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Speaker 1: Hi, Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: I got an email from a listener and she wrote

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Speaker 1: in this, Hi, Carol, you talk about the importance of

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Speaker 1: finding a relationship, but I'm thirty six. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: that's of interest to me anymore. I sustain myself, I

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Speaker 1: make myself happy. I can't see what anyone would be

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Speaker 1: able to add to that. I'm not bitter or angry.

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Speaker 1: I haven't had bad men in my history. I just

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Speaker 1: don't see the importance of it. I wanted to have children,

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Speaker 1: but even that want has waned. What's so good about

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Speaker 1: being with someone? Then I heard this interesting exchange between

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Speaker 1: podcaster Jen Cohen and professor Scott Galloway. I'll play it

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Speaker 1: and then discuss it.

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Speaker 2: If you are a woman who is capable and competent

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Speaker 2: and can do all those things on your own, they

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Speaker 2: don't want a man because the men out there are

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Speaker 2: there's very few few that there are are going to

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Speaker 2: be wanted by every single girl, so then they're going

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Speaker 2: to go right. So it's like, what do you do?

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Speaker 2: And that's basically what's happening. I know more single, great

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Speaker 2: girls than I've ever had in my life. And very

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Speaker 2: few eligible great guys, very few. And the guys I

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Speaker 2: know who I'm friends with, they have the pick of

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Speaker 2: the litter. They can go out with girls who are

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Speaker 2: like literally more than half their age, and those girls

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Speaker 2: are like buying for them and dying to go out

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Speaker 2: with them.

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Speaker 3: So we have.

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Speaker 4: But both parties are blame. Okay, men young men for

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Speaker 4: a variety of reasons, some societal some is on them.

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Speaker 4: Are economically and emotionally unviable. They're less mature, they literally mature.

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Speaker 4: The prefrontal cortex matures are the soler rate. They're not

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Speaker 4: going to college. They're in there. They've been told by

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Speaker 4: the wealthiest, deepest pocketed companies in the world. They can

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Speaker 4: have a reasonable facsimile of life online with an algorithm.

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Speaker 4: Why go out and make the effort to get friends

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Speaker 4: when you can go on discord a reddit. Why get

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Speaker 4: a job when you can make money trading crypto on

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Speaker 4: coinbase or stocks on Robinhood. Why go through the effort

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Speaker 4: and the rejection and the humiliation and establishing the skills

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Speaker 4: and getting your mom or your gay friend address you

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Speaker 4: working out, taking the risk, going to a place, putting

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Speaker 4: up the bullshit in the rejection, of finding a romantic

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Speaker 4: or sexual partner when you just have YouPorn and so

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Speaker 4: you have an entire code of men who have sequestered

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Speaker 4: from society. They don't get those skills. They go down

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Speaker 4: a rabbit hole and they become almost sort of just

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Speaker 4: non viable mates.

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Speaker 1: Now, they don't include the age of these people in

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Speaker 1: the clip, but if the guys who refers to or

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Speaker 1: dating girls more than half their age, I have to

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Speaker 1: assume they're at least forty hopefully. So like my letter writer,

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Speaker 1: these people are set in their ways and wondering what

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Speaker 1: the point of being with someone is. I don't have

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Speaker 1: a great answer for that. I can tell you that

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Speaker 1: it's a different level of happiness being cared for by

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Speaker 1: someone and caring for them rather than not having that

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Speaker 1: and all that warmth that comes with it, the family life,

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Speaker 1: the security. It's all very good. And of course falling

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Speaker 1: in love is amazing and magical. And you know, the

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Speaker 1: woman who wrote in didn't say whether that's ever happened

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Speaker 1: her before. But if it hasn't, it still could it

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Speaker 1: should You should try to find it. But if you've

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Speaker 1: reached a stage in your life where you think relationships

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Speaker 1: just aren't for you anymore. Fine. What I would say

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Speaker 1: to these people is make sure you're not just using

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Speaker 1: a defense mechanism to try to make excuses for why

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Speaker 1: you haven't met someone. It's okay to not have met someone.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of luck involved. Like I always say,

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Speaker 1: don't take your ball and go home. If you really

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Speaker 1: are happy, great, But I don't even think the men

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Speaker 1: in that clip are happy. If there's a tiny part

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Speaker 1: of you that thinks maybe you're not happy, don't give

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Speaker 1: up on the idea of meeting someone, and don't assume

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Speaker 1: that there was no one out there for you. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening. I love getting your emails. I love all

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Speaker 1: your questions. I'm going to do a few episodes on

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Speaker 1: family issues in the next few weeks because I've gotten

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Speaker 1: several emails about that. If you want something answered, email

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Speaker 1: me at Carol Markowitz Show at gmail dot com. Or

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Speaker 1: I post a form occasionally on x where you can

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Speaker 1: email me anonymously. I think people seem to like that,

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Speaker 1: so if you catch that form, send in your questions

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Speaker 1: there or Carol Markowitz Show at gmail dot com. Coming

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Speaker 1: up next and interview with Tommy Schultz. Join us after

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Speaker 1: the break.

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Speaker 5: Welcome back, to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My

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Speaker 5: guest today is Tommy Schultz. Tommy is CEO of American

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Speaker 5: Federation for Children. Hi, Tommy, so nice to have you on.

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Speaker 3: Hey, thank you for having me Carol.

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Speaker 5: So, did you always want to be the CEO of

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Speaker 5: the American Federation for Children? How did you get into that?

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Speaker 3: Well, that's a funny question.

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Speaker 6: I didn't always know, because I didn't know the American

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Speaker 6: Federation for Children existed untill probably about ten years ago.

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Speaker 3: It's an interesting story.

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Speaker 6: I was, you know, initially, I went to college wanting

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Speaker 6: to be a doctor. I had this sort of high

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Speaker 6: minded notion that I wanted to help people. Long story short,

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Speaker 6: that we could maybe get into later. I felt that

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Speaker 6: wasn't the right path for me. A lot of challenges

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Speaker 6: sort of did fall in love with this notion of

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Speaker 6: fixing some of these societal problems or things that I

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Speaker 6: felt were hindering our ability to be a great country.

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Speaker 6: There were a few moments in college that really kind

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Speaker 6: of woke me up to that. And along that journey

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Speaker 6: I was working in politics, and then in between one

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Speaker 6: of the political campaign cycles, I had heard that this group,

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Speaker 6: the American Federation for children was really great. They were

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Speaker 6: looking for somebody on the team, and the timing was right,

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Speaker 6: the location was right.

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Speaker 3: I said, I'd love to join that.

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Speaker 6: And I only had this high minded notion around, you know,

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Speaker 6: school choice, school vouchers. I think I had read the

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Speaker 6: Builton Friedman essay from back in the nineteen fifty that

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Speaker 6: he had written, But it was really this particular moment

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Speaker 6: in time where I had suddenly started visiting schools, these

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Speaker 6: incredibly high performing just jewels of schools that were at

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Speaker 6: that time in Memphis, Tennessee, that were high performing but

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Speaker 6: with a high poverty kind of student body. And it

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Speaker 6: was really crippling to know and understand that, like, gosh,

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Speaker 6: if we didn't pass a school choice program, this school

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Speaker 6: in particular was really benefiting from anonymous donors who had

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Speaker 6: given some gifts that were essentially running out.

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Speaker 3: And you get to think.

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Speaker 6: About, how, my goodness, we have this education system that

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Speaker 6: we've designed that is designed this way that basically you

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Speaker 6: really need this golden ticket to get out and to

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Speaker 6: get a good education, or you need to be really

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Speaker 6: lucky and born into the quote right zip code to

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Speaker 6: go to that quote good school. And so it was

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Speaker 6: just this really personally humbling experience that I had that

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Speaker 6: I said, oh my gosh, like, we have to fix this.

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Speaker 6: There is urgency because if we didn't pass that school

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Speaker 6: choice program at that time I'm in Tennessee, those kids

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Speaker 6: would be going to some of the worst schools in

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Speaker 6: America just down the road, and you when you multiply

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Speaker 6: that at scale across the entire country. I really had

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Speaker 6: this almost spiritual awakening that I said, this is my

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Speaker 6: life's mission, this is what I want to focus on.

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Speaker 6: And so that led to me eventually kind of taking

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Speaker 6: over the company a couple of years ago, and we've

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Speaker 6: had a lot of success since. And I know you've

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Speaker 6: been following the school choice issues. Yeah, and you yourself

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Speaker 6: had a lot of personal experiences with education, so you

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Speaker 6: know how important it is, especially at the K through twelve.

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Speaker 6: K through twelve level can be such a vector change

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Speaker 6: for your kid's life. So that's how I again, I

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Speaker 6: didn't know I wanted to do this, but I think

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Speaker 6: God kind of smacked me over the head at some

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Speaker 6: point in my life.

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Speaker 5: So you're going to go back and go to medical

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Speaker 5: school or absolutely not.

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Speaker 6: I mean the story there was you know, I probably

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Speaker 6: wasn't thinking too far ahead when I was jumping fully

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Speaker 6: into this and didn't realize I mean, and especially at

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Speaker 6: this time, they were, you know, Obamacare is being debated,

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Speaker 6: and I talked to so many doctors at that point

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Speaker 6: who said, physicians, you name it that were like, look

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Speaker 6: the paperwork, the administrative burden it's getting. It's already bad enough,

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Speaker 6: and we're quite worried for what's down the road. I

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Speaker 6: wasn't liking the you know, the chemistry and the hard

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Speaker 6: sciences aspect at the college level with it, especially at Stanford.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, not going back to medical school, that's for sure.

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Speaker 5: I also actually was going to be a doctor, but

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Speaker 5: that's only because my parents are from the Soviet Union.

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Speaker 5: And you know, that's one of three careers you were

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Speaker 5: to choose.

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Speaker 3: So lawyer, a doctor or something like that.

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Speaker 5: You got, you got two out of three. How'd you know?

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Speaker 5: So what does the American Federation for Children focus on

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Speaker 5: other than school choice? Or is it mostly a school

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Speaker 5: choice organization?

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Speaker 6: We are a singleish organization at least kind of what

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Speaker 6: the policies that we pass seek to give families the

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Speaker 6: best opportunity to go send their child to the school

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Speaker 6: of their choice. So public private charter we're agnostic on that,

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Speaker 6: but a real thing that is just needed in the

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Speaker 6: marketplace and has been needed for the last forty years

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Speaker 6: or more, is that we really do need a vibrant

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Speaker 6: kind of diet yamic set of options within each kind

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Speaker 6: of local community, and that charter schools took off in

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Speaker 6: the nineties and then early two thousands had a lot

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Speaker 6: of bipartisan support, but there were only kind of there

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Speaker 6: was a slower, longer tail when it comes to know

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Speaker 6: the growth of voucher programs, you know, any kind of

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Speaker 6: program or mechanism that allows a kid to go to

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Speaker 6: a private school. And so our team had been focusing

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Speaker 6: on that for quite a long time in various forms,

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Speaker 6: and in the last ten twenty years we've really accelerated

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Speaker 6: the pace of growth of voucher programs or ESA programs

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Speaker 6: or tax credit scholarship programs. These are all different mechanisms

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Speaker 6: that allow a student to go to a private school.

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Speaker 6: AFC is unique in that we do political elections at

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Speaker 6: the state level, because that's how you change these laws

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Speaker 6: at the state level. That creates a permanent change to

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Speaker 6: the education system. Whereas you know, many of our founders,

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Speaker 6: board members and many people who are especially in the

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Speaker 6: last few years, getting into the world of education, they

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Speaker 6: feel the only way to change things is to go

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Speaker 6: to your local school board. And that is indeed an

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Speaker 6: important factor in all this, but it doesn't do systemic

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Speaker 6: change right. You're making changes on the margins to certain

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Speaker 6: kind of budgetary decisions or certain kind of curriculum decisions

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Speaker 6: here and there. But when you're talking about systemic change,

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Speaker 6: you have to change laws right at the state level

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Speaker 6: in particular, because ninety percent of education and K through

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Speaker 6: twelve at least in this country, it's really dictated by

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Speaker 6: the state level dynamics. And so when you pass these

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Speaker 6: laws that allow families to go and take their funding

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Speaker 6: to the school their choice, such a difference maker, and

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Speaker 6: we've seen that in Florida in particular for the last

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Speaker 6: twenty years.

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Speaker 3: You can go in depth about that.

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Speaker 6: But AFC would do the elections to help kind of

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Speaker 6: change the makeup of the state legislature. We do the

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Speaker 6: lobbying and advocacy during the legislative sessions, and then we

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Speaker 6: also help families and role in these programs.

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Speaker 3: So those are the kind of three legs of the

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Speaker 3: school How we do our work.

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Speaker 5: One of the biggest roadblocks to the kind of systemic

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Speaker 5: changes you want to make.

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Speaker 6: Oh, that's usually a pretty easy one. The biggest roadblock really,

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Speaker 6: it's the teachers' unions, their power, their money. You know, Carol,

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Speaker 6: if you had AFC, we've raised about thirty three million

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Speaker 6: dollars last year and deployed that across the country.

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Speaker 3: Carol, how much do you think the teachers unions brought

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Speaker 3: in in.

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Speaker 6: Terms of their revenue four times that you were close?

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Speaker 6: I mean they bring in about three billion dollars in revenues. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, I was gotten by about, you know,

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Speaker 6: more than one hundred times. It's that and people just

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Speaker 6: don't understand the scale of what that means, right, because

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Speaker 6: if they're deducting right out of every teacher's paycheck, right,

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Speaker 6: hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars a year, you multiply

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Speaker 6: that not only to teachers. It's almost a misnomber to

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Speaker 6: call them the teachers unions. Schooling unions is probably the

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Speaker 6: better term, because they'll take any employee that is part

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Speaker 6: of the school system. And that's why you notice when

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Speaker 6: they're fighting at the state legislatures and they're lobbying and

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Speaker 6: putting so much money, they're always wanting more personnel, right,

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Speaker 6: and they'll find any sort of personnel to do it.

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Speaker 6: They'll say, you know, during COVID, we need more counselors, right,

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Speaker 6: And it's like, well, maybe let's discuss that. But then

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Speaker 6: all of a sudden you realize, no, no, it's all about

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Speaker 6: the dollars for them. It's every new employee is a

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Speaker 6: new paycheck going into the conference of the unions. And

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Speaker 6: so when you have this three billion dollar machine, I mean,

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Speaker 6: I mean, I don't know what the final tally was

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Speaker 6: for this year in the presidential elections, but for the

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Speaker 6: last couple of decades, I mean, that's the amount of

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Speaker 6: money that was spent at a presidential campaign level. And

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Speaker 6: they're doing that year over year at the school board level,

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Speaker 6: at the state level, at the federal level. And so

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Speaker 6: their influence on politics, particularly in democratic politics, really a

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Speaker 6: stranglehold on things. Whereas if they weren't able to you know,

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Speaker 6: collect that money, and there's all these kind of state

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Speaker 6: laws that are trying to push for that that you

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Speaker 6: can't automatically deduct the dues from you know, employees in

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Speaker 6: that fashion. If you took that money element away, I

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Speaker 6: think that's probably, you know, the biggest it would have

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Speaker 6: the biggest downstream effect in terms of our kind of

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Speaker 6: ability to get good reforms in the education system, because

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Speaker 6: especially on the you know, the democratic side of the equation,

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Speaker 6: there is such this fear that a Democrat, they tell

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Speaker 6: us this privately off.

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Speaker 3: And they're like, look, I'm with you.

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Speaker 6: Maybe when it gets to the vote, I'll be with you,

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Speaker 6: but I cannot stick my neck out or else they

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Speaker 6: will wipe me out into primary, right, And that's that's

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Speaker 6: really harmful to the politics because it's also this nefarious

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Speaker 6: I mean, it's a taxpayer funded initiative essentially, right, because

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Speaker 6: our tax dollars are going to the school employees. Their

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Speaker 6: money is then getting shuffled over to the teachers unions automatically.

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Speaker 6: Not that's not a good sign dynamic here. And so

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Speaker 6: but aside from that, the last couple of years, parents

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Speaker 6: have really made their voices heard. They got to see

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Speaker 6: what happened during COVID. We've been much more effective at

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Speaker 6: getting our message out there to those parents directly. So

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Speaker 6: we've been able to actually beat them, even though we're

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Speaker 6: well under resource relative to them. As we kind of

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Speaker 6: talked to.

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Speaker 5: What's step one in fighting their dominance and actually ending that,

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Speaker 5: you know, taking money out of every teachers and every

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Speaker 5: employees paycheck. I mean, is there a way to stop that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 6: I think there are a number of states of past

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Speaker 6: laws where you know, you had the voluntary contributions have

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Speaker 6: to be voluntary and they can't be automatic, right, And

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Speaker 6: there are a couple of Supreme Court cases that kind

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Speaker 6: of dealt with this at the federal level that made

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Speaker 6: it such that you couldn't just you know, automatically take

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Speaker 6: money out of, you know, the teacher's paychecks. Jana's decision

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Speaker 6: was pretty notable in that regard. But then of course

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Speaker 6: the unions had already been seeing that the writing was

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Speaker 6: on the wall here, so they have their thous of lawyers.

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Speaker 6: They had worked out different ways to say, sure, you

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Speaker 6: won't be automatically joined into the teachers unions, but the

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Speaker 6: way that you have to like opt out is there's

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Speaker 6: this one Saturday at this random time and you have

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Speaker 6: to have your original teaching certificate that you got to bring.

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Speaker 3: So they created all these kind of.

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Speaker 6: Artificial ways to keep keep the doors from like you know,

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Speaker 6: them flooding for the exits. So there's a lot of

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Speaker 6: really good groups other folks that you should certainly talk

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Speaker 6: to in your podcasts that are working on that issue

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Speaker 6: in particular. But for us, you know, it does actually

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Speaker 6: go back to the school choice laws in that if

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Speaker 6: you are giving parents total control of their child's education

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Speaker 6: funding and they're able to kind of freely choose the

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Speaker 6: location or the type of setting home, you know, brick

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Speaker 6: and mortar, you name it, suddenly you know the power

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Speaker 6: of the unions and the power of the blob, all

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Speaker 6: the bureaucratic elements of this that has been just rising

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Speaker 6: dramatically over the last thirty years.

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Speaker 3: When parents are in.

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Speaker 6: Control, suddenly there becomes a marketplace. Florida we've seen this

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Speaker 6: the most where they've embraced all of the options right, public, private, charter,

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Speaker 6: all of the public schools have gotten better in that

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Speaker 6: regard because of it.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 6: So again, when parents are in charge, that's usually the

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Speaker 6: biggest lever. And then there is this kind of element

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Speaker 6: on the margins. I think that is an important part

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Speaker 6: of it, but where it's like, hey, we need to

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Speaker 6: really rethink how the teachers' unions and these kind of

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Speaker 6: public sector unions are able to operate in this you know,

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Speaker 6: unlimited fashion in a lot of ways within our kind

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Speaker 6: of public discourse, in our politics, so a lot of.

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Speaker 5: The time, and I admit that this is true for me.

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Speaker 5: People only start to care about things like what they're

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Speaker 5: teaching at the local school, or school choice or any

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Speaker 5: of this when they have kids in the system. You

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Speaker 5: mentioned before we started, you have two small kids, so

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Speaker 5: this isn't actually personal for you yet. How did you

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Speaker 5: become so passionate about this?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, again, it goes back to that story where I'm

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Speaker 6: you know, touring these beautiful schools with these in these

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Speaker 6: like high poverty areas that are doing so well for

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Speaker 6: these kids. You're talking to the teachers about the student

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Speaker 6: body and their challenges. The teachers are saying, roughly fifteen

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Speaker 6: percent our kids are homeless, or you know, you have

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Speaker 6: all these other ailments. You know, parents that you know,

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Speaker 6: single parent households that are really in deep poverty, but

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Speaker 6: they are getting their kid into this great school, which

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Speaker 6: is their ticket to end generational poverty in many ways,

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Speaker 6: and you're thinking about the fact that the unions are

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Speaker 6: trying to essentially either close these schools make sure they

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Speaker 6: don't get any state funding.

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Speaker 3: And it's just when you're.

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Speaker 6: Looking at the kind of dichotomy here of how enough

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Speaker 6: farious it is that there are people that they do

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Speaker 6: not actually care about the student's success, especially of these

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Speaker 6: kids in deep poverty. And you know, lower income families

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Speaker 6: have been screaming about this for generations, and lawmakers and

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Speaker 6: others will say, well, no, you know, the schools I

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Speaker 6: went to, they were good, and we just need to

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Speaker 6: do do like we did in the seventies and eighties.

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Speaker 6: It's like, you know, there are really deep, deep cracks

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Speaker 6: within our kind of public education system that we need

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Speaker 6: to fix, and there's this sort of moral imperative that

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Speaker 6: we should all have about that. And to your point

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Speaker 6: about parents not really you know, understanding this or paying

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Speaker 6: attention to us until their kids are going into it.

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Speaker 5: Too late, it's like too late to make changes once

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Speaker 5: your kids are in it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: No.

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Speaker 6: And thankfully there were visionaries kind of a people that

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Speaker 6: founded AFC who were you know, both philanthropus. They were

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Speaker 6: giving out lots of scholarships, but they felt at that

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Speaker 6: time in the nineties they're like, look, we could give

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Speaker 6: out the entire fortunes of every kind of major family

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Speaker 6: in the world here, but we're not changing the system. Right,

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Speaker 6: we're giving a lot of you know, we're giving out

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Speaker 6: a lot of proverbial lifeboats. But the system remains unchained

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Speaker 6: and actually was only growing, and it's kind of power

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Speaker 6: and influence. And so therefore thank God for the people

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Speaker 6: like you know, Betzy to Voss, even the John Walton

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Speaker 6: Bill Obendorf, who at the early stage of this said

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Speaker 6: we need to fix this American education system or else

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Speaker 6: it's going to be too late for the future country

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Speaker 6: and everything. I mean, we could have a long debate

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Speaker 6: about poverty, right, but it's so much of it stems.

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Speaker 3: From a poor education system. Right.

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Speaker 6: And for parents at the individual level again, I almost

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Speaker 6: I love when a parent really kind of comes to

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Speaker 6: this with like the zeal of a you know, convert,

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Speaker 6: where they go, oh my gosh, I didn't realize how

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Speaker 6: it was you. And again, this is the nature of

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Speaker 6: our system, where if you grew up in this system

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Speaker 6: that just said, hey, it's your zip code and this,

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Speaker 6: I mean, when the game is sort of set that way,

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Speaker 6: you're not really thinking could this be different and should

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Speaker 6: we change it? And I think again COVID really had

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Speaker 6: this seench of sketch moment on the American consciousness that wait,

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Speaker 6: all these other countries aren't doing it like we do, right,

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Speaker 6: and we can actually have a free and open system

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Speaker 6: where we control our education funding. Especially when we're spending

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Speaker 6: about twenty thousand dollars per kid per year in American

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Speaker 6: kind of education, we should be getting a little more

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Speaker 6: for that money and we can probably improve outcomes make

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Speaker 6: parents happier. And again we're seeing that in places like Florida,

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Speaker 6: and you know it's soon to be Texas once we

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Speaker 6: get that across the finish line next year.

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Speaker 5: For this year, rather, it just impresses me so much

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Speaker 5: when people don't have skin in the actual game, and actually,

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Speaker 5: like the wealthy people you mentioned who have donated, they

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Speaker 5: could have just kept their money and done something else

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Speaker 5: with it, or you know, they clearly could live in

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Speaker 5: the best zip codes and send their kids to private

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Speaker 5: school and just move on with their lives. With the

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Speaker 5: fact that people get involved in this way, it just

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Speaker 5: gives me a lot of hope and optimism for our country.

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Speaker 5: I think there's a lot of places where I don't

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Speaker 5: think that philanthropy works like that, and that people make

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Speaker 5: differences in the lives of people that you know aren't

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Speaker 5: in their world or in a completely different sector of society.

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Speaker 3: I'm just I'm impressed with all of that.

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Speaker 6: So now well and it's I think again they felt

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Speaker 6: that moral paying right that unlike I mean, it's probably

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Speaker 6: a bad analogy, but unlike healthcare, where it's like, look,

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Speaker 6: we're talking about a lifetime of decisions and a lot

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Speaker 6: of you know, a lot of factors that key into

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Speaker 6: how we're thinking through you know, having a healthy you know,

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Speaker 6: make America healthy against kind of situation. Whereas education is like, look,

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Speaker 6: you've got this essentially depending upon the kid, but you

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Speaker 6: know this twelve to fifteen year window where you only

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Speaker 6: get this one shot to do it right. And some

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Speaker 6: of these early decisions, I mean a lot of people

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Speaker 6: got captivated in the nineties and two thousands when they

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Speaker 6: started seeing the research that like, look, if you're unable

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Speaker 6: to read by third or fourth grade, you're really not

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Speaker 6: going to you know, get that back over the years,

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Speaker 6: and that's going to just you know, put you into

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Speaker 6: this pipeline of poverty.

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Speaker 3: Or worse the rest of your life when.

438
00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:11,520
Speaker 6: You go when you kind of start factoring in all

439
00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:15,280
Speaker 6: these facts, all these ideas around education, how important of

440
00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:17,520
Speaker 6: a vector change it can be with these sorts of

441
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,600
Speaker 6: early internet. You know, how many people do you know, Carol,

442
00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:22,639
Speaker 6: in your life to talk about that one great teacher, right,

443
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:24,800
Speaker 6: or that one kind of even if it's just a

444
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:27,560
Speaker 6: social setting of like the right students in your kind

445
00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:29,879
Speaker 6: of cohort, that one grade where it's like, you know,

446
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,600
Speaker 6: that's when everything changed for me and I really propelled

447
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,280
Speaker 6: through middle school and then high school because of it. Right,

448
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 6: So all these things like gosh, education is the silver

449
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:40,680
Speaker 6: bowl to all of these things in life, and we

450
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:42,400
Speaker 6: got to get this right. And where it's too great

451
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,240
Speaker 6: a country to have, you know, minimal dreams or kind

452
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,680
Speaker 6: of mediocre kind of notions around education is fine, we'll

453
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:51,159
Speaker 6: fix it. You know, so many of these students that

454
00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,480
Speaker 6: we bring into our team, who they themselves benefited from

455
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,440
Speaker 6: a school choice program, they often have a very similar

456
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,080
Speaker 6: story that you know, their mom, dad, we're fighting tooth

457
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:03,119
Speaker 6: and nail to get them into that better school. The

458
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,359
Speaker 6: local terrible public school was telling them, no, no, no,

459
00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 6: We've got this ten year plan. We're going to fix it.

460
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,920
Speaker 6: It's like ten years is too late for almost everything, right,

461
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:14,320
Speaker 6: and lo and behold, Carol, they never got that ten

462
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:16,080
Speaker 6: year plan in place. They got a lot more money,

463
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 6: they didn't fix the situation. So again, this is where

464
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:19,919
Speaker 6: it's like, if you can put your kid into a

465
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,399
Speaker 6: great school tomorrow, their whole life can be changed, Their

466
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,480
Speaker 6: whole family's life can be changed, especially if they're in

467
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:25,200
Speaker 6: dire poverty.

468
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 3: What do you worry about, Well, I think we've been

469
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:28,359
Speaker 3: talking about it.

470
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:30,879
Speaker 6: I mean I do worry, you know, I tell you know,

471
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,560
Speaker 6: I often reflect upon when it's like graduation time, you

472
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:37,359
Speaker 6: know it's May June. You know, you really do reflect upon, like, gosh,

473
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,600
Speaker 6: the urgency of this issue, and that if we didn't

474
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:44,040
Speaker 6: pass that school choice program, how many more graduating classes

475
00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 6: of kids, especially you think about like a freshman or

476
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,119
Speaker 6: sophomore where it's like, if you could have put them

477
00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:51,720
Speaker 6: into a better educational environment, maybe that's what actually propels

478
00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:54,040
Speaker 6: them into college for the first time in their.

479
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,760
Speaker 3: Family or so that kind of that moment where we're thinking.

480
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,720
Speaker 6: About the losses that we have in terms of the

481
00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,120
Speaker 6: state legislative fights where it's like we weren't able to pass

482
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:06,120
Speaker 6: that program. I do always worry about kind of those

483
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:08,479
Speaker 6: kids that fell through the cracks that we know we

484
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:10,880
Speaker 6: could have helped, We know we could have put them

485
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 6: on a better life path. And I mean, we're talking

486
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 6: millions and hundreds of thousands of kids, and what does

487
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,400
Speaker 6: that mean for society ten twenty years down the road?

488
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,239
Speaker 6: And I remember at the early outset of COVID and

489
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 6: the kind of the lockdowns of the teaching union started

490
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 6: to orchestrate, and as you know, in some places they

491
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 6: locked schools down for two years. There were studies that

492
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,240
Speaker 6: com yep, exactly right. And then when you look actually

493
00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 6: right across like the proverbial street, at how ninety percent

494
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 6: of private schools were opened by October twenty twenty, you

495
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:39,479
Speaker 6: started to go, wait, what's going on there? Right?

496
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,520
Speaker 5: That's that's unjust where's the science? How is the science working?

497
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,040
Speaker 5: How are the private school kids safer than the public school?

498
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,840
Speaker 6: Right? Political science was ruling the day in that regard.

499
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:51,439
Speaker 6: But when you looked at how in particular, and this

500
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:53,600
Speaker 6: is getting back to your question about what I worried

501
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,239
Speaker 6: about at that time, there was a study to come

502
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,760
Speaker 6: out saying there's basically three million kids that we don't

503
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 6: really know where they are, particularly in these kind of

504
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,600
Speaker 6: blighted communities, high poverty situations. And it's just devastating because

505
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,680
Speaker 6: when you really think about the long tail of that.

506
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 6: We have roughly three million people going through our kind

507
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,679
Speaker 6: of prison system. And if you think that, like Gosha

508
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 6: down the road, of some higher percentage of those kids

509
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,200
Speaker 6: that are on the proverbial streets or are not getting

510
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:24,960
Speaker 6: a great education and they're relegated to these kind of

511
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 6: terrible life paths, you just really think about the impact

512
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,200
Speaker 6: on our welfare system, right and the quality of life

513
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 6: overall for a society.

514
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 3: And again, it's.

515
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 6: Such a simple thing that we can have the best

516
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,760
Speaker 6: education system in the world. We should for some populations

517
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:40,639
Speaker 6: within America. We really do. We can bring that at

518
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:42,919
Speaker 6: scale if we just made some of these systemic reforms.

519
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,119
Speaker 6: And again, I think COVID was really that slap in

520
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:47,400
Speaker 6: the face for so many families, and I'm so glad

521
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 6: it is. Even so many politicians got up to it saying, oh, yeah,

522
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 6: we were our assumptions about our education system were incorrect.

523
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 6: We need to implement school choice right now. And thankfully

524
00:23:57,880 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 6: we said, look, we've got the plan in the drawer.

525
00:23:59,400 --> 00:23:59,919
Speaker 3: Here's how you do.

526
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:01,959
Speaker 6: Here's the lessons of mistake that we've learned of how

527
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 6: to create a really successful, thriving type of program.

528
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:06,800
Speaker 3: So the things I worry about again. It always comes

529
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 3: back to the kids.

530
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: More coming up with Tommy Schultz. But first January twenty

531
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: seventh was International Holocaust Rememberance Day, a day to remember

532
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,679
Speaker 1: the great evil of the Holocaust, when millions of Jews

533
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,399
Speaker 1: were slaughtered during the Nazis reign of terror. Today, the

534
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 1: rise in global antisemitism and the constant attacks on Israel

535
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,959
Speaker 1: show us that it's more important than ever to remember

536
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: the atrocities of the Holocaust to ensure it never happens again.

537
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 1: That's why I've partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians

538
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: and Jews. They provide food, shelter, and safety to Jews

539
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: in Israel and around the world, including those remaining Holocaust survivors.

540
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: Your donation today will help provide food, water, medicine, and

541
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: other basic necessities to Jewish communities, and through your gift,

542
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: you'll stand with the Jewish people and against this growing

543
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: antisemitism and give a gift to show your support of

544
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: the Jewish people by visiting SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. That's one

545
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 1: word support IFCJ dot org or call eight eight eight

546
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 1: for eight eight if CJ that's eight eight eight for

547
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: eight eight if CJ eight eight eight for eight eight

548
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:24,639
Speaker 1: four three two five.

549
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:30,639
Speaker 5: What advice would you give your sixteen year old self

550
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,439
Speaker 5: other than you're not going to be a doctor.

551
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's it's interesting because I feel I have lived

552
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:40,400
Speaker 6: a twenty different lifetime since my sixteen year old self. Again,

553
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 6: when I was moving all around across the country, you know,

554
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 6: working on political campaigns, that was a different subset of

555
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:46,840
Speaker 6: my life when I was sixteen, you know, still in

556
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:51,199
Speaker 6: high school, but I was really I was working. They

557
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:53,840
Speaker 6: were spending a lot of time as a competitive trapshooter

558
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 6: going around the country, and so I was really focused,

559
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 6: even potentially on making an Olympic run at that point,

560
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 6: should I even go to college and all these things.

561
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 6: So I feel like my life advice of my sixteen

562
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:05,919
Speaker 6: year old self wouldn't be that much of a difference

563
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 6: maker because everything in life there were so few variables,

564
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 6: So you know, you're so singularly focused on just a

565
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 6: few things like school and athletics. But I think if

566
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 6: I were to give general advice to my younger self,

567
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 6: and I think to anybody, in some ways, it's mindset

568
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 6: really matters. How you kind of talk to yourself about

569
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:30,120
Speaker 6: your goals, your dreams, how you're evaluating your life path

570
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 6: against something I didn't do as well when I was

571
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 6: thinking I'll just go and be a doctor, you know,

572
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 6: not really evaluating that and thinking through, hey, maybe are

573
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 6: all my assumptions correct, but everything else too. That There's

574
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 6: a great book called The Luck Factor where I don't

575
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 6: know if you've read it, but they talked to They

576
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 6: were kind of these longitudinal studies around people who are

577
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 6: they view themselves as lucky, right, and some people and

578
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,160
Speaker 6: the more that these people viewed themselves as lucky, it's

579
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 6: low and behold lucky chances seem to come their way

580
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 6: more and it's less about like some mystical notion that

581
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,400
Speaker 6: the universe like tips the scales in favor of them.

582
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,719
Speaker 6: But they'll do these scientific studies where it's like, are

583
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,359
Speaker 6: you walking by this, like this dollar bill or something,

584
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 6: and we did that person.

585
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 3: Pick it up?

586
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 6: And the unlucky people always view themselves unlucky, like they

587
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 6: will miss that dollar bill because they're not looking at

588
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 6: and their brains just aren't subconsciously kind of thinking through

589
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:19,680
Speaker 6: these issues. And this again goes to every day decisions

590
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 6: around you know, goal setting and am I making the

591
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,680
Speaker 6: right goals and do I have a dream and ambition

592
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 6: or something that I want to work on that is

593
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,239
Speaker 6: actually exciting. And then that goes to the negative end

594
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 6: of it two, where how many people do you meet

595
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:32,639
Speaker 6: in your lives that are so down on themselves or

596
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,200
Speaker 6: they have this negative script or nothing's going to work

597
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 6: And it's like, well, lo and behold, I things aren't

598
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 6: going to work out if you're always looking at it

599
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 6: the wrong perspective. And there's plenty of other great books,

600
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 6: you know, mindset Carol dwack All, the kind of other research.

601
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 6: I really wish I'd stumbled upon this stuff earlier, and

602
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,639
Speaker 6: I think more young people would benefit from that type

603
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 6: of you know, that kind of psychology and training around mindset,

604
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 6: and even the studies when you look at young children

605
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 6: in their education where you know, telling someone you're so

606
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,360
Speaker 6: smart versus telling someone you worked really hard at that, right,

607
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 6: and then you kind of all these amazing interventions that

608
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 6: show like, yeah, actually your mindset is almost the most

609
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 6: important thing versus these kind of having this belief around

610
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,680
Speaker 6: like immutable traits that you just can't control, and there's

611
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:18,400
Speaker 6: these factors always outside of your outside of your decision framework.

612
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 6: So I think in general, with my younger self. I

613
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:22,199
Speaker 6: whish I had stumbled upon some of this earlier.

614
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:23,159
Speaker 1: I love that.

615
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 5: I definitely consider myself lucky, and I think that I

616
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 5: could see how it perpetuated itself. Absolutely, you know the

617
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:32,880
Speaker 5: fact that I got to be American just starting right

618
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:35,640
Speaker 5: from there and moving on to the rest of my life.

619
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 5: I think I feel like I've walked between rain drops

620
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 5: the whole time.

621
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 3: So I'm going to.

622
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 5: Read that book.

623
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 6: Yeah, And in this matter of luck, I mean, this

624
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 6: is what I hate about our education system, right, where

625
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 6: so much of it is predicated on luck. Are you

626
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 6: born into the right zip code right the last five

627
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,719
Speaker 6: arbitrary digits of your home address? And we've built this

628
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 6: because of partly the Jim Crow era where there's segregating

629
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 6: communities based upon race, and therefore, like we've just sort

630
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 6: of kept a version of that system where hey, again,

631
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 6: your home madres dictates your entire educational pathns.

632
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 3: There's some of these communities where you.

633
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 6: Know, from elementary then to middle then to high school,

634
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 6: some kids, every single school they will go.

635
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 3: To is one of the worst in their state or

636
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 3: even the country.

637
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 6: It's like, gosh, I think about even you had that

638
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 6: one one outlet even at any point in that chain

639
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 6: of elementary school you went to a great school, or

640
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 6: middle school you went to a great school.

641
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 3: All of a sudden that just I mean.

642
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 6: Luck should not play a factor in our education system,

643
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 6: especially how much we're spending, how important it is to

644
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:33,959
Speaker 6: the future of our country.

645
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 5: Absolutely well, I've loved this conversation. This has been really

646
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 5: eye opening in a lot of ways. I've enjoyed it

647
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 5: very much. And here with your best tip for my

648
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 5: listeners on how they can improve their lives.

649
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think you know, we were just talking a

650
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,960
Speaker 6: lot about mindset. I think really people both understanding the

651
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 6: mindset plays such an important role in your day to

652
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 6: day life right personally. It's hard to give general so

653
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 6: the entire population of your listeners, but I think that

654
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 6: will be you know, that's the importance of understanding both.

655
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 6: If you're setting these really ambitious goals, exciting goals for

656
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Speaker 6: yourself personally, for your family, for kind of your work

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Speaker 6: as well, I mean, you're going to get so much

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Speaker 6: more out of life. Our country needs that kind of

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Speaker 6: you know, type of spirit alive and well today. Whereas

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Speaker 6: if people are you know, if their mindset and if

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Speaker 6: they're hopeless they feel everything's going to be a dead end,

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Speaker 6: and some of this is being driven by the government's

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Speaker 6: bad policies, whether it's in education or otherwise. Again, having

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Speaker 6: that ambition, having those big dreams, having the mindset that

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Speaker 6: we can actually do this, we can actually your day

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Speaker 6: to day existence, you can be you know, light the

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Speaker 6: spark that changes the world. You know, I'm Catholic, and

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Speaker 6: if you really look at the lives of saints and

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Speaker 6: how like even you know, people as humble and as

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Speaker 6: poor as you know, Mother Teresa's the world, how they

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Speaker 6: can truly change things by individual action.

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Speaker 3: This is what this all comes down to.

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Speaker 6: So I hope more people understand just how important their

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Speaker 6: lives can be and that they can really make a

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Speaker 6: difference in their day to day their families at the localist,

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Speaker 6: you know, the most local level, and then with their

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Speaker 6: work that they're doing on a day to day basis.

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Speaker 6: And so a lot of gratitude you for kind of

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Speaker 6: putting this out into the world with your own work

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Speaker 6: where you've kind of had these positive enough lifting conversations.

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Speaker 6: I know you're focused at big on education, You've written

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Speaker 6: books on these things. So thank you so much for

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Speaker 6: thank you being such an important kind of I think

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Speaker 6: vector change for a lot of other people's lives.

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Speaker 5: If he's Tommy Schultz, he's the CEO of American Federation

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Speaker 5: for Children. Check out that group. They are fantastic.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Tommy, Thank you, Carol, talk to

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Speaker 3: you soon.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.

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Speaker 1: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.