The World and Everything in It: October 26, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like you. Hi, I'm Onize Ohikere from Abuja, Nigeria. And I'm Jenny Lind Schmitt from Porrentruy, Switzerland. I'm Amy Lewis from Geelong, Australia. We hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! The House of Representatives finally has a new Speaker.

AUDIO: The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down. 

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: One of our Washington Bureau reporters will be along to tell us about what it was like covering the journey to get here.

Also, delays in processing legal immigration claims may force religious workers to leave the country before they can apply for green cards. Plus, a behind the scenes look at producing The World and Everything in It.

AUDIO: Hang on, who wrote this sentence?

And Commentator Cal Thomas says that gender identity initiatives won’t improve failing grades in California schools.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, October 26th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kristen Flavin with today’s news.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Speaker » At the Capitol, the House floor is once again open for business. Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson:

JOHNSON: We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations.

Johnson heard there moments after doing what three prior Republican nominees for speaker were unable to win at least 217 votes on the House floor.

AUDIO: Therefore, the honorable Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana, having received a majority of the votes cast is duly elected speaker of the House of Representatives.

The 51-year-old lawmaker joined the “People’s House” in 2017. He has a reputation as a reliable conservative on social and fiscal issues.

Some GOP members took issue with Johnson’s role in challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. But House Republicans roundly believed they simply could not wait another day to elect a speaker after more than three weeks of gridlock.

Israel - House resolution » The chamber’s first order of business after electing a new speaker was a show of support for Israel.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul introduced a resolution.

MCCAUL: It condemns in the strongest possible terms the atrocities of Hamas and reiterates Israel’s right to defend herself.

He co-authored the resolution with the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs panel, Gregory Meeks.

MEEKS: Eighteen days ago the state of Israel suffered the greatest mass murder [perpetrated] against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

The White House is asking Congress to approve a $105 billion-dollar funding package to primarily pay for aid to Israel and Ukraine. But House Republicans might insist on dealing with those matters separately.

Iran threats hearing, Ayatollah » Hours earlier …

AUDIO: The Committee on Homeland Security will come to order.

Lawmakers in the House convened to discuss potential actions against the state of Iran as allegations swirl that the Iranian regime supported the terrorist group Hamas’s attack on Israel earlier this month.

Republicans have demanded tougher actions against Iran, accusing the Biden administration of weakness on the world state:

Republican Congressman Mark Green:

GREEN: From the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, weak posture towards Russia for the invasion of Ukraine to reckless negotiations with Iran, threatens our homeland security and our national interests.

But Democrats argue the Biden administration has handled the attacks on Israel well:

Congressman Bennie Thompson:

THOMPSON: Since the attacks, President Biden and his administration have shown true leadership, not just words, but action, demonstrating ironclad support for this.

The White House has argued there is no evidence directly linking Iran to Hamas’s attack on Israel.

KHAMENEI: [Speaking Arabic]

But Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei maintains the United States is definitely supporting what he calls crimes committed by Israel.

Guterres v Israel » UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is pushing back against strong criticism for remarks he made about the Israel-Hamas war on Tuesday.

GUTERRES: I am shocked by the misrepresentation by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council as if  I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas.

Guterres did in fact say there was no justification for appalling attacks by Hamas.

But he prefaced that by saying the terror attacks—his words “didn’t happen in a vacuum.” He added that the Palestinian people have been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation” even though Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

He went on to further criticize Israel saying the Hamas attacks “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

Israel has called on Guterres to resign over his remarks.

Maine shooting » At least 22 people are dead and roughly 60 more are wounded in Maine after mass shooting incidents in Lewiston last night.

State police said they were investigating incidents at at least two locations and ordered residents to lock their doors and stay inside.

One woman went to a local hospital where emergency personnel were transporting victims:

RESIDENT: I’ve been here, trying to spread, you know, some kind of comfort, some kind of support. But this is an overwhelming situation.

Police released an image of the suspect on social media at around 9pm local time saying the shooter was still at large. The suspect in the image appeared to be armed with an assault-style rifle

U.S. Pentagon report, China’s response » A new Pentagon report warns that China is building its nuclear arsenal more quickly than expected. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The report states that Beijing is beefing up its nuclear arsenal at an alarming rate along with stockpiling more conventional weapons. And China may be developing a new intercontinental missile system that could more effectively target the United States or other long-range targets.

Beijing angrily denied the reports findings and lashed out at Washington. China’s Defense Ministry criticized the United States for its backing of Israel and Ukraine. And it said the United States is the “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability”

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Australian PM at White House » The United States is relying heavily on Western allies, like Australia, to help counter China’s growing ambitions.

SOUND: [Albanese arrival]

And at the White House on Wednesday …

SOUND: [Anthony Albanese]

… President Biden rolled out the red carpet for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

ALBANESE: The alliance between Australia and the United States and the way that we stand steadfast against aggression is something that can be relied upon.

And at a joint news conference in the Rose Garden, Biden said the U.S. is “doubling down” on its ties with Australia.

BIDEN: An alliance that’s marked by imagination, ingenuity and innovation.

The countries are working together on numerous economic, infrastructure, and defense projects.

Hurricane Otis » Mexican authorities say Hurricane Otis has knocked out all communications in Acapulco after the category five hurricane tore across the country's southern Pacific border early yesterday morning.

The storm has brought massive floods and triggered mudslides. The fatality of which remains unknown.

Local: [Speaking Spanish] We have been stuck here since three in the morning with wind, rain, and landslides that can still be heard. For example, on this side over there, you can hear it, as a loud river.

A local says the rain and landslides have prevented people from leaving describing the landslides as loud as a river.

The storm evolved from a tropical storm into a category-five hurricane over the span of 12 hours on Tuesday, but dissipated by Wednesday night.

The National Hurricane Center continues warning residents of flash flooding and mudslides in mountainous areas.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: A report from the Capitol. Plus, a trip behind the scenes at WORLD Radio. 

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 26th day of October, 2023.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. First up: covering the conclusion of the speaker race.

Earlier this week, the 118th Congress set the record for the third longest period of time out of session while trying to elect a new speaker over 22 days. Now the wait is over and Mike Johnson of Louisiana is wielding the gavel.

MIKE JOHNSON: To my colleagues, I wanna thank you all for the trust that you have instilled in me to lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we're in. The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down.

BROWN: Joining us now to talk about covering the story is our Washington Bureau reporter, Leo Briceno. Good morning, Leo.

LEO BRICENO: Good morning.

BROWN: Alright, fill us in on how you and Carolina Lumetta have been covering this story. I mean, unlike the rest of us, you had the chance to close your computer and go find out in person. What does that look like?

BRICENO: Yeah, it's been a lot of discovering that sometimes we think that Congress has all the answers and that we as reporters have to go out and try to find those answers. Well, it became very apparent in these last few weeks that we didn't have the answers, but neither did they. So it was a little bit of a scramble to figure out where people fell on the various candidates as the struggle for Speaker kind of unfolded. And just following that deliberation process has evolved over that time.

BROWN: I’d imagine you had some memorable encounters with legislators in the hallways…any examples you’d care to share?

BRICENO: Quite a few, I mean, definitely moments of exasperation. On Tuesday evening, a lot of kind of sarcastic comments made about where the process was, a couple, a couple of representatives off the record called it a clown show. A couple, you know, representatives on the record said they were just very sad, very dismayed that it was taking Republicans so long to work through this process. But whether it was a snarky remark in the hallway, or whether that was an on the record statement about what they thought a candidate would or wouldn't be able to do, it was just very apparent that the frustration was leaking out of an otherwise very buttoned up chamber, right? You usually see these very composed politicians who have speaking points, who know exactly what they want to say. And in some instances, you could see that starting to crack just a little bit. That was surprising. That was something that I'm definitely going to take away from from this, this these past few weeks.

BROWN: So you talk about the emotion and the frustration that was sort of leaking out from the lawmakers. What about the press corps? What did you see in terms of behavior and how they express themselves?

BRICENO: Yeah, well, I think it was a little bit of a shared experience. You know, we come from different publications. There's The Washington Post, there's The New York Times, there's, you know, I mean, you name it, and they're there, right? But all of us were kind of bonded together in this marathon of an experience. And there's a lot of camaraderie and a lot of shared help whenever a legislator comes out of that closed door session, right? Because a lot of this is happening behind closed doors, right. But whenever somebody came out, and it'd be a scrum, and we'd ask, you know, what was the tally, what was the vote, and sometimes a legislator would, would help us out and say, These are the people who are for and against. And at other times, they woulx`dn't say anything. But it was really a shared effort by everyone in the hallway to kind of figure out what was going on, and just kind of adding pieces of information together as the day unfolded, but a long experience that I think would have been very difficult for any reporter on our own. But thankfully, we did have a bit of a community there.

BROWN: You’ve been spending a lot of time in the Capitol…of course, you have to eat….and that means you’ve had meals alongside lawmakers and staffers. What’s the “breaking bread” experience been like?

BRICENO: Yeah, it was unexpected. It was irregular. Sometimes you had to find pockets of time where you could get away from the action in order to sneak in a meal. But that wasn't always so obvious, because it's not exactly like these lawmakers had a rigorous schedule they were sticking to and if they did have one, they certainly didn't share it with us. So it was a little bit irregular. Yeah, I think on Capitol Hill, it's always an interesting experience, when you're just going about your everyday work, and you happen to run into somebody who's been on national TV, you know, maybe in that very same room, on the TV in the corner. And so at one point on Monday, I was in a team meeting with the Washington bureau and Representative Nancy Mace came in and sat down two tables away from me, and it's always a little bit of a question as a reporter, do I use this opportunity to interact with them, maybe ask them a question about what's going on or, you know, let them enjoy their lunch? And I think in this case, Representative Mace recognized I had my press badge on it; didn't really look like she wanted to be talked with at the moment. So I just let her enjoy her burger and fries at that time. But yeah, it's small things like that, you know, you that kind of bring you back to where you are and the moment you're in.

BROWN: Leo, was there a particular moment in the runup to Johnson getting elected speaker that everyone just knew this was going to be different from previous votes?

BRICENO: Yeah, I think for me that point came Tuesday evening. The last guy who was nominated before Johnson, Emmer, he didn't have the votes, he didn't have them by 26 votes. So that's the largest opposition any candidate had had to face since McCarthy was ousted. So the conference just knew, this isn't our guy. And yeah, less than an hour later, or I think it was maybe a couple hours later, he dropped out. And so when your nominee drops out just hours after being nominated, that's a bad look, right? But that was different when Johnson came out of the room. And when reports started coming out that not a single person had voted against him in conference that was huge. That was really a turning point. And a lot of the people that we talked to and asked like, hey, what changed? What was the mood like in there? They pointed to that kind of realization that, you know, once some of these other candidates had been removed, it really became apparent the room was behind Johnson in a way that they hadn't been for anyone else. And so that was a massive turning point there on Tuesday evening.

BROWN: Before we started recording, Leo, you mentioned that you're grateful to be in DC reporting on this story. Can you elaborate a bit more on that?

BRICENO: Sure. This is a historic moment for the position of Speaker and for the US House of Representatives. I think on a procedural level, right, this has never happened before. A Speaker has never been removed through a motion to vacate as McCarthy was a little under a month ago. And no speaker has been reimplemented as a result of a motion to vacate - like Johnson has been now. But I think on maybe a more personal note, I'm just really thankful that I got to be here to witness that. And I think part of that, in no small way goes to the listeners into the supporters of WORLD who make it possible for us to have an office here, who make it possible for us to cover the stories that are playing out in our nation's capital. And so for me, it's both the recognition that this is historically politically significant, but also personally, an amazing experience that I'm gonna take with me for the rest of my life.

BROWN: Very good. Yeah. We're thankful for your presence there, and we're thankful for our supporters making it happen. Leo Briceno is our Washington Bureau reporter. Thanks so much, Leo.

BRICENO: Thank you, Myrna.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: an immigration backlog is putting religious workers at risk.

Back in April, the State Department made a procedural change that added years to the wait time for some legal immigrants applying for permanent residence.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Unless Congress intervenes, some religious workers may need to leave the country when their visas expire. This puts churches and ministries who rely on these foreign workers in a difficult position.

BUTLER: Let's start with how green cards work. A green card allows an immigrant to live and work permanently in the United States. The U.S. government currently issues more than a million green cards per year, divided among about 100 categories.

Picture this like checkout lines at a grocery store, only in this case, people are directed to specific lines based on their circumstances.

BROWN: Religious workers are a part of a special employment-based visa category known as EB-4. That category also includes people assisting the U.S. military and children who have been abused or neglected in their home country.

Several years ago, The State Department recategorized children from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico from the EB-4 category into their own line when gang violence forced thousands to flee their homes. But earlier this year, officials moved those 40,000 cases back into the larger EB-4 line.

Immigration attorney Lance Conklin explains the backlog of cases this created:

LANCE CONKLIN: They are children that were abandoned, abused, or neglected, and that just skyrocketed, they entered the United States. And they were eligible for this special green card. And so thousands of applications started to get filed. That's where the backlog started for that EB-4 classification, which impacts religious workers.

BUTLER: And just how bad is this backlog?

CONKLIN: I had probably around 10 to 15 people that were in the last step of the process in March that were eligible on at 11:59 March 31, for green card. And when midnight hit, they were now two, three, four or five years behind. 

BUTLER: And if someone’s visa expires before they reach the front of the line, they’ll have to leave the country for at least a year.

BROWN: This could put churches and ministries in a bind. Matthew Soerens is World Relief’s U.S. director of church mobilization:

MATTHEW SOERENS: Obviously for evangelical churches that are growing in immigrant communities, it's really important to access pastors who have the language and cultural competencies to lead churches that have you know, those unique needs, and many denominations rely upon that program.

BROWN: One of these religious visa holders is Alshandra Visagie. Last year, she and her family moved from South Africa to a tiny town in the Texas panhandle called Cactus Last. She’s the Executive Director of Cactus Nazarene Ministry Center. They provide services to the other immigrants who work in a nearby meatpacking plant.

ALSHANDRA VISAGIE: Ideally my vision for why I'm here is to change a city. To develop a community where there is no community. There is no community when you have 20 to 26 different nationalities living in a town this size.

BROWN: Visagie and her family want to make their ministry permanent with a green card, but if they get lost in the backlog, they’ll have to leave in about three years.

BUTLER: So what could be done to fix this problem? One solution would be for Congress to remove the vulnerable minors’ applications from the EB-4 category. Or they could also extend the visas of religious workers while they wait.

Another angle would be for the Executive branch to shorten the time religious workers must remain outside the country before returning on another visa to continue the green card wait.

BROWN: In the meantime, Visagie isn’t putting her hope in the government’s ability to fix the problem.

VISAGIE: Right now we are seeking the Lord. Like Lord, this is in your hands. You've called us. We believe that if you've called us, you will open those that nobody can shut.

BUTLER: Addie Offereins is WORLD’s Compassion beat reporter, and she wrote and reported this story. You can read her digital report online. We’ve included a link in today’s show notes.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST:  Well, they say actions have consequences, but what about when the punishment far exceeds the crime?

Back in September Connor Cato of Chatham County Georgia was driving 90 in a 55 mile-per-hour-zone when a state trooper pulled him over.

Now, he expected a steep fine when he was issued a super speeder ticket, but not this steep. Audio here from WSAV News 3:

AUDIO: One million four hundred and eighty thousand and thirty-two dollars and fifty-one cents.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Noooo! That’s gotta be a typo.

Nope, no typo. Cato called and was told that he must either pay the fine or come to court on December 21st at 1:30pm.

Now, the WSAV reporter covering this story did some digging. She found out that the software the county uses to issue fines automatically sets a placeholder at the highest amount, but then that number is adjusted once the judge sets the actual fine.

Cato is likely looking at a four-digit number in the ballpark of $1,000 after he goes to court.

BROWN: Either way, I’d think twice about gunning 90 next time.

BUTLER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is October 26th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: behind the scenes at WORLD Radio.

Every week, we say thank you to all the people that make this program possible. But you only hear a fraction of what goes into the reporting and writing and producing of each episode. You hear the finished product. What about all the steps that came before?

WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown is here now to give a peek behind the curtain.

BROWN: Colorado State Patrol officer, Brian Lyons says investigators will—hang on, who wrote this sentence? Josh!

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Do you know how many times we edit ourselves around here? It’s a lot.

BROWN: Uhh, let's say ‘will look into.’ There we go.

It’s not just reporters on the air, either.

WATTERS: I'm Harrison Watters, and I'm the producer of the world and everything in it, which sounds rather blasphemous. But it's the title that I have. Which sounds dumb. I'm not actually gonna say that.

See? Even our producer.

A lot of people have their fingerprints all over each program here at WORLD Radio. That’s why we have so many strategy meetings.

WATTERS: So I've got scripts started for that. I mean, it'd be mainly working on World Tour, but or Washington Wednesday, if anyone wants to work on a kicker.

Usually, these meetings are over Zoom. But for this one we got to be in person, everyone gathered in a conference room in Asheville near WORLD’s headquarters. It’s loud because people from all the other departments like the magazine and marketing are milling around chatting. A lot of us are meeting each other in person for the first time.

BUTLER: So, I’ll make sure there’s two mics over there in Jonathan’s office.

Here at the round plastic table are Mary Reichard and Nick Eicher, Paul Butler and Myrna Brown, Mary Muncy, Kristen Flavin, Benj Eicher…you know, the usual suspects.

As producer, Harrison is usually the one wrangling the cats.

WATTERS: In some ways, I think what I do is a little bit like a square dance caller. Like I'm not necessarily the one dancing, but I'm the one that's helping make sure that everything happens when it needs to.

He helps make sure all the pieces of the program work together. Different editors work on our features, news, and commentary segments, so we have to make sure we’re not overlapping or overlooking coverage.

WATTERS: How do we want to tell all these stories? And when do we want to tell them? Does it make sense to put two education stories next to each other or on different days? What commentary is going to help land the week. What kind of tone do we want to end with versus start with?

Because we’re all in different places all over the world, it means a lot of communication over platforms like Slack, Google Docs, and Dropbox.

WATTERS: Nobody hears the final program, except Johnny and Carl who stay up late, until the day it comes out. So we're all seeing all of this in scripts. And so being able to see…okay, this is how it's going to sound if all of these pieces, some which were written today, some which were written two months ago, are going to all come together in one product.

Breaking news is a whole other puzzle to fit together. Six times a day, the breaking news team puts together the Sift. It goes out on its own feed and on syndicated radio stations across the country.

SCHUMACHER: We basically write two of them the night before, and we write four of them the day of…

Josh Schumacher is on the breaking news team, dashing out scripts every couple of hours. You might think that having so many hard deadlines would mean a reporter has to be very disciplined. Which is true. But more than that, they have to be flexible—able to turn on a dime if the news changes.

SCHUMACHER: We're having to flip so fast between different topics with different kind of rules and different terminology and stuff like that. Eventually, you just kind of like run into this fear that like you're not digging deeply enough to like, actually get things accurate. That's my biggest fear.

There are checks in the system—editors pushing back, asking the writers, “Are you sure 20 states have done that? Are you sure it was a coast guard vessel and not a naval vessel?” But Josh still stresses about it.

SCHUMACHER: It is this kind of a nightmare for me like me, and that neurosis, like, we know each other pretty well.

Sometimes, things still slip through the cracks. Harrison listens to the program with bated breath.

WATTERS: There are mornings where I get up and listen, I'm like, What on earth like, that was the dumbest thing. Like, either we left something in or we said something that was done like this morning, we we forgot to update Travis's title in the program.

The audio techs are the last line of defense. They take all the raw sound…clips from interviews, press conferences, ambient sound, as well as the reporter’s narration, and cut it all together into one seamless product.

SOUND: [Typing and clicking]

BROWN: Ukraine’s parliament…

BENJ: Okay this is going to be crazy long.

Benj Eicher puts together most of the Siftcasts, and he does rough cuts for the program. Those are kind of like audio drafts of each story. So we can hear what the segment will sound like and make final tweaks to sound design or content.

EICHER: Oh wait, that’s all I need from that bite. Woohoo! Okay we are 30 seconds over.

Once we’ve made final changes to the rough cut, Benj sends the files on to Carl Peetz and Johnny Franklin. And if you’re wondering just how late do they stay up to get the program to us early…

FRANKLIN: Actually about about 11:30 or 12 I will start to go and my efficiency becomes very—decreased. Yeah, what used to take half an hour now takes about an hour, hour and a half, because I'm just kind of staring at the screen for a while and then I'll look at finder and say, Okay, what was I actually looking for?

Johnny and Carl put all the pieces of the program together, and then they send it out into the world.

That’s just a sliver of what goes into the making of the program. I didn’t even get into the interviewing/reporting process, editing and voicing, pre-rolls, billboard, kicker. It’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of collaboration. Often with hiccups along the way.

But at the end of the week, I think Harrison speaks for all of us.

WATTERS: Friday morning is such a joy to be able to listen to that program and then hear Myrna or whoever the co host is that day, encouraging us to go to church. It's like that's when my weekend can begin, is on Friday and know I've done I put in a good week's work to be able to get to that point.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown in Asheville, North Carolina.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Commentator Cal Thomas on the decline of educational standards in California.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: The second-largest school district in the country is suffering from academic afflictions of its own making. While test scores at the high school level show a decline in math proficiency of 24 percent and a decline in reading proficiency of 51 percent, is the district making improvement in these subjects a top priority? Apparently not.

Instead, California legislators passed a new law in September creating a pro-LGBTQ task force in the state. The task force is slated to begin its work “implementing supportive policies and initiatives” for LGBTQ students by July 1 of next year. How this will improve the eventual job prospects for graduates, however, no one is saying, because it doesn’t.

Los Angeles schools are increasingly passing students who don’t even meet grade-level standards. This will have important ramifications for their future. As many as 60 percent of students come from low-income families. It’s hard to argue that the imposition of this woke curriculum will improve their lives.

A report in City Journal offers more insight into these problems. It reads, “California now leads the country in illiteracy.” According to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, “just 30 percent of California eighth-graders are proficient in reading.”

Not surprisingly, public school enrollment is in decline. Quoting a poll from UC-Berkely’s Institute of Government Studies, City Journal writes, “just 35 percent of state voters gave public schools in their local district a grade of A or B, down from 55 percent in 2011. Twenty-five percent graded their local public schools a D or F, which was up 15 percentage points from 2011.”

The answer is school choice, but parents who wish to send their children to private schools in California don’t have access to school vouchers or tax credits. According to one website, private schools serve ten percent of K-12 students in the state, which matches the national average. Arguably there would be more if taxpayer money followed students to private schools.

It’s not just the failure to teach reading and an emphasis on non-academic and radical cultural subjects that have contributed to education decline in California and around the country. According to The Heritage Foundation, an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion is also having a negative impact. A Heritage study found “As of August 2023…having a [Chief Diversity Officer or] CDO was associated with much greater learning loss during the pandemic by Black and Hispanic students. School districts with CDOs were significantly more likely to have policies that keep the ‘gender transitioning’ of students secret from parents.”

School choice is spreading throughout the country, in part in reaction to this craziness. Given the left’s dominance in the state, California may be the last place to offer it. That could be a contributing factor to the decision by increasing numbers of parents to leave the state in search of better schools that teach subjects they had to learn during their school days.

In Los Angeles, I’m Cal Thomas.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet is back for Culture Friday, We’ll talk about Hamas, the pope, and the media.

And a bestselling book gets its own TV series. Does Lessons in Chemistry have the formula of a story worth watching?

Plus, your listener feedback. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Apostle Paul writes: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” —Romans chapter 8, verses 18 and 19.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.