i think traffic stops are major problems. they disproportionately focus on people of color. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our new c-span now app. >> ♪ >> good morning. it is saturday, october 20 third, 20 21. a3 hour washington journal is ahead for you. we will talk about labor strikes in the u.s. and hiring restrictions for those with criminal records.

parents it is (202) 748-8000 two call in, teachers it is (202) 748-8001 oh mothers it is -- all others is is (202) 748-8002 and you can text is that -- you can text us at. (202) 748-8003 we begin with this story on the political implications of the classes around the country between parents and local school boards. the headline is schoolboard elections will be an early test of what issues motivate voters. school boards have become the latest political battlefield

with fights over masks and covid vaccines and with conservative parents concerned about diversity curriculum. these races are being watched by republicans who lost ground in the suburbs in the past eight years and are hoping education could be a winning issue for them in congressional races in 2022 and the next presidential race. republican pollster christine matthews who spends time during focus group with suburban rep -- suburban women is not convinced of the strategy will work on the gop. she says for independent voters this could actually cause a backlash with all the chaos. unlike a presidential election where the candidates are distant , with the, peaceful -- people's kids are involved and will board members are trusted members of the community. that story was out earlier this week setting the background of the conversation we are trying to have this morning with parents and teachers and all

others, asking what role parents should play in public education. as you are calling in, this issue is the focus of the gubernatorial race taking place in the old dominion, now just 10 days away. here is a recent headline from nbc news. republicans see education curriculum fears as a path to victory. this is the focus of recent ad spending by democrats and republican candidates in that race. then young can is a republican. here is one of his recent ads in virginia. >> virginia parents have a right to make decisions on their children's education. that is the virginia i grew up in. terry mcauliffe wants to change that. >> i don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. >> now the fbi is trying to silence parents. that is wrong. as governor, i will increase teacher pay, pass of the largest education budget in history.

i sponsored this ad because i will always stand up for virginia's parents. >> the response ad came out this week two or three days ago from democrat terry mcauliffe. here is what he had to say. >> dorothy and i have always been involved in our kids education. we know good schools depend on involve parents. that is why i want you to hear this from me. glenn yunker and is taking my words out of context. i have always valued the concerns of parents. that is why as governor we scaled back standardized testing, expanded pre-k, and invested $1 billion in public schools. i sponsored this ad because working together we can give our kids the education they deserve. >> all of this is stemming from comments to terry mcauliffe made back in a september 28th gubernatorial debate. here is that minute and a half that spark these ads and a lot

of discussion about education in virginia. >> with regard to our kids in school, we are called to love everyone. to love everyone. i agree with your conclusion, terry, that we should let locals go districts these decisions. but we must ask them to include concepts of safety, privacy, and discussions. and we must demand they include parents in this dialogue. what we have seen over the last months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents. in fairfax county this past week we watched parents so upset because there was such a sexually explicit material in the library. it was shocking. you vetoed the bill that would have informed parents they were there. you believe school systems should tell children what to do. i believe should be in charge of their kids education. >> mr. mcauliffe, 30 seconds.

>> this shows how clueless get -- doing -- glenn young venice. he does not understand the laws. -- glenn young and is. he does not -- glenn young can -- glenn young can -- youn gkin is. i get really tired of everybody running down teachers. i love teachers. what they have done through covid, these are real heroes that deserve our respect. you keep running them down. >> back from the end of september. we are 10 days away from that very closely watched gubernatorial race here in virginia. a bellwether race heading into the 2022 men were -- midterms. we are asking you about that

issue that came up, education, and what role parents should play in education. the phone lines are (202) 748-8000 for parents, (202) 748-8001 for teachers and all others it is (202) 748-8002. joe's first in summit, new jersey. what role should parents play in public education? caller: they should play a role. with racial stuff if they keep talking about racial stuff, it is going to be everybody, black-and-white. they shouldn't talk about it. it is as simple as that. it will eventually go away. it has been going away ever since the 1960's. you are still going to have people saying this and that on both sides. like, they are prejudice against this, they are prejudice against

that. the blacks say it and the whites say it about each other. the democrats are leaning toward the black and they accuse the whites of being racist which is not so and they could do the same with the blacks. they don't like the whites but what is the difference? they are all human, you know? host: asking you what role parents should play in public education. michael in south portland, maine. caller: parents should have run of the administration. we have christians coming in, separation of church and state, and we have law signed in. the christian religion, you have to get them out.

the essential oils, the masks -- host:host: that was michael in south portland, maine. you bring up private schools. a story on that from today's new york times focusing on the boom in evangelical schools amid a fraught time in education. the booming conservative christian schooling driven nationwide by a combination of pandemic frustrations, rising parental anxiety about how schools handle educations including race, and the right of transgender students. quoting this from the founder of the conservative christian education initiative, this is a once in 100 year moment for the growth in christian education. in 2019 to 2020 school year 3.5 million schoolchildren of

attended religious schools. the story noting before the pandemic private school enrollment overall declined gradually since the turn of the millennium while the subset of non-catholic schools held steady, suggesting the recent growth in conservative evangelical schools is a distinct phenomenon rather than a generational retreat. this is glenn in lakeland, florida. your thoughts on the role parents should play in public education. caller: good morning. how you doing? i don't believe parents need to be involved when it comes to teachers. all of this talk about, well, you know, education is going to be different and the teachers are going to be doing what they're going to be doing. it is about one particular thing. critical race theory is not taught in school, they lying, and it is about the 1619

project. they don't want the history of white americans in this country and what they were doing when slavery started until now. all these town halls and people mad about, well, you are teaching critical race theory. it is a lie. why can't we see it for what it is? you just keep adding things into it. look at all the books in school but have these different things. it is not the children that don't want to learn, it is the parents that don't want their kids to understand they have been lied to their whole lives. this is why they don't want to accept the fact slavery happened and enslaved black people and 20 plus million died under the program. host: a question that has come up in school boards around the country, how much say should parents have in curriculum? as an example, out in utah, this

out of the sully tribune, one utah lawmaker wants to require all material for social study classes in k-12 schools be vetted and posted online for parents to review in advance of the teaching. teachers pushing back saying, that shows lack of trust in educator's judgment. what would be your thoughts on that proposal, seeing everything that is going to be taught in social studies and being able to review it? caller: i will go back to the same thing i said. this is about controlling the narrative when it comes to teachers and how they do their lesson plans, what books are going to be, textbooks are going to be published, what is going to be inside. it is the whole gamut and that does not happen. they are not professional teachers. they are not taught to teach students. the history of this country is what the history is. we don't need to try to say, we

are fine. we are going to take this out but leave this in. i am a black man in my whole life i have known, during slavery, they were slaves. they were not helpers, they were not immigrants, they were slaves. when you look at how we got this world this country was based on freedom, it was based on racism. host: that was glenn in lakeland, florida. jay next out of wake forest, virginia. caller: crt is racist garbage created to divide america even more. that is a fact. my point was about, can you please, and you have not mentioned it yet, the ninth grader that got raped in a bathroom by a boy in address? i think it was in may actually. her father got assaulted at the

school board in loudoun county. they beat the hell out of him while he was trying to explain his daughter was raped by a faggot an address. host: sorry, we are not going to use that kind of language. dahlia is next in miami, florida. caller: i am a grandmother. miami-dade county has lost a lot of students, including my grandson and my granddaughter. he had a teacher, his father is a police officer, who showed up in class with a t-shirt saying "black lives matter, defund the police." that was outrageous. his mother, who worked for the school, took it to the principal and the principal said, there is nothing we can do. now he is in catholic school.

he is getting to graduate in may. not only will he have high school diploma he will have two years of college finished. he has a gpa of 5.0. in broward county, teachers went door-to-door looking for thousands of children who are no longer in public school and it is because of the teachers and the curriculum and what they are teaching them. they are indoctrinating them and i should know because i am cuban and that is exactly what happened in cuba. thank you very much. host: that was dahlia out of miami, florida. phone lines, what role should parents play in public education? the number for parents (202)-748-8000, the number for

teachers (202)-748-8001, all others (202)-748-8002. as you continue to call in this morning this battleground over school boards and public education and parent's roles played out in a house judiciary committee meeting this week with attorney general merrick garland. in that hearing garland defending his october 4 memo that instructed parts of the justice department to coordinate a response to threats against school officials. garland writing that memo less than one week after the national school board association asked the biden administration to take act against what they called a growing threat against school officials. here is part of that exchange between merrick garland and congressman steve shepard, republican from ohio. [video clip] >> we don't need you, your justice department, or the fbi

trampling on the rights of american parents who just want the best possible education for their children. mr. attorney general, let me ask you this. according to the sarasota herald tribune one example of a so-called terrorist incident was a parent merely questioning whether school board members had earned their high school diplomas? that might have been rude, but does that seem like an act of domestic terrorism that you or your justice department ought to be investigating? >> absolutely not and i want to be clear, the justice department supports and defends the first amendment right of parents to complain as vociferously as they wish about education of their children, about the curriculum taught in the schools. that is not with the memorandum is about at all. nor doesn't use the words domestic terrorism or patriot act. like you, i cannot imagine any circumstance in which the

patriot act would be used in the circumstances of parents complaining about their children, nor can i imagine a circumstance they will be labeled as domestic terrorism. host: that from the house judiciary committee meeting earlier this week. you can watch the whole thing at c-span.org. as the sun begins to rise on this saturday, october 23, asking you what role parents should play in public education. several responses from social media. elizabeth writing, parents should have complete control over their children's education. anne say, parents should play a role in education but let the professionals that we all pay for lead and do their jobs. the majority are not skilled or educated enough to determine curriculum. it is a shame the extremists are trying to bully the professionals about things they don't know or don't exist. also, try to push a whitewashed agenda to keep our kids

ignorant. brenda saying, any parent who does not pay attention to anything your child is taught is asking for trouble. go to the meetings, talk to your school board. parents have been allowing liberal indoctrination for 20 years. pay attention. yes, parents should review school programs in advance. jimmy saying, kids are not government property. you cannot treat your offspring as if it estate property. the state must back off or it will face a sad fate. we want to hear from you on phone lines for parents and teachers and others. this is ralph in morning view, kentucky. caller: come on, these people who say we should leave teachers alone, have they not seen the statistics on education in this country? especially black parents. i mean, their kids are failing

at greater rates all over this country. teachers don't have the ability, apparently, to teach these kids because they are all failing. host: what is the answer to this question of what role parents should play in public education? do you think, as we talked about before, curriculum should be posted online for parents to review before the school year starts? do you think parents should be able to dictate what should be taught? how would you answer the question? caller: i don't know about dictating necessarily, but they should be aware and they should be informed. children are the most important asset this country has and their education has to be number one. there is cameras everywhere else. why can't there be a camera in the classroom? host: that was ralph in

kentucky. bernard, a teacher here in washington, d.c. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing on the saturday morning? host: doing well. caller: i think public schools and special ed schools, charter schools are good and everything, but i think all cell phones should be put in the locker so it will not distract the classes and things going on. i know here in d.c. they recruiting men and women to watch the schools and things. i go once a week around a private charter school with a friend of mine over to our office and there is nobody there

and the school is right across the street. it is something that just started. host: it is like a community watch program for school safety? caller: we already started it and, you know, have a good day. when you cut in i forgot but have a good day. host: up to new hyde park, new york. what role should parents play in public education? caller: good morning. to me, it varies across the country. i am not going to disrespect the teachers' union but they are teachers. they deliver the information that these school board and administrators tell them to. the parents that get involved

because they here with the teachers are teaching, they are not in that process and it should be a collaborative effort. you should have the teachers involved, should have parents involved. you have some parents that may be professors that may be smarter than others or others that may be plumbers that have a different view of the world and can participate. i think it should be a collaborative effort. the parents should participate, the school board should participate, and the school administrators should listen to both of them. host: when you say participate, how? caller: participate in the process. create a process that, when you have new information coming, everyone gets together and they kind of fine-tune it. when they changed the program in new york to critical thinking, not crt book thinking and

changed math, they change the way i did math and grew up learning math. for me, it was difficult. i taught my son the way i did it and helped him with the way he was learning but i can see how other parents, may be single parents or families that don't have the ability we had to reach out to others to learn how to do that. they did not include the parents of that decision. to me, it messed everything up. i think there has got to be a better way to do this. we should not be divided on this. we agree that kids are important, the most important thing in our world. why can't we come together and sit at the table? each place has to do this. this shouldn't be something the government does, this should be put down to the state and community level. may be some communities look at it differently. i believe a collaborative effort, let everyone talk peacefully with each other,

understand the direction you are looking to head, create a portfolio of items you want to address, and attack it and go after which ways are the best ways for us to teach our kids. host: peacefully and calmly is not what we have seen in some of these videos from around the country. that is the reason we are having this conversation this morning. this issue of parents, their role in public education playing a role in the high-profile virginia gubernatorial race. we saw a focus on it this week in the house judiciary committee hearing with merrick garland. we figured we would give an hour this morning to chat about it. tell us what role you think. the washington post editorial board from earlier this week saying, parents are embedded in public education. they elect members of the school board and lawmakers who fund schools.

they sit on the advisory committees that formulate policy and practices and give public testimony before decisions are made. they volunteer in schools and communicate their concerns and children's needs to teachers. there is no question parents should have a say in the education of their students, but individual parents cannot dictate what schools teach and what they want. allowing one parent or group of parents to bully or threaten and intimidate school officials into their way of thinking is not what our democracy is about and not what learning should be about. the editorial board of the washington post from thursday this week. this from this morning's opinion page of the wall street journal. philip hamburger, columbia law school teacher, who asked the question, is the public school system even constitutional? he writes, education is mostly free speech and parents have the constitutional right to choose the speech with which their children will be educated.

they therefore cannot be constitutionally compelled or pressured to make their children a captive audience for government indoctrination. the public school system pressures parents to substitute government education speech for their own speech. when government makes education compulsory and offers it free of charge it crowds out parental freedom in this area of educational speech. the poor parents have more profound pressure and that is by design. it is intended to pressure poor and middle-class parents into substituting government education speech for their own speech and their unconstitutional project has largely succeeded. most parents can't afford to turn down public schooling. they therefore cannot adopt speech expressive of their own views and educating their children, whether by paying for private school or dropping out of work and home schooling children. they are constrained to adopt government education speech in the place of their own and that, he writes, is in violation of

the first amendment. if you want to read more, his column today in the wall street journal. back to the phones. mary is a teacher in canton, illinois. what grade do you teach? caller: i am a retired teacher. i taught both in public schools and one year in a christian school. i am currently retired. i have five grandchildren and one of them is special-needs. and is homeschooled. i think this indoctrination of what can be taught and what cannot be taught has been going on for a long time. i had a secondary specialization in history and social studies and in 1980i was being told what

i could and couldn't teach according to the school i graduated from which was a very liberal school. host: who should make that decision on what should be taught in the classroom and how you use those limited hours in the classroom to reach students? who should make that decision? caller: ok, it has to be a collaboration. it has to be a teacher who is well aware of what the community is asking. host: in your experience teaching public school and private school, where did you think teachers did a better job of that? of being aware of what the community wanted? caller: that is very difficult to say.

both -- in the public schools i taught in were very keyed in. it was a very small community, very keyed in. the attitude of the superintendent and it was keyed into the attitude of prominent -- the mayor of the town, prominent people in the community. it wasn't necessarily sensitive to all people in the community. like, there were many spanish individuals in the community. spanish was not even on the curriculum. it was responsive in some ways

and other ways it was not. the private school, the christian school, was extremely sensitive to individuals but there was also bickering in it. there were issues. [laughs] it was less than what i thought should be ideal. host: thank you for the call and talking about your experience. just after 7:30 on the east coast. continue to call in on what role should parents play in public education? just want to update you on a couple of news items we have been tracking, including this out of the supreme court yesterday. the supreme court agreed yesterday to quickly consider two lawsuits challenging the texas ban on most abortions but left that law in place for now,

adding a new blockbuster battle to the docket that already includes another major abortion rights case. this the lead item in the wall street journal. the court said oral arguments for november 1 but acting on emergency request from the justice department to block the law while the federal government challenges legality. the justice department -- the justices, excuse me, will review an appeal by the state of mississippi which is seeking to implement an abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy. even more action on that front from the supreme court this term. this story from the new york times this morning on stats out of the border on border crossings. highest numbers since the 1960's. a record 1.7 million migrants from around the world, many fleeing pandemic ravaged countries, were encountered trying to enter the u.s. illegally in the last 12 months. those are the new federal

numbers. highest number of illegal crossings reported since 1960 when the government began tracking such entries. the number similarity high for the 2000 fiscal year when they caught 1.6 million people according to government data. single adults represented the largest group of those detained and represent 64 million of all crossers -- 64% and large numbers of migrant families. more than 4790,00 of those -- 479,000 of those. the nearly 147,000 children have been larger since 2008. those coming from the federal government this week. back to your phone calls. stephen, lexington, kentucky, a parent. what role should parents play in public education? caller: good morning.

i believe parents should be a lot more involved in their children's education and i will say i will not blame the teachers. the teachers are doing an amazing job. i believe it is a combination of american parents, not enough funding, not enough transparency, and parents just using education and schooling as childcare. i believe they need to go to the meetings. just because it is a hot topic, what about back in the past? they are not going to the meetings, not voting for officials. my wife is a teacher. she's a middle school teacher for social studies. what i topic to be on right now. she calls parents, they don't call back, they don't email, they don't communicate with the teacher. they get surprised when they see certain things. hey, teachers are trying their best. host: has she ever gotten a call from a parent say, why did you teach that or i don't think you

should be teaching that? if so, how did she respond? caller: yes. not directly but to the leader of the social studies program. you get phone calls -- she says you get phone calls, emails, parents inquiring, why is this topic being taught? let me tell parents, you have a choice. you don't have to use public education. you can find other means to teach her children. host: thank you for the call. what grade did she teach? caller: middle school teacher. host: thank you for the call. michelle in washington, d.c., a teacher. good morning. caller: good morning. i used to teach for public charter schools, all grades, and i was original teacher. my comment this morning is i believe the role parents -- parents should be involved in public schools should not be

banned. parents should be allowed to participate as much as they like. they should be involved in curriculum and choosing the curriculum. i would like to see african centered schools for african children. african-american children are not learning survival survival school. i think they are failing the children at all levels, particularly at puberty age where the teachers don't seem to know what to do with pushing forward and letting the black boys be creative as they go over into puberty, 11, 12 years old. you have to have children take leadership roles, be creative. they have to learn how to speak in public. also, children have to learn

survival skills, particularly in ninth grade such as entrepreneurship and learning about accounting and, of course, civics. but we have to learn what our african-american people laid the foundation for. we do not get that in public schools. about how we are to look at racism. not to hate but how would deals with us in this country. it is very needed. but we need schools that can do that without being micromanaged by the government. there are curriculums that are available for black schools. in short, my comment is i would like to see african-american centered schools that want to teach a culturally relevant curriculum to the children so

the children can survive in america. host: before you go, can you explain, for folks who are not in d.c., what i public charter school is and how that works? caller: yes, i can. a public charter school is run like it is funded publicly with money allowed by the city or the state. it is government money but it is privately operated. however, it is oversight, the administration, what it teaches has the oversight body such as the board. it could be a charter school board or board of education for the state. but it has a lot of say. more say than the parents sometimes in the school.

publicly funded but privately operated. you have to teach with the federal curriculums allow you to teach and that becomes a problem many times because of you not teaching whatever that thing is the government wants you to teach. then you have to explain and you run into obstacles and you may not get funded or the charter may be revoked. host: thank you for explaining. 20 minutes left in this segment. taking your phone calls on phone lines for parents and teachers and others. james is a parent in lancaster, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. [indiscernible] host: we cannot hear you very well. can you try to speak more into the phone? there is a lot of background

noise. i think he might try to call us back. robert in hudson, florida. you are next. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: doing well. caller: i think the primary role parents should be playing in public schools is to get their children ready. teach them discipline, tell them to act civil in the classroom, help them with their homework, make sure they do their homework. if they keep on their child or work with their child, they will know what is going on. if there is a problem with what they are being taught, they can talk to the teacher. with the main thing is to keep them on topic, keep the kids learning. that is the primary responsibility of the parent. not fighting with the school board or the governor. host: a very unique situation

parents are facing and have faced the past year is this return to schools amid a time of the delta variant surge in the country. we have seen a lot of clashes between parents and school boards over masking and what is appropriate and how long students have to be out of school if they are in contact with somebody who has contracted covid. how should parents try to navigate those situations? this very unique situation we are facing this year. caller: i was a pharmacist for 45 years. i have a lot of confidence in the fda and cdc. they should follow their guidelines. host: on that, parents should defer to the federal government, to the experts you are saying? caller: yeah, not to governor desantis. that is for sure. host: that was robert in florida. crystal in pennsylvania, good

morning, a parent. caller: not only am i a parent and grandparent i also work in the schools. i want to make two points. last week we had parent-teacher conferences. only 1% of the parents came to school or called into school and got involved in their child's education. when i see parents going to school boards and hitting people and screaming about children wearing masks, i wish they had that much energy and involvement in their child's education when it comes to parent-teacher conferences and finding out what is going on in their child's life. they will not get involved in that. they do not come to the conferences. that is one thing.

another thing, i am 60 something years old. when i was young i was taught christopher columbus discovered america. we are talking about curriculum. i mean, there should be truth in curriculum. there is nothing wrong with teaching african-american education. there is nothing wrong with teaching any cultural education that applies to our students in our school. we have a mixture of students in our school, predominantly white, but we have black, we have spanish, we have dominican. there is nothing wrong with teaching them to be proud of their culture. but i just want to say to the parents, all of you who go to the school board meetings screaming and yelling at the school board member, cut it out. come to the conferences when your teacher calls you and says, we can sit down and talk about your child's education.

that is when you are needed. host: that was crystal in pennsylvania. on twitter, teachers are there to teach and parents can parent at home. mary saying, parents should play every role. volunteering, getting kids fed and rested, helping with homework, monitoring the curriculum, attending teacher conferences and voting, voting, voting. mrs. k from new york saying, separation of church and state is best. we are there to teach basic knowledge, math, reading, knowledge, anatomy not x rated curriculum. this is eric from new york, like our media consumption we can no longer handle an opposing view. teach your kids that others, even those in authority positions, may have opposing views and think for yourself. not shot down everything with which you disagree.

now to prince george, virginia. bradley, you are next. caller: good morning. always a pleasure talking to you. let's see, this is a fun topic. i agree parents should be involved in discussing curriculum with teachers and educators at pta meetings and any time can get one-on-one. i think that our public school systems advanced along way since i was going to school. early college programs and i think michelle spoke upon the charter school systems. these are all kind of new programs compared to when i was going through school. i think parents and educators should always find the time to discuss how the curriculum can evolve.

parents at home should definitely be as helpful as they possibly can to provide assistance to their kids and making sure they are staying on top of things. i think the number one issue that can be addressed is readying our children for the realities of the world. as our nation and the planet faces new problems we should be on the forefront of that and start getting our kids ready to tackle those problems. of course, as michelle mentioned, entrepreneurial ship and it starts there, giving the kids the discipline and the knowledge to think for themselves. to work collectively as a group. you have a great weekend. host: bradley in virginia. kevin in marshall, texas.

good morning. caller: good morning, john. i wanted to comment on a previous call about charter schools. you asked a really good question. i teach at a charter school. i used to teach public school here in texas. every state is different on the charter school situation. they passed the laws and they decide how they apply charters. the main selling point on charter schools is that, you know, a parent can choose to send their kids to that school whereas public school, you are pretty much tied into it. the funding is public funding. we follow the same guidelines as far as, you know, special ed students. we cannot discriminate.

all the general rules that apply to public education apply to us, too. host: where did you find that parents were more involved? in the public schools or the charter schools? caller: you know, it is parent specific to be honest. in the public schools, we always had some really great parents who really work hard and get involved in their kids' education. that is a percentage. but in a charter school, at least an hour charter school and this is another point on charter school. we are chartered for a specific purpose. for example, our charter school is to deal with dual credit students. kids that are going to college and getting their high school diploma at the same time. our school pays for their college but we have the kids there. our parents are more involved

but i think that is just because certain parents are more involved in their kids' education. those parents are more apt to look at a charter school and say, hey, this is what they have to offer because they do get involved. host: do you think this year from your view, i know you were not in both this year, but in your area in marshall, texas push against covered restrictions in school. do you think there was more pushback in the charter schools, more in the public schools? caller: like you said, i have been in the charter. we did not get a whole bunch of pushback. our parents and our teachers and our administrators, you know, we always work together kind of a thing. there were parents that were very concern and they wanted to make sure their kids were masked. last year that is what we did.

we masked up, we desanitized. host: did your schools stay open the whole time? caller: that was the benefit of our school. most of our curriculum was online to begin with so we were set up to do distant learning before the public schools. my wife, she teaches at a public school and, i mean, it was a big deal. when kids are so used to having a certain kind of curriculum delivered a certain way that, you know, it was hard for them to do that electronic distant learning switch. whereas our school, we were doing that kind of thing in class. now the only difference was you were at home doing it. host: what is your favorite topic to teach? caller: [laughs]

i love them all, i really do, and that is another good thing about our school. i get to teach them all. i am certified for english and speech but working at this school i have been able to teach math, algebra, history. i have enjoyed that. all of them. i like teaching all of it to be honest. host: thank you. family of teachers, thank you for what you and your wife do. carl in carlsbad, california, you are next. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. you are kind of jogging all over the place so let me make three points if you don't mind. to the immigrants in the article you read, if you are entering this country, you have every single right as all of us. second of all, the young lady that called and talked about

black and white and segregation. that is not occurring anymore. we sit side-by-side. those days are long over. and my point is, about the pt a, the pta was a fundamental institution within our country. the parents are there, just like they are speaking out in town hall meetings. pta was involved in all forms and levels of education. i would like to tell you that i was brought up in a private school system. i went to buckley in los angeles but my parents took us out of a private school, not because they

couldn't afford it, the education was not good enough. the public school system is wonderful. you know, it is the best system you can have because it is the best education you can get. host: did you ask why they put you in private school in the first place? caller: oh, well, just because they thought -- i am 46 years old. that is what they thought the best thing was. but when they realized i was not getting the best education, the best education is in public school. that is why i kind of disagree with the lady. black and white, this and that, no. public education is wonderful and we should be entirely grateful for the teachers across this country. it is beyond belief.

like the first responders, the teachers, i mean, imagine the kids that didn't get to go to prom during covid. if you don't go to school and enjoy middle school, junior high, high school, i mean, thinking back, you are over 21 years old. if you don't have those kind of blessing and the camaraderie, the unity, between students what did you have? but with parents, is the question you are asking about covid? i mean, this really wasn't a question besides masking, right? host: the role parents should play in general at this time when there has been, what we have seen, tension between parents and school boards.

these viral videos. just asking what role parents should play when it comes to public education. you mentioned teachers. here is the view of one teacher from a recent op-ed. jennifer wolf, new york high school teacher in new york state. she writes in her op-ed posted on cnn earlier this month, unfortunately, school board meetings have become a forum where scared and angry people dissent on the one accessible government structure they feel they have the most control over and then, without filter or grace, hurl personal insults demanding someone listen. as a teacher trying to educate students, some of whom are the children of parents participating in these outbursts, i have been thinking about what is at stake for the future generations if we don't change. we need to do better. our country deserves people willing to have difficult conversations and solve problems together. we need to turn toward each

other, not away from each other, in spaces where uncomfortable discussions are treated like a crime. without civil discourse we risk tumbling toward civil unrest. about five minutes left in this segment. continued to get your phone calls on phone lines for parents and teachers and others. david is a parent in kennesaw, georgia. caller: how are you doing this money? host: doing well. caller: the guy from california, you should've asked him, did his mama put him in a predominantly white school? everything in america is black and white. everything we do in america is based on white supremacy to keep you in charge. to the lady from pennsylvania, she put up an excellent point. we have a euro-centric curriculum based on indoctrination. the map itself shows the black

countries smaller than the white countries. have 60 you have to be to do that -- sick do you have to be to do that? we have a divided educational system. host: how are schools doing in kennesaw, georgia where you are? caller: you like to direct people to get them off topics. we have a divided system where the rich and white go to the best schools. we built all the white schools get the best schools. that happens all over america. it is indoctrination program where people like to send their kids to school like a nursery. the kids will go on youtube and see these parents who go to school and speak up and hear

about their kids being mistreated. what do you have to say about the people who actually teaching the students? you have to start there. you cannot always blame the parents. all the teachers are good and wholesome. that is fairytale stuff. host: this is alan in florida. you are next. are you with us? caller: good morning, john. just wanted to say some of the things that the person prior to me said, there was some truth to that about the inequality in the type of education in certain areas. but i was fortunate enough to go to public school and i think parents have a role. they have the right to know what is going on in their schools. as far as the curriculum and as

far as conduct and behavior of the student. but when it comes down, i think, to curriculum, i was an advanced honor student and we learned about the civil war. we learned about racism. we were even taught about the incident during the second world war where there were internment camps for asian american people. these things didn't turn us against the country. it was simply learning the truth. and it does help you to understand the fact that there are other cultures in this country. and i think parents do a great deal by setting a proper example for their children. it is right to have questions, it is right to be involved. but as you read from the op-ed, there has to be civility when

this happens. people have to be able to talk to one another, not be worried about being threatened, about acts of violence and that is the biggest thing. people aren't against the fact parents want to know. people are against how parents are acting. the claimant that they are creating at these school board meetings, at these schools. and i also believe that parents are parents, they are not doctors. the covid restrictions are put in place for the very safety and health of your children, and all the other children at the school. so it's not just you. host: on the outburst at school board meetings, the lack of stability, i wonder, getting a lot of focus now because of

viral twitter videos and youtube videos. do you think these things happened in the past, too and they are just getting amplified more by social media? do you think it is worse now than it was in the past? caller: i believe it is worse now than it was in the past. i am sure that it happened. there were subjects that brought some ire from parents before, but no, this is a situation that has been amplified by, unfortunately, yes, social media, but just the general state of the country politically. i do believe that the prior administration kind of gave people a pass, if you will, to act out, and to forget about civility. and even, unfortunately, to disregard statistics, to disregard truth and facts. all these things have been i

guess amplified by the rhetoric coming from the prior administration and the people that support them. caller: that's our last caller in this first segment of "washington journal." stick around. plenty more to talk about, including up next, "huffington post we will be joined by "huffington post" labor reporter dave jamieson to discuss the wave of worker strikes taking place across the united states. and later, more of your phone calls. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ >> exploring the people and events that tell the american story on american history tv. on lectures in history, two discussions about the american military and the revolutionary war. first, julianne sweet of baylor university talks about the capabilities of the continental army and militia troops, as well

as advantages and disadvantages the american and british forces had. craig bruce smith of william with university compares how the american and british militaries compared. and on the presidency, i look at the life and times of abraham looking, with historians david reynolds -- abraham lincoln, with historians david reynolds and hwb. watch american history tv every weekend. watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ >> sunday night on q &a, a retired california judge takes a look at legal system and offers suggestions on how to improve it. her latest book addresses judicial independence, mandatory minimum sentencing, racial bias in jury selections and police are form. >> particularly in urban

settings, but not exclusively, police officers, they are not interested in the fact that you didn't have your traffic signal on. they are not interested in it. what they want to do is have a reason to stop you to then engage in conversation and maybe then search your car. the u.s. supreme court has said to police officers, that's just fine. you can make these kinds of stops, and it doesn't matter that that's not really what you are really interested in. and i think what has to change is that the very nature of policing has to change, and we need to take that role out of policing. police should be used to investigate crimes and certainly to help prevent crimes, but i think traffic stops are major problems, because they disproportionately focus on people of color. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span. you can listen to "q&a" and all of our podcasts on our new c-span now