How is that not in the headlines all the time? How do most people not know that?

Uh, I, I don't know how this isn't, you know, one of the biggest stories in the country.

Um, and again, the reason why is you got the liberal media bias, of course, and they're in bed with the teachers unions, and so they don't wanna expose and peel back the problem, which is, again, these unions are there to say, "Hey, look, we're here to protect you no matter what.

We're gonna keep your job no matter what." And so they go in, they negotiate these types of agreements with districts.

We caught hundreds of these folks in Oklahoma, where, where once we started to investigate, we go, "Well, why were they at five districts in six years?" And again, the issues are they build out these processes and procedures, makes them incredibly difficult to fire, and so then, and we ended up holding administrators accountable too, saying, "You don't stop an investigation because someone wants to quit.

You need to go figure out did they molest a child? Did they endanger a child?" And that person, number one, doesn't need to be teaching again, number two, should be turned over to law enforcement and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But you just see this hasn't been happening across the country, and again, the liberal media don't want to expose that the biggest child predator ring out there is in the school system being protected by and set up by processes by the teachers unions.

... need people who want to say something, they need somebody on their side.

What is the next big initiative you got planned for your state? 'Cause you're, you're becoming a model for the rest of the country.

You know, and I do.

I think we've laid out a blueprint for the rest of the country, and I think what you've gotta continue to see next is how do you continue to make sure that schools are accountable for test results, for student achievement.

So I think that we've gotta continue to move in that direction of saying, are schools meeting the needs of parents? If they're not, what are the accountability measures in place?

Yeah

... getting more involved in their career opportunities.

But if we don't get those basics down, basic math facts, the science of reading in those early grades, it's such an uphill battle.

So we've seen tremendous success from districts and states that do that, and so it's gotta be a continued push back to the basics in education.

What is the next big initiative you got planned for your state? 'Cause you're, you're becoming a model for the rest of the country.

You know, and I do.

I think we've laid out a blueprint for the rest of the country, and I think what you've gotta continue to see next is how do you continue to make sure that schools are accountable for test results, for student achievement.

So I think that we've gotta continue to move in that direction of saying, are schools meeting the needs of parents? If they're not, what are the accountability measures in place?

Yeah

... as they're getting more involved in their career opportunities.

But if we don't get those basics down, basic math facts, the science of reading in those early grades, it's such an uphill battle.

So we've seen tremendous success from districts and states that do that, and so it's gotta be a continued push.

Right

... of this, the guy that exposed all these child predators.

And so, you know, we wanted to showcase, you know, what's, what's lost in all this, too, is you got a group like the teachers' unions that have literally created laws and regulations inside our public school system to make it difficult to fire someone and investigate someone that is molesting a child.

Th- this is one of those things that is absolutely disgusting, and the public needs to know there's real-life consequences to letting unions run your schools, and one of them is, is we have ch- childhood- children getting victimized by these child predators.

Mm-hmm

... that should have the higher bar and the higher expectations, it is the people that we are literally entrusting with our kids when we're gone, that I'm telling you right now, every protocol for student safety should be in place.

And the, and everybody should feel the, the cold arm of justice from the law.

When they cross those lines, there should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior in our schools.

So anyway, I think just hit on that a little bit, the importance of not giving up on education and not giving up on good teachers out there.

Well, no, you said that really well, Rick.

I mean, you know, when you look at education and you look at, yeah, you know, the left always tries to say, you know, they conservatives, the right, oh, they're against teachers.

It's like, no, we're against absolute nonsense being pushed into the classrooms.

And look, if you're a social justice warrior activist masquerading as a teacher in the teachers union, pushing this anti-American and lies, transgender lies to our kids.

Yeah, we don't want that.

We don't want that nonsense push on our kids.

No, you're giving them an alternative to that.

Are we seeing that or it's just that we have better ways of tracking it?

No, I think you're right.

I think that they're really showing themselves and getting more and more extreme by the day.

And they're, you know, they're starting to hold these speeches more publicly.

You know, I think they were doing, you know, similar calls to action behind the scenes.

But they have just become such a out in the open, you know, tip of the spear for the Democrat Party that, frankly, they're leading a lot of the ideological movements.

craziness of the party you know i mean you look at this and you go kind of you know the democrat party has gone from you know claiming to represent the working class just a couple of decades ago to just all out you know transgender absolute craziness and you're going wow i mean that party has really done two huge steps to the left and you look out and you go well who is probably the most public face Of that craziness from an apparatus standpoint, it's the teachers union.

Ryan Walters would make this like a rallying cry across the country if they really want to still fight this.

How many teachers are now in the Teacher Freedom Alliance?

Yes, we have over 16,000 members now.

So we've continued to see that growth.

All 50 states are represented.

We're now working on growing inside certain states as we begin to see certain school districts that really have a lot of growth going on.

And so organizing those individuals, making sure that they've got the resources they need.

Again, we've seen a lot of folks reaching out, wanting more professional development around classroom management, classroom discipline.

um they do not want to do critical race theory they do not want to do sex education they do not want to do all these things that the teachers unions are advocating for so i'm extremely bullish not just for the teacher freedom alliance the freedom foundation but for the country as a whole moving forward

But not enough, you know, and, you know, speak to some of that, Ryan, because to me, we've really shortchanged our kids on a heck of a party.

No, I completely agree.

And, you know, this was unintentionally.

So, you know, you've seen the teachers unions, these radical left.

organizers at it for years to undermine America by undermining American education.

And it began decades ago when you began to see an absence of talk and study around the founding, around primary source documents.

You got away from reading the Constitution, reading the Federalist Papers.

That to me is really what's going on here.

been alive and remember really well the bicentennial celebrations of nineteen seventy six now we're at two hundred and fifty and so much of what i think has been the letting of the air out of the tire and what should be a more euphoric weekend for america is the fault of the schools you know this better than anyone we are not giving people you know the full picture of what to be proud of in this country i really wish this were a bigger celebration nationwide i'm sure it is in oklahoma But not enough, you know, and, you know, speak to some of that, Ryan, because to me, we've really shortchanged our kids on a heck of a party.

No, I completely agree.

And, you know, this was unintentionally.

So, you know, you've seen the teachers unions, these radical left.

organizers at it for years to undermine America by undermining American education.

And it began decades ago when you began to see an absence of talk and study around the founding, around primary source documents.

You got away from reading the Constitution, reading the Federalist Papers.

That to me is really what's going on here.

And speak to some of that, Ryan, because to me, we've really shortchanged our kids on a heck of a party.

No, I completely agree.

And, you know, this was unintentionally so.

You know, you've seen the teachers unions, these radical left organizers at it for years to undermine America by undermine American education.

And it began decades ago when you began to see an absence of.

of talk and study around the founding, around primary source documents.

You got away from reading the Constitution, reading the Federalist Papers.

That to me is really what's going on here.

Are they? Yeah,

well, they are when you fight to all the union lies about it.

I mean, Lars, you're exactly right.

We've got the Janus decision that says you don't have to join a teacher's union.

But guess what? The teacher's unions go out and tell teachers, well, first of all, you do if you want your benefits, you want your retirement, you want to keep your job.

And we're going, no, literally, that's what the decision says.

You don't have to.

I would think any university would strengthen their offering if they actually said, to teach this, you have to show us you know how to do it.

Yeah.

But, um, once you got into military, you started to pay more attention to it, and you're, you know, seeing, seeing stuff that's happening.

You know, there's other parts of the world where there are flare-up conflicts.

But that was still, still happening, you know, the, the fragmentation of, um, you know, former Yugoslavia into different countries now, today.

Um, and then kinda winding down.

So I joined the Army in 1998 and then was, uh, assigned to Second Ranger Battalion in 1999.

And actually, it was the summer of 2001, I was entering my window to re-enlist, and that's when I was trying to get all the requirements done to go be a warrant officer.

We can, we go over for guys like you, Ryan.

Are they?

Y- yeah.

Well, they are when you fight through all the union lies about it.

I mean, Lars, you're exactly right.

We got the Janus decision that says you don't have to join a teacher's union.

But guess what? The teachers unions go out and tell teachers, "Well, first of all, uh, you do, if you want your benefits, you want your retirement, you wanna keep your job." We're going, "No, literally, that, that's what the decision says.

You don't have to to get those things." Then the other thing the union's done that is...

We'll do certification too." Any way to do that?

It's really something I don't think enough people understand, do they?

No, they don't.

And you see exactly why they don't want our kids to know history.

You know, we fight this all the time.

You fight it in K-12 with the teachers unions that are constantly trying to rewrite American history, tell kids it's a racist, evil country, tell kids that Christianity played no role in American history.

Just read the founding fathers.

It's right there.

We can all read that, and maybe I don't need to spend $200,000, $300,000 on a university education if I can read the books on my own.

I wonder if that could have helped get us different results if we had better education in this country about history and what politics and communism really is.

This has to ring the alarm bell for Americans to understand democracy.

what our education system has become.

And Jake, you and I have talked about this before, but one of the things that has been most concerning for me as a history teacher for 10 years, as the secretary of education over a state, a state superintendent over a state, was how often I heard from kids, young people, and frankly, even adults that think communism and socialism is a new idea to be tried.

And again, as a history teacher, the scariest thing when you study history is that people don't learn from the mistakes, from the lessons history teaches.

When someone runs as a communist and is that open about it, If we had an education system that was functioning at all, most Americans should go, oh, my God, absolutely no way.

There's absolutely no way we want our country to be a communist country.

How can we stop this, Ryan?

ryan my mom was a public school teacher in the shelby county schools in memphis for 40 years yet she put me in private schools now that says something right because even though she loved her school and loved probably the system she i watched her over the years over decades become more weary with the system the system is part of the problem talk to me about why teachers unions problematically are are part of the problem rather than the solution shall we say

That's right.

I mean, there's no more force for evil, bad in our schools.

The teachers union, they have pushed transgenderism.

They have pushed critical race theory.

They're open about it.

They're a money laundering scheme for the Democrat Party.

Well, Ryan, what are the three things, if you could put to three, that parents need to be thinking about right now as they look into what's happening in their classrooms?

He said he doesn't think he's changed since then, so I was trying to figure out, did he just have different rules back then? Like he used to not think it was okay to talk about Bibles in class, but then he changed his mind? Being a Christian and a teacher, how did you manage that in public school? Like, did you have rules for yourself, there are things I can mention and can't mention? You know, I'm not gonna talk about the Bible, I'm not gonna talk about my own faith? Like, what were the lines that you drew as a teacher?

Yeah, great question.

So, I taught history and government, so one of the things I always tried to make sure that the kids knew is, first of all, I didn't ever, you know...

With my kids, it was always an ongoing debate of, "What is he? What is his political beliefs?" And I would always tell them, "I'm not gonna talk about mine, uh, here in school.

I'm not gonna talk about those things.

I'm gonna tell you this is what some folks believe, here's what other folks believe, here's the sources.

Sort through it and figure it out for yourself." Now, look, hey, we had a Bible in the classroom.

Why did you decide to add that?

You're showing the facts and you're letting them figure it out.

Yeah, no, the standard says that kids will take a look at the standards, look at the election, go through the facts, go through the charts, look at the votes, look at the bellwether counties, look through all this information, and they'll come to their own conclusions.

But yeah, students need to know there were millions more mail-in ballots.

There were concerns around voter integrity.

That's why over two dozen states passed voter integrity laws.

But again, we don't draw that conclusion for them.

We say, these are the facts around the election.

Are you bringing the Word? Are you bringing God? Are you bringing Jesus back to the classroom in Oklahoma, Ryan?

... has to be someone else.

Come on now.

The teachers union, the ACLU, they've been behind all these lawsuits against us.

But listen, we stand by the facts.

We're gonna put facts forward and let kids decide.

Listen, I know the left-wing media often spins a narrative and just forces it on folks, and facts bother them, facts bother teachers unions, but what we're saying is, listen, kids study this, look at this.

We want you to understand the elections, we want you to understand American history.

Why, again, would you want them to focus on debunked conspiracy theories around an election? How is that worth your teachers', your educators', your families' time?

So why was this so controversial and why did this take so long?

Well, first of all, yes, Steve, we, we so appreciate your help on that.

You know, we, we came in and said, "Listen, we are gonna teach American history.

We're gonna teach the Bible's influence in American history." We had over three dozen references of the Bible and its role in American history, very specific.

Our kids are gonna know the role the Bible played throughout American history, th- what our founders believed ab- about Christianity.

That was so important, obviously.

We also dug into topics like COVID, uh, you know, again, Steve's...

Why? Why are you being asked to give them literally anything? Anything? Why would you have to give them anything? Who would, who would look at that math possibly, Ryan, and say, "Well, this is why we have to, you know, allow them to soul murder our children and brainwash them"? I mean, who, who, who does that? And, and, and do they have an IQ lower than Kamala Harris? Maybe a soul? Does that exist?

Welcome, Brian.

Look, Danny, you're spot on here.

You know, the left has gaslit this country and our kids into believing that there can't be any speaking of God or the Bible in school.

And that's ridiculous.

Of course, the Bible played a major historical role throughout American history.

Of course, our kids need to know that.

And what we see now is state-sponsored atheism where you have classrooms that take out references to God from Martin Luther King Jr., from Thomas Jefferson, from George Washington.

I would assume you're getting lots of pushback in your state and maybe from both sides of the aisle or are Republicans on your side in Oklahoma?

How does it work? How does the DOE make your life harder or easier? What's it look like?

Yeah, let me give you a few examples.

You know, one of the things that the Biden administration did very quickly was they started sending out memos that all their grants are gonna have DEI in them, so that when you're teaching a kid math or you're talking about how to understand science, you gotta now tell them there's twenty-seven genders.

You gotta be all inclusive, u- use inclusive language, pronouns, all that nonsense.

Then, you know, right when all the conservatives and parents were going, "Hey, this is going off the rails," don't forget that in the middle of last summer, the Biden administer- administration came out and said, "If you don't allow boys in the girls' bathrooms and boys in girls' sports, we're taking every bit of federal funding from you, and we will sue you for using the incorrect pronouns." So us at the federal government will come in, sue teachers, take them out of the classroom for using the wrong gender pronouns.

This is the absolute nonsense that has been pushed by the Federal Department of Education.

Again, while you are a hundred percent right, it is common sense.

[laughs]