Latest / Balance of Power / Former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Talks Education Freedom Tax Credit
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
- 0:07Speaker 2: Nothing is more important than our kids, So who'd be again?
- 0:11Speaker 2: Scholarships for tuition tutoring services for kids with disabilities, all
- 0:16Speaker 2: paid for by a federal tax credit with no state dollars.
- 0:22Speaker 3: Welcome back to Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and
- 0:24Speaker 3: Radio alongside Joe Matthew. I'm Kayleie Lines And that's part
- 0:27Speaker 3: of a campaign by Empowering America's Parents, a new policy
- 0:31Speaker 3: group launching a multi million dollar media blitz heading into
- 0:34Speaker 3: the midterms supporting the Education Freedom Tax Credit, a scholarship
- 0:38Speaker 3: program to promote school choice that was created by last.
- 0:40Speaker 4: Year's One Big Beautiful Bill.
- 0:42Speaker 3: The group was launched by former Republican Governor Glenn Younkin
- 0:45Speaker 3: of Virginia, and he's joining us now in our DC studio.
- 0:49Speaker 4: Governor, welcome to Bloomberg.
- 0:50Speaker 5: Great to be with you, Thank you for having me,
- 0:52Speaker 5: and thanks for really shining a bright light on this
- 0:55Speaker 5: critical topic, which is education freedom for families all across
- 0:59Speaker 5: the country, simply enabled by governors opting in.
- 1:02Speaker 3: Well, so talk to us about what it is they
- 1:04Speaker 3: would be opting in here and whether this would in
- 1:07Speaker 3: some way detract from public.
- 1:09Speaker 5: Schools yeah, Well, as part, as you said, as part
- 1:12Speaker 5: of President Trump's Working Families Tax Cut Act, the Education
- 1:17Speaker 5: Freedom tax credits were enabled, and they unlock state by
- 1:22Speaker 5: state scholarship opportunities where if you want to support scholarships
- 1:26Speaker 5: in Virginia, because I opted in, I was the first
- 1:28Speaker 5: governor to opt in, then you can donate up to
- 1:30Speaker 5: seventeen hundred dollars and get an immediate full tax deduction
- 1:34Speaker 5: from your federal return. And those scholarships can then be
- 1:37Speaker 5: used for tuition. They can be used for tutoring, they
- 1:40Speaker 5: can be used for equipment, they can be used for transportation,
- 1:43Speaker 5: they can be used for families that have developmentally disabled
- 1:47Speaker 5: child who need extra services, students who are going to
- 1:50Speaker 5: private school, but also students in public school. And it's
- 1:52Speaker 5: funded by private donations and a tax credit, and therefore
- 1:56Speaker 5: it doesn't take a single dollar away from state edge
- 2:00Speaker 5: education funds.
- 2:00Speaker 1: And in fact, it's additive to it.
- 2:03Speaker 5: And so there's really no reason why a governor would
- 2:05Speaker 5: not opt into this. And we have thirty states that
- 2:08Speaker 5: have opted in, but we have twenty that haven't. And
- 2:10Speaker 5: the twenty that haven't, I believe are putting politics in
- 2:14Speaker 5: front of the needs of their citizens because these scholarships
- 2:18Speaker 5: can be life changing, and therefore, I'm asking governors across
- 2:23Speaker 5: the country opt in, and we're going to work through
- 2:26Speaker 5: empowering America's parents to educate American citizens and families that
- 2:30Speaker 5: this is available to them, but they need to reach
- 2:32Speaker 5: out to their governor and tell them to opt in.
- 2:34Speaker 6: So what were the politics here? Why are people saying no?
- 2:37Speaker 6: Are is this being seen as a glorified voucher program?
- 2:40Speaker 1: What would be the opposition?
- 2:42Speaker 5: Well, the primary opposition comes from the teachers unions because
- 2:46Speaker 5: they don't want to see anything damage the monopoly hold
- 2:51Speaker 5: that they have on education today, when in fact they
- 2:54Speaker 5: should be for this because it not only yes, provides
- 2:58Speaker 5: opportunities for private school tuition for families that otherwise couldn't
- 3:02Speaker 5: afford it, but it provides also funds and scholarships for
- 3:06Speaker 5: students in public school. And the bottom line is the
- 3:09Speaker 5: way this is structured that over ninety percent of America's
- 3:13Speaker 5: students would be eligible. I mean, this is as close
- 3:16Speaker 5: to universal school choice as we can get, and the
- 3:18Speaker 5: idea that it takes money away from public education is
- 3:22Speaker 5: just wrong. And therefore we should start telling the truth
- 3:25Speaker 5: and governors should opt in and not put politics in front.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Of their kids.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Well, I have to ask you, as you are clearly
- 3:31Speaker 3: focusing a lot of your political capital on this initiative
- 3:34Speaker 3: at a time when the country is at war. It's
- 3:37Speaker 3: fueling higher gas prices. People have affordability challenges that they
- 3:40Speaker 3: often talk about, from gas to groceries to healthcare. Why
- 3:43Speaker 3: is school choice such an important issue?
- 3:46Speaker 5: Well, first of all, affordability is the top issue in voters'
- 3:51Speaker 5: minds right now, and I understand why. I mean, listen,
- 3:54Speaker 5: the Biden era inflation that was unleashed on our nation
- 3:58Speaker 5: has had a long tail and it still presents itself
- 4:01Speaker 5: at the grocery store and lots of other places.
- 4:04Speaker 1: And of course, with crude.
- 4:06Speaker 5: Prices that have been elevated because of the Iran conflict,
- 4:09Speaker 5: we're seeing gas prices elevated as well. But now we
- 4:12Speaker 5: see them coming back down. And of course, oil prices
- 4:15Speaker 5: today are around seventy five bucks, and we're seeing gas
- 4:18Speaker 5: prices come back down. And I think the work that
- 4:20Speaker 5: is being done by Kevin Warsh will also translate into
- 4:24Speaker 5: really deinflationary kinds of policies, and as a result, I
- 4:29Speaker 5: think we're going to see coming into the fall you know,
- 4:31Speaker 5: a real opportunity for us to celebrate the strong economy
- 4:34Speaker 5: that we have, but also recognize that this concern about
- 4:39Speaker 5: affordability is real.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Now.
- 4:41Speaker 5: Affordability also translates itself into how am I paying for
- 4:44Speaker 5: my child's either tuition at a private school or for
- 4:48Speaker 5: the things they need to go to public school. And
- 4:50Speaker 5: education is a huge issue in voters' minds. Seventy five
- 4:54Speaker 5: percent of voters say that K through twelve education is
- 4:57Speaker 5: one of their top three issues when they vote. Of course,
- 5:00Speaker 5: affordability is the top one. And so here's a chance
- 5:03Speaker 5: for us to really push for governors to opt into
- 5:07Speaker 5: a program that addresses two real issues for voters affordability
- 5:12Speaker 5: because it provides scholarships that don't cost their state anything
- 5:15Speaker 5: in an area that they really care deeply about, of course,
- 5:18Speaker 5: which is the education of their children.
- 5:20Speaker 6: Well, so you're speaking to affordability in a very compelling way.
- 5:23Speaker 6: The President is actually speaking to it right now in
- 5:26Speaker 6: Las Vegas by way of the One Big Beautiful Bill
- 5:29Speaker 6: and No Tax on Tips, where this very program that
- 5:32Speaker 6: we're talking about was born. But he's also said that
- 5:35Speaker 6: Republicans have won on affordability and that it's a Democrat hoax.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Is that not the right view? Well, I think what.
- 5:42Speaker 5: We all know is that the record inflation that was
- 5:45Speaker 5: unleashed during Joe Biden has a long tail, and the
- 5:49Speaker 5: Democrats have done a really good job of trying to
- 5:52Speaker 5: convince Americans that the economy is failing. And therefore what
- 5:57Speaker 5: a lot of people are seeing every day, which is
- 5:59Speaker 5: of course elevated prices resulting back from two or three
- 6:03Speaker 5: years ago.
- 6:04Speaker 6: Which you had a terrorf regime and a war in
- 6:06Speaker 6: the Middle East, and they're ever higher.
- 6:08Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 6:08Speaker 5: Well, I think what we've demonstrated first is that the
- 6:11Speaker 5: war in the Middle East is a real impact on
- 6:14Speaker 5: fuel prices, and we know fuel prices are a major
- 6:17Speaker 5: contributor to prices and everything else. Crude's a meaningful input
- 6:22Speaker 5: into most manufacturing processes and of course transportation costs for
- 6:27Speaker 5: every good that's transported around the country. And so as
- 6:30Speaker 5: gas prices went up, of course we've seen some pressure
- 6:33Speaker 5: upward pressure on inflation. And I think as gas prices
- 6:36Speaker 5: come back down, we're going to see this inflationary pressure
- 6:39Speaker 5: relieved and we're going to see prices abate. This is
- 6:42Speaker 5: what we've seen time in and time out. When it
- 6:45Speaker 5: comes to gas prices moving up and down. And that's
- 6:47Speaker 5: why I think it's so important today for us to
- 6:50Speaker 5: recognize the underlying economy is really strong. Listen, the GDP
- 6:54Speaker 5: print that was at one and a half percent in
- 6:56Speaker 5: the last quarter was really masking incredibly wrong growth in
- 7:00Speaker 5: consumer spending and in business investment. And the only detractor
- 7:04Speaker 5: from it was in fact, large inputs of machinery and
- 7:06Speaker 5: tools that are going into all the factories that are
- 7:08Speaker 5: being built.
- 7:09Speaker 1: All over the United States.
- 7:10Speaker 5: And so I think we also see, as Secretary bes
- 7:12Speaker 5: And said earlier, a real opportunity for real strong GDP
- 7:16Speaker 5: growth in the back half of the year, as the
- 7:19Speaker 5: record exports that we had in the second quarter are
- 7:22Speaker 5: actually going to take charge over imports, and I think
- 7:25Speaker 5: we're going to see GDP very strong in the back half.
- 7:27Speaker 3: Well, you mentioned factories being built, it's not just factories,
- 7:30Speaker 3: it's also data centers. This is obviously something that Virginia
- 7:34Speaker 3: knows very well. Data center ally is not too far
- 7:38Speaker 3: away from US now. And I wonder, as a former governor,
- 7:40Speaker 3: how you're viewing the current debate around the proper approach
- 7:43Speaker 3: policy wise to data centers and regulating their development. We
- 7:47Speaker 3: saw a moratory input in place in New York by
- 7:49Speaker 3: Governor Holkl, but this seems to be bipartisan. Governor Abbott
- 7:52Speaker 3: yesterday says that no data centers in Texas are moving
- 7:55Speaker 3: forward until an audit is completed. What's the right approach here?
- 8:00Speaker 5: Centered debate is a real debate around issues that matter
- 8:04Speaker 5: a lot to voters, and so my first approach on
- 8:07Speaker 5: the data center debate is it needs to first take
- 8:10Speaker 5: place at the local level, because, at least in Virginia,
- 8:13Speaker 5: and I can't speak for how it works in every
- 8:14Speaker 5: other state, the localities are where data centers are approved.
- 8:19Speaker 5: So I've always felt that local governments, state super county
- 8:24Speaker 5: supervisory boards, and city councils should be where these decisions
- 8:29Speaker 5: are taken for the zoning and all the appropriate permitting
- 8:32Speaker 5: for a data center.
- 8:33Speaker 1: In the locality.
- 8:34Speaker 5: And if a locality doesn't want it, well then they
- 8:37Speaker 5: shouldn't take it. I think, second of all, the issues
- 8:39Speaker 5: around power are real issues, and the President has gone
- 8:43Speaker 5: to work to push all of the developers to put
- 8:46Speaker 5: power behind the meter. And in Virginia, when I was governor,
- 8:49Speaker 5: we actually passed a bill that I signed that enabled
- 8:53Speaker 5: our regulatory authority to create customized rates so that large
- 8:57Speaker 5: users of power would pay more. They and appropriately so
- 9:01Speaker 5: pay more because they're the ones who are using large
- 9:04Speaker 5: amounts of power. I think these kinds of developments are
- 9:07Speaker 5: really important. Listen, there's a lot of money that's going
- 9:10Speaker 5: to be invested in the data center.
- 9:11Speaker 4: Community and supply chainee, well.
- 9:14Speaker 1: Supply chains come with it.
- 9:15Speaker 5: And you know, one of the things that I have
- 9:17Speaker 5: wanted to just make sure I correct the record on
- 9:19Speaker 5: is there are a lot of jobs that do come
- 9:20Speaker 5: with data centers, a lot of them, and some of
- 9:23Speaker 5: them are missed because it's the supply chain that comes
- 9:27Speaker 5: into it. Everything from the power supply equipment manufacturers and
- 9:31Speaker 5: the HVAC equipment manufacturers and the folks that put their
- 9:34Speaker 5: acs and stacks together in the service companies. It's tens
- 9:37Speaker 5: of thousands of jobs in Virginia. And so this debate
- 9:40Speaker 5: is not one we should dismiss. And in fact, I
- 9:42Speaker 5: strongly have advised government leaders and of course the business
- 9:47Speaker 5: leaders to engage with communities and listen to their concerns.
- 9:51Speaker 5: And it's upon them to actually provide good answers. And
- 9:56Speaker 5: if they can't get those answers in the communities are
- 9:58Speaker 5: going to say no, this is what this is all about.
- 10:01Speaker 5: They should not be forced on communities, because communities should
- 10:04Speaker 5: have this final say. But it is incumbent on the
- 10:08Speaker 5: developers and the hyperscalers to recognize that there's real pushback
- 10:12Speaker 5: and they got to go to work in order to
- 10:13Speaker 5: address some of these major consents.
- 10:15Speaker 6: That's fascinating to hear from you, especially knowing Virginia was
- 10:17Speaker 6: the data center capital.
- 10:18Speaker 1: Maybe it still is.
- 10:19Speaker 6: Keep your governor's hat on, We'll put your old count
- 10:21Speaker 6: Carlisle hat back on as well. The question that Kaylee
- 10:24Speaker 6: followed up on there there's a real concern in the
- 10:26Speaker 6: market that this is the late nineties all over again.
- 10:29Speaker 6: You were in Virginia when AOL was the biggest media
- 10:31Speaker 6: company in the world, where lay in five are everywhere
- 10:33Speaker 6: building all those data centers, and then there was obviously
- 10:37Speaker 6: a few difficult years after that as we digested all
- 10:40Speaker 6: that spending. Does that rhyme with what's happening now.
- 10:44Speaker 5: Well, my personal view is that the investment decisions that
- 10:51Speaker 5: are being made around data centers are directly tied to
- 10:54Speaker 5: revenue streams that are coming off the back end, and
- 10:57Speaker 5: so this is infrastructure, This is infra structure, that's required
- 11:01Speaker 5: for national security in order to make sure that we
- 11:03Speaker 5: can enable our successful competition with China. But it's also
- 11:08Speaker 5: infrastructure that comes with contractual counterparties, and that means that
- 11:13Speaker 5: these data centers particularly have revenue that meet their investment needs.
- 11:18Speaker 5: I mean, that's the core to any investment decision. Now,
- 11:21Speaker 5: if you're building things and with hope, you know, build
- 11:24Speaker 5: it and they will come mentality.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Well, then you know you may have some challenges.
- 11:29Speaker 5: But the vast majority of the data center development is
- 11:31Speaker 5: coming with contractual obligations in order to use the compute
- 11:35Speaker 5: that's there. Let me just get back to the core
- 11:37Speaker 5: issue though. The core issue is that many many Americans
- 11:41Speaker 5: are concerned and therefore we need to go to work
- 11:45Speaker 5: to discuss these concerns and address them. And if they're
- 11:47Speaker 5: concerns around water, let's talk about it and let's make
- 11:51Speaker 5: sure that we're taking care of our water resources. If
- 11:53Speaker 5: there's concerns around power, let's make sure that we have
- 11:56Speaker 5: rate constructs that demands that are that our data center
- 12:01Speaker 5: hyperscalers are paying a much higher rates because they're using
- 12:06Speaker 5: much more power, and that they're bringing their own power
- 12:08Speaker 5: when they can. But let's do this in a constructive
- 12:12Speaker 5: way where we have this dialogue with community members so
- 12:15Speaker 5: that they can reflect their views eventually who they elect
- 12:19Speaker 5: to represent them in their local governments.
- 12:21Speaker 3: Well, and we certainly are seeing this as a live
- 12:23Speaker 3: issue in this midterm cycle, and in twenty twenty six,
- 12:25Speaker 3: we've heard a lot about it across our conversations across
- 12:28Speaker 3: the country. I would imagine it very well could be
- 12:30Speaker 3: in twenty twenty eight as well. And we have to
- 12:32Speaker 3: ask you about twenty twenty eight, Governor, because I'm sure
- 12:35Speaker 3: you're well aware that people are wondering if you will
- 12:37Speaker 3: eventually throw your hat in the ring to.
- 12:38Speaker 4: Run for president.
- 12:40Speaker 3: President Trump suggests that he likes Jade Vance and Marco Rubio,
- 12:44Speaker 3: and potentially there could be a Vance Rubio.
- 12:46Speaker 4: Ticket in the offing. Would you rule out running against
- 12:50Speaker 4: a chosen taker of the mantle?
- 12:51Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been asked this a lot, and I've answered
- 12:54Speaker 5: it the same way every time, which is, I don't
- 12:57Speaker 5: anticipate being on the debate stage. Somebody just asked me
- 13:00Speaker 5: in an interview, is this about twenty twenty eight?
- 13:02Speaker 1: I said no.
- 13:04Speaker 5: Jerry Baker asked me to an interview recently when I
- 13:07Speaker 5: was with someone who's clearly running on the Democrats side,
- 13:09Speaker 5: where we see you both in the debates, dat I said, no,
- 13:12Speaker 5: I'm really focused on issues that I believe translate into
- 13:17Speaker 5: better futures for Virginians and Americans, and education right now
- 13:21Speaker 5: is one of those most important topics.
- 13:23Speaker 1: Listen, K through twelve education in America is broken. We
- 13:25Speaker 1: know this.
- 13:26Speaker 5: We have literally sixty to seventy percents of our young
- 13:30Speaker 5: students who aren't proficient in reading and in math. We
- 13:33Speaker 5: see this declining as opposed to improving, as many many
- 13:37Speaker 5: states are actually reducing expectations for their kids in order
- 13:41Speaker 5: to tell a lie to their parents that they're doing well,
- 13:44Speaker 5: and meanwhile they can't read and write. This is the
- 13:47Speaker 5: travesty of K through twelve education, and this is why
- 13:50Speaker 5: we have to unleash school choice like we are. But
- 13:53Speaker 5: we also have to fundamentally transform our public education by
- 13:58Speaker 5: raising expectations of excellence, by providing multiple pathways for students
- 14:02Speaker 5: so that they can pursue their passion and maybe get
- 14:05Speaker 5: an industry recognized credential right out of school and go
- 14:09Speaker 5: to work in one of these great fields. In Virginia,
- 14:11Speaker 5: we drove that in a big way to the point
- 14:13Speaker 5: where we had ninety percent of our students who graduated
- 14:15Speaker 5: with an industry recognized credential. I mean, this is hugely
- 14:18Speaker 5: enabling for students. But on top of that, we got
- 14:21Speaker 5: the cell phones out of school. We had record investments
- 14:24Speaker 5: into teacher salaries and budgets. It takes all of this,
- 14:28Speaker 5: but we have to enable parents.
- 14:30Speaker 1: To be at the head of the table.
- 14:31Speaker 5: And when we do that and we focus on transforming
- 14:34Speaker 5: public education, I think we have a shot of transforming
- 14:37Speaker 5: our education system from the failure that it is today
- 14:40Speaker 5: to a successful education system that unlocks the dreams of
- 14:44Speaker 5: our kids.
- 14:45Speaker 6: I feel like a speech like that would be noticed
- 14:46Speaker 6: in twenty twenty eight.
- 14:47Speaker 4: I don't know about you quite of clarity.
- 14:49Speaker 3: No, not on the debate stage in twenty twenty eight
- 14:51Speaker 3: or ever.
- 14:51Speaker 5: Well, that's what everybody keeps asking me, and I keep
- 14:53Speaker 5: answering it the same way over and over and over again,
- 14:56Speaker 5: and so you know, again, this issue is one for
- 15:00Speaker 5: the here and now. Governors have to opt in by
- 15:03Speaker 5: January first, twenty twenty seven, so they literally have four
- 15:08Speaker 5: plus months to get moving. And that's why places like Pennsylvania.
- 15:12Speaker 1: In Wisconsin and Michigan.
- 15:14Speaker 5: And Arizona, where we have Democrat governors with citizens who
- 15:18Speaker 5: want this who haven't opted in. They should feel the
- 15:22Speaker 5: pressure from their citizens to opt into this great program
- 15:26Speaker 5: that provides these great scholarships.
- 15:28Speaker 6: You just worked in some swing states also, you know
- 15:30Speaker 6: we have it's a problem when they stop asking you
- 15:33Speaker 6: about twenty eight, right, you don't mind if we go there.
- 15:36Speaker 5: I mean, listen, at the end of the day, I
- 15:39Speaker 5: am really humbled every time we have this discussion.
- 15:42Speaker 1: But I've been consistent from the day I selected as governor.
- 15:45Speaker 5: You know, there are really important issues at hand, most
- 15:48Speaker 5: important issues at hand. And one of the things I
- 15:50Speaker 5: deeply respect about by President Vance is he is saying
- 15:54Speaker 5: to everybody, focus on.
- 15:55Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six.
- 15:56Speaker 5: Please focus on twenty twenty six, because listen, what we've seen,
- 15:59Speaker 5: of course, is what we saw in Michigan last night,
- 16:01Speaker 5: where the Democrat Party is waging a battle for its
- 16:06Speaker 5: very soul and you see socialists winning it. And now
- 16:09Speaker 5: you have a socialist candidate for Senate in Michigan, and
- 16:12Speaker 5: you're about.
- 16:13Speaker 4: To see this a member of the DS.
- 16:15Speaker 5: But you see what he espouses, and I think this
- 16:18Speaker 5: is once again reflective of the effort of far left
- 16:21Speaker 5: candidates to present themselves as moderates when in fact we
- 16:25Speaker 5: know they're not. And look at Abigail Spamberger. I mean,
- 16:28Speaker 5: she campaigned as a moderate in Virginia and on day
- 16:31Speaker 5: one she moved hard left, and Virginians don't like it.
- 16:35Speaker 5: I mean, she has the lowest approval ratings of any
- 16:38Speaker 5: governor in modern time in Virginia because it was a
- 16:40Speaker 5: bait and switch. And that's what we're going to see
- 16:42Speaker 5: out of these far left candidates who then try to
- 16:45Speaker 5: pretend that they're moderates so they can get elected, and
- 16:47Speaker 5: then they're going to turn around and govern, just like
- 16:49Speaker 5: he has said over and over again. And we're going
- 16:51Speaker 5: to see We're going to see Francesca Hong nominated on
- 16:54Speaker 5: Monday or Tuesday in Wisconsin as a governor's candidate, and
- 16:58Speaker 5: she wants to get rid of Thanksgiving. I mean, come on,
- 17:00Speaker 5: this stuff is really really crazy stuff. And I think
- 17:03Speaker 5: it's a chance for Americans, Republicans, Independence and Democrats to
- 17:07Speaker 5: come together and say we're going to stand for the
- 17:09Speaker 5: basic belief system of this nation.
- 17:11Speaker 1: We're going to disagree on things.
- 17:12Speaker 5: We're allowed to disagree on things, and we can disagree
- 17:14Speaker 5: without being disagreeable all the time. But we have to
- 17:17Speaker 5: stand for the principles that make America America and not
- 17:20Speaker 5: let the socialists actually take over not just the Democrat Party,
- 17:24Speaker 5: but America.
- 17:25Speaker 1: Well, thank you for winging in on that. You know
- 17:26Speaker 1: we're just playing with you on them.
- 17:27Speaker 6: No, I need to see you stay in touch with
- 17:29Speaker 6: us throughout this midterm cycle and let us know how
- 17:31Speaker 6: the program's going with the Romania twenty states, that's of course.
- 17:33Speaker 6: Glenn Youngkin, the former governor of Virginia,