Welcome And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us today on the Wall Builders Show. You can find out more at wallbuilders.show if you want to catch some of the radio programs you might have missed or wallbuilders.com for everything else you need to help rebuild Liberty in the 250th. It's all there at wallbuilders.com. Rick Green here with David Barton. Tim is somewhere in Washington, D.C., leading people all over the place, taking them on tours of the monuments, the Capitol, got briefings going on, and David's going to join him. But I had to steal David away long enough to get an update on the State Board of Education. But David, before we go to state board, catch us up on what is a pastor's briefing. Like when they come to DC, what do they get?

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Well, actually, I'm going to back you up before that because we're actually up here prior to that because this is the week of America Reads the Bible. That's right. So this is the week when for twelve hours a day, for uh the week plus more, uh we're we're having literally people read the Bible, including President Trump will be part of the Bible reading as well. So we started this uh with Sunday night. I spoke up here Sunday night and they're opening ceremonies, and uh Tim is Tim and myself and and Cheryl, my wife, Tim's mom, uh she's reading part of the Bible, so they've got about five hundred.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Well no, wait, wait, wait, David. David, we gotta you got I always get my guesses wrong with you and Tim. Like I almost I'm like maybe one for a thousand over the years, but I'm gonna guess that if David Barton is gonna read out of the Bible for America Reads the Bible, hmm. I wonder if it would have anything to do with building a wall. Maybe wall builders. Maybe maybe the book of that's is that Peter? No, no. Is that Revelation? No, no. Let me think. Let me think. Oh, Nehemiah, I bet David Barton and Tim and Cheryl Barton would probably be reading out of the book of Nehemiah. Yeah, you know, it's it they I cheated though, because Bunny told me last week. So I I cheated, I know. They were very gracious. One time to be right.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

And by the way, Franklin Graham with Samaritan's Purse, he reads the story of the Good Samaritan with Samaritan's purse. And so that's pretty good. They were really nice in assigning because they assigned us the passages to read. Now, Tim and I may talk about it a little bit because both he and I have a chapter full of genealogies. So we're gonna have to read some Hebrew names for, I don't know, 40, 50, 60 verses. And I don't know, somehow. Are you gonna practice? Or are you just gonna wing it? I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of wing it because I'm gonna figure most people have never heard the actual Hebrew. And I I know when I'm in Israel, they don't say they don't pronounce it the same way we do in Texas. So I I'm gonna have the Texas pronunciation of Hebrew names. So and of course we all know that Texas is the most important. That's what really matters. And and we gotta teach everybody else how to talk right. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll we'll we'll get it down. We'll we'll turn those four syllable words into about 18 syllables and and draw them out there really good.

The 250th Year Rededication

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Well, I'm excited. I think I think it is actually the perfect reading. You guys are up uh, let's see, I guess tomorrow Wednesday. And um and people can follow along. That's a cool thing. When we had Bunny on last week, we put the website out, America Reads the Bible.com, America Reads the Bible.com. And you can follow all week, including when President Trump reads. I believe it's this evening that that he'll be reading. Of course, he's getting 2 Chronicles 714. If my people who are called by my name, I mean that's gonna be great. I I just love it, man. This is a really special thing.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yeah, it is really special. And uh also, too, um, when the the May event happens, well, the May event is happening May the 17th, we'll be up here on the National Mall. It's the National Day of uh of prayer and dedication. The fact that President Trump has called for America to rededicate itself to God on the 250th, I mean that that's what the Founding Fathers did at the beginning. They dedicated this thing to God. It was done through sermons and pastors and prayer and fasting proclamations and prayer and thanksgiving proclamations. And it's really interesting that rather than just having a two fiftieth celebration, it's a two fiftieth rededication to God celebration. And that is just that that's awesome. I I did not I would not have thought five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago that we would have something like that that harkens back to the original foundings, but it it's been really awesome to see what's going up here for sure.

Why Texas Education Affects Everyone

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Super exciting, super exciting. Uh, you know, the part of that rededication would would be even our education system, which is of course our our topic today, and and getting the Bible even not only are you guys gonna be reading it the whole through the whole Bible um for the nation, but getting the Bible back in the classroom and and this new um curriculum and reading list is incredible for for the state of Texas, which impacts the rest of the nation.

Down Ballot Power And Board Votes

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, and that's that's something because we're gonna we're gonna interview Julie Pickering, who's a state board of education member in Texas, and I want to hit something up front. This is really, really big. What happens in Texas is going across the nation, whether people like it or not, whether they like Texas or not, whether they can think education is important or not, it it's really a big deal. Texas and California drive the education system and all the other states because we're the ones that really determine the textbook content. Publishers publish in Texas and California because between those two states we have twenty-four percent of the nation's public school kids. That's about the only way they can make sure that they don't lose money when they publish textbooks. So you're either going to get what Texas does, you're gonna get what California does in your public school. And I think most people that would listen to this would definitely want Texas, and I hope everybody would, because it's more accurate and it's more historical based, not feelings-based. And I say that because Julie is one of 15 people who have the final say on what goes in these in in in the textbooks. Um I'm I'm one of the content advisors, and so I help determine the kind of things, but she's the one that votes on what actually makes it in. And this is really big because this is where down ballot races, and we don't talk much about down ballot races, we all think about our congressmen and senators and presidents and whatnot. But this down ballot race, probably most people have in Texas have no idea who their state board of education member is. And they would know their congressman probably. But a congressman has about one third of what these state board of education members have. And so to put this in perspective, the average congressman will represent about three quarters of a million people, and the average State Board of Education member will represent two million people. Now the State Board of Education race will cost about a hundred thousand dollars for for two million people. The average congressman's race is going to cost two point nine million dollars. So they will spend two hundred percent more. Actually, the state board of education races will be three percent of what a congressional race is and they represent two hundred percent more people. This is why you need to know who your down ballot people are. You need to know who your school board members are, not just your state school board, your local school board. We don't think about these people. They're the ones that have the most day-to-day impact. And so when you hear Julie talk today and talk about what's happening in the in this fight, and it is a fight in Texas, and you say, Well, you know, I I I'm in Michigan, I I'm in Maine, I'm in wherever. Oh yeah, this affects you because this affects the textbooks that you're gonna be seeing for the next 15 or so years in your state. And the philosophy that comes out of these textbooks will determine whether your state's gonna get more free or whether it's gonna get more socialistic Marxist. And that's kind of the two directions going in the nation now. So that's just a little bit on the sit-up. So let's get to to Julie and let her talk about what's going on. But anybody that's outside of Texas and thinks this is only a Texas-only program, no, no, no. This is for everybody in the nation because what happens here in this battle she's talking about is going to affect all of our kids, all 55 million school kids. And I think another really big issue here is that when you look at the Texas State Board of Education, there's 15 members on the board. And right now we've got 10 Republicans and we've got five Democrats, and so that should be fairly safe. It's not. Right now we're losing uh the votes on on a fairly sizable margin, uh, somewhere, and the well, we're losing generally three Republicans on most of the votes. So it's not who's Republican, who's Democrat, it's who's conservative and who's progressive. And you got progressive Republicans too. And so this really is a battle. And as Julie talks, I mean we've had to really Rick, you you spoke at the last State Board of Education meeting, you got dozens of people in there to speak as well, uh, because we have to put pressure on our own Republicans to get them to act and think like conservatives, and it's a really big deal. So getting them to do that is is huge. And don't think that because Texas is a Republican state that this is an easy battle, it's not, because even in Texas, people here don't pay attention to their down ballot races. And so they elect somebody with an R after their name, and they really should have a D after their name in many cases.

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Julie Pickering Joins The Fight

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, and and and even the testimony, you know, is so skewed. The left is really good at couching their arguments and making it sound like it's, you know, um it's just being nice and it's just being thoughtful of other people and all that kind of stuff. And you had Christians even getting up and saying, Well, you know, as a Christian, I don't want the Bible taught in schools because I don't want the teacher to have, you know, any influence on how my kid hears the Bible, things like that. And that's part of the reason it's so important to have members on the board that can ask questions of those people. And that was really actually kind of fun to watch. You know, we had uh we had Brandon on last week uh that was on the board, and then Julie this week, and both of them were just fantastic at um, you know, diving into when when people had that testimony, they would drill down a little bit more and really challenge them and make them defend what they were saying. A lot of times it would just fall apart. So it was really interesting to watch. Well, Julie Pickering is with us when we come back from the break. You're listening to the Wallboard Show. Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up, and too often no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, in every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now's your chance to experience this life-changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit Patriotacademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a Citizen Track for Adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at Patriotacademy.com. Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Our good friend Julie Pickering is with us from the State Board of Education in Texas, a true freedom fighter. We love you. Julie, thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yes, Rick. Thank you so much. Love to be with great patriots like yourself and wall builders.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Well, you have been in the trenches fighting for truth and just getting good history back into the classroom and good resources. And oh my goodness, what a battle. And uh, we're just so thankful for you and and and what you've done to be to be steadfast throughout this. And uh looks like some victories, looks like some things that are gonna take some more time. The battle's certainly not over, but we had to get you on uh to just give kind of a uh an update on on what happened at the uh state board hearings in the last couple of weeks and what you see coming and how people can help. So a lot to cover in a short period of time, but I guess just start with a recap of what happened over the last couple of weeks.

Freedom Rally And Media Silence

SPEAKER_00 11:25

So, yeah, so uh Rick, at our last Texas State Board of Education meeting um just a couple of weeks ago, we saw a tremendous outpouring of support from wonderful patriots like yourself and the Bartons and many great grassroots organizations, not just around Texas, but over but around the country, and just uh hundreds of people showing up to the Texas State Board of Education, really great people who love America and who love Texas and care about true education being taught, true history being taught to students in Texas. Um, and great people testified. And uh, we had a freedom rally at the Texas State Board of Education, which by the way, we had over 300 people at the Freedom Rally in the lobby of the Barbara Jordan building on the Capitol grounds. And the mainstream media was there and they refused to cover it. Not one mainstream media uh news outlet would cover that rally with all of those great patriots and great speakers there. So, you know, they're um it's always the fake news is going to try to hide the narrative or change the narrative. You know, the Washington Post put out an article um falsely titled that we refuse to listen to parents' um voices and and uh people's voices on wanting the Islamification of uh Texas public education, social studies, and history. But that's simply not the truth. I, you know, myself and many of our other members, we sat through almost 20 hours of public testimony, listening to everybody that came, except for in my case, I got up and walked out when the terrorists decided to to testify on what they wanted, on what their demands were for public education.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

And when I use that word thank you for doing that. That's a that that's exactly what I was gonna say. That's a meaningful word that is a designation given by not only our governor, but Governor DeSantis in in Florida, by the president. Yeah, we're talking about a a literally a designated terror organization that wants to have input on our textbooks.

CAIR Testimony And Endorsements

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Yes, I don't I don't throw that that term around lightly. That that term is a significant has a uh significant meaning. So, yes, it is a foreign uh terrorist organization as designated by Governor Abbott, who is under investigation of our Texas Rangers and Texas DPS and the Texas Attorney General's office and the joint terrorism task force. I mean, these people are under active uh terrorist investigations by our state and our country. And so whenever they sign up to testify on behalf of their terrorist organization, that is literally cared, the Council of American Islamic Relations testifying on what they want in education. And my constituents, the over 2 million uh constituents that I represent in Southeast Texas, they do not want me listening to or they do not want to entertain what a terrorist organization wants their children being taught.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

It's really shocking that that we didn't have more pushback, you know, that that there that any board member would want to hear from an organization like that. But that tells you what we're up against and and why having you and and uh and Brandon and and the others uh stand against this is so is so important. Um Julie, it's a it's a long drawn-out process. You guys spend, you know, literally years working on these these standards, going through all kinds of committees and feedback and and uh you know it's not easy. This is a difficult, difficult process. What would you say is kind of a could you give me a 30,000 feet view of the timeline of of uh like these standards won't actually be in the classroom for c a couple more years, I think if I understand right. And so you've got you've got an ongoing fight to keep what y'all got in in the last meeting um and and to prevent bad stuff from getting in and just to see this thing through. Can you get can you give us kind of a a blow-by-blow of what this looks like?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

I can. I can kind of give you a little background information where we're headed, but one thing that I want to address first is that the reason why you have so many people sitting in that room, so many of our state board of education elected members sitting in that room and dialoguing with care during their public testimony and even expressing support for care in public testimony is because they have actively sought out and received care's endorsement for their campaigns. And it's both sides of the aisle. It's not the Democrats, Democrats and Republicans that have asked care for their endorsement and that care is actively campaigning on their behalf. Okay. So that's why you see only a couple of us walking out of that room because many of those uh state board of education members sitting around that that you shaped a circle or sitting in that room, they are actively in their campaigns are actively endorsed and supported by care, Democrats and Republicans. Okay. So now let's go.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

That tells you how tone-deaf they can be and and and how few people are, you know, what we call men and women of Issacar that understand the times and know what to do. I mean, this is a significant uh issue on every front, let alone education. But anyway, I I digress. Go ahead.

How Texas Rewrites Social Studies

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Care has sent all the members of the Texas State Board of Education to every single one of our campaigns a um a request to support us, a questionnaire to fill out. You fill out the questionnaire, you send it back to them. Then they have to interview you. And then after they interview you, they decide on whether or not they are going to endorse your campaign or not. Okay. So even Democrats or Republican elected officials who said, Oh, I didn't realize care has endorsed me. That is a lie because you have to submit the questionnaire and they have to interview you to receive their endorsement. So they fully know that they are being endorsed and supported by care, which by the way, I can tell you my campaign has never responded to anything from a terrorist organization. We have not responded to an email, we have not responded to a request for an interview, we have not responded to anything. SBOE 7 does not entertain, listen to, or negotiate with terrorists. Period.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Nice. I love it. I love it. Okay, so let's now let's go back to the process and and and what you need help with, what the board uh will be doing over the next few weeks and months, frankly, even years, and and help our listeners know where they can plug in and help.

Beating The 2021–2022 Woke Draft

Patriotic Framework And Bible Context

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Okay, so I'm gonna take you back to 2122, 2021 and 2022, so you can understand how we got to here today. So in uh 2122 is when the the previous, before uh me and a few other members were elected the Texas State Board of Education, they were they took up this full rewrite of the social studies standards, what we call TEAKES, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. It's our standards, okay? We're the state of Texas. And so they took this up, this kindergarten through 12th grade rewrite. And let's just say the wheels came off the bus. The groups that were the work groups that were put together by that ex existing state board of education in 21 and 22, they those groups were populated with the teacher unions, the taxpayer-funded lobbyists, all of the organizations that oppose that that oppose parental rights and oppose our traditional values and oppose our Texas values, and that support critical race theory, support Marxism, support that children belong to the government. That is who was populating those work groups, which we have come affectionately to um term them as the woke groups. Okay. So um the work groups were populated by those taxpayer-funded lobbyists and those teacher unions. So they delivered standards in 2021, 2022 to the Texas State Board of Education that were fully woke. I mean, in those standards, it was going to teach that the uh Texas Rangers, our most elite police force in Texas, was a racist and oppressive organization. It was going to teach that the Alamo was founded in racism, um, in slavery and racism. I mean, I could just give you a whole list of the those standards that were filled with critical race theory. They were filled with woke indoctrination, they were filled with a uh Marxist worldview of Texas and America. And that to get those uh standards defeated, I mean, that was an all hands on deck. Even uh Governor Abbott was so wonderful to help us defeat those uh those those woke standards because the Texas State Board of Education at the time in 2022, that was Chairman Ellis, and he was fast tracking the approval of those standards. He was calling for special meetings to fast track that approval. But thank God we the people stood up. And you know, Rick always say the powers with we the people. So we the people stood up and we defeated those uh those standards. I believe Patriot Mobile to that meeting delivered 8,000 signatures. And there was a very big push for us to start with those very woke Marxist indoctrination standards from 21-22. But this state board of education, this new state board of education that we um we swore into office in 20, um, we were elected in 2024 and then swore in 2020. Um, sorry, 2022 and swore in 2023. This new state board of education, we started at zero. We started with a brand new even framework. We went back to the basics because we said, how did that go off the rails so bad in 21 and 22? We really wanted to address the problem at the root, and the root was that there was not a good framework in place that represented state laws on what is required and not allowed in social studies. So we went back to the very beginning and adopted a brand new framework and a framework that that includes what state law says has to be in there, that kindergarten through 12th grade social studies must be taught through a patriotic lens. It must be taught through that America is exceptional and Texas is exceptional, and that we are in the noblest experiment of humankind. Also, that it has to um contain Old Testament and New Testament scripture, and because state law says whenever you're teaching social studies, kindergarten through twelfth grade, you must use Old Testament and New Testament for the enrichment of knowledge. You know, our Moses law is a real thing. Our our legal system, our um laws are clearly come from uh the Old Testament and based on the Old Testament, you know, like in Texas, we have the Good Samaritan law. Well, what how do you understand the Good Samaritan law if you don't know what a Samaritan is? We have the Baby Moses law in Texas. How do you know what the baby Moses law, the intent, and what that is if you don't know the story of baby Moses? So just a lot of things like that that we wanted to get back to original intent with teaching our um our social studies. Also, that we have to use primary documents. And so there's a whole list of primary documents that by the law we must teach students kindergarten through twelfth grade, declaration of independence, federalist papers, U.S. Constitution, um, presidential speeches. There's a whole litany of um of primary documents now that we must teach. So we adopted a brand new framework last year in 2025. If um we adopted a new framework to build from. Then we went to uh the Texas State Board of Education. We paired up my members. Uh two members would get together and we would nominate a content expert advisor in social studies. So Pastor Brandon Hall and I, we paired up together and we, it was so funny. We didn't even have to like talk about it, who we wanted, whatever. We both said, I said, Brandon, who do you want? He goes, David Barton. He's like, Who do you want? Julie, or who do you want, Julie? I said, I want David Barton. So we were unanimous on that from the get-go. We didn't even have to discuss that or, you know, compromise or anything on that. We both knew exactly that we wanted one of the leading historians in um in America to help educate children in Texas. And that was David Barton. And so everybody put forward their content, who they wanted their content advisor to be. And so we've had it, we had a good consortium of advisors that's that repl that represents the Texas State Board of Education because we are a 10-5 Republican board. We're two-thirds majority Republican board. And so two-thirds of the content advisors tend to have more of a conservative or what I call Texas values or Republican worldview. They do not have this Marxist critical race theory worldview. And so, um, because that's representative of the board. So anyway, so they um went to work starting to help develop um uh taking our framework. They went ahead and started developing key topics and and uh themes throughout, which they brought back to the Texas State Board of Education, which we have had full audit um and amending the authority over all of these documents I'm telling you about.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

No, the they they do all this work, but it still gives you the chance to to review and edit and and y'all can take what you want and what you don't.

New Work Groups And Stopping Leaks

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Yes, they are it is merely a suggestion to this Texas State Board of Education of this is we this is what we think should be key topics and themes. And then we hold a meeting about it where we hear public testimony over it. It's published for the public. The public can come and testify on it. They can email us what they want or what they think changes, what should be added, what should be uh deducted. And so then we have a meeting about it, we make our amendments, and so then we adopted key theme, uh key themes and uh subtopics. So that was the next part of the process. Then after that, then we formed our new work groups. Well, there was a big push to bring back the existing uh woke groups, work groups from 21 and 22, which we said no, we're going to start fresh because of a lot of the members that approved those teacher unions and taxpayer-funded lobbyists to populate those work groups in 21-22. Those members aren't on the Texas State Board of Education anymore. There's a lot of new members on this board, like myself, and we wanted the authority to approve who we who we wanted out of the applicates to serve on those work groups. And so we started with brand new fresh work groups. I think we got some really great people appointed to those work groups, um, people that were fair-minded that weren't being pushed a narrative by a taxpayer-funded lobbyist or weren't being pushed a narrative by their teacher unions. And even, you know, in 21-22, we had problems with leaks. What happens inside of those work groups is supposed to be confidential and stay inside those work groups. And we saw in 21 and 22, people that were members of the teacher unions were going back to their unions and reporting on what was happening in those work groups. And then those unions were sending out these newsletters. And the public, Joe Q Public, was finding out about uh decisions made and things happening in the work group before the elected officials even knew, before the Texas State Board of Education elected officials who were who were elected to decide these things and and uh legislate on these things before they even knew what was happening. So um there was we really worked very hard, at least I can tell you I did for SBOE 7 to make sure that qualified professionals were put on those work groups, but it wasn't just professionals because they were part of a union or an association, really that they I reviewed. I'm telling you, Rick, I had over a hundred and I think I had over 140 applicants. And I went through myself personally every single resume, every single application, and reviewed it all because I wanted people that had great credentials that were that um understood the the power and understood the um the need for teaching social studies correctly to our children. These are future voters, these are future citizens of Texas and America, so we have to get this right.

Cliffhanger And Part Two Tease

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Our folks got to interrupt Julie's interview. We're out of time for today, but we will pick up with that tomorrow. You don't want to miss it. And then you want to share both today and tomorrow's program so that people can get educated about this. Thanks so much for listening to the Wall Volder Show.