Rewriting History And Your Narrative (Hour 1)

Good, good morning, everyone.

It is mid-morning, and you are listening to Civic Media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am your host, and I am very, very, very happy to have you here today.

We have a wonderful show ahead for you today.

After the 9.30 news, Wisconsin Watch's very own Miranda Dunlop Lapis is here.

She's back, and today we are talking about...

Tech schools, tech education, and the importance of lifting that aspect of the educational world up and making it available to youngsters.

And the importance of having that conversation in a modern world where some kids do not want to go to a four-year college.

We have these options here.

And we're going to be talking to her about her story, highlighting a program in Appleton after the 10 o'clock news.

Excuse me.

After the 10 o'clock news, we're going to be speaking to Dr. Connie Ciskowski, who is the founder of the

the Association of Caregiving Youth, that is a group that deals with, helps with young people who have to be the caregivers for families.

So we'll be speaking to Connie in the 10 o'clock hour.

And then 1035, we want to hear from you.

Your thoughts on, you know, are you someone who had to give care to, to an adult, to a parent, to an aunt, uncle, grandpa, or grandma want to know about maybe your thoughts on education?

I am someone who has a very, very staunch

belief on the tech education world, getting people to vocational schools.

And also just want to hear from you about how your New Year's is going so far.

Are you planning those resolutions?

Are you executing those resolutions?

What are you doing in 2026?

And then finally, wrapping the entire thing up with this shouldn't be a thing today is the Crown Jewels Edition.

I'm actually learning a little something with this one today, but you don't want to go anywhere.

Have a great show ahead of you.

Lots, lots.

lots going on in the news today.

And I would be remiss if I did not bring up the fact that today celebrates the fifth anniversary five years since the insurrection, the Capitol riot that took place in Washington, D.C.

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this just because

We remember those days.

We remember what happened.

I just want to bring up a couple things of the fact that there is a there has been a movement over the past few years to rewrite and or erase the history of the January 6th rights those who gave their lives those who suffered as a result of this Insurrection this act of in my opinion.

It's my opinion.

This was a traitorous exercise that was in it was

put hundreds of people's lives in danger, and it's slowly being written by those who actually were in the room that day, those who hid for their safety, those who ran for their lives, those who were protected by the very Capitol Police who are now not being honored.

Still to this day, there is a plaque.

This is being reported by NPR.

There's a plaque that was made to honor law enforcement and it was by law to be hung in the halls of The Capitol and is not being done.

We've talked about this many times They believe it's in storage somewhere as it stands right now when you walk into the Capitol building there is no Remembrance there is no reminder of what happened five years ago today and I believe personally that is

a disrespectful act for the very group of individuals that some think are, you know, when we talk about back in the blue, we need to support them.

This is something that support.

I just wanted to put that out there on this, the fifth anniversary of the January six riots on Capitol Hill.

So I, another article has came out, came across the desk this morning out of Wisconsin watch regarding education.

It is

This just really kind of furthers the conversation we've been talking about for a while with regard to how our voucher systems are being paid for here in Wisconsin.

Hongyu Liu from the Wisconsin Watch published this article yesterday.

It's titled DataWatch.

Nearly half of Wisconsin private school students receive a taxpayer funded voucher.

And this is a great article.

It will be in the show notes.

And I, I mean, I love this article because it gives you the numbers, but it also gives you the details and the history and something that people might not realize about the voucher program here in Wisconsin is that it was the nation's first modern private school voucher.

I'm going to be pulling right from this article because he, Mr. Liu did such a great job with this.

It was launched in 1990 as the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

It served about 300 students at seven secular schools.

And it only qualified, it said the students came from families earning less than 175% of the federal poverty level.

And we as state taxpayers paid about 24, between 24 to $2,500 tuition for each.

So that's where we are.

back in 1990.

That was about $700,000 then.

$1.78 million adjusted for inflation.

Today, it stands that we are going to spend $700 million of our educational funding towards private school vouchers.

That is what's happened over the past 35 years in 2011 there was 23,000 students three out of four private schools About three about three out of four private schools student per year got vouchers This was something that was led very very very aggressively by former governor Scott Walker as well as the legislature Who a lot of them are still in power and they still run Madison right now?

It is an election year.

This is a hot button topic because we want to make school affordable.

We want to make education accessible.

We want to make our public schooling great.

And the problem I see that we've heard from many of our guests that we've seen in many stories is that

People do not believe public school is a viable option.

It's a good option.

People want to send their kids to good schools.

And I understand that.

And I want to be totally open.

I am an advocate and a believer in public schools.

I did not attend public schools.

I went to a private school back in the day, back in the 80s and 90s.

And I was actually texting with my mother before we got on the air because I wanted to find out about the tuition cost because it's not a, it's not, you know,

Private school education is not cheap, especially today.

And I asked my mom, she told me it was between $1,500 to $2,000 a year for me to go to Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha, which is a lot of money.

But back in the, in the mid 90s, dual income family, both full-time workers both have career jobs.

It was, I believe not.

In fact, she, I asked her a question.

I said to her, I said to her, I said, is it possible for a,

dual income family back then to afford to send a kid, me being the kid, to that school.

She agreed.

She said, absolutely.

Your dad and I were making fairly decent money and didn't qualify for any tuition relief, but having two incomes made a big difference.

Then, $1,500 to $2,000 a year.

We're talking about schools nowadays.

I believe CMH, where I went to high school, is more expensive than some stateside schools.

My point being is that we want to give our kids the best education.

I understand that and if you want to send your kid to a private school, I also understand that.

The big takeaway though is that from this article and the things we have talked about is that we are taking money away from our public school system and we are diverting that into private voucher programs.

We are allowing our public school education to be defunded.

and sent to a second school system completely.

In the article, it says taxpayers through school district budgets provide 10,877 for each K to eight voucher student and $13,371 for each voucher to students in nine through 12.

Those are.

for the kids who enroll in the three major voucher programs here in the state.

Each student participates.

There's a special needs scholarship program to get 16,000.

And that is going to increase by 4%.

And that, for me, is a problem.

And I mean,

It's hard to have this conversation once hard to have this conversation by myself because I feel like I want to hear from you guys I'm sorry I meant to tell you this you can always get in touch with us You can always be part of the conversation.

You can always be here on the show You simply just got a caller text the numbers the same 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic leave a comment on the live stream You we are on Facebook YouTube and this platform.

We still call Twitter You can also leave a voice note if you have the app get the civic media app if you don't already have it but

It's difficult to have this conversation because I'd never want anyone to think that I'm anti-education or anti the ability to send your kid to private school.

Absolutely.

If you want to send your kid to private school, that's great.

And if there is a place where we can create a system where there are scholarships or whatever available, but the problem is, is that we have a very

Very suffering public school system here in Wisconsin.

It's actually and it's better than people think I'm talking more about the numbers on that as far as private school education value versus public school education value But the fact the matter is is that when we're taking hundreds of millions 700 million dollars out of our public school system and diverting it into private school vouchers one

That is an immediate effect on the teachers in those schools, those students, the faculty, and it creates a problem that we have talked about over and over again.

That if they don't have the access to the funding, they can't give a better education.

They can't do what people expect and or want from them.

And on top of that, these private schools receive the money, and that's about it.

That's where the story ends.

And we're going to talk about that accountability when we return from when we're going to get some water and some snacks.

We'll come back.

We'll talk about accountability.

But this article in Wisconsin watch really lays out both the history and the details on where we've come over 35 plus years and what we have to show for it, especially in the day and age where we are now going to the polls.

to vote to raise our own property taxes, to fund our school systems because our budgeting every time doesn't allow for a general injection of funding.

That is another problem is that once again this budget for education doesn't do exactly what it should do and funfully our educational system.

It funds certain things, it funds

It raised the special education reimbursement, which is great, but it also did not really give any sort of general injection of funding.

And that also is the problem.

When you're taking money away and not putting money in, then I don't know what we expect from our public schools other than telling our teachers they have to do even more by way of paying for school supplies, working more, teaching longer hours, and putting themselves in situations that just make it maybe not the most fun to teach.

Therefore, the education is reflected.

That's not me knocking teachers.

I'm saying they're working within the conditions we are giving them.

When we're taking away funding or not giving them funding or both, they have to work with what they got and they're great for doing it.

But we're going to talk more about that on the other side and discuss the matter of accountability on the

voucher program, as well as hear from you, Jack from Merrimack.

I see you on the line.

I'm going to take you when we come back, but I'd love to hear more from you.

Some of you are educators, some of you are parents.

What do you think about that?

I mean, I want to hear from people like me.

I don't have kids, but I voted to raise my property taxes to pay for schooling because our leaders in Madison aren't leading.

And we see this story coming out saying that more money is being taken from that fund to fund private schools.

That to me is a massive problem for Wisconsinites and I want to know more from you.

So on the other side, go grab some water, grab some snacks.

We're going to talk to you about this discussing this Wisconsin watch article about the voucher program here in Wisconsin.

Don't go anywhere.

It's mid mornings on civic media.

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Good, good, good day to you.

It's mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am your host.

We are coming to you live from radio park here in Racine.

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We are talking right now about an article.

in the Wisconsin Watch published yesterday.

Yung Yuliu is the author of this article and we're talking about basically an overview of the private school voucher system, the taxpayer funded voucher system here in Wisconsin and its growth over 35 years.

It is influenced in our educational system and how it is

How is operating as far as me as far as us going to the ballot boxes to the polls and what it gives us as far as accountability and is there a positive outcome for taking so much money and diverting it to our private voucher programs?

And I got Jack from Merrimack on the line.

He's been listening and waiting patiently.

Jack, you were an educator, correct?

Good morning.

Good morning.

Yes, I taught for over 40 years.

in public, private, and parochial schools across the state of Wisconsin and in Minnesota.

And I've got a whole long to read.

I'll try to sharpen it up here.

One of the things that really bugs me is the last budget, $3,000 additional funding per student.

was given out of the surplus by the legislature to private school welfare

payment.

That's what I call

them.

It's just like any other welfare payment.

In private schools, roughly two-thirds of the people who are getting this money

have already were rich enough to send their kids to private schools.

That's the first thing that's irritating, which means there's essentially no practical means test on this.

Now, the second thing that happened is public schools were allowed to, not financed, but allowed to increase their spending in that budget by about a tenth of that.

I think the $125 per student, but only if either that amount was approved by referendum or elected representatives like the school board or county boards that allocate the funding actually decided to spend that money.

And a lot of school districts did, they had no choice.

They couldn't even open their doors without that extra money.

My property taxes went up about $600.

in the last year partially because of that.

Now, the next thing is, Bruce Connick in the Wisconsin Examiner had an article and it was as recent as last year, I believe, but basically.

students in the parental choice program, so-called parental choice, it's really school choice.

A school gets to choose whom to serve and how to serve it.

And I know because I taught in schools that were private schools.

In any case, they scored almost 17 points worse than public schools in English and language arts in that study and even worse in math, almost 20 points behind public school students.

So the voucher program

to try to improve it.

It's not really doing anything.

Well, Jack, you bring up a bunch of great things there, you know, and I want to start like the accountability of it all, you know, in this article, the DPI report card system they used showed, first of all, that the public schools, 85% of the public schools here in Wisconsin met exceeded or significantly exceeded expectations.

And the voucher schools had the same number.

And the problem is, is that

There is also insufficient data on those private schools because we don't have as much accountability for them.

You bring up also the fact that they can take anyone they want.

They can bring a kid in, they can take the money, and then if the kid doesn't adhere to whatever they like, and that is for another discussion for another day, they can kick the kid out, keep the money, and move along.

And also, yes.

Absolutely, Jack, you bring up a great point, the fact that, you know, people are having to go to their ballot boxes and vote to raise their property taxes, as I did Kenosha's measure did fail, but it's in fact what we are having to do, because as I believe...

We do not have real partnership.

We do not have real leadership and we do not have real investment from our leadership in Madison and That is a conversation a problem and I'm going to put this Wisconsin watch article in the show notes because I think again, I'm also gonna put a wonderful It basically just we've discussed as many times on the show Wisconsin Education Network put together this amazing website where you can go in

Tell them where you live and it will show you how much of your money is being diverted to what is being called a second school system here in Wisconsin.

You want to find out, you know, you live in Racine, you're going to find out right there how much money is being diverted and that is your tax dollars being taken away from school funding for this private voucher program and the last thing I want to mention too.

is in this article, they talked about the fact that these young kids from back in the day 1990, they had to meet a certain financial requirement.

It's understood, maybe you want to send your kid to private school, but you absolutely cannot do that.

Now that is not the case.

People who are more than able to send their kids to private school are utilizing these voucher programs.

And essentially, as Jack put it, getting an educational welfare program when they actually can afford to do this.

And that is the other problem that I have as well.

This conversation will keep going.

I know I'll keep going.

I could talk forever, but

We have a great conversation coming up after the break with Miranda Dunlap, also from the Wisconsin, Wisconsin Watch, talking about a wonderful, amazing program in Appleton and getting kids exposed to the world of manufacturing, technical education, vocational education, but more with that with Miranda when we come back.

Don't go anywhere.

You're listening to mid-morning on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I'm your host.

Be part of the conversation.

855-752-4842-855-756.

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Stay tuned.

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Good.

Good morning.

Welcome to mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I'm your host.

And guess what?

I'm also your friend.

You are listening to us on the civic media radio network live from radio park here in Racine.

If you want to be part of the conversation, you can always get in touch with us at 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

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We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform that we still call.

Twitter in this house and we've got lots of great shows still ahead.

We have Connie Siskowski, who is the founder and president of the association of caregiving youth to talk about the, the very not known topic of young people out there who whose lives are almost full time taken care of a parent, a family member, talking about what they face and how she with her group helped advocate and

give education to those who need it.

That's coming up after the top of the hour news.

And then 1035, we're going to be hearing from you.

Hey, are you someone who gives care to a parent who has been through this situation?

How is your 2026 going?

And talking further on the topic, we'll be talking about in a moment with our next guest.

We're going to be talking, excuse me.

Our first guest is Miranda Dunlap is a reporter for Wisconsin watch and in partnership with open canvas, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigating and elevating higher education.

Miranda covers pathways to success in Northeastern Wisconsin.

And she recently wrote an article about Appleton technical Academy and their current challenges.

I want to not just welcome Miranda.

I want to welcome back Miranda cause she's officially a friend of the show.

Good morning Miranda.

How are you today?

Good morning.

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm doing, uh, as my grandma says, peachy keen.

And, uh, really quick, how is 20, 26, everything you thought it would be thus far six days in?

Um, yeah, I can't complain.

Well, that's it folks.

We're done

for the day.

Well, I'm happy to have you on today to talk about this article.

I love talking to you.

Last time you were here in August, we talked about 911 Dispatchers in Brown County.

And today we're talking about something that I have a very deep passion for, and that's a technical education.

And this is a program in Appleton that's going on.

Can you tell us more about the Appleton Technical Academy, also known as ATEC?

Yes.

We will refer to it as ATEC, otherwise I'm going to trip over myself a ton.

But yes, it's a charter high school in the Appleton School District that lets students take classes that prepare them for advanced manufacturing jobs.

classes like welding, machining, um, mechanical design, electronics, those sort of things as they also do, you know, the typical things that you do in high school, like learning math, English, those sort of things.

And that, and that's an important point.

I'm glad you brought up because.

In my head, I am a graduate of Milwaukee Area Technical College, and we always think technical colleges.

We think vocational colleges.

But this is a high school.

This is for high school level, to prepare them for possible college, and therefore, and then on, correct?

Yes.

And at ATAC, they let students take classes of that.

belong to the local technical college while they're still in high school.

So the point is to give them a head start and hopefully they continue on to even more advanced education at the technical college, but hopefully have to do less of it once they get there and save money on.

that higher education,

so

getting a leg

up.

And that, I mean, it's when we talk about, when we're talking about higher education, when we're talking about college, we are always, in the article, it does discuss this matter.

This helps mitigate the cost of future.

college tuition, because that for a lot of young people, I love saying that at my age, a lot of youngsters, that is something that can keep them from going.

And so these programs can say like, all right, we can help mitigate that cost.

So you might owe something, but it'll be far less.

But also it can help this can help.

kind of demystify the stigma of technical education because I feel like for many years in this country that has been a problem and that's something that this that ATEC serves to do is saying hey we're going to take these kids who they might not like that this the the English might not be their jam but maybe as you said mechanical engineering is something they would like and here is here is that foothold in the door.

Yeah they really want to be of service and help prepare students who

maybe know that they're not going to go on to study literature or get a four-year degree in something like that, but really want to work with their hands and have a passion for that like real hands-on, skilled trade type of work and also expose students to it early on so that maybe they don't know that that's something that they want to do yet, but through taking some of these classes.

They sort of discover that earlier on.

So,

yes.

What is the funding process for ATEC?

How does it receive its funding?

Where is it?

Like, I mean, is it donations?

Is it state federal funding?

What is it?

How does that operate?

Yeah, it's funded exactly like all other schools in the district, really.

it receives the same sort of funding formula per pupil funding that other public high schools in the state receive.

The only difference is, you know, it got some grants when it was starting up to kind of help

help build it nowadays they do really try to get out in the community and solicit donations and both monetary and equipment wise to help keep it going because I'm sure you can imagine it's it's a different price tag to provide.

education that requires, you know, big fancy machines and tools and lots of, you know, lots of different equipment rather than, you know, pencils and paper.

So it's funded the exact same way.

But I think, you know, leaders there would tell you that that's not really enough.

So they have to kind of try to make up that difference.

And that's something that's, you know, in the article is

I really love this article and it's both very informative, but I will warn people it's kind of heartbreaking because, you know, as you put it, this is a school, the very specialized goal.

And it takes money to do that.

And in the article, I want to pronounce his name Paul Ender.

It's Ender.

He's a lead teacher at ATEC.

And he spends, as you wrote, he spends all of his free time, not just

working on his curriculum, but like going out into the community going to schools meeting people getting The school to be known because right now it is I think it says there.

It's the it's a it's a best kept secret, but it's not that's not their intent

Yeah, one thing I would love to really emphasize is Mr. Enter Paul he I mean you could really just call him Mr. ATEC because he is he's the lead teacher of the school, but he's really like

He spends every waking moment really trying to champion this and make it work and As you can read in the story, there's you know challenges that come with this but he is really he you know He told me he spends his lunch hour in his free time Calling local businesses trying to build support trying to solicit donations trying to

you know, it goes to other schools in the district and try to get students interested in coming and enrolling.

So he's really the champion behind the school.

And, you know, it kind of needs someone like that.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I mean, yes, I completely agree.

And that brings me to a point that I wanted to bring up is that the history of the school, which the school started about 12 years ago, 2014, 2015, it started with the mission that was based in, you know, it was, it was in.

partnership with a local business to help because they had a need for people to work in their manufacturing firm to find folks who could do the job.

So they thought, well, let's start a program that can get people going.

But over the years, that has kind of changed because of maybe the inability to find a lot of students to go here because of the challenges they face getting kids even to the school itself.

Yeah, it was born out of

really a partnership between a local plastic manufacturer and the school.

And they had said that they were having a, I mean, they're facing a problem that a lot of other workplaces are facing, which is that their workforce is aging and there's not a lot of younger people coming in.

And so they said, you know, maybe if we can get high schoolers excited about this, maybe that can sort of create a pipeline of people coming into these plastic manufacturing jobs.

You know, I think the

issue that is sort of played out or the difficulty is that that's like a very niche sort of job and it's very niche to, you know, maybe want to create a funnel to one business where, you know, it makes sense to maybe out of a few dozen students, a handful of them will go to this one workplace.

But, you know, students go on to complete technical degrees, some do go on to four year colleges, some, you know, go and

other directions in the skilled trades.

And so the school has kind of, I guess, brought in on that original mission a little bit, it seems like, and offers a little bit more than just preparing students for plastic manufacturing.

And if you're just joining us right now, we're speaking to Miranda Dunlap from the, from the Wisconsin watch and she wrote an article regarding a wonderful program in Appleton called the Appleton Technical Academy or also known as ATEC.

It's entitled, we can't do this alone.

An Appleton school prepares students for the skilled trades.

It's not easy.

One of the things, one of the challenges too is, is continual education for the teachers.

And as

When we think tech school, we can think plumbing and we can think electrician, but tech school training is growing and that means we have to have teachers who have an understanding of things like maybe AI and coding and robotics and that's a problem they also face because of maybe that inability to find teachers who can teach.

That's what I got from the article, correct?

Yeah, I think one of the problems that they've sort of run across is that they're teaching students how to use

really advanced complex machines and systems that, you know, not a ton of people know how to use.

And so they are really in need of people in the industry who do have experience with these tools to kind of mentor the teachers.

to teach them what they need to teach the student.

And you can imagine that that's difficult because if the problem at hand is that there's not enough people in these jobs, they're spread thin and don't have a lot of time to also mentor teachers.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's, I mean, I don't know if we'll have time to get into it, but there was another article that you wrote at open campus, kind of discussing this whole thing of like getting the teachers

I don't want to say quality.

I don't want to say any of these things.

I'm not trying to, to insult the teachers.

Like work so hard.

But then when certain programs come along, ask them like, well, would you like to learn more and go to school and learn?

They're like, I don't have time.

So it's

this, it's

this really, you know, they want to teach these kids, but they need qualified teachers in these.

these challenges they face on top of just as what you put in the article, Mr. Enter, Mr. ATEC, as I will refer to him, just trying to get the word out that this school even exists in the first place.

But I want to, you know, we're going to take a short break.

We're going to come back.

And I want to talk about the school itself, the students itself.

One of the best, you know, if you, when you see this article, like I said, there is some, there is a little heartbreak to it because it's about funding.

It's about education.

That's an ongoing conversation.

We were just talking about earlier, but someone like Izzy Chapel, who is a

at Appleton West, who, you know, it's not just about learning how to do, you know, the job.

She's also learning art there as well, which is amazing.

So I want to talk more about that and what the school means to the kids when we come back.

We're talking to Miranda Dunlap from the Wisconsin watch about a great article.

She wrote about the Appleton Technical Academy.

You're right.

It's hard to say.

Appleton Technical Academy, also known as ATEC.

We're going to keep the conversation going.

Don't go into any questions.

comments.

If you are a tech school kid or a tech school teacher, we'd love to hear from you.

Don't go anywhere.

We're keeping it right here.

You're listening mid mornings on civic media.

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good, good morning.

Good day.

You are listening to mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

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Also leave a comment on the live stream, Facebook.

YouTube and the platform, we still call Twitter after the 10 o'clock news.

We will be welcoming Dr. Connie Siskowski, who is the founder and president of the Association of Caregiving Youth, talking about young people who

as well as having education and living their lives.

They're also taking care of family member or a loved one.

And what goes into that and why we need to bring more light to this topic and the work she does through her association.

That's after the 10 30 news, I'm sorry, the 10 o'clock news.

After the 10 30 news, we're going to be just an audio sorbet catching up, reading your comments, talking to you.

If you've gone to tech school, I want to hear from you.

If you take care of a loved one, I want to hear from you.

If you're having a great 2026, as Miranda just told us, it's going, as she said, great.

But Miranda Dunlop is our guest today.

She is a reporter for Wisconsin Watch, and she published an article on the 30th of December about a wonderful program in Appleton, the Appleton Technical Academy, AKA ATEC.

And it's a program that gives high school students the opportunity to learn the technical skills that will possibly put them into the future jobs.

Jobs that are sustainable, good jobs, can't be exported.

They're wonderful.

I'm a big tech school advocate, but Miranda is here and I'll lead with a double question.

One, what led you to this article?

What brought you to this place, to ATEC?

And what was your experience while doing your research there with the teachers and the students?

Two really great questions.

Thank you First I think what led me to the story was oddly enough my editor worked at the Appleton Post Crescent for quite some time in a past life and she actually covered the opening of the school about a decade ago and She suggested that I

you know, see what's going on there and see how it's fared over the last decade.

And I think that's something that, um, you know, we journalists maybe should do a little bit more of is think about, Hey, whatever happened to that thing that we wrote about when it first debuted, how's that going?

Um, and so I kind of just set out to find, find out how it was going and it led me here.

So

wonderful.

And the thing I really liked about this article are the pictures as well, because the students I see, it's not, you know, there's a couple of guys in there that look like my cousins, the guys that I grew up with.

But then there's a young lady right at the top, Marwa Negravi, who is working on a mental project.

There's Izzy, there's Izzy Chappell, who is working on an art project.

So it's not just about one thing, it's about many things to these students.

What was it like?

talking to these teachers and especially what was it like talking to the students who attend ATEC?

Yes, the folks at ATEC were really kind enough to let us come in for a few hours during a school day and kind of roam around and observe and talk to students when we could.

It's always a little awkward.

You don't want to interrupt their learning, but you do want to hear from them.

I think as you can see in the photos on the article, it's really like a sight to see.

There's so much going on at once.

They have a massive lab that there's equipment that I couldn't even begin to tell you what it does or what it is.

There's so much noise of students using different tools, creating different things.

There's just tons going on.

But when you start talking to these students, you get a sense of, I guess, why this even matters, why the story that we're discussing about why it's a little bit difficult to provide this kind of education, why that matters.

And it matters because to these students, it's providing them an option that can be really life-changing.

It's providing them a space where they feel

like their skills are really tapped into and the things that they're good at are valued and seen and, you know, count towards something that will make a difference in their future.

So, you know, in talking to these students, I, you know, kept asking them what drew you to this?

What do you like about it?

All of them say,

I love the real hands-on nature of this kind of work.

And it's true.

I don't know that I really saw a pen and paper when I was in there, at least during the time that I was there.

It's hands-on, building things, using tools.

It's really involved like that.

Yeah, these students, you know, one student told me that her other classes, you know, can be difficult for her.

But, you know, when she's in the welding booth and working on something, that's, that comes naturally to her.

So, you know,

I, I, I'm all, if you're not watching the live stream right now, I'm all smiles because I love hearing this because I think that, you know, and this also fights against, you know, if you want to go to a four year college, that's fine.

I get that.

And you want to live that life.

That's fine.

I did that.

I have a political science degree.

Good job me, but my technical

same.

No, look at

us.

Yeah, exactly.

We're

on a,

we're on a live stream right now, Miranda.

We did it, but, but I also have a technical education too.

It's in a trade.

It's in a trade.

I was an apprentice and that means a lot to me as well.

And I think for these kids who can utilize their minds and their interest in something that not only can keep them going and, and, but also can make them money and create a career.

I think is very important.

And these types of stories, these types of conversations help.

Also get parents involved in the idea that maybe their kids aren't meant for for your school and these tech programs are a way to get them for a future that will help everyone.

So Miranda, thank you so much for being back again.

I really enjoy talking to you about this.

Miranda Dunlap is a reporter for the Wisconsin Watch.

She published an article on ATEC, the Academy of Appleton.

No, I got

it wrong.

Appleton Technical Academy, really appreciate your time, Miranda.

Please come back again.

Let's talk some more and have a wonderful day.

You as well.

Thank you.

All right.

When we come back, Dr. Connie Saskowski.

Good, good morning.

Welcome, welcome to mid mornings on Civic Media.

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How are you today?

I'm doing well Greg

good good Calvin tells me that when we have our text-to-win Contest that happen, you know every quarter or so you can be a part of that by giving getting the civic media app on your phone But yeah be a part of the conversation.

We'd love to hear from you, especially about this next topic We're gonna be discussing it's something that you know, I I love

reading these articles, but this is one that I classify as news to me, and I'm sure that won't surprise our next guest, who is Dr. Connie Siskowski, the founder and president of the Association of Caregiving Youth.

Dr. Siskowski, thank you so much for being here this morning.

How are you today?

Thank you so much.

I'm good.

Good, excellent.

Looking forward to this, um, helping to raise awareness about this otherwise hidden population of children.

Yes.

So let's start there.

Let's start first with the association of caregiving youth.

Tell me about yourself.

Tell me about this organization and the roots of it and what you seek to achieve with your work.

Wow, that's a big order.

Okay.

So, um, no, this

The genesis of this work was when I was in middle school and I cared for my grandfather.

And it was years and years ago at a time when trauma and children wasn't recognized.

And so what I experienced without support or recognition or value impacted my adult.

life until I was in counseling years later and it was pointed out to me that some of those challenges I felt personally, not really professionally, that that was the root of that.

So I went into health care ultimately in getting my PhD.

I went to

have a bigger voice for all family caregivers because that was the population I wound up working with and never expecting to be doing my research on a large group, really the first large group in our country of students.

I was able to accomplish that through a current survey that was being conducted by

middle and high school students in Palm Beach County in association with Palm Beach Atlantic University and it revealed that more than one in three of those children who were not of the and there were more than 12,000 kids by the way were impacted

by someone in their home needing special medical care, their participation, and their inability to focus in school, to complete homework, to attend school, and some combination.

And Greg, it was at a time when students, when schools weren't looking at what's going on in the child's life beyond the school that was giving them challenges and struggles with their schoolwork.

And they still weren't ready to address that.

Yeah.

And that's what your group seeks to do.

You seek to bring a light to these young people who are essentially like, you know, it's, I, you know, I was a youth many years ago and I do not, you know, it was tough.

You're trying to find yourself.

You're trying to do school.

If you're doing school and the top of other activities, but you're just also trying to be a kid.

And when you have

essentially,

trying to be normal, trying to find out who you are.

But on top of this, you are essentially have a part or full-time job taking care of a loved one.

That impacts you heavily.

And that's what you seek to do is bring a light to these young people and give them the advocacy that they so need as you say.

Right.

And it's not only a light.

So a light helps them to shine.

Within Palm Beach County, we're able to provide direct services so that they can have some extra support and recognition so that they can achieve personally as well as academically.

So we have a formal agreement with the school district.

which is the 10th largest in our country.

And so we identify kids beginning in sixth grade.

And I think one of the important things is that it's not just during the school year and it's not just like, you know, you have a mind picture of a child who's hungry and you know that if you provide resources and feed that child, they're no longer hungry.

However, caregiving isn't during the school year and it doesn't

often start in sixth grade when we have our first participants enter and it's often not over by the time the kids graduate from high school.

So it's the opportunity to build a trusted relationship with them to do home visits to see what else can

help their families and reduce the family stress because then there's a spillover effect onto the child and then to give them an opportunity to meet other kids just like them so they can feel normal and have bonds and have fun and just be a kid.

Yeah and I think that that's very important.

You said something earlier when you first started talking about this is that you know you're doing this thing

that you just are expected to do.

If you have a parent who needs or a grandparent who needs care, you just do that because that's what you are expected.

And I imagine a lot of kids want to help because, you know, that's their good kids.

But that has effects into your adulthood because of what is expected of them.

And do those individuals come into those homes and work with those kids to recognize that those mental effects too that can that, you know, help mitigate that.

So down the road in their adulthood, they understand why that might be happening.

As you said, it didn't occur to you until later in life, but helping these youngsters realize, oh, this is what you're going through.

This is what you can expect.

But like through almost like a mentorship program as well, giving them the tools they need to deal with what's going on.

Well, exactly.

And we do have a mentoring program.

But, you know, by allaying and helping them manage the stress today, it's an investment in them and in their families so that when they do become adults, that those effects are mitigated.

So

the investment is for today and tomorrow to help the children achieve academically

as well as personally.

And I would go one step further, Dr. Siskowski.

And by the way, if you're just joining us, we're speaking to Dr. Connie Siskowski, who is the president and founder of the Association of Caregiving Youth.

Their work is to work with those youngsters, young people who are giving care to loved ones, parents, grandparents.

And I would take it one step further.

I think it's for the children.

I think it's for the family.

And I think overall, too, it's for the community.

Because when you help take care of these problems at the root, then they can learn to function

I don't want to say normally, but like, you know, they are not going to be possibly dealing with, you know, these things can manifest in ways of addiction and other bad behaviors.

And if you can talk about it at the beginning, I think that it's not just about the family and the kids, but it's also for us as a community.

And I think that's wonderful, wonderful work.

I was reading Dr. Saskowski in a Johns Hopkins article, Johns Hopkins is one of your alma mater's I will add from where you got, where I believe you, you became a registered nurse from, correct?

Correct.

Correct.

It said in the article that I want to get this correct because it said an estimated 1.6 million youths, 15 to 18, and 2 million youth adults, 19 to 22, are caregivers representing 9.2 and 12.2 of their respective age groups.

Is that true?

Because if I'm not, I feel like in my research, it also said that there might be more than that.

Is that feel like a good number to

you?

Yeah, that number eliminates the children below a certain age.

And so the initial study looked at children ages 8 to 18.

The children that we begin with in sixth grade are about 10 to 11.

However, the day that they walk into sixth grade is often not the day that they began their caregiving.

So other studies have shown that there are at least

and more than 6 million children of all who are under the age of 18 who are providing this care, mirroring what adult family caregivers do.

And I would venture say, you know, I'm not an expert in this field, but I would also say that, you know, I would say the younger the child,

The more leeway I give with what would be a caregiver if a kid is 10 years old or eight years old waking up and organizing their parents pills And that's a that can be a simple job and then they go off to school.

That's still caregiving That's still them learning those responsibilities and over time they will okay today.

It's the pills next month It might be okay.

We got to get them to a doctor's appointment, you know, it's so they're almost They're training on a job that they didn't apply for

And often without education to support them.

Many when you do studies say that they learn through observation.

But you know that some of the children that are.

more impacted in a sense at least emotionally are those that are in single parent or single grandparent homes where always in the back of their mind is what's going to happen to me

and

particularly if that person has a terminal illness and often you know we see grandparents raising grandchildren

but then there's no support for when the grandchild, the grandparent gets sick.

And there's, I have to imagine there's maybe a familial or societal pressure say, you need to step up kiddo.

And the kid might be like, I'm 12.

Okay.

But there's no choice.

There's no, there's no other options.

So therefore there, as you said, they're thrusted into this with no training.

And they just, they have to, this is just another thing for them.

So yeah, I mean, it's,

We're going to talk more about on the other side of the break about the fact that this, you know, from, we're going to go from the home to really the nation.

And the fact that this is not a recognized, I don't want to say a situation.

I don't want to call it a problem because I don't want them, I don't want those kids to think that I think they're a problem.

But this, what they are in the middle of is not being recognized by the powers that be to get the kind of help they need.

It's organizations like the association of caregiving, caregiving youth that.

helps make a voice, but we're talking to Dr. Connie Ciskowski about this.

She is the founder and the president, and I would love to hear your questions, your comments on the matter.

Are you someone who gives care?

Are you someone who gave care as a young person?

How did that affect you?

Because, you know, I didn't even think about it.

I've never been that situation, doctor.

So I didn't even think about the long-term ramifications of doing that.

But I want to hear from everybody if you have experience in that.

But we're going to take a really quick break.

We're going to grab some snacks, grab some water.

And we're going to talk more about this wonderful topic with Dr. Connie Saskowski.

You're listening in mid-morning on Civic Media.

I'm your host, Greg Bach, coming live from Radio Park.

855-752-4842.

855-75CIVIC is the number.

If you want to call or text, leave a comment on the live stream.

More to come, including audio survey.

And this shouldn't be a thing here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good, good day.

Good morning.

Not afternoon.

I must have a good afternoon.

You are listening to mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I'm your host.

I'm your buddy, your pal.

We are very happy to have you with us today.

If you want to get in touch with us, you can always call or text the number is the same, 855-752-484-2855-75 civic.

Still lots of great program ahead, including audio sorbet, kind of wrapping up, talking about everything from the show today and then hearing from you over you, someone who went to tech school, someone who

gave care to a loved one.

We'd love to hear your story and what you experienced.

You can also leave that comment on the live stream.

We are on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform that we still call Twitter.

And then of course, wrapping the show up with this shouldn't be a thing today.

It's the Crown Jewels edition.

So don't go anywhere.

We're going international flavor.

But right now we are talking to Dr. Connie Siskowski, who is the founder and president of the Association of Caregiving Youth, discussing the not discussed topic of young people who are living

life, giving care to grandparents, parents, loved ones, and essentially be caregivers, having a job as a caregiver and what they face in today's world.

And Dr. Saskowski, one of the things you said in the secret show on the live stream was the major thing they face is invisibility and the fact that they face a sort of discrimination in their existence because

No one really recognizes the work they do, therefore it's not, there's no one out there really trying to do, at least on a, maybe on a governmental legislative level, do anything to help.

Well, that's so true.

And, you know, if you look at, you know, we're talking a little bit about solutions, right?

And there's nothing in the curriculum of teachers, of nurses, of pediatricians, of legislators, or other community leaders.

to help them understand about this growing population.

And so, you know, should it be our expectation that they should know what they don't know?

I don't believe so.

So we're trying to work with different universities and people to include issues about caregiving youth in the curriculum and also to develop policy on their behalf in our country.

So,

right now of the students we serve and they may not be a representative population because we focused a lot on Title I school so many of our kids are from families that require financial assistance and so they have other additional needs such as having to work.

to raise money so their family can pay the rent or provide so other things so you know we all have a limited time in our day and so students have a limited time to learn outside of school.

And so caregiving takes up some of that time, working takes up some of that time.

Another group of students may have to do babysitting, childcare for their youngest siblings.

With the increasing diversity of our population, many have to translate information from medical professionals.

to their loved ones and sometimes there's not the same language, much less the understanding of the child and how to communicate that.

So this is not like a simple issue.

It's not a simple issue.

of feeding someone and they're no longer hungry.

It's a very complex issue regarding individual situations because no family is alike.

Yeah and I think you know when you talk about that the educational portion of those who are lawmakers and those who can bring

not just they can bring the light, but as you say, more than a band aid too.

It's also about just perception on the whole from society and mentioning that, that some people just will, they don't want to deal with it.

So let's say we'll put the kid in foster care or do this.

Like they don't have a real solution.

They just don't want it in front of them because they don't know what they're dealing with.

They move on.

And that also is a, is a matter of education for just regular folks in society.

Correct?

Absolutely.

And for people that have been family caregivers, there's more of an understanding of the stress and the challenges that go with it, particularly if you're an employed family caregiver.

So if you look at school as a workplace.

of employed family caregivers, they have the same effects where there may be absent from school, where they may be present, but their minds are elsewhere because they always worry about what's going on at home.

And with more constraints on the use of cell phones, unless the schools cooperate and provide a landline for them to check in and understand why the kids, you know, continue to have stress at school.

So there's lots of things that even schools can do that are no cost, such as that example that can help.

um, reduce the child's stress because I don't know about you.

I can't learn when I'm under stress.

No,

you know, neither, neither can we expect children to do that.

And let's remember that their brains as well as their bodies are still developing.

So they need to be taught what's safe for them, um, in terms of like assisting with somebody with mobility issues, you know, using a walker, using a wheelchair, getting someone out of bed, lifting someone so they themselves don't

get hurt.

Yeah.

I think these are all just, I mean, this, this part is for want people to listen to that.

I want people to understand that, you know, when they hear about a young person who's taking care of a parent or a grandparent, that this is real work.

It's not just, you know, they're being good kid.

No, they're actually doing a job, a job that needs to be done.

And then we need to approach that with a sensitivity and an understanding and, you know,

I don't want to tell people how to live their lives, but if you can step in and say, hey, is there anything I can do, please do that.

If it's a ride to the doctor, if it's a walk down the street with them, anything you can do, especially to alleviate the responsibility of these kids, because as you said, they're developing, they're trying to be normal kids living their lives and any help they can get is appreciated.

And I appreciate your time, Dr. Saskowski, today to talk about this.

And as I said earlier, I'm learning about this because I didn't know about it as well.

Yeah, go

ahead.

We pretty much scratched the

surface.

Yeah.

Well, we can keep on talking about it.

And we'll have you back another time.

But Dr. Connie Siskowski has been our guest.

She is the president and founder of the Association of Caregiving Youth.

And we really appreciate your time today, Dr. Really appreciate you.

And I hope you have a wonderful day.

Please come on back.

Let's keep talking about this topic.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

All right.

When we come back, some audio survey talking to you about

Did you go to tech school?

Did you care for a parent or a loved one?

I want to hear your stories, but don't go anywhere.

Still got lots of great show ahead of you.

Mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good, good, good day.

Good morning.

Good time of the day.

It's 10 35 35 minutes after the hour.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am your host.

It's mid mornings on civic media.

You are listening to us live either on the air or over the live stream or on the app, but you can always get in touch with us by calling or texting 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

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That would be absolutely wonderful.

And I really, really, really appreciate you spending your time with us today with me and Kelvin on the mid-morning show.

And yeah, we're gonna have a great time for the rest of the time.

And right now, we're gonna launch it into something that we hear of always called Audio Sorbet, where we kind of just take a moment, step back.

cleanse ourselves, talk about things.

And we want to hear from you.

Have you been a part of, have you been a part of the technical college experience?

Earlier in the show, we talked to Miranda Dunlap from the Wisconsin watch about the Appleton.

Technical Academy, also known as ATEC, have you been a part of the tech school experience?

Did you go to a tech school?

What did you learn?

How has it affected you?

And how do you advocate for that tech school learning experiences?

You know, for me, I tell people all the time that I feel that tech schools are an untapped potential for young people and older folks too who want to try something new.

because it's not just about, you know, ATEC is for youngsters, it's for high school kids, but you know, you go to a technical college and you can be any age, you can try something new, try trade, try skill, get learning and maybe make a new start, but are you a part of that?

Are you in that world?

And also, have you been a caregiver to an adult, to a loved one, parent, grandparent, as a young person?

How did it affect you?

How did that...

you know, mold you into who you are today.

Are you still a young person doing that now?

We have Sue from Franklin listening on WAUK who texted in to say, I was the primary caregiver for my mom a couple years ago and desperately needed help.

As we were trying to keep her in her apartment, I was blessed to find two 17 year olds who were CNAs and provided amazing care for my mom.

I was so, I'm so encouraged by those young people.

I know so many adults mid to late 20s going into healthcare.

My daughter 27 is an occupational therapist.

My nephew is a physical therapist.

Excuse me.

And several of their friends are PAs and one is in medical school.

That's great to hear.

She goes on to say, and I had no medical training, but I learned as I went along, CNAs deserve so much more pay.

We were able to keep my mom in her apartment until she passed.

Just shy of 97 years young.

Oh my goodness.

Well, that's amazing.

I love that.

It took a village and that's really.

really, really true.

And Susan also brings up the fact that our Susan, sorry, Sue from Franklin said that she's listening to WA UK.

Susan is listening.

And she said, there are also so many spouses taking care of their spouse.

It's not just kids taking care of grandparents.

And Susan, I totally understand that we're not trying to

belittle or not say that they're, that those spouses are not a value of what they're doing.

But this conversation specifically was to talk about the youth who are taking care of loved ones and what sort of the challenges they face.

Everyone faces challenges.

You know, my mom, she took care.

I mean, if you ask me, I'm sure she would tell me, no, she's hopefully listening right now.

And she's going to text me saying, how dare you?

But I believe that she was the primary caregiver for my grandmother for many, many years.

And

At the age she was at, she was not a child.

She was an adult.

She was, I believe actually, almost a retired adult at that point.

It still had a great effect on her.

So my question to you would be is, if you know an adult who is giving care to a spouse, a parent, a loved one, imagine, and you see the toll it takes on the stress, you know, trying to find time to make everything work.

And just how it affects your every, you know, your waking hours, take that information and then apply it to a child who is the primary caregiver for an adult and how the challenges they seek.

So again, Susan, I appreciate what you had to say.

I don't discount the spouses and I don't discount anything like that.

I just, we were talking about the, we were talking about the youngsters.

And also if you are someone who did give care,

to, as a child, to an adult, Dr. Saskowski brought up something very interesting at the very beginning of that conversation.

And by the way, if you're just joining us, kind of doing an overview of today's show, if you didn't get a chance to listen to us, you could always go back to civicmedia.us slash shows.

Look for, we're still posting under Matton there on air, but this is our mid-morning show now.

And you can download it, listen to it, but Dr. Saskowski brought up something almost from the beginning of the interview, which was that

Because of mental health care she sought, she found that the effects of that caregiving she did as a youngster affected who she became as an adult.

And is that what you find yourself?

Are there instances where you see behaviors or things that had to be addressed that go back to the fact that, you know, and maybe at a very young age, you had to become an adult?

And...

At 12 you were taking care of a loved one.

How did that affect you now?

I'd love to hear from you eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five Civic love to hear from you leave a comment on the live stream and I thought something come here Really quick from earlier this morning.

Good morning to you my friend Greg exclamation points to you and He asked the questions

How do January 6th and September 11th compare?

I mean, I think that's a whole of the conversation, a whole of the show.

I would say that in one instance, the government handled it with a swift sort of quote justice than what we're doing now, but that again is for another conversation.

Today is the fifth year anniversary of the insurrection, the attack on Capitol Hill.

and we are slowly seeing the erasure of its history, its rewriting of its narrative, and luckily NPR has put together a historical database that is based in all of the cases that they researched, so we do not lose that history.

Because history is written by the winners, but not anymore, not with this.

We want to make sure we are always remembering what happened on that day.

I remember where I was at.

I was at my job in a barbershop.

And I remember seeing it happening.

And I remember standing up and saying to my coworkers, this doesn't look right, but we can't forget that.

And we also want to acknowledge those who were injured and gave their lives protecting the Capitol, protecting the very people who are trying to erase that history, not hanging a simple plaque that says, here is where this event took place.

It's said in the NPR article, there is no real remembrance of what happened at the Capitol building.

It's been subtly and systematically erased.

But we don't forget, because it was only five years ago, that's why we gotta keep talking about this.

And that's why we appreciate you being on the air.

But Greg, I would say, how does January 6th compared to September 11th?

I will leave that question for someone who is far more researched and smart than I am.

But yeah, we appreciate that comment.

We appreciate you getting in touch with on the live stream.

And if you have had experience in technical schools, if you've had experience taking care of a loved one, Calvin, is that something that's touched your life as far as taking care of a grandparent or anything like that?

Do you have any experience like that?

I do not.

Yeah, no, I don't.

My grandmother, when she was reaching the end of her life,

she

went to an assisted living center that I cooked at.

Okay.

That's not really care, caregiving.

And then after she passed away, my grandpa spent a lot of time at her house, but he didn't really need caregiving.

We just had dinner with

him.

Just had dinner.

Okay.

Well, I mean, that's, don't discount the work you did.

I'm just saying that right there.

But, but yeah, I get that.

Um, I mean, when I was young, my grandpa lived with us, lived with us for a little while.

He was going through cancer treatment, but it really wasn't taken care of him.

He was living a life of was very, you know,

He was still very healthy at the point, except for, you know, of course having cancer, but he was, you know, he was operational.

He didn't need a lot of help other than being in his seventies, teaching our bird how to swear.

But that wasn't a fruitful measure on his part, but it was fun to watch.

But yeah, it's something that also has not touched my life.

And I didn't think about it until I read this information about Dr. Siskowski is that, you know, when we were young, you just do the thing cause you're told to do the thing and we do the thing cause it's, you know, be a good kid.

But the ramifications, especially for those who are in single parents, single grandparent homes, these are kids who are being forced to grow up very quickly.

And that's why I want to bring up the whole point of if you've gone through this and have recognized that that part of your life has affected who you've become, I'd love to know more about that because I think that through therapy, through consultation, through talking to people, we can find out more about ourselves.

And I'm a huge advocate for that because really when it comes down to it,

You know, we do the work we need to get done, but we also have to take care of ourselves as we see fit.

And if we can recognize those signals and recognize those signs, it's important to address them.

So yeah, we'd love, love, love to hear from you on that.

We got a lot of great show coming up for you for the rest of the week.

Very, very excited about everything going on here.

You know, we've had some questions about the show.

And I mean, we are no longer a matinee on air.

This is, you know, we're, we're just, we're the mid morning and we're doing mid mornings here from nine to 11 still carrying the mission of.

of Matt Nair on air, which is great conversations, talking to people on the topics that affect us all as Wisconsinites as our friends in Michigan, who might be listening, our friends, our friends all over the country and all over the world, because the conversations like this is what we really want to bring to you.

That's what we did on Matt Nair on air.

And that's what we're going to continue to do with Calvin and I. And of course, Tucker, our great senior producer.

We got Dietrich and Meg from Eau Claire.

Last time I talked to Dietrich and Meg.

was Thanksgiving, and they were making it really difficult not to get in my car and drive the necessary hours to be at their dinner table.

But we're talking about this topic here, and I'm wondering, Dietrich and Meg, what say you on this?

Good morning, Greg.

We have kind of a dovetailing of both subjects.

Yeah.

Meg grew up in Eau Claire and was living on the West Coast, and that's where we met.

and her mother fell ill with dementia.

And we moved back to be closer to her and eventually she moved in with us and passed away at her home.

Pat was an instructor at Tipola Valley Technical College as well.

So she taught refrigerator math, technical math, like so.

really an important part of, you know, Meg's life and also the fact that, you know, this very intelligent person who is teaching complicated math, you know, falls, you know, falls ill to this horrible disease.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's a hard thing.

It's really a hard process.

And what you're saying, taking time for yourself and to take care of yourself.

That's, that's incredibly valuable.

I can be

Thank you, Dietrich and Meg.

I can hear Meg in the back.

Hi, Meg.

Good morning.

Good morning.

And I think that's important too, because yeah, I want, I want people to think about that because one thing that Dr. Saskowski discussed was the fact that we don't really think about what the kids go through.

We know our friends, we're adults.

We know our friends and what they go through.

Now apply that sort of situation on a child and what they may go through as well and build that sense of connection and that empathy.

And if you have the opportunity, reach out and try to help Dietrich, Meg, I really appreciate you calling in.

listening and sharing your story with us.

And yeah, that, that's what we're talking about here is building those discussions and with people here in the community.

We're going to take a quick moment to grab some snacks and grab some hydration.

When we come back, it's, this shouldn't be a thing.

Crown jewels edition.

It's an international flavor today.

Don't go anywhere.

You're listening to mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach coming to you live from radio park and Racine.

As always be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic.

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good day.

Good almost afternoon.

Good morning.

It's mid mornings on Civic Media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I'm your host coming to you live from Radio Park here in Racine, along with my compatriot, my board's guy, the board lord, the man on the ones and twos, Mr. Calvin Butenhof.

We are here.

on, uh, on Zivic media here for you, having a great time, hoping you are having a great day.

And I really appreciate you spending your time with us after we're done.

It's not over folks.

We're going to keep going after the 11 o'clock news.

There's Tom Hartman from 11 to two.

There's John and Gordy in the afternoons from two to five.

And then from five to six or five to eight, it's Pete Schwab up with night.

Like who, by the way, I got to check my calendar here, Calvin, uh, really quick here.

It's going to let check my, my social calendar.

It's important to keep up with everything going on here.

I will be on nightlight myself this Friday at five 35.

So don't miss it because when they have me on the show, as one person put it, I am definitely on the radio at that point.

So nightlight from five to eight here on civic media, but stay close.

We got a lot going on.

Calvin, did you have a comment?

Was there something you want to say?

I was going to say.

Don't miss Greg.

Greg is going to be on Nightlight to discuss his favorite movie franchise, James Cameron's Avatar.

Absolutely.

I'm a fan of all three of the available films and I can only think about right now.

I mean, like right now I know I'm talking to you right now, Calvin, but all I'm thinking about is what is part four going to do to further extend the story of these flying blue water creatures?

I just, I don't know.

And how will it also then make a billion dollars is beyond me.

But that's for me to find out with Pete Schwab about this Friday on Friday, 5 30 on nightlight.

But yeah, we got lots of great programming ahead and appreciate you sticking around, sharing your time, sharing your stories.

Thanks to everyone who called and texted really, really appreciated tomorrow.

It's Wednesday already.

We are halfway through the first full week of January.

I don't know why that's just how time works, but Mark Somerhouser from the Wisconsin policy forum is going to be here and we'll be talking about basically

the state's budget and helping the listeners, myself and the viewers, how does that impact the state's budget impact the taxes?

Our taxes, the taxes we pay, the things that, you know, pay for the stuff, make the lights go on.

But yeah, Mark Sommerhauser from the Wisconsin policy form will be here at 10 o'clock and we would love to have you part of the conversation.

So yeah, Calvin, 2026, our show, what are you thinking so far?

You liking it?

Yeah, we're rocking and rolling.

We are rocking and rolling and that means if it's, you know, it's 1055.

It's the last, it's the last portion of the show.

We got a rock and roll right in the next segment called this shouldn't

be a thing.

If you ever have a thing that should not be, you can send it on to Calvin and me.

And you can use actually the Jane says email.

Jane says at civicmedia.us.

Jane says at civicmedia.us.

Send us your Tisbat.

Send us your guest idea.

Send us your topics.

We'd love to hear from you, but that is where you can find us for right now.

That email still works.

Jane says at civicmedia.us.

Today's article comes from the AFP.

And then no byline today.

Just it's just that's it.

It's entitled wrong crown jewels.

Streaker bears all for Japan Emperor.

Now, before we get going, I'm not going to lie.

Sometimes I have to confess that I don't know certain things and I feel kind of like a dodo bird right now, Calvin.

I didn't know that Japan still had an emperor.

I thought that I thought that went away.

So

I also, I mean, I guess I didn't know that they

Like yeah, I didn't know that they didn't have an emperor like I guess I would assume it's kind of a Similar to the royal family.

Yeah in which we also mean no disrespect to the Japanese emperor if he is listening to the show right now if he is an awesome Let us know your thoughts Civic media, baby.

You can if you are you in Tokyo, where are you in Japan right now, sir?

Emperor.

I don't know how to I've never there's mr. President.

There's prime minister never referred to an emperor, but emperor

Narohito was finished giving his 2020 26 greeting from a balcony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo when a man in front of in the front row in the gardens removed his clothes and climbed over a barrier and but was immediately restrained the Tokyo police

took him away in a blanket and led him away.

The investigative sources told the broadcaster that the man in his twenties who was not named had announced on social media his intention to strip naked at the annual address.

The event includes brief remarks, no briefs from this man, he was naked.

And from the emperor and who he waves to the crowd with the rest of the Imperial family from the balcony.

It sounds very, it sounds once again, like you said, Calvin, very much like the.

the king of England, like you make an address, wave a little and you go back inside, maybe have some tea.

It says, legend has it that the Royals are descendant from the sun goddess Amaterasu and can trace their lineage back 1000.

Now I just feel like they're just giving a history of the emperor because that was it.

The story is basically the guy announced to the world he was going to do it.

He did it.

And in much like just like what I equate to what can be Japanese efficiency, it happened.

They covered him and they took him away.

There's no, there is no,

No state there's no status on the person who did it.

It seems like it was dealt with the family The family of the emperor with the emperor is is is no political power under the post-war Constitution, but remains hugely symbolic.

So yeah, it's basically, you know

Basically like the king of England or the royal family.

So it's a nice little thing to do.

It's decorative, if you will.

Sorry, Mr. Narahito, Emperor Narahito.

But yeah, that seems like a very interesting story to me.

Just like, you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to go streak the emperor.

And I did it.

And then I got taken away.

And that's it.

And that leads us to the end of another edition of

This Shouldn't Be a

Thing.

As always, I want to thank Calvin.

I want to thank Tucker.

I want to think traffic.

I want to think engineering without those individuals.

I wouldn't be on the air right now.

I'd be talking into a non-operational microphone.

So without their help, I really appreciate them.

And I wouldn't have anything to talk about.

That's interesting.

So they're all making this show happen as they see fit.

It is wonderful.

And I appreciate them.

I appreciate the callers, textures, listeners.

Without you, there's no us.

You can always be part of the conversation.

And again, do not go anywhere.

After the, after the news break, we're going to have Tom Hartman from 11 or two and then great programming throughout the day.

And we hope you join us tomorrow for a great discussion with the Wisconsin policy forum on how the state budget will impact your taxes.

Other than that, have a great day.

Take care.

Have fun.

Be safe.

You're listening to the civic media radio network.

My name is Greg box.

Stay tuned.

Stay informed and stay close.

I used to think that this was my town.

What a stupid thing to think.

Good.

Good morning, everyone.

It is mid-morning, and you are listening to Civic Media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am your host, and I am very, very, very happy to have you here today.

We have a wonderful show ahead for you today.

After the 9.30 news, Wisconsin Watch's very own Miranda Dunlop Lapis here.

She's back.

And today we are talking about tech schools, tech education, and the importance of lifting that aspect of the educational world up and making it available to youngsters.

And the importance of having that conversation in a modern world where some kids do not want to go to a four-year college, we have these options here.

And we're going to be talking to her about her story, highlighting a program in Appleton after the 10 o'clock news.

Excuse me.