Back to School: The Costs, the Rules, and the Cheat Codes

$863 per kid before the first bell. Phones getting benched. AI detectors reading your essays. School is back — and it's a whole different game now.Abe hands the co-host chair to an actual college student, and Buela Johnson delivers the line every teacher and parent needs to hear: "You can score a grade with AI. But can you defend the grade?"Inside: the community college move that turns a $1,300 course into a $300 one — same credits. Why Minnesota kids eat breakfast and lunch free, and whether taxpayers should foot the bill. The phone-ban debate ("they've got to interact with a human being for once"). And the hot take that'll start arguments at your dinner table: follow the passion, or follow the money?"Is it going to be hard? Yes. Am I going to die? No."Students, parents, grandparents — this one's the family meeting.Amplify. Empower. Elevate. New episodes Mon–Thu — follow the Inner Circle Podcast.