SHOCKING Recall Election in San Francisco

Today on Sekulow, a shocking recall election in the liberal hub of San Francisco. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Folks, if it can happen in San Francisco, this can happen in your town, in your city, in your school district. Last night, San Francisco parents recalled three members of the city's school board. They were recalled because instead of focusing in on reopening schools, core curriculum, math, science, reading, and writing, the parents in San Francisco said there was too much focus on social justice, too much focus on race. A school board that spent deliberating for 17 months while schools were closed, they deliberated not on how to reopen schools, but on how to rename 44 schools. Now, if they wanted to do that at the same time as reopening, again, it's San Francisco.

They're not being replaced with right-wing Republicans there. But even in San Francisco, the parents said, you don't care about our kids. You're not thinking about your number one client here, the families, the children, who have to learn how to read and write. And these other issues of social justice and race, those come much later.

And you've got to get those basics. And I want you just to understand, when you think about your own school district right now, and you kind of, if you're fed up or you think that you don't have control, you might not have recalls where you are, but you have elections. In San Francisco, these elections results were massive. For instance, the school board President, Gabriel Lopez, who was recalled, 74% of voters voted to remove her from office. The vice President, 71%, and one of the other commissioners, 78%. Listen, the reason why the entire school board wasn't replaced was just because four of the other members weren't yet eligible for recall, and they're already nervous.

Listen to this. This is Jenny Lam, who is one of the school board members who wasn't eligible for recall yet. She says this was a wake-up call. Quote, with this evening's election, we changed course. We now must move forward to focus our energy back on students in our schools.

Think about what that means in the reverse. Their energy wasn't focused on the kids, and their whole job is to be the school board. So San Francisco schools were closed for 17 months. During that period, rather than focusing on reopening of the schools, it spent months, the school board, deliberating about how to rename 44 schools, including one named for Senator Dianne Feinstein. The board argued also about and changed abruptly their admissions rules to specific high schools, switching to a lottery system instead of merit-based.

Then the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District quit and was persuaded to come back only after board members agreed in writing to focus on reopening schools. So here was the problem, and that's why we did our school initiative during COVID. We helped over 1,500 families because they were using it as an opportunity, Harry, for social engineering.

Absolutely, and this process has been going on for quite some time. It's important to keep in mind that what we are seeing from the left is an attack on merit in favor of so-called social justice. This attack not only victimizes blacks, but Asian American students, and indeed all students. Often social justice, quote unquote, is advanced without using terms such as social justice or critical race theory. Instead, left-wing school boards have focused on inclusion, ethnomathematics, and tolerance, which are simply a cover for Marxism.

Yeah, I mean, that's the deal. Tolerance shouldn't be a cover, but when you now read through your kid's curriculum, you see those words, and the light bulbs need to start flashing. I'm in a process right now with my daughter where you look at schools, go into these curriculums. You see those words now, and you say, wait, I want to know a little bit more now, because it's not a bad word, tolerance. It's not bad to teach your kid, but they are using that. Local control is the key. We've got some initiatives that we'll be talking about when we come back, but local control is the key. Let's take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

What's it been like in your school district? The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, how it's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. I just want to repeat it again for everybody, because if this can happen in San Francisco, where parents, 74%, decided to recall the President of the school board, and then they also recalled the vice President and one of the commissioners, the only reason the whole school board probably wasn't recalled is because four of the school board members weren't eligible yet for recall. They haven't served long enough to be recalled. Now, I'm talking to a lot of you, you don't have recalls necessarily in your districts. You might have local ways to impeach, local ways to remove, but you'd always have elections. And what it shows is that you might live in a red state, in a red county, but your school board might not be reflective of that. You can make a difference. These are the most local of local elections.

They're not extremely expensive. Even the mayor of San Francisco, Mayor London Breed, said the voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else. What is all the else? It was San Francisco parents saying, and I just repeat that because everyone knows San Francisco is a very liberal place socially and economically. These parents said, you're spending way too much time on renaming schools, on social justice, and not enough time on teaching my kid how to read and write and do math and science.

And as Harry said, even trying to politicize math, politicize science, that is not what gets your kid to a good, likely, college, which is what most of this preparation is. The mayor of San Francisco also said, who was one of the most prominent endorsers of the recall, Mayor Breed said that we're fighting for what matters most, and the parents were, their children. Now, this was overwhelmingly, I mean, the numbers were 74%, 71%, and 78% in favor of a recall. And you look at this, and Thand Bennett's in our studios and our media center today, so it's great to have him here, but you look at this, we have fought, I will never forget the first initiative we undertook at the ACLJ when the pandemic with COVID started was. We knew, and they were closing schools, we have got to help parents.

And we had a meeting in our conference room, and I think we helped well over 1,500 families all over the country. But local control means local control, and liberals are starting to understand, Van, that local control means local control. Well, this was our message with the School Choice Initiative, Jay. I mean, from the very beginning, our top-line message was that parents should be in control.

Parents have sent a clear message all across the country. We don't want our school district to dabble in things that aren't education-based. We want our schools to educate our children.

And Jay, you and I were talking about this before the broadcast. This isn't even really a right-or-left issue, because I'll tell you, the parents that voted in this recall election and supported the recall, they're probably going to support a curriculum that looks different than the one that I would choose, right? But what we said in our School Choice Initiative, and Jordan headed this up for us, is that's okay. In fact, that's good, because parents should be in charge.

Remember how Terry McAuliffe, running for the governor of Virginia, lost his race with one sentence. I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. Play that again. I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. That was it. That was it.

He was done. And he brought in Randy Weigarden, the head of the Teachers Union, because there's two issues at play here. There's the privatization of every subject, and there's the Teachers Union. What this shows is that you can cut through the power of the Teachers Union by replacing the school board members, who oftentimes were, their campaigns, and again, we're not talking about huge amounts of money, but their campaigns were funded by the Teachers Union, because they took an interest in it. If the parents, who are, there's a lot more parents than there are teachers, and there's a lot more parents when they put their resources together and vote and show up, then there are Teachers Union's power. So you can flip the balance where this has been heavily favored towards unions and political causes, and even if San Francisco parents say, enough of this, I just want my kid to learn, get a good education, all these other issues you learn about later as you progress through education, and like Thanh said, those San Francisco parents, I guarantee you if you gave them curriculum choices, most of our listeners right now would probably not choose the curriculum they would like, but it's the curriculum that best reflects those parents and families, and that's what parental control means.

It doesn't mean right wing control or left wing control, but ultimately what you're doing is saying it's definitely not unions and outside political influencers in control. Well, you saw that in Chicago where the Teachers Union embedded themselves with refusing to open up, even when the health operations and Department of Health in Chicago said, yes, it's safe to open up the schools. Harry, the union didn't want those teachers back in the classroom, and finally they broke through because the parents said, enough, this is affecting our kids, this is affecting our economy, it's affecting our family. These are issues that cut to the family, and also it cuts across party lines.

These members that were taken out of office were taken out of office by a primarily Democratic voter base, with no question San Francisco is one of the most progressive liberal cities in the country. They took their school board out by 70% plus margins, which tells you that between, as Jordan said, the unions, which we saw in Chicago, and what's happened here, Harry, parents' voice matters, and that's why McAuliffe lost in Virginia and Youngkin won. I think that's precisely correct, and so just to re-emphasize a point that Thanh made earlier, we need local control, but more importantly we need parental control. We also probably need school vouchers, but we also need on school boards individuals who will follow real science, real history, real political science, and real opposition to teachers' unions, who typically want to get paid while staying at home. I mean, that's basically what we've seen over the last couple of years, that even when health experts are saying teachers can go back to school rooms safely, they have preferred, under the leadership of Randy Weingarten, they have preferred to stay at home. And so if you look at the election earthquake in Virginia, now followed by the explosive results in San Francisco, I think parents have sent a real message to both politicians and to teachers' unions. Keep in mind, many teachers' unions, they don't actually favor any real teaching.

Instead, they want to focus on social justice, which is not going to prepare African-American students to do well in math. And so instead of focusing on merit and instead of focusing on a real education, we are focused on pure politics. And I think to talk to everyone out there, your kids, your grandkids, maybe they go to a Christian school, maybe they're homeschooled, maybe you don't have kids, you're all paying for it. All of us are paying for this education. So we all have a voice here. Everyone has a reason, parents especially, but your vote is just the same because you're paying for it with your taxes. And when your taxes were paying in San Francisco to pay for renaming instead of reopening, people spoke up.

Now, this is an interesting question Timothy wrote in on Facebook. And I mean, I think you go a lot of different ways here. When did education become such a partisan issue? Politics within public school education has been an issue probably since the history of public schools in our country, with civil rights movements.

We kind of see the ACLJ doing that. 1960s civil rights, 1970s. But certainly today, what we saw is that it's a different level of political engagement, like math has become political.

Yeah, everything's become political. The Department of Justice, remember, was going to start investigating parents that were going to school board meetings, demanding that their school boards be accountable. Now, I doubt seriously Merrick Garland, I hope not, is going to go out to San Francisco and start an investigation since they overturned their sitting school board. Was it a conspiracy? Of the right?

No, I don't think so. This is telling you something, it tells everybody something. The shockwave in all of this, and Tan, you deal with politics all day, is this was not partisan. None of this has been partisan. Parents, right, left, and center are saying, enough, teach our kids how to read, write, and arithmetic. Well, Jay, not partisan among voters, not partisan among parents. I'll tell you, I still think there's a pretty significant divide nationally among the parties. Now, the voters, the parents are saying, we're unified on this, we want to control our own school boards. But, you know, you think about how this swept from Virginia to San Francisco. Virginia is historically a swing state, right? Yeah. It has trended blue recently, but the fact that there was a switch there might not have been as earth-shattering. But this, Jay, 78% for a commissioner of a school board in San Francisco, it is unifying parents, it's unifying voters.

I'd say this, though, to you, Jordan. As we head into 2022, there's an opportunity and a challenge for both parties here. It's clear what voters want, which party, or maybe both parties, which party will answer that call. Yeah, I don't usually quote the Washington Post in this kind of large state, but the fact is they do realize what we're all seeing. And they said, the recall election is the latest signal that mainstream voters, not right or left, mainstream voters, even a liberal city like San Francisco have grown frustrated with public schools during the pandemic. Education, particularly its struggles with COVID measures and racial justice, is expected to play a prominent role in elections across the country. The results in San Francisco offer another warning sign for Democrats. You embrace the teachers unions, you embrace radical left policies instead of just math, science, reading, and writing, and people are paying attention right now.

And you can have surprise election results all across the country because people have had enough with these elected officials who were bought off by outside interest groups. We'll be right back. We're personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org. Alright, welcome back to Sekulow.

We are taking your phone calls to at 1-800-684-3110. We talked about those shocking election results in San Francisco. We're going to continue to discuss that in the broadcast, but we're joined right now by former Secretary of State and our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo.

I might ask him about that in a bit, but I do want to get to what we've seen this week, Secretary Pompeo. News all over the place with different narratives about the threat of Russia actually attacking Ukraine with, like, a full-scale invasion. I mean, there were reports that it was going to happen today. There's also reports that Russia is pulling back troops. What do you read about where this stands as we speak? Well, Jordan, it appears to me that the Russians are maintaining a massive force, both on their western flank on the Ukrainian border as well as in Belarus. And so the risk that Putin decides to extract through coercive measures, something from the West, something from the United States, I think is still real. No, yesterday he said he was moving some stuff around.

Fair enough. He may well be, but I don't think the moment has passed. I think Putin is still intent on pushing the Biden administration around, seeing how much he can get from them if they continue to show weakness.

Yeah, I have a question, Mike. The President gave a speech, it was yesterday, as an update to the diplomatic efforts, and he also issued a warning. He said, quote, if Russia proceeds, we will rally the world. Now, thus far, the world doesn't seem to be very united. In fact, NATO doesn't seem to be very united, and Germany is stone silent because they want the Nordstrom, of course, the gas line to go through. What's your sense of what the President said yesterday, and how would you handle it if you were the President? I think you're absolutely right.

I think he was wishing, not stating a matter of fact. I think Europeans in the East have one view, and the Baltic states have one view. You know this well when you made the good work that you did in Europe with the ECJ.

You know that this is not a monolithic block, for sure. The Germans seem intent on trying to find a way not to have to stand up to Russia, whether it was finishing the Nordstrom 2 pipeline or allowing Putin to run roughshod over more broadly their political system. There is deep division within Europe, and I watched Secretary General of NATO, Secretary General Stoltenberg, a good man, trying to corral these animals. But that task falls to leadership from the United States, and it has been woefully absent.

President Biden yesterday said that this could be days, weeks, months. And I look at what Russia is doing. Is it part of their strategy? I mean, again, they do have the, like you said, the resources to invade if they want to. But it's also like if we surround, if we can just surround a country with 100,000 plus troops, and we just keep that chokehold, then the world will keep making concessions.

So in a sense, without invading, they get what they want. And so I saw that the ball, it seemed like the can was kicked down the road a bit, even in his own remarks, still warning that it could happen at any moment. But also that it could be months long, that we could see, and it already has been months long, so it could continue on this kind of chokehold of Ukraine.

Do you remember when I spent time with Putin and with my counterpart and fellow named Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, they didn't have a stopwatch. They were determined to continue their efforts. I think they saw this change, this change from President Trump to President Biden, and said this is our window of opportunity.

Let's begin to exert more and more pressure until we find steel, until we find resolve. They haven't seen that yet. Your point's exactly right. We saw the cyber attacks yesterday. These were very significant inside of Ukraine. They'll have repercussions for American companies that are doing business there as well. This is serious stuff, and I don't expect, even if Putin should pull back, he brings the division back or he moves some equipment out of Belarus, I don't expect to see any reduction in how Vladimir Putin is applying pressure against the United States and Europe until the United States demonstrates, not through press conferences, not through speeches, but through actual deeds that we're prepared to take risk, but to impose costs on Russia in doing so. If they don't see that, if they don't see deterrence and strength from the United States, they'll continue to push us around. One of the things that is interesting here is I think, Mike, that Putin's plan, at least part of what he was trying to accomplish, and maybe he has accomplished it, was to weaken NATO and fracture NATO.

It's kind of like asymmetrical warfare here. I use that quote from Israeli often where it says diplomacy can be war, depending on how that diplomacy is used. I mean, he has fractured NATO, at least in all appearance it has fractured NATO.

The Secretary of Defense is dealing with that in Geneva today. But if that was a goal, has Putin already accomplished one of the things he wanted to do? Every time you see a statement from Germany conflict with someone from Sweden or Finland or one of the Nordic countries or Baltic countries or Estonia, he is accomplishing a purpose. He is sending his message to the world that this vaunted force, this NATO force, this U.S. transatlantic alliance is weaker than everyone thinks it is. Don't forget, too, even as this is going on in Ukraine, don't forget what's going on in other parts of Europe, specifically in Vienna, where the United States is sitting on the same side of the table with the Russians and the Chinese negotiating with the Iranians. So Putin is playing a multi-level game.

He is playing a very strategic effort. And what's missing, what's different, Jay, is that remember Putin hasn't changed. Why didn't this happen for the last four years? Putin hasn't changed. What changed was American resolve and leadership. That's the thing that is fundamentally missing here.

And whether it's caving and appeasing the Iranians or allowing the Russians to shut down pipeline in the southeast part of our country for three days and deny gas to people of southeast United States, these are the things that bad guys, authoritarian and dictator, see around the world and they will work alongside of each other to undermine our country and American interests. You know, one of the times you're switching, getting domestic for a little bit here, you travel the country, you work with a lot of candidates right now across the country. They're talking to voters. You're talking to voters every day. And we know one of the top issues is for its parents and education and what's happened in the public schools. And we saw last night in San Francisco, Secretary Pompeo, pretty something amazing where voters there, not particularly conservative, just parents who were thinking about their kids, voted 70 plus percent to recall the school board President, vice President, and the one commissioner who was subject already to a recall. And they did it because they said the school board was spending too much time on social justice, racial issues, renaming schools instead of reopening schools. This message, I know that you're traveling the country, I think it's not just in the most liberal cities, it's all across the country, parents waking up that they do have the power if they speak up and they shouldn't feel scared to because the Department of Justice tries to label them as terrorists. Jordan, parents from the inner city, parents from rural environments, parents from big towns and small towns all across America want one thing for their kids. They want them to be able to live the American way of life and have a chance to do just a little bit better than they did. And they saw these last two years that the kids were being taught garbage, things that were going to help them.

The two plus two wasn't really four. And that the most important thing to talk about was one's race. That doesn't work for anyone.

That's not going to work for any parents. The way you saw in San Francisco, it happened in my hometown of Wichita, Kansas, where we had school board members thrown out. It was just enough of this silliness. This wasn't partisan. It wasn't political. It was about making sure that the most important institution, right, the places we teach our children is actually delivering on that outcome for kids all across the country.

So it doesn't surprise me at all what happened in San Francisco yesterday. As always, Secretary Pompeo, we appreciate our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, part of the ACLJ team because of you folks, because of our supporters. Secretary Pompeo is not just someone who joins us on the broadcast, but is part of the ACLJ team because of our financial contributors. You want to support the work of the ACLJ?

That's at ACLJ.org. You know, Secretary Pompeo, before being the CIA and before being at the State Department, was a member of Congress. He understands all of these issues.

So when we're working with him behind the scenes at the ACLJ, not just on the broadcast, we're able to go to those resources, too. The unbelievable Intel world, the diplomatic world, but also as a member of Congress, representing people, as a hometown in Wichita, Kansas, how this is happening everywhere across the country if parents are willing to engage. We come back from the break. We're going to get more into what's happened in San Francisco. What does it mean for your community? If you've had engagement with your school boards, we want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. That's 800-684-3110.

Back with more in a moment. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We were just joined by Secretary Pompeo. We talked a little about Ukraine and Russia, but we also talked with him about what's happening in school districts across the country. And one shocking moment, and again, it's also shocking to me when parents actually get involved, by the way, but it has shocked the liberal world, especially the elected world. In San Francisco, parents voted to have a recall election on the school board. When the recall vote was done last night, 74 percent, 74 percent of parents and people who vote in the district, taxpayers who pay for those schools, voted to recall the school board President. The same goes for the vice President and the one commissioner who was eligible. Now, if you say, well, why wasn't the whole school board?

It's because four, under their recall rules in California, and maybe locally in San Francisco, weren't yet eligible for recall. But even those who weren't eligible for recall have gotten the wake-up call that instead of spending 17 months while the schools were closed on renaming schools for what was politically correct, they should have spent those 17 months on how to reopen the schools. And then all the commissioners, whether in good faith or not, have gotten the message. So one of the current commissioners who wasn't yet eligible for recall, Jenny Lamb, said, quote, with this evening's election, we changed course.

Think about that. She wasn't recalled, but she sees the writing on the wall. That means that commissioner is a different commissioner today for those parents. She says, we now must move forward to focus our energy back on our students and our schools, acknowledging that they got way, way into the weeds on political correctness and social justice and forgot about reading and writing, math and science, and in San Francisco's case, after 17 months, fighting with the teachers' unions to get the schools reopened. We're seeing a divide. Many of these school board members, even in your red cities, folks, their campaigns get funded by teachers' unions. That's why with these shutdowns and the mandates on this and that, they're so in line. But what even liberal politicians like the mayor of San Francisco realized is that this is hurting us. We can't let these unions – so the mayor of San Francisco supported this recall effort. I want to hear from you. We now have the time in the broadcast to hear from parents across the country. Have you re-engaged your school board and your community? And the action that we say – we were talking to Secretary Pompeo. It may have not made as much news, but in Wichita, Kansas, same thing was done. Tennessee.

Yes, and so it may be different words used. It may be election, it may be recall, it may be impeach, some kind of removal process. But wherever you are, they're up for re-election at some point. And these are not really expensive races.

They're just races most people don't pay attention to. So give us a call. We want to hear from you on what's happening in your community with your kids at your schools.

1-800-684-3110, that's 1-800-684-3110. I do think it's important for people to understand that when we started the ACLJ – and I'm talking well over now, 30 years ago, back in the 80s – school boards – you'll remember this as a kid. School boards is where we cut our teeth. I mean, it was most – I would say probably in those days 30 percent of our cases were in front of school boards.

Metropolis, Illinois, out in parts of Florida that you don't even hear about. We were in school boards. And then, you know, as the organization got bigger, you know, obviously the cases got bigger. But we never lost the focus on the idea of parental control of schools.

And what's happened with COVID – and Harry, we only have a minute here – is it kind of highlighted what was going on. And we do want to hear from you on this, folks, at 800-684-3110. I think you're right. And I think one of the things that was highlighted is that in school district after school district, school boards, along with the assistance of the teachers union, has pled common sense. And so, even in San Francisco, you now have parents saying, this is crazy.

Keep in mind that Imbram X. Kendi argues that the regular American's drive for a race-neutral society is worse than a cross-burning Klan member. That is crazy stuff. But these well-educated elites, they are drinking this Kool-Aid massively. But they're getting thrown out of office now. That's what's happening in San Francisco. Give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. We're going to go right to the phones at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to go to Cy who's in California online too. Hey Cy, welcome to Sekulow. Hey, good day gentlemen. I wanted to say I'm a longtime listener and I support you when I can. Thanks. I'm an Army veteran of 10 years. Thank you for your service. OIF 1 and 2.

Thank you, sir. So we had a school board meeting last night and our school board is half split. We're having a problem with COVID measures and supporting our children. So my question to you was this election, was it a special election to recall these officials or was it a regularly scheduled election? So as a Californian you use that word recall. It happened at the state level with Newsom. There was enough people signed a petition to then hold a vote on whether or not to recall. So it's a multi-step process and that process when we say recall is kind of unique to California. All of these officials, there's a removal process for every kind of elected official that is outside of just the normal elections.

Some are a little bit more specific on like if they committed a crime or if they committed some illegal activity, but others are more open-ended just like you don't think they're doing a good job. So you've got to kind of learn in your community. I don't want to say for 100% that in every school district in California it works the same. It seems like it's similar to the state officials so that where if you get enough people to say, we want to host the elections, that's a cost issue. So voters in that district decide we want to use the tax dollars to host this kind of election, you sign a petition to do that, you put those petitions forward, then you get to have the election whether to recall or not.

That's right. What's interesting here is this was the recall of a local school board. But the fact of the matter in San Francisco, so it was in a progressive community, but the fact of the matter, I want to go to a fan on this. If you're a member of Congress right now and you're watching this and you're saying, no wonder 30 Democrats have said they're not running for reelection here because this is a shockwave.

No doubt it's a shockwave, Jay. And look, I mean while impacting change on a local level might seem easier, although I would say in some ways it is harder because of what Jordan's describing. The rules are not uniform. You have to be involved.

You have to be engaged. But then you can impact change quickly. However, if you zoom out on a national level, if you look towards the 2022 midterms, I would tell you, Jay, the Republican Party is probably more naturally positioned to take advantage of this. However, if you look race by race, I can almost guarantee you the candidate, regardless of whether they're a Republican or a Democrat, who recognizes that this is an issue, speaks to the real issue and addresses the real challenges that people are facing.

Jordan, Jay, that's the candidate that's going to win in that national election. So I think it's a message, but listen to what the parents in San Francisco had to say. The school board has not been prioritizing our children's education, instead focusing on renaming schools and closing merit-based admissions. Parents are simply not going to put up with this type of administration anymore.

San Francisco, as we all know, is one of the richest cities in the country. We're bottom 7% of reading levels in the state of California. Doesn't that answer the whole thing, Harry? I mean, the parents at the end of the day, Republicans, Democrats, progressives or conservatives, want their kids to learn how to read, write and do arithmetic.

I think that's precisely correct. And so the effort to rename schools rather than educate students is part of what might be called monocausality, meaning that race or race and gender explains everything. So you have so-called anti-racist commentators who assert that racism has now become the most common denominator of political controversies, issues long debated on other grounds. The Senate filibuster rule, for instance, voter ID laws, standardized testing, math, statistics, meritocracy are now subject to racialized skepticism. To this list, mirroring the nation's radicalized discourse on gender and sex, now the right to bear arms embedded in the Second Amendment of the Constitution has now been reframed as a race issue.

And seeing everything through the lens of race, Abram X. Kendi, after arguing the use of standardized tests to measure aptitude and intelligence as one of the most effective racist policies ever devised to degrade black minds and legally exclude black bodies, now claims that a radical revolutionary Jesus came to free people from the clutches of the American empire. And so that is the Kool-Aid that the San Francisco board has been drinking from. And I think the people of San Francisco, even though they are quite liberal, they recognize that this is now a bridge too far. It's a bridge too far, and I go back to it again, it's going to have repercussions on a national level, it has to. It's going to have ramifications on a national level, Jay, and we are going to help bring that about.

And I don't necessarily even mean which candidates are elected. Jay, we are going to be with parents all across the nation to make sure that they achieve local control over their school boards. We've said it time and time again, we've been there in the trenches, we've been in the school board meetings, it is the parents of children, whether they're conservative, liberal, or independent, Jay, that should determine what their curriculum is. But on a national level, Jay, when you start talking about federal dollars, those federal dollars come with strings, and that's where the effort becomes national. We have a big meeting today, we've got a lot of our people in from D.C., policy people we've got joining, because we're about to launch an effort probably about a month from now, when you'll get the first email about it, and start hearing us talk about it more directly. So that these issues that we talk about on the show today are sometimes in Washington, but sometimes outside of Washington, because to the school board level, where the ACLJ has been effective is right in the beginning of COVID, assisting those 1,500 families from everything from food, to iPads, to getting the right high-speed Internet to their home. All those programs exist, it was helping them navigate it, because the school districts just shut down. They said, turn your iPad on. What if you don't have one?

Or maybe the school gave you an iPad, but you don't have high-speed Internet, or enough network data where you are to be able to operate. That kid was, effectively, they talk about all these race issues and people being left behind, they literally were being left behind, and we assisted those families. And what we realized from that effort is we got to get more involved as the expertise that we have at the ACLJ at this level. Not that we haven't been since our founding, because we've been the lawyers there. But we also now have the policy expertise and the political expertise to take this to the next level. So know that your ACLJ is going to launch a new effort, not just a new initiative, but really a new affiliate organization of the ACLJ to take these issues directly to the politicians in your hometown.

And what that does is, like a situation in San Francisco, sometimes you'll be working in very progressive cities to help the very progressive parents get a very better education, a much better education for their kids. So it's going to cross, in some sense, it's going to cross political lines. But we believe that we do have, as Jordan said, we've got a whole group of people here in their meeting this afternoon with the next generation of leadership to get in.

It's kind of coming back, actually, to where we started, but now we are so much bigger as an entity with more resources so we could do this not on a coffee table, a little round table, I can still keep in my office where this all started, but rather at a national scale that will have a real impact. And we're going to be able to take direct action on these situations. But these parents are the ones that deserve the credit here.

They took the lead. Well, to underscore your point, Jay, this is with the mayor of San Francisco, obviously a liberal, this is what she said, it's time we refocus our efforts on the basics of providing quality education for all students. Jay, that's a concession that they weren't focusing on that, and that's why parents got upset. One point I did want to make about the federal nexus here, Jay, there's always going to be a lot of education dollars coming out of Washington, D.C. One of the things that we're focused on is as those dollars go back to the states, we want to make sure they don't come with strings that end up causing this exact problem that we're seeing in San Francisco.

We want to make sure that as those dollars flow to the states and flow to the local jurisdiction that parents retain control. Remember the demonization of Secretary DeVos because she supported school choice efforts? Now, all the data on school choice efforts, when you have these robust school choice programs, guess what improves? Public schools. Because the school board members realize we've got to compete, so we can't spend all of our time on just renaming schools, and there may be some schools that need to be renamed out there.

There may be some names out there that historically, okay, that shouldn't be that difficult as a country. But when it becomes 100 percent of your focus is social justice, and San Francisco, one of the richest, I think, city in the country, has one of the lowest reading rates in the state of California. Unreal. I mean, that speaks volumes. So what also speaks to, and I want to talk directly to, a lot of these elites in every state and city, their kids didn't go to these schools and don't go to these schools. So what you're seeing is an uprising of voters who have been told by the left for decades, we're the party for you. The union, teachers union, we're looking out for your kid. And they're realizing, no, they're not. And their kids don't even go to these schools. Gavin Newsom's kids didn't have 17 months off school because they go to a private school.

And, again, he was almost recalled. There were enough petitions. So you've got an unbelievable amount of power when you're talking about these local, very local elections. But you have to be willing to engage. We're going to help you through our new initiative at the ACLJ. And we want to take your phone calls.

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ACLJ.org. Welcome back to SECU. We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

You still have time to call in. My question to you is, if you're a parent, have you attended a school board meeting recently? And maybe it's been years, no judgment. You might have thought everything was fine in your school district. It's tough to get things out of your kids. Remember, when you're talking about young kids, they're just saying, this is what my teacher taught me, so they're not necessarily running home saying, oh, no, no, this conflicts with political ideology or something like that.

That's just being ingrained. But I want to go to Bill in Wyoming. If you want to talk to us on the air, 1-800-684-3110. If you want to be on the show today, call now. Yeah, we've got more information, too, about what you can do in California, 1-800-684-3110. Hey, Bill, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. I'd like your gentleman's opinion on this. Do you think this recall election would either be in alignment or agreement with not only what happened in Virginia, but also concerning Newsom in California there? Yeah, I mean, even the Newsom, there were enough people signing the petition to hold the vote on the recall. And ultimately, he wasn't recalled, and that's difficult because he's a Democrat stronghold state. But the criticism of Newsom, I think what you've seen, the tentacles of that reached down to a more local level where it's a bit easier to recall someone, and it's not about so much as you have to pick the replacement. I think if all the voters we're doing in California were saying get rid of Newsom, and they could all unite and say maybe someone else comes in as like the lieutenant governor or something, he would have been recalled. The issue is it becomes partisan at the state level when you're a governor because you actually have to pick the replacement, and the replacement's got to have enough votes.

We pulled up in California because we have a lot of California listeners. So if you're wondering, can I do this in my school district in California, here's the rules. In California, for the officials of a city, county, school district, or county board of education, or any resident voting district, signatures from the following percentage of registered voters are required for a recall, 10% in jurisdictions with 100,000 or more registered voters.

So you need 10,000 signatures. And you can recall your school board. Now, how it becomes less political at this local level is you don't have to then pick a replacement that gets a certain percent. You vote to recall, they are gone.

They then get an interim replacement by probably your mayor, and then they'll be up for elections the next election cycle. But what's happening is parents are reacting. Now, I want to play, we played this earlier, I want to play it again. It's the Terry McAuliffe bite because I think this cost him the Virginia election for governor. So listen to it. I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. Well, there you go.

That bite pretty much ended his campaign. I don't think parents should be telling teachers in school what their kids should be taught. But we believe in local control. The San Francisco, much different makeup of their body politic, much more progressive and liberal, said the same thing. We think parents should have the right of control here. And that is interesting.

I'll go to Pam first, then Harry. That that, from Virginia to San Francisco, was the same theme. The same issues animated both those elections, Jay. I mean, the only thing different here was the jurisdiction. But there really couldn't have been almost a broader difference in the jurisdiction, right?

I mean, Virginia, a swing state, San Francisco, probably the most liberal urban area in the country. So what it tells me, Jay, politically, is that every jurisdiction, both locally and federally, when it comes to federal elections, Jay, every jurisdiction is in play on this one. Yeah.

And so, Harry, you look at it. I'm trying to draw on the analysis of it transcends politics and it's transcending political parties here, which is very unique. I think that's correct. And I think a piece of that is arrogance. And another piece is pure hubris.

And I think at the end of the day, arrogance is entitled to its own reward. So, for instance, if we broaden out the discussion and we look at Oregon State, they mandate that black and brown students no longer have to demonstrate competence in math, English and science. That is fundamentally a racist idea grounded in hubris. In other words, black students don't need to learn these things. And guess what? This means that they will be entitled to one thing and one thing only upon graduating from high school in Oregon. Unemployment compensation.

So what we are doing is creating a dependency class. So this is a fundamental issue for all Americans and all Americans need to be engaged in it to transform school districts from each coast, from California to Florida, from Michigan to Alabama. I like the comments we're getting on YouTube, Jordan. It says, Michelle says, this is the perfect example of how and why elections have consequences. And even after elections, there are still consequences. Janice on YouTube says, the parents are doing the right thing, good to hear, we need a lot more of this.

Sheila on YouTube said, way to stand up. I think this is telltale in how we're going to be able to now engage this on a local level, at a massive local level for parents, not just at school board issues, but certainly on school board issues, is going to make a very unique, I think, engagement for the ACLJ in the months ahead. And why we've engaged this is when you look at the big picture here, by the time we get to the issues in Washington, D.C., the federal, big federal issues, your kids have been educated. And if they're being indoctrinated, instead of being educated on the basics, so where they can go to college and they can decide what beliefs they want to have, they can talk to you as a parent, you might share their same political beliefs, you might have different beliefs.

Again, that's all fine. But we all want American kids to be able to compete in a global economy. That means getting a good education. That's not so partisan. What is partisan is that you've got to take on the teachers unions.

Now, at the national level, they have an unbelievable amount of power in Washington, D.C., but the local level, their endorsement now could become a negative. So let's push that. And it's not an anti-teacher push. It's because the teacher union is really not about the teachers anymore. Right.

So Howard on YouTube asked this. How do you think the November elections will be affected by the education issue? I think there's going to be two issues. One is pocketbook issues. This is the other issue, Jay.

And look, I want to just quickly say, I think this is what makes us unique at the ACLJ. We can help you solve both problems. Jay, look, some people realize that elections have a huge impact on this issue, and then other people realize that you've got to work in between elections at school boards to impact change.

Here's the truth, Jay. You've got to do both. You've got to pay attention at the ballot box, both federally and locally, but then you have to stay engaged between elections. Jay, I really can't think of another organization more uniquely situated to help with both of those aspects. And we're meeting this afternoon, and Jordan will get into it more in the days and weeks ahead, with some major projects that we're about to undertake.

Yeah, that's right. So we're going to take all of what we know at the ACLJ, and we talked about these issues with the policy side, but we're going to start taking it locally. State level, districts, counties, school boards, empowering you. It also will be a way for you to let us know if there's something going on bigger than just affecting maybe a student, which we already do.

ACLJ.org forward slash help if you need that kind of assistance. We assisted 1,500 families when all these COVID closures began. What we're going to be able to do is go in a more effective way to directly engage these issues. So taking the full weight of the ACLJ into these school districts. And not just one lawyer from the ACLJ, but an entire organization set up as an affiliate organization of the ACLJ to take it to the next level. We're meeting on it today.

You're going to learn more about it soon. Support our work at ACLJ.org. You have opened all these doors for us. Whether it's having Secretary Pompeo, whether it's the meeting we're doing today on this new initiative, it's because of your support at ACLJ.org. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org.