In this episode of the Rural Voice, the co-hosts interview United States Congressman Mike Bost regarding his work on rural education and support of the Rural Education Investment Act. This act suggests investing in rural education as directed by local school districts throughout the United States. Representative Bost suggests that each local school board has its own individual challenges and therefore, funding should be directed by each school district. He discusses many of the prevailing trends in rural education. Representative Bost represents12 counties in Illinois’ 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sworn into office on January 6, 2015, Mike is continuing the fight for our Southern Illinois’ values in Washington – a fight he began in the U.S. military, then as a first responder, a local job creator, and a state representative. In the 116th Congress, Rep. Bost serves on three key committees: Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and Transportation & Infrastructure. Mike also serves on the following Subcommittees: Commodities, Exchanges, Energy, and Credit; and Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research under Agriculture; Oversight and Investigations, and as the lead Republican on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs under Veterans' Affairs; and Highways and Transit; Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials; Highways and Transit; and Water Resources and Environment under Transportation and Infrastructure.
Jared Bigham:
Welcome to another episode of the NREA podcast. I am Jared Bigham, co-hosting with Dr. Allen Pratt,
and we are very excited today to have United States Congressman Mike Bost from the 12th district of
Illinois with us today. And this is going to be a lively podcast because things move fast in Washington,
and he's probably just stepping in a broom closet somewhere to call us. So, Allen, let's get it rolling for
him.
Allen Pratt:
Well, thanks again Congressman Bost for being with us today, and we've got a couple of questions we're
going to start off with. kind of tell us about yourself and your connection to rural Southern Illinois to let
our listeners know what you're about in Southern Illinois.
Mike Bost:
And that's just it. A lot of your listeners, if they're not from Illinois, they don't realize how far out of
Chicago I am. I'm about six hours out of Chicago, a little town called Murphysboro, right in near
Southern Illinois University. Very rural district except for the area in the North. It is the suburbs around
St. Louis. But I spent 20 years in the state legislature. First off, I was born and raised right there where I
represent. A matter of fact, my family settled it when it was a territory, both on my mom's side and my
dad's side. My wife is from there. We've got three children, 11 grandchildren, and all attend schools and
have a part of the community and everything there.
Mike Bost:
But I did spend 20 years in the state legislature. Many of those years, I was actually on the Elementary
and Secondary Education Committee, as well as the Higher Education Committee. And so, the rural
problems that exist in education, whether it's funding streams, whether it's just a lack of the ability to
maintain teachers that can be paid more in suburban areas and/or in the inner cities, it's a constant
battle. You hold on to the ones that love it there, but you've also got to try to encourage those that
would come and be there and enjoy it there.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And we always love having people on that have rural roots and can give that perspective,
especially in leadership positions like yours. And education in general is always a hot topic, but I think
with, maybe, the past presidential election where rural America felt like they were a little bit more
engaged and they had a voice in that election, and it's highlighted rural America quite a bit more the
past two or three years. So, we know you're supporting the Rural Education Investment Act. Why is that
needed? So, if you can explain a little bit more about it and why you think, with the climate we're in, in
that ecosystem around workforce development, and all those other moving parts, how's this going to
impact that?
Mike Bost:
Well, first off, one of the most important things, no matter where a student is, whether they're in an
inner city or whether they're in the suburbs, or whether they're in a rural area, access to high quality
teachers that have the background, not only the education, but also have mentorship that's available to
them to make them... Because everybody understands this with education, education is one thing, but
experience with that education is just vitally important. And so, when you bring in new teachers, the
opportunity for those teachers to be mentored, but not like... Almost every school district in this nation,
or every state in the nation, has some form of... We all have them. Not substitute teachers, but the
teachers that are going to college and they come in and they get their training. But what this does, it's a
longer reach, to reach out and get the education necessary and gaining the experience necessary. And
that's why it's vitally important.
Mike Bost:
That outcome that is needed, like I said, I can get my higher education members from my more liberal
universities upset sometimes because I will say that knowledge is not wisdom, and they go, "Oh, no, it is.
It is. No, no." Wisdom is taking the knowledge you have and properly applying it. And this gives the
opportunity for these teachers that work under this system to get that wisdom from other teachers
where they can then [inaudible 00:05:05] and others, as well.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. Well, I can completely relate because in my twenties, I thought I was the wisest person in my
community, and it was through a lot of trial and error I learned that-
Mike Bost:
My first elected office was a County Board seat, and I was 23 years old, and I wish I had written down all
that stuff that I thought I knew.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah.
Allen Pratt:
That's a good point.
Jared Bigham:
And I know Allen's got a couple of questions here for you about how we can change the landscape in
this. Before he dives into that, I'm a fourth generation rural educator. I was the principal where my dad
was principal and where my grandmother had been a teacher and my great grandmother had been a
one room school house teacher, and so I get the need for mentorship and... I mean, man, we were
almost like the education mafia, but coming out of a college with my degree, you're right, I had that
knowledge and it was invaluable coming into a community where I was fortunate enough to have some
of that mentorship just within my family. And so, I can't imagine we just throw these new teachers to
the wolves sometimes, and especially as economically depressed regions and rural communities. So,
Allen, I know you will get into that a little bit.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah. I think, number one, I see this as an opportunity to attract teachers that are not maybe from those
rural areas to those rural areas to teach, and I see that as the positive. But the biggest thing for us, and
why NREA supported your efforts and really wholeheartedly endorse it, was the fact that the flexibility
at the LEA, or the Local Education Agency, the flexibility there. So, I know that played into your thoughts,
but
Mike Bost:
It did.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah. Talk about that a little bit.
Mike Bost:
Well, let me just say, if you were raised in and/or come from a rural area, you understand where it is that urban and suburban schools have an advantage, quite often financially. And not all States are like ours, but the state of Illinois, fund its education systems by property tax. Now, that was real good back when everything was equal, but unfortunately, over the years in the state of Illinois, our downstate schools, even though we have what's known as a school aid formula, which is an equalization formula that's in place, it still ends up that these rural schools where it's nothing for them to be in a situation where maybe they don't have the T1 internet lines, maybe they don't have access to a certain technology that is an advantage. But it's similar with these teachers programs.
Mike Bost:
But like you said, when you can make the investment now, and here's what the bill does, but when you can make the investment to encourage those teachers, like you said, that maybe aren't from rural areas, to come in, now the problem is is that the way the existing grants are set up, there was no stabilization for that to say, "Yes, rural should get the percentage based on the amount of students that are there." So, they were just kind of being thrown out there willy nilly, and the legislation does this in the fact that for the percentage of the students that are there, it's calculated on that percentage. And that's why these grants would then come to the rural districts and then allow for that mentorship.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And I know this is popular, and I don't see anyone not supporting this, but have you had pretty good success across the aisle on finding cosponsors and/or help and support?
Mike Bost:
Yeah. Actually, to tell you the truth, we have a bipartisan group, Representative Abby Finkenauer. Yeah, Abby Finkenauer, out of Iowa, is it. So, we've got bipartisan support. So far, there's a total of 13 cosponsors. We'll have a lot more than that before it's all said and done. I mean, it's not something that if you have a suburban district or an inner city district, that you're going to jump on board with, but you've got to look about how many members we have spread out around this country that are in those areas where they either have part or all of their districts that are rural areas.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah, it's interesting. We've got a state like Tennessee, where NREA is headquartered, the power actually lies in the rural legislators. I mean, the big cities have, Metro areas have, several legislatures that they send to Nashville, but two thirds of the state is rural so that's where the votes are. And so-
Mike Bost:
When you put it in perspective, when I ran for state legislature in the state of Illinois, there was a gal who became a... She's passed now, but she became a great friend of mine that was in my class, and she
asked me where my district was. And I said, "It's three counties, Jackson, Perry, and Union counties in Southern Illinois." And I said, "Where's yours?" She said, "It goes from 67th Avenue over to 47th Avenue, and from..." And I looked at her, and she looked at me and says, "But mine's real tall." In the case where we represent different areas, but the thing is, working together... I know that right now when you're looking at Congress, you don't think we ever worked together, but I've got a record of being one of the most bipartisan when it comes to the radius as far as getting people onboard with legislation. It has a lot to do with the fact that I carry a lot of legislation that is truly something that both parties can agree to, and this falls right in that category.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah, I would agree. And I think the number one thing is, you're looking at obviously helping your home district, but also you see the big picture. And I know through your conversation with Dave Ardrey, he's the Director of the Rural Association in Illinois. and we have to thank Dave for setting this up for us, too. But I know that you see the big picture, as well, on that.
Mike Bost:
Sure. Yeah. Dave's been a big supporter of... He grew up originally in rural Missouri, but now he's over, and we claim him as deep Southern Illinois now. So, he understands the situation, and him helping us out with this is wonderful.
Allen Pratt:
That's pretty good.
Jared Bigham:
You know, Congressmen, I was going to say we could claim you in Tennessee if we wanted to because we've got a Jackson County, Perry County, Union County, and we've also got a Murfreesboro.
Mike Bost:
Well, that's because the people that settled our area, when it was a territory, moved up, I think, right through there, to tell you the truth.
Allen Pratt:
There you go.
Jared Bigham:
Well, Allen mentioned big picture, and something that we have been discussing in the NREA for several years is looking at the federal level, since rural education is so nuanced. And it seems like we've got everybody and his brother in an office of urban education, but we don't have a dedicated office of rural education at the federal level. And that's something that we have really been in conversations with and multiple Secretaries of Education through the past 10 or 12 years. What's your thoughts on having a dedicated office of rural education at the federal level?
Mike Bost:
I think it makes a lot of sense, because here's the problem. First off, out of Washington, though I believe that education is a local issue and should be controlled by the state and the locals, but we've got the
Department of Education. And so, many times the federal department of education, whether it's under
Republicans or whether it's under Democrats, come up with a cookie cutter type program for educating
our children that might work great in New York City but doesn't work at all in deep Southern Illinois. And
so, by forming that, and by having that advisory board and that group here available so that
automatically when they start moving through with any of the legislation, they could have the input
necessary to go, "No, no, no, no. Let us explain why. That all sounds good if you've got this level of
technology, but you do understand that we're lucky to get a cell phone reception at our school."
Jared Bigham:
Right. And when you talk about cookie cutter, when you have urban, and I've worked in urban settings
on a lot of policy initiatives and education programs, but somewhat all the urban areas, whether it's Los
Angeles, New York, or Nashville, you can overlay a cookie cutter program because the urban issues and
urban environments and landscapes are 90% the same. But in rural America, man, you can take
Tennessee, we've got three or four very distinct geographic areas that are considered rural that all have
different issues that are dealing with and different, literally, geographic areas. And rural can be defined
so many different ways from Montana, with one room school houses, to farming areas in Illinois,
obviously. So, you're right, that is definitely an issue about the differences in rural America.
Mike Bost:
An example of that is, last year after one of the school shootings, we finally compiled our school safety
legislation, and I had a couple of bills in there. But with that was the school safety grants. Well, the
schools that applied for it in my district, they could set their own requests for what they wanted. Well,
some of them wanted a secure lock. Some of them wanted this. I had one school that wanted a cell
tower near their school so they could actually call the emergency services.
Jared Bigham:
Wow.
Mike Bost:
See, that's the type of stuff is so unique that, yeah, there's a quality of education you want. Yes, that
works. I mean, what you're wanting your achievement of what you're wanting to educate and how
you're wanting to educate your children is the same no matter where your children are, but the way you
achieve the goals, that are the, common goals have to be a different process.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And you're right about just the advisory component, when somebody has a maybe a very well
intentioned program. I mean, this is a great example of, there was a company, I won't say who, but a
major cell phone company that granted some iPads to a rural school district with data plans so they
could go home and work on projects on the internet when they left school, without realizing that a third
of those students had no cell phone reception. So, it was a piece of metal.
Mike Bost:
Right. And that is a real problem not only in education but everything else, because remember I also
work on the agriculture committee, and we've got places that they got those big fancy computers that'll
plant every seed for you and fertilize it and know everything about it, and they'll only work if they're
connected. And sometimes they're-
Jared Bigham:
Exactly. Yeah.
Mike Bost:
... they just got a big expensive piece of equipment with no way to use it.
Jared Bigham:
Well, thank you for your time. I want to ask one final question, and you got got to really lock in for this,
it's always my back pocket question. And I won't add the caveat because I've been burned on this, and
I've learned, so your Harry Potter for a day and you've got a magic wand that you can wave to change
one thing in rural America, and you can't wave it for more magic because that's where I got burned.
Only one wave of the wand, Congressman. So, if you can do something to support rural America, rural
education, what would you do with your wave of the wand?
Mike Bost:
I'd have to focus on improving the education in DC, so that they're paying attention more to the rural
areas. Because that is what we've been talked about the whole time, but that's just it. We've got to get
them when woken up to the fact that rural is different.
Jared Bigham:
Oh, I like that.
Allen Pratt:
You hit a home run on that one. Good job on that one. That's great.
Jared Bigham:
Good wave of the wand, Harry.
Allen Pratt:
Good wave of the wand.
Jared Bigham:
Good wave of the wand.
Mike Bost:
There you go.
Allen Pratt:
Anything you need from us, support, as far as pushing items out, let us know, and happy to reach out to
other states to get their folks involved in supporting what's going on.
Mike Bost:
Well, I appreciate that very much. And just doing that, reaching out to your own state legislators, and it
doesn't have to be rural. You can explain to those in your states, and other states around that maybe
aren't in rural areas, the importance of the rural education part of it.
Jared Bigham:
Yep. Rising tide raises all ships.
Mike Bost:
There we go.
Allen Pratt:
You got it. Thank you so much [crosstalk 00:18:18] your time.
Mike Bost:
Thank you very much for having me on today. I appreciate it.
Allen Pratt:
Yes, sir.
Jared Bigham:
Well, I love the wave of the wand. I hadn't thought about that as far as... I would think most people
would say teacher quality across the country. But if you actually educate our policy makers in DC about
the needs, that has a more far reaching effect on every facet of rural education.
Allen Pratt:
Well, the positive for me, I think the wand was great. He seems well grounded and understands his
district. He understands the needs of rural America, and I think he listens. And I think with his answer on
the wand, you could tell what he's all about.
Jared Bigham:
Right. He's just not pushing legislation that somebody has handed him or a lobbyist has handed him.
This is something that he's passionate about, and will actually feel in his own district, which is probably...
I think we've got policy makers that feel it in their districts, road projects or building a bridge or
something like that, but this is something that he will feel in his district but it will have a far reaching
effect across the country.
Allen Pratt:
Well, and I think he understands the economic side of this, that if we have high quality teachers and our
schools are better, we're obviously going to help our local communities.
Jared Bigham:
Right. And that's a workforce development strategy in itself.
S01E02 -- Interview with Representative Mike Bos... (Completed Page 7 of 10 02/19/20) Transcript by Rev.com
This transcript was exported on Feb 19, 2020 - view latest version here.
Allen Pratt:
Exactly.
Jared Bigham:
Well, I like talking to a Congressman that is that down to earth and in between votes, literally, took the
time to call us. So, it's good to have an advocate like that.
Allen Pratt:
And as we're recording this, and I don't know if we give the date on when we're recording, but I think
there's a lot going on in DC right now. And for him to take time to talk to us about rural education means
a whole lot, and we really appreciate his efforts.
Jared Bigham:
Well, I mentioned it earlier about the past election, the rural voice felt like it was heard. I mean,
whatever your politics, either way you had somewhat of an awakening in rural America, and there's
been more focus on there for whatever reason. And I think that's been a good thing, and that's why I
think this was one of the hot topics is starting to come up in DC.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah. And it's a bipartisan, right? I mean, and we're not talking about one side of the aisle or the other,
and we're not here to talk about the political game. We're here to help rural America.
Jared Bigham:
I love all people.
Allen Pratt:
We love all people.
Jared Bigham:
I think I show that by co-hosting is this podcast with you.
Allen Pratt:
And if they could see the hat you got on right now, they'd know that you love everyone.
Jared Bigham:
I have a very suave hat on right now.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah, it's suave. That's not the shampoo.
Jared Bigham:
It's a great podcasting hat.
Allen Pratt:
It's a caster hat.
Jared Bigham:
A caster hat. Yes.
Allen Pratt:
Yes. That's what it is.
Jared Bigham:
We're casters now.
Allen Pratt:
So, it's been good for us today.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah, thanks everyone for listening.
Allen Pratt:
Thanks for listening and keep checking us out. We're going to have some more interesting folks on and-
Jared Bigham:
And check out the website. Yeah.
Allen Pratt:
Yep.
Jared Bigham:
Overall, the website is in the works.
Allen Pratt:
It started January one, and we're working on that process now, and hope to keep dropping podcasts.
Jared Bigham:
Oh man, if y'all could see the visual right now. All right, we'll leave on that note, on [inaudible 00:21:49].
Yeah, he's doing doing motions now, so it's time for us to sign off.
Chris Silver:
And as your sound engineer, Dr. Christopher F. Silver, I'd like to let the listeners know that they can hear
us on pretty much all the major podcast mediums, and we would also recommend you share our
episodes with others, as well as lichen subscribed to the series on whatever medium that you're
listening to on them. And that helps build demand, and it gets the word out.
Allen Pratt:
Thank you, Chris. He uses his radio voice.
Chris Silver:
Ladies and gentlemen, we take rural education seriously, and that's why we need you.
Allen Pratt:
There you go.
Chris Silver:
Yeah, the engineer should never talk on a podcast. All right, well thank you everyone for listening, and
we look forward to seeing you on our next podcast. Thank you.
Chris Silver:
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast and website are those of Dr. Allen Pratt, Dr. Jared,
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