You go this summer your favorite radio station the music you love and the best your phone today. Mike Porcaro. 4-0-6, make it 4-0-7, right on the nose, 5-2-2-0-6-50, it is 53 in Eckerd, 54 in Palmer and... Soldotna, 48 in Homer and McCarthy, 58 in Fairbanks, 30 in Prudhoe Bay, 62 in Seattle, New York is 53. Akaroa, New Zealand, 56. Pensacola, Florida, 83. Tampa, 86.
Tifton, Georgia, 85, Lake Havasu, 101, and London, 51. So those are some temperatures around the areas that listen to this radio show. And with me today is Daryl. Crash is celebrating the graduation of his daughter from the eighth grade. Yep, that's where the cost of everything starts to go up. That's right, presents go up in value from here on out, Crash. That's right, she wants a car. That's exactly what I was picturing.
A little young to drive it, but she wants it anyway. She wants it, so she's got it ready, you know. Yeah, she'll be ready. All right, we've got a couple things to do today. I had some sound bites that we didn't get to yesterday. I want to get to them today, first thing. First sound bite is from The View.
And the ladies of the view, and I use the term ladies in quotes, they don't seem to quite understand that They've got a problem with Joe Biden or Joe Biden has a problem and Rather than address the problem rather than take it head-on They stay would love to deflect and that's what they do and that's what happens when you have no answers, when you have no plan, when you have nothing.
They, rather than them talking about Joe Biden, they say, well, Trump's a terrible guy. We're not talking about Trump. Trump isn't hiding his dementia. He doesn't have it. Trump isn't hiding cancer. God forbid. He doesn't have it. The problem is Biden, not Trump. And so by deflecting, you can make yourself look just that much Guess a strange from reality So this is a cut From the view. Roll it. It's important to know now.
It just seems to me, you know, we got a lot of stuff to be concerned about at the moment. These are Trump's atrocities. I'm going to list them for you. Cutting Medicaid. Yeah. Well, this is what we're concerned about now. Oh, I gotcha. Okay. Cutting Medicaid, slashing funding for cancer research. Yep. Rising prices because of tariffs. dismantling USAID which helped Children and people who are poor around the world. Yeah.
Fears of recession, destroying due process. When is Jake Tapper gonna write a book? about the cognitive decline of the person who is in crime right now. I saw him the other day. And all he's doing is hawking his book on the CNN. And he's flanked by other people. Brian Seltzer and Van Jones also hawking his book. When did... Did CNN become a place to hawk your book? What's it coming out with a cookbook? If you're telling me that hundreds of people knew that he was...
Not able to do his job then where the hell was it? This is the thing now Jake is my former colleague. I know him well. He's a friend. He's a terrific journalist He said that 99% of what is reported in the book was discovered after the election. So I think we can put that part to bed about journalists. holding on information so that they could make money off their books.
What I do think that we should be very, very concerned about are the people that were in the Trump administration that did hold on to information about how Trump was conducting the presidency.
There you go. Deflection. Rather than coming clean. You know where they were? They were in the administration. That's where the people were. Whoopee. They were in the administration. And you can't tell me that journalists... who followed this guy every single day or in the lighthouse, didn't notice anything.
And Tapper finally is coming clean. And the reason why he's coming clean is because there's nothing else he can do. If he wants to sell a book, he's going to have to come clean. That's part of it. So he'll do that to sell the book. He figures, well, what the heck, my career as a journalist is pretty much finished. I might as well make some money as an author and go on. And that's the problem. Now, from Joy Behar's own mouth,
comes the statement that Trump is going to kill Medicare and Medicaid. He's going to kill it. He's going to be dead. This is what we're worried about. This is an atrocity. So I want to play for you what Trump said about Medicare. Go ahead. Abuse. Other than that, we're leaving it. Medicare, we're leaving it. All we're after, this is for the good of it, there's a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse. That's all we're doing. We're not touching it. The Democrats are going to destroy it.
Okay, so he's not touching Medicare He's not touching Medicaid what he wants to do is go in and take care of the waste fraud and abuse Now, I guess if you're for waste, fraud, and abuse, you don't want them to do anything. But why should people use the system and steal from it and take from people who could use the system to help? That's what's going on. It's a narrative that doesn't fit. Because once again, the people on The View, they continually show their ignorance.
I mean, it's not even funny anymore. Really, they're clueless. They have no idea what's going on. None. All right, 413. Well, Mike, just one quick thing before you jump away from the view. Yeah. So they just did this just like... Two days ago, I believe, or yesterday, wasn't it? Yesterday, yesterday. Three to four days ago, they had on The View Joe Biden himself and Jill Biden because Jill wouldn't let Joe show up there without her.
They interviewed or talked with Joe Biden on The View and every time he started to answer a question and he'd start his blah, blah, blah, blah, Jill would jump in and finish the question. Those five ladies sitting at that table had it directly in their face. And look what they're saying just right afterwards. Yeah, well, and I mean, that's the thing about These folks, they're not part of reality. They refuse to accept something that doesn't fit their worldview.
You know it's like I'm sorry the facts are the facts You may not like them, but they're the facts And so they would just as soon deflect dance around it or blame somebody else as opposed to facing the fact that their guy Was a problem I mean and I found out today and I this is hard to believe that Joe Biden's last prostate test was in 2014 I'll guarantee they knew that guaranteed that the only reason they would not do a prostate test is because they knew
Well, I mean, that's, you know, and I guess we'll have to talk to Dr. Caseland when he gets back into town. About the protocol and whether a man who's over 70 and this is what I'm hearing men over 70 You don't get don't have to get a prostate exam. Well I can tell you I'm over 70 and I've had a prostate exam every year since I was 50. It's just part of what you do.
And to try to you know maintain your health I mean You know that that's not going to ensure the fact if you're not going to get anything, but it's going to at least Hopefully catch something in an early stage. We do get something yeah And that's just kind of all I know. But I've never heard, and I'm not a doctor obviously, but I've never heard of this idea that men over 70 don't get prostate exams. Everybody that I know that's this age gets them.
My father was in his 90s before he passed recently, and he was getting his prostate exams, and at least the chemical test ones, because like I said, it doesn't have to be the digital one. It's the chemical test one, which is literally a checkbox
on a form and they just run the test in a lab somewhere. And he was in his because we were always discussing his PSAs because he had prostate cancer in the past. You know, so it's always a big thing in our family. Well, you want to make sure you monitor it. Exactly. Anyway, that was a surprise to me. All right, it is 4.16. Let's take a quick break. We will come back.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras, or worse, we will see some peaks of sunshine returning to close out the week with temperatures slowly warming, potentially near 60 degrees as we walk them in the weekend with quieter weather. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist. Report traffic problems to news radio. Good afternoon Mike. Yes. I'm over 70 and I've had a year at least since I was 50 when they found that I had a high PSA count. And so every year they'd take blood work.
and they check and I gotta go in every once in a while and have a colonoscopy and other things done. So for those people out there that say that no one over 70 gets tested, You know, it just depends on your physician and what their talents. You know, they're not going to let you. And I go on base, and my doctor there, you know, every year, sets it up, makes sure that there's nothing new, and we go on. You know, I just don't believe that means.
His last one was 2014 and they didn't find anything Yeah, I mean it's it just is strange. I've never heard of this thing that over 70 you don't get a prostate exam my doc is pretty diligent about all that stuff and he says you know he said you're alive so you're going to get a prostate exam yeah there's a lot of people out there that think you know that
on social media and then say, oh, nobody over 70 gets it. It's like, wait a minute. No, that's not true. No. You do. I do. I know some other people do. So, I mean, it's just, like I say, whatever the physician decides to do, if you see something, then they continue it just to make sure you're healthy. And my last checkup here a week and a half ago, everything was perfect.
Yeah, and then it's done. And if there were something, hopefully it can be caught very soon and you know you can you can take care of it and and when you catch this stuff early especially prostate cancer It's it's you can be very successful in in dealing with it prostate cancer as a rule from what I'm told by my doc, is usually slow growing. Not always, but it's usually slow growing.
At some point, you know, you're going to die with it as opposed to from it. Right. Depending upon your age. You know, and the blood work that has done. Every time you have a physical exam, it should determine if there's any cancer cells in your system. So I just don't understand why the President of the United States with the positions that he has in all Check us to make sure that he's fed.
Nothing was found. Well, exactly. Especially when you hear this stuff that, you know, he was a fit 80-year-old or whatever it was that they said, capable of discharging the duties of the office. That just wasn't so. Mentally he wasn't fit and apparently physically he wasn't either. Now they're all agreeing that he wasn't so. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. Well, you are your day, sir. Thank you, Bill. Appreciate it. Yeah. All right. 522-0650. Yesterday, the...
Legislature decided they were going to well everything They adjourned, which is usually safe for all of us. But they went ahead and they passed this education bill, and they gave us $1,000 because they passed this education bill. We're supposed to get thirty nine hundred dollars, but they pass the education program What's interesting is that a bunch of Republicans in the House and in the Senate went ahead and voted with the Democrats. Which I find to be a little strange.
And I'm just kind of wondering what the Republicans were thinking. You know, what were they thinking? Did they really think that by voting with the Democrats they were going to somehow curry favor with them and they were going to be all buddies? If that's the case, I would like to disabuse them of that because the Democrats are going to try to defeat them in the next election. That's not a prediction, that's a promise. Exactly.
Okay, so that can't be it. Could it be that they liked the package? Well that can't be true either because I keep reading in the press reports that they didn't like the package. So if you didn't like the package and you were trying to curry favor and all that, what did you do? I'll tell you what you did. And a lot of these people are friends, and I like them, but I'm going to just say it. You sold out your constituents. You did.
I don't care about whether you get reelected. That's not my problem. My problem is you were sat down there to do a job to do what your constituents wanted you to do. You were down there to make sure that there was accountability for the money that you're spending. In this particular case, you're not spending it, you're throwing it at a problem. Now, if you can't see the difference between those two things, you shouldn't be there anyway.
Now, I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but it's going to be something. I'm disappointed. I'm not angry. Getting angry doesn't really get you anywhere. You have to look and say, okay, is this where these people are about? Is this where they're going? Fine. Now I'll make a decision whether or not I'm going to help them or whether or not I'm going to support people that are going to be against them.
That's kind of how I live my life. I don't hate anybody. You know, it has nothing to do with that. Nothing personal. But I didn't send you guys down there to do what you did. I don't know if anybody agrees with me. But if you do, I would love to hear from you. Let's go to Chuck. Hi, Chuck. I totally agree with you I think they're a bunch of criminals.
I mean, if you want to look at criminals, they're taking money out of our pockets. They're not doing what we asked them to do, what we voted them to do. And they're just getting by on all the same old crap that, oh, we'll get reelected because it's the same old people who come in and vote on us again. You know, we need to get more people out there. We need to get more people out there to shout out, get the vote out.
Let's get these people out of office. I mean, if you're sitting there and you're not seeing that $1,000 when we should be having like $4,000, come on. You know what I mean? They're reaching in your pocket. Why don't you just open the door and let them come in the fridge and watch your cable. You know? Yeah, drive your car, too. You know, they wanted to go home for the summer, so they signed it with the Dems and hoping that we'll all forget by November or April or whatever, you know?
No. It's ridiculous. It is. All right, Chuck. Appreciate it, man. Thank you. Okay. Have a good night. All right. It is 428. Okay. I'm interested. I want to hear from you. So we're going to open the lines up. So Daryl, you're going to have some fun. Are you happy with what the legislature did? That's one question.
Should the governor line-item veto the funding in the education bill? Now the reason why that's a question is he could do that and if he does that then the money that they were going to spend, that they were celebrating that they already put in there, won't go anywhere until January when they will have to go back and try to override that line item veto. And that's going to be a tougher test than the previous one.
So, and it also then gives the governor, you know, between now and January to work on some of those wayward Republicans to try to get them back into the fold. So this is where we are. So do you want to see the governor veto that appropriation and he can line out of it by reducing it? Or, and, are you happy with what went on? Think about that. Call us when we come back. Stay with us. The Mike Procaro Show with Crash on NewsRadio.
A second moose attack has been reported in Anchorage, this time in University Park. A woman has been sent to the hospital. after she saw a trail with her dog around 1.45 in the afternoon. It's the second time in four days that a moose has attacked a woman with a dog. Another woman and her dog were both evaluated for non-life-threatening injuries after being trampled by a moose in Kincaid Park last Friday.
Officials are reminding pet owners that moose see dogs as a threatened dog. Should always be on a leash. Permanent fund dividend for this year, $1,000, is part of the official state budget, which has now passed in Alaska. And a pair of American F-16 fighter jets.
are parked in a remote Alaska community, St. Paul, which is making an emergency landing coming from South Korea's K-8 Air Force Base, making the emergency landing and parked, according to Alaska's news source. That's the latest. I'm Jack Cronin. What happens next, happens here. News Radio 650 KENI. I ask the question. I really, really, really like Are you happy with what the legislature did? And do you think that the governor should line-item veto the funding of the education bill?
And what do you think should happen to those Republicans who voted with the Democrats to override Don Levy's veto and essentially vote with the Democrats to... Lead the legislature and I guess the other question is where the heck is the Republican Party? What are they doing? MIA, man, they are MIA. How do we fix MIA?
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That they make right here. It's on to Ponderosa. And it's beautifully done. And these guys are absolutely first rate. Call them 907-646-2228. That's 907-646-2228-ABC. Singlish. Okay. So. Asked a question and hopefully somebody will have an answer for me. I've told you what I think And I'm not so sure that people are going to disagree with me on this. And I know what you think, Darrell, which is the session was a disaster. Oh, absolutely. Let's go to John. Hi John. Well, hi Mike.
So, yes, that's correct. The whole session, from what I can tell, was a disaster because we sent a majority of Republicans down to Juneau, and they metamorphosed almost immediately into Democrats. Yes. and specifically the one that I am And frankly, I'm not that surprised because I've never trusted him fully. But I am disappointed that my senator, James Kaufman, voted for Senate Bill 57, the so-called education bill.
So since Senator Kaufman is an acquaintance or perhaps even a friend of yours, Mike, perhaps he can come on your radio show and explain just what the heck he was thinking. Well, I'm happy to have him on. He's a smart guy. You know, I mean, there's no question. He's thoughtful and he's smart. But I think he missed the trolley on this one. No, you see, he's the perfect,
appearance of a conservative politician. If you had a life-size or slightly more than life-size cardboard cutout in full color of a conservative politician, At least superficially attractive cosmetically and broad shoulders and a nice deep voice. calming, reasonable, bass tone of voice. And so he appears to be conservative, but when he gets to Juneau, he votes with the Democrats. Now, I don't know why I should ever vote for him again.
Well I guess what should happen at this point John is people need to then do something about it which is have someone run against them well if there were someone that I could theoretically trust as a conservative, an actual stalwart conservative in my district. then I would vote for them. But for some reason, there doesn't seem to be anyone in the district in which I was under the impression you and I both voted. Yes, I live here.
in Senator Kaufman's district. Why can't we find someone who is an actual conservative that we'll stick to as principles? And, you know, yeah, I don't understand that. You think that wouldn't be so hard? Well, it is Anchorage. I mean, you know.
I hear you and you know, and I think the district is the Senate district that Kauffman represents also has a purple side and I think Shroggy's The house member of one of the pieces of the district so that's kind of purple even though he says he's an independent Every single independent in this state is a Democrat. I mean, it's just that they can't get elected as a Democrat. Well, that's absolutely correct. And, you know, the Valley isn't completely immune from this...
creeping liberalism either. We all thought that Senator Rob Yount was going to be a stalwart conservative, and he voted for Bill 57 as well. Yeah, it was really kind of a strange conglomeration. And it's disappointing. And what I think has to happen, and I don't know... where the Republican Party is on this, but one would think that the Republican Party should be vetting these people.
Well, you can only vet somebody so much. You know, it's not like you run a criminal record check on them and that's going to tell you whether they're prone to obey. laws or not. How do you vet someone's honesty and character? Well, I think we just did. I think we just did for this particular go-around. So now we know what these people are capable of doing. So the question then stands, what are we going to do about it?
And, you know, if we're going to make a change, then we're going to have to have somebody help us get us a candidate. You know, who's out there? We're recruiting. How long are the senatorial terms? Four years. We just elected Kaufman last year. We're stuck with him now. turncoat and at this point he can just plan to retire in you know three and a half more years and go home and play with a baby's mama and uh far as i'm concerned he's done he's had my last vote
If they're going to send Democrats to Juneau, at least we got a D by their name. Heck, why didn't he just change his party affiliation to D? Well, because he wouldn't have gotten elected. None of them would have. Yeah, well that's That's for sure true. Eagle River has that problem, too. They keep re-electing a lot of Democrats and Republicans' clothing out there. No, it's a nationwide problem, but it's particularly observant.
observable here in Alaska. Thanks for your time Mike. I have to go and mix a stiff drink. Okay, well, if I were close by, it's a mix me one too. But have one for me. Okay. Bye. Okay. Alright, 5-2-2-0-6-50. Are you happy with what happened in the session? Should the governor veto, line item veto part of the funding in that education bill? And what about these Democrats, these Republicans that are Democrats? They vote with the Democrats.
They crossed the aisle. In fact, they went against, think about this, they went against a Republican governor. Now, I don't know, again, I haven't talked to Governor Don Levy about any of this stuff, and he doesn't necessarily call me for advice, but if he did, I would say, if you're not concerned about this, you ought to be. Because these people basically gave you and us the finger.
Okay, that's what they did. And the fact that you're a sitting Republican governor and they basically spit on you. That's what they did. You now have an obligation. to make this right. So go and do what is in your power to make this right. And he more than knows what he needs to do. I would veto this legislation. And I would make it really clear to everybody that voted against me what I was going to do in the next session to them. Unless we all came to some sort of meeting of the minds.
We'll be right back. Call Mike and crash now. Be a part of the show on News Radio 650 KENI. We're going to close out the week with temperatures slowly warming, potentially near 60 degrees as we walk them in the weekend with quieter weather. For Alaska's weather source, meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Now, back to... You know, it's really interesting how If a Democrat starts to go across the line... They disperge them and call them all sorts of names. I'm talking about...
Letterman, who, when he got elected, didn't have enough brains to come out of the rain, I don't think. And they said, no, no, he's doing great. But now that he's said good things about Republicans, suddenly he's got some mental problems and we need to get rid of him. Yes, that's that's interesting. Yeah, that's what they do and the Republicans for some reason or other They want to be liked. It's fine to be liked. There's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to be angry with people.
You can work with people. But compromise doesn't mean that I give up everything for you. Compromise means that we put ourselves at the table and we figure out what our common goals are and we figure out how to get there without giving away the farm. That's compromise and the Republicans haven't figured out how to do that.
Well, let me explain how the Democrats and the Republicans come together. What they say is, let's reach across the aisle, and then as we both reach our hands out to reach across the aisle, they step back. Yes, they do. You know, this is the first time we've really had a leader of a party meeting. Trump that actually does what he says he's going to do, and hopefully, all we can do is hope that this is going to trickle down to our politicians themselves. You know, and I don't, you know, I don't...
It's supposed to be a representative government. That means they're supposed to do what we ask them to do versus what they think they should do. And I guarantee you, them spending my money on a failing system and not putting any guidelines at all. I mean, all we have to do is look at Florida. Florida used to have the worst school district experience.
Now they're actually one of the best, or the best, and they're doing it 20% less than the average. And we're one of the highest, and we're one of the worst. With no guidance at all. But we needed more money. And nobody had the courage, the backbone to stand up and say, you know, more money isn't going to solve your problem. You know, accountability, policy. That may solve our problem.
But just throwing more money at it isn't going to solve it. It's not going to be any better next year or the year after that, etc. Unless you begin to change systematically and systemically. At all? Not only that, years ago, when I'm 76 years old, I went to Cucac High. So, I mean, I've been around the horn a little bit. You know, we only had a few administrators.
Now they've got administrators to assist the administrators who have assistance to those administrators. I mean, it's just crazy. We don't need that. We need teachers in the chairs. We don't need administrators saying you need to tell these kids that boys are girls and girls are boys. We need administrators that say a few of them and tell them, teach them the basics. We don't need all this fancy stuff anymore. We need basics because we sure aren't learning. They're not coming out with it.
Appreciate the call. We got a scoop. Thanks very much. All right, it is 4.56. Time for us to... Take a break. Hour number one is in the books. We'll be back with hour number two. Stay with us. Think fast. Now breathe. Here's something to think about from the Alzheimer's Association. New research shows that regular exercise and a reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. at alz.org for more ways to ALZ.org. Thinking ahead today.
difference tomorrow here at the GED pep talk got a range of pep talkers standing by call one eight seven seven three eight your or visit yourged.org and find free classes in your area. Brought to you by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and the Ad Council. Mothers, every day you give your love. This May for Mother's Day. Give yourself a gift. with a screening
53 degrees outside, 54 in Palmer and Soldata, 48 in Homer and McCarthy, Fairbanks 58 in Prudhoe is 30. All right, let's go to Dave Donnelly. Hi, Dave. Hey, hi Mike. Hey, we had a heck of a school board meeting last night.
You know, so much about education, it's little things, right? There's just dozens of little board policies and things that happen from the federal government that make a difference over, you know, because something gets in place and it lasts for 20 years, it can really, really change the results of a system. And back about 20 years ago, in addition to going to 100% National Common Core...
The board at that time also chose to adopt a policy that nobody got held back. Nobody flunked grades in Anchorage. For only 20 years. Why even bother to go to school? Yeah, that's called grade retention, Mike, is what it's called. You know, flunking, right? Well, yeah, I used to know. And so nobody got retained because there was a policy that said nobody should be retained. It doesn't do anybody any good, basically the policy said.
So if you think about it, so you've got a student who can't read by third grade. But, you know, they advance him to fourth grade, and you can't read in fourth grade. And they advance him to fifth grade. So what do you think happens after six more grades? You graduate students that can't read very well and can't do math very well.
So there was no accountability. So maybe there is some legitimate social science thinking that Holding back some children may cause more negative effects on their egos and their emotions. than the positive effects from holding them back. But at the same time, you have to have accountability. If there is no accountability, then you're just not going to have success in the classrooms, right?
Exactly. One of the first things I did when I got elected to the board eight years ago was I championed a change in that policy. And instead of saying, we don't hold kids back, we changed it to the current standard, which is what is in the best interest of the student. If it's in that particular individual student to hold them back, well, then we should. If it's not, well, then we shouldn't.
And to have the parents involved in that decision making. Because I had parents contacting me saying, hey, we wanted to hold our son back. He's obviously not ready to go to the next grade. But they wouldn't let us. So... I thought that was one of the biggest successes we've had in the last eight years that I've been on the board is get rid of that policy, which led to You know, when I first got there, we were having college professors contact us and saying,
hey, something's wrong with the Anchorage School District because your graduates can't do basic level English and math, and I got them here in my classrooms, and they're not capable of doing basic English and math, and you gave them a degree, you know? You graduated. We have to do remedial English and math in college. What is that? It's crazy. Yeah. And in addition to that, if you look at the test scoring going back 20 years,
Over that 20 years, the test scores, the proficiency scores, went down almost 20%. Anchorage was in the 60s back then. And there's 20 years of this woke-ism, this no retention for any reason. test scores dropped 20%. Maybe there's not a causation there, but there certainly is a correlation, right? So what happens? Well, Now we've got a resolution before us. I talked about it last night. It was on the non-action agenda last night. It's called Memo 158. It goes in and changes.
some of the progress we made six, seven years ago, and now the recommendation of the Alaska Association of School Boards, Mike, right, which, you know, how much they care. I could get into the whole description of their structure and how, The students for the rural school districts have 100 times more voting power within the Alaska Association of School Boards than students in Anchorage. That's the ratio, you know. And we pay a lot, you know, the greatest amount of dues, too.
But anyhow, um, So they wanted to change it to say that the school board recognizes that research indicates that very few children benefit from being retained during elementary and middle grades. And so they wanted to add that language in there instead of the current language, which reads the school board recognizes that, especially in lower elementary grades, retention may be necessary to ensure student proficiency.
So they want to change it from a standard that's neutral, just says it may be necessary, to one that says, oh, no, don't hold anybody back, because very children will ever benefit from that. So we're going backwards is what we're doing, right? Last night I said, I think we'd learn from 20 years of failure of this policy, but apparently not because the Alaska Association of School Boards is asking us to change.
Our policy to go back to where we were 20 years ago, and during that period of time, our scores went down so dramatically. Yeah, it's pretty sad. I remember when we had the standardized tests and they were too hard so we got rid of them. At least accountability. I was there. I voted for that. And then after I was out of the Senate, they repealed it. Why? Why? We were graduating. We were letting kids graduate. They just didn't have a special certificate that says they met the test.
So the kids were still getting to graduate, but the ones that actually were proficient got a special note on their graduation that they were, on their certificates, their diplomas. And I thought that was a huge mistake on doing that too. Because once again, now you've got no accountability.
Yeah, exactly right. And I know you're speaking specifically for yourself and not for the school board. Absolutely. And I'm very grateful for you reminding me of that because I am only speaking for myself and not for the Anchorage School District or the Anchorage School Board. Goodness, no. Yes. I wish you were. You know, Mike, in the big picture of this, this is just one sentence, right? In a bunch of policies, there's thousands and thousands of sentences in here.
But this stuff means stuff. Every one of these little things means something. And I'm just astounded that we're even considering going back to what failed. Yeah, I know. Now, let me just ask a hypothetical here. And hypotheticals are always great. You're being a good attorney. You know about hypotheticals. Let's say hypothetically the governor vetoes some of that money from the education bill which then puts it back to where we are now.
The unless the legislature goes into session to override that if they could we're basically then where we are, and that money doesn't get spent until maybe January, if they can override it. Is that about right, the way that works? Well, it depends. It depends on whether he uses a reduction or a total veto because the Alaska governor has the most powerful veto pen of any governor in the nation. Right. I'm thinking he would reduce it.
I'm not going to speculate on that. I don't want to be on record advising him on what to do at this time. I do recognize our schools need more funding. But I also wish that we could make some reforms, systemic reforms. A perfect example of that, as I've said to the board many times, Well, why do we have this mandatory national common core policy? Why don't we just go with the Alaska standards? The Alaska legislature and the Department of Education have standards. Let's just use those.
Well, the only argument I've heard against that is, well, they're very similar to Common Core. Common Core is very similar to the Alaska Standards. Well, then why not do it? Why not just, you know, even if it's symbolic, it would be something you could offer to the more conservative members of the legislature saying, look, we hear you. Here's something we're going to do. No, no other takers on that. Well, you are You're going to be going and running for the assembly, correct?
I have filed a letter of intent to run for Anchorage Assembly District 4. Alright, we're not is there anybody that can that can take your place on the school board anybody was common sense? Yes, we've had some wonderful candidates in the past. Yes, we can get elected. They generally felt victimized to other quasi-conservatives that wouldn't get out of the race and divided the vote. And that was too bad because we had some excellent, excellent candidates for the school board.
Well, let's hope we can do that, and I wish you nothing but the best on your assembly run, because I think you can provide some real adult leadership. which is sorely lacking in that assembly. I'm excited about diving into the municipal budget, as I've learned. These budgets are very complex. It takes years to get any kind of beginning degree of mastery over them. But, um, I...
I just want to continue to, you know, the British are coming, you know what I mean? I mean, be the person that warrants. Here's an innocent little sentence here that could really have a dramatic impact about students' ability to success. The schools, the states that have succeeded greatly in advancing their reading ability of their students,
You know what they have in common? They have mandatory retention in the third grades if the kids can't read up to standards. They have mandatory retention. The Alaska Reads Act doesn't have that. So we don't even have, you know, those are the states that are succeeding dramatically. So to say that
Holding kids back is going to help very few children. I just don't think it makes sense No, it doesn't it really doesn't Dave I appreciate you of course and keep up the good work and We're here if you need us Thank you, Mike. Thank you for everything you do. You take care. All right, 518. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. Call Mike. Call Crash. 650. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Wednesday evening. Steady and heavy traffic now all around the Anchorage Bowl.
Hi Frank! Frank was there just a minute ago. I know I heard him just a minute ago. Okay, well. Hello, are you there, Mike? Yeah, I'm here. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. It's been a while. I was listening to you talking with Dave Donnelly. Yes? We might have a bad connection. He might be breaking in and out here. Hmm. Looks like he just disconnected. We'll see if he can get a better connection with him, Mike.
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907-953-3099. That's 907-953-3099. Seward Fishing Club. These guys know exactly what they're doing. All right, it is 527. We're going to take a break and catch up on some spots. We'll be back, so stay with us. 41 people have been arrested in the Matsuburo during a two-day operation led by the Alaska State Troopers, who found 81 potentially fatal doses of fentanyl, along with meth, heroin, and other drugs, as well as $25,000 in cash.
The arrests of the 41 people come for drug dealing, weapons, child pornography, and evading arrests. Several were arrested on other outstanding arrest warrants, with 41 arrests made overall. Two F-16s in the US had to make an emergency landing in St. Paul, coming from South Korea.
making emergency landing and being forced to park in the remote Alaskan community. Officials are reminding people that moose see dogs as a threat. For the second time in four days, a woman walking a dog has been trampled by a moose in Anchorage. University Park and Kincaid Park have been the sites of the two incidents, and we have the latest woman sent to the hospital. That's the latest. I'm Jack Cronin. News Radio 6.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Wednesday evening. Steady and heavy traffic now all around the Anchorage Bowl. And joining us now is Representative Julie Cologne. And Julie, welcome to the program. How are you? Hey, Mike. Can you hear me okay? I can hear you fine. Great. Well, I thought I should maybe call in since...
I'm a hot topic right now. Yeah, I would say, I don't know if you heard what I said, but I'll say it to you directly. I like you. I think you're a fine person. I think you're smart. I think you're tough And that's why I'm going to tell you straight out. I'm disappointed as hell in you and Kaufman, you went against a Republican governor. That is a mortal sin in politics as far as I'm concerned. You need to worry about people like me and people that put you in office.
Not the Democrats. Now, I mean, you know, I'll give you all the time you want to talk and explain it. If you want to do that, that's okay. But I just wanted to tell you so that there's no misunderstanding how I feel. It doesn't mean I don't like you. It doesn't mean I don't want to be your friend. But what it means is I'm terribly disappointed in the actions that you guys took. I mean, I understand. I did not take this lightly at all.
But if you look at how many Republicans voted to override, it's a sign that something is off. I've sustained two vetoes so far for the governor last year and this year. It was funding with no policy. The last veto we sustained was just about a month ago. It was just big money and no policy. And so I think where the difference is, is the policy piece of it, because
Even when we passed the original bill, I had talked to you about it, and there was a lot of discussions about why people were voting for it. And it just really, I guess, just a disagreement on whether those policies... good or not. And many of us thought the policies in the bill would You can't say there was no policy. There are policies there. And actually, two of them came from the governor. Three of them. And so there was working around the aisle.
I don't care if Democrats like me. This is not what it's about. I'm not funded by the NEA. Actually, the unions are very, very mad at me right now for another bill I have. So in my perspective, it's not kowtowing to Democrats. When I'm looking as a minority member, so my power is limited.
is that could we get some of the policies that could move the needle? And some people thought the policies could do that, and some people thought they wouldn't do that. And obviously the governor didn't feel like... They were strong enough, and he did what he did. But, I mean, I've backed a gov a lot on some stuff that I really, it was hard for me. Like, last two years with the carbon bill that he wanted, I backed him up on that. I wasn't comfortable.
There's many, many things that I've done to support our governor, and I've tried to work with him on this, and there's been, you know, this is a very contentious issue. and everybody has different perspectives. But I think, like I said, you know, when I originally passed, the bill was that the cell phone policy and the class cap sizes and we know for sure will improve learning outcomes but they you know maybe not everybody agrees with me
I think that, you know, there's proof that that's going to help. It also has, you know, his charter school language in it, the governor's. Not all of it. parts of it. And I think there's just maybe some disagreement on what's in there. That maybe is not enough. I mean, one thing that a lot of people don't talk about is there's an increase in the factor for Votex.
and there's, you know, career technical education is super important. So I felt like it was strong to push it forward. Not everybody agrees with me, and I'm, you know, I don't... I don't like disappointing you and other people. But at some point, there's got to be times where I have to make what I feel like is a good decision because I felt like the policies were... We're strong. And especially for us, Republicans have been in the minority.
And so this is way more policy than we had in SB 140 last year, which is why I sustained the veto last year. But I'm not interested in being friends with the Democrats, and I'm not interested... and making the governor mad. Like, that is not something...
you know, taken lightly, but I felt like these were strong enough to take a stand on making a difference. So that's, you know, not everybody's going to agree with me, but I wanted to at least come on and explain, you know, where I was coming from. And I'm not afraid to talk to people about it. I'm going to be leaving Juneau tomorrow.
Hopefully have some coffees and some time where people can, you know, talk with me. But there's been a lot. There's been a lot going on, you know, the last, this is my third year. where I haven't really, you know, maybe agreed with the governor and the spending he's doing, and, you know, I've tried to push that budget down. And what happened this year, because, in my opinion, a lot of it was because of the additional money to education, it put downward pressure on the budget. So our budget is...
5.4% down from last year. And those cuts were made from department operations, which is what I've been trying to do for the last two years. I couldn't get anything done.
And so because they had to make room, they cut where I felt like we could cut. There was a lot of fat cut in the budget, and I voted for the budget. Not everybody did that, but... we want to get more lean and mean with our departments, well, I guess this is what's happening now, so So I'm not out celebrating or thinking this is a big win, but I have to You know, I believed in the policies and the bill. At some point I had to, you know, stand on that. So that's where my...
my thinking, my perspective is coming from. Okay. Well, I appreciate the fact that you came on and you told us what you think. I disagree with you, but that's okay. People of good will can disagree with each other. I'm having troubles with the amount of Republicans going over and essentially Doing what they did and I'm surprised at the leadership quite frankly But I think Julie there's going to be some changes and
That's all I can say. I think there's a lot of people that I'm hearing from that are not happy. And maybe we can all work this out. I would hope so. But right now, you know, maybe this is, it's too raw to try to come up with something. So I'm just being honest with you. I know you. And as I say, I like you. And I just want to tell you, you know, straight from my heart to you, what I think. And I appreciate what you told me.
Yeah, that's why I call Mike, because you've always been straight with me. And there's going to be times where we just don't agree. But I would say... With the people that voted to override, that's a lot of conservatives that believed in the policies of the bill. I'm not chummy with them. Don't care about the NEA. Don't get money from the NEA. But that wasn't, for me, that's not. what i was about but um like i said i'll be in district uh tomorrow night is when i fly in so
Yeah, let's have conversations. I understand people are angry, and I totally get it. So just keep talking through it and go from there. All right. Well, Julie... I wish you a good summer and have a good trip home. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Mike. All right. You bet. Julie Cologne, representative from this district. 541-522-0650. Is Frank still on the line? Frank is still on the line. Frank, go ahead. All right, Frank was there. Frank, are you still listening?
Oh, we might have had that problem with this phone again. Oh, there he is. Yes. That was worth the wait, Mike, to have Julie call in right after Dave Donnelly. All right. Dave has been a hero on the education front. And Julia is symptomatic of one of the problems we have. This is not just an Alaskan problem. It's a national problem. We nationally rate 40th out of the top 40 countries in the world on education performance. Alaska rates 49th out of the 50 states.
This is a crisis, and we have people trying to tinker, and they've mentioned that tinkering can make a big difference over time, but we've got a crisis. graduating kids out of school that can't speak, can't write, and can't do basic math is a criminal. It's a crime against our children. Starting early and this gradual decline or not so gradual decline is a direct result of the end business.
They're willing to tinker. They're willing to get between the children and the parents. But they fail at their basic mission, which is teaching ABCs. That's fundamental. No matter politics or anything else, if we can't read and if we can't write and if we can't communicate, we are crippled for our whole life. The rationale that Julie gave simply doesn't hold up in terms of the criticality of what's happening. We've got teachers now that get between parents and their kids on things like that.
Gender identity, for God's sakes. That's incredible, and it's criminal. And we have to do something really dramatic. We need somebody to go into these people and say, you're out of your lane, you're fired. It's got to start at the top. It's a national problem, but we reflect that, and unfortunately, we're the worst example. Well, we we certainly have not improved And my point is, I look at it as a business case.
Why would I continue to spend money and spend more money on something that continues to fail? You wouldn't. You wouldn't. Of course you wouldn't. But we do. That's the problem. We do, and it's because politically power resides in these coalitions, and the NEA is basically a leftist organization. It's run by an avowed Marxist. and it has no interest per se in the outcomes of education. Art would be doing a better job.
If you're doing a lousy job, they need to be fired. If the union's a problem, we need to get rid of it completely. I know a lot of teachers, and I like them, and there are a lot of good teachers out there, but the end result we're getting out of our schools here in Anchorage, Alaska, are pathetic. They weren't always that way. When I graduated from East in 1963, we were highly rated nationally. When my kids graduated from Diamond in the 70s,
90s, we were highly rated. We're at the bottom of the heap now. That's not an accident. It's a direct result of the people that are running the show. I agree. Frank, I appreciate your waiting and I appreciate your comments. Thanks so much. One last comment. David Donnelly is one of the heroes of education in Alaska, and we need to elect people like him to office because they have the courage to stand up for the right thing, and they wouldn't knuckle under.
to the left, as we just saw with Julie and others. Julie's a wonderful woman. I have no doubt about that. But she got sucked in, and too many of us do. All right. Thanks, Frank. Appreciate it. All right, 545. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. The Mike Porcaro Show with Crash on NewsRadio. K-E-N-I. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on
in McCarthy, which is at the very center of Wrangles and Elias National Park. And of course, the sister city of McCarthy is Kennecott, which is only four and a half miles away. This is just an incredible part of Alaska. It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth. In fact, it is the largest protected wilderness on planet Earth. And you can stay at Ma Johnson's in the center of everything.
And it is a restored boarding house each room is unique and It includes period pieces from the town's heyday over a hundred years ago. but it's updated with 21st Century Creature Comforts. If you're hungry, well... They've got fun and creative meals and exquisite wine pairings at the Salmon and Bear Restaurant. They win Wine Spectator Awards pretty much every year. They have since 2020. The Golden Saloon is where the locals hang out. It's the only saloon in the national park.
It's got great food great entertainment Thursdays open like night Lots of visiting talent Friday and Saturdays are all out parties with live bands and late-night dancing But if you want more well, they've got glacier hikes on root glacier You will see the tallest wall of ice in North America. It's a two-mile-high stairway ice fall. They have flight seeing. They have rafting. They have backpacking. They have nature walks.
You name it, it's there, and it's all waiting for you at Ma Johnson. So here's what I want you to do. Give them a call 907-554-4402. That's 907-554-4402. That's Maude Johnson. And you will find that this is going to be one of the most fun things you've ever done and if you want to Be a big shot with your family and friends if they're coming up this summer Book some time there and take them out. You will be the hero. Ma Johnson's. All right. Let's go to Rusty. Hi, Rusty.
Hey, boss. How are you doing tonight? I'm good, thank you. Just check in on the subject of teachers and learning. I'm a product of the American public school system. I'm 63 now. And I remember in high school, I had teachers that would fill the chalkboard. with information during the class. As she would speak, she would write and fill the entire chalkboard and then say, okay, there's a test on Friday.
I would come in Friday and fail the test, obviously. And then I mean, one high school kid wants to... cram for a bunch of information. I would fail the task. And then lo and behold, Monday morning, she would start off on the talk board with brand new information and fill it. She'd fill it two and three times, erase it, fill it two and three times. Okay, there's a test on Friday. This went on for months. And so...
You don't retain anything. It's a complete waste of time. And so I've got lots of issues as an adult. I can't spell very well. I probably can read at about a 9th or 10th grade level. Anyway, my point is I'm a private student music teacher, and I've been teaching for years. And I can't tell you how many times I go into a brand-new student, and I ask them, how long have you been taking lessons with so-and-so or whatever? They say, oh, two or three years.
I had one student say six years. They were with one student, one private teacher. And in the end of that six years, I would come in and teach them for two weeks. And they would say, my Lord, I know more from you in two weeks than I did in five and six years. And they'd be shocked, stunned, and even angry that they spent that kind of money on private lessons. So my point is, I have a teacher.
When you teach a student X, Y, and Z, and then six months later, they cannot answer X, Y, and Z. You don't move on to H, I, J, and K. You stay on the subjects and you teach them. I have students. that I have to teach the same information 10 straight times. and then I have to test them on it. And after 10, even 12 times, finally, they totally get it. I teach full music theory, the full shebang of how to write song music, play lead solos, everything. Everything you can imagine. I teach it all.
And I get the same response across, or it's 100%. I get the same response from people. They're shocked. that they've wasted their time with people who don't know how to teach. And so the problem with our public school system is not that we need to send more money towards it. All we have to do is you have to reinforce the information that you've taught so that when they get out of school,
whether graduation or wherever, they don't have to take all the academic classes again to get into college. You have to reinforce the same information over and over and over every grade. as they move up from grades 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, to make sure that they have the basic fundamentals of teaching, how to spell, how to read, how to write, how to put together a paragraph.
I'll do their basic math skills. But what we have in our system is they teach you something and then they move on and don't teach it again for four years. Nobody can retain that information. No, it's practice. That's what it is. It's practice, just like in music. It's practice. You have to continually practice what you've learned.
Exactly. So if you don't reinforce it or go back over that information, it's gone. You lose it. You don't retain it. So we have a whole generation of kids graduating, even those who don't graduate, but even those who do. We're the worst in the nation. I mean, I told your screener guy.
I remember listening to the NBA years ago, and they would say that the Los Angeles Clippers was the armpit of the NBA. They were so horrible. And so when I think of our government... facilities and our administrative governments that teach you know for the whole idea as the Department of Education and what we're teaching our kids.
We're an embarrassment. It's not like we're doing poorly, you know, we need to do better. This is a horrendous embarrassment. And people don't teach the basics. What they do is they move on to new information. And they keep moving on to new information. And if you don't retain what you've learned, then what the hell is the point?
You might as well not even go. Exactly. Rusty, we're just about out of time. I appreciate very much your thoughts. Thanks very much for calling. Yeah, boss. Appreciate it. Thanks. All right. You bet. All right. It is 5.59. There we go. 5.56 in 5 seconds. Time to go! Uh, well, they're all... It'll cause you too much trouble. but not worse than that. Amen. Well, we'll try to be less stressful tomorrow
I have no idea. Crash has been back, so it's anybody's guess. In the meantime, thanks for your help, and we will see everybody tomorrow. There I was in my business suit, all dressed up, just uptight as I could possibly be. And I don't remember much of what was said at that first AA meeting. It was more the feeling of the meeting itself. That's what has kept me going. I know it works, and I see the people ahead of me with more sobriety. I see how happy they are, and I want that. I want that too.
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