Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Nothing is more important than our kids, So who'd be again?
Speaker 2: Scholarships for tuition tutoring services for kids with disabilities, all
Speaker 2: paid for by a federal tax credit with no state dollars.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and
Speaker 3: Radio alongside Joe Matthew. I'm Kayleie Lines And that's part
Speaker 3: of a campaign by Empowering America's Parents, a new policy
Speaker 3: group launching a multi million dollar media blitz heading into
Speaker 3: the midterms supporting the Education Freedom Tax Credit, a scholarship
Speaker 3: program to promote school choice that was created by last.
Speaker 4: Year's One Big Beautiful Bill.
Speaker 3: The group was launched by former Republican Governor Glenn Younkin
Speaker 3: of Virginia, and he's joining us now in our DC studio.
Speaker 4: Governor, welcome to Bloomberg.
Speaker 5: Great to be with you, Thank you for having me,
Speaker 5: and thanks for really shining a bright light on this
Speaker 5: critical topic, which is education freedom for families all across
Speaker 5: the country, simply enabled by governors opting in.
Speaker 3: Well, so talk to us about what it is they
Speaker 3: would be opting in here and whether this would in
Speaker 3: some way detract from public.
Speaker 5: Schools yeah, Well, as part, as you said, as part
Speaker 5: of President Trump's Working Families Tax Cut Act, the Education
Speaker 5: Freedom tax credits were enabled, and they unlock state by
Speaker 5: state scholarship opportunities where if you want to support scholarships
Speaker 5: in Virginia, because I opted in, I was the first
Speaker 5: governor to opt in, then you can donate up to
Speaker 5: seventeen hundred dollars and get an immediate full tax deduction
Speaker 5: from your federal return. And those scholarships can then be
Speaker 5: used for tuition. They can be used for tutoring, they
Speaker 5: can be used for equipment, they can be used for transportation,
Speaker 5: they can be used for families that have developmentally disabled
Speaker 5: child who need extra services, students who are going to
Speaker 5: private school, but also students in public school. And it's
Speaker 5: funded by private donations and a tax credit, and therefore
Speaker 5: it doesn't take a single dollar away from state edge
Speaker 5: education funds.
Speaker 1: And in fact, it's additive to it.
Speaker 5: And so there's really no reason why a governor would
Speaker 5: not opt into this. And we have thirty states that
Speaker 5: have opted in, but we have twenty that haven't. And
Speaker 5: the twenty that haven't, I believe are putting politics in
Speaker 5: front of the needs of their citizens because these scholarships
Speaker 5: can be life changing, and therefore, I'm asking governors across
Speaker 5: the country opt in, and we're going to work through
Speaker 5: empowering America's parents to educate American citizens and families that
Speaker 5: this is available to them, but they need to reach
Speaker 5: out to their governor and tell them to opt in.
Speaker 6: So what were the politics here? Why are people saying no?
Speaker 6: Are is this being seen as a glorified voucher program?
Speaker 1: What would be the opposition?
Speaker 5: Well, the primary opposition comes from the teachers unions because
Speaker 5: they don't want to see anything damage the monopoly hold
Speaker 5: that they have on education today, when in fact they
Speaker 5: should be for this because it not only yes, provides
Speaker 5: opportunities for private school tuition for families that otherwise couldn't
Speaker 5: afford it, but it provides also funds and scholarships for
Speaker 5: students in public school. And the bottom line is the
Speaker 5: way this is structured that over ninety percent of America's
Speaker 5: students would be eligible. I mean, this is as close
Speaker 5: to universal school choice as we can get, and the
Speaker 5: idea that it takes money away from public education is
Speaker 5: just wrong. And therefore we should start telling the truth
Speaker 5: and governors should opt in and not put politics in front.
Speaker 1: Of their kids.
Speaker 3: Well, I have to ask you, as you are clearly
Speaker 3: focusing a lot of your political capital on this initiative
Speaker 3: at a time when the country is at war. It's
Speaker 3: fueling higher gas prices. People have affordability challenges that they
Speaker 3: often talk about, from gas to groceries to healthcare. Why
Speaker 3: is school choice such an important issue?
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, affordability is the top issue in voters'
Speaker 5: minds right now, and I understand why. I mean, listen,
Speaker 5: the Biden era inflation that was unleashed on our nation
Speaker 5: has had a long tail and it still presents itself
Speaker 5: at the grocery store and lots of other places.
Speaker 1: And of course, with crude.
Speaker 5: Prices that have been elevated because of the Iran conflict,
Speaker 5: we're seeing gas prices elevated as well. But now we
Speaker 5: see them coming back down. And of course, oil prices
Speaker 5: today are around seventy five bucks, and we're seeing gas
Speaker 5: prices come back down. And I think the work that
Speaker 5: is being done by Kevin Warsh will also translate into
Speaker 5: really deinflationary kinds of policies, and as a result, I
Speaker 5: think we're going to see coming into the fall you know,
Speaker 5: a real opportunity for us to celebrate the strong economy
Speaker 5: that we have, but also recognize that this concern about
Speaker 5: affordability is real.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 5: Affordability also translates itself into how am I paying for
Speaker 5: my child's either tuition at a private school or for
Speaker 5: the things they need to go to public school. And
Speaker 5: education is a huge issue in voters' minds. Seventy five
Speaker 5: percent of voters say that K through twelve education is
Speaker 5: one of their top three issues when they vote. Of course,
Speaker 5: affordability is the top one. And so here's a chance
Speaker 5: for us to really push for governors to opt into
Speaker 5: a program that addresses two real issues for voters affordability
Speaker 5: because it provides scholarships that don't cost their state anything
Speaker 5: in an area that they really care deeply about, of course,
Speaker 5: which is the education of their children.
Speaker 6: Well, so you're speaking to affordability in a very compelling way.
Speaker 6: The President is actually speaking to it right now in
Speaker 6: Las Vegas by way of the One Big Beautiful Bill
Speaker 6: and No Tax on Tips, where this very program that
Speaker 6: we're talking about was born. But he's also said that
Speaker 6: Republicans have won on affordability and that it's a Democrat hoax.
Speaker 1: Is that not the right view? Well, I think what.
Speaker 5: We all know is that the record inflation that was
Speaker 5: unleashed during Joe Biden has a long tail, and the
Speaker 5: Democrats have done a really good job of trying to
Speaker 5: convince Americans that the economy is failing. And therefore what
Speaker 5: a lot of people are seeing every day, which is
Speaker 5: of course elevated prices resulting back from two or three
Speaker 5: years ago.
Speaker 6: Which you had a terrorf regime and a war in
Speaker 6: the Middle East, and they're ever higher.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, I think what we've demonstrated first is that the
Speaker 5: war in the Middle East is a real impact on
Speaker 5: fuel prices, and we know fuel prices are a major
Speaker 5: contributor to prices and everything else. Crude's a meaningful input
Speaker 5: into most manufacturing processes and of course transportation costs for
Speaker 5: every good that's transported around the country. And so as
Speaker 5: gas prices went up, of course we've seen some pressure
Speaker 5: upward pressure on inflation. And I think as gas prices
Speaker 5: come back down, we're going to see this inflationary pressure
Speaker 5: relieved and we're going to see prices abate. This is
Speaker 5: what we've seen time in and time out. When it
Speaker 5: comes to gas prices moving up and down. And that's
Speaker 5: why I think it's so important today for us to
Speaker 5: recognize the underlying economy is really strong. Listen, the GDP
Speaker 5: print that was at one and a half percent in
Speaker 5: the last quarter was really masking incredibly wrong growth in
Speaker 5: consumer spending and in business investment. And the only detractor
Speaker 5: from it was in fact, large inputs of machinery and
Speaker 5: tools that are going into all the factories that are
Speaker 5: being built.
Speaker 1: All over the United States.
Speaker 5: And so I think we also see, as Secretary bes
Speaker 5: And said earlier, a real opportunity for real strong GDP
Speaker 5: growth in the back half of the year, as the
Speaker 5: record exports that we had in the second quarter are
Speaker 5: actually going to take charge over imports, and I think
Speaker 5: we're going to see GDP very strong in the back half.
Speaker 3: Well, you mentioned factories being built, it's not just factories,
Speaker 3: it's also data centers. This is obviously something that Virginia
Speaker 3: knows very well. Data center ally is not too far
Speaker 3: away from US now. And I wonder, as a former governor,
Speaker 3: how you're viewing the current debate around the proper approach
Speaker 3: policy wise to data centers and regulating their development. We
Speaker 3: saw a moratory input in place in New York by
Speaker 3: Governor Holkl, but this seems to be bipartisan. Governor Abbott
Speaker 3: yesterday says that no data centers in Texas are moving
Speaker 3: forward until an audit is completed. What's the right approach here?
Speaker 5: Centered debate is a real debate around issues that matter
Speaker 5: a lot to voters, and so my first approach on
Speaker 5: the data center debate is it needs to first take
Speaker 5: place at the local level, because, at least in Virginia,
Speaker 5: and I can't speak for how it works in every
Speaker 5: other state, the localities are where data centers are approved.
Speaker 5: So I've always felt that local governments, state super county
Speaker 5: supervisory boards, and city councils should be where these decisions
Speaker 5: are taken for the zoning and all the appropriate permitting
Speaker 5: for a data center.
Speaker 1: In the locality.
Speaker 5: And if a locality doesn't want it, well then they
Speaker 5: shouldn't take it. I think, second of all, the issues
Speaker 5: around power are real issues, and the President has gone
Speaker 5: to work to push all of the developers to put
Speaker 5: power behind the meter. And in Virginia, when I was governor,
Speaker 5: we actually passed a bill that I signed that enabled
Speaker 5: our regulatory authority to create customized rates so that large
Speaker 5: users of power would pay more. They and appropriately so
Speaker 5: pay more because they're the ones who are using large
Speaker 5: amounts of power. I think these kinds of developments are
Speaker 5: really important. Listen, there's a lot of money that's going
Speaker 5: to be invested in the data center.
Speaker 4: Community and supply chainee, well.
Speaker 1: Supply chains come with it.
Speaker 5: And you know, one of the things that I have
Speaker 5: wanted to just make sure I correct the record on
Speaker 5: is there are a lot of jobs that do come
Speaker 5: with data centers, a lot of them, and some of
Speaker 5: them are missed because it's the supply chain that comes
Speaker 5: into it. Everything from the power supply equipment manufacturers and
Speaker 5: the HVAC equipment manufacturers and the folks that put their
Speaker 5: acs and stacks together in the service companies. It's tens
Speaker 5: of thousands of jobs in Virginia. And so this debate
Speaker 5: is not one we should dismiss. And in fact, I
Speaker 5: strongly have advised government leaders and of course the business
Speaker 5: leaders to engage with communities and listen to their concerns.
Speaker 5: And it's upon them to actually provide good answers. And
Speaker 5: if they can't get those answers in the communities are
Speaker 5: going to say no, this is what this is all about.
Speaker 5: They should not be forced on communities, because communities should
Speaker 5: have this final say. But it is incumbent on the
Speaker 5: developers and the hyperscalers to recognize that there's real pushback
Speaker 5: and they got to go to work in order to
Speaker 5: address some of these major consents.
Speaker 6: That's fascinating to hear from you, especially knowing Virginia was
Speaker 6: the data center capital.
Speaker 1: Maybe it still is.
Speaker 6: Keep your governor's hat on, We'll put your old count
Speaker 6: Carlisle hat back on as well. The question that Kaylee
Speaker 6: followed up on there there's a real concern in the
Speaker 6: market that this is the late nineties all over again.
Speaker 6: You were in Virginia when AOL was the biggest media
Speaker 6: company in the world, where lay in five are everywhere
Speaker 6: building all those data centers, and then there was obviously
Speaker 6: a few difficult years after that as we digested all
Speaker 6: that spending. Does that rhyme with what's happening now.
Speaker 5: Well, my personal view is that the investment decisions that
Speaker 5: are being made around data centers are directly tied to
Speaker 5: revenue streams that are coming off the back end, and
Speaker 5: so this is infrastructure, This is infra structure, that's required
Speaker 5: for national security in order to make sure that we
Speaker 5: can enable our successful competition with China. But it's also
Speaker 5: infrastructure that comes with contractual counterparties, and that means that
Speaker 5: these data centers particularly have revenue that meet their investment needs.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's the core to any investment decision. Now,
Speaker 5: if you're building things and with hope, you know, build
Speaker 5: it and they will come mentality.
Speaker 1: Well, then you know you may have some challenges.
Speaker 5: But the vast majority of the data center development is
Speaker 5: coming with contractual obligations in order to use the compute
Speaker 5: that's there. Let me just get back to the core
Speaker 5: issue though. The core issue is that many many Americans
Speaker 5: are concerned and therefore we need to go to work
Speaker 5: to discuss these concerns and address them. And if they're
Speaker 5: concerns around water, let's talk about it and let's make
Speaker 5: sure that we're taking care of our water resources. If
Speaker 5: there's concerns around power, let's make sure that we have
Speaker 5: rate constructs that demands that are that our data center
Speaker 5: hyperscalers are paying a much higher rates because they're using
Speaker 5: much more power, and that they're bringing their own power
Speaker 5: when they can. But let's do this in a constructive
Speaker 5: way where we have this dialogue with community members so
Speaker 5: that they can reflect their views eventually who they elect
Speaker 5: to represent them in their local governments.
Speaker 3: Well, and we certainly are seeing this as a live
Speaker 3: issue in this midterm cycle, and in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: we've heard a lot about it across our conversations across
Speaker 3: the country. I would imagine it very well could be
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty eight as well. And we have to
Speaker 3: ask you about twenty twenty eight, Governor, because I'm sure
Speaker 3: you're well aware that people are wondering if you will
Speaker 3: eventually throw your hat in the ring to.
Speaker 4: Run for president.
Speaker 3: President Trump suggests that he likes Jade Vance and Marco Rubio,
Speaker 3: and potentially there could be a Vance Rubio.
Speaker 4: Ticket in the offing. Would you rule out running against
Speaker 4: a chosen taker of the mantle?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been asked this a lot, and I've answered
Speaker 5: it the same way every time, which is, I don't
Speaker 5: anticipate being on the debate stage. Somebody just asked me
Speaker 5: in an interview, is this about twenty twenty eight?
Speaker 1: I said no.
Speaker 5: Jerry Baker asked me to an interview recently when I
Speaker 5: was with someone who's clearly running on the Democrats side,
Speaker 5: where we see you both in the debates, dat I said, no,
Speaker 5: I'm really focused on issues that I believe translate into
Speaker 5: better futures for Virginians and Americans, and education right now
Speaker 5: is one of those most important topics.
Speaker 1: Listen, K through twelve education in America is broken. We
Speaker 1: know this.
Speaker 5: We have literally sixty to seventy percents of our young
Speaker 5: students who aren't proficient in reading and in math. We
Speaker 5: see this declining as opposed to improving, as many many
Speaker 5: states are actually reducing expectations for their kids in order
Speaker 5: to tell a lie to their parents that they're doing well,
Speaker 5: and meanwhile they can't read and write. This is the
Speaker 5: travesty of K through twelve education, and this is why
Speaker 5: we have to unleash school choice like we are. But
Speaker 5: we also have to fundamentally transform our public education by
Speaker 5: raising expectations of excellence, by providing multiple pathways for students
Speaker 5: so that they can pursue their passion and maybe get
Speaker 5: an industry recognized credential right out of school and go
Speaker 5: to work in one of these great fields. In Virginia,
Speaker 5: we drove that in a big way to the point
Speaker 5: where we had ninety percent of our students who graduated
Speaker 5: with an industry recognized credential. I mean, this is hugely
Speaker 5: enabling for students. But on top of that, we got
Speaker 5: the cell phones out of school. We had record investments
Speaker 5: into teacher salaries and budgets. It takes all of this,
Speaker 5: but we have to enable parents.
Speaker 1: To be at the head of the table.
Speaker 5: And when we do that and we focus on transforming
Speaker 5: public education, I think we have a shot of transforming
Speaker 5: our education system from the failure that it is today
Speaker 5: to a successful education system that unlocks the dreams of
Speaker 5: our kids.
Speaker 6: I feel like a speech like that would be noticed
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4: I don't know about you quite of clarity.
Speaker 3: No, not on the debate stage in twenty twenty eight
Speaker 3: or ever.
Speaker 5: Well, that's what everybody keeps asking me, and I keep
Speaker 5: answering it the same way over and over and over again,
Speaker 5: and so you know, again, this issue is one for
Speaker 5: the here and now. Governors have to opt in by
Speaker 5: January first, twenty twenty seven, so they literally have four
Speaker 5: plus months to get moving. And that's why places like Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: In Wisconsin and Michigan.
Speaker 5: And Arizona, where we have Democrat governors with citizens who
Speaker 5: want this who haven't opted in. They should feel the
Speaker 5: pressure from their citizens to opt into this great program
Speaker 5: that provides these great scholarships.
Speaker 6: You just worked in some swing states also, you know
Speaker 6: we have it's a problem when they stop asking you
Speaker 6: about twenty eight, right, you don't mind if we go there.
Speaker 5: I mean, listen, at the end of the day, I
Speaker 5: am really humbled every time we have this discussion.
Speaker 1: But I've been consistent from the day I selected as governor.
Speaker 5: You know, there are really important issues at hand, most
Speaker 5: important issues at hand. And one of the things I
Speaker 5: deeply respect about by President Vance is he is saying
Speaker 5: to everybody, focus on.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5: Please focus on twenty twenty six, because listen, what we've seen,
Speaker 5: of course, is what we saw in Michigan last night,
Speaker 5: where the Democrat Party is waging a battle for its
Speaker 5: very soul and you see socialists winning it. And now
Speaker 5: you have a socialist candidate for Senate in Michigan, and
Speaker 5: you're about.
Speaker 4: To see this a member of the DS.
Speaker 5: But you see what he espouses, and I think this
Speaker 5: is once again reflective of the effort of far left
Speaker 5: candidates to present themselves as moderates when in fact we
Speaker 5: know they're not. And look at Abigail Spamberger. I mean,
Speaker 5: she campaigned as a moderate in Virginia and on day
Speaker 5: one she moved hard left, and Virginians don't like it.
Speaker 5: I mean, she has the lowest approval ratings of any
Speaker 5: governor in modern time in Virginia because it was a
Speaker 5: bait and switch. And that's what we're going to see
Speaker 5: out of these far left candidates who then try to
Speaker 5: pretend that they're moderates so they can get elected, and
Speaker 5: then they're going to turn around and govern, just like
Speaker 5: he has said over and over again. And we're going
Speaker 5: to see We're going to see Francesca Hong nominated on
Speaker 5: Monday or Tuesday in Wisconsin as a governor's candidate, and
Speaker 5: she wants to get rid of Thanksgiving. I mean, come on,
Speaker 5: this stuff is really really crazy stuff. And I think
Speaker 5: it's a chance for Americans, Republicans, Independence and Democrats to
Speaker 5: come together and say we're going to stand for the
Speaker 5: basic belief system of this nation.
Speaker 1: We're going to disagree on things.
Speaker 5: We're allowed to disagree on things, and we can disagree
Speaker 5: without being disagreeable all the time. But we have to
Speaker 5: stand for the principles that make America America and not
Speaker 5: let the socialists actually take over not just the Democrat Party,
Speaker 5: but America.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for winging in on that. You know
Speaker 1: we're just playing with you on them.
Speaker 6: No, I need to see you stay in touch with
Speaker 6: us throughout this midterm cycle and let us know how
Speaker 6: the program's going with the Romania twenty states, that's of course.
Speaker 6: Glenn Youngkin, the former governor of Virginia,