Speaker 1: We got two major issues we're going to deal with
Speaker 1: today on the show. Number One, it's incredible Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: executive order on the Department of Education to shut it down.
Speaker 1: What this is going to do for parents with school
Speaker 1: choice and giving the power back to the states. Plus,
Speaker 1: the amount of money we're spending per pupil is more
Speaker 1: than any else in the world. And where do we
Speaker 1: rank when it comes education in many of the areas
Speaker 1: at the very bottom. We're going to break that down
Speaker 1: for you also. And then the other big issue, and
Speaker 1: it deals with Tesla and Center. Let's start with what
Speaker 1: Elon Musk just tweeted out. He put a tweet out
Speaker 1: said quote, has there ever been such a level of
Speaker 1: coordinated violence against a peaceful company?
Speaker 2: Question mark.
Speaker 1: I understand not wanting to buy a product, but this
Speaker 1: extreme arson in destruction is what we're witnessing right now
Speaker 1: as the left has gone to war with Tesla.
Speaker 3: It really is astonishing. And let me say, first of all,
Speaker 3: for those of you, if any of you did not
Speaker 3: listen to the interview that we did with Elon Musk.
Speaker 3: We went to the White House. We spent over an
Speaker 3: hour one on one with Elon Musk. We put it
Speaker 3: out as a two part podcast. Part of it was
Speaker 3: on Monday, part of it was on Wednesday. If you
Speaker 3: didn't listen to it, you can listen to it by
Speaker 3: downloading the podcast, or you can watch it on YouTube.
Speaker 3: If you didn't listen to it or watch it, I
Speaker 3: would encourage you to. It was fascinating. It was one
Speaker 3: of the most important podcasts we've ever done, and so
Speaker 3: you don't want to miss it. You don't want to
Speaker 3: miss both parts. It broke news, It drove news nationally
Speaker 3: and it really was Elon revealing who he is. And
Speaker 3: one of the things we talked about was was the
Speaker 3: violence and domestic terrorism directed towards Tesla. Well, in the
Speaker 3: days since that interview, it's only gotten worse. I got
Speaker 3: to say. Today's Democrat party is characterized by rage and hatred.
Speaker 3: As best I can tell, they don't stand for much
Speaker 3: of anything other than their radical agenda of open borders
Speaker 3: and releasing violent criminals, murderers and rapists and child lesters
Speaker 3: and boys and girls sports and radical gender ideology and
Speaker 3: anti Semitism and undermining Israel. That that seems to be
Speaker 3: the unifying policy behind the Democrats, but the unifying motivation
Speaker 3: right now is this in coit anger and rage and hate,
Speaker 3: and they hate hate Donald J. Trump, And to be honest,
Speaker 3: they hate, hate, hate the voters who voted.
Speaker 4: For Donald J. Trump.
Speaker 3: But they've now projected much of that anger and hate
Speaker 3: on Elon Musk And so Trump derangement syndrome is a
Speaker 3: very real thing, and Elon derangement syndrome is a very
Speaker 3: real thing. And and understand when the left hates something,
Speaker 3: they engage in violence. We've seen this with the anti
Speaker 3: Semitic Prohamas protest on campuses where violence has erupted. We've
Speaker 3: seen this with the Black Lives Matter at Antifa riots
Speaker 3: across the country where we saw police cars fire bombed
Speaker 3: and stores looted and police officers murder, and we saw
Speaker 3: rampant violence. And we are now seeing this with Tesla.
Speaker 3: And the left is an ideology that if you are
Speaker 3: on the opposing side, they don't view it as you
Speaker 3: have a right to speak. They're opposed to free speech.
Speaker 3: They want to censor you, they want to silence you.
Speaker 3: If you're on the other side and you vote for
Speaker 3: your opponent, they don't view you as a participant in
Speaker 3: democracy who's expressing your views. They view you as the enemy,
Speaker 3: and they want to destroy you, they want to bankrupt you,
Speaker 3: and they want to engage in violence against you. Now,
Speaker 3: some of you may be saying, Okay, that's too extreme,
Speaker 3: that's going too far, that's not where the left is. Well,
Speaker 3: I want you to give a listen to Tim Waltz.
Speaker 3: Tim Waltz, who just about six minutes ago was the
Speaker 3: Democrat's nominee to be the vice President of the United States.
Speaker 3: He was Kamala Harris's running mate, and he's the sitting
Speaker 3: governor of Minnesota. Here's Tim Waltz talking about what he
Speaker 3: wants to see happen to Tesla.
Speaker 4: Give a listen my phone. I don't some of you
Speaker 4: know this on the iPhone. They've got that little stock app.
Speaker 4: I added Tesla tode to give me a little boost during.
Speaker 2: The day.
Speaker 4: Two twenty five and dropping.
Speaker 5: So, and if you own one, if you own one,
Speaker 5: we're not blaming you.
Speaker 3: You can you can take dental floss and pull the
Speaker 3: Tesla thing off, you know, and take out of just telling.
Speaker 1: You Sinter this is what I call the dog whistle
Speaker 1: for violence, because he says this and then others go
Speaker 1: out and are actually shooting and burning up Tesla's.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I retweeted this and described Tim Waltz as
Speaker 3: a small, bitter, evil, angry bastard. Like he is sitting there.
Speaker 3: This is an elected government official that is rooting for
Speaker 3: number one bankrupting Tesla. Not now, there are thousands and
Speaker 3: thousands of employees in Tesla. These are Americans who are
Speaker 3: making cars. By the way, the left, if you want
Speaker 3: to see how they're utter hypocrites. They claim the climate
Speaker 3: crisis is going to destroy the world. Well, Tesla is
Speaker 3: the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in America. Five minutes ago,
Speaker 3: they loved Tesla. They loved Elon Musk as long as
Speaker 3: he was making electric vehicles, they love them. Now they
Speaker 3: decided we hate electric vehicles and we want to bankrupt
Speaker 3: the largest manufacturer of them in America. Why because we
Speaker 3: hate Elon. And at the end of the day, this
Speaker 3: is about tribalism. This is about my team versus your team.
Speaker 4: And listen.
Speaker 3: On the right, I don't advocate violence. Violence is wrong
Speaker 3: and if you engage in violence, whether you agree with
Speaker 3: me or not, you should go to jail. We don't
Speaker 3: support violence against our political opponents.
Speaker 4: The left does.
Speaker 3: The left views the world through a Marxist mindset. My
Speaker 3: last book was Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America.
Speaker 3: A Marxist mindset where they advocate the violent revolution of
Speaker 3: the so called victims against the so called oppressors. And
Speaker 3: so Tim Waltz is cheering on. He wants to see
Speaker 3: Tesla go bankrupt. He wants to see every Tesla employee
Speaker 3: lose their job. By the way, your four oh one
Speaker 3: k is probably invested in Tesla. He wants to see
Speaker 3: your four oh one k go down. And if every
Speaker 3: retirement fund in America, if the teacher's retirement fund, if
Speaker 3: the police retirement fund, if the firefighter retirement fund goes down,
Speaker 3: because the Left succeeds in bankrupting Tesla, these angry, vindictive
Speaker 3: little Marxist will celebrate and understand, it's not just about
Speaker 3: economic devastation, it is about actual violence. I want you
Speaker 3: to listen to this segment from The Daily Show and
Speaker 3: the Daily Show they're talking about the domestic terrorism that
Speaker 3: is playing out against Tesla, and listen to the crowd's reaction.
Speaker 3: Give a listen, Jim.
Speaker 6: They're taking to the streets or the parking lots tonight.
Speaker 3: The FBI and ATF now investigating multiple cases of possible
Speaker 3: arson targeting Tesla's and cyber trucks.
Speaker 5: This dramatic video shows multiple cars and flames. Police say
Speaker 5: the attacker used molotov cocktails. It's the latest in more
Speaker 5: than a dozen instances of arson and vandalism targeting Tesla.
Speaker 6: The same suspect shot more Tesla's with a gun. Tesla
Speaker 6: cyber trucks were set on fire in Kansas City, and
Speaker 6: earlier this month, shots fired in a Tesla dealership in Oregon,
Speaker 6: cyber trucks on fire in Seattle.
Speaker 3: Wow, you guys like petty acts of domestic terrorism?
Speaker 1: Well, petty acts of terrorism? Centerre cool, right, Like, let's
Speaker 1: cheer for that?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 3: It's striking. So at the end there that's the Daily
Speaker 3: show host, that's the comedian, and he's a little bit
Speaker 3: like holy crackt, like what he says. Wow, you guys
Speaker 3: like petty acts of domestic terrorism. They're cheering for it.
Speaker 3: They're happy. And by the way, it ain't petty. The
Speaker 3: last I checked, arson is not petty. Throwing molotov cocktails
Speaker 3: is not petty. Firing guns at Tesla dealership is not petty.
Speaker 3: People are gonna be killed firing a gun at a dealership.
Speaker 3: You know there are people who work there and the left,
Speaker 3: this is this is something they celebrate, they revel in.
Speaker 3: It's reminiscent of this Luigi clown who murdered the senior
Speaker 3: executive healthcare executive. We did a podcast at the time
Speaker 3: how the left was celebrating murder. They were happy to
Speaker 3: see him murdered. The anti capitalist left, they hate their opponents,
Speaker 3: and they are willing to cheer the murder of their opponents.
Speaker 3: And we're seeing here this is domestic violence. Now here's
Speaker 3: some good news. The Attorney General Pambondi announced that three
Speaker 3: Tesla arson defendants are going to face the full four
Speaker 3: of law and for using molotov cocktails to set fire
Speaker 3: to electric vehicles and charging statements. Pambondi said, quote the
Speaker 3: days of committing crimes without consequences have ended. Let this
Speaker 3: be a warning. If you join this wave of domestic
Speaker 3: terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put
Speaker 3: you behind bars. And she's charging three people for their
Speaker 3: alleged involvement in attacks against Tesla properties in Salem, or Orgon, Loveland, Colorado,
Speaker 3: and Charleston, South Carolina. Bravo PAMBONDI, bravo.
Speaker 4: To the Department of Justice.
Speaker 3: But you know what, there are a whole lot more
Speaker 3: people that are committing these acts of violence, and I'm
Speaker 3: here to tell you I don't believe these are spontaneous.
Speaker 3: I think we need to follow the money. I think
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice in the FBI are going to
Speaker 3: follow the money. And whoever is funding it, I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's this.
Speaker 2: No, That's exactly what I want to ask you.
Speaker 1: Because John Cusack appeared on a test slit takedown call,
Speaker 1: for example, says that Elon Musk is literally quote killing people.
Speaker 1: The actor complaining of the United States is a fascist
Speaker 1: country and becoming more fascist every day. He joined this
Speaker 1: and again it's called in a tashtag like this is
Speaker 1: not some secret group hashtag tesla takedown a quote mass
Speaker 1: mobilizing call on Wednesday to express his opinion about Elon Musk,
Speaker 1: whom the actor claim is quote literally killing people. The
Speaker 1: fifty eight year old also hit Musk with a string
Speaker 1: of other insults during the call. So this goes back
Speaker 1: to what you and I have talked about before, whether
Speaker 1: it's Act Blue, whether it's Black Lives Matter, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know the summer of takedown that the Occupy Wall Street.
Speaker 1: This is all coming from organized groups that are being funded.
Speaker 1: This is clearly organized. If you're getting Cusack on a
Speaker 1: phone call for this.
Speaker 3: It is clearly funded. And I'll tell you right now,
Speaker 3: if you are putting money behind and in support of
Speaker 3: domestic terror, existing federal law makes it a crime. Using
Speaker 3: incendiary devices is defined as domestic terrorism, you are going
Speaker 3: to be prosecuted. We talked with Elon in the interview
Speaker 3: about indications that Act Blue was being used to fund this.
Speaker 3: I have to admit I actually hope that is the case,
Speaker 3: because Act Blue is the principal fundraising mechanism for the
Speaker 3: left and for the Democrats, and if ActBlue is being used,
Speaker 3: Act Blue will be shut down. And I don't know
Speaker 3: if the Soros network is involved, but if the Soros
Speaker 3: network is involved, I believe this Department of Justice is
Speaker 3: going to follow the money and anyone who is funding
Speaker 3: domestic terrorism, they're going to face the consequences of their action.
Speaker 3: That is important for the rule of law, and it's striking.
Speaker 3: Look that there are Democrat members of Congress participating. Jasmine
Speaker 3: Crockett from Texas participated in one of these Tesla takedown
Speaker 3: calls targeting a major US company wanting to bankrupt, a
Speaker 3: major US company wanting to have all of its American
Speaker 3: workers lose their jobs. By the way, they don't care
Speaker 3: if they were to remove America's leading manufacture of electric vehicles.
Speaker 3: The next time they prattle on about the climate crisis,
Speaker 3: know that they're complete and utter hypocrites because they don't
Speaker 3: care about that. They only care about it if you
Speaker 3: happen to be on their team, if you happen to
Speaker 3: be supporting their side. And every one of these people
Speaker 3: knows they're not just talking about declining to purchase this product.
Speaker 3: They are talking about and celebrating as the crowd at
Speaker 3: the Daily Show demonstrating they are cheering on molotov cocktails,
Speaker 3: violent fire bombing, and firing guns and I'll tell you,
Speaker 3: somebody is going to be killed, and these leftists they
Speaker 3: do not care. And we know that because these same
Speaker 3: leftists cheered on the murder of the senior healthcare executive
Speaker 3: by Luigi the Communists, and they continue to cheer them on.
Speaker 3: You see leftists tattooing Luigi's face on their body and
Speaker 3: making t shirts, and he's become a cause celeb because
Speaker 3: they advocate violence against anyone who dares disagree with him.
Speaker 1: Well, you and I are talking. I literally was sent
Speaker 1: by a congressman. The John Cusack video and audio. I
Speaker 1: want to play this because not only if you haven't
Speaker 1: seen this, this is how organized the left is. They've
Speaker 1: got a full like live TV box around this broadcast
Speaker 1: on x where they were doing this.
Speaker 2: They have a.
Speaker 1: Website teslatakedown dot com hashtag Tesla takedown mass call. They've
Speaker 1: got graphics, they have actor and activist John Cusack. Here
Speaker 1: is John in his own words.
Speaker 7: He said, you know, Musk is kind of this arch
Speaker 7: villain of late stage capitalism, and he seemed like this
Speaker 7: clown and this buffoon. But like Alex said, you know,
Speaker 7: this is a man who made a sighile Nazi salute
Speaker 7: not only public, but at a presidential victory party. It's
Speaker 7: good to remember that these are unprecedented times of mass
Speaker 7: criminality going on to the United States right now, and that,
Speaker 7: like Trump, Musk is a pathological liar. He's a criminal,
Speaker 7: he's a sociopath and a ghoul. And I mean those
Speaker 7: terms very precisely, because who else would use his own
Speaker 7: child as a sympathy prop while literally taking starving aid
Speaker 7: away from people all over the world.
Speaker 1: Now he goes on for another four minutes just on this.
Speaker 1: But this is a man that is advocating and supporting
Speaker 1: people to take up in essence arms against Tesla.
Speaker 3: Look it is, I tweeted today, leftism is a mental disease.
Speaker 3: And I don't think that is an overstatement. And let
Speaker 3: me underscore again, Nobody that I know of on the
Speaker 3: right is calling for violence against the other side. I
Speaker 3: would strongly oppose and I do strongly oppose violence against
Speaker 3: the other side. I'll denounce them, but violence is wrong
Speaker 3: and what they are doing it. And let me ask
Speaker 3: you something. Have you heard a single Democrat? Have you
Speaker 3: heard one denounced the domestic terrorism against Tesla dealerships, against
Speaker 3: the cars, the fire bombings.
Speaker 4: Have you heard even one? And why not?
Speaker 2: Because they don't mind this? I mean, I think this
Speaker 2: is part of.
Speaker 3: As Kamala Harris said, anything about it? Has Joe Biden
Speaker 3: said anything about it? Has Tim Waltz said anything about it? Yes,
Speaker 3: he celebrated. How about Nancy Pelosi? How about a Keem Jeffries,
Speaker 3: how about Chuck Schumer? They're either silent or cheering.
Speaker 1: Well as you said earlier, Centator, Thank goodness that the
Speaker 1: Attorney General Pambondi announcing these charges for that Tesla attack
Speaker 1: and warning against domestic terrorism, saying, if you join in this,
Speaker 1: we're coming after you and we're going to put you
Speaker 1: behind bars. Thank goodness we have law and order restored
Speaker 1: at the Department of Justice with her in charge and
Speaker 1: others at the FBI. I want to move to the
Speaker 1: story number two, and it's also a really big story,
Speaker 1: and I want to look at this from a issue
Speaker 1: of hope and excitement. There are a lot of parents
Speaker 1: that are listening and grandparents right now who know just
Speaker 1: how screwed up the public education system is in this country.
Speaker 1: They understand the data that the K through twelve schools
Speaker 1: are spending eight hundred and fifty seven billion annually. That's
Speaker 1: seventeen two hundred and seventy seven on average per student.
Speaker 1: It is incredible, and what we're getting for that is
Speaker 1: not very much. We're at the bottom of the list
Speaker 1: in many categories. And the President came out with a
Speaker 1: very big announcement, and that is that his goal is
Speaker 1: to dismantle the Department of Education, sending this back to
Speaker 1: the States now where parents get excited. This brings up
Speaker 1: the issue of school choice. Now, it's something that you
Speaker 1: are actually in Austin talking about today as we're recording this,
Speaker 1: and you've been a champion of school choice for quite
Speaker 1: some time.
Speaker 4: Well, that's right.
Speaker 3: So on Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order calling
Speaker 3: for the Department of Education to be abolished and calling
Speaker 3: for the money and the authority to be sent back
Speaker 3: to the states and sent back to the local districts. Now,
Speaker 3: the corrupt corporate media being what it is, whenever you
Speaker 3: hear the words abolish the Department of Education, what they
Speaker 3: transmute that into is abolish education. And they try to
Speaker 3: say that means that Republicans are opposed to education. It's
Speaker 3: exactly the opposite. And I just pose a simple question,
Speaker 3: where do you want the money going. Do you want
Speaker 3: the money going to parents and kids and teachers to
Speaker 3: have excellent education, or do you want the money going
Speaker 3: to woke, radical bureaucrats in Washington who are putting red
Speaker 3: tape and strangling our schools and our education. That's the choice.
Speaker 3: Because the Department of Education, there ain't nobody at the
Speaker 3: federal Department of Education that is teaching your kids. There
Speaker 3: ain't nobody that that that that that is in missus
Speaker 3: Smith's sixth grade class, that that that is teaching reading
Speaker 3: or writing arithmetic. But what there are is a bunch
Speaker 3: of bureaucrats that are putting paperwork in place, that are
Speaker 3: putting burdens in place, and and and and and it
Speaker 3: is particularly under Joe Biden, the Department of Education was weaponized.
Speaker 3: It was weaponized to push an extreme woke agenda. It
Speaker 3: was weaponized to push DEI, It was weaponized to push
Speaker 3: boys and girls sports, It was weaponized to push their
Speaker 3: extreme transgender ideology. And and the President is following through.
Speaker 3: So the executive Order directs the Secretary of Education to
Speaker 3: take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the
Speaker 3: Department of Education and to return education authority to the States,
Speaker 3: while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs,
Speaker 3: and benefits on which Americans rely. So again, the corrupt
Speaker 3: corporate media will say, well, this will halt funding for
Speaker 3: low income kids, this will halt funding for kids with disabilities.
Speaker 3: When you hear that on CNN, know that they're lying
Speaker 3: to you, know that they're deliberately lying to you. They
Speaker 3: know they're lying to you. You should know they're lying
Speaker 3: to you. This is designed to keep the funding there,
Speaker 3: but have the decision making at the state and local level.
Speaker 3: And a huge part of that is to facilitate school choice.
Speaker 3: And we're going to do a deeper dive into school
Speaker 3: choice in a moment. But I got to say, this
Speaker 3: executive order is a big, big deal from the President.
Speaker 3: He announced it surrounded by governors, because it's going to
Speaker 3: be the governors now who are going to be in
Speaker 3: charge and the states in charge of the education policies
Speaker 3: in their states.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to play just a little bit
Speaker 1: of what Donald Trump had to say at this announcement.
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, with those governors signing this executive order
Speaker 1: shutting down the Education Department, take a listen.
Speaker 8: President Carter created the Federal Education Department in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 8: It was opposed by members of his own cabinet, as
Speaker 8: well as the American Federation of Teachers, the New York
Speaker 8: Times editorial board, and the famed Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick moynihan.
Speaker 8: History has proven them.
Speaker 7: Right, absolutely right.
Speaker 8: After forty five years, the United States spends more money
Speaker 8: on education by far than any other country, and spends
Speaker 8: likewise by far more money per pupil than any country
Speaker 8: and it's not even close. But yet we rank near
Speaker 8: the bottom of the list in terms of success. It's
Speaker 8: an amazing stats. Those are two stats. You don't want.
Speaker 8: The most money spent per pupil and you're at the
Speaker 8: bottom of the list. And that's where we are, like
Speaker 8: it or not, and we've been there for a long time.
Speaker 1: You listen to him talk about that the more money
Speaker 1: per pupil than any other place. And this kind of
Speaker 1: goes back to doge mentality. If we're wasting money, then
Speaker 1: lets stop wasting money and we can do a better
Speaker 1: job with your tax dollars off at the state level.
Speaker 1: And if you have the ability to choose the best
Speaker 1: place for your child to get an education, it's your
Speaker 1: tax dollars.
Speaker 2: You know what to do with them better than we do.
Speaker 3: Look, that's absolutely right, and to understand the level of waste.
Speaker 3: Since the Department of Education was created nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 3: it has spent over three trillion dollars. Three trillion dollars. Now,
Speaker 3: what has the result been. The result is, despite per
Speaker 3: pupil spending increasing by over two hundred and forty five
Speaker 3: percent Since the nineteen seventies, Math scores have continued to decline.
Speaker 3: Reading scores have continued to decline, particularly among low performing students.
Speaker 3: Eighth grade reading proficiency has fallen to its lowest level
Speaker 3: in thirty two years, with over a third of students
Speaker 3: failing to demonstrate basic reading skills appropriate for their grade.
Speaker 3: Only sixty seven percent of eighth graders meet basic reading skills.
Speaker 3: Only sixty percent of fourth graders meet basic reading skills.
Speaker 3: Reading scores on the twenty twenty four Nationalists Assessment of
Speaker 3: Educational Progress fell two points on average for both eighth
Speaker 3: and fourth graders, and there's been a steady decline in
Speaker 3: reading that predates COVID era disruptions. I'm going to give
Speaker 3: you a stat that is stunning. In twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: thirteen high schools in Baltimore, Maryland. How many students in
Speaker 3: thirteen high schools in Baltimore, Maryland do you think tested
Speaker 3: proficient in mathematics?
Speaker 2: No clue?
Speaker 4: Zero, Wow.
Speaker 3: Thirteen high schools had not even a single student, not
Speaker 3: a single senior, not a single junior, not a single sophomore,
Speaker 3: not a single freshman. Had ze row students in the
Speaker 3: entire high school test proficient in math thirteen schools. Now, Look,
Speaker 3: if you were a leader in Baltimore, Maryland, you ought
Speaker 3: to be really unhappy about this. You ought to be
Speaker 3: demanding change. You are graduating students who can't read, You're
Speaker 3: graduating students who are not proficient in math. And what
Speaker 3: is happening the Democrats? They have a basic choice, do
Speaker 3: you care about the kids or do you care about
Speaker 3: money from the teachers' unions.
Speaker 4: Now, as you mentioned, I'm in Austin today.
Speaker 3: I went to the state Capitol and I went onto
Speaker 3: the floor of the house, and I'll tell you the
Speaker 3: floor of the house, they actually read a commendation thanking
Speaker 3: me for my leadership and school choice. School choice, for
Speaker 3: me has been a passion for thirty years. I've spent
Speaker 3: thirty years fighting for school choice. I believe school choice
Speaker 3: is the civil rights issue of the twenty first century.
Speaker 3: I think there is no other domestic policy that matters more.
Speaker 3: And I believe every child in Texas and every child
Speaker 3: in America deserves access to an excellent education, regardless of
Speaker 3: their race, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their wealth
Speaker 3: or their zip code. And Texas is on the verge
Speaker 3: of passing the largest school choice program in America, and
Speaker 3: it is historic. One out of every ten school kids
Speaker 3: in America is in the state of Texas. So for
Speaker 3: Texas to lead is a big, big deal. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you I have been engaging. So for the past
Speaker 3: six years, I engage in primaries in the state of
Speaker 3: Texas against state legislators who oppose school choice. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you there are one hundred US senators, to the
Speaker 3: best of my knowledge, ninety nine of them stay out
Speaker 3: of primaries in their own state. And there's a reason
Speaker 3: for that. When you get involved in a primary in
Speaker 3: your own state, it's politics, it's stupid.
Speaker 4: It hurts you. Why because when.
Speaker 3: You do it, the old rule of thumb is you
Speaker 3: get half their friends and all their enemies. So when
Speaker 3: you jump in the middle, you're making enemies and you're
Speaker 3: costing yourself votes.
Speaker 4: I do it anyway. Every cycle.
Speaker 3: I have my team make an Excel spreadsheet of every
Speaker 3: vote a state legislator has cast on school choice. And
Speaker 3: if you're a Republican state rapper state senator, and you've
Speaker 3: voted in favor of school choice, and you're otherwise relatively conservative,
Speaker 3: you are very likely to get my support. But if
Speaker 3: you haven't, if you've voted against choice, the chance of
Speaker 3: my supporting you is zero. And if you have had
Speaker 3: all a credible primary challenger, it is very likely I'm
Speaker 3: going to endorse your primary challenger. And when I do it,
Speaker 3: I don't do so gently. I come in and I
Speaker 3: do radio ads, I do TV ads, I do rallies.
Speaker 3: I campaign And over the last six years there's been
Speaker 3: a bunch of Republican state reps who voted the wrong
Speaker 3: way on choice, and we've come in and beaten them.
Speaker 3: We brought in someone new who's going to stand for
Speaker 3: the kids of Texas. And so I was on the
Speaker 3: floor of the House and then I went back to
Speaker 3: the Speaker's office that I was meeting one on one
Speaker 3: with a whole bunch of state reps and making the
Speaker 3: case what you're doing right now is a big deal.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you, Ben, I announced today I'm spending
Speaker 3: a quarter million dollars, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 3: running TV ads all across Texas, running them over the top,
Speaker 3: directly connecting with voters, also sending texts supporting fourteen state reps.
Speaker 3: Freshmen state reps Republicans and thanking them for supporting school choice. Now, look,
Speaker 3: the teachers' unions are spending massive amounts of money attacking
Speaker 3: these Republicans, trying to scare them into voting the wrong way.
Speaker 3: And so I'm spending from my own political resources to
Speaker 3: say thank you to them, to support them, to buck
Speaker 3: them up, to give air support. Texas is going to
Speaker 3: get this done. And I'll tell you I have been
Speaker 3: leading the fight for a long time. I've never been
Speaker 3: more excited about school choice in Texas than I am
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about out what the left says and
Speaker 1: just how they've been so successful at stopping this. A
Speaker 1: lot of this is because the teachers' unions are very powerful.
Speaker 1: The Department of Education and their alumni have become incredibly
Speaker 1: powerful and making sure that they fear, monger and terrify
Speaker 1: parents that your kids won't be able to get an
Speaker 1: education if you give parents the freedom to choose. This
Speaker 1: has become that type of kind of third rail, as
Speaker 1: we call it, an issue in politics. You don't touch
Speaker 1: those security, don't touch education even if it is failing.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about some of their claims and what
Speaker 1: the audience needs to understand about why some of them
Speaker 1: are just flat out bogus.
Speaker 3: Well, virtually all of them are bogus. And understand you know,
Speaker 3: choice has been an issue that has been debated for
Speaker 3: a long time. When I first got involved in the
Speaker 3: school choice movement, it was three decades ago, and at
Speaker 3: the time it was a fairly nascent movement. And at
Speaker 3: the time it was mostly a theoretical idea, and it
Speaker 3: had come from free market economists like Milton Friedman, but
Speaker 3: it hadn't been implemented many places. And there were lots
Speaker 3: of arguments that were used thirty years ago, the most
Speaker 3: significant one of which was school choice will destroy the
Speaker 3: public schools. And you hear the Teachers' union saying that,
Speaker 3: you hear the corporate media amplifying that message, and I
Speaker 3: get to say that message is powerful. If that were true,
Speaker 3: I would oppose school choice. Let me repeat that, I
Speaker 3: don't want to destroy the public schools. If school choice
Speaker 3: would destroy the public schools, I would oppose choice. Why
Speaker 3: Because the vast majority of our kids are educated in
Speaker 3: the public schools and they will continue to be for
Speaker 3: the foreseeable future, and I think education is so foundational.
Speaker 3: Destroy the public schools will be terrible. We now know
Speaker 3: that argument is absolutely false, It is not right.
Speaker 4: How do we know that. We know that.
Speaker 3: Because there were dozens of jurisdictions all across the country
Speaker 3: that have implemented its choice. And in every instance, what
Speaker 3: happens when you implement school choice, when you give kids
Speaker 3: scholarships and options, several things happen. Number one, the kids
Speaker 3: that take the scholarships that go to new schools, that
Speaker 3: go to private schools or parochial schools, religious schools. We
Speaker 3: know the educational outcomes go up. Their reading scores go up,
Speaker 3: their math scores go up, their high school graduation scores
Speaker 3: go up, their percentage of going to college goes up.
Speaker 3: We know for those kids, their educational outcomes are significantly better.
Speaker 3: But here's the critical piece. We now know school choice
Speaker 3: benefits the public schools. It is better for the public schools.
Speaker 3: What happens is when you have competition, the educational outcomes
Speaker 3: for the kids that stay in the public schools that
Speaker 3: never exercise the vouchers that never get the scholarships, that
Speaker 3: never leave, their educational outcomes get better. And look at
Speaker 3: anyone who understands free markets should understand that competition is
Speaker 3: good and when you have competition. All right, Ben, here's
Speaker 3: something that a number of folks will remember. Actually you're
Speaker 3: young enough, you will not remember this, but cars in
Speaker 3: the nineteen seventies. American cars in the nineteen seventies. I'm
Speaker 3: going to tell you because I was born in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3: As a kid, the quality of American cars of the
Speaker 3: nineteen seventies sucked. You had giant gas guzzlers that broke
Speaker 3: down a lot, and it was not very good. And
Speaker 3: in the late seventies in the early eighties, you started
Speaker 3: having Japanese cars come in, and there was a whole
Speaker 3: freakout about Japanese cars competing with American cars because they
Speaker 3: were coming in with Honda and Toyota, and their quality
Speaker 3: was really good, and American consumers were buying them instead
Speaker 3: of American cars, and there was a whole I remember
Speaker 3: as a kid, when I was like eight, nine, ten
Speaker 3: years old, there was a whole freak out, like the
Speaker 3: Japanese are going to destroy the American car industry and
Speaker 3: we're doomed and we can't compete with the Japanese. People
Speaker 3: were freaked out. And at Chrysler there was a CEO
Speaker 3: named Leiah Koku came in and said, all right, the
Speaker 3: answer is, let's stop making crappy cars. Let's make good cars, Like,
Speaker 3: how do we beat Toyota and Honda and the Japanese
Speaker 3: companies coming in. Well, let's make better cars so the
Speaker 3: consumers want and we saw quality improve dramatically. American cars
Speaker 3: are much better and you now look at things like
Speaker 3: suburbans and escalades and all sorts of American cars that
Speaker 3: people like to buy. But why do they like to
Speaker 3: buy them? Because the competition made the American car makers
Speaker 3: make better cars. Tesla Tesla's are really cool cars. They're
Speaker 3: incredibly fast, they're incredibly well made, but that's because they're
Speaker 3: in a competitive market.
Speaker 4: What happens with school choice.
Speaker 3: We now know this is when the students and parents
Speaker 3: have a choice, the quality of education improves and it
Speaker 3: benefits the public schools.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in a major way. What do the listeners need
Speaker 2: to do?
Speaker 1: This is one of those action moments I think where
Speaker 1: it's really important. Is this a you got to lobby
Speaker 1: or state legislature at the same time you're calling Congress,
Speaker 1: Because let's be very realistic here, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a big fight.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I think it's a fight worth having.
Speaker 1: I also think one of the things that people may
Speaker 1: not understand about the strategy of the president is the
Speaker 1: conversation center that you and I are having right now
Speaker 1: is the conversation the President clearly is wanting the American
Speaker 1: people to have about their kids and grandkids in public education.
Speaker 1: This is part of this is You've got to start
Speaker 1: winning the hearts and minds of voters and people in
Speaker 1: this country tax payers. And one way to do it
Speaker 1: is to say I'm getting rid of the Department of Education. Now,
Speaker 1: this may not happen tomorrow, it may not happen a
Speaker 1: month for now, or even three months from now, but
Speaker 1: this is a step in the right direction.
Speaker 4: Well it's a big step.
Speaker 3: And let me say, shutting down the federal Department of
Speaker 3: Education is incredibly important. Now, Congress is going to need
Speaker 3: to act. We're going to need to pass legislation making
Speaker 3: it permanent, and I'm eager to do so. Why because
Speaker 3: I think the states are much more effect acted, much
Speaker 3: more responsive to students, and they don't put the same
Speaker 3: bureaucracy and red tape on the schools. Look, you want
Speaker 3: to understand, here's the point I made at the Texas legislature. Today,
Speaker 3: we had a press conference and I pointed out, I said, listen,
Speaker 3: I think the legislature is going to pass the biggest
Speaker 3: and boldest and most significant school choice.
Speaker 4: Program in America.
Speaker 3: When it comes time to a vote, most, if not
Speaker 3: every Democrat is going to vote no. Now, I hope
Speaker 3: that's not the case. And by the way, you want
Speaker 3: to talk about I had a reporter asked, why do
Speaker 3: you say school choices the civil rights issue of the
Speaker 3: twenty first century. Well, if you look at the failing schools,
Speaker 3: at the schools where you have rampant violence, where you
Speaker 3: have high dropout rates, where you have incredibly low test scores,
Speaker 3: they're predominantly in low income areas, and they're predominantly minority schools.
Speaker 3: They're predominantly African American schools and Hispanic schools. You look
Speaker 3: at the kids who are disproportionately harmed by failing schools,
Speaker 3: and they are disproportionately minority kids. There is a reason
Speaker 3: that every time a poll is done of African American
Speaker 3: parents or Hispanic parents, you see overwhelming support for school choice,
Speaker 3: sixty seventy percent, sometimes as high as eighty percent. Now,
Speaker 3: most elected Democrats claim they are fighting for minorities. Many
Speaker 3: of them are representing districts that are heavily minority, and
Speaker 3: yet almost every Democrat, and maybe every Democrat, intends to
Speaker 3: vote against school choice, against those kids. And here's why
Speaker 3: I'm going to quote. I'm going to quote Al Shanker,
Speaker 3: who was the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers,
Speaker 3: and here's what he said. Quote, when school children start
Speaker 3: paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interest
Speaker 3: of school children.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: You want to know what's going on with Democrats. They're
Speaker 3: interested in money and manpower, and the Teachers' union are
Speaker 3: consistently among if not their biggest funders, and among if
Speaker 3: not their biggest source of manpower. And every Democrat who
Speaker 3: makes the decision I'm voting against choice. What they're saying
Speaker 3: is I want the dollars from the union bosses more
Speaker 3: than I care about the kids in my district, more
Speaker 3: than I care about the African American and Hispanic kids,
Speaker 3: and the low income kids who are trapped in failing schools,
Speaker 3: who are not learning to read, who are not learning arithmetic,
Speaker 3: who are going to drop out, And by the way,
Speaker 3: if they drop out, we know, just like night follows day.
Speaker 3: We know the odds of poverty are much much higher.
Speaker 3: We know the odds of crime are much much higher.
Speaker 3: We know the odds of substance abuse are much much higher.
Speaker 3: We know the odds of serious healthcare issues are much
Speaker 3: much higher. And so every Democrat who says I want
Speaker 3: the money from the union bosses more than these kids
Speaker 3: is willing to essentially throw these children overboard and say
Speaker 3: your future doesn't matter. That's why it's the civil rights
Speaker 3: issue the twenty first century, and it's why I've spent
Speaker 3: thirty years fighting for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. Don't forget. We do the show Monday,
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