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Amy Demboski. The show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Good morning. It is finally Friday, February 7th. Current time is 6.06 a.m. How's your morning so far, Daryl? Not too bad. I've been getting most of my stuff done in a pretty good...
pace today, so I've been having a good morning. I do want to give a quick reminder to all you gentlemen out there who are up one week to Valentine's Day. Gentlemen, go out and shop this weekend so it doesn't look like you bought it from 7-Eleven. Okay, just a warning there.
Look, I got to be honest with you. Even if it's from 7-Eleven, chocolate is almost good. That is true. That is true. The scary thing is the limited selection because there's so many of us guys who do put it off to the last minute. minute that you get in there and literally you're left with like one kind of crushed chocolate rose. So it's kind of harsh. Everybody loves the Walmart chocolate.
I know I do. I go and buy that for myself and other people. Amen. I thought I was doing really good, so I got a couple early Valentines, right? I had to go back and buy another one. I already ate one of them. I was going to say, that's why I don't even go and bother trying to get those. I only failed in going down that aisle, what, last week was the only time I failed, ended up going down that aisle and ended up buying things, so.
Oh, see, you know, I just, I can't do it. I can't go through them. It's too tempting. Just the smell. Some of it's not even good chocolate, but like I said, chocolate is chocolate. So I just don't discriminate. And I agree with you on that. I tend to find that even if I gravitate towards the fancy chocolate, I still like the cheap. $19 box that has like four candies in it. It's like, oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well, this is what I call it.
portion control you know the little whitman sampler box that has like four pieces in it oh yeah to me to me that's like the perfect size because it keeps you under control because whatever box you put in front of me i'm going to open it and not in one sitting But in very short order, like if I open it in the beginning of the week, it's gone the end of the week. Oh, end of the day. The Whitman sampler is perfect because there's only like four pieces in it.
So you have portion control. You don't get crazy. Now, the sampler is an 8x8 box, right? That one, but they have a little tiny, tiny one that's only like this big. Yeah, no, that's the hand palmer. The sampler's the one. I mean, that's the sampler there, you know. Okay, I've got to be honest with you. If you give me either one, I'm going to eat the whole thing. I mean, that's that.
That's me. That is me. Except for that one weird nougat-y one that you bite into it and it's like, I don't know what it is. I like that one too. I like them all. I have a problem with one in the whole thing, and it always seems like when somebody offers me a box, I managed to find that one.
I don't try. I really don't try. I can identify them. I know what they are before. I just don't think you're applying yourself enough. I don't think you're rising to the challenge. Do you cheat and look at the bottom? I don't even have to. I'm just telling you, I know what they are by looking at them. Okay. I like the Roman nougat one, but there's that other nougat that's just like... They're all delicious. I'm just telling you, I'm a connoisseur. Clearly, I have practiced more than you have.
You're a connoisseur, and you do it finely. I'm a caveman, and I go, mmm, chocolate. In fact, I'm known to put two and three pieces in my mouth at once, so differentiating. I mean, come on. Oh, no. You know, I'm one of those ones that, you know, I may not eat the whole piece of chocolate when I first take my first. Like, I'll take a bite of it, like half of it. And then I put the other half in there and I save it for later. So if you look at a box of chocolates that I eat, there's probably...
Now I know how you've identified them. Now I know how you've identified them. That's like, you're probably one of those people also that when it came to a Tootsie Pop, you actually gave it all the licks to get to the center of it. Whereas I was the owl and said three.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. I got to tell you, I'm also the kind of person who, when I have a book in front of me, like, if it starts getting really good, like, I will go to the end of the book, I will read the last chapter, and then I go back and I read the rest of the book. Okay, that's just that. No, I cannot espouse that. I cannot espouse that. No, no, no, no, no. I do it. I do it. I do it. What can I say? All right, well, let's do a couple of community announcements here.
a lot as i'm looking around right now it is uh it is the temperature is relatively mild right now it's 10 degrees here in palmer we're rocking six and single digits here in anchorage Six in single digits. How are your roads in Anchorage? Actually, surprisingly really good, except for I did accidentally break free at an intersection when I rounded a corner. I was, I don't know, got a little lead-footed there, but caught me a little surprised this morning.
Well, you guys are a little cold over there. It is 12 degrees in Kenai, and it's 10 degrees out here, so it's not too bad. But it says today that the high in Kenai is going to be 24. So warm weather is coming is what you're saying. That's what it looks like. I mean, I don't know, but, you know, I laugh because this morning when I logged in and I was looking at my weather ad, it says cooler temperature is coming, and as I'm looking at it,
The next couple of days, I'm like, are you sure? Are you sure? Remember, is it the guy on the inside or the guy with the outside office that can open the window? That's the important one. Yeah, because it says today's high for Anchorage is 19, Saturday 21, Sunday 25, Monday 29. That officially is getting warmer. I mean, I'm just saying. No, that's what I was like. It's even on their own app. I'm like, how are you saying cooler temperature is coming? It's getting warmer.
warmer. Anyways, what are you going to do? Weather guys are only right like, what, 30% of the time? Not the guy with the outside office with the window. He is right at least 60% of the time. I mean, he does. He sits there, opens the window, sticks his hand out, and it's raining, ladies and gentlemen. It'll be raining, looks like, for another two hours. I mean, I can do that job there.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Well, as we look at public announcements, there are none for the Matthew Borough. The city of Wasilla, I don't see any either. The city of Palmer, none. So we'll just skip on over to.
the Municipality of Anchorage. For today for the Municipality of Anchorage the 7th, there are no Board and Commission announcements, but the Anchorage Assembly is going to be a little busy. Starting at 1110, they have a work session for the confirmation hearing of Bart Rudolph. as the public transportation director at 1150 they have a work session on ao 2024-105s amending amc a that's anchorage municipal code title 21 to reduce costs and burdens of multi
Family Residential Development. That will be at City Hall and Conference Room 155. Then at 1 o'clock today, they are going to have a work session, discussion with Jacqueline Hendricks, Inspector General of the Columbus Civilian Police Review Board. I've got to be honest with you. Some of these times, I can't even. Look, I've never been in law enforcement. I've studied law enforcement a lot. I have a couple different criminal justice degrees.
I think it makes me a better administrator because it gives me concepts and understanding of why police do what they do and how different programs will impact crime. So it has been helpful for me to do that. But when I listen to some of these people talk about policing police, they're idiots. It just irritates me, Daryl. Because what you're dealing with is you're dealing with people who know nothing about law enforcement. They know nothing about the criminal justice system. And, I mean, I...
I just lose my mind. It's just like the people that use the DEI in the hiring and HR departments. They don't actually know anything about what goes on in whatever their operation is. In those departments. Yeah. All they care about is, I got this color. And I almost put money. Now, this is just. I'd almost put money that this person or idea came from the PSL.
That is where, because I know they were pushing for exactly this for a while, and they sent them, I think it was in December or in November, a big... packet that literally laid out everything they had to do and all the people they had to talk to. And I'd almost put money that this was one of them. They just literally opened the packet and said, okay, let's do it. Yeah, I've got to tell you, as I watch some of this, this is what we get. I mean, I've said this before.
Oftentimes in Alaska politics, it's a celebration of mediocrity. They are not people that you would hire in your typical business. There's always standouts. There's always exceptional people that serve. I'm not saying everybody who serves is... you know, less than. But what I am saying is it drives me crazy when politicians who know nothing about the topic and don't
put in the effort to actually learn it. Like, go do ride-alongs. You know, maybe go through the Police Citizens Academy. I mean, actually try to apply yourself and learn something. Oh, it just drives me crazy. Anyways, I digress. Clearly I got on a tangent this morning. That will be today at 1 o'clock if you want to attend. at City Hall Room 155. Also today, there's a work session on the 2026 Capital Improvement Program.
planning, so they're prepping already for next year's capital program. That'll be at 210 in City Hall and Conference Room, 155 again. So that rounds it out for the Anchorage Assembly. If you want to track any of these meetings that are happening, including getting their...
agendas or more information, just go to muni.org, click on the Assembly tab, and you'll be able to find it from there. That really does it for our public announcements today. I didn't see anything down on the Kenai all the way to Homer, so it looks like you guys are clear for today.
If you'd like to call in and be part of the show or if you have a community announcement you'd like to plug, we'd be happy to do that. All you have to do is give us a call, 522-0650. We're going to go ahead and take our first break of the morning. It is Free Forum Friday. So, yes, we have lots of news we can cover, but we also love taking your calls. We'll be right back.
We'll be recording live from New Orleans this week. Make sure to open the iHeart app and search NFL to hear all the action and the biggest game. Just open the free iHeart app and search NFL to start listening now. Reach out to Amy now, 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy DeBoski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back. Current time is 640 on this Friday morning. Well, before I get into the whole USAID thing, I do want to give an update. We have a plane that is missing here in Alaska.
According to the ADN, they just updated this story six minutes ago. Rescue crews searching for overdue bearing airplane with 10 aboard. Searchers are looking for a bearing airplane that was reported missing Thursday on its way from Unalakleet. to Nome with 10 people aboard. That's nine passengers and the pilot. According to the troopers, the Bering Air Cessna Caravan carried nine passengers and a pilot was reported overdue at 4 p.m. on Thursday. Clinton Johnson, the chief NTSB Alaska official,
said that the NTSB was aware of the overdue plane and monitoring the situation. The caravan left Unalakleet at 2.37 p.m. and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson, who is the Director of Operations for Bering Air. Aircraft was 12 miles offshore over Norton Sound, the U.S. Coast Guard said. It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline's description of the plane. The known volunteer fire department.
also confirmed the overdue plane in a statement on Facebook. I do know that yesterday I saw another story where they were saying that a C-130 had arrived in the area and was flying a grid pattern over the water and shoreline in attempts to locate the plane. As of now, I've seen no reports saying the plane has been located or they've seen wreckage. So we will keep you updated.
updated if they if they update this story while we're on the air but right now you know obviously our our prayers are going out to the to the people on board that plane and hopefully hopefully we have a good outcome with this But we will keep you posted. All right, going back to USAID, you know, there's multiple stories out there with Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. I told you. I've got to be honest with you. Like, superstar.
He was fantastic in his confirmation hearings. He's been a great senator. And now you see him on the world stage, and he is masterful. I mean, he's really, really doing well. Not only is he dealing with international issues, one of the stories that I didn't get to before I get to USAID this week, I mean, it is like, I think it's a thing of beauty.
You know, Rubio, there was a Breitbart article out there. Breitbart reported that Marco Rubio revealed El Salvador's president agreed to take U.S. criminals. Oh, I know. I love it. I love this story. Secretary of State Margot Rubio revealed that El Salvador's president has agreed to accept American criminals that are currently being housed in the United States during an event. Rubio revealed President...
The president of El Salvador agreed to accept more people being deported from the U.S. as well as American criminals. Rubio described it as being the most unprecedented, extraordinary... migratory agreement anywhere in the world. He's also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States, even though they're U.S. citizens or illegal residents, Rubio explained. I got to be honest with you, look.
Okay, again, we talked about lawsuits. Lawsuits are going to happen, right? Anytime. Remember when Alaska used to send our prisoners out of state? I mean, there's always lawsuits when it comes to moving prisoners from where they are or whatever. But when they're in federal custody, like, what difference does it make if they're doing their time in Colorado or El Salvador?
Well, I'll tell you what, you don't want to be in the El Salvador prisons. I've seen some shows on those. I got those guys down there. I love it. Oh, man. The chest to back, chest to back, chest to back. It's like. That is some tight packing in there. Do the crime, do the time. I think it's probably a whole different world doing your time in El Salvador than doing your time in the U.S. But, you know, I laugh when I see this because how much of this is pontificating and how much of this is...
Do they really actually intend to send U.S. prisoners, or is it just people that are illegals? that the u.s. is having a hold i don't know what the answer is but i gotta tell you it's fantastic because look I have no problem. I think we treat people very, very well in U.S. prisons compared to other places in the world. And if this is a deterrent factor, I'm all for it. It should be. I know. Prison is there. You're meant to be segregated from the rest of society, and it's a punishment.
And at the end of the day, I think there's a lot of American prisoners that would not be excited about going to El Salvador. They shouldn't be, that's for sure. That would be my guess. That would be my guess. Well, getting back to this USAID. So Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio has purportedly, it's being reported, that he's going to cut the 10,000 USAID employees down to less than 300. There we go. That's a cost savings right there. Yeah, exactly. There's another article up here.
It looks like this one's coming from NBC News. Marco Rubio empowers State Department official Pete Morocco to run USAID. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has empowered a top official at the State Department to run the U.S. agency.
for International Development and begin reviewing all of the work done by the government agency targeted for dismantling by President Donald Trump. Rubio tapped Pete Morocco, the Director of Foreign Aid Assistance at the State Department, to begin reviewing all of the work done by USAID. He also warned that certain projects or programs might be suspended or eliminated. You know, I don't have time to get into it in this hour, but in the 7 o'clock hour.
You just wait for it. I have a killer audio clip, and I always tell you, follow the money. And sometimes it takes a minute to unravel what is really going on, especially in the government. But I'm telling you right now, the left is going. apoplectic in Congress over this USAID thing. Why? Because there's some dastardly deeds that are being done there. And now I will tell you, we're over target.
We're over target. The closer you get, the more pushback you get. And this is becoming a thing of beauty. I've got to just be honest. It's a thing of beauty. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we will take your calls, 522-0650.
Looking at the Alaska total traffic cameras on this Friday morning. Traffic's starting to pick up around the Anchorage Bowl. No major stoppages yet. Lake Otis Parkway's got a bit of a slowdown on it right now, starting about Providence Drive. That traffic is backing up towards northern... ...sunshine, temperatures warming into the teens and 20s for inland...
areas, we're still holding on to this slow warming trend with highs in the mid to upper 20s expected through the weekend. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Moore. Now back to the boss, Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on NewsRadio 650. KENI. Welcome back, current time 651. I'm going to go straight to the phones and we'll start with Roland. Good morning, sir. Yes, I know that you leaked underneath the financial thing, so explain to me that the...
Schools are supposed to be paid by the state, and we pay 65% of our property tax goes to schools. Why is that? Well, unless you live in an unincorporated area, right? Because then they're paid 100% by the state. That's a great question. You know who's going to be on at 705? Bob Griffin. And I will ask him to explain this to us because he knows that he used to be on the Board of Education.
and he will be able to explain it far better than I but you're right especially if you live in the municipality of Anchorage or an incorporated area the state pays far less than they do in unincorporated areas and unincorporated areas of the state They pick up the tab 100%.
Where here in Anchorage, you know, not only do they take your PFD to help pay for the schools, but then they take half of your property taxes to pay for the schools, too. So I think that's an excellent question, Roland, and I will ask Bob that when he calls in. Yeah, it doesn't quite seem fair to me, even if we're incorporated, because like I said, I think in the state constitution it says that they will pay up to the 12th grade.
Yeah, K-12 it does in there. K-12. So, I mean, why, just because we're incorporated, does it, I mean, it just doesn't make sense that we're getting ripped off. Because these schools in a small village, you know. They pay everything, and per student, I bet you there's a lot more money going to them than it is to us as a city. Yeah, good point. Good point. I don't want to upset you, Roland, but right now a lot of the progressives are scooting around this idea of removing the cap.
from the state on the municipal contributions of schooling because they're saying, well, like the Anchorage School District, you want more money. If we remove the cap, well, the Anchorage can then charge more in property tax. and put that towards the schools? Because right now the state has a cap on how much municipalities can pitch in. Ooh. Thanks for your knowledge. That's scary.
Yeah, I will tell you, always hold on to your wallet when Democrats are in charge. That's all I'm going to say about that. Roland, thank you for the call. All right, we'll talk soon. All right, let's go to John. Good morning, John. Hey, good morning. Going back to El Salvador. Oh, yeah. I like that idea. That reminds me of Cool Hand Luke. You will get your mind right.
I think that was exactly what happened. If you knew you were going to commit a crime and be charged by the feds, and you had a chance that you were going to be doing your prison time in El Salvador, wouldn't you think that would make people think twice? Oh, absolutely. I think you're right. I think you're right about it. They will certainly get their mind right. I'm telling you right now, I don't think I would want to do federal time in El Salvador. No.
No, good point. Hey, John, thanks for the call this morning. I appreciate it. Okie do. All right, bye-bye. Well, I've got to tell you, it is one for the books. I mean, we have seen more movements in the past three weeks than we've seen in three years at the federal level. And it should always make you worried when people are more concerned about you.
you exposing how you're spending your tax money than they are on anything else. And, you know, we saw this, Daryl and I had this conversation off air. The left was freaking out. They wanted to know the names of every single person in Doge, every single person helping. helping Elon Musk over and over and over again. They were freaking out. You know, let's be honest. What is the whole point of them trying to expose every single person that is helping Elon Musk? I'll tell you right now what it is.
It's because once they know who's helping, then they're going to target that person and force them out. And that's exactly what happened with one of Elon Musk's engineers. You know, this kid that was helping Musk, he resigned yesterday, I think it was. Why? Because they dug up some of his old social media posts. And he made some comments that were, you know, I would say racist, probably. But, you know, again, it comes down to...
This is somebody who didn't seem necessarily pro-Israel. Let's just put it that way. He made some really, like, colorful comments that I would say are inappropriate. Then this is what they do, though. They will target. They will go through every single thing you've ever said. They will go through your past. They will try to absolutely positively destroy you. And that's what we're seeing. In my opinion, that's why they want to know every single thing.
person that's working for Elon Musk? Oh, absolutely. And you get the intelligence agencies after him. On the other side of it, though... You know, there's been reports the FBI won't tell Trump every single person who is involved in his in the investigations into him So they won't share that information. You know, they're like, oh, no, no, no. We can't tell you what agents were working on your case. But when it comes to checking on how the feds are spending our money.
They want to know every single person who's looking at how they're spending our money. Doesn't that seem like a double standard? Not only does that seem like a double standard, but also when you get people like our wonderful Lisa Murkowski and, you know, we know things need to change. It should change. But you've got to follow the channels. The channels are what got us in the problem in the first place. Look, the swamp is the problem.
So we'll get into this and more. I got to tell you, we got some good, good stuff on USAID later in the show. But first, Bob Griffin's going to be calling in. We're going to be talking education. Stay with us. Look at all these people getting lean with soda. 8,941 reviews. SodaWeightLoss.com. S-O-T-A stands for state of... We know you're loving the new preset feature on the new and improved iHeartRadio app. See it now along with even...
more great features. It's everything you love about your car radio and the palm of your hand. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to News Radio 650 KENR. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back to Hour 2 of the Amy Naboski Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. I'm in Palmer. Daryl's in Anchorage. Between the two of us, we have most of the state's population covered. But we do enjoy lots of listeners from all over the state. During the show, it's really fun because I will get text messages from Fairbanks, from Sitka, from the North Slope recently, a number of them.
So we have lots of listeners that listen all over the state, and we appreciate you doing that. Now coming to the show, coming back to the show, I should say, a man that really does not need. much of an introduction. Mr. Bob Griffin, he has forgot more about education than I've ever learned. So there we go. He is our resident expert on all things education. Good morning, Bob. Hey, good morning, Amy. It's good to be on with you. Thanks for having me.
You know, I was reminiscing a little bit earlier this morning the first boarding commission you and I served on together. That's where I got to see the genius that is Bob Griffin. And really what you and I, I think, bonded on is we don't like wasteful spending. Oh, absolutely. It has disgusted me for such a long time. It's a battle that you and I have been fighting together for a very long time.
bonded pretty closely on the Budget Advisory Commission in that arena a long time ago, and we've been both fighting that battle for a long time since. You know, and I think both of us recognize that, look, there are absolutely essential things that the government should be doing, but we can do it well. We can do it wisely. And really what it takes is oversight and accountability and, you know, data.
data guy and before we get into schools specifically we had a question earlier from Roland one of our listeners and he was asking the question about Why is it that more than half of his property taxes here in Anchorage go to education and the state funds education? His question was, isn't the state supposed to just fund education in general? have a response for that? Yeah, there is certain interpretation of the Constitution that the state should pay for 100% of education. That's
Rarely the case in any of the states in the United States. As a matter of fact, Alaska is kind of unusual in the... There are very few states where the state pays as much of K-12 education as generally across the United States. It's generally a local issue. collected for local state sales and property taxes, take care of K-12 education. But there are some states that the state pays a large portion, roughly in Alaska. If you're urban, about 60%, 70% is paid by the...
The state, about 20 to 30 percent is paid locally and about 10 percent by the federal government. In rural Alaska, it's about 80 percent is paid by the state and about 20 percent is paid by the federal government. Okay, so that's a helpful breakdown. Well, let me ask you, as we talk about the legislative session this year, what we're expecting is two big pieces of legislation to come out of the Democrat-controlled House and Senate. We're expecting a major huge...
increase to the BSA and then we're also expecting them to go back to a defined benefit retirement plan now that doesn't mean it will survive the governor's veto pen but as you look at the debates that are happening in the legislature this year when it comes to
education spending and how those dollars are spent, how are you looking at that? Well, and I have a piece on Must Read Alaska that really kind of addresses this point that talks about The Education Miracle in Mississippi, the fact that Mississippi is 44th in the nation in per student spending on K-12 education, but in the latest National Assessment of Education Progress or NAEP results,
that Mississippi was first, second, or third in many of the categories and is really a national leader in student outcomes despite Again, we spend about $21,000 per student. They spend about $12,000 per student since 2004 to 2022. They had a 69% increase in per-student spending. Alaska had a 79% increase in per-student spending. And yet we're near the bottom.
We're no longer dead last at the bottom in any category, but we're near the bottom in almost every category. Fourth grade reading for low-income kids, Mississippi was first in the country. Let that soak in a little bit. 80% of their kids are in free or reduced lunches, the highest poverty rate in the United States, but their low-income kids were first in the nation in fourth grade reading. Alaska was 49th.
Their kids were second in the nation in low-income fourth-grade math. We were 49th. Their kids are not economically disadvantaged. You're not free to reduce lunch. We're second in the nation in fourth grade reading. Our upper middle income kids were 50th. In math, they were 50th. In Mississippi, they were third. So, yeah, it's kind of a...
The good news is that we've adopted legislation with the Alaska Reads Act a couple years ago, and it's starting to take hold a little bit. We're starting to see our reading scores turn around. Mississippi has been doing this since 2013. It's basically the Florida model, but it's the Florida model done with much more discipline than even Florida, and they've even passed Florida.
and their student outcomes, and they didn't have to pour a ton of money on it. They just focused their precious resources and the places that improved student outcomes the best. You know, that makes a lot of sense to me. You know, I've been advocating for a long time. Clearly, when you look at the spending that Alaska has instituted on education, it drives me crazy when I hear somebody like Jared Bryant say...
had flat funding and you know I seem to recall the legislature it may not have been a BSA increase every year but it seems like year after year after year the legislature puts hundreds of millions of dollars into education the problem I have with them throwing more money at the situation.
where's the accountability and where's the purpose? Because clearly, if we're one of the highest paid school districts in the country when it comes to the state of Alaska, if we put the most money in, but our outcomes are at the point, bottom of the barrel clearly we're not doing something right clearly it's not just about the money right and that's why the I think the governor will veto the large PSA increase if it doesn't include
any reforms that are along the lines of Mississippi. And basically the things the governor has asked for are reforms that are very similar to what Mississippi and Florida have done. In the past, absolutely necessary, and I think he will veto a BSA increase that doesn't include some sort of reforms because it's...
You know, definitely the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. You know, as I'm looking at some of the governor's recommended reforms, He talks about teacher retention and incentives, you know, paying a lump sum payments ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 each year for three years to improve teacher retention. So that's something directly to the teacher. But he's also talking about reading proficiency.
grants and expanding incentive grants to districts for students who achieve reading proficiency so again it's kind of this carrot mentality like hey let's get back to the basics and actually why are we there to make sure kids can read and write and they can do arithmetic right let's make sure they can do that and then he talks about you know really a focus on programs career and technical education charter schools you know when we look at models like charter schools here in Alaska Thank you.
I remember having Dina Bishop on the show not that long ago, and she was talking about how well our Alaska charter schools are doing. If we are doing this well nationwide and our charter schools are excelling, why aren't we investing more in that type of model? model that's working. No, that's absolutely correct. And the governor has asked for additional charter school authorizers. It's one of the things in the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.
that rates Mississippi way ahead of Alaska in this category. Mississippi is ranked seventh in the nation in their charter school laws by the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools. Alaska is ranked 44th out of the 46 states that allows charter schools because we have among the most restrictive charter school laws. And one of the biggest defects in our charter school laws is that
we have single authorizers. And when you have a single authorizer, it's like having only one grocery store available in a big city. The grocery store, they can raise the prices as high as the... They want there's a asymmetrical power relationship where when you go and as a group of parents are trying to establish a charter school.
you're facing this asymmetric power relationship where you basically have to give into whatever demands the authorizer puts on you because you don't have any other options. And so that's... That and the other point you made about incentives, you know, excuse me, the incentives incentivizing good behavior like improving kids' reading scores. has been proven to work in a variety of different places. Sorry about that. Like in Florida, in Florida, they pay $1,500 to schools.
for a kid who scores a three or higher on an advanced placement test. They don't pay the schools for kids being in advanced placement classes. They don't pay for them taking the test. They get paid. if they score a three or higher. And guess what? Florida was actually, in the last Rutgers study, was listed as the most inadequately funded K-12 education system in the United States, dead last.
Yet they're at the top of performance. But they're producing the highest quality high school graduates, or among the highest quality. They're second in the nation in the percentage of kids who... leave high school with passing an AP test for three or higher, almost three times the rate of kids in Alaska. So being the most inadequately funded...
system in the United States and producing among the highest quality high school graduates. That's a big statement about it's not about the money, it's where you focus the resources. Well, that makes a lot of sense to me. I have, for those that are following, I have shared Bob's article from Must Read Alaska right onto my Facebook page, and I titled it, Money Isn't the Answer, Strategy and Execution Clearly Make the Difference.
I mean, your article, Bob, when you talk about Mississippi's education miracle, I think it reflects that. It shows that you have to have a strategy and you have to execute that strategy. It's not just about throwing money at the problem. If that was the case.
Alaska would be cataclysmic leaps and bounds ahead of Florida ahead of Mississippi and it's just not the case so I think I think you've you've not just stumbled on it but you've highlighted the reality of of the education system and and what we need to emulate in order to be successful I think it's a great article I appreciate you highlighting this and I know there's going to be more education discussion throughout the legislative session so we hope we can check in with you a little bit
more frequently. Right, and we need to help pump up our legislators to help the veto from being overridden. That is going to happen because there's going to be a ton of pressure.
on our legislators to, you know, the folks in the valley don't have much to worry about, but there's a lot of districts where they're a little bit more purple, and we're going to need to... help those legislators make the right call when the governor vetoes a K-12 spending bill that doesn't have any types of reforms attached to it.
Yeah, I think that's a good reminder of what we can do. And we can stay in communication with our own legislators throughout the session, reminding them that, you know, it's not just about writing a big check. It's about actual accountability and reforms. and making sure that they stand strong with the governor.
with the governor, because at the end of the day, we all want our kids to get a great education. And I think the governor is on the right track with this one. So thank you so much for calling in this morning. I appreciate it. Thanks, Amy. We'll talk to you later.
All right, bye-bye. That's Bob Griffin. Again, if you want to check out his article, it's on Must Read Alaska. You can go to mustreadalaska.com under the columns. It's entitled The Mississippi Education Miracle. It's a great article. We're going to go ahead and take a quick break. we'll be right back
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras. Stretch of quiet weather remains as we continue to hold on to that sunshine. Temperatures warming into the teens and twenties for inland areas. We're still holding on to this slow warming trend with highs in the mid to upper twenties expected through the weekend. weather source I'm meteorologist You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-5238.
2 0 6 50. Welcome back. Current time, 725. I want to thank Bob Griffin for calling in, talking about education here in Alaska. Look, it's going to be a big topic. It always is. And, you know, it just infuriates me, really, when I hear people like the superintendent. of the Anchorage School District saying they've had flat funding. He's lying. It's not true.
Now, if he's saying the BSA hasn't increased, okay, there have been increases to the BSA, but really where the legislature has been funding education for a long time is outside of the base student allocation, the formula that funds... What they've been doing is they've been getting huge injections of hundreds of millions of dollars year after year. It might be 200, 300 million dollars every year or so.
over and over and over again. So when they say they're not getting more funding and he's saying the funding's flat, it's not true. Now, the BSA doesn't increase every single year. It did last year, but it doesn't increase every single year, but they give additional money. outside of the BSA. So this is what is so frustrating to me. And clearly when you track the amount of money the state of Alaska has been putting into education, the whole enchilada.
When you track it, you see the amount of money going up, and the results are not. In fact, the results are worse. So now. When I say they're worse, I'm talking about like pre-COVID versus now. But with the READS Act and certain things that are doing that are actually trying to target the issue, get scores up, get proficiency levels up.
That is actually making an impact. And there are some school districts, one in particular, that is breaking the mold, and that's the MATSU. We are actually seeing performance metrics in the MATSU. get better. So we have to look around our state and say what is working. Charter schools clearly are working. Some of our charter schools are best performing in the nation. These are public schools.
So when they come out and they start saying, oh, you know, charter schools, you know, is diverting from, no, it's diverting from the big administrative overhead and brick and mortar typical schools and how they deliver, you know, education, yes. But they're still public schools. They're publicly funded. It is a thing. So it drives me nuts the fact that I hear legislators, I hear superintendents talk.
And they talk to us as Alaskans like we're stupid and we can't do basic math. Like, I've got to tell you, I was in the old school before everyday math, so I can still add. The reality is you have to have reforms attached to what you're doing. Because if you don't, it is the definition of insanity. It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Let's just throw more money at it.
Let's tell people that they flat funded education when that's not true. Let's tell people that they hate kids. The governor just wants to slash the budget. Look, you know, and I've heard this is another one you will hear. Oh, they're cutting our budget. This is what you hear every legislative session. When they propose, say they propose an $1,800 BSA increase, but say maybe only a $1,000 BSA increase passes.
What they're going to tell you is they cut the budget. They cut it. No, no, no. We just didn't give you as much of an increase as you wanted. That is not a cut. We go through this argument every single year. every single year in juno they will start on the mantra they're cutting the budget oh they're going to hurt this program oh they're going to hurt that part no no no all we're doing is not giving you as much of an increase as you want
Right. But they're relying on people's ignorance. That's what they're hoping that you don't catch it. And frankly, I think Alaskans are smarter than that. But so when I look at the governor's his what he's introduced. for education reform. In the House, it's called HB 76. In the Senate, it's SB 82.
So the governor has a number of proposals in here, and I'm looking at his press release right now. I named off a couple of them, but, you know, when he starts talking about increasing funding for correspondence programs and career technology, education raising funding levels to support modernized learning resources and programs aligned with workforce demands are they telling you the governor actually wants to invest money in more education programs like that no
they're not telling you that because they're again expecting that you're not going to look Yomani talks about open enrollment and streamlining charter school authorizations provide more options to families by allowing students to attend any public school in Alaska and expand the process for creating new public charter schools. charter schools are the best performing schools that we have.
Why would you not want to expand that? And to be able to expand that, you have more people that can authorize it, the Department of Education. You have not just your local school district, right, that they look at it like they're in competition with. Why would you not? replicate what is working. It makes a lot more sense. Student achievement grants, incentivizing students who meet key academic milestones. So what do we call that? We call that meritocracy. You perform, you get rewarded.
It's based on merit. You show up, you do your homework, you do your assignments, you study, you do your homework, you succeed, you get rewarded, right? So when we start talking about this, you know what else they're not talking about? The governor in his program, he has bond debt reimbursement moratorium extension, maintaining fiscal responsibility while addressing the school infrastructure needs. Are they telling you he's proposing that?
No, they're not. Why? Because it doesn't fit their narrative. Again, much like orange man bad at the federal level, tall man bad in Alaska. Absolutely. If the governor is doing something good with education, they're not going to tell you. They're going to say the opposite. Oh, the governor hates children. Oh, the governor is slashing the budget. But they're not telling you all these things. He's saying.
He's looking at this as a lifelong educator, right? He knows more about education than the vast majority of these legislators. Why? Because his entire career was education. He was a teacher. He was a superintendent. He was on the school board. out here in the Matsu all before he ever went to the legislature. The guy knows a lot about education. And so when he's targeting things that actually work and wants to replicate them, I'm just saying that's common sense.
You don't have to be a savant to figure this out. It's common sense. All right, we're going to go ahead and take our break. When we come back, the audio I told you I would play, it is a little wonky. Yes, I admit it. But I always tell you to follow the money. get to the heart of this whole doge controversy i'm just gonna say daryl i was totally right we're gonna get into that when we come back your
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Anchorage. The search continues for an airplane that went missing yesterday afternoon. The Nome Volunteer Fire Department says the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft was owned by Bering Air and was carrying 10 people when it disappeared from the radar. White Mountain Fire Chief Jack...
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628 Mornings on News Radio 650 KENI. Call now. 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time, 740. All right. Well, we say it all the time. Follow the money. I think we have a bigger scandal here than the Russian dossier GPS. What is it called? GPS. Fusion GPS.
Hillary Clinton, DNC, Russia collusion hoax. I think we have a bigger scandal than that that has just been broken. And you're not going to see this in mainstream media. But I said it the other day as I started going through the expenditures for U.S. USAID, the department that clearly to me looks like the CIA slush fund. We're talking about efforts that have been funded through this organization that clearly look like regime changes abroad.
And now what we see is Michael Schellenberger, he is an independent journalist, but he's also a journalist, and he posted on his Substack for public. You know, really an audio clip. And I just took about four minutes of the audio clip because I have to give you context for it. But as you listen to him talk.
Think about what happened during the impeachments of Donald Trump. Think about all this, and you'll hear where the money is flowing. And I will tell you, as you see where the money is flowing, every time you think about NGOs, You think about regime changes. You think about all these different things that are happening. It makes you start wondering, hey, wait a second. What is the CIA doing?
Wait a minute. Are they doing it at home, too? And then you start to hear, embedded in this clip is a clip from a journalist, and I say that in quotes, and you can hear him hemming and hawing, not really answering, not wanting to... to say he's law enforcement.
What that to me is code for is intelligence community. And when you start saying you're CIA or you're in the intelligence community and you go over to other countries, yeah, they're going to have questions. Just listen to this audio clip and then you. will connect the dots. Stay with us. Here it goes.
The House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump in December 2019 after a White House whistleblower went public with evidence that Trump had abused his powers by withholding military aid to Ukraine in order to dig up dirt on his rival Joe Biden.
In the complaint, the whistleblower claimed to have heard from White House staff that Trump had on a phone call directed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to work with his personal attorney at the time, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.
The whistleblower who triggered the impeachment was a CIA analyst who was first brought into the White House by the Obama administration. Reporting by DropSite News last year revealed that the CIA analyst had relied on reporting by a supposedly independent investigative news organization called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
or the OCCRP, which appears to have effectively operated as an arm of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, which President Trump has just shut down. The CIA whistleblower complaint cited a long report by OCCRP four times. The OCCRP report alleged that two Soviet-born Florida businessmen were key hidden actors behind a plan by Trump to investigate the Bidens. Those two businessmen connected Giuliani... to two former Ukrainian prosecutors, according to OCCRP.
to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, which is why the whistleblower cited it four separate times. In a 2024 documentary that the German television broadcaster NDR made about OCCRP's dependence on the US government, a USAID official confirmed that USAID approves OCCRP's annual work plan and
approves of new hires of key personnel. NDR had initiated and carried out the investigation with a French investigative news organization called Media Part, an Italian news group called Il Fatto, Cotidiano, Reporters United in Greece, and Drop Sight News in the United States.
However, according to a Media Par story published the same day as the DropSite News article, NDR censored the broadcast after U.S. journalist Drew Sullivan, the co-founder and head of OCCRP, placed pressure on the NDR management and made false accusations. On December 16th, DropSite's Ryan Grimm posted a link on X to the 26-minute-long documentary. NDR...
Germany's public broadcaster is facing a censorship scandal, he wrote, and it's defended itself by saying it never killed a news report about OCCRP and its State Department funding because no report was ever produced to kill. That was absurd, wrote Grimm, and dozens, maybe hundreds of journalists knew it to be false. And now, of course, someone has leaked it.
The drop-site journalistic collaboration revealed that OCCRP's original funding came from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the United States State Department. And it quotes a USAID official who says, just nervous about being linked with law enforcement. But why? Well, because sources maybe, right? If people that are going to give you information think, oh, you're just an arm of, you know, you're just a cop, right? I mean, maybe it's a problem.
Or in other governments. Say you're trying to get into a country and do something, and the government says, oh, what are you, law enforcement or not? There's a need, the separation. The independence is important. Because if you lose that, you lose your sense of, like, you know, your... Your reputation is incredibly important. OCCRP does not operate like a normal investigative journalism organization in that its goals appear to include interfering in foreign political matters.
including foreign elections, that are aimed at regime change. Sullivan told NDR, We've probably been responsible for about five or six countries changing over from one government to another government. As such, it appears that the CIA, USAID, and OCCRP were all involved in the impeachment of President Trump.
in ways similar to the regime change operations that all three organizations engage in abroad. Okay, so that is a lot to unpack, and I've got to tell you, I've listened to this audio clip five times.
There is so much in there, but what does it all trade back to? As we are looking at this audio and we're listening to Schellenberger in his investigative report, what we see is the OCCRP report was... mentioned four times and by the memo that effectively was what the Democrats kept relying on to impeach Trump. which was effectively brought forward by a CIA analyst that was put in the White House by Obama. Do you see it?
Do you see it? And then think about this. Remember the whole Fusion GPS dossier, the Steele dossier? Remember, they relied on that to get a FISA warrant to what? Spy on Trump's campaign. So they create the situation, they create the report, they rely on the fake report to be able to do whatever they want to do. What is that? In this case, it was impeached Trump. This is why they're all freaking out. Because now what we've seen, look, if this is true, and the CIA...
is behind meddling, and they're not doing it directly, but they're funding the organization that is doing it. Look, USAID approves staff and the work plan for For OCCRP, that is an organization of OCCRP then. I mean, that OCCRP is an organization of the USAID. You can't, they're non-distinguishable. So what do we mean by this? When you just break it down to brass tacks, what does it mean? It means the CIA is funneling money through NGOs and through other organizations.
potentially to affect regime changes in the U.S. That's treason. If that is true, that is treason. There's no way around it. You cannot. The CAA is not supposed to be operating inside the U.S. So what we're seeing is time after time after time regime changes when they talk about foreign political matters.
What are they talking about? They're talking about the U.S. using its influence to change out heads of state or foreign political adversaries and replace them. That's really what they're talking about. If this is true, what Schellenberger is saying, What it means is we have our own intel community here in the U.S. that is now using their foreign capabilities and tactics in our own government.
If that is true, this makes sense. Why Marco Rubio said just a few days ago, he said that what we're finding is USAID. Through their spending, through their programs, they're engaging in things that are contrary to the U.S.'s stated foreign policy and stated policy objectives. Marco Rubio was telling us without telling us. Because what he said is he talks to U.S. ambassadors and members of the State Department that are telling you flat out that USAD, what they are doing.
operating and they're doing things that are counter to the official policy of the State Department and what the US is trying to accomplish. I'm telling you, you know what this means? This means Congress isn't doing their job. Congress should be an oversight on this agency, and failure to do that is failure to do their job. Now you have a covert shadow government working, funded by taxpayers, with no oversight.
And it appears that they are now operating here on U.S. soil, which everybody knows the CIA is not supposed to do. And if the CIA is truly behind this whole... impeachment hoax that happened to trump if that is true this is a much bigger scandal than the whole steel dossier
I'm just saying. This was one of those audio clips I had to listen to five times. Originally, I saw him talking on Jesse Waters' Fox News, and then I went to a substack because I wanted more information, and I wanted to see the full audio clip. this is unbelievable we're going to go ahead and take a quick break we'll be right back
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Welcome back. So I played you that audio clip of Michael Schellenberger talking about USAID, and he has a post up, and it says, USAID's defenders say it's about charity and development in poor nation. It's not. It's a $40 billion driver of regime change abroad, and now the evidence suggests that it, along with the CIA, were behind the 2019 impeachment of Trump and a legal regime change effort at home. Again, this is a major issue.
It made me think of when he was talking about their tactics and what was going on, it made me think of Netanyahu because Netanyahu was indicted and they went after him for fraud and all these different things. Of course, he never obviously was. was convicted or thrown out of office. But it makes me wonder, considering Marco Rubio's comments, were they behind trying to oust Netanyahu? It makes me wonder that. That was the first one that popped in my mind. I was like...
If they're really engaged in things that are counter to actual U.S. policy, uh well we're we're a strong ally but when you look at the biden regime they were not really friendly to israel no matter what they said let's be honest yeah no that sounds right that sounds i'm telling you right now this is a much bigger story this is probably the biggest story
I've ever seen in my life. To be honest, if this is true... Because that shows our CIA is working against our own government. And Nancy Pelosi must know because they literally used the description of her tactics.
Of, you know, fake story and all that. The wrap-up smear, right? That's it, yes. That's it, that's it. Well, this is fascinating. It's something we'll continue to dive into. That does it for Daryl and I today. We will be back with you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Monday morning. Until then. Stay safe. God bless. Get ready for our 2025 iHeart Podcast Award.