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Reform of How American History is Taught 2010/01/25 (05)
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Jun 5, 2025
Jon Roland explains how state teaching of American History is failing our students and needs to be reformed. With Lela Pittenger. Austin Constitution Meetup Jan. 25, 2010.
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you know we've historically had for
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example citizens review commissions
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to review police
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we have one here in austin
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in my view it
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does not really do the job that it
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should it's too captured by the police
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you need something more like a grand
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jury
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which
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sits for limited periods of time
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and can't be captured by the subject
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that is supposed to be supervising
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so
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these commissions need to serve for
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short periods of time
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be randomly selected so that they're
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they can't be captured by the
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by the interests that they're trying to
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supervise
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and then that made me think of one more
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question
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let's say
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you pull your your 23 out of this pool
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of 230. once those 23 have served do you
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take them out of the pool
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and finish through all the rest rotate
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through all the rest or do you put them
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back in after their service and take the
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chance that they could be chosen a
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second time
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well
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that's a detail to be worked out what i
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would suggest is that they be put back
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in the pool after say
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two years or three years or something
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like that right
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uh the way the people are put back in
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the jury pool
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for trial juries
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uh that way there's a chance they could
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be recalled again
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but you're not overburdening them with
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having to serve too often or for too
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long
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that's it for right now until you give
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me some more details on what you have
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prepared
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okay well let's uh
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discuss
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some of the
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dynamics that i would hope to emerge
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from office
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there's a real need of course you and i
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have worked on
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the state board of education trying to
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reform things there
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and we
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perhaps ought to discuss that a little
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bit
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you testified i testified
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i found that
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there is no
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course
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in american history
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uh
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up to 1877
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beyond grade 8.
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it's taught in grade 8 and not again
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there's a course in american history
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from 1877
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to the present
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taught in grade 11
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but
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there's a three-year get
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and in my view that's won't work
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uh kids at
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grade 11 i mean in grade 8
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are not mature enough to assimilate
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american history from that period now it
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doesn't hurt to present it to them
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but they should get it again in grade
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11.
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when i went to public school
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back in the
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50s and up to 1962
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we had world history
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in grade 10
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american history all the way from the
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beginning to the end
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in grade 11
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and american government
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in grade 12.
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now that worked pretty well
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uh
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kids
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were beginning to become mature enough
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in grade 10
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at least enough for world history
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and by grade 11 and 12 they were ready
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for american history and government
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the most important period in american
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history
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is the period before 1877 right
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now that's when they can expect to learn
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most of what they'll need for american
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government which under the current
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scheme is taught in grade 11.
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you cannot really teach american
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government if you also don't teach
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american history before 1877.
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they want to understand it
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so american
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the texas education system
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has gotten messed up
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i have urged
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the creation
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i wrote the takes for
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a grade 11
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american history
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through up to 1877
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proposed it to the board
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and i'm now trying to rally
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support among my friends and neighbors
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to put pressure on the board to adopt it
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they have a chance to do that in march
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so if you know of anyone
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that you can mobilize to
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join in this effort
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please do so is not too late
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they have the proposal before them
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they meet in march and there's no reason
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why they can't adopt it at that time but
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when you say get involved what should
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people do do they need to call a
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particular person do they need to send
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letters what should they do
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well first of all of course they should
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contact their own member of the state
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board of education do you know where
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people can find that
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that's available online
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it's a
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just
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do a web search on texas board of
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education
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you can find it all there
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uh you can you'll find in particular the
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phone numbers
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you can call and ask who is your member
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uh and eventually you can figure it out
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but then you also need to
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contact your friends and neighbors
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to urge them
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to join in the effort
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one voice is not enough you need to get
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uh
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20 30 40 people
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on each member of the board
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and if each member of the board got 20
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30 40 people
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uh that could make the enough
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to get them to adopt it
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especially since
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a lot of the members of the board
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already seemed receptive to the idea
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when i presented it
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at least based on the looks on their
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faces
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i didn't get any questions
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i was hoping for questions
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but usually they ask me questions
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by this time i think they're beginning
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to get kind of used to me
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but uh it is a
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time for everybody who views this view
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video
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to get active
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you don't have much time
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and
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keep in mind that you're not just doing
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this for texas
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because if texas adopts
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uh
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american history
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up to 1877
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for grade 11
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it's going to dictate the textbooks for
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the
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entire country
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so you're not just doing it for texas
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you're doing it for the united states
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because i found in researching it that
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most other states are also not teaching
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american history
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in grade 11 or 10 or 11 or 12 they're
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teaching it only after grade 8.
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so this is a nationwide problem
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and we can fix it here in texas
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it'll take a few years for the
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change to propagate
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but we can make a huge difference
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if we get on the ball
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so uh
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all you folks listening to this video
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watching this video
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uh it's the vowels in your court we need
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your help so get on with it
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great what else should we talk about for
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state board of education
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well there's i also modified it teeths
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for
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american government
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to strengthen it
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it needed a lot of strengthening
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there was a review panel which did some
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strengthening
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but not enough from my viewpoint
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um
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too many people have been going to the
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state board saying they want
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you know this or that or the other
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the reality is that the only testimony
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that seems to do any good
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is when people actually come in and make
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changes
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propose changes to the tease
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