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Joy & Justice with Steve and Kelly: Episode 4 - Fight for Fairness: Roe, Rights, and Representation
139 Plays4 months ago
Joy and Justice: Key Issues for Arkansas - Restoring Roe, Red Flag Laws, and Legislative
Updates: Good morning, Arkansas! Join Kelly and Steve Grappe as they wrap up your Thanksgiving week with headlines, insights, and inspiration. This episode tackles critical topics like the Restoring Roe, Red flag laws, and the proposed legislation concerning libraries, squatting, and education vouchers. Representative Andrew Collins is highlighted for his efforts in addressing women's reproductive rights, government transparency, gun safety, and eliminating performance-based incentives in schools.
They also discuss the economic and social impacts of immigration policies and a controversial new prison project. Don't miss out on their gratitude for grassroots movements and the importance of direct democracy. Tune in for a deep dive into the issues shaping Arkansas and beyond.
00:00 Introduction and Purpose
00:33 Restore Roe Act Discussion
02:34 Committee Challenges and Public Sentiment
05:44 Other Legislative Bills and Issues
17:10 Prison System and Economic Impact
28:14 Education and Voucher System
39:35 Thankfulness and Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Themes
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning, Arkansas. I'm Kelly Grapp, here to bring a little joy to your Thanksgiving week. And I'm Steve Grapp, ready to serve up justice. We're here to break down some headlines that you need to know with some insights that inform and perspectives that we hope will inspire you. This isn't just the news. It's the start of our week with purpose and connection. And we're going to talk about local issues and we're going to talk about some national stuff on both fronts. We've got you covered. So grab your coffee and let's dive into today's top stories. This is joy and this is justice.
00:00:33
Speaker
This morning I want to start out by reading a little excerpt of something that has caught my attention today.
Restore Roe Act Discussion
00:00:40
Speaker
For an act to be entitled, an act to create the Restore Roe Act, to restore a woman's access to abortion services, to protect the health and safety of women and babies by authorizing abortion and reproductive health care in certain circumstances, it is the intent of the General Assembly to protect a woman's right to ah obtain abortion services up to the point of fetal viability,
00:01:08
Speaker
In the United States Constitution, according to the 1973 decision, Roe versus Wade. It is restoring Roe in Arkansas.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yep. Our friend Andrew Collins has got in committee right now, pre-filed. Thank you, leader Collins. Representative Collins is stepping up. Let's talk about what just happened. This is one of the issues people brought to the forefront over a hundred thousand signatures. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people working on that campaign.
00:01:44
Speaker
um it The whole state rallied on one way or the other. It was the issue, one of the key issues. It may not be how people voted, but it it is important and more important than what the votes look like in this
Legislative Process Overview
00:01:59
Speaker
election. I mean, it's not a mandate of what happened and how people feel about Roe abortion, women's reproductive rights, Dobbs. There was no mandate. Election was upside down and what people were voting for weren't real. And I think elections matter. They really do. And what I see with Andrew is, you know, he is an elected representative of the people. Had someone not stepped up to file this, it's lacking. Because as a representative of the people, this is clearly a key issue. and now
00:02:35
Speaker
What does that mean? We're in an impossible situation, right? We can't seem to get anything out of committee. OK, so if so everybody understands the General Assembly will not come in session until January.
00:02:49
Speaker
But this is the pre-filing period. This is where um everybody can pre-file bills and committees. They don't have to, but if they can open up the debate, start getting public sentiment. Right now, we want to bring this to you because people need to know that Andrew Collins is doing the work.
00:03:08
Speaker
If he's doing the work, we need to get
Support for Restore Roe Act
00:03:11
Speaker
behind him. We need to rally. Put it on social media. Pressure the other representatives to get this out of committee. right The numbers are stacked in committee. a bill A bill goes to the committee first. I know we quit doing civics in Arkansas a while back. They filed these bills. It goes through committee.
00:03:30
Speaker
The committee is supposed to debate on its merits. and Which is a small group, right? Yes, it's a small group that they try to get on these different committees and then they get to choose what committee they're on based on their seniority. You know, some somebody that's been in the House since 2012 could be approached to run for Senate congressional seat. They're popular in their hometown and they're doing the work. The problem is they give up seniority to go to a zero seniority. We have great leaders that could run for other offices, but we need to, keep they want to keep their seniority and that's good for the people in their area.
00:04:08
Speaker
but But we're outnumbered. They never have enough Democrats to get the bills that they put into committee out of committee unless Republicans co-sponsor or help. This one is special. We need to find out who all the the committee members are. I can get that by next Saturday. I might even put it on our website. We need to let people know who to call. Start calling these committee members. Put pressure on them. Say, get this bill out of committee.
00:04:35
Speaker
Tell them this is what the people wanted. At least put it on the floor of the General Assembly to see, because there are Republicans out there that voted for the heartbeat bill, like we call it, no exception bill, that are having second thoughts. People spoke over the summer. People spoke.
Abolishing Pink Tax Efforts
00:04:52
Speaker
And people got educated and they're like, maybe we don't need to have a no exceptions policy dangerous and women are dying. um Doctors are scared to perform abortions in Arkansas. Thank you, Andrew, for doing this. We all need to support Andrew through this because it's all for naught if we don't get loud and get our representatives to represent the people. He's our minority leader, the Democrats leader in the House. So he's the leader of all the House of Representatives that are Democrats.
00:05:23
Speaker
Now he's put forward a whole lot of bills, but as the leader, he is representing all of them, right but his name's on it this is and it's bold.
Government Transparency Amendment
00:05:35
Speaker
He is put in. Steve made me wait to read the other ones. He was like, oh, if you think that's good, you just wait and see. That's a good one. But let's stick with the people's voice. There's another bill. And this bill has been introduced a couple of times before. Representative Pilkington, a few two sessions ago, maybe did he's in it. Democrat has put it. So we've had Republicans and Democrats try to get this into law, haven't been successful. But now we had the people get behind this. So now we have the power of the people. This isn't something that... What is that?
00:06:08
Speaker
what we refer to as the pink tax or the feminine hygiene tax. yeah This should go through this way. It's a no brainer. This is almost like you're charging a luxury tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers. I haven't read the bill. I don't know if diapers are claim or if it's exactly the same. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be, but I just, I saw that he had filed that and I'm like, Oh, this is, it's good. And now here's another one.
00:06:38
Speaker
Now, we can get things put for a vote. One way is we get ballot signature, right? Very familiar with that. one You have to get so many signatures, blah, blah, blah, and then our Secretary of State just decides to make a rule to throw you out or our Supreme Court doesn't follow a any truth. any Anyway, so that's one way to get it on. Another is General Assembly is allowed to put two, up to two bills on. If they vote on the floor to be put up on the ballot, the General Assembly can put bills on the ballot for a constitutional amendment because it has to be voted on by the people. The General Assembly can't pass a
Arkansas Red Flag Law
00:07:17
Speaker
constitutional amendment. yeah as it should be Can I read this one? An amendment to the Arkansas Constitution providing that government transparency is a right of Arkansas citizens.
00:07:31
Speaker
Defining government transparency is the government's obligation to share information with citizens or to deliver information to the citizens, prohibiting the General Assembly from making a law concerning government transparency without approval by a vote of the people.
00:07:50
Speaker
but allowing a two-thirds majority of the general assembly to refer such a law to the people at the next general election and it goes on. That's awesome. Let's just let the people decide this. Thank you for listening, Andrew. Direct democracy is making a difference. It's coming y'all. They're going to file a bill to make it more difficult for the direct democracy process and they're going to get to see what the real Yep. Y'all just have to know we're going to be ready. We have learned many things in January. When this happens, we're going to run. Yes, we are going to beat it. Yep. Okay. Here's another bill that has been pre filed and committee by representative Collins.
00:08:34
Speaker
known as the Arkansas Red Flag Law okay to create an extreme risk protection order and warrant to provide a restriction on access to a firearm for a person deemed to pose a risk of imminent personal injury to himself or herself or to the public and for other purposes.
Library Protection Proposal
00:08:54
Speaker
Nice. This is the common sense gun laws. This is like when nobody wants to take guns away, but if psychiatrists, doctors or the court say you're unstable or not safe for yourself and others, you can't buy a gun. Right. This is not going into your house, Steve, and taking your gun so that you can't go hunt. No. It is not that. This is to be very clear. A deranged 19 year old from buying an Uzi. Right.
00:09:23
Speaker
So let's just, and we look at it, y'all, we, we see this and, or the parents that are going to give a deranged 19 year old, there's something not right. We need to be watching these things. We're not talking about going into people's private lives. There will be triggers. Like there'll be certain things that, you know, if you, it's a flag like it's been convicted of domestic violence and you have a restraining order against you, you can't buy a gun. I don't think you can. Maybe you can't. I don't know, but we'll get into the details.
00:09:53
Speaker
Here's another. By Representative Collins. and act to amend the law concerning libraries, to amend the law concerning materials made available by libraries, to repeal provisions of the law concerning the process for challenging materials, to repeal the offense of furnishing a harmful item to a minor, to amend provisions of the criminal code concerning obscenity, to require a library to have a written policy prohibiting book banning to receive state funding, to amend the law concerning the information the library may disclose.
00:10:27
Speaker
This is a big bill trying to fix some of the problems that we have. with them attacking our library systems and having a minority of the the public coming in and just destroying our library access. And there's a lot of stuff that I think we can get to talking about yeah that we're not gonna talk about today on some things with the libraries. But we would need to protect our librarians in Selene County where the quorum court fired the librarian because she wouldn't take books off the shelf. and This is nuts. Crawford stuff rawford county
00:11:01
Speaker
Craighead County, at Jonesboro County. They're coming after our libraries and schools. Anything we can do to protect that and Andrea is getting ahead of it to make sure we're looking out for the schools. We just cannot allow our legislature to legislate our morality. It's
Repealing Slavery Exceptions
00:11:18
Speaker
just not where it belongs. so One more from Mr. Collins.
00:11:23
Speaker
the direct democracy people. And there's a big coalition of organizations that are really trying to use the direct democracy process to to bring to the forefront the issues that the people want. And this is something that we didn't go after the last year because ah there were six different issues. Transparency in marijuana, abortion, the pink tax, education. and ah the paper ballot. and But in Arkansas, we have legal forms of slavery in our laws right now. in st silence and sorry i'm not speaking And when I read it, it'll make a little more involuntary servitude is the term I was trying to come up with. Andrew wants to repeal an exception to the prohibition of slavery law. He wants to repeal the exception.
00:12:14
Speaker
And this is important because it's going to tie into a lot of other stuff that we could talk about today with the prison systems, because prison systems is involuntary servitude. That is an involuntary form of slavery in the prison systems. And we know, you know, Arkansas puts a lot of people in prison.
00:12:35
Speaker
A lot. Yeah. More are coming. I think we're fifth in the world at the rate we put people in prison. I read it today. We're fifth worst. It's bad. So many per hundred thousand we're putting in prison. and And we're about to build a new prison system with 3,000 more beds in Western Arkansas. Let me read this to you. An amendment to the Arkansas Constitution. This will be put to a vote.
00:13:01
Speaker
huh to repeal the exception to the prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude. Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the 95th General Assembly of the State of Arkansas and by the Senate, a majority of all members elected to each House agreeing thereto that the following is proposed.
00:13:21
Speaker
Arkansas Constitutional Article 2, Section 27, permits slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. The Arkansas Constitution is the moral and legal foundation of our state. Abolishing all forms of slavery represents the fundamental values held by the citizens of Arkansas. Slavery is slavery.
00:13:45
Speaker
And if it's morally wrong, it's morally wrong. That's another one Andrew brought before us.
School Incentives Equality
00:13:52
Speaker
Here's another one. An act to repeal performance-based incentive awards for public schools and open enrollment public charter schools. This isn't what what we petitioned against. Andrew knows Public education is important. now Right. People said we want reform. and There's a lot of different reforms we need. Right. What I think that this one is from just skimming it is there are some ah awards that you get that they give to schools like a public school in
00:14:26
Speaker
Stuttgart. That has to compete for our tax dollars in an award system based on performance. If they're an open enrollment school or if you're an open enrollment charter school where you have to take every student, why can how can we put giving you money based on how well you do because now what we're doing is we're saying the kids can leave your school and go to a private school which could hurt your scores and then you have to take everybody else but if you don't do good enough we're not going to give you more money like that is that's a
00:15:05
Speaker
self-perpetuating problem that you're creating when you're pulling funds from a school based on performance and they have to take every student you send them. Right. That doesn't feel good.
00:15:18
Speaker
I think we're going to see a whole lot more bills in this General Assembly surrounding schools and public school funding. But he's got the ball rolling, so thank you on that one. It's another bold move by Andrew Collins for public education. He covered public education, government transparency, the feminine hygiene tax, ah Roe v. Wade. He's listening to you.
00:15:45
Speaker
And that is send that out a boy to Andrew Collins. Just a thank you. and say We don't do that much. We always call our legislators when we have a problem. And I think it is really important right now because some folks like Andrew are fighting the fight and they need to know that we've got their back even though we don't have the vote.
00:16:06
Speaker
but There has to be a new vision for the Democratic Party of Arkansas. We need to start finding Republicans to work with on important issues that we need to get solved and then team the Democrats up with the Republicans. We're not going to do it standing over here far on the left screaming about special interest stuff. We need to be talking about the foundational things, human rights, women's rights, education.
Prison Expansion Concerns
00:16:34
Speaker
safety, the things that really matter and economics matters too. And so I think especially for working class and I do think I know we're not going to get into national here, but there's a lot of concern right now around this deportation thing that is expected to happen in January. Trump says the first six months that we're doing this and and I think that we are remiss to not think about the economic impact specifically in Arkansas.
00:17:03
Speaker
if that happens. It's it's big and and I want to jump to something else that's been in the news this last week that ties into that. If I don't know if you've been following Kelly this whole prison thing in Franklin County, Sanders announced they're putting a 3,000 bed prison in Franklin County Charleston.
00:17:23
Speaker
huh the people of Franklin County stood up and said no it was a big deal and they're like we don't care the decision has been made and like the next day they spent 1.75 million dollars or something to buy the land they're going to put this prison on and again they keep doing things and we don't know how much it's going to cost this is a problem because This prison thing, I think she said it was going to cost $450 million. dollars I read it this morning. Maybe if I can see. I'm going to throw in a little stat here while you're going. And we talked earlier of 100,000 residents.
00:18:01
Speaker
In Arkansas, 559 are incarcerated. That's only behind um Mississippi, which is 575 per 100,000, Louisiana, which is 564. The national rate is 300 per 100,000. What's ours? 559. Double. Right. Only behind two other states. Let me tell you how I think this is all tied together.
00:18:28
Speaker
They're going fast on this. There's gonna be 3,000 beds, either 450 or 700, somewhere in that lots of hundreds of millions of dollars. But when you compare the cost of prisons of similar or size in neighboring states, they're costing double. This is going to be a billion dollar prison system.
00:18:51
Speaker
And there's problems with that because we have a shortage on prison workers now. Right. And one of the reasons that she cited in putting it there was because she put the population center that you could draw on for jobs and it included Fort Smith. Come on. you're About as far outside that radius, it's going to be bigger than Cummins.
00:19:13
Speaker
Like much bigger. I think Cummins has 1,800 beds or 1,875 or something. And this is like 3,000 beds. Think about the timing. We know Sarah Sanders is aligned with Trump. We know Trump is about to push this massive deportation plan.
Impact of Deportation Policies
00:19:33
Speaker
We just had the governor of Texas donate land for them to house these immigrants. They're going to be in basically concentration camps. right Which is really scary. 1876 is the capacity on the prison. So this is like almost double the size of Cummins. Here's the next problem. It's going to cost a lot. The people don't want it. There's no way to staff it.
00:20:01
Speaker
And it fits with deportation. If you look at where immigrant workers work in Arkansas, put it on a map yeah where the pig farms are, which is a big part of where what we have immigrant workers. And I don't know that they're illegal or not illegal. I don't know. tell you I have a stat about that. Oh, give it to me.
00:20:18
Speaker
So 73% of agricultural workers in the state are immigrants. That's according to a study by the University of Arkansas. 48% of immigrants in this industry are non-documented or unauthorized.
00:20:36
Speaker
Three quarters of agricultural workers are immigrants and half of that. 40 and a half of that. So a quarter. But still no 40 percent. It's significant. So here's the problem. Since we know where those workers are, if you lay it on a map, guess where Franklin County lies? In the middle. They're about to build buildings and they're going to let the government, they're going to say, we have all these beds that we aren't using yet.
00:20:59
Speaker
And that is going to be a staging facility to move all of the immigrant workers out of all of our chicken plants, all of our pig farms. That are all paying taxes right now. Correct. If you lose 40% of your tax revenue in those places, think about the impact economically. Why do you think one session before this, they lowered the working age for kids to 14 without talking to their parents.
00:21:27
Speaker
Do y'all remember during the pandemic what happened with the meat business with meat farmers? Do you remember what happened when the workers couldn't go to work? There was no meat, right? And the prices skyrocketed because it's supply and demand. This is we live in a capitalistic society. You lose 40% of your workforce. Let's get real about the economic impacts of policies based on rhetoric, not Right. Arkansas supplies most of the world in rice.
00:22:03
Speaker
Who's going to work those rice fields? Who's going to work the packaging plants? It's short-sighted. And it's also inhumane, the way that we're talking about immigrants who have come to this country for, in some cases, refuge, but in most cases for opportunity. That is who we are. I heard him say it. This is
Tariffs and Economic Impact
00:22:24
Speaker
not rhetoric. I heard Holman, the new borders are, say,
00:22:31
Speaker
They asked him, what happens when some of these children are actually American citizens and they're children of illegal immigrants? And he says they'll probably be deported also. There will be legal American citizens deported and put in concentration camps. What is the slippery slope of this? We adopted our daughter through the foster care system.
00:22:57
Speaker
What happens to the kids where these parents are now deported and their kids are citizens? Right. So what happens? I heard something yesterday about orphanages. Which we're done away with in 1971. Yep. And yeah, we're going to have to open orphanages back up because we're going to have massive amount of foster kids. Oh, and no abortion. So let's talk about economic impact. And we're going to put tariffs on like on Mexico and Canada. We import wheat from Canada. If we're going to put a tariff on Canada, Canada is going to find the thing that we import the most and put a tariff on that, which is going to raise our prices. It's going to your regular prices on things like bread. The Mexican president has already explained that
00:23:48
Speaker
The things that you think are American cars are simple they're assembled and parts are made down there. All those things, if you're going to put a 25% tariff on, it's going to increase your bottom line.
00:24:00
Speaker
and Y'all, this is about to get crazy. And Arkansas is an agricultural state with soybean and rice. We're going to throw these tariffs on. What do you think is going to happen on the backside of that? They're going to retaliatorily tariff. Not by Tyson Chicken, Rice Land Rice.
00:24:19
Speaker
And so the response to the tariffs for us here in Arkansas, the economic impact is significant because they are going to retaliate. This is not going to be dealt with like they're going to retaliate and increase our prices.
Legislative Priorities Critique
00:24:34
Speaker
Right. Elon Musk, either yesterday or the day before, I think it was Wednesday, literally said it's about to get hard for most people. It's easier. Yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
like we've got to be looking at this okay so all this is going on and Andrew Collins was our hero let's stick with our farmer we're farmers we raised chickens rice and Gonzales pre-filed a bill while Collins is trying to do human rights and reproductive rights these bozos want to make Cock fighting, not a felony. I didn't read the article that you sent me because I was like, are you kidding me? Are we really talking about that in the legislature? Real. It is real. And here's where politics gets real dirty.
00:25:23
Speaker
Kelly, you and I know, and we're not gonna name names, how prevalent is the cockfighting industry in Arkansas? Right here in Rosebud, we know people who raise and train... Terrible, yeah. It's a felony. Animal cruelty, bad conditions, illegal gambling. It's all criminal. Like, literally what they have, ah the old movie is when you go to like, where is the criminal empire? It's centered around cockfighting.
00:25:51
Speaker
we We haven't released our chicken episode yet, but we raise chickens here and cock fighting is something that happens naturally when you raise chickens. It's because they kill pecking order. It's how chickens function. There is a ah rooster in charge.
00:26:06
Speaker
and he keeps that in check. It's a natural tendency, but it's awful. I can't imagine that we are using our legislative time to do this. It's worse, Kelly, because I did a little looking up on this. There is a lobbying organization, the lobbying legislators, putting bills in to make it not a felony that are literally paid by the Arkansas Game Foul Commission. And it's big money.
00:26:43
Speaker
It's gambling, criminal enterprise stuff. Representatives can be lobbied by anchor strategies. The Arkansas Game Foul Commission has registered to donate to this lobbying organization to change laws in Arkansas. That has a better chance of getting out of committee than reproductive rights. If cockfighting gets out of committee and reproductive rights doesn't, it's bullshit. We are going to rally the citizens of Arkansas.
00:27:12
Speaker
They have RJ Hawke. Let me tell you another one. We're talking about. whether people can put food on the table. We're talking about if our factories are going to have workers in it. We're talking about reproductive rights. We're talking about human rights. We're talking about public education. But he feels like we need a new law where the universities can be part of a 50-50 raffle system to sell tickets to citizens of Arkansas to go to NIL money, to pay millions to athletes.
00:27:46
Speaker
It all comes down to the dollar, doesn't it? I'm a Razorback fan, and I'm happy that we're buying these basketball players, I guess, and we can watch our pro team in Fayetteville. Don't go to the citizens of Arkansas and ask us to give even more money. These people you're asking to buy raffle tickets can't even afford the hundred dollar tickets sort of the game. It's silly. You're asking the citizens of Arkansas for wrong things, and then you're trying to charge pink tax. Right.
00:28:14
Speaker
Come on.
Voucher System Inequalities
00:28:15
Speaker
We got to talk about education before we wrap up today, especially the voucher thing. I want to end on that, but I got a couple more things. Okay. Um, look up the $75 robotic dog. The governor's office or the government has purchased a $75,000 robotic dog that dances and fetches snacks.
00:28:35
Speaker
ah
00:28:38
Speaker
Here's the problem. I think that was cool, except for I don't really. But here's what I don't understand, Kelly. First of all, what are we using it for? And if there is a purpose, tell us if this is something that we're using to research, solve childhood cancer, tell us what you're using it for. If you're going to buy a $75,000 robotic dog, especially when you can buy a military grade robotic dog for less than $50,000, what are we doing?
00:29:04
Speaker
We're pulling money out of our public schools. I wonder who got the money, $75,000. Not to mention, they just announced, I'm angry at how we're spending money because that walkway underneath the Capitol so legislators don't get wet when it rains, $3.6 million, dollars they announced it's almost complete.
00:29:22
Speaker
Good things this week are things before we talk about vouchers. Runoff elections are going on in Jacksonville and Momel and all over the state. But I want to talk about Jacksonville in particular because there is a big win there. And it's got two great candidates. Jeesa Williams and and Tanner Ruppel both great candidates. The NAACP came through this last week. Fun to see local organizations that get stuff done.
00:29:50
Speaker
So early voting started last Tuesday. And just before that, the only early voting location was going to be at the courthouse in Little Rock. Which if you live in Jacksonville and you don't travel to Little Rock every day, you're not going to make a trip to go early vote. Just probably not going to happen. Especially and it's Thanksgiving week. So they lost Thanksgiving Day. It's a run off. Like and when ah the plastic County Commission when they were approached, were like there's no place that would host it.
00:30:19
Speaker
Who did you ask? NAACP put a call out for churches. You got to open your doors for X, you know, you have to have, there's a lot of conditions and that's why they couldn't find, they said they couldn't find anyone. Within two hours, three of the black churches in Jacksonville stepped up and said, we'll host early voting. And the significance of that is Jacksonville is a 51% minority city and there has never been a polling location in a predominantly black church.
00:30:52
Speaker
They're always in the white church. So shout out to the mayor. the security commission it It was like, Oh, that's easy. We can get that done. The church has stepped up and within a day this issue was solved and people in Jacksonville last Tuesday were able to start early voting. Thank you to pastor Baker and St. Mark's community church for stepping up. I think it's 751 voted Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We still got one more day to go vote Monday. People can vote. I don't know about um yesterday.
00:31:21
Speaker
They were open to Black Friday. um It's been a good turnout for early voting. They only had like. 7,600 people vote in the general election and run off election for city council right after Thanksgiving. Like it's just in this office is really important. It's also the NAACP is working hard on changing the voting system in Jacksonville. Whoever gets elected either time Tanner or cheese. I think they both committed to taking away at large voting things. This seat is super important.
00:31:57
Speaker
And so I'm proud. Yeah, it was good news. So I'm thankful for that in this week. I know we came on here and we were talking about all these crazy is intense today. And we're going to end this with what happened with the vouchers. Yeah. I want to talk about the Senate bill that's at big Congress. Talk about that right now. They're a bill to abolish the Department of Education in the Senate right now.
00:32:18
Speaker
and it's introduced on 11, 21, 24. It's been read twice and referred to the committee. We talked about the impact of Project 2025 and that this was coming. We expected it and it's happening now. It's something we all need to be aware of. We've got some education things we're going to be working on.
00:32:37
Speaker
over the course of the next eight years. for like We've created kind of this eight year plan that we're working on um because we're going to have to systematically fix this. I think it's really scary what's happening right now. The Department of Education is an important organization.
00:32:52
Speaker
I didn't realize until I started reading about it some of the history. George Bush was a big public education advocate. Right. No child left behind was George Bush. Carter, Obama, LBJ, presidents through the years have used the Department of Education in different ways. Trump clearly said, and and he tried in his first administration to get rid of the Department of Education, it didn't get anywhere. I don't think it's going to get anywhere here. You only have to have two or three Republican senators say no.
00:33:20
Speaker
like that. I think that there's Republican senators that are going to run into problems getting reelected when you hang that albatross around their neck. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I thought that I've thought a lot of things have surprised me over the last year. Correct. That I thought, oh, that's never going to happen. And here. Well, let's can we swing to education in Arkansas? We got the list out in the last week about the vendors that are approved to be able to use the Arkansas learn
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, vouchers so I want to go back to the for our kids amendment that we've been running. And one of the things that we said was that anybody that takes learns money, we wanted to say you had to abide by the same rules and regulations that the public schools have to abide by. That would be tough for a horse stable, a jiu-jitsu school, a dance academy. Kelly, they were bad.
00:34:15
Speaker
I know. I understand. Hey, animal therapy is important. I'm not talking about animal therapy, but high end equine stable. I just want all children to have access if we're going to do that. And I'm seeing right now there are some public schools like in Northwest Arkansas where there is lots of free flowing dollars. Public schools are doing interesting things to draw in students and keep them But what happens in a community like Rosebud where, you know, we've got to pay $50,000 salaries, which is great want the $50,000 salary, but there's no money left to offer horseback riding or dressage or all the really cool enrichment things that in a more
00:34:56
Speaker
affluent area absolutely they would have access to. And so to me, you know, but education paid with tax dollars should get everyone to level footing so that when kids get out of school, they have a level footing. Then it's up to them on what they want to do, what they want to be and how ambitious they are. But let's give everybody equal shot at it.
00:35:18
Speaker
Right. Bring it into the public school system. They can use their voucher to pay the public school to have the extracurricular activities. Right. Like that way then all students
Squatting Legislation
00:35:27
Speaker
get it. Maybe we need to get some laws that says any vouchers that can be used, if you're going to take private vouchers, you have to make it available for public school students. We need grants for those things. Let's make it even. I love the idea of having jiu-jitsu and rich public schools.
00:35:45
Speaker
but we can't have the haves and the have nots. We can't have you being a homeschooler that are teaching in a basement and you're getting the low level math and reading because you don't have the same regulations or even the testing standards that the public schools have. You can use the vouchers that send your kids to parachuting or Colorado ski trips or like some of these are crazy Kelly. And I saw something the other day that someone shared that was a string on some other group and they were trying to figure out how to use the learns dollars to pay for uniforms. Oh, and I think you can like they're just trying to figure out how to use the money for things they're already paying for. Right? I have a serious question. I just want your honest answer. Do you think there is any way that in Arkansas we will ever not have vouchers again?
00:36:42
Speaker
Yes. And this is the first step toward that. Because we told people this is what was going to happen. We were very clear. and And the people that heard us listen. I'm not saying people didn't listen. Our problem was we couldn't get the word out to enough people in time. These are getting the word out yeah because people are seeing this crap. It's not good. I do think that we're going to get this real back in, especially when we start hanging billion a-year price eggs.
00:37:12
Speaker
Sarah Sanders just asked for a six point nine billion. She just that was I think her total budget. But I think there was like a three percent increase she asked for. And over half of the increase that she asked for was for voucher money. Let that sink in, you know. Somebody's got to pay for it. And it's and it's our kids that are going to pay for it. And I want to the last thing and then we can move on.
00:37:39
Speaker
Y'all in year one, only 5% of the eligible students were could use this. 5% of the overall what they were thinking were eligible. Based on need, they had to be in an area that had a failing school. They had to be, you know, there were rules. Year two was 10%. So they were gonna open up the vouchers to 10% of the students. Year three is 100%.
00:38:08
Speaker
And if they're asking for half of a ah budget increase to cover early years, this is about to get real expensive. They don't know where the money's coming from. And they're going to have to cut things. Yet they're going to build 3,000 seat prison beds they're preparing to fail our kids they're preparing to get rid of our immigrant workers and they're going to move this working class into an involuntary servitude because they won't be able to get jobs doing anything else except the empty jobs that are there and they're going to be able to drive the price of jobs down it's coming it's gonna have to get real we missed one earlier i want to talk about this because the republican legislator has
00:38:52
Speaker
done something right.
Democratic Organization
00:38:53
Speaker
Representative Tosh from Northeast Arkansas put a squatters bill in like right now is when I read it I'm like how is this not I didn't realize that we didn't have that already illegal there isn't a law that makes squatting illegal and it just makes squatting illegal like people just living in your house and then saying they have right to your house and y'all this happens Oh, my parents had it happen. Someone squatted in their apartment, dancing around naked in the big picture window and the neighbors saw her and they were like, do you have a renter there? And they were like, no, she'd been there for a couple of months, moved furniture in. So thank you, Captain Tosh. I appreciate you looking out for the people. We need common sense legislation, not cock fighting. We should end with some things we're thankful for.
00:39:38
Speaker
Are we doing joy and justice things we're thankful for? I can think we could go either way. Okay. Go ahead. One of the things I'm most thankful for is that as I've been reflecting and I sent a whole bunch of notes out on Thanksgiving day, because we have all had such a hard time this year. The thing that I'm in this world, besides my grandbaby, I'm most thankful for the grandbaby and getting back to the farm.
00:40:03
Speaker
But the connections that we have found through this work, I really do feel like that we found our people. And I'm so thankful for that. It seems like on the days that are the hardest, then somebody like a Kristen Wynn or a Maureen Skinner or Theresa Danaway or Cassandra Green will send me a text. Just checking in. I'm thankful for that. It is one of my great blessings of 2024. My biggest is Little Weston. Here's my justice thankful.
00:40:33
Speaker
the work. I'm thankful for being able to be in a position to see what's really happening. What I mean by that is there's a lot of Democrats, or independents, or non-MAGA. It's just going, this is helpless. Since we work with people in 75 counties,
00:40:54
Speaker
We're out there and we've made up contacts. We see where all this stuff is growing. Right. It's so cool. The organic nature was happening like the Van Buren County women. He from Springs. They had a big meetup last week and a bunch of people showed up. Mountain Home. Crawford County. He's traveling all in Fulton County. ah Pine b Bluff is coming along and I'm telling you Representative, now Mayor Flowers is going to do some amazing things in Pine Bluff. Park County, there's so many pockets. We didn't call them all out. And we can't we would sit here for an hour. i I'm thankful this is starting to percolate. Here's the difference between what happened in the past and what is happening now, which is going to pay us dividends. It's going to take a while. This is like a gigantic aircraft carrier, full speed.
00:41:48
Speaker
You gotta slow it down, then you gotta get it turned around, and then you gotta get it going the other direction, y'all. You don't turn this on a dime. You don't go from an R plus 49 district that Rodney Gubbins was running in and think you're gonna win it. He knew better. It doesn't mean give up, and he didn't.
00:42:06
Speaker
But we got to have a plan and systematically take it back.
Advocating Direct Democracy
00:42:11
Speaker
And it's happening. People are organizing before and times in the past. There was a lot of people that would get together and and oh, we got to do something. But now is action. And we're seeing the action. I'm thankful that direct democracy is being heard. Thank you again. I'm thankful for Andrew Collins. I'm thankful for direct democracy.
00:42:34
Speaker
The point of direct democracy is when the people's voice is no longer being heard by the government Mm-hmm. It is our last line of defense to say wait a second We're really in control. If you won't listen to us. We have alternative means we have loaned you our power and now we're going to take it back It's hard and we have learned over the past few years how to execute on that I heard but the negative people talking about us they don't They can't get anything. They tried twice and didn't get the the signatures. Hey, go with zero money.
00:43:11
Speaker
Zero anything and get 55,000 or 75,000. Yeah, or 75,000 signatures yeah in the same time. We know how to do this now, and it's going to happen. We just have to keep at it. I was listening to a podcast this week with Joan Baez, and if y'all don't know her story, you got to go look it up. I'm inspired by her. She said, quoting someone else, hope is a muscle.
00:43:39
Speaker
And we all know that the way that you build your muscles is you use them and you act and you do something. And don't use them the wrong way because that doesn't help. Yeah. Yeah. um If you're using that metaphor, like figure out the right way to exercise, start exercising that hope muscle and we will.
Hope and Community Action
00:43:57
Speaker
get this turned around every aircraft carrier can be turned around if we know what we're doing and we figured that out and now we're going to get the legislators to help us and we're going to team up with them on both sides we're going to help use the people's voice to get the things we want on the agenda and on the docket and y'all please really right now it's more important and than ever that we don't go to our corners and face the other direction We have to face each other, talk, disagree, and we have to be able to come to compromise. And I'm just saying, we got to move toward each other and not away from each other right now. It's more important than ever. And speak up for what is important in your community. Let's start talking about what we can do at home, right where we live and how we can start making it a difference in our neighborhoods. And if we start there, that's how we start getting this thing turned around. And that's how you build the muscle.
00:44:52
Speaker
That's how you build the muscle. So I'm Steve. And I'm Kelly. And we can't wait to talk to you again. We'll see you next time.