Government Overreach in Water Rights and Education Policy

On this Tuesday, April 11, 2023 broadcast, Kim Monson examines government overreach on two fronts: federal water regulation and local school board governance. Natural resources expert Greg Walcher explains the EPA’s continued attempts to expand jurisdiction over all waters, while retired Air Force Colonel Bill Rutledge shares his firsthand observations from a Poudre Valley School District board meeting that revealed troubling patterns in public education governance.

Federal Water Regulation and Property Rights

Start listening at 33:47 – Hour 1

Greg Walcher, natural resources expert and author of “Smoking Them Out: The Theft of the Environment and How to Take It Back,” joins Kim to discuss the EPA’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. Walcher explains that despite multiple court rulings against the EPA, the agency continues to assert authority over waters that Congress never granted them. The Clean Water Act specifically refers to “navigable waters” 27 times, yet the EPA has attempted to regulate every puddle, parking lot runoff, and drainage ditch in America.

Walcher describes the Sackett family case, which has been litigating for over a decade after the EPA blocked them from building on dry private property because of occasional rainwater. He emphasizes that this overreach is not about environmental protection but about control. States already have laws against water pollution, and the federal government is simply seeking to expand its power over land use decisions that should remain with local communities and property owners.

“In the West, when you touch water, you touch everything. Every single aspect of human life comes back to water, especially in the arid West. And if you can regulate and control water, you can control everything.”

Greg Walcher, Natural Resources Expert and Author

Inside a School Board Meeting: A Case Study in Bureaucratic Control

Start listening at 68:28 – Hour 2

Retired United States Air Force Colonel Bill Rutledge, 94 years old with a lifetime of global experience, shares his observations from attending a Poudre Valley School District board meeting. Initially considering a run for school board, Colonel Rutledge wanted to understand how these bodies operate. What he found was a system designed to minimize public input rather than encourage civic participation.

The meeting required advance registration, assigned speaking numbers, and limited citizens to three minutes of prepared remarks with no opportunity to ask questions about agenda items. Board members sat on an elevated dais, votes were unanimous without discussion, and presentations focused on special interest groups rather than educational outcomes. The curriculum discussion revealed reliance on expensive outside consultants rather than local educators and parents.

Colonel Rutledge noted that during his three-minute allocation, he was the only speaker who addressed the concerns of the 95% of families focused on traditional education. He challenged the board to remember that teachers are hired for academic expertise, not to serve as social workers intervening between parents and children.

“Your job is to teach these children what they need to know to go out and be successful in life, and not doing things which might be detrimental to their success.”

Colonel Bill Rutledge, Retired United States Air Force

The Decline of Classical Education

Kim opened the show with a thought-provoking quote from Flannery O’Connor about education, noting that her own grandmother with an eighth-grade education was more capable than many college graduates today. She referenced the famous 1895 eighth-grade final exam from Salina, Kansas, which covered grammar, U.S. history, and arithmetic at levels that would challenge most adults today. The contrast between classical education that produced capable, well-rounded citizens and modern education focused on social-emotional learning rather than reading, writing, and arithmetic illustrates how far our schools have drifted from their core mission.