The question that is in the top of my mind is how we get this money. This supposedly aimed at the most needy students and the lowest performing students. What's the measure of improvement for this money coming in? [00:00:16] How much is it improved the performance of these students? Tennessee Republican state lawmaker John Reagan questioned yesterday whether the state should accept federal funds that, in part go toward feeding [00:00:33] school children unless it can be proven he needs to see the receipts. He needs to see the proof that feeding these kids actually improves their performance in school. And you know what? Great. What a worthy experiment. Instead of running that experiment on kids, though, let's let's run [00:00:50] that experiment on this lawmaker. Hey, Reagan, how about you starve? And then come to your state's capital and see how that impacts your focus and your ability to do your job. Let's do that. Let's starve you. [00:01:06] Now we'll get back to our friend John in just a minute. But here's what you should know about what's happening in Tennessee. What the lawmakers there are trying to do and why it could be a massive issue. So the legislature has set up something known as the Joint Working Group [00:01:22] on Federal Education Funding. And what they're trying to do is determine whether the state of Tennessee can reject. They're looking for ways to literally reject $1.8 billion in federal education funds. [00:01:39] Okay, so Tennessee receives 1.8 billion in title one idea and other federal program funding each year, which support low income students, students with disabilities, and school lunch programs. Oh, man. Federal funds to support low income students and students with disabilities. [00:01:59] Let's find ways to reject that money. That's literally what they're looking to do. Now, the working group was appointed by House Republican Speaker Cameron Sexton and Republican Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, and the group is comprised of six Republicans. [00:02:15] And, oh, look, there's a lot of equality here. Two Democrats from both the House and the Senate. So six Republicans, two Democrats, the Joint working Group on Federal Education funding is reviewing what funding state and local governments in Tennessee receive from the federal government, how the funding is used, whether the state could [00:02:34] provide the same services, and whether it would be feasible to reject the funds. Now, the members are tasked with recommending a strategy for how to reject that federal funding by January 9th. And that's the day that the legislature is scheduled to return to session next year. [00:02:52] Okay. Now, Tennessee would in fact, be the first state in the nation to reject this money 1.8 billion in federal education funding. Tennessee, I should note, is doing really well in the rankings for education in the state. Out of 50 states, they have ranked 33rd, 33rd. [00:03:09] Everybody give them a big round of applause. So let's try to find ways to cut funding to public education. I'm sure it's going to work out great. Lieutenant governor Randy McNally justified the move by saying, quote, the education of our youth is one of the essential responsibilities [00:03:25] of our government. Federal dollars in the various mandates and restrictions that come with those dollars affect the way Tennessee's children are educated. Due to our state's excellent financial position, this is a worthy subject of examination and study. And Cameron Sexton added, or argued that it would allow us to create an education [00:03:45] system that fits the Tennessee model and allow teachers to teach without the federal government trying to tell us what to do, the state will pick up the cost and still fund those things, but we will be free of the federal regulations. And look, if they are genuinely doing well in the state of Tennessee [00:04:04] and they have the ability to reject the federal funding while still maintaining the services that the public education system provides, that's fine. But something tells me that's not the case. So let's come back to our good friend John Reagan, [00:04:20] who expressed concern that accepting money to help low income and hungry students might not really be a worthy cause. He thinks it might be useless. And then he tried to care. Tried to pretend like he cares about food waste. [00:04:35] Look, I'll steal, man. I'll steal man. I'm going to pretend like everything he's saying is in good faith. So let's listen to his argument and then we'll dissect it. - Let's watch. - Correlation is not causation. Anybody that knows statistics will vouch for that. That said, though, if we are tying ourselves to the federal government [00:04:54] by accepting their money to do this thing, then it would seem to me that we as a state should be looking for the improvements that this money is purportedly going to make. Otherwise, we're just throwing money at something and being potentially wasteful. That goes back to the other issue that I ask about, though the compliance issue. [00:05:14] Yesterday a question was addressed concerning the nutrition program related to the waste that's involved in that. To my knowledge, there is no measurement of that waste. Are you aware of any measure? [00:05:30] In terms of food waste? Yes. I'm not aware. I'm no, I don't I don't know the answer to that. I mean, it is rich to hear a guy who looks like he hasn't skipped a single meal, [00:05:46] questioned whether these children should be fed school lunch, and whether being hungry has any impact on their ability to perform in school. I'll give you a little bit of research. I mean, there's a lot of research out there. We'll give you one example of that research. This is a 2014 report. [00:06:02] Children who do not get sufficient meals are more likely to repeat a grade. Elementary children who participated in a school breakfast program in Massachusetts did better on standardized tests than those who qualified, but did not participate. Similarly, students in a universal free school breakfast program at an inner [00:06:19] city school showed improved math grades six months after the start of the program. But, you know, there's no evidence, according to John Reagan in Tennessee. And so, I don't know, was maybe that's where they need to cut corners. [00:06:34] Maybe that's where they don't really need to spend any money. You know, it's I'm sure it's useless. What do you think? It. This is ridiculous. On about 7000 different fronts. Obviously, this guy couldn't present a case for not feeding [00:06:51] a financially disadvantaged students. On the federal government's dime. Just the idea that the state government would say, no, we don't want these federal dollars. There's no like there's it's essentially free money outside of certain standards [00:07:10] that need to be kept and met at your public institutions. It's essentially free money. And this idea that like, no, as a state, we should say, screw those stipulations and we'll cover the windfall. That's just bad math. That's bad accounting. [00:07:26] No accountant would ever tell you to do this. They would say, take the money, figure out how to make it work later. As far as the stipulations concerned, $1.8 billion is nothing to sneeze at. And where I think these people air Anna, is that I think traditionally when you [00:07:45] could paint a program as low income or, you know, financially disadvantaged, you could code that as essentially the black and brown people of our state, people that we don't need to care about. But this ain't the 80s, Jack. After deindustrialization, after free trade, after the shipping [00:08:03] of all these great jobs, a lot of your constituents qualify for these benefits. That's right. And nobody is going to say to themselves, my kid doesn't deserve free lunch because it came from the evil, disgusting, sick federal government. And so that's why this is a stupid calculation on this dude's part. [00:08:21] Totally agree. And look, I can't help but think about this story in a broader picture, right? So when you think about how much we pay in federal taxes and where that money ends up, it is infuriating when you see so much spent [00:08:40] on honestly enriching defense contractors. And look, I get how it works, right? Like, yes, we get taxed. And the idea is that money gets used or allocated for various things, various social programs, yes, the forever wars that are going on. [00:08:56] But what's really happening is like the Federal Reserve prints money, not literally, but they just create more money. And so whenever it comes to funding whatever Israel is doing, right, an additional $14.3 billion, there is no debate about it. [00:09:15] Obviously, we need to provide those resources to the Israeli government, regardless of what they do. Whenever there is a discussion about our resources, helping our communities, helping the American people, why is it that there's always a group of [00:09:32] politicians, whether we're talking about on a state level or federal level, looking to cut that funding? Always. I mean, recently I was on the Stich and Adams show and I said, no, no, I totally get why people think taxation is theft. [00:09:48] I personally do not have a problem paying my taxes. I get how things work. I do have a problem when any time there is debate over a program that would benefit the lives of the people around me, we get nickel. Nickel and dimed. Okay. [00:10:04] Oh, I don't know. Do we really need to feed schoolchildren? Is that really a worthy cause? But when it comes to other, you know, other efforts having to do with funneling money to either defense contractors, corporate subsidies, [00:10:20] all of that stuff, there's no debate. When it comes to lifting the debt ceiling, the Senate parliamentarian ceases to exist. Okay, but when it comes to passing, you know, a program that actually makes child care accessible, affordable for American families, we can't do it. [00:10:38] Sorry. There's no will. It's just it's infuriating anyway. Obviously. State Democrats are against what Republicans are trying to do with cutting or rejecting the $1.8 billion in federal funds for public education. But I want to actually go to education officials who are speaking out [00:10:54] against this effort as well. So leaders from four school districts spoke during that meeting that you watched some video from, and they each shared how their districts use that federal funding, emphasizing the importance of federal dollars to programs like nutrition and supporting students with disabilities. [00:11:12] For instance, Memphis Shelby County Schools Interim Superintendent Tony Williams said that the district receives $92 million in title funds, which supports students who live in high poverty areas. She also said the district receives $89 million in federal funds [00:11:29] for the nutrition program, which for many students is their only food source. Doesn't sound like a worthy cause. Of course. You know, let's start with those kids and see how they perform. For example, we have food that we receive on a weekly basis. Some of these students wouldn't get an opportunity for food if it [00:11:47] wasn't for our food nutrition program. This country. The fact that we even have the problem to begin with, the fact that we have so many struggling Americans of all backgrounds, of all political persuasions. Like the fact that there are so many people struggling in one of the richest [00:12:05] countries in the world just disgusts me. And it doesn't need to be this way. We know it doesn't need to be this way. Obviously, the way that the wealth is distributed in this country shows that everything rises to the very top. We should not have children starving in the richest country in the world. [00:12:22] But here we are. And as we try to find solutions for it so they can at least be focused enough to do well in school, you literally have lawmakers trying to find ways to cut those programs. That is the easiest way, the most accurate way to summarize what's happening in Tennessee. [00:12:37] All right. Any final words on this was. Yeah. It's just important to remember the two things that you often hear, especially from the right wing, about quote unquote, federal dollars. It's one there's a lot of waste. He mentioned the food waste, which he pretended to care about. [00:12:54] Food waste. Somehow we never tie those stipulations when we give it to the defense industry. We never tie those stipulations. We didn't. If you remember 2008, that was one of the biggest critiques. There were no stipulations placed on the banks when the Federal Reserve [00:13:10] basically guaranteed the bond market during the pandemic. There were no stipulations. Nobody said, oh, if you get this icky federal money, you're going to turn lazy. You didn't earn it. Nothing. We never hear that from anybody else. We just put those stipulations, or we act like these things are supposed to matter. [00:13:29] When the federal the federal money is supposed to be allocated to normal, everyday people. And so that's what I would just encourage readers, excuse me, viewers, to think about when you hear about waste or when you hear about the lack of incentive, and when you hear about, you know, government being too big. [00:13:47] You never, ever, ever, ever hear that when government resources are being allocated for the powers that be. 100%. Thanks for watching the video, guys. We also love it if you hit the join button below, because that makes you a member. And members allow us to be independent, honest. [00:14:04] We could be as progressive as we want. No corporate media influence. And that's all because of you guys. We love doing the show with our members. Hit the join button. Become one of the Young Turks.