Teacher Transparency Is Going To Sink The Democrats – With Stanley Kurtz: Should students be able to choose their pronouns? Should 10 year olds be given condoms or children be told to find pornography? Why are teachers trying to dismantle social constructs that have stood for centuries? Are we going to see a seismic shift in education? The more parents have seen what’s in our schools, the more they’ve disliked it. Tune in to Stanley Kurtz discuss new legislation calling for greater transparency in the educational system!

Air Date: 02/15/2022

Guest: Stanley Kurtz

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It is WallBuilders Live and you have found the place where you will be able to hear a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective on all the hot topics of the day. We’re taking on all the hot topics, whatever the issue is, we’re going to say, what does the Bible say about it? 

What can we learn from history? And of course, what does our constitution here in the United States say about it so that we, as citizens of the United States, can operate effectively, constitutionally, legally, peacefully, but also with a biblical worldview for how to do this for God’s kingdom? So we’re thrilled that you are here with us.

My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And I’m here with David Barton. He is America’s premier historian, our founder here at WallBuilders. And Tim Barton is with us. He’s a national speaker, and pastor and president of WallBuilders. All three of us, you can learn more about at wallbuilderslive.com. And that’s also the place where you can make your one-time or monthly contribution.

Thank you to everybody out there that comes alongside us. Every time you donate to WallBuilders Live, it makes it possible for us to train more pastors, train more legislators, train more young people, all the different things that we’re doing. Thanks for coming alongside us and being a part of that.

Alright, guys, later in the program. Stanley Kurtz back with us, has another great article on teacher transparency is going to sink the Democrats. And what he’s talking about here is just this whole, people are realizing just how bad the public schools have been on the CRT thing, and so many other topics. 

And the Democrats, instead of changing and turning away from that, they just seem to be embracing it and defending it. They actually are trying to cover it up, prevent transparency. So he’s got a really good article we’re going to have on our website today at wallbuilderslive.com. But we could see a real shift, I mean, a seismic shift in education across the country as a result of what’s happened in just the last six or eight months with all of this.

Virginia: The Poster Child

David:

Yeah, you know, what we’ve seen with CRT, certainly, Virginia was kind of the poster child for that back in October, November and they were the national ones, but then it started popping all over the country. I mean, just you would hear it around you, you’d hear in state after state and even in your own backyard you heard this stuff. 

And it was related to CRT. But then all this other stuff started coming out. But wow, once we dug into CRT, we found out they’re also teaching our kids this or that or whatever. And this turned into a real cesspool and parents aren’t liking it.

And so I’ve watched even with our legislative network, as legislators are calling in saying, hey, we’ve got all these parents upset over all the pornography that has been taught in third and fourth and fifth grade, and they want something done. And so we’re seeing that parents are seeing more and more of what’s in there, and they’re not liking it.

Tim:

Well, guys, one thing too, I can tell you, so as a young adult 40 this year, so on social media, Instagram, for example, you guys probably are not on Instagram very much, and I’m grateful for that, I’m not recruiting you to Instagram, you don’t need to be. Let the younger generation have that one. But one of the things interesting is looking at some of these social media sites, there are a lot of really strong conservative voices on some of these social media sites.

And one of the interesting things these conservative voices at times will do is they will share videos of some of these woke leftist teachers actually recording some of what they are teaching students in the classroom. And so for example, there are several videos I’ve seen just in the last week or two of elementary teachers who are transgender teachers, who have the students go over preferred pronouns and it’s not Mr. or Mrs. or he or she, but it’s they or it’s them, and they’re really showing this happening. And they say, look, we’re not indoctrinating the kids, we’re just showing them the way life works now as if that’s not a level of indoctrination.

But there there’s actually social media groups that for example, on Instagram, they share, TikTok we know is one of the fastest growing social media things there is. We know young people are just consumed with TikTok. Now, obviously, there’s YouTube and other things as well. But TikTok is a problem for lots of reasons, not the least of which China controls it. 

What China Is Doing

And China is doing a bunch of data gathering and so they want people to be on this so they can gather your data and your information. And that really is going to be some level of kind of the value of the future is who has the most data can have the most control, etc. So there’s a lot of issues with TikTok on that level.

But among the other issues on TikTok because so many people are getting on there, there are so many videos that are the pro-LGBTQ+, transgender, non-binary, etc, etc, etc. And among this there’s a social media group that exposes, it’s called Lips of TikTok. And they just take videos of some of these liberal teachers saying some of the craziest things. 

And I’m saying it’s crazy as someone coming from a conservative Christian position. Because you hear some of this stuff and you’re like, wait a second, nope, there is actually male and female that is biological, that scientific, those things do exist. Then you hear these teachers saying there’s no such thing. These are all social constructs, and etc, etc.

But there are groups on social media exposing some of these things. And the reason again, I bring all this up is most parents have no idea how much this is happening from teachers in public school. Most parents have no idea what these teachers are actually teaching the students on levels dealing with dad, you mentioned with even some of the sex Ed kind of curriculum. 

There are actually teachers, and we’re talking about sex Ed curriculum in public schools now starts in kindergarten in many school districts where they’re promoting different genders and sexualities and ideologies. But you’re looking big picture.

David:

And by the way, not only does it start in kindergarten, they get so advanced that by the time they’re 10 years old, they’re giving out condoms to 10-year-old boys, and they’re given that birth control pills to 10-year-old girls. So that’s how far you’ve come by the time you’re in fourth grade.

Sex-Ed Class

Tim:

Well, one of the things that is now being revealed on some level is that they’re actually school districts where these purveyors of this sexual, whatever material and is supposed to be whatever sex Ed class is, there’s actually students being told, if you don’t understand how sex works, you just need to watch pornography videos. So literally, children are being told to go watch pornography videos, which is unfortunately very accessible and readily available in this day and age via whatever interwebs. And I’m not going to give details, because we’re not trying to be educational on that level.

But the reality is you have teachers actually telling students that you just need to watch porn videos. And that’s how you will learn how sex works. This is the kind of stuff. If parents had any idea, they would be outraged. And granted, most of these people who are doing this shouldn’t be teachers in the first place. 

They don’t have the moral underpinnings. They don’t have the understanding. And this, unfortunately, is where a lot of public schools are, where there are teachers in the public school system that are teaching such nonsense. And parents have no idea what’s going on.

David:

Yeah. And it’s interesting, Tim, as you mentioned, these teachers say, oh, you’re just trying to create a social construct, male and female. Yeah. And you’re trying to create a social construct. So it’s crazy that they say, well, you guys are, but they’re doing exactly the same thing in the opposite direction.

Tim:

Well, let me point out. So when someone says you’re trying to create a social construct, this is a social construct that is not being currently created. This is the social construct since Adam and Eve in the garden. This isn’t something new that’s being originated. Well, you’re just trying to create this. No. No. This has already been created. What you are trying to do is dismantle the reality of human being saying there is male and female. So you’re trying to create a construct.

So this isn’t even an apples to apples kind of situation. This is people trying to destroy the foundation of society, which ultimately would say the foundation of society is a family. But a family consists of a mother and father. That’s the way God intended and God put those together. 

And I understand, right, there’s different dynamics. And I’m not trying to get into some of those details right now of a single parent home. But the reality is there’s a reason God made male and female and put them together and they’re the ones who have kids. That is the fundamentally best for kids. 

We Must Be Careful 

And statistically, you can show kids that grew up with a parent, with a mother and a father have better outcomes, whether it be emotional, social, academic, etc. It is better for kids to grow up in a home where there is a male and female influence on their life, pouring into them, helping them learn to grow.

All that to be said, what we are seeing now is literally these woke people, not just teaching bad history with the 1619 project, or critical race theory, or something of such nature. We’re seeing them go further to the basic reality of life, of who human beings are, of human sexuality, of gender, of whatever the case is. This is where we have to be very, very careful looking at this public education system.

And fortunately, there are things that are actually happening in states, we work with a lot of state legislators, and there’s actually state legislative bodies who are working to pass legislation to expose some of what’s going on. And actually, Stanley Kurtz is the guy we’ve done a lot of stuff with for a lot of years.

He’s worked with a lot of state legislators. And there’s a new piece of legislation that deals with transparency for parents, where parents should be able to see and know what their kids are learning so that there can be a level of accountability between parents and teachers.

And a lot of teachers unions don’t want transparency because they don’t want accountability. They don’t want parents to know what’s being taught. They want to keep it and conceal it because they think they’re smarter than parents and parents would disagree, even though they think it’s best for the students. That’s where some of the battle is. But one of the good things happening is states are actively working to engage in this cultural war, and to work to ensure transparency for parents to know what’s being taught in the classroom.

Rick:

Stanley Kurtz, our special guests when we returned right here on WallBuilders Live.

AMERICAN HISTORY

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today wrongly claim our founding fathers were largely atheist agnostics and deist. Certainly, some founders were less religious than others. But even they were not irreligious.

Consider Benjamin Franklin, definitely one of the least religious among them. Yet, when the delegates at the Constitutional Convention hit an impasse in their deliberations, it was Franklin who called them to prayer, invoking numerous scriptures to make his point. As he reminded them, “God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aide? We have been assured in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this.”

So even the least religious of America’s founders urge public prayer and dependence on God. For more information about the faith of the founding fathers, go to Wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. Always good to have Stanley Kurtz with us. Stanley, thanks for coming on again, sir.

Stanley:

Rick, thanks so much for having me.

Rick:

Well, thanks for great article bringing more attention to this education issue: debacle for the Democrats; opportunity, frankly, for parents across the nation. And you made me realize just in the article, I had not seen this on this new kind of legislation, this kind of transparency and education. This is exciting to see. And I’m curious about where this came from and where you think this might go in some of the states that we have the best chance of passing it.

Stanley:

Absolutely, Rick. Everyone of her has heard, of course, about the critical race theory legislation. And I back that myself, it’s very important. It’s out there. But what people haven’t heard about is something I think is equally important. And that is legislation that would mandate transparency in what schools teach. In other words, we need a law to give us information as parents about what is actually being taught in the school. And you need that for a number of reasons.

The most important is how can parents take a hand in telling schools, what their curriculum should be, since that’s what’s happening now on the ground and it’s so exciting, unless they know what is actually being taught? And right now, we really don’t know that the state standards and even the local curriculum guidelines are so vague. 

The Teachers Have Too Much Flexibility

And the teachers have so much flexibility, that they can turn a simple lesson about, say, the government policy toward the Indians in the 1800s, they can turn that into an exercise of political agitation to change the names of all the local areas to their original Indian names. And I’ve actually seen something like that happen.

And so until you have transparency, you don’t know. And on top of that, you can’t really effectively enforce these critical race theory bills unless you actually know whether the teachers are teaching it or not. 

And we’ve actually had thousands of teachers pledge publicly, not to mention the ones who won’t say it openly that they’re not even going to follow the critical race theory laws that bar the teaching of that. So we need a law to force transparency.

And right now, as you note, the Democrats are almost uniformly against those kinds of laws. And just as Terry McAuliffe suffered tremendously in his race for reelection for governor in Virginia, lost to Glenn Youngkin because he said parents shouldn’t be involved in telling schools what to teach. If the Democrats fight teacher transparency, I think they’re going to go down politically, just like McAuliffe did.

Rick:

And it was almost like a gift to parents around the country because it woke them up. I mean, they’re paying attention now like never before, both because of what happened in Virginia and then just the whole COVID thing, just the education at home, the Zoom classes, the scene, what was actually being taught, in some cases really awakened parents. And what you’re saying is at the state level, legislatures can pass legislation saying, you’ve got to have transparency. 

I think you mentioned in the article, the Goldwater Institute, releasing the Sunlight in Learning Act. So it’s got some model legislation there, you folks could take to their legislators encourage them to do, or legislators that are listening could pick that up. But it, basically, would be a state statute saying, hey, local schools, you’ve got to let parents know what’s being taught; and when they come ask questions, you got to give them answers.

Sunlight in Learning Act

Stanley:

That’s right, Rick, and the Goldwater Institute’s Sunlight in Learning Act, which they can just Google up, or they can Google an article of mine, where I talk about it called, “Will Teacher Transparency Sink the Democrats?” And I linked to the model in that. And that model is really something special because it’s not like pass transparency legislation. In the past, no, you’d have to say what textbooks you’re using, and even then parents had to examine materials in person during working hours and so most people couldn’t do it.

The Sunlight in Learning Act is different in a number of ways. It really puts everything onto the internet in not close to real time, so that not only did the textbooks have to go in there, but the teacher’s lesson plan has to go in there. If the teacher passes out a handout that they’ve constructed for their particular class, that has to go on to the web. 

So you can really see broken down by the teacher in the class, exactly what they’re doing. And of course, if they withhold something, the student comes home with a handout and you find out that that hasn’t been put on to the website. Well, then you can complain about that and there are enforcement provisions.

Rick:

I love it. I love it. This is good news. There’s such, I think, interest now that wouldn’t have followed this in the past. It was just so much faith in the local public schools and they wouldn’t do that at my school. And I don’t think people realized how pervasive, not just CRT you mentioned, I mean, there’s so many other areas, parents need to be informed about as well. And so now I think the demand is there.

And I think you lay it out in the article, by the way, we’ll have links today, folks, you can get to the article, we’ll make sure you have easy access to that. You can go straight to National Review, or you can go to wallbuilderslive.com and we’ll have it on the website today. 

But you make the argument for that, that, hey, if Democrats continue kind of this living out and now actually saying, basically, they’re our kids, not your kids, and we the government know better than you and parents shouldn’t be involved in these decisions, if they stay that path, I can’t imagine it not being just massive defeat all across the nation for them.

Stanley:

Exactly. And as you pointed out, Rick, the situation really parallels the one with COVID. Here we have a situation where I think even parents who are independents, and many of them who are grassroots Democrats, moderate Democrats, are getting very exasperated with the teachers unions and their policies on closing schools and masking. But the teachers unions have a such a stranglehold on the Democrats, that the Democrats are stuck with a losing issue.

States Are Taking Action

And the same thing is the case here. I think your average parent, whatever their political affiliation is going to say, well, of course, we ought to have transparency; naturally, who ought to know what’s being taught in the school. Who’s going to be against that? Well, the only people are the teachers unions. So the Democrats are trapped.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah. It’s very, very interest. It’s going to be fun to watch. And I don’t recall which how many of the states have off year sessions or every year sessions, I should say. I know in Texas, we won’t be having a session this year unless there’s a special session. But most states do meet. So there are opportunities for this to happen in 2022, right?

Stanley:

Absolutely. Most states do meet on a yearly basis. I know that Texas is definitely working on… There are legislators in Texas who back the CRT bill, who wants to have a Goldwater style transparency bill there. 

We had bills previously in Pennsylvania passed by a Republican legislature, vetoed by the governor. We had a North Carolina bill that passed one House that didn’t fully get through. We had a Wisconsin bill passed by a Republican legislature vetoed by a Democratic governor.

I think Arizona’s going to have a transparency bill this year, probably see one that really makes its way in North Carolina. I think Florida is going to have one. I don’t think it’s too early to know all the different states. But truly, people should go, you know, let them go to their representative if they think this is a good idea and tell them it’s not too late to make your representative aware of this if it isn’t already planned. Because once you show them with a winning issue, this isn’t how it’s of course substantively totally important, I think they’ll respond.

Rick:

I think we’re going to see even some Democrats in hotly contested districts possibly jump on board. They’re going to read the tea leaves on this. But it’s going to take the pressure from parents as well. Stanley, fantastic article, man. Thanks so much for sharing with us today.

Stanley:

Thanks so much for having me, Rick.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

The AMERICAN STORY

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story. For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today.

And we would say very providentially in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America, whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil, and everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things, like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself, not out the statement Black Lives Matter, but the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on, and this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America.

Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America not as the story of a perfect nation of a perfect people. But the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out, wallbuilders.com, The American Story.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Stanley Kurtz for joining us, the full article available right now at wallbuilderslive.com. David and Tim, okay, so as states kind of grapple with this and look for ways to empower parents, because that’s really what this is about–

I mean, I keep seeing these images of the school board members just sit there motionless, emotionless, no facial expressions, got the mask on, parents go up and testify saying really smart logical things about all this nonsense is going on. And the school boards, they just think they’re completely insulated, and they don’t owe any responsibility to the parents. So we’re going to have to have some legislation in some states to basically break the stranglehold they’ve got on the schools.

David:

Yeah, we got to have legislation. But we’ve also got to have parents running for school board. Good news is in the last election November, I know of 78 new school board members in Colorado that ran on this kind of a platform, that is time for sunlight. Bill Bennett used to say, the former Secretary of Education under Reagan, he said sunlight is the best disinfectant, and he’s right. 

The more you bring it to the sunlight, the healthier things become, because it starts killing the viruses and killing the bacteria and killing the harmful stuff because that stuff does not like light. That’s what the Bible tells us.

Transparency is Key

One of the purposes of light is to bring to light the hidden things of darkness because light kills bad stuff. So that’s what this bill is all about. And we’ve really seen a need for that in so many areas. I know of a number of parents who are smart enough to tell their kids, hey, anytime a teacher tells you don’t show this to your parents, show it to me immediately, show me what it is. And so because a lot of these kids were trained to do that, they tell their parents when the teacher said, don’t show this to your parents.

And so whatever the issue is, whatever the thing is, is coming out, one of the big things has come out in the last couple of weeks is how many teachers are actively not just teaching but recruiting kids into a transgender lifestyle. One parent recently testified that, hey, I had no clue. 

But my daughter is going to school and becomes a boy when she’s at school because that’s what her teacher told her to do. And so she changes her clothes, changes her name, changes her pronouns. And when she gets back home, she knows that’s not right. So here at home, she’s still my daughter. And this has happened now number of multiple occasions.

So handouts that are being given to kids, directives that are being given to kids, parents just don’t know. And so this bill that’s out there is anything that goes out in the classroom has to go up on the web. And once it’s upon the web, you’re accountable for it. And so if you’re doing things that are in the wrong direction, or if you’re doing things that even violate state laws and make cases, you’re going to be accountable for and this is a really healthy move.

Tim:

Well, as Stanley pointed out, this is a battle happening in a lot of states right now, he pointed out there are states that are going to be more favorable to this, whether it be a Florida or God-willing, hopefully, a Texas, you can look at some of your stronger conservative states and think that’s probably positive legislation is going to happen there. But it’s not going to happen without a fight. Because the teachers unions think that they are smarter than all parents and think that they should be able to control what kids learn.

Wokeism in Education

And this is where unfortunately, you see in academia, you certainly see it at the upper levels of academia, at universities, the “wokeism” and leftism that is so entrenched and ingrained in that system, in that culture, in these individuals, but that higher level of learning, so to speak, academia, they’re the ones that are teaching so many of these new and upcoming educators who are getting in the system and are working to fundamentally transform education and really transform the students in education with so much this propaganda. So this is something very important.

As we’ve been pointed out in the interview, Stanley and Rick, talked about that as individuals, we need to reach out to our state legislators, we need to reach out to our state senators, and even our congressmen say, hey, guys, this is a problem, we need to fix these problems. Parents need to have a level of accountability. There needs to be some kind of checks and balances.

And this is also one of the reasons, guys, that we have seen the explosion in the homeschool movement. We’ve seen a growth of Christian schools over the last two years of private schools over the last two years. Because the more that this gets exposed, dad as you mentioned, the notion that sunlight is the best disinfectant, the more that this gets exposed, hopefully these problems do get resolved and restored. But a lot of parents are recognizing if this is going on, that is not a healthy environment from a young person.

So I encourage every parent that you need to be very engaged and your young person’s education, whether they are in a public school, then you need to especially pay attention to what’s going on. But there are some private schools, there are some Christian schools that are teaching some of this woke indoctrination as well. 

And so you need to be very engaged in discovering what your child is learning, who’s pouring into your children to make sure we are protecting them and instilling in them the biblical values they need going forward.

Rick:

Well, friends, we are out of time for today. There is more at our website. If you go to wallBuilderslive.com, we’ve got an archive section. So you can actually dial back into interviews from the previous weeks or Good News Fridays, Foundations of Freedom Thursdays, all available for you right there at our website. Again, that’s also the place where you can make your one-time or monthly contribution. Believe me, those dollars make a difference.

Teacher Transparency Is Going To Sink The Democrats – With Stanley Kurtz

You know, the Founding Fathers gave their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. I used to encourage people to set aside 1-3% to give to candidates and causes and organizations like WallBuilders, or Patriot Academy, or some of these nonprofits out there that are doing essentially parish church ministry, right, they’re doing the things that churches are supposed to do in the culture.

But now, man, we’re in a situation where we’re watching the American culture die right before our eyes. We have got to revive this thing. And that means we got to shift our focus. It doesn’t mean we have to despair. We don’t have to give up because we know what’s causing the problems. Bad leaders are doing bad policy, right. T

hey’re putting in bad principles, and that’s producing bad results. Well, how do you change that? You got to get back to truthful principles. You got to get back to the principles of liberty, instead of the principles of tyranny. And that’s what we do. And that takes a little fuel to make that happen. And that’s why lives, fortunes, and sacred honor is so important.

So at this point in time, when the culture is desperately needing that kind of input, I’m encouraging people, man, you got to start shifting the focus, you got to start spending more of your time, your money, your effort, all of those things, to help us save the nation. So instead of 1-3%, I’m telling people, hey, man, figure out a way to start investing 10, 15, 20% of your income into all of these different organizations and candidates and all of these causes out there. 

So I just encourage you in that, start thinking about that, praying about that, pray for good candidates to give to, pray for discernment and where to donate, but your finances, your time, your effort, all of that will make a difference. Work the system, the system still works. God bless you and thanks for listening. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.