Our education is in decline. Lawmakers and other education leaders are lying about the use of Common Core curriculae. In fact, some of them intentionally want our schools and students to fail.

That's what Charles Tuttle, a candidate for Superintendent of Public Schools, had to say on this episode of Plain Talk.

"We've got a a major decline in our educational system. The direction hasn't changed," he claimed.

"I think it's intentional," he continued, going on to say that he thinks "we've got a some that said when common core came in that they were going to dumb our kids down."

Somewhat paradoxically, Tuttle said that school districts are spending too much money, but also that the state isn't investing enough. "We have the money. The state is not poor when it comes to money," he said. "So there should be no reason why we cannot fund every school in North Dakota. It says right in the constitution, the legislative assembly shall provide for a uniform system of free public schools throughout the state."

He pointed to the school lunch debt that some schools carry as an example of something that should be the state's responsibility. So does that mean he supports a ballot measure that will likely appear on the November ballot to have the state cover the costs of school meals? Not necessarily. "The problem I have with that...is it goes in the constitution," he said, noting that the measure would be an amendment to the state constituiton and not statute.

Also on this episode, me and guest co-host Erin Oban talk about Measure 1 on the June ballot, which would implement a single-subject requirement for constituitonal amendments proposed by ballot measure or the Legislature, and the controversy around the arrest of polarizing political organizer Jerol Gohrick, who is facing two felony counts of terrorizing after an altercation with a work crew operating on his land.