Georgia Literacy Crisis: 70% of 3rd Graders Can't Read │ Dr. Randell Trammell

Dr. Randell Trammell holds a doctorate in education and is the founder of the U.S. Center for Civic Engagement, a nonpartisan civic education nonprofit serving over one million Georgia students annually and now expanding into Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas, and beyond. A 23-year education veteran whose wife is a public school special education teacher and whose three children attend Georgia public schools, Dr. Trammell is the Republican candidate for Georgia School Superintendent in the May 19, 2026 election. Jenny Beth Martin is co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action, representing three million grassroots conservative activists nationwide. Key Topics Covered Georgia's 70% third-grade reading failure rate The Mississippi Miracle and the Southern literacy surge Reverse-engineering the “ideal graduate” The 3P Model: passion, purpose, paycheck Civics, citizenship, and constitutional education Why technology is destroying classroom focus Discipline collapse and the broken CCRPI school climate score Leading-question school surveys normalizing harmful behaviors Opt-in vs. opt-out state policy Teacher retention and the “plate study” Full parental school choice The May 19 Georgia primary Timestamped Topic Breakdown 00:14 — Welcome and guest introduction 01:03 — Georgia's literacy crisis: 70% can't read on grade level 02:12 — The Mississippi Miracle and the Southern surge 04:51 — What Georgia is measuring vs. what matters 06:00 — The growth model and the ideal graduate 07:04 — Citizenship as the foundation of education 08:57 — The 3P Model: passion, purpose, paycheck 09:28 — Where Georgia schools are failing parents 12:26 — First-generation college students left to navigate alone 13:29 — COVID's lasting damage on Georgia learning 15:17 — Why educators avoid teaching citizenship 17:11 — The Constitution as a “masterpiece for all times” 18:29 — Inside the U.S. Center for Civic Engagement 19:42 — Back to basics: why this must be said out loud 21:28 — Life skills schools have abandoned 23:17 — Technology in the classroom: a tool, not THE tool 26:28 — How screens destroy focus and comprehension 28:11 — Why Dr. Trammell is running for Georgia Superintendent 30:20 — “Status quo has got to go” 31:56 — What the Georgia School Superintendent actually does 34:06 — Day-one priorities and the back-to-basics platform 35:04 — Discipline: when “the inmates run the prison” 36:04 — The plate study and supporting teachers 36:48 — Full parental school choice 37:59 — School climate surveys normalizing drugs, sex, and suicide 39:35 — Why Georgia must become an opt-in state 44:19 — How the CCRPI rewards bad discipline incentives 47:45 — How Georgians and out-of-state listeners can help 49:06 — Get involved with the U.S. Center for Civic Engagement 49:53 — Closing and where to find the show Links Mentioned trammellforgeorgia.com youthingovernment.org jennybethshow.com teapartypatriots.org