like because I really think they're gonna tap Eric Havdie again I think the Republicans are gonna attack Eric Havdie because

he

can help pay for it because he's got the cash He can he can at least fund some of it himself, and I think that that's gonna be attractive.

Yeah

And Bill on the live stream says, if we use your thinking that it's time that Tammy steps down, we all know that progressives in the state want Ben.

No, thank you.

Ben Wickler for governor.

I haven't seen that.

I

don't know anybody who wants, and this is nothing against Ben Wickler.

I don't know anyone of putting Ben Wickler into the mix of that.

I've heard him talk about, I've heard discussions of Congress, but there's a huge field of people, Democratic stars in the state, but.

their stars.

Are they effective leaders?

You

can join us.

Join the conversation 855-752-4842.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We will be right

back.

Good

morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Bach.

Sweet Calbee on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can join us.

Call or text.

The number is the same.

855-752.

4842, leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream, on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter coming up after 11 o'clock.

Be listening for the keyword that you want to text in as part of our statewide Text to Win Scotty Summer Contest.

Who will give that keyword, Jane?

You and I. You and me.

Yeah, you and me.

You and me.

Yes.

You and me.

We'll be getting the keyword after 11 o'clock.

You want to text in via the Civic Media app and then you will be in the running for either a hot $100 in cash or a pair of tickets.

to see the Brewers' club level seats, and then everyone who enters is in the drawing for the grand prize trip.

So Scotty Summer, a getaway either in Baraboo or Dork County with gas money to get you there.

So that's coming up after 11 o'clock.

Be listening for that keyword.

You have four chances a day through this Friday in the 7-11

two o'clock with Todd and four PM with Maggie Dawn.

So be listening again, your next shot coming up with Tom Hartman from 11 to two keyword coming your way after 11 o'clock spelling counts.

So make sure you get it right.

Yeah, because I saw a whole bunch of entries coming in that were wrong yesterday.

And we would like you to

we would like you to get entered.

So that's coming up after 11 o'clock.

Did want to spend a little time on this because I remember last year was it last year or earlier this year?

No, it was last year when Western North Carolina was hit so hard by flooding after one of the hurricanes that had come ashore in Florida.

And this was not something that they expected because of the topography of the area.

But that area is still struggling.

And the Biden administration got all kinds of heat.

for allegedly which wasn't true using FEMA money to house illegal immigrants but there was all kinds of criticism coming from the right on The Biden administration isn't doing anything to help these people and that's you know terrible terrible.

Well, I got news for you President Trump has announced they will be phasing out FEMA after this year's hurricane season

Emergency managers around the country say they are baffled.

This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the federal government in emergency management and disaster recovery, a longtime FEMA leader says.

It is clear from the president's remark that their plan is to limp through this hurricane season and then dismantle FEMA.

Donald Trump says that governors should be able to handle it.

This should be handled, disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes and all those things.

This should be handled by the state level saying governors should be able to handle it and if they can't handle it then maybe they shouldn't be governor.

Western North Carolina by the way is still in trouble.

There are parts of Arkansas that are still in trouble.

There are areas of Kansas that are still in trouble and we are just at the beginning of hurricane season.

And we've seen Republican leaders

begging for help.

Josh Hawley comes to mind.

Sarah Huckby Sanders.

Yep.

It's... FEMA has already entered this year's hurricane season understaffed and unprepared.

Christy Nome, Homeland Security Secretary, says FEMA fundamentally needs to go away as it exists.

We all know for the past FEMA has failed thousands, if not millions of people.

President Trump does not want to see that continue in the future.

So we're going to let their state government fail them.

I mean, that's the thing.

That's a couple of things that really just grime my gears, burn my grits.

They burn my grits.

One, this statement has failed thousands, if not millions.

Okay.

Show me the proof.

Show your work.

What has happened and.

has FEMA responded to any of those failings because I'm sure FEMA doesn't want to fail people, but money constraints, staffing constraints, a cooperation from government leaders constraints, but also the other thing too is we just, they have failed.

So instead of trying to make it better to help, we're just going to get rid of it all together because this is a zero sum game.

And if it's not help, it's not helping, it's a failure and get rid of it.

And that's it done.

Federal and state emergency managers warn most states do not have the budget or the resources to replace FEMA infrastructure, even if the US government offers some assistance, but Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have made it pretty clear that they're going to be cutting back on that.

President Trump said yesterday, the FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment.

It's extremely expensive.

And again, when you have a tornado or a hurricane or if you have a problem of any kind in a state, that's what you have governors for.

They're supposed to fix those problems.

So suck

it up,

buttercup, I

guess.

So California government is threatening to withhold their taxes to the US government.

Is that what Wisconsin should do too?

If we're not going to get money from the state or from the federal government to mitigate these problems?

Then we shouldn't have to pay certain monies to the federal government that would have been used for dispersal for essentially a nationwide shared revenue dispersal this if Wisconsin's on the hook for these things guess what folks they'll never get paid for because as it stands right now this state house in Madison will pay for nothing They'll do nothing.

They're pretty consistent about that boss will find a real call.

He'll call it.

He'll call it a meteorological welfare.

That's what he'll call it

We don't do welfare in this state.

And if your house was hit by a tornado, I guess it's your fault for your house being there.

Well, I just really feel for all the folks who are struggling now and will be struggling.

Because again, we're just at the beginning of the hurricane season.

Although wait, I forgot.

The weather machine that Democrats controlled under President Biden is now under control of the Republicans.

So we won't have any more hurricanes unless they didn't read the manual.

News is coming up next.

Stay with us.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning and welcome, welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text the number is the same, 855-752-4842.

You can also leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

Delighted to be joined.

by our next guest.

He is the principal at Winskill Elementary School in Lancaster, Wisconsin.

Principal Brad Sturmer is here.

Good morning, sir.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Yeah, good morning to you guys.

Glad to be here.

Happy to have you here.

Really looking forward to talk about this.

I found this in WPR from Corrine Hess.

And the headline says this Wisconsin school excels at teaching math.

Can its approach work statewide?

So.

My co-host Greg Bach and I are both mathematically challenged, which is why we do what we do.

And I'm really fascinated by this.

What is it that you are doing differently at your school that is helping change these numbers?

Well, there's definitely a lot to it.

But it all starts with the people.

We have great people in place here at Winskill, teaching staff, sports staff.

Whenever I talk about...

Things like this and you know, how do you have the successes you do I talk about people structures and systems.

But it's definitely people first.

You really got to build a strong culture.

I started here seven years ago as elementary principal and that was the focus year one.

Because we had we had a strong team in place but culture and climate really needed to improve.

So that's kind of where I start with that conversation.

Jane is, you know, people first, culture first, and that's got to always be the focus.

Brad, what is your background personally?

I was a high school math teacher for 15 years.

I'm just growing up.

I loved math.

And it was a math major in college and decided to teach because I wanted to help others with, you know, with my math skills.

And

Yeah, so 15 years in that, the last three also did some administrative work as an assistant principal.

And then the elementary job came open in my district and kind of felt like what I was called to do.

And so now I'm here and I love it.

Good for you.

Thank you for doing that.

And I think teachers are heroes.

I could not do your job even for one day without losing my mind.

So I have so much respect for teachers.

Is it?

I always thought, Brad, and hopefully I'm wrong, that there are just some people who get math and others who don't.

Or is it really about the way that it is presented to people that's more of an issue?

Definitely the latter, you know, how it's taught to kids, because all kids can learn math and how to do it.

And it's, you know, unfortunately, the way that...

A lot of us were taught math, probably you guys and myself included.

It just isn't the way that it should be done.

You really got to focus on the why behind mathematics and building the foundational knowledge at these early ages is absolutely critical.

I mean, sometimes people overlook the importance of the early ages and education for some reason.

But yeah, the reality is if kids don't, if they're not at grade level by the end of third grade with regards to mathematics at grade level or higher, they're very, very likely to always struggle with math.

And therefore, what ends up happening is if kids struggle at math and then you're getting taught fourth grade, fifth grade, the subject that's very challenging for you, you're going to end up

basically hating it at some point.

Um,

well, and you feel like you feel like a failure.

You feel like you're at least I did.

It's like, there's something wrong with me that I don't get this and everybody else gets it.

Yeah.

And that's unfortunate because that's just not the case.

Um, and, you know, along with that, what comes, what comes with that too, that I hate math, I can't do math.

A lot of times behaviors will come up too.

Um, you know, because, and just think of us as adults, like if

If somebody's asking us to do something that's really hard for us, and we can't do it, and it's every day, right?

Every day, you know, we need to do this, you need to do this, like it's hard, I can't, I can't do this.

Well, eventually, you know, kids are going to have, they're going to have behavior problems

because they want to get out of

class or whatever it might be.

So.

Well, yes, thank you for making me show up every day so I can fail is essentially what it feels like, right?

Right and you know, can we blame kids for that?

I mean as think those as adults What would you do if you were asked to do something really really hard every day?

And and then you start feeling you know, like like you're just not like like you guys were saying like What's wrong with me?

So we really need it we nearly need to put the ownership on ours on ourselves as educators and leaders in education that it's our job To make sure that we do our job very very well, especially at an early

at an early age.

Well, so something that we've, you know, I've heard people speak about and I don't have children.

So I've never had an experience with it, but is, is quote unquote, the new math, which I think has been around for a long time anyway.

So it's not so much new.

It's just a different way of doing math in what you have created and being a math major, a person who enjoys math.

What was the process of changing this program for you?

Was it something you brought from your teachings, or did you sit down with teachers and say, hey, let's put together a program that will enrich all, will raise test scores, and will benefit all?

What is the history behind how you changed your approach to teaching math at your school?

I think it creates a sense of urgency.

When you look at data and you see that 40% of your kids are proficient,

Advanced and math like that's not good enough and you start throwing things at your teachers who really really love their kids and if you you know tell them that.

Which again this is the truth of kids are behind mathematically after third grade they're always gonna struggle at it.

And then you might be closing doors for kids so like if you have a third grader who wants to be a vet tech someday.

And, but they need to go to college for that.

And I, and I talked to my staff about they got to take algebra two, a lot, a lot of colleges need you to pass algebra two.

Well, that's a really hard class.

And especially if kids struggle that math through all the way up to that point, you create that sense of urgency, like this is really, really important.

And then this is how it's done, you know, like this is how we need to teach math.

And there's good resources out there.

You know that then we had we happen to have a good one in place When I got here, so then it's just a matter of doing it to fidelity And and when I say fidelity I'm careful with that because sometimes people think that means you do everything the textbook tells you which is just not true It just means you do it the right way all throughout the school in every grade in every class

And that's where it comes down to the structures and systems that I mentioned to you before.

And I can get into some detail with that, but I'll see where you guys kind of want to take

that.

Yeah.

Honestly, I'd love to know the detail because I think there might be teachers, principals, parents, and kids who might be listening because who want to know how to maybe implement new...

No techniques, best practices, things like that.

So please give us some details.

If you're just joining us, Brad Sturmer is our guest.

He's the principal at Winskill Elementary School in Lancaster, Wisconsin, and they're having success with the way they are teaching math and improving math scores.

And also we're going to talk about your literacy program in just a little bit.

But yes, Brad, if you wouldn't mind going into a few more specifics about how this works, what are you doing?

Yeah, and I'll start with quick reminder.

It's people first culture first always it's got to be the forefront of every conversation that anybody listens to This because without strong people without strong culture none of none of the structures and systems.

I'm going to talk about work One so one of the key structures is your your schedule, right?

You got to you got to have 90 minutes of math at every grade level and and there's a lot of

A lot of schools that don't have that.

I mean, our school, when I first got here, I kind of did an audit of the schedule and how much time you're putting towards math.

And I mean, some grade levels were doing 45 minutes a day, which is just unacceptable.

It's got to be 90 minutes.

You got to put at least 60 in there for core, just like what you're delivering to all students.

And then 30 minutes of some time that you can use to enrich your kids, the kids that need to be pushed in math.

And sometimes people lose focus on that, but there's a lot of kids that get bored with math because they learn it rather quickly or they already know it.

So that 30 minutes, you got to have time to enrich those kids, but also time for some interventions for the kids that it's a little bit more of a struggle for and you got to give them a little double dose of what you're doing.

So that's an easy structure to fix.

You got to have 90 minutes.

And then one big thing we did here at Winskill was we departmentalized.

And what I mean by that, so at fourth or fifth grade, we have three sections.

And right in the first year, I made a schedule where we have one teacher that teaches math all day, and then one teacher that teaches literacy and one teacher that teaches social science.

So our math teacher will teach all three homerooms in a 60-minute block.

And then later, I'll share my schedule with anybody who wants anybody that's asked.

So without getting into a lot of detail there, because there's more to it.

But just that departmentalization is big, because then your teachers can become experts in that field.

And they become, you put people that are passionate about math in those positions, and they can

all their professional development and all the books that they read over the summer and you know everything that they they because teachers love their kids and they have a lot of passion for what they do and if you put that passion towards one subject that can be really beneficial and it works so well in those two grades the first couple years we did it that we ended up moving moving it to third grade and we have a little bit different format for that but still it's one teacher teaches math all day we have third grade math teacher

And then it worked so well that we moved it down to second grade.

This past year, we departmentalized in second grade, and the teachers loved it.

Kids thrived.

My daughter was in that grade.

It was fantastic in second grade.

So that's been two big pieces there.

Well, that makes so much sense, Brad, to allow teachers to specialize in an area that they're really good at because I think

Our teachers are asked to do so much and to be so many things to our kids, their counselors and their peacemakers and their, you know, and then educators seems to be tagged on the back.

So it's nice that they're able to concentrate their efforts in an area where they excel.

Right.

And, you know, the reality is that elementary education, there's a lot of

teachers that got into teaching for great reasons.

They love kids.

They want to help kids.

But there's not a lot of teachers that get into education at the elementary level because they love math, like they're passionate about math.

For people like me that love math, went to college, got a math degree, teach, a lot of those people teach high school math, typically

high

school, middle school math.

But we can change that.

We can change where schools are built, passionate.

math teachers at the elementary level and departmentalization is one way that you can do it so they can have that focus.

Because those are a couple of the structures, but then, you know, just the how you teach math is really important.

You know, the tricks, the math tricks, you got to throw out the window, you know, like something as simple as solving for proportion, you cross multiply and divide, like that's the way you're taught, but why does that work?

And even when you're doing two digit addition and, you know,

five plus eight, three, carry the one.

Like all of those things, you can't talk about math that way.

And that's the way a lot of us were taught.

Absolutely.

So we have to teach it differently.

And it really boils down to the why behind mathematics.

Why does this work?

We're going to continue our conversation with Principal Brad Sturmer, Principal at Winskill Elementary in Lancaster, Wisconsin.

Stay close.

You are listening to Matt and Aaron here.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We'll be right back.

Good

morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvinator on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can join us.

Call her text at 855.

752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.

Our guest is Brad Sturmer, principal of Winskill Elementary School in Lancaster.

Nearly 80% of the students at Winskill either advanced

or meeting expectations in math, according to the latest report card from DPI.

So we were talking to Principal Sturmer about that and their successes.

One of the things you alluded to before we went to the break, Brad, was just about how

the importance of math and Greg and I were talking about this off the air during the break.

Math is in everything.

I mean, if you want to go into astronomy, if you want to go into science, if you want to go into the trades, if you want to be a musician, math is as much as people like me might want to avoid it.

Math is everywhere.

That's for sure.

So yeah, I would totally agree with you on that.

Uh, one of the things also, uh, sir, you wanted to talk to us about what you were going back and forth on, uh, getting you on the show was you also have a literacy program in your school that you, uh, wanted to discuss.

Can you tell us more about that as well?

Yeah.

You know, it's in the act 20, something that came out a couple of summers ago and.

There's a lot of good behind it.

There's some things that maybe a little flawed with it too, but there's a lot of focus on literacy right now in elementary education and as there should be.

But just saying that and you know, you guys maybe saw a little or heard a little bit of my math passion come out.

I could sit and talk about mathematics all day long.

But anybody that wants to

you know, when we talk about how we teach math, they got to talk to my teachers here.

They're just phenomenal.

We have a great staff, just an NA team, an all-star team.

It's amazing what my teachers can do in this building.

But, you know, with all the focus on literacy, which there needs to be, there does need to be a focus on mathematics still.

So, like, we got to keep that in mind.

But, yeah, with regards to literacy, we made some big changes.

with how we do things here Right after it was about 2020 And it all boils down to really having our teachers get dig in deep to the science of reading and really learn how kids learn how to read and what was fascinating about it was When I came down to the elementary level, I didn't have a clue how kids learned how to read not a clue

And obviously, I needed to learn fast because I'm an elementary principal and a leader.

Well, I was fortunate enough to have some people in my building.

My brother-in-law was actually one of them.

His name's Jim Addison.

And he's a literacy savant, really.

But he pointed me towards we need to dig into the science of reading, Brad.

And we, I did first, um, and at strange, I got quarantined and I just had some time.

And I, and I dug deep and I was like, holy cow, this is fascinating and makes a ton of logical sense.

And just my,

my

math brain is, I just think very logically, my brain works.

And I was like, wow, this, this makes sense.

And then my team, we, we, we dug into it together and then we just, we.

We did two years of professional development with letters, and it's a resource teaching about the science of reading, which unfortunately a lot of universities, now they're kind of forced to with Act 20, but they weren't teaching.

There's kind of a little debate with this, but they weren't teaching the science of reading to teachers that were going to teach kids to learn how to read.

So anyway, long story short, our teachers bought in, dug in, learned how to do it, embedded in the science of reading, and we're seeing a lot of positive gains, a lot of positive gains.

I'm curious as well, and I don't know that there's anything quantifiable about this, but do you believe that it makes a difference if parents read to their kids when they're very small?

Does that matter?

If they're what, I'm sorry,

something.

If parents read to their children when they're very small before they even get into school, do you think that matters?

100% yeah, just there's so much that goes into those those pre school You know birth to school that that we can as parents can help our kids with learning how to read and yes reading to them as one of them but just exposing them to a lot of vocabulary and Background knowledge is huge with learning how to read, you know, and it's kids on phones is just yeah, that's

It's really been detrimental for a lot of things.

Speech, you know, numbers are going through the roof.

So just like exposing your kids to rich, just things so they build that background knowledge and vocabulary.

Those are definitely backbones to learning how to read.

Well, and I just think for me, I have very fond memories of being very, very small and sitting on my dad's lap while he read to me.

But I think it is those kinds of

emotions and that gave me an affection for reading because of that because of that bonding I had with my dad so I think sometimes if you can instill that in your kids that will give them an affection for it then.

Absolutely just seeing your parents enjoy reading and

Um, and that goes, I'll go back to the math side of things.

How many times parents will tell their kids, I hate math.

I was no good at math.

Like, Oh, don't, don't say that.

Yeah.

My mom used to say, you got your, you got your, like your love for math for me.

And we both hate math.

I don't hate actually, I don't hate math.

I love math.

It's just unfortunate.

I can't wrap my brain around certain concepts because of.

the teaching thing.

But

you need to develop a remedial course for adults at Winskill Elementary for math, Brad, for the mathematically challenged adults in the world.

We could do that.

You catch on really quick.

He is the principal of Winskill Elementary in Lancaster, Wisconsin.

Brad Sturmer has been our guest.

It's been so interesting, Principal Sturmer.

Thank you so very much for joining us.

Yeah, no problem.

I enjoyed.

I love talking math.

Anybody that wants to reach out to me, I've had some people do that via email or whatever.

I'm happy to help because if I can help even one teacher out there, one leader out there, then it eventually helps kids, which is why we're all in this business.

Thank you so much.

We'll include a link in our show notes to Winskill Elementary.

We have news coming up next.

Stay with us.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Make them laugh, make them laugh.

Don't you know everyone wants to laugh?

My dad said be an actor myself.

Good morning and welcome back to Mattnare on Air.

Jane Mattnare and Greg Bach.

Calvin Ayer on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can join us as well.

Call or text at 855-75.

2, 4842.

You can leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter coming up in a little bit around 1052 or so.

We will wrap up the show with this shouldn't be a thing as we always do today.

It is the human popsicle edition.

Stick around for that.

And just a reminder, we have some baseball coming your way too, depending upon where you are listening.

The Brewers are hosting the Braves today.

Our broadcast starts at 1235.

You can catch the game on Terrestrial Radio on WRC and Richland Center, WISS and Oshkosh.

WRJN here in Racine and Kenosha.

WCQM and Park Falls and WBZH and Hayward, the crew hosting the Braves.

Our broadcast starts today at 1235.

And I wanted to share this real quickly too.

We had a comment on the live stream from Willoughby.

Greetings from Nick O'Ragwa.

There you go.

If you have the Civic Media app, you can listen to us anywhere.

We are everywhere in this world, and someday, I am serious, we will get to the International Space Station.

We're working

on it.

That's my goal.

We're working on it.

Hello, Willoughby.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for taking us along.

We are delighted to be joined in studio by a longtime friend of mine.

Hey.

Rich Smith is here co-founder of the Sixth Street Theater and over our head players here in Racine.