The Darrell McClain show
Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one Planet; nobody's leaving so let’s reason together!! Darrell McClain is a Military veteran with an abnormal interest in politics, economics, religion, philosophy, science, and literature. He's the author of Faith and the Ballot: A Christian's Guide to Voting, Unity, and Witness in Divided Times. He was born and raised in Jacksonville FL, and went to Edward H white High School,l where he wrestled under Coach Jermy Smith and The Late Brian Gilbert. He was a team wrestling captain, District champion, and an NHSCA All-American in freestyle Wrestling. He received a wrestling scholarship from Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. After a short period, he decided he no longer wanted to cut weight, effectively ending his college wrestling journey. Darrell McClain is an Ordained Pastor under the Universal Life Church and is still in good standing as well as a Minister for the American Marrige Ministries . He's a Believer in The Doctrines of Grace, Also Known as Calvinism. He joined the United States Navy in 2008 and was A Master at Arms (military police officer) He was awarded several awards while on active duty, including an expeditionary combat medal, a Global War on Terror medal, a National Defense Medal, a Korean Defense Medal, and multiple Navy achievement medals. While In the Navy, he was also the assistant wrestling coach at Robert E Lee High School. He's a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under 6th-degree black belt Gustavo Machado, Darrell Trains At Gustavo Machado Norfolk under the 4th-degree black belt, and Former Marine Professor Mark Sausser. He went to school for psychology at American Military University and for criminal justice at ECPI University.
The Darrell McClain show
The Cost of Education: Teachers Sue Over Surprise Healthcare Hikes
American hypocrisy takes center stage as Virginia Beach teachers sue their own school system over a shocking healthcare bait-and-switch that threatens both current educators and retirees. After signing their contracts and beginning the school year, teachers were blindsided with premium increases reaching $211 per paycheck, while some retirees face staggering monthly hikes up to $455. This isn't just about money—it's about respect, honesty, and the fundamental contradiction between how we claim to value education and how we actually treat educators.
The timing of this announcement reveals a calculated strategy to trap teachers after they've committed to the school year. When healthcare is weaponized against the very people shaping our children's futures, we send a destructive message: teaching isn't worth fair compensation or basic transparency. As these educators fight back through the courts, their struggle highlights America's broader failure to properly value education while exposing the dangerous leverage employers hold when healthcare is tied to employment.
The podcast also examines the complex legacy of James Dobson, who passed away at 89 after transforming American evangelicalism into a potent political force. From his bestselling parenting advice to his enormous influence on presidential politics, Dobson's shadow will linger in American cultural debates for generations. Meanwhile, the passing of Judge Frank Caprio at 88 offers a counterpoint—a man whose compassion in the courtroom demonstrated how systems can serve humanity with heart. These stories ultimately converge on a profound question: What will you leave behind? When your time runs out, will anyone's burden be lighter because you were here? Listen now to explore these vital issues that affect our communities, our values, and our shared future.
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show. I'm your host, darrell McLean. Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one planet Nobody is leaving. Let us reason together. We are at episode 471, fastly, fastly approaching that 500th episode.
Speaker 1:I'm going to start off the show today with some Virginia-based news that happened to catch my eye, and so we have to talk about Virginia Beach City Public Schools and the latest gift they decided to give the teachers and the staff. And no, it's not appreciation, it's not resources and it's definitely not higher pay. What they handed out instead was a double digit increase in health care premium, so steep that it sparked an actual lawsuit. That's right. Teachers and staff in Virginia Beach are suing their own school system over what they're calling a bait and switch. 1st of 2026, school employees are going to see their health insurance premium drop from anywhere from $2.04 to $210.97 per paycheck, and retirees they'll get it even harder, with monthly increases ranging from $52 to $455. Now imagine being retired, a retired teacher, and we assume you're living on a fixed income and then suddenly having almost a $500 bill that you have to pay, and it's now going to be siphoned out of your monthly budget. And this is not something you know needed. This is health care. That's not just an inconvenience, that is a crisis. And here's the kicker the staff was actually told about the increase after they already signed their contracts and after in-service weeks had already started, which means in plain english, they were trapped no opportunity to reconsider, no ability to shop for alternatives. Just surprise pay up or lose your coverage.
Speaker 1:Now over 100 teachers and staff have filed the suit. Their claim is that the district's leadership, specifically the superintendent, don Robertson, intentionally concealed the timing of an increase to present what they call or prevent what they call a mass exodus. In other words, the teachers are accusing their boss of pulling a bait and switch. Sign a contract, commit to the school year and then will tell you that your bills have now gone up, and that's the kind of thing you'd expect from a shady apartment landlord, not a public school system. So the Roberson, for his part, says the district wasn't hiding anything. His excuse is that they were waiting to finalize numbers and access health care costs before making any announcement. Now he admits the timing looks bad, but insists that this is just for one year and the teachers still have to October to make new choices during open enrollment. Now that sounds nice in theory. But let's not kid ourselves. When you're already committed to a school year, uprooting your health insurance plan isn't some painless choice. That's paperwork, that's stress, that's making sure your kids and spouses don't lose coverage in the middle of flu season. So let's zoom in here and get the details. Let's get the bigger picture, I guess I should say.
Speaker 1:The United States of America loves to talk about supporting teachers. Politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, run on it every election. Both Democrats and Republicans run on it every election. Every August you see commercials about back to school season showing smiling kids with backpacks and smiling teachers with, with with the supplies in their hands or standing next to a chalkboard with a student the road. When the budgets are set and the dollars are allocated, teachers are treated like they are expendable.
Speaker 1:Teachers in Virginia Beach and across America aren't making Wall Street money. They are not padding stock portfolios. They're already underpaid, already under pressure, already buying classroom supplies with their own paychecks, and now they're expected to just swallow a massive hike in health insurance, as if the cost of being noble is a part of their job. It's not noble, it's exploitative. This is Story isn't just about one school district. It is a mirror of the larger American problem, and I would say that problem is how we tie our health care directly to our employment. When your health coverage depends on your job, your boss has an outsized amount of leverage over your life. Want to quit? Want to protest? Want to leave for a better district? Good luck. It just means you'll lose your family doctor in the process. That's why the timing here matters so much. It wasn't just a financial decision, it was a control decision. Announcing the hikes after the contracts were signed effectively weaponized health care against the very people who teach our kids.
Speaker 1:Now imagine the morale in the virginia beach classrooms this fall. Teachers already juggling oversized classrooms, standardized test pressures and political fights over what they can or cannot teach are now walking into the door knowing their paychecks are shrinking and their employer played them dirty. And still we expect them to put on a smile, manage 30 kids at once and inspire the next generation. How exactly do we expect to keep quality educators when we treat them like they are nothing more than disposable labor? Now, let's not forget the retirees in all of this, because these are the people who already gave their time. These are the people already gave decades of their lives to the system. They've already graded the papers late into the night, chalkboard filled map problems. They've already chaperoned field trips and poured into generations of kids. Now in retirement they're being hit with a bill that in some cases are larger than car payments. It's definitely larger than my car payment. Retirees aren't in a position to just pick up side hustles. They're not going back to teaching after 30 years already in the classroom. For them, this increase probably is a gut punch.
Speaker 1:And here's the truth. This lawsuit isn't just about insurance premiums. It's about respect. It's about honesty. It's about whether the people we trust to educate our children can trust the system that employs them. And right now, virginia Beach teachers are sending a loud message. Trust is broken. And let's be clear, lawsuits like this don't come cheap. Filing in a court is a last resort. Teachers don't want to sue. They want to teach. But when you're cornered financially and deceived procedurally, the courtroom becomes the only place left to be heard.
Speaker 1:So here's the takeaway in all of this America has a very funny way of saying one thing and doing another. We claim teachers are heroes, but then we shortchange them on their paychecks and jack up their insurance. We talk about valuing education, but when it's time to do a budget, education is a first line item to be slashed. If we keep going down this road, the message is clear. If we keep going down this road, the message is clear Don't go to teaching unless you want to be underpaid, underappreciated and financially squeezed. And that's if the message. Then who's going to teach the next generation? The Virginia Beach lawsuit is a flare shot into the night sky. It says enough. Teachers and staff are drawing a line, and if districts and policymakers don't listen, we'll see more lawsuits, more burnouts and more classrooms without qualified educators.
Speaker 1:My closing thought on this is this Teachers should be spending this time getting ready to inspire your kids, not figuring out how to pay an unexpected $200 more per check. If we can't even guarantee stable health coverage for the people raising the next generation, then our priorities as a society are worse than an upside down. They are actively self-destructive. Because here's the real truth you can't build the future while gutting the very people who help shape it. We'll be right back with more on the Darrell McClain show on two significant deaths that I think we need to talk about. The death of a culture warrior. So James Dobson has died. He was 89 years old, at home in Colorado Springs, surrounded by the institutions he built and the movement he helped to find. So for some listeners his name might not ring as loudly as it did, let's say, in the 80s and the 90s, but make no mistake, dobson was the most influential architect of the modern religious right in America. This wasn't just a psychologist who wrote books on parenting. This was a man who leveraged child discipline to a platform that reshaped American politics, law and evangelical identity. His death isn't just a passing of a man. It is the end of an era.
Speaker 1:Dobson started off as a child psychologist. He taught at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. He wasn't a preacher, not a pastor, nor ordained. He was a psychologist who found his breakthrough in a movement in the 1970s when he published a book called Dare to Discipline. Now the book was a bestseller and its thesis was actually pretty blunt Christian parents should spank their kids and keep them in line. Dobson framed discipline not as abuse but as God's mandate. He claimed that spanking was an expression of love, provided it was done in control. Now that message resonated in a culture already anxious about the changes in the 60s the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, counterculture, rebellion, etc. And Dobson's message was basically if you restore the order in the home, you will, by extension, restore order in society. Now, by the late 70s, he had taken that message to the airwaves. He founded an organization called Focus on the Family in 1977, which became one of the most powerful Christian media empires of the 20th century. Which became one of the most powerful Christian media empires of the 20th century.
Speaker 1:From a basement in California, dobson built a radio program that went national by the 1980s. Millions of families tuned in daily. His program wasn't just about family advice. It was a pipeline that connected suburban parents to a larger conservative agenda. Dobson used the language of parenting and values to mobilize evangelicals politically. He wasn't just saying here's how to deal with your teenager. He was saying the culture is coming for your teenager. The culture is coming for our children. Abortion is destroying families. Gay rights are a threat to biblical morality. Hollywood is corrupting your kids. In fact, hollywood is corrupting us all. And this wasn't a fringe talk radio. Politicians took him seriously. Ronald Reagan courted Dobson. George HW Bush sought his blessing. George W Bush had his support. Even President Donald Trump, decades later, used Dobson as a validator to reassure white evangelicals that the thrice married casino mogul was actually born again.
Speaker 1:Dobson didn't just advise parents, he advised presidents. He built focus on the family into a political machine that launched the family research cattle and a state-level family policy council designed to shape legislation. His groups lobbied against abortion, against same-sex marriage, against the lgbtq plus protections. They fought for abstinence only education, for school prayer and for traditional gender roles. At its height, focus on the family had a budget in the hundreds of millions publications reaching millions of readers and a political arm that could make or break candidates in conservative states. When Dobson spoke, politicians listened because his listeners were voters.
Speaker 1:Now, of course, dobson wasn't universally admired. Critics In psychology and in child development accused him of promoting authoritarian parenting and dressing it up in religious garb. The LGBTQ advocate saw him as a man, as one of his architects of cultural stigma, a man who spent decades using his platforms to oppose their rights. His advice to parents about disciplining children caused a genuine tears, was viewed by many as just outdated and harmful. His campaigns against gay rights placed him firmly in the camp of those who stood against the movement for equality. Now Dobson was careful, though. He was not seen as a fire-breathing televangelist shouting about hellfire. He came across, when you heard him as a calm, a calm grandfatherly figure, and that was his power. He normalized hardline conservative stances by delivering them in a tone of a kindly counselor, and that's why Dobson was so effective.
Speaker 1:Now Dobson stepped down from focus of the family around 2010, but he didn't retire. He found that the Jamesames dobson family institute and launched a news program called family talk. Even in, even in his 80s, he kept broadcasting, still warning about the decay of culture, still telling parents how to resist. His influence waned as new figures mega church pastors, social media influence, even politicians themselves took up his mantle. But make no mistake, the infrastructure that james Dobson built still exists. The Family Research Council, the state policy networks and the broader evangelical political machine traces back that to James Dobson's blueprint.
Speaker 1:So what do we make of James Dobson's death at 89? On one hand, he was a man who convinced millions of parents to take family life seriously. He created support networks for people who felt adrift in a changing world. For some family, his advice about communication, faith and stability was genuinely helpful. On the other hand, he locked American evangelicalism into a culture war posture. He took issues like abortion and gay rights and made them litmus tests for christian faith. He blurred the line between pastoral care and political activism, and in doing so, he helped turn american churches into a political voting block rather than a spiritual community. Dobson's story of how conservative evangelicals were for being a scattered religious population to becoming a powerful political identity. He wasn't a preacher, he wasn't a politician, but in many ways Dobson was more effective than both.
Speaker 1:James Dobson is gone, but his shadow lingers.
Speaker 1:Every time you hear a politician talk about family values, every time you see a bill restricting reproductive rights or rolling back LGBTQ protections, you are hearing echoes of a movement James Dobson helped build. The question for the rest of us is this do we continue down the road Dobson paved, where faith is synonymous with politics, where morality is reduced to a handful of hot button issues, where families are defined in our rigid categories, or do we find another way to think about faith and community, one that doesn't require a culture war to exist? Dobson lived 89 years and he left behind an empire, but empires eventually crumbled. The ideas he planted, though, will keep shaping american debates long after his name fades from the headlines, because when a man spends decades telling people how to raise their kids, how to vote and how to think about morality, his voice doesn't just disappear with his death. It echoes in living rooms, it echoes in legislators and it echoes in churches. And whether you love him or loathe him, james Dobson's echo will be with us for a very long time.
Speaker 2:And finally, tonight, the judge with a heart of gold. He was the compassionate courtroom judge seen by millions, whose rulings changed so many lives for the better.
Speaker 3:I think 959 is close enough to 10. Matters dismissed.
Speaker 2:Thank you For 40 years. Judge Frank Caprio would hear cases from his Providence Rhode Island bench, along the way earning the reputation as America's nicest judge.
Speaker 3:In that location it's like mad lights. I was confused. In your lane of traffic there's a green light. In the other lane of traffic, which is not your lane, there's a red arrow. See, I knew he had a great argument. He's came in well prepared today. Guilty or not guilty, what do you say?
Speaker 2:Guilty.
Speaker 3:Guilty.
Speaker 2:In later years, his hit TV show Caught in Providence put his humor and heart on full display.
Speaker 3:I was making a right-hand turn. Did you ever read the driver's manual?
Speaker 2:It was so long ago I don't even know what I had for breakfast. Late today his family sharing Judge Caprio passed away at the age of 88, following a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Judge Caprio would often say he wasn't always so compassionate. His first day on the bench, his father, proudly watching on the young judge, was tough on a mother of four who hadn't paid her parking tickets and that didn't sit well with his father. He said, frank, she had four kids.
Speaker 3:I suppose she can't feed the kids tonight if she paid those tickets. She doesn't have a car. She can't drive to school. What are you doing? You weren't brought up that way.
Speaker 2:The moment would change the course of his life and so many others.
Speaker 3:My first day on the court set the tone of my judgeship of over 30 years After that. I took everybody's personal situation into consideration.
Speaker 2:The king of second chances. Thank you for watching. I'm Mary Bruce for David and all of us here.
Speaker 1:If you haven't done anything for humanity, you ought to be ashamed to die Now. Sit with that for a moment, because we all know death is coming. None of us is going to get out of it, and the only choices that we've got is actually what you decide to leave behind when you go. And too often in this country we measure life by the wrong yardsticks by the size of your house, by the length of your resume, by how many toys you piled up before the clock ran out. But when the dust actually settles, you'll find out that none of that actually matters, not a single bit. What matters is the dent you left in the world for somebody else.
Speaker 1:So ask yourself did a child breathe easier because you took time to raise them with love and kindness? Did a neighbor get through one more night because you shared what you had? Did you stand up even once, when cruelty was being normalized and silence was the easier path? Did you stand up and say something? You don't have to be a president, you don't have to be a prophet, you don't have to move mountains, but you have to do something. So when your day comes and I believe me it will come the only question that really counts is this Did anyone's burden get lighter because you were here? Because you were here, and if the answer is no, then yes, shame will follow you right to your grave. But if the answer is yes, even in small ways, then you lived a life worthy of the breath you were given. So live like the clock is ticking, because it is, and when it stops, make sure the world cannot say you passed through here without leaving a trace. Thank you for tuning in and I'll see you on the next episode.
