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Crooked River Cast Show 7
20 Plays1 month ago
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
Issue 2 why do we need it and who is in charge of the money?
Education funding changes puts pressure on public schools to improve.
Do Ed Choice scholarships affect public school funding?
Sheriff’s across Ohio join ICE in immigration crackdown.
House bill 15 cuts fees, but will it increase your energy cost?
Is Cleveland's air quality worse or is it just dishonest activism?
Qualified immunity in Ohio. Who's responsible if you get hit by a first responder?
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Transcript
Welcome and Introductions
00:00:03
Speaker
This is the Cricket Rivercast, a show we hope will give you a better view of what's going on in Northeast Ohio. This is May 2025. I'm your host, Robert, and joining me every week is my friend, Tom. Let's see what's going on in the great state of Ohio.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hey, Tom, how you doing? I'm doing very well. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm back and refreshed with ah but some travel stories.
Travel Stories and Memories
00:00:29
Speaker
Not really a travel story. Okay. Maybe a comparison. Do you remember traveling with your parents and your sister? yeah. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, yeah. It was a long time ago.
00:00:41
Speaker
You guys did some long ones. I think the last... Yeah, we did we did the whole, that you know, like National Lampoon's type of vacation, both of us in the back of the car going cross country.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yes, ah do remember I do remember stories of your short shorts sticking to the back seat of the pleather or whatever vinyl it was. It was a little different nowadays, yeah traveling with kids.
00:01:06
Speaker
yeah there's not are you are Are the kids playing punch buggy or whatever we played? i No, no. You generally don't hear from them because they're they're they've got the whole world at their fingertips as they drive through the country.
00:01:18
Speaker
there's no They don't even look out the window anymore. Yeah, we didn't have that. No, that's what I tried to tell them. I tried to give them my, up oh back in my day, which was mean and my two brothers, me being the youngest on the hump seat all the way down to Florida.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yes. Or the hump seat. That's funny. The hump seat in the 1981 Delta 88 four-door Oldsmobile. Delta 88 Royale. The first car, we we've we did two two that went totally around the country, like four-week vacations in the car going from, ah ah ah you know, the tourist-type places, everywhere from Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone to Redwood Forest and all that.
00:02:07
Speaker
And they were
Mammoth WVH and Wolfgang Van Halen
00:02:08
Speaker
great. I'm glad i'm glad my parents did that. But the first one we did in 1975 Skylark. Nice. with With another family that was in some kind of, forget, a 1973 Tornado, I think. Something like that.
00:02:24
Speaker
Big car. Yeah, big car. And then the next one we did was the last one, which I was 14. Yeah. And that was a 1981 Buick Regal. And that sucker had leather seats. And that, man, did that get hot.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, not today. Not today. No, my kids were in the back of the minivan in their captain's chairs reclined with headphones on, which would be great for a mom and dad because, mean, they hear, mean, they're just, I'm hungry. That's about the only thing I heard.
00:02:59
Speaker
But it was good times. ah I would recommend Lake Norman. The other thing that was new is I got a new album. I got a new band. You got a new band?
00:03:10
Speaker
but it's not They're not new. Okay. ah Mammoth. Oh, that's... um Is that on Eddie Van Halen's kid? Yep. It's Mammoth WVH.
00:03:22
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah, I haven't heard too much from them. I've seen some live footage. ah I mean, the kid's good. He plays everything, I think, on the albums. Yeah. his first album, I think his definitely first mammoth there's mammoth and mammoth two that just came out about a year ago, which is, I just ordered the CD. It's not even, it's not on any streaming that I can find. I actually didn't check Spotify, but it might be there, but if it's not on Apple, it's probably not Spotify either, but I, you can listen to it on his YouTube channel.
00:03:51
Speaker
I ran across it because some reason YouTube decided to put Jimmy Corrigan's, you know, from Smashing Pumpkins. cook give me cook yeah His, his, his podcast, you know, cause every idiot these days has a podcast. um Yeah. who Yes. Proof of it.
00:04:09
Speaker
And, uh, it kept throwing them up there for some, whatever reason that thinks i yeah I want to see it. And then Wolfgang, I went, Oh, this is interesting. Cause I've heard so many things about, you know, what's going on and what happened and what he does. And, and people really giving him a lot of grief, he but it's the internet.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. see But you know, one thing pointed out and one thing he, he pointed out to the interview was he, he didn't say this in this exact way. He said it in a much nicer way, but he basically said, you know, I couldn't be just sitting back,
00:04:42
Speaker
ah an alcoholic drug addict living off my dad's fame. And he doesn't, he wants to be himself. Oh, he's got more money than he's enough to do with. I mean, yeah yeah the residuals on his dad's stuff.
00:04:54
Speaker
I mean, not that he would get that, but mean, it's his family's money. So he doesn't need to work. He could, he could literally just be a meth head and, and be fine. Yeah. But he's not, he wants to be himself or even that's obviously the worst. Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
he could just live off of Van Halen fame for the rest of his life. I mean, he would be the ultimate cover band. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, ah give him kudos for um playing. i mean, he's, he's, ah he's a great um musician. He's, he's excellent, but he is. It's like, it's like if Michael Jordan had a kid that wanted to play basketball, it's hard.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, you you're, or, you know, Tiger Woods has a kid who's going to be playing golf, it looks like. I think he's going to, I mean, and now you're going to come, you know, that that's a, yeah you're filling the shoes, trying to fill the shoes of a legend. I mean, like a living legend, even with not Betty, but.
00:05:51
Speaker
And that's what he's trying not to do. Yeah, yeah, I've heard him talk about this a little bit. i But I still think that's how it's perceived. Oh, yeah. And every time he eli says, oh, that's just a hammer-on, and we you're not doing anything. He was like, no, i'm not I'm just trying to play music, man. like He even says it in that song. Have you ever heard this his song he so he wrote about his dad?
00:06:11
Speaker
Distance? No, no, I haven't. Oh, gosh. So the video is just, it's all home movie clips. Oh. From when he was, I took him home from the hospital and as he grew up. And it's just like, holy cow, man. I can't, I could barely even think about it now without getting emotional about It's just crazy.
00:06:27
Speaker
But, so, you want to hear it ah clip? Sure. So this is one of my, it's called Dope Back Down, off his Mammoth's WVH, their first album.
00:06:46
Speaker
oh hell yeah you know he sings too right yeah i think on the album he plays every instrument this album he played he wrote and played every instrument yeah definitely heavy 90s especially when he starts singing
00:07:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Blaving in all the madness around you. It's the end of days. Throw it aside, now you know that you want to.
00:07:26
Speaker
They don't know better anyway. Yeah.
Ohio's Issue 2: Infrastructure Funding Debate
00:07:33
Speaker
Everybody's going crazy. Yeah.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to have to pick that up. It rocks. Yeah. and And the second album is similar, it's but like he says, it's more he has it's a little more methodical. he he took more of a sense of something about Maynard and Tool or Perfect Circle or something like that. Hmm.
00:07:54
Speaker
um and then the the distance is on the first album there's there's four or five tracks that are just they're they're and he's got his videos he he just makes fun of himself a lot like there's like he's got this thing going on through his videos of his alter egos he walks in the studio and there's there's all these different versions of wolf you know uh at the boards at the at the base at the drums and he he plays on this it's it's it's pretty cool and then he that he's got a band now he's been he he He opened for Metallica for two years.
00:08:26
Speaker
Right. No, I know that. yeah i didn't I had no idea. i'm like, that's that's some serious shit right there. You're opening for Metallica. They're not messing he's so he's he's He's a real deal. I hope he's taking care of himself. He's ah he's a rather large kid. I don't know. He's a big dude.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah. he I mean, like, really. I mean, like, obese. Yeah, and you can see through ah either the video video of distance, um that music video, or ah just going through YouTube videos over the years, you can see it's fluctuating. He battles with it.
00:08:59
Speaker
He battles it, you can tell. Awesome. Cool. I got to check that out. Yeah, check it out. On to the news. so today today I've got like, we've got touch on issue two. I think we should touch on that. And I got some education stuff, maybe some House Bill 15 stuff. what do you get What are you looking at today?
00:09:21
Speaker
Oh, let's see. i have something that ICE, ah a couple of sheriff departments are working with ICE, which is... Pretty cool. um There's qualified immunity.
00:09:34
Speaker
They're trying to end qualified immunity. Yeah. and I had to look up what that was. i love but coffeeugh I'll tell you what, man. When I first heard it, I was like, oh, I didn't even know that existed.
00:09:48
Speaker
um But then Ohio, Cleveland pollution, um which that's not much of a story, but I'm going to kind of rip into a Fox 8 here a little bit.
00:10:01
Speaker
And, so ah oh yeah, the ban on gender affirming care. ah that was upheld.
00:10:09
Speaker
No, they put a stay on the ban. So the bill is back in effect. There was an injunction on the ban and they listed the injunction, I think. Yeah.
00:10:19
Speaker
Okay. Touch on that a little bit. Okay. Yeah, that's about it, really. All right. So ah Tuesday is the election in Ohio, right? Is that the 6th, right? Yeah.
00:10:33
Speaker
Yeah, 6th. And issue two is really the only thing on the ballot besides your local stuff. I don't think there's really anything else there. I figure we wrap back around. I think we had talked about this a couple episodes ago.
00:10:45
Speaker
And what kind of brought it back to the forefront for me was the interview on, ah was it the Windsor Report? With Ohio Rep. Jennifer Gross. She's a Republican from Westchester.
00:10:58
Speaker
And she was discussing why, and I didn't pull a clip. I thought about a couple of them, but it's... Basically, she's asking discussing why she opposed Ohio issue two. She opposed the the ah the amount or the bill that put it on the ballot, and now she opposes it. And she was just going through a few of her questions on it, which a lot of it was...
00:11:21
Speaker
who's in charge of the money, who decides what projects get approved, who issues the, I mean, even a guy from Windsor Report was like, yeah, but who's issuing these bonds too? I want to look into that because it, you know. And Robert, this is exactly why always vote no on issues that deal with money.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, and and her her her her one of her best points was we already have an $11.5 billion dollars transportation budget, which, hey, conveniently funds roads and bridges and other infrastructure projects. Why do we have to have this extra?
00:11:53
Speaker
so what was it so this So this bill was signed in 1987 by Governor Celeste and Democratic Governor Celeste, which she points out, but but she also points out that seven other, five or six or other Republican governors have kept it on, you know whether signing a new amendments or not taking it off when during their terms.
00:12:14
Speaker
Who's in charge of the money is a good question. Who decides who gets the projects? All great questions. so So what I guess maybe real quick, what is issue two gonna be? So issue two issues a 10 year bond totaling $2.5 billion dollars for infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, and water systems to be used across the 88 counties in Ohio.
00:12:35
Speaker
And this is the second time we're doing this, right? This is our third or fourth time. Oh, okay. It's a 10-year amendment. yeah It was 87, right? Yeah, 87, 97, 2007. yeah eighty seven ninety seven two thousand so This might be the fourth or fifth time.
00:12:48
Speaker
but Okay. They renew it every 10 years. And this year, they're increasing it from $2 billion or $200 million per to $250 million a year $2.5 billion. Okay.
00:13:01
Speaker
So she's criticizing the absence of you know transparency and questioning whether, you know who's approving these projects, are they are they going towards more larger cities and being prioritized?
00:13:13
Speaker
Or over smaller communities is is kind of one of her pet peeves, I guess here. And so what, who, what, when, where, how, right?
00:13:25
Speaker
yeah Well, okay, so why do we even need this if we have a bill for transportation and $11 billion dollars or whatever it it was? Right. That's her big question is why when we already have this and the yeah people who...
00:13:42
Speaker
our proponents of this are saying because there are there are there are local governments who have larger projects that they can't always fund on their own or fund in a timely manner on their own. Right. And this gives them an opportunity to petition the state say, hey, can we have some funds to help us get this road done or help us get whatever. And and There are projects I've seen around the area, you may have seen them too, where they've they're tearing down houses and they're putting in more natural scapes because of flooding. They're trying to control the flood zone. This may be part of that.
00:14:13
Speaker
There may be small community that can't spend $8 million dollars to to tear down six houses and spend a year and a half redoing ah creek or you know whatever.
00:14:24
Speaker
i don't know. good These are all great questions. These are what the proponents say. I don't know if that's necessari necessarily a you know a good good answer for it, but there are communities that have large projects that are not state funded that may need help.
00:14:39
Speaker
So what are they doing? They're giving them bonds and the state is covering if the state if the city or county can't meet you know pay the bond back, then the state's on the hook for it.
00:14:50
Speaker
It also sounds to me, and it's not not necessarily clear, but it also sounds to me like the state is covering any interest. But they're definitely on on the hook for any interest and principal if the cities or counties don can't pay it. back yeah And it it's it's in then general budget,
00:15:08
Speaker
it's not And the proponents will also say, we're not borrowing money. She is saying, what about debt and stuff like that? But then the guy, the in the Windsor Report says, hey, but they're not borrowing any money now because the state is actually, our revenue is more than what they projected in the past few years. Right. All the stuff that's going on, which actually one of things we'll actually touch on too, is the Intel plant has a lot to do with it around Columbus.
00:15:31
Speaker
So, So what what are, who, what's the answer to her question, I guess? So I looked it up. I was like, who is the overseers? So there's Ohio Public Works Commission.
00:15:43
Speaker
There's the Work District Integration Committee. There's the project section, oh, that's the project, it's oversight by the General Assembly and managed by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management. So it seems to me like there's a lot of, you know,
00:16:03
Speaker
Red tape. So the money from Ohio, I'll read right from Grok, because I asked our friend Grok, and he he says, or it says, the money from Ohio issue two, which authorizes blah, blah, blah, blah blah is managed by managed and distributed through the Ohio Works Project Commission, OPWC.
00:16:22
Speaker
The OPWC administers the State Capital Improvement Program, the SCIP, and the Local Transportation Program, the LTIP, which allocates allocate funds to local governments for projects like roads, bridges, waters. and yeah Who are all these people?
00:16:43
Speaker
How much do they all get paid? you know, there's it seems like there's like A lot levels of red tape. It seems like there's a business around this. Yes. Yes. And then Jack Windsor, think that's his name, Jack Windsor from Windsor Report also asked a great question.
00:16:59
Speaker
Who issues these bonds? And what is their connection to any government officials? Because the people issuing these bonds make money off of them. That's the part of issuing bonds in the bank. right It's profitable.
00:17:13
Speaker
So state oversight, what it say about state oversight? It's again, the general assembly. The bonds are backed by the state tax revenue and debt repayment. The principal and the interest is built into the state budget and managed by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management, which is just the general assembly.
00:17:32
Speaker
You know, it's funny because last time we talked about this, you were you kind of convinced me to vote yes on it. And then during the week, you know, what the ah week we had off, I was kind of thinking about it. And I was like, I don't know, that doesn't feel right to me.
00:17:46
Speaker
yeah And then this came up and I was like, oh, yeah, gut feeling was right. So I'm sitting um' sitting in traffic in Lake Norman and I'm trying to figure out why the hell I'm sitting in traffic.
00:17:58
Speaker
And I look to ah each side and I say, and because what made me kind of think about it. And and then it the story popped up and I started digging into it. And then I listened that same interview. So the state or city or counties approve these huge condominium complex going on on either side of the road, but they have yet to approve the widening of the road, which is why I'm in a four mile backup for 12 minutes, you know, when I'm trying to go four miles, it kind of brought it all to, to, to me, you know, I'm sitting in traffic thinking of things and, and this pops in my head because I'm sitting in the road that's black backed up and, you know, blah, blah, blah.
00:18:34
Speaker
So yeah, I get it. And, and, And i was pretty so I was pretty surprised and happy that that's there's a Republican out there saying, hey, let's just, why do we need this?
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah.
Ohio's School Funding Challenges
00:18:48
Speaker
And and ah so originally in 1987, they proposed it because of, I guess our roads and bridges were in dire shape. So they this was a 10 year like emergency kind of plan to get things back up and running. And it's been like 40 years. it's thirty It's kind of like the way government goes, right? Yes. Once you get it started, it's never going to stop because all these people at the Ohio Public Works and all these acronyms, the old PWC and the LTIP and the old whatever else, they all got to keep keep their jobs.
00:19:20
Speaker
And maybe they do other things too. But there's somebody there that would be cut if this was not passed. Yeah. But I mean...
00:19:29
Speaker
That's not the point. That's not why we should be voting yes for any of this stuff. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And we need to get rid of this. it But yes. And the sad thing is it's going to pass.
00:19:41
Speaker
You think so? It has to do with roads. It says roads, more money for roads and bridges. And I think it'll pass. Yeah. ah in In lieu of knowing what the hell it actually is, people just go, it's roads and bridges. Click. Yes.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah. I guess I have to go, Rob. I know. You know what the woman said in the clip we had. If you don't go, well, no, i actually didn't play that clip. But she said, you know, if you don't go vote, you can't complain, which I don't necessari necessarily agree with.
00:20:07
Speaker
But yes, we do have to vote. At least give it give it a try. Let's give it try. Let's see if we can push it down. Because
00:20:15
Speaker
What she also brought up, and if you remember, she had a constituent that she said not in her district, but had brought up the point, like, here's this bridge that is now, big for 10 years, it's been on the bad bridge list, whatever you call it.
00:20:29
Speaker
And now they just lowered the weight, or increased their weight restriction to lowering how much can drive across it, which affects this guy's person's business. Yeah. And it's it's been 10 years.
00:20:42
Speaker
right And she's like, well, this is now, so do cities know about it? is it is it And that's what she brought up, is the funding just going, is it being prioritized for um the big cities like Cleveland and Columbus and Cincinnati?
00:20:53
Speaker
And if you drive through Columbus, There's a ton of construction on the roads going on. so Not to say it's necessarily tied in, but I mean, they need to because it's it's expanding pretty big, but still always looking for more funding.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah. So vote i would I would probably change my vote on that, you know, and see why we need it. Yeah, I'm going to vote no. I saw a quick... um I think jack Jack Windsor actually put it up on ah Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it now. He put up a poll if you're voting for yes or no on issue two. And I think it was 70% were saying they're voting no.
00:21:34
Speaker
But it's also hu yeah he just sala his his fans. and They're informed a little bit more than the general. um So it is not a tax increase. I just want to touch on that.
00:21:47
Speaker
But it could, taxes could go to, know, if we didn't spend that $250 million dollars ah year for the next 10 years on a roads, because we already have an $11.5 billion dollars budget, where could we take that $250 Maybe education?
00:22:05
Speaker
maybe education That's the next ah big big topic that's going on with the budget right now is the price of education. They're making so many cuts, Rob.
00:22:16
Speaker
What are we going to do? The attack on education. So, of course, they had protests. We could get into that. um This topic is pretty big. I've been trying to wrap my head around it.
00:22:28
Speaker
for, for quite a bit for the past week, really. And ah kind of come back from vacation thinking, I really want to touch on this because the budget's coming and here in a couple of months. They're going to, we still have a little bit of time to, to influence our Ohio Congress critters.
00:22:44
Speaker
And i figured we can look at a couple. So channel three, WKYC in Cleveland had a
00:22:56
Speaker
a little week-long expose, whatever want to call it, on the school funding. And they had a couple of decent...
00:23:06
Speaker
stories on it and and they had like one every day it was like about a five minutes this one i couldn't really cut up so i think we can maybe maybe we'll we'll try this start and stop thing where we'll start playing it's about a four or five minute video which is pretty long we may not get through all of it but i'd like to because there's some stuff in there that's pretty interesting and the way they're framing it um on the uh on on uh vouchers so the big um the big deal is vouchers as they increase increased the budget for school funding for public schools. They've also increased the voucher program by actually more than the increased the school general school funding.
00:23:49
Speaker
So let's I guess we'll just dive right into it. Sounds good. Start going to it. Let's see here.
00:24:00
Speaker
Tonight in our continuing series, The Price of Education, the funding battle for Ohio schools, we're examining the impact of Ohio's school voucher program on public education. Education Station reporter Danielle Wiggins speaks with advocates who believe public dollars should follow students to private schools and a public school leader who argues the program is siphoning critical resources away from the state's public classrooms.
00:24:26
Speaker
Just a pause it for a second, or first stop. Just for transparency, one of the reasons this is important to me, at least, I think it should be important to most people, even if you don't, like somebody as yourself who doesn't have kids, because it's costing you a lot of money, and and and they're changing things.
00:24:45
Speaker
I take advantage of the EdChoice program for both of my kids to go to private school, just so everybody knows. here Continue. 15-year-old Jasmine Morgan has always excelled academically. Grades never been a problem with Jasmine.
00:25:02
Speaker
She's always gotten in very good grades. But for Jasmine's mom, Tiffany, their public school system failing to score a high grade or rating on Ohio's school report card...
00:25:15
Speaker
Stop, because Maple Heights City Schools where they're talking about and they're showing the report card. And this is from 2018, 2019. Why is it so old? i don't know, maybe it's more of the timeframe this woman was pulling her kid out. or So achievement, competent grade, F, progress.
00:25:35
Speaker
Progress component looks closely at the growth that all students are making based on their past performance is a c Gap closing. The gap closing component shows how well schools are meeting performance expections ah expectance inspections expectations.
00:25:52
Speaker
and mean Maybe I need go back to school. For our most ah vulnerable students in English, English language, arts, math, education, English, blah, blah, blah, proficiency. D. A graduation rate, actually not bad, B. But if they're not getting the achievements or closing the gap, how are they graduating?
00:26:13
Speaker
ah Improving at risk K through three readers, D. preparing Prepared for success, whether training in technical field or preparing for work or college, the prepared for student component looks at how well prepared Ohio students, how well prepared Ohio students are for all future opportunities.
00:26:37
Speaker
F. Wow. This is again in 2019, that may have gotten better. So give them benefit of the doubt. I believe at that time, April's always had like a D in improving rating for education. And so I just, I wanted my my daughter to have a ah better education. For years, Tiffany personally covered the cost to send her daughter to religious private schools.
00:27:00
Speaker
That changed after she enrolled Jasmine into their neighborhood public school for seventh grade and qualified for Ohio's Ed Choice Scholarship, covering the cost of sending Jasmine back to private school.
00:27:13
Speaker
So this single mom looks like took her kid, took her own money and because she saw, she wanted her kid to have a better education.
00:27:24
Speaker
So good for her. Yeah. Don't hear enough of that. Why did she take them out? Take her out. I would like to know that. And the fact that they skimmed over that makes me want to really want to know why. Like, did she just not, did something happen in and in her job or did she not have the funds anymore? All of a sudden she decided to take them. Or, you know, some people do that first five, six years in a private school and then put them in the public.
00:27:49
Speaker
It's not a bad um strategy because you're getting some good roots and a good base and then you throw them to the wolves. But I don't know. It just feels like if there was a story, There's got to be something the reason there that she didn't. And um the fact that they didn't say anything kind of bugs me, but we will continue.
00:28:06
Speaker
The dollars should really go to the educational institution that's educating the child. Aaron Churchill is the Ohio Research Director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The organization advocates for school choice.
00:28:19
Speaker
There will always be a public school option. The private school option is there for families that want something different. And the state has chosen to support that choice um by providing the scholarships.
00:28:31
Speaker
Ohio's voucher program began in the 90s as the Cleveland Scholarship. The program uses public funds to offer students within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District a scholarship to attend private schools. In 2005, students living in areas with low-performing public schools also qualified for vouchers under the EdChoice Scholarship Program.
00:28:53
Speaker
Ed Choice later expanded to award money based on household income. The scholarship pays up to $6,166 for grades k through and for high school. there Those are important numbers to remember.
00:29:10
Speaker
sixty one sixty six for k through eight and eighty four oh eight for grades nine through twelve that's the max you can get here one pot of money. And when you begin to take from that pot of money, that decreases the money that the public school receives. Dr. Marnisha Brown is the superintendent of Richmond Heights local schools. We were a district that was really being impacted by vouchers. What does professionalism look like at school?
00:29:38
Speaker
According to Brown, the loss of funding from vouchers has affected class sizes, program offerings, building maintenance and staffing at Richmond Heights schools. Okay, so it's the voucher program has taken away from the Richmond Heights School District.
00:29:59
Speaker
Not sure how that they figured that other than they are they are thinking or they are saying because of the increased money going from the state budget into voucher program that that all that they're assuming all that money would have went into the public school districts.
00:30:20
Speaker
And that's... They're assuming that. They're assuming that. And they ah they that's they haven't seen any... i can't How has the voucher program affected them in any way?
00:30:31
Speaker
I don't see it. Well, would there be some students that would be going to public school instead of private school? And and they'd get they'd have that money? More money? I don't know.
00:30:42
Speaker
does it i don't I don't know how this exactly... So I think it would affect them. They they said class sizes. So as ah as a as a parent, class sizes is a big deal because if if your kid's one of 42... Yeah, yeah....as opposed to one of 25, you're going to get so a way better educational experience and with the lower class sizes.
00:31:04
Speaker
So if kids are leaving the public school system to go to private schools, that would take the class size... Down? Down. It should be taking it down, which unless they're laying off teachers increasing the class sizes that way. Good point. Good possibility. I was going to bring that up too. Yes, that could be possible.
00:31:24
Speaker
ah so But again, their their their whole concept is her whole concept is that the voucher program has taken away from their school system. And they don't and that's not necessarily true.
00:31:39
Speaker
ah it It could be. The voucher program should be making public schools better by making them compete. I don't know what's going on.
00:31:49
Speaker
And that's that's kind of my my thing. It's not quite there yet. We'll walk expand. We'll just start. She says the district is the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit Ohio lawsuit, where a coalition of more than 300 public districts are suing the state to declare the voucher program unconstitutional. The state constitution does not allow for the use of public funds for private schools. That is in our state constitution.
00:32:19
Speaker
And that is one of the key components that we're arguing in this voucher lawsuit. Folks are in fact rewriting the constitution. or recent Are we rewriting folks? Are we writing? She's not a lawyer, by the way. I don't know if she, she's, she's a superintendent of, she's definitely not a lawyer.
00:32:35
Speaker
She's a doctor though. Yeah. But still the lawyers have to take this up. So what's in the state constitution? What is she talking about Because they do throw up a clip of the state constitution in this video.
00:32:50
Speaker
So I pulled the state constitution. It says the General Assembly shall make such provisions. So this is part of the 1997 or me said Yeah, 1997 Supreme Court ruled the state the state's reliance on local property taxes is unconstitutional because it creates inequities in the school districts.
00:33:13
Speaker
And basically they're saying urban and especially rural districts cannot fund like the wealthier districts because they have higher property costs, ah higher property values, so they get more property taxes.
00:33:28
Speaker
So, and the reason they said that is because the general assembly or the constitution says the general assembly shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as with income arising from the school trust fund will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state, throughout the state.
00:33:51
Speaker
So that's where the the Supreme Court said, well, no, you it's up to the state to to to create these schools, basically, and fund them. It's not the locals, the local districts that should be have most of the burden.
00:34:05
Speaker
And they also bring it up that the poorer communities can't compete or can't can't fund their schools well enough like the wealthier ones because you just got lower lower property values.
00:34:16
Speaker
And it seems to me what they're asking for because it says tax the the local the reliance on local property taxes creates an unconstitutional created unconstitutional inequities. ah that that those Anything with equity, in it always, there's a red flag that goes off ah between the school districts. So what I think some are saying is,
00:34:42
Speaker
how do you put this? In baseball, they do this. It's profit sharing. So the the Yankees and the Red Sox take a portion of what their money and they get actually so they send it to the Major League Baseball and they spread it out between all the other teams.
00:34:57
Speaker
I think that's what a lot of these proponents or are the opponents of the school voucher program are expecting to take from the Solons or the Beachwoods and give them to you know name some rural county right or Cleveland or whatever to balance out.
00:35:16
Speaker
And no, I'm not in a, I'm in a crappy or school district and I'm saying no, if that's their, that's the advantage of living in a nicer neighborhood.
00:35:32
Speaker
They have nicer schools. Yep. So what she but she's bringing up also is the religious factor. So the after the rest of this says, and you tell me what this, what do you think this says? She says it's not they're not allowed to give money to religious schools.
00:35:48
Speaker
And here's the quote. Here's the text from the Constitution. But no religious or other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to or control of any part of school funding in the state.
00:36:06
Speaker
What do you think?
00:36:08
Speaker
That doesn't give them, that doesn't say that they don't get any money. It states they shall never have or shall ever have an any exclusive right to. Right. Or control of.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, exclusive. So it's not exclusive and they have no control over it. Here's why. and and And I know this because, again, um take advantage of this.
00:36:32
Speaker
They give me the opportunity, I can take that money anywhere, to any private school. And here's the key to what you were saying earlier, to any private school. What I want them to open it up to is, you could everybody gets a voucher, and you can take it to any school.
00:36:46
Speaker
right And then see what happens. I get how that would scare people, but that's when you're really gonna have schools competing.
00:36:59
Speaker
the there There are problems with that. I mean, we can get into a like I don't have the all the knowledge. i have ah I have a good friend who's a, his wife's a principal and you know he's a physics teacher, high school teacher in Florida. So it's different.
00:37:18
Speaker
But when they do that, it seems to like a school will start getting all the money and start a department of like like where they get a science department that's ah incredible.
00:37:30
Speaker
And they, they put it all into that one department. So they get these, they get awesome students going just for that there. But then the rest of the school is kind of
00:37:46
Speaker
good not, not getting the best stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. so ah There's probably a way to do it. I don't know if it's the exact same situation um like you're like like that. but Yeah, I don't know how, i wonder how Florida ah funds their schools.
00:38:03
Speaker
Because it's it's really, because 50% of funding currently is off of local taxes, levies. Right, right. And it hurts the smaller communities.
00:38:15
Speaker
yeah I talked to him a few months ago, and he was saying, it yeah, it opened up competition between schools, but it wasn't it wasn't on the up and up. It wasn't like the whole school was you know competing. They were just specializing and getting a lot of money to and because they were getting such great students going there, getting great grades. But then the rest of the...
00:38:37
Speaker
um district was kind of, or the school, or I don't know. But um they were yeah forgotten, basically. So it wasn't like on the up and up, it seemed like to me.
00:38:51
Speaker
don't know if that makes any sense. Yeah, no, it it yeah it doesn't. know what you're saying. it mean it It opened up other things that maybe you don't you don't see until you do it.
00:39:04
Speaker
you know Yeah. yeah i just it's Just for clarity, like ah again, we take advantage of this EdChoice program, and I would gladly give it up if if I can get my tax dollars back.
00:39:19
Speaker
Sure. Or have them go to my local roads or the local bridges. Hey, issue two. Hello, issue two. Yeah, it's, um if i if I had kids, i'd I'd be taking advantage of that too. i mean, you have to. to And that was my problem was, is I'm paying twice.
00:39:37
Speaker
And some people i would talk to would say, well, that's your choice. Is it really? Is it really? Depends on what school system you're in, really. And in my school system, it wasn't a choice for me.
00:39:50
Speaker
And and we for years, we did it on our own. And we made the sacrifices to do it and to to to finance it like this woman did. And when this Ed Choice came up, I looked into it because I'm not not one that for government programs, but it's ah it's a scholarship. And I looked i've already already pay.
00:40:07
Speaker
already pay for all this. Why should I pay twice? That's why I looked at it. And maybe that's wrong. I don't know. um But if it's if it's all about money, if you if it's more money you need,
00:40:20
Speaker
Here's my experience. why are why are many of the public schools or private excuse me Why are many of the private schools cheaper than the average, the state, the average Ohio student costs? Why?
00:40:35
Speaker
Like a biolot. Yeah. So if you're going to ah an average high school,
00:40:41
Speaker
yeah you're probably looking at between $12,000 and $15,000 a year. Right. For a student. Elementary, you're probably looking at, it could be between $3,000 and $6,000. It really depends. What's what's the average?
00:40:55
Speaker
The average is $16,000 per Ohio student. Yeah, that's crazy. Why is it why is a private school and not every, there's private schools that are $30,000 a year oh yeah for high school. There's $20,000 elementary schools a year, but the, on the, on the more reasonable end, why all, almost all of them, and these are really good schools.
00:41:19
Speaker
Why almost all of them cheaper? Right. So let's, let's try, let's do a little bit more of this. Cause want to get to one more point. Recently, Ohio significantly raised the family income eligibility cap on education, dramatically increasing participation in the program.
00:41:37
Speaker
Families with a household income at or below 450% of the federal poverty level, which is just under $145,000 for a family of four, will receive the maximum scholarship.
00:41:50
Speaker
Families earning more are eligible for a scaled back amount. In fiscal year 2024, Ohio spent about $405 million dollars on EdChoice expansion for close to 87,000 students.
00:42:04
Speaker
That's an increase from the more than $124 million the state spent the previous year for close to 23,000 students. I think it was a move to just say, look, you know, our school system is built around students, it's built around parents and their choices.
00:42:19
Speaker
We want to make sure everyone is kind of in the pool. But according to Brown, putting private schools in the state funding pool will drown public schools. Drowned. Either there's going to be a break in how we're funded from the state, which is designed by the state constitution.
00:42:37
Speaker
Or we will shudder. If we shudder, the students that choose us, a great amount of them have nowhere to go. g you said Yeah, so they're going to shudder.
00:42:54
Speaker
that's There's only two options. Either give us more money, cut down cut cut this a program over here, or we're going to close. Richmond Heights School District is going to close. All the schools are going to close.
00:43:05
Speaker
Schools have been saying that for as long as I've been alive, and at least. It's an attack, Tom. It's an attack on public schools. Yeah, okay. You're going shudder, though. I...
00:43:17
Speaker
And i' watching I'm watching reports after report of this, and they keep saying four times the Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional, and no one is doing anything about it. And then when they start doing something about it, everybody goes, why are you making all these changes?
00:43:34
Speaker
So I did, where's, oh, here it is. So got the little clip from the end of one of these,
00:43:45
Speaker
one of these um ah there four or five exposés they did on, I keep calling that, but they're just doing a week-long thing on on the price of education. And this kind of, points out or emphasizes what I'm saying is they're saying, why why don't you change?
00:44:00
Speaker
We need to change. And then when they, when we we start to change stuff, everybody's going, oh my gosh, it's change. So just, I just like to listen to this little exchange. This is at the end of the report of one of the first reports.
00:44:11
Speaker
And this is channel three at the news desk, kind of wrapping up the report. She gives a little more background on what's going on Now the Ohio House this month passed a budget that has big impacts on school funding, such as more money for school vouchers.
00:44:25
Speaker
And how much extra cash are schools allowed to carry over into the next year instead of giving it back to local taxpayers? The budget is now under consideration by the Senate. And so our series continues tomorrow as we dig deeper into that fair school funding plan that I mentioned. We'll hear from two local districts that have relied on this fair school funding and how they are now facing a future without it. This is such a complex topic. And everybody who pays property taxes yeah wants to know where their money is going. And it's finally like starting to put those pieces together, I feel like. I feel like has there been a time in recent years where we're and this is seems like a seismic shift in education. fund You think? Yeah. Can you remember a time we had this much change going on?
00:45:14
Speaker
Well, you know, as you know, when it came to the Ohio Supreme Court ruling on how schools are funded and ruling that is constitutional. Four separate times.
00:45:25
Speaker
And there still hasn't been an answer. That's one of the reasons why we're doing this series. To help people understand where the money is going, what the controversies are. We're not taking a side either way. We're showing the pros and cons. you know And let voters decide. Because it really does make a difference. And I feel like a lot of people don't really want to wrap their brain around it because very complex.
00:45:47
Speaker
But it really is consequential. What are you talking about?
00:45:54
Speaker
they're They're currently coming up with a different system.
00:46:00
Speaker
Oh, this drives me nuts. I just sit and watch it. and it's like So what is going on with EdChoice?
00:46:09
Speaker
So they they brought up, they threw some numbers out there. One of them was 2023 $124 million dollars for students. $16,000.
00:46:21
Speaker
and and increase in twenty twenty four from four hundred to four hundred and five million for eighty six thousand eight hundred students it seems like a lot man really does my remember sixteen thousand dollars
00:46:35
Speaker
per student in Ohio average. I think Cleveland is like 18,000. Get out. get out Yeah. And they, and they're giving away. Remember the max you can get is half that.
00:46:48
Speaker
Right. Eight, 86 or eight, or a little bit more than half that, or depending on what state, what's a school system you're in, it could be less or more whatever. So in Cleveland, it's less than half.
00:47:00
Speaker
Okay. So they gave out. So they're still getting the half.
00:47:05
Speaker
What do you mean? So like, okay, 18,000. If you want a school voucher, you can get, let's say 8,000. Yeah. Okay. yeah okay But that's the max you can get for high school. still But the school's still getting the the ah other 10,000.
00:47:22
Speaker
No. So you can't you can't take this voucher to public school, as far as I understand it. it's Right, but i'm I'm saying the other half. Yeah. No, the other half of the, so if you go to a private school with this voucher, anything over that $88,000 up to the parents to cover.
00:47:39
Speaker
Right. No, but does the school still get that half? ah da Oh, the public school. The public school hasn't... I mean, no, they're not getting deducted by a student and $8,000 less.
00:47:50
Speaker
Their funding hasn't stayed stayed the same going up like we're talking about. Right. Okay. So the school levies, that whole thing hasn't been touched. Their funding isn't based on how many students they have. It's just based on whatever they say it is that that they figure out that they need.
00:48:04
Speaker
So if 500 students... ah five hundred students Stop going to that that public school system. It doesn't change their funding. doesn't go down. It stays the same.
00:48:16
Speaker
Okay. But they're going to shut her. But they're shut her. So I think what she's saying is the the the private schools are so much better. We suck so bad that we have no chance to even compete. That's what I heard.
00:48:28
Speaker
That's what I heard. That's about right. But they must do it is true, right? It is true. it um Again, have, I've, I talked to parents of kids in public school. ah So I hear various, I know, but I know what it was like when I was in school.
00:48:43
Speaker
And I, I have had 10 years of private school. And what I can say is parents are much, I think parents are much more involved in class sizes are way down.
00:48:55
Speaker
And it's cheaper. And it's cheaper. Right. It's cheaper.
00:49:01
Speaker
So the math, 2023, $124 million students. that is five thousand four hundred and eighty six dollars per student
00:49:17
Speaker
So that means that the parents of those 22,000 kids are paying for the other half of that or, or whatever they're getting Cause there's lot of, lot of the private schools, especially the religious ones will have, they'll take you know donations. They have a fund for, they'll give you 500,000. You know, if you, if you've got, if you could do this essay and you do all kinds of stuff.
00:49:37
Speaker
So that seems like a really good fricking deal. Okay, but in 24, it went up. How'd they do in 24? I mean, generally generally, governments don't do better when they get more money, right? $405 million for 86,800 students is $4,665 per student. They made it even better.
00:49:57
Speaker
they got more more They got more out of the money. More kids went to school. They gave them more money. And the average, and I guess maybe I shouldn't be taking so much from these numbers, but it's just, I'm looking at,
00:50:10
Speaker
you're paying, the average is $16,000 per student. The state is giving out $405 million. And so really costing, on these 86,000 students, it's costing the state $4,665 instead of $16,000. Now, again, the whole $16,000 isn't the state. 50% the local government. Right. that $16,000. $8,000
00:50:22
Speaker
instead of sixteen thousand again the whole sixteen thousand isn't state fifty percent of that is the local government right of that sixteen thousand so eight thousand dollars comes from 8,000 of that $16,000 average comes from your local.
00:50:42
Speaker
And if you take some students out and the money doesn't go down, I guess you have little more resources for the kids you have there. Now, I guess if you get small enough, you may have reduce the size of your school or become a better school.
00:50:57
Speaker
Just saying.
00:51:00
Speaker
I think it's a pretty good deal. i think it's...
00:51:07
Speaker
But again, if we can possibly take that, maybe we take that $250 million or $150 million out of that $250 million from issue two and give it to the schools. And then the other $100 million would come back to us.
00:51:24
Speaker
Yeah, that's that. Any questions, any concerns, any more things you want to complain about?
00:51:34
Speaker
About that? I'm just going notes. I'm just going through my notes. Make sure hit everything. Again, I don't... i'm It's all about money. don't have questions. I mean, it's all about money, but it just sounds like you got a, you know, school supervisors and stuff that are are inadequate.
00:51:49
Speaker
They're not doing their job. And...
00:51:53
Speaker
you know, they're just whining about about this. I feel for some of them, but also in some these reports, they were saying, you know, one of the but one of the downsides of this is they may have to dip into their reserves.
00:52:07
Speaker
That's that 30% they want to cap them at. right That's the whole thing. I, I, I've been kind of telling people that, Hey, you know, you're your local school. What? Yeah. They most, most them carry about 25 to 30% of their budget into the next year.
00:52:21
Speaker
Why are they always asking for more money? What was the school superintendent making in Cleveland? Yeah. this This was like probably like a half a decade ago. and Oh, gosh. I think the guy in Akron was making $200,000 a year. Yeah, i think the one in Cleveland, was this was like probably five or six years ago, was making $250,000. Yeah, he's got to be making over three now at least.
00:52:43
Speaker
I mean, don't know. you know I'm not saying they shouldn't be. No. i don't I'm not saying that job shouldn't pay that, but that job should um require somebody that can do their job. Yeah, are they worth it? That salary should be. you know There's a lot of responsibility, so I get it.
00:52:58
Speaker
I just i just can't come i can't leave this topic without saying at least this much, and that or maybe leaving it with this is, The city of Cleveland complained that they needed better schools, and they basically went around and tore them all down in the last 10 years and rebuilt them all.
00:53:17
Speaker
I don't think that i don't think they um the grades have gone up much at all. Are there more kids going to school? and i mean not You're talking about Cleveland, right? Yeah, city of Cleveland. I mean, come on.
00:53:31
Speaker
The most cities I've seen around the area are just building these huge palaces. You know, they're and they're beautiful campuses. They're literally campuses. A lot of the ah areas are putting high schools, elementary and middle school, if there is one, all on the same campus, this, that and thing.
00:53:47
Speaker
But just keep this in mind, people. Some of the most expensive schools in the country have buildings 150 years old on on so on campus. And they learn just fine in a building that was built in 1910 or 1970 or 1980 or 1990.
00:54:05
Speaker
You don't need a brand new building to learn. Because I currently send my kids to school, to a school that's been there more than 100 And another one that was built in the It makes me feel good when there's a new building going up.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yes, it makes me feel like my money's going somewhere. in Like in somebody's pocket. So for example, some of the levies, some of the levies this time around $200 per year per So if you bought a house, if you're if you're a retired, you're now start paying, and your in your house went from fifteen years ago to three hundred and twenty thousand dollars you're not going to pay another six hundred or seven hundred dollars a year
00:54:52
Speaker
How are you going to afford that? Yeah, you can't. I mean, it's... I mean... The system's broke. I don't know how retirees do it that are on a fixed income. I mean, i you know... The system's broke.
00:55:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And okay when we're as we're trying to fix it, they're complaining that we're trying to fix it. I get it. Maybe you don't understand it. you don't agree with it. But um' come up with another way. They just want more freaking money.
00:55:15
Speaker
I'm thoroughly depressed now that I'm getting closer to retirement age. Yeah. You got to have a side hustle, man. got to have a side hustle. My dad did it for years. Yeah.
00:55:26
Speaker
And really just, it's it's really good for your relationship too, because but the two of you in the house all day long. Well, you got to be, you got you got to have ah guys' make money up doing you got to wake up with a goal in mind, whether it's whatever, you know, if you're retired, you can't just wake up and yeah sit on the couch and watch television. That's boring.
00:55:48
Speaker
right, I just bitched for like 20 minutes. Oh, no, wait, sorry. One more more more clip. One clip because of protests. Oh, protests. Protest clips. Protest. Would you go protest clips?
00:56:01
Speaker
This is just showing how I'm not prepared. and Hold on. There it is. Show clips. Come on. It's just one clip of the freaking, you know, I can't get one clip right. all right. So they're protesting in ohio and Columbus.
00:56:15
Speaker
And the video, have you did you see this story by chance? No, I didn't. Okay. Let me see. While it's playing, I'll pull up and send you a pic.
00:56:26
Speaker
And that wait until I'll just explain it. So here, and it's raining. And what is what is the problem? they I think you really get to the bottom of it in this in the clip here. What? Go ahead.
00:56:36
Speaker
It's the the Fox 8 thing. This, yes, this is Fox 8, I believe. Okay. clicked on the link that you got there. Yeah, that's Fox 8 one, yeah. Okay.
00:56:47
Speaker
All right. So, like I said, they really get to the bottom of the problem here, as you can see. Who paid for those signs? Exactly. Do you see the pile of them? Yeah.
Media and Pollution in Cleveland
00:56:58
Speaker
It's a massive pile of signs that says stop the fight f of fight for... fighting but Fighting for public education.
00:57:06
Speaker
and that was there's a pile of signs. There's probably about... I'm going to say there's... a few hundred signs piled up and probably 30 people there who paid for these signs yes and you know interesting enough also brought up in about the issue two is who paid who's paying because there's she had brought up or he had brought up jack and then and the interviewer there's wrote uh lawn signs for issue two who pays for the lawn signs and why Oh, that is a good point.
00:57:36
Speaker
yeah if you want to advertise something, that means you're there's something to be made off of it. Because you're not just, you know, I mean i guess maybe there could be some philanthropy or somebody who's just donating, I guess. But that was a question. Usually when you're putting in signs up like that, you're...
00:57:50
Speaker
does it no that's That was a good point. I remember that came up. But this is this is ridiculous. Yeah. So its it was pouring, too. All those signs are going to get ah burned. I mean.
00:58:02
Speaker
Well, now imagine those signs sitting there in the rain and somebody going to pick them up an hour later they're just falling apart. Yeah, they're going to fall apart. They're going to fall apart. It's going to be a pain in the butt. Anyway, so they asked some protesters to really get to the bottom of what the problem is.
00:58:17
Speaker
Other educators I spoke with say it's important for teachers to speak out because they feel the whole system of education is under attack. We teach kids who are immigrant students. We have LGBTQ students. We've got kids that feel like they're not welcome in our classrooms.
00:58:35
Speaker
Not welcome. We can't have it. We're here because we feel like education is going the wrong way. And... And it has to stop. It's got to stop. It can't be about an agenda. It can't be about a party. It needs to be about kids, period. President Trump has called the U.S. Education Department wasteful and feels it's polluted by liberal ideology. Many people I spoke with say that the power should be in the hands of the educators, not the lawmakers.
00:59:06
Speaker
You don't say. It's all Trump's fault. You don't say. So you think the decision should be in the hands of the educators and not the lawmakers.
00:59:17
Speaker
So you want more government.
00:59:23
Speaker
That's what they want. they want the course But they want more federal funding. They want more state funding. They want more government. Oh, okay. And it's Trump's fault. Trump.
00:59:36
Speaker
Yeah. So again, couldn't, couldn't go without that. That was a good one. Yeah. So I just bitched for i i just a long time. i still want to know who's, who's funding this.
00:59:50
Speaker
they You know, and that picture of the sign surprised that they even put that in there. And I think they put it there to like, see how many people were coming there. But I think most of those signs didn't get used.
01:00:03
Speaker
but Well, you got to get suspicious when it's the same sign over and over. And it wasn't the only professionally printed sign there. Yeah, I see that. I can't... Mostly mostly yeah professionally printed signs.
01:00:16
Speaker
Yeah, so... And i've i've you know I've never gone to a protest where they've given me a sign. I haven't gone to that many protests, mind you, but I have gone to a couple...
01:00:27
Speaker
and one ever gave me a sign. There was nobody giving signs. We we had areas where you can make a sign. We had postal board and markers and sticks. Actually, we didn't have sticks. We weren't allowed sticks because the cops were afraid we were going to beat each other with them or something. Right. Wow.
01:00:44
Speaker
so what do you have bitch about? Actually, I don't have much. um Okay, I'll start with one. it's not I'm not bitching about the... The, let's see.
01:00:56
Speaker
Okay. How do you feel the Cleveland air pollution is? right Something, I saw an article come up. I didn't think it was a major problem.
01:01:09
Speaker
Is it?
01:01:12
Speaker
Well, I didn't think so because feel like. I mean, the picture looks horrible they put in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what drives me nuts is the article in this Danielle Langenfeld article. the the The reporter or whatever you want to call her. She's an activist. She's nothing more.
01:01:29
Speaker
um Or she's a propagandist. you know This is all propaganda. And it it just annoys me that They didn't actually report on this. All they did was just spew the propaganda that Kezia Ofusoata, advocacy director for the Lung Association.
01:01:50
Speaker
Unfortunately, too many people in Cleveland are living with unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution. This air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, making people who work outdoors sick and and unable to work.
01:02:04
Speaker
and leading to low birth weight in babies. We urge Ohio policymakers to take action to improve our air quality. Now, this all stemmed from the American Lung association Association putting out a report, State of the Air. So every year they put out a report called State of the Air.
01:02:23
Speaker
And Cleveland went from fifty fourth worst to 9th worst. Which, when I saw that, i it you know i it made me just kind of go, what the hell?
01:02:35
Speaker
Because there's less people driving. There's less factories. And yeah when I drive to work now, in the mornings, I can actually see the lake from about 12 miles away, where, you know, in the past, you could see it, but it was less often.
01:02:55
Speaker
Okay. So to me, the air looks cleaner. Now, I think there's more and think there's more pollution as in because there's more people, there's just more activity. So there's more... um particles in the air, but not from ah factory um thing, yeah you know, factories and brake pads and stuff like that.
01:03:15
Speaker
ah Yeah, good point. But like we talked about in a previous episode was the e-check. but One of the reasons they want to get rid of is because the cars are so clean. they they only need that They're saying it's not needed because the cars are... Exactly. So much cleaner.
01:03:27
Speaker
So I do think there's a, you know, I'm not opposed to, you know, having clean air that's retarded, but yeah this report is what drove me nuts because not the report, not the report, the, the reporter and the, um, this is channel news channel five, no Fox eight. I'm sorry. Fox eight. Yeah.
01:03:48
Speaker
Fox eight. And, uh, Daniel Langenfeldt. And they put, ah so American Loneer Association put out this report. It didn't make any sense. Why did we drop from 54th to 9th worst?
01:04:02
Speaker
Well, as a reporter, shouldn't she read the report and then say why we went that? No, there's just a damn quote from Kezia Afuso Atta.
01:04:17
Speaker
Atta, yes. Yeah. asking for policymakers to take action. Well, I read the report, part of it, just the part about Cleveland. And you know what why are air why we went from 54th to 9th?
01:04:32
Speaker
They changed the scale? Nope. Remember, and this report, takes ah it goes from to So 23, it was awful.
01:04:48
Speaker
And do you remember why? oh my gosh. Yes. So the can Canadian fires. fires The fires. The fires. That's what this picture was taken, ah bet. Yes. You bastards.
01:04:59
Speaker
You bastards. So, you know, I'm not, I just wanted to. Is this like Trump showed up at the Pope's funeral in a blue suit, even though he asked, and they only showed the close-up of him and 20 other people in black suits, and when you pulled back in the actual photo, it was like half the people were in blue suits, or quarter of them were suits. same frickin'. Well, it's the same thing as, know, you could go back to when he was feeding the fish. The fish. You know, and he, whatever.
01:05:27
Speaker
Omitting is lying too. Yeah. So they did no reporting here. All they did was just spew the propaganda that the American Lung Association puts out there.
01:05:39
Speaker
And not that they're bad. I don't know anything about them. I'm just saying you got if you're going to report on this, you should tell people, well, we went from 54th to 9th worst because of the fires. Because of the fires in Canada, 4,000 away.
01:05:52
Speaker
well That year, in 2023, the West Coast got real clean. Everything blew over here from those fires.
01:06:04
Speaker
So New York, New Jersey, us, and I guess the heat front in Texas was pretty bad that year. So they had pretty bad air that year. But they don't tell you why. They just tell you that it did. so And they make it sound like, they just make it sound like, you know, we need more regulation. It's like, wow. It's an attack.
01:06:24
Speaker
Yes. Like there's an attack on public funding. You know, I did, um
01:06:31
Speaker
like, I just kind of wanted to see where American Lung associates ah Association gets our money. And most of it's like, a lot of it's donations. And there was one other thing, I forget what it was, but um they get government grants. So they just want policymakers to make, ah take action so they can get more grants. So.
Immigration and Law Enforcement
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, and that is that is a hidden problem with our system, is especially in science, is the grants. Because if you say the wrong thing and make the wrong department mad, you may not get your grant next time.
01:07:03
Speaker
So yeah as a lung association, i'm not I don't want to put anything on them, but really, i'm not blame transparency is needed, at least. I'm not blaming them. I'm blaming the reporter.
01:07:15
Speaker
oh get Oh, I see what you're saying. I gotcha. So report, you know a report wasn't anything bad. It was just the way there, this reporter is. The report was truthful. Shaping it. but Yeah. The report was truthful.
01:07:26
Speaker
They're omitting, they're omitting the reason and making it sound like a a huge problem. And that's, that's a lie in my opinion. They didn't do any reporting. All they did was just tell you what the what the um the lung association said.
01:07:39
Speaker
They just data said we got worse and oh my gosh, yeah what are going to about it? Yeah, so it's like all you needed was five minutes of research and just, oh, you know what? There was fire. So it's... We don't really need to worry about anything. It still would have been a story. It's still something to talk about. and It would have been a great story, but this this person has to, ah if you ask me, they're an activist. Yeah, activist. too yeah it Sounds about right.
01:08:01
Speaker
All right. So that was that was my one bitch, I guess. I do have a good story, though. I think it's good. So I got a clip here. Yeah. There are sheriff departments in Ohio joining Nice.
01:08:16
Speaker
and Nice ICE. I think kind of cool because you know what? They're making money from it too. So I'm going to play a play. Please.
01:08:28
Speaker
Maybe. Let's see. In Mahoney County, jail space is something they have a lot of. We had, you know, a couple of hundred extra beds here. That surplus is exactly what Sheriff Jerry Green decided to capitalize on. soon as Trump got elected, I contacted ICE in Cleveland and Homeland Security in Detroit. What made you decide to reach out? One of the main drives is that it's the finances behind it.
01:08:52
Speaker
The county earns $125 per day for every ICE detainee held in its jail. They got the approval just a few weeks ago. Now local inmates and ICE detainees from across the country are in the same cells.
01:09:05
Speaker
For the entire county, we book about 450 inmates month. inmate ah month Over a six month period, we saw six illegal immigrants.
01:09:15
Speaker
Mahoning County is just one of many sheriff's offices working under contract with ICE. Others, including Portage County, have agreements under the 287G program.
01:09:26
Speaker
It is basically a statute that allows federal immigration authorities to place enforcement of immigration matters on local and state police officers. The program includes three models, jail enforcement, task force, and warrants, essentially training officers to act as ICE agents.
01:09:50
Speaker
If you are arrested for something already, we're going to ask you about your immigration status when we book you into the PlayStation, right? Normally that would not be a question. The Portage County Sheriff's Office wrote.
01:10:04
Speaker
What a crazy idea. What, why wouldn't that be a question before? and There's a little bit more to this. Yeah. on Facebook the following. Although Portage County may not be a border community, the impacts of crime do not stop at border towns and in many ways impact communities throughout our country.
01:10:22
Speaker
News 5 reached out to Sheriff Bruce Sikowski multiple times. His office did not respond. Meanwhile, Mahoney County already has 77 ICE inmates in custody, the capacity to house up to 100, potentially generating nearly $4.5 million dollars annually.
01:10:39
Speaker
It enables us to either pay for what we're doing right now, pay for initiatives of the sheriff's office, or even to put in a rainy day fund. The sheriff says that expanding the power of their deputies isn't necessarily.
01:10:52
Speaker
this is This is awesome. so we What a capitalist, man. Yes, exactly. I loved it. We got empty beds, and they're giving us how much? Yeah. um Right now, but Butler County, they're doing the same thing. Mahoney, they're putting them in jail and um collecting cash for that, arresting them. Portage County, think, ah we have a link here.
01:11:16
Speaker
Actually, hang on a second. I see it.
01:11:21
Speaker
ah I downloaded their... agencies Pending agencies, participating agencies. I got it right here. um It's an Excel um file. So, um yes.
01:11:35
Speaker
Butler County, Seneca County, and... um Oh, so some of them are just, like Seneca County is just, they're warrant service officers and task force model. They're not, maybe they don't have the room. They may not have a jail, yeah. Yeah. um Portage County has the, they're not doing the jail, but they're doing the task force and the warrant service.
01:12:01
Speaker
And Butler County is doing the jail and the task force. ah it doesn't look like they're doing a... Yeah, they're not doing warrant service, so maybe they just don't have enough people for that. It looks like they got like three different, and they got jail enforcement models designed to identify and process removable aliens.
01:12:21
Speaker
that's a that's and That's a refreshing term in and and ah on a government website. Removable aliens with criminal or pending criminal charges who are arrested by state or local enforcement agencies.
01:12:34
Speaker
The second one is...
01:12:37
Speaker
Task Force model serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE. Oversight during the during their routine police duties. And then Warrant Service Officer Program allows ICE to train, certify, and authorize state and local law enforcement officers to serve as executive but is to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their in their agency's jail. So it's like almost like a tiered thing. like You can get help a little bit, a little bit more, and and just go...
01:13:13
Speaker
full bore and and get trained and and basically be authorized to act as an ICE agent until yeah one arrives. Which is, is this something new, I wonder? No, this has been, they've had this since 2017. Yeah.
01:13:28
Speaker
Oh, since the previous Trump administration. Yes, yes. Put it in. But, and I think Butler County did it back then, but now it seems like there's going to be more agencies doing it.
01:13:41
Speaker
Yeah, I was surprised not to find Geauga on there, because I know they had a couple of big arrests um in Geauga for some illegal aliens, but... um But there I don't see them on the list, which maybe they just don't have the room for it or something. But I think they're working with ICE.
01:14:00
Speaker
I'm just surprised they're not on the list. I'd imagine. And some people may think, well, are you talking about this in Ohio? i don't know if anyone's aware, but they've, for four years, solid years, they shipped these people, millions of people all around the country, including Ohio. Oh, yeah.
01:14:16
Speaker
Ohio is one of the largest, um ah has had some of the most imported people. Tom, they're eating the dogs, Tom. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the, people are eating the cats.
01:14:27
Speaker
They're eating They're eating pets. The best debate line in history. Oh, was it was. Yes, it was that was good. So, yes. So Springfield, <unk> for example, Springfield, which is over by Dayton, Ohio, is there was like 20,000 in a two year period, 20 or 30,000 people put there by the Biden administration.
01:14:51
Speaker
which has permanently changed that community forever. Those people not, most people are not going anywhere. It was only a community of, it was only a community of like 40,000 people. Yeah. and number sixty No, I think it was 60. And i think I remember. I think it's 60 after they added the people. Maybe you're right. Yeah. yeah they Yes. They increased it by half. That's, that's what, yeah, that makes sense. And a third. So that's why I was thinking. A third of the people there now are non-English speaking people. Yeah. And they're, they're wrecking cars because they have no driver's license.
01:15:19
Speaker
Yeah. and They get a car, they drive it around, they run into things and then run off. there's yeah There's all kinds of weird things happening there. I'm not saying that, you know, that community needed, it didnt it wasn't a very...
01:15:33
Speaker
Flourishing community. could use a little influx of some if some some hardworking migrants. or hard Well, okay, that's different. That's not just taking... a Yeah. That's just not taking people and putting them there from... that don't They're not looking to be hardworking.
01:15:50
Speaker
They're just looking for... Free stuff. Free stuff. Because they were told, come here and get free stuff. Now... As horrible as America is, I mean, the war on women and racism and all this stuff, and yet these people just keep coming in, hook or crook, man, risking their lives to get to this horrible place called America. It's always, always astonished me.
01:16:13
Speaker
Who's saying it's horrible except the Americans? No, mean, no, yeah, the, you know, the left, let's just put it that way. The far left liberal retards, you know?
01:16:24
Speaker
Yeah. ah They're the ones crying about things, but. So I have, this is something that's, again, I've kind of pushed in my industry and where i what I do with with unions.
01:16:37
Speaker
I think unions are some of the best avenues for legal immigration in this country because they can, if if they were to ku kt orra um cater to an immigrant population,
01:16:56
Speaker
I think it would be a great service for the unions, first of all. It would be good it would be good for the unions. It might be good for the um for the citizens, for you know American citizens.
01:17:07
Speaker
yeah If the if e unions actually maybe took... um let's let's say an active role in this, they could actually provide better pay, which wouldn't lower our pay.
01:17:20
Speaker
Correct. sit you know So yeah, you know I never thought about that, but that that is that is, but you know what? I still don't think there's enough, Well, okay, you said legal.
01:17:31
Speaker
Legal. Yeah, okay. To promote legal, to to help and give opportunities for legal immigrants to come here. What I mean is, so for years, it's it just it's happened. You look at history. it was It was the Italians. It was the Irish.
01:17:46
Speaker
It was, I mean, the Polish, right? I mean, your father, right? Yeah. Coming here, and those, the the second and third generations have been here forever, they're not working in the factories. Right.
01:17:57
Speaker
No, nothing think the thing is, that it was different, though. you There was like a, you know, there still is a wait list to get into the country if you're doing it legally. And I don't know if you need to be sponsored anymore. But back in the day, it was like, you if you were coming to this country, you needed to be sponsored by a family that was a here already.
01:18:16
Speaker
And they were responsible for you, meaning that if you couldn't afford a housing or if you couldn't afford food, they were responsible to take care of you. not the government. That is huge change. Yeah, absolutely.
01:18:28
Speaker
that is a major problem right there. Like my father came here, but you know, yeah he came here on a Sunday and he was working on a Tuesday. Mm-hmm. So... Mm-hmm.
01:18:40
Speaker
But those are the people we want. that's That's, I guess, my point, that the unions can attract the people we want. to We want immigrants in this country. I agree. i agree. And that was kind of my point was um not we're not anti-immigrants.
01:18:51
Speaker
Right. and Like, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for almost none of us would be here in this country if it wasn't for legal immigration. Well, you just have to stop this influx of people. I mean, it's been stopped pretty pretty good now, but now you've got to get rid of the bad...
01:19:07
Speaker
bad um you know, variety of immigrants, if you want to call them. The million or 2 million of, there's at least that many out of the 15 or 20 million that have come in in the last few years, build a bigger ah big wall with really big doors.
01:19:24
Speaker
That's what I say. Because we want people, we want the right people. Just like when you go to Mexico, when you go to Mexico, you want to become a Mexican citizen, you have to prove to them what you're going to bring to the Mexican economy.
01:19:35
Speaker
Right, that's how it was here too. If you cross the goat border into ah into Mexico, you will go to prison. They will put you in prison in Mexico for illegally crossing the border.
01:19:47
Speaker
There's no here's a voucher. Unless you're traveling to America.
01:19:53
Speaker
Oh yes, yes. They come across the southern border of Mexico and they're okay with it as long as you're continuing to go through until someone until someone says, hey, what about some tariff? Oh, no no, no, forget it. We'll we'll stop the caravans.
01:20:06
Speaker
You don't have barely even say the word tariff and then stop all the caravans. i I bring this up to my union friends and i because i I go to see some construction unions in my in my work and I've been bringing it up to them. like You guys need to you need to have, it it's not going to be the Polish, the Italians. It's South America.
01:20:24
Speaker
That's where all the legal, those people that we looked at years ago from Italy and and from Europe, they're not coming there. that we're We're looking, so you have to have Spanish people, Spanish speaking people in your union, right? So when they come in, they feel comfortable, that kind of stuff.
01:20:41
Speaker
and And they're starting to open their eyes up because what I'm finding is some of the non-union companies, five guys work for 15 union guys. yeah They don't complain about weekends. They want to work Sundays.
01:20:55
Speaker
They want to work overtime and they work a lot faster. Yeah, we just got to make sure they're getting paid what they ought to be Yeah, that's the thing. They're not. Yeah, that's the part.
01:21:05
Speaker
Not to far it. You have to be careful with that to keep the wages where they should be. Yeah. you have to be careful with that to keep the you know to keep the wages where they should be um you know I was going to say, like Europeans don't need to come here like they used to.
01:21:26
Speaker
like no My dad came here. They were coming from a communist country. yeah yeah and and and you had i mean Similar reasons they're coming from South America. It's not communism, but it's poor. No, it's the same thing. They they want a better life. yeah But you can stay in Poland now or or many other countries. You can stay there and have a great life.
01:21:45
Speaker
back Back in the day, it was it was impossible because there was nothing there to yeah to make your life better. But nowadays they don't really need to, if they're, if they're coming here, they, they might come here. um I see, ah you know, some coming here for work a little bit, but mostly movie they come here to, to, to get, um, experience and things in things and school.
01:22:09
Speaker
Yeah. And then they go back. Cause you know what? You can basically have the same lifestyle there that you do here. I mean, you, I mean, there's there's things I love about America, ah you know, our freedoms, you know, Bill of Rights. But I don't know. I mean, some of these – Poland's pretty awesome.
01:22:29
Speaker
Pretty Americanized, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty modernized. It's modernized, but they're very – they're proud nation. So it's – you know, they don't have the Second Amendment.
01:22:42
Speaker
You can have guns there, but you have to have permission, basically. Yeah, old habits, you know? Old habits. Yeah, it's... Well, it's a small... But all of Europe is like that, too. That's very consistent for Europe. I would say they're little bit better than a lot of Europe, but... Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, so Europeans just... Speaking Poland... Sorry.
01:23:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, go ahead. I was to say, speaking of immigration in Poland, ah they were one of the best. Oh, yeah. They didn't have... they and And I remember... I don't i you know, somebody from the Polish government, I don't remember, there as president, was somebody high up in there and somebody on an American ah news station and they were telling them, ah you know trying to try to tell him how racist they were because they didn't let any immigrants in. And he came back with, yeah, when was the last time you terrorist attack in Poland? Right.
01:23:27
Speaker
ah manual This is the time that Europe was being flooded with um yeah immigrants or illegals from Middle East, basically. Spain. 95% male and in their 20s, which, huh, interesting.
01:23:42
Speaker
Where's all the women and children? yeah So they didn't allow any of them, and they had zero terrorist attacks. Yeah, I don't hear about any ah Sharia law in Poland anymore. No, definitely not.
Energy Legislation in Ohio
01:23:54
Speaker
So, yeah, they're they're pretty ah pretty outstanding when it comes to that. all So that's good. I'd like to hear that. That's awesome. Ohio's getting right on board and and making money. at there Yeah, we need we we need more sheriff departments doing that.
01:24:06
Speaker
God, I would love to see Kyle's sheriff department. Yeah. We'd just work on getting him up, getting it to an elected position again. That would be a good, a good start with that.
01:24:18
Speaker
But still, that'd be that'd be a cold day. I think. um I think my next would be, let's, let's touch a little bit and revisit house bill 15, which I think we had touched on a little bit couple episodes ago.
01:24:31
Speaker
am b Yeah. Can we come back in, in two minutes? Yeah. You got to need break. Yep. Break time.
01:24:43
Speaker
And we're back. Thank you for the reminder. I was squirming. Yeah, I understand. i understand. Me too. I was getting there. And for some reason, I forgot.
01:24:55
Speaker
So House Bill 15. is 15. What is it? It is basically, we again, we talked about this, uh, on the last couple episodes, maybe ago, it is the final nail in the coffin of HB six, which was the corrupt bill that put, you know, people in jail and stuff like that, uh, for first energy for energy.
01:25:17
Speaker
um, Basically, they threw a dollar or something on our monthly bills to cover decommissioning of the nuke plants. And the way they got done in the and the bill was by bribing Republican congressmen, Ohio congressmen.
01:25:32
Speaker
So this is they they've they repealed a lot of it, and this is a final bill repeals the rest of that, along with a couple other things. So the big thing that takes away, the last thing it takes away is it takes away eight what they call the o Ohio Valley um OVEC.
01:25:53
Speaker
Oh crap, they didn't put the Ohio Valley Energy Commission or something like that. and There's $80 million dollars being put on everybody's ah bill every year, it sounds like, that they're going to take off.
01:26:07
Speaker
And what this does is supposedly subsidize the Ohio Valley ah power plants in the Ohio Valley, a couple of them that are not, quote unquote, not profitable by First Energy. Hmm. But in the same hand, what we talked about too was First Energy has already asked for the regulatory commission that regulate regulates them.
01:26:24
Speaker
They've asked them for an increase. What we as speculats speculated because of this bill that was going to pass and strip that subsidy away. Okay. Okay, good. I mean, if they're not profitable, make them profitable. I mean, by giving a handout by the government, it's not, if you can't get enough money for it, then change the plan. I don't know, something. It's welfare for the power plant is not not not what it should be.
01:26:47
Speaker
So that that gets taken out. So that's good. So you should see less fees, but I don't think you're going to see the less, a lower bill. but I think First Energy is just going to increase the bill to make it profitable.
01:26:59
Speaker
um Yeah, like I said, ends the scandals from HB6. and a man So a couple of things it does. Mandates a market rate offering that forces energy companies to compete like phone carriers to deliver fair pricing.
01:27:13
Speaker
And it's going acquire an up-to-date apples-to-apples website to enhance transparency. Letting Ohioans pick the best energy deal, whether solar, gas, or nuclear.
01:27:25
Speaker
so So I was like, ah we have nuclear plants? Do we just talk about the scandals bill that made us pay for the decommissioning of the new plants in Ohio? So I guess, is there other new plants in Ohio? There might be.
01:27:38
Speaker
i don I don't know. But there's definitely no solar in Ohio. I mean, very little. So whatever. Yeah. So that's what it does. And it the other thing that stuck out to me, the last thing was, it's going to fast track power plant approvals.
01:27:53
Speaker
Some within as little as 45 days, if they're in certain, what they call them, brown brown areas, they don' whether they're having a lack lack of power power shortage. Where is that in Ohio at this point?
01:28:05
Speaker
So the there's a... What is it? a Ohio's looming energy shortfall projected by PJM Interconnection, which is a company that did a study on power consumption in Ohio. And they are saying by 2030, we're going to be energy.
01:28:25
Speaker
it Is that because of like the ah plants going up in Columbus? Yes, that's my opinion of it. Yeah, that's a big part of it. That's what I'm seeing, at least personally. So yes, and it it's its even says it right here. I should continue reading my own notes.
01:28:38
Speaker
Driven by surging demand from industrial users and data centers. Yeah, the data centers are going to suck up a lot of energy.
Demographics and Education's Future
01:28:46
Speaker
Tom, you would not believe the amount of water and energy these places. They're just massive structures. It is crazy.
01:28:53
Speaker
Yeah. um Let's see. If you look at energy users, we have the big industrial users present and these future data centers like are coming in.
01:29:05
Speaker
And the house speaker, Matt Huffman from Lima, saying that we got to do it. They want to take them the the grid, these large companies and put them on their own grid, basically, ah to lower costs and make it more reliable is kind of what he was, he was kind of talking about. I don't know how, how, for see or how ah feasible that is, but.
01:29:26
Speaker
But that makes sense though. So yeah. and And I know for, I, there's, there's literally a power plant going up. I drove past it and I know it's a power plant but because you can see the, the stacks just sticking out. So Ohio state, you drive, as you drive past the freeway in Columbus on the freeway,
01:29:42
Speaker
Ohio State has their own power plant going up. No kidding. Yeah. Okay. Because they don't have enough power and steam for the campus buildings. Yep. and they And what I read was they are already talking about a second one.
01:29:57
Speaker
And it's literally in downtown. It's like on campus. And they got a big huge It's pretty small. it's not taking It's not a big footprint then. It's the size of a
01:30:10
Speaker
Size of a decent building, five stories high. Oh, okay. No, it's two. it's It looked like two smokestacks. Not they're on smokestacks, but two stacks, which would mean two two units in there burning natural gas.
01:30:24
Speaker
Okay. No, it's quite bit. That makes sense. I'm surprised Ohio State has to do that, but maybe they want to get off the grid. They want to have their own grid to... So the so the ah plants that are coming in aren't going to be... I don't know if it's as much of a want, as much of a necessity for them at this point.
01:30:44
Speaker
Yeah. and they can And then they can control their own you know stuff. And and it's it's Ohio State. They've got plenty of cash. Plenty of Billions in the bank in endowments. Unused endowments.
01:30:58
Speaker
Tens of billions. God forbid they lower the cost of education. No, I think that someone said Harvard could not could give everybody free tuition for like five years and it wouldn't even cover a billion dollars on their endowment or something crazy like that. You know that's the way going to go, though. They got 40 billion or 50 billion sitting in the bank.
01:31:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But you know that's the way it's going to be going, though.
Qualified Immunity and Liability Laws
01:31:20
Speaker
What you mean? i With the lack of kids ah being born, colleges are goingnna start ah yeah they're going to start closing their doors or doing doing some other type of offering something else.
01:31:34
Speaker
yep i guess what i mean There's many colleges, man. So many schools. I was listening to this one stat. I forget where it was from, but... Baby boomers were like 70 million.
01:31:47
Speaker
ah gen X was like 50 million babies. Millennials, 40. No, hang hang on um ah Gen Z is down to 40, but it was it was a drop from like 70 for Gen Xers.
01:32:04
Speaker
Wow. Wow. And millennials were somewhere a little bit little bit closer to Gen Xers, and the Gen Z is like way down. So just I don't know if it's going to happen in my lifetime, but yeah I would say in the next 20 to 30 years, I guess that's my lifetime. You're restructuring.
01:32:23
Speaker
There'll be restructuring. There's just not going to be as many students. Yeah. Or, you know, I don't know. there's There's a lot of college. I don't think college is going to be the, well, we're getting back onto this issue. yeah i just going to say.
01:32:36
Speaker
like, hey, if there's less students, maybe you need less money. Oh, I said, no, no. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we yeah that's ah that's a different discussion. Okay. Okay. like So house bill 15 seems to be pretty good. It does some good things.
01:32:49
Speaker
and Is your power bill going down? Probably not because you're just going to get an increase from first energy. Yeah. So next, what you got? We'll go one more thing and then we'll wrap it up. We got one more thing. Hey, okay.
01:33:03
Speaker
I'll say I could wait till next week if you want for the, do you know what qualified immunity is? Yeah, this is quick. like Yeah, do a quick. Yeah. All right. I'm going to play a clip. It's a couple minutes long.
01:33:14
Speaker
Okay.
01:33:18
Speaker
um When an Akron police officer caused an accident that crushed four cars, Steven Rockage expected some sort of remedy. I could not believe my eyes, man. I was just like, what the heck? But he didn't get it.
01:33:32
Speaker
He told us in January that even though the officer was found liable for causing the damage, he would be the one paying the price. The towing that I had to pay out of pocket was over $600 and then my car was worth over $5,000. So that's all out the window. State law prevents government officials from being held liable for civil damages unless the victim can prove that the officer violated their constitutional rights, which activist Mari Rivers explains is an uphill battle. It's hard to kind of prove that exact because you would initially need
01:34:05
Speaker
full evidence and with redactions with um opinions. It's so hard to get it exactly right.
01:34:16
Speaker
This is why she's collecting signatures for the Ohio Coalition to end qualified immunity and is working to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The proposal would take away this protection and allow victims to sue for damages.
01:34:29
Speaker
But Ohio Fraternal Order of Police President Jay McDonald argues that this is necessary to shield officers who are just trying to do their jobs. If I am worried about whether or not I'm going to get sued and lose my house and put my family at risk, and no um then I'm also going to be worried about whether I should proactively police that neighborhood. But when it comes to car crash damage, who should be paying for that?
01:34:56
Speaker
Well, right now there's existing frameworks to pay for that. And we don't need a complete expansion of litigation rights that could cost taxes to go up, could cost cops to to cease working in this profession.
01:35:08
Speaker
Rivers said current legal options tend to be ineffective. The city will fund and insure what they want to. But this won't just hurt police, McDonald warned. Children's services workers, teachers, custodial people at schools. Attorney General Dave Yost has also been fighting against the amendment. But recently, federal court forced him to approve the petition so that Rivers and others can start collecting the 415,000 signatures needed by early July.
01:35:38
Speaker
Where do I sign? Do you want to sign that? I don't know. i i i I never knew they had immunity. I always thought the city paid for it.
01:35:50
Speaker
Let's say a fire engine you know backs into your car or or whatever. I always thought the city covered that. i I just assumed that. i I guess they don't. That's what you should happen.
01:36:01
Speaker
That's what should happen. I don't think the fire guy driving a fire truck or the cop should be responsible. He's at work. He's driving a car. he's if if If I'm driving a company vehicle and I crash into somebody, it's the company's insurance that takes care of it.
01:36:15
Speaker
Right. But what they're what they're advocating for here is they're what the petition is for so you can sue the cop. Oh. So well I don't like that. No, don't think not at all. yeah But the fact that a city a city cop can can smash into you and total your car and they they don't have to pay anything or very little if any or just make it so hard that you don't even bother, that's Yeah.
01:36:37
Speaker
Yeah, i i I did a little, a tiny bit of digging on this. And really, the only only thing you could do is, ah hopefully you have collision insurance, so your insurance, the city might pay for your deductible.
01:36:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's crap. Maybe. um So, yeah, I think this is, I don't think this- Maybe this goes too far. This is going too far. Maybe it's a big ask. Yeah, maybe may know they're asking big and then you come back. But the city, but oh my God, it makes no sense. I thought this, you know, and I started thinking, why did why did I assume the city?
01:37:10
Speaker
You know, yeah right, right. Why would the fire engine driver or the or the ambulance driver, you can't sue those, they're working. You can't, you know, if, well, pardon me.
01:37:22
Speaker
Sorry, go ahead. Sorry. Oh, yeah, you can't you can't go after the the people working um trying to do their job. I mean, if if an ambulance driver backs into your car by accident, it's kind of like, well, I'm not going to blame him. and you know Who knows what the the situation is.
01:37:35
Speaker
Once again, the government agency is not not performing like ah business would. Exactly. So i I am kind of...
01:37:49
Speaker
I'm in the middle of this. Above the law. Above the law. That's what I meant to say. Sorry. that they're They're acting above the law, not like a business would have to act. Right. So, and I started to think, this is like the funny thing. I just assume the city pays for damages when whenever something happens. And I think the only reason I thought that...
01:38:08
Speaker
was from when I was like a kid that watched 48 Hours, when Axel Foley ran all those cars and- Beverly Hills Cop. Beverly Hills Cop.
01:38:18
Speaker
Beverly Hills Cop, right, in that 48 Hours. yeah Beverly Hills Cop, where he where he ran into all those cars and caused all this damage, and his the chief police just reamed him a new- Because pay for all those cars. And that may be true in that city, or in some cities. Maybe it is, I don't know. But that that is I started thinking, to why did I assume this? And that's the only thing I could think of.
01:38:39
Speaker
Stupid Beverly Hills Cop. That's right. I i thought it 48 hours. Beverly Hills Cop. On an entertainment note, I have seen the the updated one. It was actually pretty pretty good.
01:38:53
Speaker
You know what? I fell asleep. I got to give it another chance because I fell asleep on it. It wasn't great, but I think more of it was nostalgic for me to to see Eddie Murphy actually doing adult comedy again instead of animal movies. Yeah, yeah. His movies were great still, as the animal. but They were great. I mean, all his he's such a talented guy. I do wish he did some more adult ah comedy again, but whatever.
01:39:15
Speaker
It's hard to do hard to do those stand-ups when you have a 10-year-old. Yeah. So I'm going to... Exactly. I guess so. um Anyway. ah Anyway, this qualified immunity. I don't know if I agree with this petition.
01:39:29
Speaker
I see what you're saying. That's a good point. That's a very good point. And that was from ah News Channel 5, Morgan Trow. but not the cop It's not the cops. that's but he's He's there doing... He's hired to do a ah job, and he's in the process of doing that. Unless there's something weird going on where he was doing something that wasn't...
01:39:47
Speaker
authorized or... There could be some exceptions. If there are exceptions right now, if the officer was acting recklessly or outside of protocol, the department is liable.
01:39:58
Speaker
But how do you prove that? Yeah, that's what they're saying. department's never going Say, oh, yeah. it's in their It's in their um and their best interest not to let that happen because it's going to hit their budget.
01:40:09
Speaker
Right. It's all, know, everything's money-based. So this is a weird one. Yeah, let's keep an eye on it because. Yeah, I want to see what happens with that. got one more thing. Quote of the week.
01:40:20
Speaker
Oh, yes. um I'm going to play this for you. Quote of the week. Tell me what you think. As far as I'm concerned, you randomly kidnapping folk and you throwing them out of the country against their civil rights, against their constitutional rights.
01:40:32
Speaker
And frankly, how would they feel if some other country decided that they were going to just start throwing people randomly in our country?
01:40:41
Speaker
okay yeah the The ever so ah brilliant Jasmine Crockett. but Just randomly. We're just randomly throwing people. Oh, my gosh. Wait, wait. i don't. Oh, the last part threw me, but the first part was what i What constitutional rights do they have? They're not citizens of the... i What due process? Well, they're talking about due process with some of these people. What due process do are they owed?
01:41:09
Speaker
But you know, like, i what what was it? ah Didn't didn't um Venezuela just release like all their prisoners and tell them to go to America? Was that Venezuela or was that... a Many countries, there's a lot of South American countries because it's cheaper.
01:41:21
Speaker
So how would how would you... You're saving money. How would you feel? This actually happened. Yeah. to us and they loved it yeah so that's jasmine crockett she's a rep from texas keep an eye on it for her because she's actually i think one of them i think she wants to run or um she wants to move up into the in the in the democrat party please it'll help the show you know what's funny is she's got this uh you know this uh ah inner city affect right now. But when when you actually heard her talk, she's like a college grad.
01:41:57
Speaker
ah When you, when you heard her talk before she got in, before a couple of years ago, she talked totally like straight. That's her. Yeah. I've seen videos of her, like well the way she talks now and then in front of a crowd, she's much more urban. Let's just put it. Yeah. the Urban, inner city, urban city, you know, a dialect and, uh, uh,
01:42:18
Speaker
oh she Didn't somebody else? I thought somebody else did that. Oh, yeah, Hillary Clinton was doing that, too, wasn't she? Well, I mean, the all AOC does it, too. And Republicans do it, too. It's not just the Democrats. They all do it. But but it's happening less and less because of the
Conclusion and Farewell
01:42:32
Speaker
internet. but Yeah, because you can compare it It's awesome. It shocks me when when a younger person does that anymore.
01:42:41
Speaker
Because they should know better. Yeah. Anyways. That was great. Great, great, great way to end this show.
01:42:48
Speaker
ah but That's, yeah. Okay. right. Well, thanks for another good show. I think we can wrap it up there. I'm good. I'm good. You're good. All right, everybody. We will talk to you next week.
01:43:01
Speaker
See you. Peace.