FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
The Jeff Poor Show - August 19 2024
[MUSIC PLAYING] From Bucks Pocket to the shores of Orange Beach, at all points in between, an insider's perspective on Alabama politics. It's the Jeff Porsche show. I don't think we ain't done it this week. [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, and welcome to the Jeff Porsche show. And if you talk, 106.5. Happy Monday morning to you. Hopefully, everyone had a good weekend. 2513430106, if you need to get in touch with the program, all you got to do is text me. Going up on today's program, we're back in our regular routine. State Representative Jennifer Fiddler will be with us in about a half hour. So please make sure that you stay tuned for that. Also, in the 10 o'clock hour, coming up here in, I guess, in a few weeks, or in a few days, probably, would be the 105th birthday of George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama, a guy of a son on George Wallace Jr. in the 10 o'clock hour. And talk about that. Well, we'll get into-- there's a documentary, not out in our market up in-- but it'll be on it. Maybe it'll be on that here. I don't need to look into that. But I know it's on the BSFA. But we'll kind of talk about what is going on now. Recently, Governor Wallace made the news. We had this whole discussion about political violence. And when you saw what happened up in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump, well, then people kind of thought back to Laurel Maryland. When Wallace ran for president, he was shot. We get into that, as well. And then finally, in the 11 o'clock hour, a state representative, Danny Garrett. And you heard me gripe about this, or I don't know if it was gripe necessarily. But Todd Stacy was on, and I got to talking about changing the formula of how state money is distributed throughout Alabama for education. And the idea that, well, if we're going to do this, which is fine, what does that mean? And we started having this discussion about equity funding. Well, you just need to give the money to the places that need it more. And what does that-- well, OK. Well, would you take money away from the haves and give to the have-nots? What precisely are we talking about? Now, as a senator, or listening to Senator Laurel De'll Jackson show last week, and he said, look, it's more about this. There's an idea that we as appropriators would be doing this in order to-- the special needs and that all peoples are created equal, and you're going to need to do this in that way to make sure that the appropriate amount of money. So if you're a special needs student, like hearing, loss, or whatever, English as a second language, then that money would be steered, and it wouldn't be just a one-size-fits-all solution. But seems like it gets very complicated when we start talking about that and trying to figure out. But that's what we got. Representative Garrett, he is coming up in the 11 o'clock hour. He is the chairman of the House Education Budget Committee. 2513430106 is the text line. You know the drill. You have something to say. You say it on the text line. That's the best way to handle things. And all the feedback is appreciated. Guys, my initial Monday kind of reaction here-- I'm kind of wondering if Kamala won't have the bump coming out of this convention. There's this buildup right now. And we saw a little bit of it last night with-- or yesterday, I should say, the protest that we're-- I think we're going to see head into, well, today, tonight at the DNC. The question is, is it going to cloud? Or will the Democrats do a good job at kind of downplaying this? So back to what I'm referring to. It feels early, but you're starting to feel that momentum kind of shift away from Harris. And the media are heavily invested in this. But at some point, they themselves have their own law of diminishing returns, right? There's only so much they cannot do what they've been doing. I told people this. The media is very asymmetrical right now. There's a love affair for Kamala Harris, but they can't keep this up until the election day. And I even think they can keep it up until September, to be honest. You're starting to see some of the goofy policies. And I was listening to Dan and Dalton earlier. I mean, they were playing to see an ink clip of the woman talking about the grocery prices. You're seeing more and more of that. And here's sort of the take away, like, look, guys, we're carrying water for you. You need to do a little bit better than price controls in $25,000 housing credits. I mean, they're talking about, like, gimmick ideas. You sense a frustration from the mainstream media. And I mean, there's no doubt that they're all on board with Team Harris, but just for the sake of what? For the sake of what, their credibility, not that they had much to begin with in the eyes of a lot of Americans. But even they at some point realize, well, like, maybe we're not putting our best practice forward here. And we know we got to take one from the team, but gosh, we sure don't want to make it look that obvious. It's a hard thing to maintain this sort of level of one-sided euphoria, faux euphoria, that is. You think they could do it until election day in November? And I would say, I don't think that's, I think you're seeing a lot of, I don't see buyers or more yet, but just a little bit of disappointment, like, this isn't going to work. Like, we're down with you, but your, your effort is very, very weak, very, you're not giving us anything. And she's, I just don't think she's ready for prime time here. And you know, we would say that on the show, but it's, it gets just like Biden. They lived in this fantasy world that he was okay and he was going to last till November. Joe Biden was fine. And, you know, all this, all this stuff about cognitive decline was just right-wing propaganda. That Kamala Harris is ready to be president of the United States, also kind of falls in that category. And it's just a matter of time. The only difference is what's keeping it from, from moving right along is there's, there's a mainstream media that are telling you don't believe you're lying eyes. That's a very, smart people. Like, you start to see it in the polls a little bit that there was this ascent and there's a sit in some places, but there's, it's coming back down to Earth in places like Georgia. I think that North Carolina will come back in line and then slowly but surely the other states that, you know, especially Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, will start to kind of go back in the other direction. Then it was this, oh yeah, well, now I have a real alternative to Donald Trump. And it really was a big old Donald Trump, but I get, it's better than this Joe Biden, he just looks out of it. Well, thank God for Kamala Harris and then you see, well, what, price controls, this is 1972. It's just like her presidential run in 2020 or 2019, before she dropped out. It was very underwhelming. I think people are going to be, especially that more people who are paying attention are going to be very underwhelmed. This is a big week for them. And they haven't offered much leading up to this moment in Chicago. But Teddy, it just, it feels like it's heading in a direction right now that's, that's just not their favorite. I might say peak too early. They played it right. And then we, you know, the wild card here is what will Trump do and how will Trump handle it? Democrats think that they could just run against Trump, run against Trump, run against Trump and not offer anything. Well, you've already blocked up those anti-Trump voters. 2513430106, if you want to be in touch with the program. Phil Doddy dying. Did you all see this? Just breaking news. I remember it being on the TV when I was a child. And then I remember a run at Phil Doddy, you, he did what? An MSNBC show. Did he try to do radio for a while? The field, Air America. Why doesn't somebody tell me why liberal talk radio doesn't work? I mean, the ideas are bad, but they seem to work other places. It's just, I think the type of mindset liberals tend to be or progressives tend to operate at a theoretical sense, not a real world. So you can't really have a talk radio show and talk about the real world as it applies to anything. But anyway, back to the Harris-Walt situation. The other thing, I think they're figuring this out. They cannot spend so much time pushing the bottom of the ticket. That honeymoon's over. Also, they spent too much time trying to explain away his passing discretion, but you're not electing a vice president. You're electing a president. [BLANK_AUDIO] And spending so much time advancing walls, especially the oppo advance. People are really, they're just not interested in that. It's Trump, come on, that's it. That's it, from this point forward. And as they said, no more gimmick economic policies, populist gimmick economic policy, or we're going to do freebies and strict government regulations. It's people are smart enough who vote, not everybody. It's a lot of dumb voters out there. By any voters in general, people who do care enough to go vote, especially at this stage that are responding to polls, look and say, we can't put price controls on eggs and milk and bread. That they're more expensive. But it's also like so tone deaf and so like, look, what we did with COVID and dumping all this federal money into the system, it's ignorant of that. I mean, it just ignores that, it doesn't address that, that where inflation comes from, how inflation happens, it's the value of the dollar. And you're too stupid to know that, vote for me. This is how we'll fix it. Text line is always 2-5-1-3-4-3-0-1-0-6. We're on the DNC coming up here shortly. This is the Jeff Moore show and if you talk, 1-0-6-5. [Music] ♪ I didn't mean to treat you bad ♪ ♪ Didn't know just what I had ♪ ♪ But honey now, I don't want to make my brown eyes ♪ ♪ Don't it make my brown eyes ♪ ♪ Don't it make my brown eyes blue ♪ Look back to the Jeff Moore show on FM Talk, 1-0-6-5. They should stay with us on this Monday morning. 2-5-1-3-4-3-0-1-0-6. It wouldn't be a touch with the program. All you gotta do is text me and we will respond to whatever it is that is on your mind. I'm gonna put it up, put it up. DNC coming up, like I said, it feels like to me, they're a little sluggish going into the DNC, the Democrats, that is. So what I would, I don't, I'm starting to have second thoughts about whether or not we'll see a big bump for Democrats coming out of this convention. Because convention could go bad. Two reasons, number one, I don't know that the vice president is quite ready for prime time. I haven't seen any indication that she's really caught up to where she needs to be. When they play the old clips of her, especially in the 2020 presidential run, you're really like, what? I mean, the word salad thing is real. It's not just a Republican talking point that came out. It is a real thing. It's just like Joe Biden is a not firing on all cylinders. He has to have his fastball anymore. That is not just a Republican talking point, despite what you want to say. You got to leave Donald Trump out of this because here's the deal. You guys like James or whatever, well, you're stupid, cold leader, blah, blah, blah. This is not, I mean, Donald Trump is going to do his events or whatever. This is all, this week is all about the Democrats. All about the Democrats. It is solely about the Democrats. It is Democrat week. It doesn't get any more Democrat week than the DNC, okay? It is all about Democrats. And then next week, you could go back to how much Trump sucks or whatever. This week is all about the Democrats. There's like no record of performance. There are some real fundamental problems with their playbook and their offense. It's like just kind of hoping the quarterback is going to show up and just have a miraculous game. I mean, you guys who follow football know that. You know who the blue chips are. You know who the talented players are. It's just like James, like you got this. You send me this text. I'm still in shock. Trump had the audacity. It doesn't matter what Donald Trump had the audacity to do this week. It says it's Democrat week, buddy. And it's not metal. It's metal. It's me D. A. L. James. Metal is a substance. This is the problem. Like this is the playbook, like Trump sucks, Trump sucks, Trump sucks. And I'm not saying that it's not effective. It tends to work for some people. This is not about Trump. This is about the alternative. He can give all of the new textures. Other than age, a better tan and better body parts. Harris has somehow said she will approve on the previous administration. Seems she needs to sell herself as better than Trump and Biden. Well, they're trying to distance her from Biden. But here's what's important. I mean, all these like policy ideas that they're putting out there. Why not do them now? Why wait? You hear this come up like, hey, that's a really good idea. We should, we should not just give everybody $25,000 for a new house. Give them 50. Well, why not do that now? The Democrats don't really have an answer for that. No, it's enough. It's not metal either. Unnamed texture. Doesn't that met a liberals can do talk radio calls. It's an antique medium, radius for old white men, black myself. I don't think so. To think about radio, why it's kind of persevered. It's free. And everybody has a radio in their car. And they got it like technology isn't to where everybody's internet in their car, or everybody has whatever in their car. 2503, 4301, 006 will be right back. This is the Jet Force show, and I've been talking about 065. I'm sitting here at the floor and family about to open up a big old can. Good time, unwind, falling and out of love in the same night. Hey, say I got a hold out of cares, I'm in the red nigger in the years. Getting crazy, I'm getting hammered, sitting right here at the floor of family. We'll go back to the Jet Force show that they've talked about 065. They should stick it around on this Monday morning. Speaking of the floor, Bama, what 60 years yesterday, they had their 60th birthday party. Ballway County/mobile corresponding to 18-19 news. Erika Thomas was there. We got a story up on the homepage field to check that out. Meantime, 2-5-1-3-4-3-0-1-0-6 is the tech slide still to come on the program. George Wallace Jr., that's about an hour from now. And then the Education Trust Fund Budget Committee Chairman and the House of Representatives, Danny Garrett, and I was talking about it last week in this formula for money from the state. They want to take her with it. They keep saying update, but I don't know what that means. I want to find that out. So we'll talk to Chairman Garrett here in about two hours. So please make sure you stay tuned for that. Joining us now here in the Fair Hope Heroes, we do every other Monday. State Representative Jennifer Findler is with us. Representative, good morning. How are you? I'm doing great. Jeff, how are you doing? I am living the dream as well as much as you can here. So you just went off Alaska, huh? How was that? It was so the weather was so much better than you guys were experiencing here. You were having heat advisories and 100-degree weather. We were in mid-60s and no humidity. And I slept with the doors open on the cruise ship every night. And it was just unbelievable. We really enjoyed it. The weather was perfect. Yeah, and the three-year-old who I went up to North Carolina, Virginia and into DC, but we took the Blue Ridge Parkway and the very kind of early part of the Blue Ridge Parkway is like in the 60s. I didn't drive it up at one point because of the tropical storm we drove through. We got into the 50s. They get back here and it's like triple digit heat advisory, you know? Can't breathe. Yeah, hard to breathe. It was definitely hard to breathe. It remains like just going out. I'm ready for the heat to break because it's just the build-up to football season, I guess. Well, it's almost here. Just right around the corner. We're almost there. And so, how long were you going to Blue Ridge? I left. So we did a segment. You and I did that segment on... It was a Monday. It was a Monday. And then I left that night. We left that afternoon. After my show was over and after we got our 18-19 2p and page up, I got on the road. We went to a Braves game and that's game, the Richmond Car Race. I walked around and saw some things on the National Mall. But the big center central focus, we took the Burridge Parkway from its beginning in Cherokee, North Carolina all the way to its end in Waynesboro, Virginia. And it took Skyline Drive from Waynesboro all the way to Front Royal. They cut over the DC. Wow, I bet that was beautiful. It was until we got caught up in the storm. But the thing about it was with the tropical storm, there were a lot of like, one of the wildlife, I guess, have kind of been disrupted or something. Because we saw a lot of deer, a lot of deer. And that's exciting for a three-year-old, so it worked out. The biggest disappointment was we planned on going to Tweetsie Railroad and they had closed down for the day because of the storm when we wanted to go. And getting the road to train was very disappointing. Yeah, well, we got to ride a train to the Klondike up there to the mountains. You guys out there, if you haven't done that, Alaska Cruise, it is fun. I just heard so many things, wonderful things about how that trip is and absolutely do the balcony. Make sure you do that. And then if you can do the inside passage, the Glacier National Park, you get to see the sea otters and just the eagles eating fish. And we saw a bear coming and getting a salmon, the salmon were running. So that was really cool. I've never seen that many fish and one upstream coming up. So, yeah, it was really cool. That's good. You come back to the stifling heat of Baldwin County. It was always good to come home. We were ready to come home. But it's the weather. It's a shock. Get it like you go right around with the windows down and the radio is blasted or whatever. And then back here, you can't even breathe when you walk out. That's right. But it's all good. It's all part of paradise. So we'll get our reprieve when it's late mid January, right? And when you're hitting like 70 or something. And people are going to the beach. Yeah. We're headed to the beach on that rare sunny day in January. Sea shells or something. So this is in the state here. I guess while you were away. I guess, were you here for a BCA? I came in on Sunday morning. So I did get to see some of my colleagues Sunday morning. I was not able to be here Friday and Saturday of BCA. And I didn't get to hear the speaker speak. I missed him at the Eastern Shore Republican women. So hated to that happened. But it's this job you find out you just can't be at every one of these functions. That's nearly impossible. You're speaking. I mean, that's usually my stop too. We were gone from here when everybody was here. Yeah, I hate that I missed him. But I know he did a good job. And I heard he did a good great job on the radio the other day with Representative Simpson, who did the Shawn Sullivan show. Oh, yeah. Did you get to hear that? I was also shot and I were gone at the same time. OK, so Representative Simpson last Tuesday while we were at the Gulf Quest Museum listening to all the Go Mesa funding that we received in Baldwin County. The governor came into town. I was got to see her on Tuesday and Mobile. But at that same time, he was doing he was preparing for the Shawn Sullivan show. He did about a two hour segment and I got to hear a little bit of Michael Hoyt speaking, West Allen or Secretary of State spoke and Representative Wilcox. And I've looked for it on the your website, but because I really want to share it. He did a great job. You would think he'd been in radio for his life. He did a good job. I don't know if you've been able to hear it. I was talking about that. Come and take my job from me and then be careful there. He he really did. It was it was kind of interesting how, you know, he picked up on it and just has a radio voice actually, but he talked about a lot of good things that the state's been doing and got to interview, like I said, those individuals and just look forward to going back and if I can, whenever you guys posted, I'd love to repost that because there was a lot of good information. West Allen's been working on he's found 3200 over 3200 illegal aliens that have registered to vote. That's something that I'd be troubling. Well, it is. You just that's just once he's found. So, you know, those will have to be looked into and you just wonder how many more words out there. This is in Alabama. Yeah, and I don't think he's gone through the entire state, just the north part, right? Yeah, I'm not sure about that. I know he in that press release, he talked about getting it out to all 67 counties. And you remember the debate? I don't know if you're paying attention to I don't know if you watch much of what goes on in the Alabama Senate, but, you know, I Smitherman Roger Smitherman and Bobby Singleton. Oh, this is this is just a solution looking for a problem. This is you guys are just messaging, you guys do whatever we have. Any kind of legislation is being considered by the Senate. It has to deal with election integrity as usual suspects will say things like that. And then lo and behold, look what West Allen finds. And I mean, like there's no, it's just, I guess, you're, I've never, and I'm sure you've seen in the house too, people that are very, you know, critical of all of these sort of measures that some Republicans want to try to implement. Well, the ballot harvesting bill, okay, so this is what we're talking about. And yes, we tried to pass it last session. This session comes back up and the, you know, I remember like it was yesterday, I'm in my office there in Montgomery, and I look out and there's five people and it's becoming 10 people. And they're talking to me about ballot harvesting this bill and how wrong it is. Being that this was one of those bills I actually co-sponsored last year wasn't able to co-sponsor it this year, just because they filed it before asking for, again, a bunch of people to co-sponsor it. I knew the bill and we started going over the things that they told me the bill couldn't do or wouldn't do. And, you know, I pulled the bill up, absolutely not. You're able to have someone go with you to vote. What this bill does is you can't be paid to go out there and harvest a lot of ballots. And so this was, there was 15 people in my office and lying down the hall just telling me how wrong the bill was. So, you know, there's Bobby, you know, Senator Singleton is standing up with his constituents, you know, but it's our job to make sure, yeah, we know the bill, and we can say, no, this is not what it says. Well, they are able to help people. These Democrats are the legislature, not all of them, but most of them. There's never been a election integrity bill that they have agreed with. I mean, it's always, there's always something wrong. But like Jamie Keel with that ballot harvesting bill, there was one of the Chambers County, or no Clay County, somebody running for County Commission, and they found the ballot harvesting. And then now what used to happen, Representative, and this is like, imported the, this used to go on, and it probably still goes on in a lot of counties. And the local prosecutor there, the district attorney, it's not going to prosecute this. He never wants a misdemeanor, so he's like, just not worth my time. Number two, he's probably in on the whole absentee balloting scheme because you look at like, there was an election about 10 years ago, election side, comparing County, Wilcox County, where like 33% of the participants in the Democratic primary voted by absentee ballot. It's typically down like 1%, 2%, 3%, it was overwhelming in those two counties. And nothing was really done about it. So when the attorney general says, well, well, this is the attorney general step in, it's because the district attorney won't. Well, they just, they make it, they make it so hard to prosecute and you'd rather have your AG handling much bigger things than misdemeanor ballot fraud. So now that they have raised that to a felony, hopefully it's more of a deterrent. And this practice kind of goes away, it should have gone away decades ago. You know, you're right. And I, you know, as I went door to door, the people that I talked to are worried about that their vote doesn't count. And so me, along with them, that was one of my five or six things, eight things that were so important to me as I ran as to wanting to want to make sure that every legal vote counts and it isn't marked out and done away with by an illegal vote. And so I wanted, I'm going to do everything I can to be behind election integrity. I believe in our secretary of state and the work he's doing, I appreciate his, his getting after it and getting there every day and making sure that he's working for us. Well, that's just it, right? Even if you accept their premise that this is not really a problem in Alabama, in fact, when you put these measures in place, blah, blah, blah, blah, that makes it harder to vote or whatever, your constituents are telling you, this is what we want. And this is what we want you to do. We're concerned about election integrity. And this is exactly the way the system works that members of the legislature are going to go adhere to their wishes and their constituents and try to do more to enhance election integrity in Alabama. We've got to safeguard that. That is the most important factor of this whole process is to make sure that our voters believe in the system. And they know without a shadow of a doubt that their vote counts and it's going to make a difference. And we can get people to the, we'll get people to the polls if they feel like that. Now it's, I think it's a, it's our number one priority. Yeah, because I imagine when you talk to people, it's that maybe they talk a little bit about immigration or whatever, but you always get kind of that crossover. We talk to constituents where, you know, they look at all levels of government as a line. And, but I got to think as far as the state's ability to actually address concerns, this one is right there. It's a big one. And I mean, I've heard from the other side as well. You know, like I said, I had a whole, you know, I've talked to them in my office and I've talked to them here, Fair Hope, Alabama rise or something. Absolutely. But when you look at that bill, it addresses the concerns that, you know, these groups and the individuals that I talked to have. And it does what it needs to for the folks that want to ensure that their votes are counting. So yeah, I couldn't be more for and, you know, wholeheartedly for the work that West Allen Secretary of State's done. And then if we can strengthen anything to do with election integrity, I'm going to be there. Let's get a, let's get a quick break in here. We're joined by state representative Jennifer Fiddler, says the Jeff Moore show. What if it talked one, oh, six, five? When I reach the other side, I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a highway man again. Or I may simply be a single drummer, right? Once was the thought inside my head. Or I'd reach 30, I'd be dead. But somehow on and on I go, I fall rolling with the flow. Welcome back to the Jeff Moore show. What if I talk about those six, five? They just stick it around on this Monday. We do appreciate it. Texts like, keep them coming, guys. 2513430106. I see you there, James. Oh, Ricky, maybe pass. But we'll get to those in the next segment still with us for just a few more minutes here for Fiddler, a state representative from Silver Hill. Go basic grants. Talk a little bit about what we need to know there. Came down last week and announced a lot of our Go Mesa funding this year. And just as a reminder, this money comes from the revenue of the offshore oil and gas leases. We get a percentage of that. We share that with other states. And thank you to our congressional delegation that helped redo the distribution of all those funds. But right here in Fair Hope, we're going to be using our funding for the Flying Creek nature reserve. And if you remember, that is the triangle that the famous triangle is the history of that triangle is so interesting. It goes about 50 years. But we're going to be doing a nature and educational center there at the former dies home. We have hiking trails, a trailhead, birding blinds, a longleaf pine park, an underground tunnel that's going to be built there and all that we think is going to be finished in 2025. So excited about that. We have the Summerdale Miracle League ball fields, $1.5 million there. And if you're not familiar with that, that is going to be handicap accessible for all disabilities. We'll be able to go there and rotary our rotary club there and central ball one have that's their big fundraiser every year. The Blakely State Park Water Access Improvement Project, almost $2 million. The Mayor State Park Camp Store project is over a million dollars. The Locks and Municipal Park is going to have a wetlands acquisition project. And we've got several others in Orange Beach and but those were some of the highlights and some of the triangle. Now, you know, you're intimately familiar with that. Oh, my gosh. But they set the road shut down, which is, yeah, you got a child, they got to take the school right there and proceed on the dafting to take the other child's school. But like, that is what's that going to be or what educational center and hiking trails. And you're going to be able to walk through that. And you know, historically, this is an area that this city has never wanted to develop. I guess the more the majority of and historically, there's always been a battle like to for that triangle. It's got a pretty interesting story. So glad to see this conversation. Well, sooner rather than later, if you hear me out there, let's get a break in here. Thanks. Thanks again for coming by. Thank you. All right. We'll be right back. This is up at talk. What are six five? From Bucks Pocket to the shores of Orange Beach, at all points in between, an insider's perspective on Alabama politics. It's the Jeff Porsche show. I don't think this way. We'll get back to the Jeff Porsche show that from talk one of six five. Thanks for staying with us on this Monday morning. Two five one three four three zero one zero six, you would be a touch at the program. All you got to do is text me and I will do my best to respond to whatever it is that is on your mind. She'll come on the program. George Wallace, Jr. son of George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama. He'll talk to us. We'll talk his father's 105th birthday coming up and I'll get a precise state before you have him on, but that's about a half hour from now. We'll talk about George Wallace and then finally, Danny Garrett, the chairman of the House Education Trust Fund Committee. If you didn't hear me talk about it Friday, I didn't just give you a rundown. So the reason this came up and it's even something we are talking about, the state is looking at adjusting its formula for how it distributes education funding to K through 12 school systems. That according to people that follow this kind of stuff are, the Alabama system is antiquated. It is the idea that if you have x number of pupils, if you have so many pupils per system, then you get x amount of dollars per pupil and they've adjusted it a little bit in the 90s. But according to the policy makers, it's antiquated. It sounds like a good system, but it turns out that, well, the problem is, some students just cost more to educate than others. This is brought up with state school superintendent, Eric Mackie, who, that is some kind of webinar, but land, yeah, our buddies and lady, I picked this up. So for this to happen, for this to work, Eric Mackie said, we had to raise $2 billion more in education funding are, we'd have to have some sort of unprecedented economic growth. So which does working on this formula, and it's been a years in process sort of work where you have a, like a blue ribbon panel of lawmakers from both chambers, the house and the Senate convening ever so often, hearing from experts who are testifying in a hearing to get to where they need to be. Fear is this, and if you heard Senator Glover last week, Senator Elliott, we're talking it. The state is going to do this. Well, this school system is struggling. This school system has bad test scores. Therefore, it needs more money. And the school system that is doing it right, they raise their property taxes, and they're paying into their own system. The people who live there by paying higher property taxes. And this goes for, again, I always say the Mount Brook, Investavia, Madison, the Baltimore County situation is a little different because the feeders, you had the local communities that will bolster the feeder system over others. But the point is, the point being is this, if you're going to have the school systems who are doing it right, and you're going to take state funding, they're getting a way to get to these other school systems, then that's very problematic for a lot of people, including myself. However, this is where we kind of got into Todd Stacy, who didn't give me a good answer when I asked, despite making you statement, he said, well, my question was, will you have to take away from the house to get to the have nots? Are we yet to take away from subsystems to give to those who quote, unquote, need more? He didn't think so. I was like, well, how does that work? And like I said, they have a good answer. Unfortunately, so that's why we got Chairman Garrett coming up. But how, how, this seems like a very, very fine line to walk. Did you have a very, very influential teachers lobby that leans left despite it's trying to remake itself? And you're telling me that you're going to be able to do this a right way without without too many chefs in the kitchen, I guess. So it's, it's as Senator Elliott was talking about, I mean, I guess we all need to be a little skeptical, at least a little paid a lot of attention to this. But Chairman Garrett, looking forward to that discussion in the next hour, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, somebody texts to get to here. Let's roll back here. Paul writes their ace in the hole is Trump being sentenced. I keep hearing that. I don't know. Well, out of people think that Donald Trump will be in prison or in jail. Could you imagine unnamed text or Jeff pisses me off again, though, I'm not surprised that the left took Trump's words out of context and his speech about presidential medals or freedom. They're eating it up. Well, it was obviously he met that the situation of giving a medal was better than the one when the lady was healthy and beautiful. Uh, Mike's, uh, Democrats hatred of Donald J. Trump and their Trump, the ranger syndrome, makes it appropriate for them to show support and vote for anybody nominated by their party. But they had those voters all along. I mean, Trump's been running for president. Since he lost in 2020, the people who are anti Trump, that doesn't matter. Democrats, I think I'd have a show. I mean, this is their, they have the spotlight. They're going to make it about abortion or what they call reproductive freedom. Is that too cute? Is like, we have a discussion about abortion and the morals and the ethics of it or whatever, right and wrong. Is it a little too, or they, they, they try to portray it in a way. It doesn't really strike it the real question of it. I call it reproductive freedom because not all Republicans, but some will acknowledge the exceptions. They'll acknowledge that there comes a time and a place for this procedure are for, you know, whatever you want to call the act of aborting a fetus murder. Some Republicans, not present company excluded. I mean, present company excluded, but, but they, they will do watch it. Whereas Democrats, they don't, they don't acknowledge, they don't acknowledge it being a problem or any, any sort of moral element to it at all. They just blow right past it and call it reproductive freedom. How will they, I mean, I guess we'll see how Democrats handle it this week. They can just be right. We talk show host Jeff poor. Pat, I really don't think people are changing their minds rather than polls are just getting different people responding. I think people are, I think there was some enthusiasm and I think that it, when I was saying Pat, I think somebody enthusiasm is dampened. I do think people go back and forth. Oh, wow, look, this is very exciting. Kamala Harris, we have somebody better on the ballot to vote for the Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And then they get to see who she is. And she's terrible. She is a bad candidate. There's no way around it. Mr. Plot, they have no sense of humor. I'm talking about talk radio. So real Tony radio works great for me. I love talking to local talk and news that I get mixed in with the world news that we have. I'm a local contractor and in and around Fair Hope. I'm in the truck a lot. Don't actually talk about the sell time. I mean, like the problem, I mean, a lot of people are going for podcasts and that's fine or even satellite radio or whatever. But there's a lot of steps involved. Well, satellite, it costs money, but with like a podcast, you got to plug your phone in. You got to find it on your phone or your car play or whatever. And then you got to play it with talk radio. Well, people that can just turn on the radio and they're driving find the local talk station. And there it is. The other thing about talk radio, I don't think it seems to have a little lasting power here. No, it really does local news. Well, I mean, the TV stations do it. Okay. The newspapers are dying. You're gone most places. I'm probably with Alabama. Unfortunately, we're saddled with ale.com who wants to try to write about Alabama for a national audience and not for you guys. So they've seeded that territory because I mean, they stay in business with web clicks and generous gifts from left wing benefactors. So I mean, they're almost in a relevant institution at this point. Anyway, so I guess the point being is like talk radio survives because it approaches the news and commentary in a way that no one else is right now. There's no local columnist. There's lane yap, which you can read my column in every week. But that's kind of a lagging indicator. It's not a daily newspaper. So let's talk radio. I think until they overcome that. Until technology makes that. I don't know how technology would make it obsolete because even then you would, I think you would just see talk radio move to if it does go, it goes online. Local talk radio, people still got to live in Mobile. They still want to know what's going on in Mobile. I mean, a lot of you are very myopically focused on national politics. But there's still stuff going on in Alabama. That's to be whatever the chattering class has to have their moment. Michael, why not just give everybody a million dollars so everyone can get a nice house? I'm sure that would have any negative impacts. James, I will be giving you the fails I see at a Democrat conference as well. Both candidates are promising the world, but haven't heard how they will pay for it. Let's see. Democrats start off their convention with porn stars like Republicans did, but, but James, this is not about Republicans. This is all about Democrats. See, James, you're like a one trick pony. All you do is gripe about Donald Trump. And that works. I'm not denying that the attacks with Donald Trump have an impact. But Democrats got to give you something here to show that they're better. 25134006, we're right back. This is the Jeff Porte Show at the talk, 1065. And in my hand, excuse me, man, but where's the thorn? I'm Carolina, down to Georgia, smell the Tasman and Magnolia, sleep is sweet home, Alabama, roll tight, a roll, money, water, Mississippi, bless the Graceland, whispers to me, give me home. Looking back to the Jeff Porte Show at the talk, 1065. Thanks for hanging out with us on this Monday morning. 251343 0106 to be in touch with the show. Keep the text coming. Uh, let's see. Tim writes this. Jeff, Trump was talking about doing what was so scary tax. Can he do that on his own or some kind of legislative action need to take place before that could happen? It would have to take place in Congress. All of this stuff, I think, requires all of these campaign promises. Don't mean anything. Okay. This is, it's more of a vision when it comes to presidents and they want to kind of keep stage, kind of going the way they go is control of Congress and what they pass. And the only thing they've been able to pass are spending bills. But no, Tim, uh, the same with the tips, the tax on tips. I can't wait till, uh, I can't wait till we all get paid with the tips, the lower our tax burden. Ricky said to be a how to cure monkeypox. I'll leave that one to your imagination. Uh, Dan and Daphne or Dan says, uh, said that our country will be strong as said that our country will be strong as much as we want to fight for it. Isn't that calling an insurrection? Oh, uh, not really sure what you're asking there, Dan. I need texture. How is that when a pregnant woman is killed and a fetus dies, they charge two murders, but killing the fetus by a doctor is accepted. I mean, it's just, it is, I guess it has more to do with the desire of the woman to keep the fetus. I don't know. Don't ask me a question. Every time we bring up a abortion comes up. Toothless Bamber. Swallow says Biden belongs around Mount Rushmore. He doesn't really believe that. Uh, toothless Bamber says people are feeding their families cases of jobs, mines created off because of jobs. If a mind is created using their cell phones because of the chips he created, these people are back crap crazy. Finally, gene rich schools are already subsidizing poor schools in Alabama. As Paul would count as schools. How much of their local tax goes to other schools, forestlands are taxed at $100 an acre. Somebody other counties can't get enough funding to run schools. Well, I mean, sure, but what, what, what does changing the formula to give them even more money? I mean, in Bawley County, could just be Bawley County, its own state with its own tax base, its own tourist economy, its own ag, and I just need some more manufacturing, I guess, probably be pretty well off relative to the rest of the state of Alabama. You probably have interstate highways running from Little River to Mount Fort Morgan or something. I don't know. I mean, just, just imagine that if you didn't have to give Montgomery anything. But look, I mean, I get it. Yes, spread it around. It's just sometimes you have to wonder when we're building a West Alabama corridor, with no federal matching, if that's really the best use of tax dollars generated in Bawley County. Two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six is the text line, if you want to get in touch with the program. But the idea that you're going to take money away from systems that are doing it properly, where their population is paying a higher tax, and give it to maybe a school system not quite as invested in its education system. Does it seem fair, does it? Text line, once again, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, we'll be right back. This is the Jeff Porte Show at FMTalk 106.5. ♪ This love was a finest pick up to ever play the blues ♪ ♪ I saw the light, I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night ♪ ♪ Now I'm so happy, no sorrow inside, pray the Lord, I saw the light ♪ Look it back to the Jeff Porte Show at FMTalk 106.5. Nature's sticking around on this Monday. Mortimer's efforting George Wallace Jr. had this all set up, and I guess we're up, it's like we got him here, but he'll be joining us here in just a minute on the program. Two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, if you want to be in touch with the show, all you've got to do is text me, still a couple of the programs, State Education, State House Education Trust Fund Chairman Danny Garrett will be with us. So please make sure that you stay tuned for that. Join us now. I think we got him on the line, the son of the former governor of Alabama, but also sort of state government, a number of levels. I got to know him a little bit when he ran for lieutenant governor, but George Wallace Jr. joins us on the line. George, good morning, aren't you? Good morning, Jeff. Do it well. Hope you're well. Hey, thanks for making time for us. We do appreciate it. I want to get you on a 105th birthday coming up, and I saw there's a documentary. Talk about this a little bit, and it seems to be kind of an ongoing thing where you really are going out of your way, trying to emphasize some of the good things that your father had done, and how he really tried to apologize or try to make up for the past. It gets played up like where he is like the centerpiece of history for a lot of the institutional left right now when it comes to like these topics of racism. Well, yes, I think the special focus is on his entire life and his entire journey, or he owned his career during that era. He worked for segregation. He has been told as a child, his archaic and antiquated, as it sounds to us today, that segregation was in the best interest of both races. He believed that without hate, ill, will, or malice in his heart, as most people of south did in some exceptions, but most did. But over time, his conscience took the toll on that belief, and he realized he had been wrong. And so he worked to make amends. He went to Dr. King's Church one Sunday in the late 70s, one Sunday night on an ounce, and asked if he could speak to the congregation, at which time he told them he had been wrong, and asked for their forgiveness. And they knew he was sincere and genuine, and they, 90% of black citizens of Alabama voted for him in 1982 during his last race for governor. So his journey, Jeff, is one we all took. He didn't take it alone. The country took it as a different era, and it's difficult, if not impossible, to judge standards of today by that era. But he worked to get it right. And I think he did. That's a wonderful story, really, about redemption and reconciliation, and coming together. And I've recently read the book about that, that chronicles all of that. And in many ways, his life was so inspiring in terms of trying to bring us together that I think, given the racial divide that I see today, and I think you're listening to it as well, to be one that we go should all heed, frankly. Well, let's talk about this a little bit. And I was thinking about this the other day. It's reason, like, you know, there was like a documentary on Big Jim Folsom and how he was sort of an outsider kind of read rejected by some of the establishment. And you know, every era has their establishment political class. Where did your father fall in line and sort of what was he perceived to be now? I know later on, he definitely is probably one of the most like powerful political figures in Alabama, for sure. But when he was coming along, was he was he really accepted by the in crowd in Montgomery? Was he what? Yeah, accepted. Was he, or was he, was he kind of part of the mix? Or was he was he always this outsider that maybe some others have tried to make him out to be? I don't think so. He worked well with the post administration. And one point he was writing speeches with Governor Folsom early on in Governor Folsom's career, my father was a populist and some suggest that he was a liberal back in the day based upon his progressive ideas to help trade schools and and other things like that. But he, matter of fact, most people don't know, not many know at all, that when he was in the legislature, he was appointed to the board for a thesis at Tuskegee University. That was something that he wanted and Governor Folsom appointed him. But I don't think he was a populist and he was well accepted among the folks in Montgomery. He was a leader in the legislature and he and Governor Folsom had some differences later in their careers. But I think they came together later and were friends. Well, and that's something else. Like when you go around the state, you really see his fingerprints on a lot of things. But you mentioned the trade schools, the two-year college system really came online during during his tenure as his governor, right? Well, they did. He in the legislature introduced legislation that began started the two-year schools, junior colleges and trade schools at the time they were called. And then later as governor, he made sure many more were built. And they're really a string of pearls around our neck when you think about the needs that they fulfilled over the years. And it's very progressive idea. And needed at the time, he heard his father and grandfather talk about the need for education when he was a young boy. And that affected him deeply. And so he cared that with him, and when he was elected the legislature and light a governor, he advocated those and had those built. Tell me this, and I've been hearing this all my life, George, and I don't know if this is this is mythology or the when I was growing up in the 80s, you would get to Birmingham and the interstates were not finished. And some people have always suggested that. The reason why was because those places where the interstate were finished was because they didn't vote for your father. Was there any trip to that? No, you know, I've heard that over the years, like I've heard many other myths about my father that weren't true. But I had asked him about that before he was certainly not. I wouldn't have allowed any political considerations to hamper the building of interstates for our folks. So that was his sense about it. So I don't know where that came from. Normally these things come from your political enemies, which he had many of course. Well, he never did well. It's like mountain brook and places like that never went for your father. And I mean, I don't know. Was that like a what? What was the problem there, you think? I think that he was just such a populist that he was for the average working person. And anything that would benefit them, they needed help more than folks, as you say, in Mount Brook. But I think that there came the rub. He didn't come out of the click. He didn't come out of the group that was, you know, polished to be running for governor. He came out of South Alabama out of nowhere. And that just wasn't one of them. So speak all the over time. He had many friends in Mount Brook, many supporters in Mount Brook, many of them I know today. So he began to transcend that largely. Was it it was like, but he was like a populist. And I don't think people really, I mean, don't really understand populism with that era. But it wasn't like he was this doctored air right winger by any stretch. I mean, he was kind of just pro union, right? I mean, he was, he was very much blue collar. That was his brand. But he was, you say, pro union. Yeah. Yes. At one time he was they and believe they had a place in our, in our country for helping folks with wages and benefits and so on. And there was certainly a time when that was needed and possibly some today. But in many respects, some of the unions got out of, out of hand, it seemed like to me and asking too much from the businesses they were working for, not, not finding that even balance. But he was, his ideas really instantly enough took hold in terms of his populist beliefs and working for the average working person when he ran for president and many writers called Greenberg, David Broder, George Will and others have written that he was truly the grandfather of the modern conservative movement prior to Ronald Reagan. And he was very proud of that in his later years when he would talk about it. Well, it's this brand of populism that I don't know what necessarily like a European style populism or anything like that or Latin America even, but just sort of American populism that you see come up from time to time. And I guess like more recently, Donald Trump, obviously, but before that, like the tea parties and things like that, where it's not, it's it's more, it seems to be more of the heartbeat of the country. That seemed to be where where he was. And like, hey, I see this even like when he ran for president and like my grandparents or whatever, they were, they were Wallace people. And I think there's, I mean, the racist stuff is what it is, but it's it's much bigger than that. Well, it is. I think what you're suggesting is the values he took that he advocated in Michigan and 72, for example, when he won every county in that president's primary in 72, anyone every county in the state of Florida. And Florida is not a Southern state neither is Michigan. That's when the real leaders of the Democratic Party realized that he had tapped into something that was affecting people and moving people. The average, the values that he brought forth from his upbringing in South Alabama of hard work and faith and goodness and love of our country and patriotism, all those things that seem so out of date to many today. And that's sad. But those are the things that he talked about when I was with him that had the crowds going crazy like Donald Trump had, the average working person wants to be remembered and thought about in terms of policy. And that's what he did. And that's why he was winning in 72 until he was taken out of the race. And, and he said at the Democratic Convention in 72, he said, when George McGovern was nominated, he said, if you nominate this candidate in this platform, it will lose by the greatest majority in the history of the Democratic Party, which is exactly what happened. But I think a lot of what he advocated back then brings true today. It's like goodness, it does. What do you think we'll ever see something like that? I mean, I guess we're seeing it with Trump a little bit. But let's let's kind of remind it a little state of Alabama and electing his politicians. You don't have these real populist moments in the state like you used to. We were a fulsome, rural wallace emerge, right? It seems a very, and it's always been like a one party state just now it's Republican instead of Democrat. But like, do you ever feel like when you watch what's going on in the state that we're kind of do for this moment again at some point? Well, it was a different era and you had different ways of appealing to people. Technology is really robust with much of the beauty and the Americano of the political rallies with the country music stars and all that that I grew up with. But it's all very generic, it seems to me. I don't see a lot of spark among the politicians like I used to. Maybe that's because I've got no, but I just don't see it. We have good people serving, of course, you for the right things. But the personalities back then seem to be a little more, a little more interesting to me. It does seem very cookie cutter and everything is all maybe different now that you don't do the retail politics as much as you once have where you're like actually there in person talking to people, giving speeches, feeding off the crowd. Everything seems kind of made for TV. Well, it's made for TV. It's just it's what it was back in the day. 5862, the mother's race in '66, you had five or six rallies a day. The country music stars would start it and then they had a mother would speak and then they'd move to the next town and get ready to set up again to do the same thing. And you had some TV and some radio, a lot of yard signs, a lot of signs along the interstate, and two lane roads would still have some of that. But it was a richer and to me it was. It was a richer mix of politics and people. You saw people. You after you spoke, you went through the town. You can with everyone. And that's how I was raised. Difficult to do that today with so much TV. These campaigns these days is just how much money you can raise to get on television. That's the powerful thing or social media. So for everything, one, I guess is something lost. Oh, we're wrapping up on this, our mutual friend, David Asbell, texting me this that I didn't know this, that you used to open for Hank Williams Jr. So this would have been kind of when he was maybe not as well known or before he maybe is was the household name that he is today. Well, this was 1973. I went on a couple of his tours as opening and we came, became great friends. And this was before he fell down the mountain. And at this point, he was having big crowds. He was playing mostly his dad's songs, but he used to lament to me that he really wanted to play his own music. And after he fell down the mountain in nearly Ajax Mountain and on town, I nearly died. He decided life's not a trial run. I'm going to play some of my own music. And the rest is history and I'm very proud of him. We used to sit in the back of the bus and play our guitars. And I think he fell he had a lot in common with me since we were sons of famous men. And I appreciate his friendship, proud of him. I mean, it really is there's a distinction there between his father's music and his music, clear distinction between the two of them. I said, there is a clear distinction between the two of them, his father and him and the music and maybe just a matter of the errors they came up in, but they're not really similar at all, are they? Well, a bit different. I think my father actually saw Hank Lee's play back in the late 40s. I went to one of his concerts, I believe long time ago. But I think his mother, Audrey and I were great friends. She was great friends about my father as well. And I'm very proud of Hank. He's done a great job with his writing and his music. George, well, we'll wrap it up there. We got to get to a break. But thanks for hopping on and talking about your father was his 105th birthday is upon us. But Jeff, you're welcome. I anyone's interested in in my book. I've written an interesting book revealing in many respects about my dad's journey. It's they go to our website, governor George Wallace.com. I think they'll find the pages on their website very interesting. Or go to Amazon.com and just put George Wallace in. I think they'll find it. I think you listened to the book. You all get that book. It's it's readily available. George, like I said, thanks for making time for us. And we'll talk again soon. Thank you, Jeff. Enjoy. Alright, let's get a break in here. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff course show. What I've talked about. See the stars right up the purple sky. Look at back to the Jeff course showed up at talk one oh six five. Stay with us on this Monday morning. Text line two five one three four three zero one zero six is how you get touched with the program. What do we have here? Do you think the Democrats? No. Do you think Democrats will replace Kamala at the DNC? They can't. I mean, it's there's no who who would it be? I've heard this. I've heard this a bunch, but who would it be? I think people were willing to say, okay, there's there's no polling to show that she is not. She's not up for it either. So you're probably stuck with her, I think, for the time being those of you who are Democrats who are really thrilled with that. But I tell you this texture. I mean, like, why would they replace her? She's she's not a great candidate. However, she's got a very good, very savvy political team that are used in the tools and their tool chest and their advantage, particularly the media. But it's just the idea of Kamala Harris. It's not it's not her policies or that she gives good speeches. Obama was all of this. And he was a very talented politician. She has all the aesthetics, but none of the, none of the talent. And so well, she was a attorney general and she was in California and she's a US, but like, look, being president of the United States is a it's rare fight there. And you could gripe about that or quibble with that all you want. She hasn't done a TV interview. She's not no one really knows. I mean, what's all of her policy proposals are gimmicks, very gimmicky. There's they got to build up the substance this week. It's all like I said, it's all about Democrats, guys. It's all about what they're going to be able to give, what they're going to be able to offer. They get bashed Trump this week, as much as they want, but I think they're doing themselves with this service. When I'm patting themselves on the back to tell him to get about why they are better. Let's get a break and he'll be right back. This is the Jeff Moore show. That's the talk for the 65. Paid for by Christian Care Ministry. From Buck's pocket to the shores of Orange Beach, at all points in between, an insider's perspective on Alabama politics. It's the Jeff Moore show. I don't think they've done it this way. Welcome back to the Jeff Moore show. What a 65. They just stick it around. On this Monday morning, our number three man time flies by. Still to come on the program here in about 30 minutes. Staining Garrett will be with us. So please make sure that you stay tuned for that text line two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six. That's how you get in touch with me, your show host. Jared Garrett got to come up and we're going to talk about you heard me ramble on about this. Maybe ill informed, uninformed, but at least concerned in this vein that they're going to, they want to alter the formula and how the state appropriates money from, so you pay into state taxes and the Montgomery. It's some of that's generated through sales taxes and, I don't know, all kinds of different income streams, but it's, it's generated and it goes to Montgomery. And there are Alabama legislature takes that money and they divide it. It's, the money is divided up to the different, the various school systems around the state. So how do you determine how much each school system gets? And there's a formula. And essentially, the formula is this, the number of students you have in your system determines the amount of money that you get. Seems, seems somewhat reasonable, right? But when it comes down to it, that's just not a realistic formula. Some systems have other challenges to overcome. And what do you hear about a lot? Um, the non-English speaking students that come into public schools in Alabama. Yeah, they can't just show up to second grade on day one. And if the teacher doesn't know Spanish and they don't know English, what do you do there? Well, I mean, obviously you got to find a bilingual teacher, which it's going to cost you a little more in salary than not, not all these teachers know two languages. So should the state count those students who can't speak English, who maybe, when they say special needs, have a learning disability or have some kind of handicap, it makes it more difficult for them to learn. Should the state give more money to these systems to educate those students? And I think that's the spirit of this, that you have different needs. However, and this is where I'm very wary of Montgomery. It's always like a take a, you know, never let a crisis go to waste. But what they try to take from the haves and give to the have-nots, when they say, well, yeah, sure, English is the second language and disabilities. But what about these children in the poor, beleaguered inner cities of Birmingham who are learning how to read, they should get more money than those children in Mount Brook, who have everything they need or having good test scores, because we must have an equitable sort of education system in our state. And the reason why these school systems perform better, in some cases, is because the people in those communities pay higher taxes, particularly property taxes, to bolster whatever the state and whether it already is being allocated to their local schools, are, are, wait for it, they're electing competent leadership at the school board level. And it's not just whatever, I, you know, some of these people who get elected the local school boards make you scratch your head, instead of the same old dirty rotten corrupt politicians, and they're going to take, they're going to penalize systems that do the right thing, and somehow it's a perverse incentive to reward systems that aren't doing it properly, because they're not performing up to standard. So would they do that? And that's the question we're trying to, I guess, resolve here. And the reason it came up, the reason why we're talking about it, and in landing after was a story, they quoted Superintendent Eric Mackie, the state school superintendent, and he says, yeah, we could change the formula, but you're going to have to raise $2 billion more in income and revenue, which is essentially a $2 billion tax increase is what it sounded like, are, we just need to have a bunch of economic growth to where the taxes are generated. And we get that $2 billion. Otherwise, you can't do what we're trying to do here. And Chairman Garrett objected to that. He's like, look, you're trying to poison the well here by saying to change this formula, we got to raise taxes. That's not true. And sometimes there's a status quo in Alabama that likes things just the way they are. So we're going to give Chairman Garrett the floor here and see if he could kind of, I don't know, maybe explain a little bit about what they're getting at, why it's important to update this, and rather than have me ramble on about it, have some kind of clarity here, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, a Creole Crimson, I am not your band from the show. Creole Crimson got banned for pretty easy reason saying that I needed to be replaced by April Marie Fogle. That's like, okay. And then over the weekend, it looks like some drunk texting in the show here at midnight. Let's see here. Well, yeah, Joel and Summer don't teach the child English. Well, how do you communicate with the child that doesn't speak English? How do you teach a Spanish-speaking child, English Joel? Yeah, could you, could you do that? Joel, if you have the answer to this, I, did you really need a teacher speaks two languages? There's got to be that you're still going to need a Spanish to English translator. I don't, this is the, this is the consequence of unfettered immigration in America, where you have in some school systems, I was told, where in ball and county, or 40% of the students are non-English speakers. That's school system of some schools. Imagine that. What do you do with that? Up in Albertville, there, the chicken plant up there, one of the chicken plants is bussing in Haitian refugees. They're bussing in Haitian refugees to, to, to be cheap labor at their stupid chicken processing plant. And the burger putting on the local community, the school system in Albertville saying, we don't know what to do with these, because their kids are going to school and there's no way they can handle that. There didn't no help from the chicken processing plant. They could care less about their employees, kids. They're just blessing their families to Marshall County, putting them in some single family dwellings with two or three families that are bursting into seams and they're putting them in schools where the school system there, the local infrastructure, the health care, all of that is equipped to handle that burden. And what this is, this is Biden's America. And the local businesses, the, the corporate America is just taking advantage of it. You always wonder like, well, pro business, you know, BCA, Chamber of Commerce. I mean, sometimes guys, they like Democrat policies because all it does, it's, it's to the benefit of their shareholders. It's, it's why, like corporations, they're not immoral, some are immoral at the leadership level, but they're a moral. They, they function in the way to make money. Well, you can't let policy be determined that way. Hey, uh, school formula, school interest guy, preschool formula, school interest got caught inflating the administration rates and getting pressure with the push for charter schools. It's a plane. It's a play plane and simple money play. King, uh, are they counting the non English speaking children in those third grade reading sets? I don't know. I don't know how they are doing this. I know it's a problem, but it's something, I guess you got to figure out at the national level. Chris, walk into Piglet Wigglyfield and you hear five different languages. Uh, in a text or school, you won't like this answer, but education is a benefit. Learn the language through immersion or don't. It's benefit been available to you. I, I, but, but that doesn't, you can't, it doesn't work. That doesn't, you can't just put a Spanish speaking student in a third grade math class and expect it's just a nature to take its course and this student to catch on at some point. This is not how the world works. I'm telling you. My name texture, if I took you and put you in a school in Belgium, are you going to pick up any of it? Well, it just dropped you off in like Italy. Maybe you are bilingual. Mostly students are not bilingual, but yet they, you know, and the tourist economy and they need workers. We need workers. You don't understand, but they're putting the burden on the local infrastructure, the local, the roads have more traffic. The emergency rooms have longer lines, longer waiting lists, the schools are bursting into seams where the teachers that they have are not qualified to teach these students because they can't communicate with them. The principles are not qualified to communicate with these students because they cannot discipline them because they don't know how to communicate with them and tell them what they did wrong or whatever. I mean, think about that. And you ask the federal government, they say to hell with you, you racist, bigot, the state government, okay, well, we'll, we'll figure out, maybe we'll figure out to get some more money into the system or something. I, or we'll just teach them to weld and send them off to an autopilot somewhere. Maybe I don't know. A name text there, please, as a mail carrier, I have had to pick up a little Spanish just to deliver parcels, a mail that has to be signed for. And a texture says it works in Canada. Canada doesn't have nearly the level of immigration that the United States does. I want to be illegal. Some of it legal. Sean, I'll take your comments under advisement. And a texture not out of the world works so long. The kids can't be productive as schools kicked them out. It's just, no, they're not going to do that. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff 4 show. I'll have to talk about those 6'5". Welcome back to the Jeff Port show. What a 6'5". They just stick it around on this Monday morning. Text, you want to be in touch with the show 2513430106. Should have some time to get to these remaining texts. But if you got one, you want to try to sneak in, go for it. Now is your opportunity. Back to this though. I think law is just mandate. You can't just kick students out, particularly for a language they speak. It's discriminatory. And while it's just like, well, then you don't like English. Just go back to where you came from. Yeah, okay. It's not really legal. It's, this is the product of just this wide open immigration policy. The Biden administration seems to be okay with. They're holding the country hostage with me in the end. Be what cost? Kamala Harris, the election. And a textor, when I used to go to Tijuana, but you did my best learning language so I could try to fit in. But here in America, it's almost like a badge of water if you can't speak English. I don't English. I don't get it. I hate going to Home Depot and seeing English and Spanish everywhere. They never had anything in English for us in Tijuana. We had to adapt. They don't want to adapt. They want us to adapt to them. Heck, even when I was stationed in Japan, I did my best to learn enough so I could get my point across. Well, when you go to Home Depot and everything bilingual, Home Depot is just trying to sell more lumber tools or hardware or whatever. They are not, no, no, that's important to them. They're there. I mean, yeah, sure, they'll give you some fancy talk about DEI or whatever. They're just trying to sell that drill and make the profit off of it. I mean, that's just, that's the reality there. Understand that there is an incentive for them to span and shop a lot of what you see. I don't know what to tell you. I mean, we are just a different society than more organized in Tijuana, a name texture is not a good, a good contrast to compare. It's very lawless there. We try to be better than Tijuana here in America. So I don't, I get, I get your frustration with it, but I'm telling you, the reason why you see what you see is just it. There's a, there's a profit incentive for Home Depot to do what they do with the bilingual and a texture. What's going to happen to the all-important test scores? I don't know. Finally, Jeff, language barrier question mark. I wonder how immigrants in the early 1900s learned English survived and flourished in many cases. You'll be a true dramatic on the issue. Oh, I'm not immigrants in the 1900s. They, they didn't really, they slowly assimilated, but you would have these exp, expat communities, right? Well, we would, we would have all Italian, neighborhood of all Italian speakers, neighborhood of all German speakers. And they didn't, public education was not what it is today. It wasn't as institutionalized. It's not a, this is not, that's an apples and oranges comparison where we didn't have to teach STEM or, you know, that you are trying to get away from an industrial economy and be more high tech, had different, a different sort of economy, more of a consumer economy now. It worked back then because it was, it was able to work. It won't work now. Like I said, we have public schools in America. We have public schools. You the taxpayer pay for we decided a long time ago. We decided that education would be something that the government would provide. That's what you got to understand back then during that wave of immigration in America. The government didn't do as much. It's a total different society, total different societal model. It's not being too dramatic about the issue. We gotta get a break here. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff Moore show on F and talk with 065. The happiness on Earth ain't just for high achievers. My heroes have always been cowboy and they're still all I would say. That is our job. One step in my heart themselves and their soul. Welcome back to the Jeff Moore show. That's a talk with 065. Thanks for staying with us on this Monday morning. Real quick, I didn't get into it in the last segment, but I'm programming now tomorrow on the program. Paul DeMarco, one of the regulars on this show will be with us and also Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wall and another guest to be named later. So please tune in tomorrow. But joining us now, we've been talking about this a lot this morning, but the chairman of the House Education Trust Fund Budget Committee, Danny Garrett joins us on the line. Representative, good morning, how are you? Good morning, Jeff. Great to be with you. Hey, thanks for making time. I do appreciate it. So the topic really, and I know you dealt with it some last week, Chairman, the change to this formula, and you guys have been working on this for some time. This isn't necessarily something new. It just came up in the news because of your committee, the Joint Committee that convened last week, the formula and how education money from the state is distributed to the various school systems around the state. Walk us through that and why what we have now needs at least some attention, you think. Yeah. Well, first of all, let me just clarify that we've not made any decision to change the funding formula or have any preconceived ideas. But what we do know in Dr. Mackey, the State Superintendent verified in the meeting the last week is that the current formula we have is not something you describe as adequate. And it is unlike any other formula in any other state in the country, 45 states have moved away from the model that we use to a different type of model. And these are very complex models and a lot of considerations have to go into it. And also each state differs because of their tax structures and the nuances of their law and things like that. But we know that when you look at Alabama's educational outcomes, pretty much by most any measure, we're at the bottom. And what every previous study that we've had that looks at how we fund the education in the state tells you it's not adequate. It wasn't adequate 30 years ago. And even now with the changing world we're in, it's not keeping pace with changes in our economy or in our demographics. So all we're doing at this point is basically saying, look, we need to tee this up again and discuss it and see if we believe, again, we validate that it's not adequate. Look at what other states are doing and determine if any of that would be applicable to Alabama. We started these discussions about a year ago. Dr. Mackey was with us in the very initial meeting. And we're now trying to, we decided to get, so Chairman Orr and I decided that we would use our budget committees as a vehicle to at least vet the initial diligence on this effort. And then at some point, if we decide to move forward, then we will need to expand this to include a lot of different groups, education groups. And of course, the governor's office already engaged with us. So we're in a discovery period right now. But what I can tell you is that we basically, if you want to oversimplify it, the way we fund education in Alabama now is that in Montgomery, we determine every system needs X number of teachers per student. Every system needs X amount of money per student for transportation. That's kind of the way we do it. Then we divide that big pot up to each system based on headcount. We're not looking at the specific needs of a district. So what if you move from that type of model, which is a resource, a cost model to a student needs model, you would look at systems and you would score those systems based upon those student needs. If you have a system that has a high degree of poverty, high level of poverty, that would either be a waiting factor for that. A system that has a high number of special needs students would be weighted accordingly because it costs more to educate and to address those issues. If you have a system that has a high number of English ESL students, gifted students, there are a number of different things, but you would weight that system and the money would be allocated based upon the needs of systems. You move away from a one size that's all based on headcount to try and direct money to systems based on their needs. And what occurs to me is really what's taken kind of a directing ball, if you would, figuratively speaking here to the status quo. I mean, it is this immigration sort of policy that the federal government has bestowed upon the country, but this English is a secular language thing, seems to be like a very big problem that, look, if you're going to have an influx of migrant students, the skill system still wants to educate those students, and they don't turn many people away, but not all students are created equal. It does take a special skill set to deal with these students, primarily a bilingual teacher, which does just, you know, not all teachers are bilingual, right? Right. Well, you know, I think that the kind of drivers that the federal government has mandated that public schools provide a lot of services with respect to special needs, and there's a wide spectrum of special needs, and they've expanded that scope of special needs. The federal government has mandated that the public schools educate any child that is in that system, so certainly a child that comes in the system that doesn't speak English would be one. There's a number of different things like that that are being mandated by the federal government, and under our current funding model in the state, we're not basically funding that. We're not addressing that. We're not fighting youth support at all, so the funding for those initiatives in each district has to come from either federal money, which there's a limit on that, or from local money, or from the local, and some systems that are affected by those issues don't have the local money. And so, you know, and then you've got also the correlation between high poverty and dense poverty, and some of the remote areas, the rural areas of the state, we have a lot of remote issues. You have students traveling a long way, so certainly transportation is a more effective there than it may be in another district. So, all this doing is what 45 other states have done, but it's recently Tennessee and Mississippi, is shift to say we're going to go to this model that now looks at all of these impacts that have changed in the last 30 years, and that's what systems are doing. Now, what set this thing off last week was I had read where Dr. Mackey had made a comment to the State School Board, and then apparently to some reporters earlier last week that to do this, we would have to would require $2 billion statewide tax increase, and it would require, or it would require that we shift money from wealthy districts to poor districts. And of course, that's not been on our radar. That's not something we're looking at doing. Chairman Orr and I are not, would not recommend to our committees that we consider such a proposal. So last week, having read that comment, I gave Dr. Mackey the opportunity to clarify his comments. He said three times in his remarks to the committee that he felt like this was absolutely an effort we should be looking at, and he also wanted to be a part of it. He supported the effort, and he also understood the ground rules that we had. And so, you know, that's where we are. So I think that's the fear, at least in my mind, here, here you have in this state, I mean, a lot of communities around the state will pay higher property taxes to to bolster the whatever funding is coming in for their public schools. And I mean, they have all their own reasons, but but it's the haves that have nots. And I guess the question would be, when you start tinkering with that formula, how do you, how do you not take away from the haves to give to the have nots? I mean, I know you're not at that stage, but that would be the concern, right? Yeah. Well, the first thing you do is that there's about, and I don't don't hold me to this number, but I think it's about two and a half billion dollars of local money that's right now outside the funding formula that we use the state. That two and a half billion in our marching orders and our ground moves, we laid forth to the consultants that are going to help us analyze all of this. And to our committee, we said that two and a half billion dollars will remain outside this formula. So any system that has been a local issue, our mindset and our ground rule is number one, that money will not be affected by what we do now. So that's the local money stays with the locals. Number two, we don't want any system to lose. So now, how does that happen? Because right now, if you look at the weeks of the calculations, you'll find that some of the more fluent systems receive less state money for a pupil than some of the poorer systems under the current formula. And that's how it is in the day. We do not want any system to have less funding than they would get going forward. So how you do that? I don't know. Number one, is it possible that we can come up with a model that addresses all the ground rules we set forth? We think so, but we don't know. We'll find out. But what we would do would be to make sure, you know, we set aside a couple of reserves. We've had this new educational opportunity fund. And part of that fund that's building right now, we believe needs to be utilized for the changes in the education community. Part of it could be to help us transition to the funding that we're talking about under this funding model change. The other would be if school choice really takes hold and starts to really be a big demand, we'll need to address that. So one of the reasons for this new education opportunities reserve fund that right now has about 700 million in it will, or maybe a billion in it now, but after this year, about about a billion in it, will actually be available for us to look at some of these changes we want to make to the current way we find education and state. But our ground rule one is that no system loses money, that no local money gets brought into this formula or changes will be impacted by the change. And so those are the spicy ground rules that are important to both chairman or and myself as the chair of this effort. And then I'm sure committees fill the same way. Well, and you look at this, I mean, when we start talking about these metrics, and we talked about demographics and special needs, I mean, or would it be feasible, or would this be a possibility that maybe some people in the legislature will say, Hey, look, we're not performing as well. Our test scores aren't as high as Mount Brook, Vastavia, Madison, or wherever. We need more money. You got to make this part of your criteria, even though these systems I just mentioned are doing it right, they're paying more taxes, they're electing competent people to their school board. And these other systems don't really maybe aren't as taking as much as the local buy-in as the others are. Yeah, I think, I think, you know, some systems, the reality is some systems don't have that local support. So that's an issue. We've got it, you know, and we're required of the Constitution to provide public education. It needs to be adequate public education, which by the superintendents on admission, what we currently do today is not adequate. They say it's equity, but it's not adequate. That gets into the weeds of the deal. But I would say, too, like, when you look at how you look at a system, some of the rural systems are really struggling with the ESL issue right now. Some systems have 50 to 60 percent of their students are ESL. And just think about it, the state's not really giving them any support at all. So whatever support they get is deluded by that effort, which is, of course, impacting education for all the kids in that state and the resources in that school system. Some of this, they've been able to get along because with all the influx of S for money and money from COVID, whatnot, there was federal money that came down that was kind of a stopgap for some of this, but that's going away. That's gone away. So that's an issue. Then you have other systems, and some of these are some of the more fluent systems where they have a little huge special needs effort. They've kind of become a magnet for some of the special needs. I talked to one CFO in an area of Metro Birmingham, a system of Metro Birmingham that has five special needs students that they're required to educate, you know, under the federal requirements. And those five students cost that system $900,000 a year. And that's having to come out of local coffers. And this is not a system that has a lot of local money available. So it's an issue where you're going from basically the Montgomery Determining with every system in the state, you know, has to have on a per pupil basis and giving that money out to basically say, look, we're going to look at each system, score it, and then allocate the money to try to help provide for some of those student needs that are different from district to district. This is complicated. And again, we've laid out ground rules, Chairman Orr went through those the other day. And there were about four or five really ground rule principles. One big, no system loses money. Second is that no local money is brought into the equation in terms of what we're doing at the state level. And there were a few other things. But of course, part of this too is transparency, because this formula would ultimately give local systems more flexibility in how they spend their money because the system in rural areas is very different about in the book. So what they need would be different. And so we would give more flexibility, but you've got to have the accountability as well. So at this point, we're not sure that what we want to do is even possible, but we need to do the diligence to see it. But we do know right now that what we're doing is not really even a pure funding formula. I never really put a pure foundation program formula. I never heard it said that, but Dr. Ms. Mackey said at the other day, he said, well, he's anybody outside of that will look at what we do. And would say, that's not really a foundation program. So twice, there's been studies done. They've all reached the same conclusion, but nobody's ever acted on it. And now we're just at least in the middle, just to see if we need to move forward, but some changes. Well, this is my last question. We're wrapping up on this. Assuming this is, I guess, maybe a little bit theoretical, but our hypothetical. If you weren't able to find the formula that suited everybody and you got it through, and you're providing more resources for ESL special needs or whatever is that y'all determine, how do you tell the local systems that this is what you need to use this money for? Are you you? I mean, can't, as the legislature able to do that, or does it fall under the like a local control issue or the state school board, like, how do you say that you have to use this money for this need? One of my ground rules has to do with transparency and accountability. And so you would be looking for those outcomes. So if a system, you know, we've scored a system assuming that it's got, you know, a high ESL situation, we would expect that system will have money out the discretion of how they utilize their money, but we will certainly be from the legislative sample. The State Department will be monitoring this and the legislature as well, because we're wanting to see outcomes. So I don't know if that answers your question or not, but I mean, you know, we would score that system and we would expect those funds to be utilized to improve that situation, address that situation. And that's key to one of our ground rules was was the transparency and the outcomes, because if locals have more flexibility, we certainly want them to improve outcomes. That's the whole point of this. Well, I guess it'd be this, like, say, all of a sudden, one benefits from the formula changing, and the system gets a bunch of money, but they decide we're going to build a new football stadium, or whatever. I mean, how do you keep that happening? We specifically talked about that, that as you do, these funds would not be available for that. There's a lot of confusion anyway around the state about, you know, what education money is used for. There's a lot of those capital pro programs you're talking about are using or coming from bond issues or from supplemental monies or different type of things. This would not be, these funds we're talking about, these foundation protocol funds, would not be available for things like that. And we've had that discussion as part of our ground rules as well, but they're really not currently and they would not be going forward. This is all about the academic center. In fact, Senator Orack's the ask that question you just asked to make the point to let people understand that, you know, that's not what we want to do. Chairman, we got to leave it there. Thanks for hopping on this morning and talking to us about this. Sure. Well, thank you for your questions and anytime. Tell me that. All right. Hey, stay representative Danny Garrett there from Trustville, Education Trust Fund Committee Chairman. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff Porte Show on FM Talk 106 5. Oh, yeah. I've thrown away the blues. We're caught in a trap. I can't walk out. Because I love you too much baby. Welcome back to the Jeff Porte Show on FM Talk 106 5. They just sticking around and what's led to this Monday morning. Come up tomorrow. Paul DeMarco and Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wall and one other guest to be named later. Matt, I'm with you, Jess. I think this is that up here. They are not going to take any money or factor districts own revenue for their district. How are you going to change up the forward? Somebody has to be a loser. Somebody has to win or is all I'd say, but I there was something kind of reassuring when he said that we're going to like make sure that systems don't lose money that they're already getting X amount of dollars. They're not going to lose money, but there will be loses. I mean, maybe the increase for the Madison City School System is going to be less than the increase that significant increase it would be for the I don't know, it's going to be a county school system. So that's the rub there. But to hear that we're not going to penalize like you're doing really well. You don't need as much. So we're going to take from you and give to these people who need a little more is always kind of a concern when the state starts looking into these things just knowing how the education bureaucracy works at Alabama. How about another extra cent to government schools until they get test about not add another or another city government schools. So they get their test scores up to a comparable ranking with the level we fund per people actually. I don't know that that will fly. Anyway, code up here. Certainly mid-day mobile shot. What you got for them? Hey, Jeff, I was thinking about the conversation earlier about those students coming in. The English is the second language. You know, my relatives, my ancestors moved here and you know, they learned English. Oh, they were Irish. Okay. Um, they took it on. I see what you did there. Yeah, my people learned it. Well, yeah, they kind of, I mean, they spoke Gaelic too probably, but yeah, we're good with the English. Yeah. So yeah, coming up in a couple of minutes, we'll take that on. Also, price gouging, right? That's what Canada Harris is talking about, a price limiting. I've got a story from right here at home where maybe I need the help of the Harris campaign. We'll talk about that. Speaking of local politics and what goes on with the DNC, Shamari figure is going to speak to the DNC. We'll talk about that. Baseball at the little league level and Ukraine's push at a global level. That a whole lot more on mid-day mobile. Shamari figures in the DNC. Yep. They're bad big on him. Why don't you lose it? I would have gone, I don't know. I would have put him out there. Day four? Yeah, they got him on day four. So. How about that? All right. Well, y'all stay tuned for mid-day mobile. I got to get out of here. I will try to do better tomorrow. Sorry, Phyllis. Forgot to say goodbye. This has been the Jet Pour Show on Earth and Talk 10065.