1.10.2025 -- NLS --Trump's Sentencing, Party Divides, and School Choice

On this episode with Neal and Julie, the duo dives into the complexities of education policy in Idaho, focusing on recent developments from the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee. They explore the tensions arising from the committee's letter addressing education choice, which initially contradicted the state Republican Party platform but was later revised to align more closely. Neal and Julie discuss the broader implications of school choice, funding equity, and the responsibilities of public and private schools when receiving taxpayer dollars.

They also examine the deep divisions within the Republican Party at the local level, raising questions about power dynamics, party alignment, and whether local committees should influence state legislation. Neal reflects on the need for fair and common standards in education, while Julie shares insights on the potential impacts of school choice on public education and community trust.

Throughout the episode, they emphasize the importance of giving every child a fighting chance through accessible and accountable education systems, navigating the tensions between public, private, and homeschooling options. It's a thoughtful and spirited discussion that highlights the challenges of balancing ideological divides with practical solutions.

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Transcript

You and I have a roundtable with them.

We'll preserve for our children. This the last, best hope of man on earth. Or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of doctor. We will keep in mind and remember that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right. The right. To make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.

This hour of the Neal Larson Show, brought to you by tailored to painting quality residential and commercial painting and staining tailored to painting, turning houses into homes. Your world, your country, your communities and you. Let's talk about it now on The Neal Larson Show with co-host Julie Mason.

And. And good morning. It's 807 on Newstalk 1079. A couple of days ago we played a clip for you of Joe Biden with the joyous and gleeful announcement that he was going to be a great grandpa. Wall fires were burning in LA, burning down. Like I saw a report this morning. Something around 10,000 buildings have been destroyed by these fires.

Holy. But the good news is Joe's now great grandpa. Also yesterday, to lighten the mood, it's what everybody was waiting for. Was a joke. A pun from our president in the midst of the devastation. Madam Vice President, I know you're directly affected. So you fire away. No pun intended. All right, as the president. Okay. And then, Jake Tapper is like.

Oh, that's an awkward moment. Let's cut away. Cuts away right as Joe Biden was handing it over to Kamala Harris, the the LA fire czar. Oh, scuse me. No, she's the vice president. Excuse me. No. It's just. Look, I have a lot of grace for Joe Biden. He has dementia. His brain is not working. And that's,

Well, it's a tough thing for all of us. Quite honestly, it's been hard to watch. And it's been every single day of these last four years that we have been, been seeing this. There is so much about this fire. The conspiracy theories are out there. The political fallout is out there. We got loads and loads of audio that we're going to share with you.

And we also have the sham and charade of a Donald Trump sentencing in New York with Judge Juan Mayor Sean. And we don't have preamble to we don't have audio of the court. We thought that it would. There are reporters that apparently are tweeting out and and giving sort of a, moment by moment update. Apparently Trump is done speaking, and now judge McCann is talking to the court.

He has already said there's not going to be any jail time. There's not going to be any probation. And what they really need is they don't need Donald Trump to sit in a prison or a jail. And they he that can't happen anyway, I promise you, if one Russian showed up this morning and said, you know what? I've changed my mind.

Orange man. Bad needs to spend some time in jail. We're putting him in jail. That's when I'm pretty darn sure that the Supreme Court would intervene and say no. He is the duly elected president of the United States, and you would be countering the will of the people by not allowing him to serve fully as as president. Then they would what they want to get to my original point, they need a label.

They need a talking point, they need a narrative. And it will be fascinating to gauge from this day, which, of course, is January 10th over the next ten days, how often the mainstream media will refer to Donald Trump as a convicted felon. Anybody want to wager a guess how much we're going to hear those two words paired together over the next ten days?

It's it's going to be a lot, I promise you. It's gonna be a lot because they needed to create that reality. They needed to at least it's a technical creation of Donald Trump, the convicted felon. So but you know what? You know what happens in these cases. And I could cite example after example after example of these things only helping Donald Trump.

They impeached him twice. You forgot about that. They put him through lawfare over and over and over again. The FBI raided his house. They crafted a completely false, utter, absolutely false narrative about him collaborating with the Russians. And it was a lie. All of it was a lie. And James Comey was complicit. Hillary Clinton was I mean, so many people, in an effort to take him down and guess who is going to be taking the oath of office and assuming the mantle of the presidency in ten days, Donald J.

Trump it doesn't matter if you try to attach convicted felon as a label ahead of him, he is stronger than you. He is. And people are going to say, oh yeah, no, you're advocating him being a tyrant. No, I'm not saying that. Of course, within the parameters of him being the president of the United States. Okay. Big headline here.

Trump sentence unconditional discharge. No prison, no probation, no conditions. Okay. I'm waiting. I can't wait to look on X. How quick how quick will Jake Tapper pounce. How quick is the rest of the lefties? Houck how soon before a headline on the New York Times and the CNN convicted felon? In fact, I bet if I go to Drudge, it's up there right now.

Let me let me look. Drudge report. Oh, it's not okay. All right. Oh, no. It's there. It's just not the big headline felon president sentencing for hush money, conviction underway developing okay. So yes, it's starting and I'm going to do you want should I break it to him or do you all want to break it to him. It's not gonna matter.

This is the latest sham in a parade of scams. And it's not going anywhere. It's not going to harm him. If anything, we're going to see his polling numbers increase. Because, you know, it's funny. You remember. I can't remember if this was impeachment one or impeachment. Well, it was the impeachment where Nancy Pelosi was handing out souvenir pens.

Do you remember that? And that's not an exaggeration. You feel like it's a bad scene out of a political parody film, but Nancy Pelosi was literally giving out, these souvenir pens of the impeachment of Donald Trump. And you remember her in her plastic smile and her loose dentures, that she was always rearranging with her plastic face.

And she said, Donald Trump will always be an impeached president. You remember when she said it with such rage and anger and passion? How often these days do you ever hear people refer to Donald Trump as the twice impeached president? They stop saying it because it didn't have any punch, didn't have any power. But he knew it was a fraud and a sham.

Everybody knew that there was there was nothing to it. Guess what? The new twice impeached is convicted felon and the media will revel. They'll glory in it. They'll bask in it for a week or two, and then they'll realize when Donald Trump's poll numbers go up, 7 or 8 points, they'll be like, well, that didn't work. We thought that was going to work after look,

How did that not work? Well, they just keep doing the same stupid thing time after time after time. So. That they think they're getting their pound of flesh and they're not. They just reinforce how ridiculous they are. So you have that, let's see, Idaho legislative session. We have not even talked about this at all today. There is a much more libertarian education choice bill, and this is the one that is getting the green light from the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

I don't know a lot about it, but here are just a couple of things that I do know. We'll learn more, as we go along. But this one is a $250 million thing. That would instead of vouchers or, savings accounts or the idea that Wendy Harman has this is just Idahoans just keeping their money and then being able to use it for education, like educational expenses will simply be tax deductible.

So that's like getting your tax credit. And I look at that and I will I will say this because I really don't want to be harsh or negatory. I don't even know if negatory is a word, but kids in high school said it 35 years ago. I don't want to be. Negatory. But, one of the greatest underlying purposes of education, and certainly public education and the spirit and the thrust of it is that every kid in Idaho's got a chance.

And this idea, this libertarian idea of just let families keep their, keep their money and, they that doesn't really address the issue among our poorest. And this is probably a realm of political philosophy where I part ways with, with the libertarians. I love them, and they're I agree with a lot of what they have to say, but what I don't agree with is almost an absolutist.

Everybody's on their own, and, an idea like this, one of the reasons why I like Wendy Harman's bill, one of the reasons why this idea of vouchers, even though that's sort of a dirty word right now, is so incredibly popular in the inner city is that it's giving that kid that's growing up with nothing poverty stricken, they're given an elevated chance at climbing out of that and breaking it, simply letting people keep more of their money when they don't have much at all to begin with really doesn't do much for the poor kids.

It may do, you know, it may scratch an libertarian itch for some people, but I don't really. And it certainly gets a higher score on the Freedom Index. But what I'm interested in, because and this is the part of public education that I absolutely agree with, the core philosophy, which is let's get every kid, every kid a fighting chance, let's look across the state.

And however many hundreds of thousands of of young kids we have, whether they are come from privilege and their parents are multi-millionaires, or they're middle class and their parents make 120 grand, or they are dirt poor and they have almost nothing. Every last one of those kids is going to get a good chance at an education. That's why I like Wendy Harman's Bill, that it were.

It's a specific amount that puts private school and other alternatives within reach of even the poorest. So, I but I think the debates worth having, I don't I don't have a problem with this. I would just say at first blush, that's sort of one of the one of the glaring holes. However, like I said, I didn't know a whole bunch about it.

I may find out more that might generate a greater level of interest, for me. So, again, Donald Trump, sentenced to now the headline is unconditional discharge. And so there's no prison time, no probation, no conditions, no nothing other than the label. That's the most important thing. Can I ask a question? If I hear again, I'm sorry to to revisit this Trump thing.

And I think this was the basis on which Trump's lawyers were arguing for this whole thing, just to not go forward. The whole purpose of justice is that you have a punishment that fits a crime right? Isn't that isn't that the purpose of justice so that it the justice system can mete out justice in reaction to crimes that are committed and injustices that happen in that the whole the whole thing.

So how if if the end was known here and it was known Marshawn telegraphed this a few days ago. Yeah. We're not putting him in prison. We're not going to put him on probation. And then they added one more no conditions. And you know why I think that is not because I think that Marshawn didn't want him to have any.

It's because he knew that's when the Supreme Court would say, you can't do that immunity. You can't you can't hamper a sitting president or a duly elected president elect with any prison probation or or conditions of a sentence. So I think he did not want to imperil this. But again, he's he's a hack politically. He's playing politics. And I haven't even looked at our text line yet.

I will not be surprised if I pop in there. And I see that our trolls have already jumped in and are taunting us with, the point that now there's a convicted felon present. Yeah, yeah, I'll probably react the same way. If you'd like to reach us the stones Auto group call and text line is (208)542-1079. We've got lots and lots of stuff about the fires and the politics in the wake of these horrific fires in Los Angeles.

The Carter funeral yesterday had some some drama to tell you about. And of course we have studio four covers coming up. Jaron Souder will perform Say You Won't Let Go by James Armor. Excuse me, James Arthur. We'll be back after this.

Live local stimulating talk for East Idaho. The Neal Larsen Show on Newstalk 179. Hi, Jake from Romania. It's a new year. And with that, we'd love to help you start sleeping better than you ever have before. If you've never experienced the incredible pressure relief of a temporary Pedic adjustable mattress set, come take a quick test and see for yourself the difference it can make.

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Go to Bingham County Historical society.org or call 208417 4457 208417 4457. Guy Benson here. Join me at my new time weeknights at eight only on Newstalk 179. Stimulating talk for East Idaho.

It's 827 on Newstalk 179. So it is the beginning of the year. Many of you probably setting some goals for yourself, things you'd like to accomplish this year. And I just want to say more power to you. Sometimes I try not to say the R-word, because I think resolutions has all sorts of oh yeah, that's going to fail attached to it.

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Okay, Julie, we have Jaron Söder standing by in the foyer out there in the green room. Can we call it the green room called the Green Room? I always put him in the, in the, conference room. So it's kind of green room ish. We should just, you know, one night, you and I should come in at midnight and paint the room green.

Just turn it into something that we believe it should be, and then we'll tell the sandhill staff this is our green room. Yeah, because it makes a sound big time if we say we approve. But. But we don't do a very good job of providing, like, you know, like a veggie tray and snack box and stuff like that, that you get an a green room.

Well, but see, that's why you create a green room. So then you can go to the boss and say, now that we have a green room, we need refreshments. There needs to be a bowl of Eminem's and three different bottled waters, and that's that's true. I mean, we already have a couple of fridges with unlimited, well within reason, unlimited soda in it.

Yeah, yeah, there's a coffee pot in there and a microwave. I think we're up halfway there. Yeah, we're. Yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. Jaron Solder studio for covers coming up. It's 830 on Newstalk 1079.

Live local stimulating talk for East Idaho, the Neal Larson Show podcast. Grab it every day at Newstalk 179. Com.

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All right. 836 on Newstalk 179, Neal Larson along with Julie Mason. And it is Friday morning and time for our studio for cover. And joining us in studio this morning is Jaron Solder. Jaron, good morning. How are you. Morning. I'm doing good. Well tell us a little bit about yourself. All right. So I play football at Thunder Ridge High School.

And I'm actually currently working on my associates degree as well. And I've been singing and playing the guitar for like three years now, so. Okay. It's been a good time. Been going for a few years. Busy young man. Yes. That's right. All right. Plan on doing college. You're coming up here. This is true. Julie told me your golden birthday is coming up in a week and a day, right?

That's right. 18 on the 18th. Well, happy early birthday. We're fellow Capricorns, by the way. Nice. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about, your, you know, your music. You've been playing for about three years. Yeah. What styles do like and what what do you like about it. Yeah. I, you know, I love music. I've always I've always loved music and all the different genres.

As I've grown up, I've kind of just like shifted through every genre. And I feel like I have a passion for them all. When it comes to my music, I focus on a lot of alternative and pop and just kind of those areas. But I'm a huge fan of hip hop, R&B, you know, wherever it goes. So yeah, I should have asked you this before we came on the air, but but do you gig are you looking for gigs and paid stuff like.

And if so, how do people get Ahold of you? So I've done a couple and, I've done a couple benefit concerts as well. And I mean, I've just I worked so I do I am in a singing group called S.O.S. and we go and we travel every once in a while. We've gone to, to a con. So I've sang in to a con that was a great experience and nice.

I just love to get out and do any show possible. So. So if people want to reach out, how do they reach you? I guess probably just through my number. Yeah. Okay. If you want to give it out. Yeah, I'll give it out. So (208) 881-8242. Okay. All right. Jaron what are you performing for us today. So this song is called Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur and I performed it multiple times.

It's a good one for me so I like to sing it. So. Okay. Take it away. All right.

I met you in the dark. You let me, You made me feel as though I was numb. And we dance the night away. We train to mind I held your head back when you were throwing up. And then you smiled over your shoulder for a minute I was stone cold sober. I want to dance with you right now.

And then you asked me to come over. I said I was sorry time. Can you make me feel this way somehow? And I knew I loved you. Then you never know. Cause I played it cool. And I was scared of letting go. And I know I needed you, but I, I never showed. And I want to stay with you until we're crying on you.

Say you won't let go. Just say you won't let go. And I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed. Now I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head. Then I'll take the kids to school and wave them goodbye. And I'll sing my lucky stars for the night. And then you smiled over your shoulder for a minute.

I forget that I'm older. I want to dance with you right now. Won't you look as beautiful as ever. And I swear that every day you'll get better. You make me feel this way somehow. And I'm so in love with you. And I hope you know. Darling, your love is more than worth its weight in gold. And I know I needed you.

But I never showed. And now I wanna stay with you until we pray. No, just say, you fool. And go. Just say you fool I go. Just say you fool. Come, just say you fool. Let go!

Jaron Söder great job. I love how you hit those high notes. Yes. Thank you. All right. Give out your phone number one more time. Give it out one more time. (208) 881-8242. Jaron thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having me on studio four covers. It's 842.

It's 844 on Newstalk 1079. Right now the networks are playing back some of the audio from Trump's sentencing. We cross our fingers and say a little prayer. There's no profanity, but we're going to go ahead and, tune in and catch part of this back. But I don't think, oh, no, they're already backed out of the, the audio.

That was quick, though. Yeah, that was quick. It just barely started like a minute ago. And, they're already not carrying it, so. Well, we'll keep an well, we'll try to keep an eye, and it seems so weird. Why didn't they just carry it live? I'll leave. They like. It came out that there was going to be audio available.

They did the hearing, then they immediately released the audio. You know what my. This is my very cynical take on this. I'm betting Marshawn forced this. So in case he screwed up, he could say, you can't release this right now. Maybe that they could edit or do or do whatever. Yeah. Because you're or if it went bad and he looked bad he wouldn't release it.

Yes. Yeah. Like that's to me. That's if you it's going to be public anyway. There would be no reason to delay. Right. So little weird. Yeah. But, such is the case, the whole thing. It's weird. They had to rewrite the law to make a misdemeanor be a felony. Like. Yeah, like it's all weird. Okay, Julie, we're getting reports about the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee meeting last night.

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this, Julie. They had sent out a letter to some of their some of the legislators, that have constituents in Bonneville County and said, we don't want you to pass an education choice bill, but if you must, here are some of the parameters we want you to. They made it official last night, which is in direct contradiction with the party platform that calls for expanded parental choice in education.

No, I don't know how this plays out. We just had the drama in Bingham County and I almost said Dorothy Mann bad, but Dorothy's not a man, but like I, so you have that and now you have this open opposition during a Republican meeting to the state party's platform and in fact, passing Resolu tions that are in direct contradiction to it.

Why are you in the party? I don't know. And this is something that is clearly very, very important to the Bonneville County Republic and leadership. They even they. Okay, so just a little bit of background at these meetings that are held regularly, these are regularly scheduled meetings. Not every PCO can make it. It's just life is life and things get busy and you can't always be there.

And that's just expected. There's going to be some people who aren't at the meeting. Apparently, we have heard that there was this mass call out that you must be at this meeting and if you're not going to be at the meeting, you will need to let us know so that we can get somebody to take your place. Yeah.

So that they could assure that they had the right amount of votes to get this passed. Yeah. Hey, they can do that. I'm not saying, like, what you did. The fact that they wanted to make sure they had enough people there and everything, I think that's pretty normal. I'm not calling that behavior weird. What I'm looking at is that this is that important to them.

Well, it is, and and frankly, I don't know how that works because you're a, you're a chapter of the Republican Party. You're you're a county official organization of the Republican Party. And I would I would expect I don't know what the legal mystics are. You nor you, neither you nor I are deeply involved in the mechanics of how the Republican Party works legally, or rules wise.

But I'm just talking in spirit here, so I may not even know what I'm talking about from a legalistic standpoint. I don't I don't know why you would utilize the Republican Party to voice measures in direct contradiction to the official position of the Republican Party. I don't know why you would either. That that makes no sense to me at all.

And is there is there like, is there recourse for the state? I wish this would have happened a couple days earlier. We could have asked Dorothy about this yesterday and said, can a county party do that? Like pass this letter along, encourage lawmakers to actually vote closer with the Democrats, then with the official Republican position on this?

Okay. I'm just going to float an idea here. And I could be so off base, but does it just seem like in East Idaho, these individual county parties are thirsting so rabidly for power that they believe that they actually have more power than the elected officials? Now they're going to say they're elected to. I get that, but there's there's tiers of election.

Well, they're not elected to make laws right there. It's very important to make that distinction. So yes. Yeah. And I'm glad that you made that distinction like that because that's true. Yeah. But I'm not saying the burden was on you to make the distinction. I just for the listeners sake. Yeah. So they are elected. But there's and that's what I meant by tears that they're, there's like these tiered levels of power.

But it's not just with this current leadership of Bonneville County Republicans, it's with the previous leadership that they wanted ousted. They wanted gone. But it seems like their behaviors are pretty similar. Exactly. And so it makes me then ask the question, why does this, this thirst, this urge to have this power where you feel like you're more important than those who were elected by their entire districts to make laws?

Yeah, well, I remember and I, I don't I don't want to re agitate an old wound here. Right. But to make this comparison, we have to make a couple of references, right? Yes. I remember saying when the whole tribunal thing was happening, when we first were learning about this, I and I couldn't, I couldn't even believe I was saying this, but I, I, I said if I were Stephanie Mikkelson, I tell them to take a hike.

Your boss are the people who can fire you. Okay. That's your boss and and it's your constituents and you pay attention to what they want. Now you pay attention to a lot of people and a lot of things, but you look at your core and it's the people. I do think there is this attitude within the Republican Party that thinks, because you've taken on the party name, you are now beholden to everything we want you to do.

Yeah. Which is what the people who sent out the letter to lawmakers telling them how to vote had a problem with the previous regime telling lawmakers how to vote. See, this is my issue, is that they're they've got different. They've got different platforms that they're working on here, but they're behaving exactly the same way with their two platforms.

Yeah. And it's contradictory. I thought zero problem that the Bonneville County Central Committee wants to have an opinion about something. I do think it's weird that it's in direct conflict with the Republican Party. That's the problem. But you have the right to have your opinions. But then my next question is how far do you push it? Which is exactly what I asked with the previous leadership that they ousted is just cause you can doesn't mean you should.

Agreed. Yeah, I but I, I want to know can you I mean they did they did but is is that can a local county because look you could have and maybe this kind of is what's happened. You could have Democrats taking over a local county party. Yeah. You could. And then all you do is you antagonize the state party with things like this.

Now, if you're there is a good faith Republican you would recognize, you know what? My personal opinion is actually in conflict with what the state party, what the platform says. So I got to sit this one out. That's that's the honest thing to do is just to sit this one out. If you've got a majority of precinct people in Bonneville County who don't agree with the Republican platform, I mean, you got other problems you got to deal with, but the proper thing to do is to sit it out.

You're in the wrong party. If you if you agree with Democrats in education, go be a Democrat. Okay. But don't don't use the structure of the, of the Republican Party to convey your Democrat idea. Yeah I totally get that. I, I don't know, there's just a lot here that is, it feels like nobody ever wants to get along with anyone.

Agreed. Let's go to the phones caller. Welcome to the show. How are you today. Oh not too bad. How are you? Good. Good. What's up guys? So I am, precinct committee officer, and I was there last night. So a high level, my opinion, is the new leadership that did come in is fairly liberal. I think the past reasons that they used is it really comes down to the same issue that it was really about, the opinion, you know, that there's more of a, left wing portion of the party and, they use the, you know, the whole question of, representatives and things like that to

gain power. Now that they have power, they're going to use it to, continue to further their left wing ideals. And I think a lot of people that joined them, probably, a little more, are more conservative than that and what they are, but they're friends with them. And because they're friends with them, they go along with them as opposed to really thinking for themselves.

Yeah. Well, and that that is a challenge definitely can happen. That's a group think challenge. Yes. I think that definitely can happen ubiquitous. But thank you for do we share this truly. Sure. I think that that's why it was sent. Yeah we heard from one of the CEOs. Does not like the tone of our conversation this morning. That's okay.

I'm fine with that. I'm good with that. Yeah. And, she said the letter you shared on your show was a draft that had been sent out for review. So that was a about a week and a half ago or so. We shared that, okay. It underwent significant revisions, and a new version of the letter was approved last night rather than the original draft.

I am pleased. Okay. Why would you send out a draft? I mean, it was sent to lawmakers. This was not like an internal no precinct. People hashing it out. You would take great care to not let something like that go out publicly. This was a letter that was proactively sent to lawmakers and what their expectations were it I don't think it said draft on it anywhere, right?

I don't remember it saying draft on it anywhere. And at that would be my my question. I and this person can text us back, but that would be my question is if it was just a draft, why did it seem so official? Yeah. And be sent to lawmakers. This is the new letter. So let's get the official position.

What? They said, two Bonneville County legislators, the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee urges all state legislators representing our community. It's his support school choice legislation that provides for equal treatment of all education providers through an accountable and transparent process. Members of the Central Committee recognize and value the importance of competition within the education system. This competition should reflect a fair and equivalent standard for public, private, or home based instruction receiving taxpayer funding.

Under Idaho's constitution, the legislature must provide free, uniform and common schools free uniform and common means. The state law requires all public schools to adhere to equitable standards for students and teachers, supporting equal treatment and fair competition for all schools. Accepting public funds entails establishing equitable credentials for teachers and administrators, testing for students, financial disclosure for flexibility and allocation of funds, hiring and firing practices for teachers, admission policies for all students.

Support for students requiring high levels of financial and staff resources. Can I can I just say this? That's not true. I the Constitution requires them to provide a system of free schools available to all kids. I don't believe it says in the Constitution, by extension, any public funds that are spent on education in the name of parental choice have to have the exact same level of of expectation that, I think, is them being extra curricular.

I think they're going above and beyond, and I don't think what they're saying actually is a constitutional principle. It's just this is what we think should happen. Okay. I fear that that's what's going on here too. And it's, seven bullet points. The first one you listed was credentials for teachers and administrators. Okay.

All right. Well, Julie, I'm confused. We're in complete wait our our flabbergasted, I guess my my flappers way more gas than it has been in in a long time. Flappers requested. Okay. So this is our perspective. This is what our understanding is. Okay. We're not trying to misrepresent anything here and we're open to being corrected if we are indeed wrong hundred percent.

So this is our chronology. I bumped into a lawmaker a few nights ago, is out and about. And, and anyway, she indicated to me that they were sent a letter from the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee. What the committee's expectation was, when it comes to a public school choice bill, I said, would you send that to me?

I mean, do you feel comfortable sending to me? And she's like, oh, yeah, sure. No problem. So she sent that to you and she sent it to me. I read the letter. I had the letter I may have read. Did I read portions of it on the air that should we read it? But we discussed that this letter had gone out, and I worked hard to characterize it accurately.

Now I have my own opinions about school choice. I think those are well known, but I didn't mischaracterize the letter itself. The contents itself. Nothing in the letter said it was a draft. Nothing in the letter said it was for internal review only. Confidential. Yeah. And I think and I think I can accurately characterize that letter as the, the committee.

And again, we're now hearing this is the first I've heard that that letter was a draft of something. But we're now hearing that it was just a draft. But that letter said, essentially, if you have to pass something like we if you must pass this and which by logical extension, you can say they don't want you to pass anything, they don't want a bill like Wendy Harmon's bill they don't want.

And so, I'm I'm guessing that's what they were saying from it. That's the impression I got when I read it. I'm a fairly literate person. So they have their meeting last night. Apparently they revised the letter and they tapered it way, way back and said, here are the guidelines we'd like, which is they now want to extend any, any entity that gets public funds for education has to adhere to the constitutional standard.

Basically, yes. So if you're private school, then you got to do all the things that the public schools are doing in terms of free, uniform, whatever accountability they've got to do it. They're they're extending that. I don't know if that's the case. The Constitution simply says the government will provide a system of free, uniform schools to all kids.

That's not going to change no matter what happens. It's our interpretation that they're going above and beyond in requiring these private schools that might take money to do that. And and honestly, you have home schools, kids that are getting grants from, from the state for different things. And they're not subject to this. So we already have a precedent where you have an education system receiving state funds.

That is not required to abide by the same, all the same reporting, testing all of that. So we already have a precedent there. Right. Anyway, they tapered it down and then they created, like, all of these expectations of what, if this bill passes what the public schools receiving the money will have to do. Okay, okay. Have I unfairly characterized anything?

I don't think so. Also, the the new the new letter was sent and you were reading directly from that letter. You and I had it both on our phones pulled up because it's teeny writing. So we had to magnify it. And you were reading directly? I was following along. You weren't adding words. You weren't doing anything. Yeah. So I'm a little unclear at how someone who was in attendance at that meeting last night feels like we weren't representing the letter correctly.

Yeah, if you're reading it directly, word for word. And I was following along and you were. How was that inaccurate? I don't know. Okay. Now, she might have been referencing the way we talked about the original letter, which I think they want that just to go away like that never happened. Like, let's pretend that it was it was a draft letter.

So let's pretend we never wrote those words. Let's pretend we never sent them out to the lawmakers. Let's pretend, but you can't, okay? That's not how you might be able to gaslight other people, like, you know, whatever, but that it's in the context of that was their first pass here of we don't want you to pass a parental choice, bill, but if you must, here's what we'd like from you.

And interesting enough, in this second one that you read word for word, you got about two thirds through it. Before we ran out of time that you were reading word for word, one of their main sticking points is transparency. Yes. So we're being transparent. So if you're if you're sticking point is transparency in money and education and everything.

Let's extend that because if you sent out a what you're calling a draft, but wasn't apparent to us that it was a draft, nothing in it indicated this is only a draft. Why can't that be transparent to the public that that was your first your first go. Your first negotiation. Your first. Yeah. I'm confused at how that's I mean, because we've been accused this morning of not reporting it accurately.

Yeah. I feel like we've been really transparent about how it came to us and try and work really hard to to get this right here. Right. But we're not going to pretend something never happened that happened. Yes. All right, let's go to the phones. Hi, caller. How are you today? And color. Good. How are you? Good, good. Okay, so the original the original letter which was sent out, which was emailed out to the body and the legislators, it was sent out asking for a review and a response based upon that review and the response.

The letter was then revised. And then that was what was brought forward. Last night at the Bcbc meeting. It was debated, it was voted on and it passed and it was sent forth. Now, the Idaho Constitution calls for a free common and equal, school education for children. Yeah. So this letter was not against school. This letter that was passed last night was not against school choice.

It was merely saying that in order to have something that is common, you have to have some metric metrics or some guardrails by which to to measure something. So this was asking for some some metrics or some guardrails by which to measure where public funds are spent on K through 12. Now the program, the other programs you're talking about like launch and other things like that where they don't have metrics.

Yes, I get that. But this is K through 12. And merely that letter was trying to uphold the Idaho Constitu of a fair common. And so I did. But by creating some guardrails let me by which to measure. Let me let me jump in really quick. By the way, for our listeners, this is Erin Bingham. You are a precinct committee, holder.

And you are the one that has sent us the the letter that was passed last night. Okay. So I will say, Erin, it is there is nothing indicating in the letter that I saw that that was a review. Now, I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but I am telling you, we are not deliberately misrepresenting anything. All right?

We felt like was not on the letter. It was. It was in the email. So there was an email that was sent. Yeah, that had the letter attached originally, but you weren't sent that email. The email was sent out to the body and to the legislator for review on this particular letter. No, it did not say anything. But in the email, it was clear that this was for revision and review by the body and the legislator.

So and that letter was not set for you. So, Erin, I want to I want to address the core issue here because I think this is where you and I probably disagree. You've cited the Constitution of Idaho and and the words are free, uniform and common. Common. Yeah. Common schools which basically means any kid can go to a public school and it will be paid for by the state for them to, to be educated, correct?

No. This so we are this letter was not against school choice. No. Aaron, wait. No no no. Aaron. Aaron, I need you to answer my questions. Well, we'll get to whatever you want to have to to say here, but when I read the letter, I feel like there was a reach there that you were taking the constitutional standard, which is available to every child in Idaho, if that, if that's what the parents want for it, and nothing will change, they will still have access to K through 12 and the free uniform and common schools.

None of that changes. If parents want to pursue a different avenue, even if it's a private school that may have different standards of accountability, or it might be different than what the K through 12 system is, you're still not in violation of that because the state is still providing that system of common schools. I feel like your this letter, not you personally, but this letter is creating some additional rules by extension that don't actually exist, that there's going to be a burden on this law that isn't even in the Constitution.

So basically what the letter was calling for is some guardrails or some metrics by which to measure a school which is receiving public funds. So if we receive public funds, our our staff in that letter was that there needs to be some guardrails or some metrics by which to measure that. That's really it. I mean, we don't have a problem with school choice.

School choice is already available in the state of Idaho. We have open enrollment, we have charter schools, there's home schools, there's private schools, there's public schools. We were merely asking that if we are going to pass an additional source of school choice, please have some guard rails or some metrics by which to measure that because they are receiving public funds.

So let me let me put a scenario to you, Aaron. We already have a system called the Empowering Parents Grant. It's $1,000 per student, and there's a wide range of things that kids can get. They can get devices, they can buy curriculum, they can do a lot of things. So there's already public funds, as you say, that are going to homeschoolers that are going to kids that are in private school.

How is this any different than that? You're just expanding the Empowering Parents grant, but you're not adding to it additional requirements. I feel like we already have a mechanism in place that's in violation of what you're expecting. And quite frankly, the launch program for college does not contain that that accountability expectation either. So we're already doing this kind of all over the place.

And so I don't I think we're all that horse left the barn already. We can have a difference of opinion. This is my this this was the opinion that was put forth and voted on last night at the BCA. Ask that if we are approving additional funds that we have some metrics. That's that's really it. It's it was not something it was not a letter saying that we're against school choice.

It was none of that. It was really just saying, if we're approving additional funds, please use the here's some metrics or some guardrails by which to gather. We're not we're not going against we're just talking about the new new legislation that's moving forward. This session. So, question I have I feel like that that so let me let me tell you another reason why I think this is important.

Part of the constant part of the Republican platform talks. The first section, one talks about fiscal responsibility. Okay. So there's a some legislation out there floating. There's a couple of bills I think, that have already been put forth. They're looking at capping it. Okay. So I think part of fiscal responsibility is saying okay, yes there is a cap, but also how is this money being used.

And and it is somewhat difficult because the public schools, they are required to take students with disabilities, they are required to implement 500 fours, IEPs, other things like that that are that can be quite expensive. So it becomes difficult when other school choice options don't have to abide by the rules. Wait a minute, Aaron, do we create do we create tax funded segregation?

Is that what we're doing now? See Aaron Aaron hold up, hold up Aaron. Aaron, let's take this one point at a time. I could argue that school choice. You're not taking any money from the k-through-12 budget to have school choice. So what you're actually doing is you're freeing up more resources. So K through 12 can assist those challenged students even more.

I would say this helps solve that problem. You're looking at this through the lens of fairness that if K through 12 has to deal with challenging kids, then private schools taking public money, they have to deal with challenged kids too. I look at it from the standpoint, go ahead, public school receives a set amount of money for these kids, whether it costs, $50,000 or $8000 to educate that child, they receive the same amount of funds.

But as a public school, they are required to accept students with disabilities. Kids with five fourth IEP and to carry those out. Okay, now, other schools, charter schools, private schools, they're not required to do that. So typically when a child with a disability goes to, say, a charter school or private school, they're just saying merely we are not going to we're not going to that we can't accommodate your needs.

And so they're not accepted in these schools. So yes, this is school choice, but it's school choice for for a select number of students that fit the criteria. And really it's not against it's really not against school choice. We're really not saying we can't have school choice. We're just saying that we need to have some guardrails that help to make education for cases.

Well, fair and common. Er and I, I think your argument is very reasonable here, but it comes in the context after a draft letter where you basically said we really don't want any of it. That's our top choice here. So I think there's an, an expanded context here that you want kind of everyone to forget. Some people, some people do have that opinion.

Well, who wrote the letter, do have that opinion, who wrote the draft? The education the education committee drafted that letter. I'm on the education committee, but I will tell you, I did not attend any of the meetings and I did not draft the letter. Okay. Letter was written by the education committee. Who's on? Who else is on the education committee that, you know, I don't have the list in front of me, but I know last night they read the names of those who helped contribute to that letter.

So I believe that there was eight individuals. I don't have that in front of me, but there was eight individuals who wrote that letter, and it was only the people on the education committee that wrote that letter. It was not written by legislators. It was not written. It was written by the Education Committee. All right. Julie, okay. They've been working on it for a month.

So there's multiple layers here. Erin and I and I could we could probably argue for the next half hour what's fair and not fair, because that is such a subjective word like like I could say I could say that it's fair as a parent that I provide the most, appropriate education for my child and I, that could be a private school that that, literally their entire, school model is to teach children with learning disabilities.

Well, I didn't have a child with a learning disability, so my child's not going to be appropriate for that school. I don't think that that means that that school shouldn't exist. And I don't think that means that that the the parent shouldn't have the option for taxpayer dollars to help with their child. So I feel like there's this built into this concept of fair is these stereotypes about what a private school is going to be versus a public school is going to be.

And I don't think that's accurate. And I believe that if we did a deep dive into the many, many, many, many states who have either a voucher system or a tax credit system, you're going to see the cropping up of these individual private schools that actually meet the needs that you're concerned aren't going to be met. This once again, the letter was not saying we don't have that.

It was against school choice. It's not. It's saying if we're passing it, can we have some guardrails. Yeah okay okay. All right. All right. Thank you. Can I just say one more thing? Sure. Aaron, I just want to say I don't feel like we were presenting anything inaccurate this morning. We referenced the first letter. We read the second letter directly.

If they were, if they were deaf. Well. And my and my test was after that. The first letter was referenced this morning. And so that's why I said that's why I sent you the new letter. Well, you could read the new letter. That's right. It was the old letter was reference. And the new letter was not referenced until I sent it to you.

Okay. That's when I sent. I was texting with you. That's what I was discussing, is that you were referencing the old letter and not the new letter. Okay, well, we appreciate that. And, we appreciate you sending us the new letter because they're very different. They are. They're dramatically different. So. Yeah. Aaron, thank you for the call. We actually have Representative Barbot joining us now.

And Representative Erhart, how are you this morning? Hey, guys, I'm doing great. We just, basically got released, for the rest of the day. So I'm finishing up some things and listening to you guys. One of the things that I've been working on for the last couple of years, and I don't know why it's taken so long, but I've gone back and I've gone back to the beginning of our constitu session in the 1890s.

And I have a file and it's a big file. I, you know, because I wanted to know what was said, what was being said at the time when education was being discussed. Now, I just know that some of the stuff, because of course, this isn't on a on a computer and typed out this is handwritten, very hard and difficult to read.

So I've had somebody helping to discern that. But let me say this as I've, reached out to, to even to other places across the United States, the words being used that people are interpreting, with fair and common mean, 100%, maybe not 100%, but they mean something completely different than that, which is the meanings that are that we're giving to these words.

Now, does it mean what people think? And we're going to bring that forward? I just wanted to let you know I'm working on it with Senator Cindy Carlson. We're going to bring that forward because it completely changes this discussion. So on this narrative, Barb, do you want it and and say no. And I understand if your answer is no, but do you want to weigh on this situation in Bonneville County specifically because that original letter that was sent out was was dramatically different than the final letter that they drafted.

And, and here's a county party, again, sending out expectations of lawmakers and how they should be voting and what they ought to be doing. And in some cases, especially with the draft letter, it was in direct contradiction to what the state party platform says. And I would imagine it's in direct contradiction to what a lot of conservative Republican lawmakers believe.

So if you don't want to weigh in, there's it's not a problem at all. But if you do want to address it, I want to give you that opportunity here. So I appreciate that. When the three of us had spoken, basically it was going to be about some things I would be bringing forward. And we kind of ended up talking about school choice.

One of the things I said then, is I feel like I still have a conversation or two to have. Yeah. You know, whether it's Maria Hatch or whatever. And I think, you know, in all fairness and, and keep that good working relationship, I'd like to have that conversation. But, you know, I, I think this was kind of asked before I, you know, I certainly have some concerns and I haven't read the newsletter and I hope the newsletter, you know, isn't, you know, purporting to wait a minute, you know, tell us how to do just just work to, you know, that's not to say they haven't sent it.

I okay. We I, you know, I was pretty you may not have seen it okay. On the last minute. No, I know on the last minute. You know, getting ready for the volleyball statement and, resolution of state affairs and giving Riley games and some others can pop on, so, so I that that I'm saying this is all my fault.

This is no one else's. I have not seen whatever the updated then was and and if and if for some reason I didn't, I didn't realize. I mean, anyway, I try to listen to you guys in the morning, but mostly what I wanted to share today. And then in that conversation I'll share with others. And that we're working on it.

Is that not just in Idaho, but throughout the United States? Things were vastly different. It did not mean what people were reporting. It. The assigned definitions that we're giving to it now doesn't mean that. And so really will change the conversation. In my opinion at least. You should. And we're looking at it as to how school is used back then and especially when you're like, what?

You're going to school through eighth grade, you're going to school 3 or 4 months out of the year. You're you're paying the teacher often from, you know, your own salary at home. You know, there were a lot of different things at that time. So I'm going to bring some of that forward. And then hopefully, you know, as we move forward, trying to do what's good for all of us will at least, be on the better page with understanding the definitions of fair and common and, you know, etc., etc., because it doesn't mean what it means today.

Not all. Okay, well, Barb, we appreciate that clarification and safe travels. I was driving back from Boise, so all right. I still don't know if I fully know what's going on. Julie I I'm not sure I know either. Okay. So what do we know for sure? We know for sure a draft letter was sent out. Not marked draft not marked anything on the actual script of the letter.

Yeah. I do hope. I do hope that when they finally resolved whatever feedback they got from the draft letter. Yeah, that they're sent it to the lawmakers. Yeah. I would hope that that was a step that was covered. Okay. Now, with that being said, I again want to say I don't feel like we misrepresented what was going on.

We referenced the way it was written the first time. Then we read the letter the way it was written the second time you got two different letters here. I feel like the question that was not answered at all, and it and I don't think like Erin was dodging this, I just don't think we ever got to the crux of this.

Yeah. Which is does the Bonneville County Central Committee feel comfortable fighting so ferociously against the Republican platform? And and then my follow up question would be why? Why give me defined reasons why you need to stand against school vouchers so, so heavily, right. Yeah. I feel like the second letter backed way off of that. And they're like, no, we just want guardrails.

We just want guardrails. We just want guardrails. Yeah. Okay. Well, I, we have reported on this extensively. Interviewed Wendy Horman multiple times. I sent you, a different version that's being floated. You looked at over this morning like none of them lack guardrails. Yeah, none of them. So then I would go back and say, what do you feel is not being addressed?

That we've got to get to the core here. Why did you go this far to send out such a, an aggressive letter back down and have a not so aggressive letter that was passed last night and and try to get everyone to agree on it, which, again, is your prerogative. And I think a healthy, Central Committee is functioning that way.

But answer. What are you so nervous about and why do you feel like you need to go against the Republican Party? Well, those are my two things. That is a great question, because even a draft letter written by elected PCOS sitting on an official committee of a county party should at least be in the vicinity of the the party platform.

Even the draft letter should be in the vicinity of aligning with the party platform. You might add some things or you might, you know, tweak it a a couple of degrees here or a couple of degrees there. This was a 180. This was a this draft letter was absolutely. It started out saying we don't want a school choice.

Bill passed. But if we have to hear some things that we like, they sort of read the room, like we might have to have one, but, if we do, then let's have that discussion. Here's what we want. And I think a lot of the things of here's what we want or what made up the the letter that we wrote.

But there was a lot in the newsletter, in the first letter, the draft that did not make it into the final, it was removed. But it's still just because it was a draft doesn't mean it didn't happen, and it doesn't mean it didn't reflect where those PCAs are philosophically. And so you you've got to know this.

And this is why, and I'm truly hopeful that Trent Clarke will come and let the PCOS know that it is not their job to tell lawmakers and party leaders what to think. Get back to making your Cookie Week blowing up balloons like we could pull that audio. We won't. That was, yeah, barnburner of a of an interview, but I, I feel like the current party now.

I mean, it's different situations are different. So you can't really make an identical comparison here, but it's in the same spirit of we're going to tell lawmakers how they are to vote. They're Republicans. They won the Republican primary. And then they went on and won in November. Yeah. Okay. I, I don't know what this is where you have and furthermore, maybe you can remind them of what the platform is and say, hey, we hope that this, this plank in the platform will be reflective in your vote on this bill.

Yeah. That's okay. I can see that just as a reminder of what the platform is. And what Republicans stand for. This was different that that draft was like, we want you to go against the state party platform. We want you to go against what it means to be a Republican. Yeah. Now, it didn't make the final voted on version, but the fact that it was in there in the first place means they've got to have a lot of deep self-refer thing going on.

They need to look in the mirror and decide, do I really belong in this party? If that's what I believe? Look, if you don't, if you don't like school choice, that's fine. I'm not going to try to govern you there. Lots of Democrats, lots of independents that are very protective of K through 12. They don't want anything that is going to they view as harm K through 12.

I get it. I'm not on the same page. I think competition's great. I think it's going to improve things. But I get it. But the Republican Party is not for you, and it's certainly not a party that you should be using as a vehicle to convey something that's in direct opposition to what that party officially believes. Yeah.

And to reference your what you were saying about Trent Clarke, I would say these new PCAs were installed with the concept of don't behave like this. Yeah. And then you turned around and you just did it right? You just did it. Not even a six. What is it been, seven months? Eight months? Yeah, not very long. So I don't under like your your intentions are not understandable for me.

And so that's why I'm asking the why. Yeah. Why did you feel so strongly that you needed to do this. And I don't want just vague words. I want the why. Yeah. If it's because you've been influenced by the teachers union, please just tell me. Yeah, just say it. Just say it. Just admit it. Let's just put it all on the table here.

If you had a legislator that was so strongly entrenched with the teachers union and they came to you and said, this is how we're doing it, just say yet, do you have to be a Republican to be a conservative, or do you have to be a conservative to be like, this big tent crap has gone way too far.

We'll be back.

Holy moly. Okay, you know what we have to do, Julie? But we have not taken a single break until now, so we got to come back. Let's do the Grand Peak's endorsement. Then we'll do the news break, and then we'll come back for. Okay, for a minute. So, I don't know. This is tough because I'm asking for people to believe that the market will right itself.

Right. Like our Igbt. Yeah. And and that's a lot. You're asking them to have faith in the free market system. So I get it. Yeah, I get that there's people that aren't going to agree with that. But I believe if they'll just take a breath and review what has happened in other states, they will see that the market will right itself.

Yeah. The parents will be happy and that there's not going to be this mass exodus from public school. Yeah. Your, your golden cow is not that threatened. Do you know why I think there won't be a mass exodus from public school? Because they will up their game I think. So that's what I mean. It will right itself if you are, let's say your principal or superintendent and you've had 14 parents come to you in the last three weeks pulling their kids out of school and saying, you have a teacher that's teaching transgender ideals.

AG I'm not going to put my kid in that classroom. I guarantee you that teacher's not going to be teaching transgender ideology for your we're going to improve K through 12 with this. Right? And that's what I wish they could see in the opportunity. I know you're asking them to believe in something, but that's why I keep harping on the comment that this has happened in other states.

Find the states that it's working that are conservative because that's what we want and match those states. This isn't hard. No, it's it's.

And it's coming up on 942. Julie, you just said the word states. Do you know what that sounds like? Steaks. It's just because you're hungry I know. Yeah. Medium little A1 sauce. Tons of pepper. Maybe some of the is a horseradish that you put on steak. Yeah I don't that it's on time rib. But anyway if you go to g p prime eats.com that's grand peaks.

Look around. They definitely have steak. They have prime rib. They've got ribs both pork and beef. They've got chicken. They've got grilling packages. They have sous vide crockpot meals that are ready to just heat up and ready to go. Yes they do. Good friends of ours, good friends of many of the listeners who've given them a try based upon what we've said.

What are you waiting for? Give them a try as well. If you go to GG Prime meats.com, they have packages there. They have everything available. You can see the different cuts of meat that they have and and all of that. But I also always recommend give them a call because there are so good customer service. It really is paired with what they do.

Okay. We are going to take a news break pretty quick, but let's take a quick phone call. I don't want to have them have to wait. Caller go ahead. How are you? Are you okay with a different topic? Really quick. We are up against the clock. But yeah, if you have a different topic, go ahead and fit it in.

I'll call back later. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Okay. Let's take that break. We'll come back and continue after the news here on Newstalk 107 nine.

Okay. I'm going to sneak away from. Okay. I really feel in my core that there's not going to be this mass disruption that people are worried about with education. I think that school vouchers are, especially with the guardrails that are already in place. The ones that Wendy Horman has explained to us that it's I feel like I want to give them a big hug and say, it's going to be okay.

It's going to be okay. I don't get so worked up over this because it is. We have people on this feed who homeschool. It is not easy. This is why there's not going to be a mass exodus from public schools. It is not easy to transition your kid to a private school. It is a very serious subject. People don't do it willy nilly.

And they they will they will give it more thought than they give the people credit for. I've also completely agreed with them that a guardrail needs to be in there, that if you do change your child and put them in a private school, or decide to homeschool them or put them in a charter school, it has to be a year long decision.

I believe that that makes those parents really give it a lot of thought. If you encourage deep research of where your child should be educated, that's a win for everyone, because then the parent is getting involved in the education, which is what we want from the beginning. This is not as complicated as or does it need to be the fight that they've made it into?

That's I'm just I feel a lot about this. Like I did about the porn conversation in libraries. What are you protecting? And that's what I want you to start asking yourself, what are you protecting? Because if you will really get to the core of that, the core of that, the why, the why, why are you protecting this? I think that answers far more than the than the talking points that you're trying to spew.

Yeah. Okay. Why is it so important to them? Like we know. That's why I'm like, just ask yourself, why are you so protective of this? Why are you so protective of allowing porn in libraries? Why are you so protective that all of the money goes just to public education? Ask yourself the why. Yeah. You know, and I again, we don't know what what is in people's hearts.

But you do have to wonder, is this just about not letting you people you don't like when politically I, I think the answer is a lot of things. I think it's that, yeah, I think it's connections to teachers unions. I think some of it is people who have a connection to education. And they they have like family members who teach.

And it's it's part of their you like their heritage. I get it that you're proud of those people. You should be teachers who teach well and are awesome. You should be proud of them. That doesn't mean the system can't be improved. Yeah, I, I think there's a lot of ways, like Jerry just agreed. I think some of it is greed.

I think that is the why. But if people will get to the core of why they're protecting it so much, I think their argument will change slightly. Yeah, I do too. Well. And I think you might discover, if you are self-reflective, you would look at and say, you know what, that's not a very good motive. Like, I, I probably shouldn't be wanting this for that reason.

Yeah. So let me revisit that. And, and you know what? I'd give that lecture to people on our side that I agree with most of the time, like the same lectures for people who who insist upon being sycophants of the if. Yeah, right. It's the same lecture. Yeah. Why why do you have to do absolutely everything that they, you know, like your whole entire guideline is what they say a lawmaker is.

Well, why you figure out what a lawmaker is doing. Yeah. That can be part of your your calculation. But the if shouldn't be your only northern star. I think it's it's reached a point where you have and this is a really toxic place to be where let's take the if, for example, there are lawmakers that won't vote for a bill unless it's approved of by the AFP.

Yeah. And then you have lawmakers that won't vote for the bill because it's approved up by the IFS. And then you've got, I think, a few independents in between those two extremes that are like, I'll vote the way I want and the way my constituents that honors them. And, you know, they have much more noble reasons to do it.

Yeah. Why give the power to to you to to entities? Why give all the power to the teachers union? And why give all the power to the if. Don't be those people. Yeah. And, 949 on Newstalk 178, Neal Larson, along with Julie Mason. This was not the expecting expected topics due for today. Yeah, but Matt and it's it's interesting Julie how vigorously these things are fought out and I do I do want to point out one thing.

We do have a caller on the line. I'll get to our caller momentarily here. Republican party meetings are not open mic night where you just show up. And this is a good idea. It means something to be a Republican. And if you want to know what it means to be a Republican, read the platform. It's not that hard to find.

Just search for it and read the platform, and that will tell you whether or not you want to be a part of this group. If you can generally believe in what it stands for, by all means, join. If you have deep disagreements with really key important parts of the platform, it may not be for you. And that's okay.

And yes, nobody's forcing you to be this. Yeah, but if you're going to label yourself as that, you've got to have some sort of alignment with the party platform. I would say that is true in any organization. Right? Don't be a Catholic if you believe in abortion. Right, exactly. We've we've had that conversation before. That's not a minor issue.

Yeah. I mean, you can be a Catholic if you think all the wafers should be gluten free or not. Okay. That's not the deal killer. Right. But when it's a core philosophical issue and I would say parental choice and education is a core issue, you got it. You got to think about it. You got to rethink. All right.

Let's, let's hit the phones here. (208) 542-1279 hey, caller, how are you? Fine. Going back. Okay. Go ahead. So, the issue is that I heard you say yesterday that Social Security is going to be bankrupt in 5 or 6 years. Well, I would contend that it already is and has been for years. There's no official notice filed, no specific event.

They just create more money out of thin air to pay for ongoing obligations. And what we end up with. You don't get creditors getting notices or anything like that, but we just get inflation increase in national debt, worsening economic malaise as the, debt spirals out of control and they diminish the value of our money by printing so much more of it.

We've been seeing that happening for years. Social Security and by extension, Medicare are bankrupt and happen. Yeah, I would I would not disagree with you. I think we were reflecting what Senator Crapo had said, about Social Security. Was it Senator Crapo is that we were talking about that we would have loved to have done a deeper dive on on that.

There was so much to cover with Senator Crapo, and he is going to have, a real strong, presence now in both the IRS and Social Security and everything. So that's how we got to that topic. Yeah. Oh, so yes. So all right. Thank you. Thank you for the call and the clarification. Yeah, I yeah, I mean, how do you define bankrupt?

I mean, as long as Social Security checks are still going out, it still function, it's still functioning, but it's very broken. Well, it is it is super broken. And, here's the thing. I think we, in my mind, let's give the full perspective here. They always find a way to keep the checks going out because politically that is untenable, that they would say, I'm sorry, we're out of money.

So they're always going to find a way to do it. Like the caller said though, it might just be all right. Treasury fire. Keep the presses running. Keep printing money because we need you to keep printing money. And, that's probably how they're going to keep, added longevity to the Social Security program. I actually thought that yesterday when Biden made that announcement where he made the bad joke again.

Man, this guy is not all there. But, he made the announcement that he's going to grant everybody who lost a house or a business in Southern California from these fires. Four months of 100% funding. My very first thought is, where is that going to come from? We're. Yeah. You just we just got done with the tragedy where you told us there was no more money left to help.

Right? Those who have been hit with tragedy, and now you're going to fund them 100% for four months. Where are you getting that money? So we have North Carolina. Yeah. And those people have gotten very little. But he's he's got the money for California. That's what he promised yesterday. Ones are really, really blue state ones not. Yeah. Makes you wonder does make you wonder.

All right, let's take our final break on this Friday if you'd like to reach us on the Stones Auto group calling text line 208542 179.

Okay. Does it feel weird to you that this school choice conversation has turned into the haves and have not?

A yes and no. Yeah. The fact that the teachers union has sent out the talking points, that that's what it needs to be. Yeah, feels a lot like prop one and that the talking point was supposed to be veterans. Yeah. It's about this much of the actual issue. But they're turning it into that. Yes I agree. Well and I remember the texts that we got a week or two ago about someone being petty that if if a kid's going to private school using one of these, they, they can't play football for one of the local high schools.

And I thought that's sort of reducing it down to this emotional situation, a little thing. And you want to punish one side that's not behaving according to what you want them to do. And so you want to make life hard for them. It's just it's just sad that that people are like that. Why can't we approach this and just say what is going to benefit all of it, not just education, children in Idaho and educating kids?

What is the best way to approach education and educating kids and and I'll be honest with you in in that conversation, let's set aside any constitutional requirements for a moment. Let's just say what system could we have in place that would optimize and maximize education for all of Idaho's children? The the answer to that question may actually be in violation of our state constitution.

It could be. Yeah. And that's the that's the dilemma that we would have. And I that's what I appreciate about what, Representative Jihad is doing, is that she is trying to clarify the language so that, that it can't be used in the inappropriate way. That's not me pointing the finger at the bcbc and saying they're using it inappropriately.

I'm saying, let's get some clarification. And this program might have all the guardrails it needs. Yeah. Once we get the clarification. Yeah. Okay. We do have a call. So let's just take it real quick.

All right. Let's go to the phones. Caller. We have about one minute. Go ahead really quick. Okay. I'm Matt Hancock, I'm a PCO. I was at the meeting last night. I'm one of nine that voted against them sending a letter. I am disappointed that they claim to be Republicans and that they're putting that out, making people think.

The Republicans think the way they do. And the letter, you know, they want everything to be standard. Why do you think people leave the public schools, then go to private and go tell homeschooling because they don't like having to, you know, deal with the standards of the public schools and being, ruled by the federal government, the state government and all that.

Yeah. And I was really disappointed in the whole evening. And I'm disappointed in all the demonstrators and them being controlled by Trenton Tom. And who knows else, Stephanie and probably a few others. And, yeah, I just I was very passionate about it, and I still am all right now. And thank you for the call, I appreciate it.

My final question would be, doesn't the state party platform already encourage how lawmakers should vote on this? Yeah. All right, all right. Have a wonderful weekend. Be safe. Julie and I back Monday morning right here.