City of Joplin, Missouri

You have to do well on those assessments to get a good accreditation score.

And who doesn't want that? Because if you're not a good accredited school, then your property value goes down, okay? Yeah, and what's very interesting about that is that Senator Carter is over in the Joplin area.

The Joplin School District was a Blue Ribbon School District awarded during the Obama administration recognition for being a superior school.

But they got borderline accreditation because they weren't teaching the same ideas that the test was testing.

And that's an example of how the state controls the ideas that are taught in public education.

I'm from a really rural town.

in Southwest Missouri near Joplin.

Anybody familiar with Joplin around the Joplin area? Racine, this is like bonus points.

Anybody know where Racine is? Like less than 100 people, there's a gas station that sells guns and a church and that's it there.

If you blink, you made it through.

I was in Maine for a bit cutting trails, you know, in the Maine Conservation Corps.

And then I was out in Joplin, Missouri, doing tornado recovery.

And It was all very rewarding, but also at some point realized this is not a career path.

I'm just wandering and going from one thing to the next.

Bloober is a junior majoring in physical education at Missouri Southern College.

Makes his home in Joplin, Missouri.

His father, professional baseball player and infielder in the Cleveland Indians chain, never made it to the big club.

Bloober says, The 1-1 pitch.

Well, we ended up going down for a visit two weeks after that, and I just fell in love with SEMO and signed on with them.

I remember, I think I was supposed to went to Joplin to Missouri Southern the week after I committed to SEMO, and I called them and said, hey, I've committed elsewhere, and so that's basically how I went to SEMO or whatever, and at the time, it seemed like it was halfway around the world, but, you know, it's maybe an hour and 15 to an hour and a half away from Festus, Missouri, which it kept me in close proximity to home, and you know, allow my parents to come down and watch me play.

So it just worked out for the best for me.

Did I read that you got homesick as a freshman and wasn't sure you wanted to stay there?

of

crazy, Joplin has been in the news a lot lately.

What's going on in Joplin? I don't know.

You brought it

up.

No, that was in St. Joe.

The casino robbery was in St. Joe.

A Joplin woman has been charged in what they are calling a rural home invasion.

And we're talking everywhere from all the way up north, Kansas City, even up on the border to Iowa.

I've been over to Joplin a couple of times.

I've been to the Boot Hill, St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Branson.

And I'm telling you what, you are absolutely right.