BUCK: We’ve been telling you all along — ’cause I know, look, this is the thing. We got talk at the national level we focused on the local where we can where it’s of national concern, right? Where it’s a story that everybody should know about. Everybody should hear about, Loudoun County. The governor’s race there Virginia’s getting a lot of attention I know we talked about Florida we just had our friend Michael Berry in Houston with us.
We may have another friend who’s Houston based joining us later on in the show too another favorite radio host of ours. But, you know, we’re talking to you all across the country. Obviously, we got people in California and Illinois and Montana and Kansas in Nebraska, the Carolinas, the South. You name it, right? And one thing we’ve been saying is all across the country these fights over school boards, particularly in states that are either blue or half, right?
They’re purple or half blue. There are these situations now where parents realize, “Hold on, I’m empowered. I can have more of a say in my kids’ education.” There’s a reason we have these school board elections. There’s a reason we have these meetings where parents get to have their voices heard. And what you’re seeing is that the education establishment, such as it is, is dominated by the left province.
The education establishment does not like it. Up in Minnesota, we got a lot of great listeners in Minnesota, too, of course. Up in Minnesota, there was a school board that did not allow folks who showed up, a parent to show up to speak without essentially self-doxing, putting out one’s personal information in a way that seemed creepy and weird. Hey, Clay. Let’s let everyone hear this. You could tell us: Would you have felt comfortable with this when you went? Play it.
SAPP: Open forum participants are prohibited from calling out or addressing any individual school board or school district staff member. If this occurs, open forum will be closed, and the individual will not be allowed to participate in future open forums. Can you give us your name and address, please?
JOHN: My name is John (bleep). I live in Mankato.
SAPP: Can I get your address, please, John?
JOHN: Um, I’d rather not since you guys have it already.
SAPP: Give us your address or you can’t speak.
JOHN: And I get so much property damage and eggs and everything else from fun people and their friends.
SAPP: John, you need to give your address.
JOHN: I live on 5th Street.
SAPP: Excuse me?
JOHN: I live on 5th Street.
SAPP: House number?
JOHN: (Bleep)
SAPP: Thank you.
JOHN: All right. So are our kids safe?
CLAY: This is madness. Buck, this is a clear attempt to intimidate parents. Look, I understand if you want to require property owners in a district to verify that they are in that district that they were property taxpayers, things like that. But the idea that before you give your opinion you would have to give your actual physical address for everyone present at that forum to be able to hear is directly intended to intimidate parents from being able to speak out.
And that rule itself saying, “Hey, you can’t criticize a school board member by name. You can’t criticize a school.” Look, this is why parents, I believe, rightly believe that they are intentionally being attacked by their own school board that they fund with their taxpayer dollars. This is an outrageous attempt to curtail everyone’s ability to speak out against the ridiculousness going on.
BUCK: Clay, you went to a school board meeting. We just talked about this. Can imagine if they said, “Excuse me, Mr. Travis, we want actual physical address down to the street and building number, maybe also your personal phone number, maybe your Social Security number; then you can voice your opinion.” I think people would think that was weird.
CLAY: No doubt. And, again, the idea that you would be expected to do that? They want everybody to hear that and be so intimidated that they are afraid to speak out. And this is part of the flagrant attempt to keep parents from being able to speak out. This goes directly to what Glenn Youngkin was arguing when Terry McAuliffe said parents shouldn’t be involved in what their kids are being taught in school! This is why Glenn Youngkin needs to win, to fight back against issues like this taking place all over the country.