Latest / The People's News / Corrupt Texas GOP Governor Attacks Islam by Decree; TPPF Celebrates Racist Texas Voucher Scheme; A History of KidCare - TPN 11/23/25

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Corrupt Texas GOP Governor Attacks Islam by Decree; TPPF Celebrates Racist Texas Voucher Scheme; A History of KidCare - TPN 11/23/25 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of November twenty third, twenty twenty five,
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Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. Republican Texas
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Speaker 1: governor rages war on Islam to distract from his failings.
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Speaker 1: Kids Care founder continues to fight to feed the children.
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Speaker 1: A new report shows that some have been fooled by
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Speaker 1: the Texas GOP voucher scheme. All that and more on
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Speaker 1: the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News,
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Speaker 1: and the People's News starts now. Hi. This is Steve Gallington,
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Speaker 1: co producer and host of the People's News. The first
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Speaker 1: thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you
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Speaker 1: support us directly there. Thanks again for listening. I am
2:09
Speaker 1: so grateful to be able to do this for you
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Speaker 1: every week, and I am so grateful for your support.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again. Your illegal redistricting scheme is falling apart. Your
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Speaker 1: voucher scheme that gives seven hundred and fifty million dollars
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Speaker 1: to rich white families in urban areas is causing many
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Speaker 1: people to turn against the Republican Party. What does a
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Speaker 1: Republican governor do? Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott declares the
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Speaker 1: Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American and Islamic Relations
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Speaker 1: a foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations, which his office
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Speaker 1: has said in the proclamation authorizes them for heightened enforcement
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Speaker 1: and them from purchasing land in the state. In a statement,
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Speaker 1: the governor accused the groups of wanting to forcibly impose
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Speaker 1: Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership of the world. CARE
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Speaker 1: the Council on American Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim
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Speaker 1: civil rights group, issued a statement denouncing the governor. Edward
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Speaker 1: Ahmed Mitchell, the national Deputy director of CARE, said this
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Speaker 1: at their press conference, along with the lawyer representing the organization.
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Speaker 2: As you all know, two days ago, Governor Greg Abbott,
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Speaker 2: the governor of Texas, issued a proclamation that was both
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Speaker 2: the defamatory and unconstitutional. This proclamation purported to smear our organization,
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Speaker 2: the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country, as
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Speaker 2: a foreign terrorist organization and also claimed that our organization
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Speaker 2: can no longer purchase land in the state of Texas
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Speaker 2: and would be subject to various other penalties. Now, Governor
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Speaker 2: Abnet Gabott did this even though he knows the Constitution
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Speaker 2: does not allow any governor to target an American citizen
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Speaker 2: or an American organization in this way. He did this
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Speaker 2: even though he knows that he has tried several times
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Speaker 2: before to violate the First Amendment to silence critics of
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Speaker 2: the Israeli government and failed. Our organization CARE has sued
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Speaker 2: Governor Abbot three different times in recent years to stop
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Speaker 2: his attempts to flout the First Amendment, and we won
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Speaker 2: each of those three times. The first time, the state
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Speaker 2: of Texas tried to fire a special education teacher because
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Speaker 2: she would not sign Governor Abbot's boycott pledge. This is
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Speaker 2: a pledge in state contracts that requires Texans to say
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Speaker 2: they will not boycott the Israeli government over its human
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Speaker 2: rights abuses. She refused to sign, she was fired. We sued,
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Speaker 2: and we won. A Muslim businessman in Texas was told
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Speaker 2: he can no longer have a state contract because he
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Speaker 2: also refused to sign Governor Abbot's Israel boycott pledge. His
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Speaker 2: contract was canceled. We sued, and again we won. And
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Speaker 2: this year, Governor Abbot issued an executive order that essentially
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Speaker 2: called on public universities to expel any students who dared
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Speaker 2: to peacefully protest the Israeli government's genocide or even express
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Speaker 2: support for Palestinian human rights. Again, we sued and we won.
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Speaker 2: The federal judge rule that that law that executive order
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Speaker 2: clearly appeared to be unconstitutional and Greg Abbot backed off.
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Speaker 2: He hasn't used it to expel a single student. So
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Speaker 2: Greg Abbot is a consistent loser. He is someone who
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Speaker 2: has repeatedly tried to violate our Constitution to protect a
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Speaker 2: foreign government. And these attacks on CARE and on the
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Speaker 2: American Muslim community and on Texas Muslims pose not only
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Speaker 2: a threat to our community, but to all Americans. Because
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Speaker 2: if a governor can throw away the First Amendment when
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Speaker 2: he dislikes an organization or a faith community or a
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Speaker 2: political cause, any governor could do it. They could target
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Speaker 2: any organization on all sides of any issue. Black Lives Matter,
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Speaker 2: planned parenthood, right to life, any organization could think of
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Speaker 2: could be subject to baseless allegations and censure and closure.
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Speaker 2: If Governor Abbot can get away with this. That is
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Speaker 2: why CARE and the Muslim Legal Fund of America today
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Speaker 2: came together to file a lawsuit against Governor Abbot to
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Speaker 2: make sure that his publicity stunt masquerading as a proclamation
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Speaker 2: does not turn into actual government policy. Today, I'm going
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Speaker 2: to introduce to you the lead attorney in this case,
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Speaker 2: Charles Swift, the director of the Civil and Criminal Division
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Speaker 2: of the Muslim Legal Fund of America. I'm going to
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Speaker 2: briefly tell you about mister Swift, though many of you
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Speaker 2: may know him already. Charles Swift is, as I said,
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Speaker 2: the Criminal Department Civil Department head at mlfa's Legal Division.
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Speaker 2: He was named by the National Law Review as one
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Speaker 2: of the top one hundred legal minds in the nation.
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Speaker 2: He is a retired lieutenant criminal Lieutenant Commander in the
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Speaker 2: US Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. Charles is known for
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Speaker 2: winning the US Supreme Court case hamdund Rumsfeld for his
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Speaker 2: client Salim Ahmed Hamdhan, a case that made history in
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Speaker 2: the United States. Following his military career, mister s was
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Speaker 2: a visiting professor and head of the Humanitarian Law Clinic
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Speaker 2: at Emner University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. Before
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Speaker 2: we entered private practice. Mister Swift has been a steadfast
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Speaker 2: defender of free speech, of human rights, of due process
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Speaker 2: for all Americans. And we're very happy to have involved
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Speaker 2: in this case, and we thank our friends at MlfA
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Speaker 2: for partnering with Care's a Little Defense Fund to file
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Speaker 2: this lawsuit. With that, I want to turn over to
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Speaker 2: mister Swift to tell us a bit about this lawsuit.
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Speaker 2: The cause of action in it, and what he expects
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Speaker 2: to happen next. Mister Swift, the floor.
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Speaker 3: Is yours, thank you, and it is our great pleasure
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Speaker 3: to partner with Care because Care is the leading voice
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Speaker 3: in this space and we are absolutely at MlfA and
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Speaker 3: myself personally devoted to defending those voices and to protecting
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Speaker 3: the ability to continue to speak. And the threat that
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Speaker 3: is posed by this on constitutional action is a significant threat.
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Speaker 3: As fourth, now, the lawsuit lawsuit, basically, what the governor
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Speaker 3: did was unconstitutional for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes usually
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Speaker 3: there's only one, but he had for a significant number.
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Speaker 3: The first on was that because he is erroneously designated
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Speaker 3: Care a foreign organization, he's entered into the exclusive realm
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Speaker 3: of the federal government under the supremacy clause and well
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Speaker 3: established case laws set out in a brief or in
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Speaker 3: our complaint, the federal government alone controls foreign sanctions. Governor
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Speaker 3: Abbott decided to appropriate that power it himself to retaliate
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Speaker 3: against Care. The next part on it that's wrong in
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Speaker 3: it is, of course Care is actually and their affiliates
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Speaker 3: in Texas, which are the actual plaintiffs in this suit,
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Speaker 3: are all us corporations and US persons in all parts,
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Speaker 3: and of course US persons and US corporate are entitled
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Speaker 3: to due process of law, something that has been extraordinarily
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Speaker 3: lacking up to this point, and it's in there was none,
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Speaker 3: So we violated the Fifth Amendment as well as the
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Speaker 3: supremacy Clause. And then we can turn to the parts
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Speaker 3: where clearly at this point having CARES suit him successfully
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Speaker 3: multiple times and trying to silence them all of the allegations.
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Speaker 3: When one looks at the allegations and part are years
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Speaker 3: and years old, they don't actually many of them are untrue.
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Speaker 3: The few of them that have some factual basis established nothing.
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Speaker 3: Why does he bring it up now? Well, Care's just
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Speaker 3: one three lawsuits, so let's see if we can get
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Speaker 3: them to stop talking and stop standing out for rights.
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Speaker 3: So the last four accounts deal with the care's ability
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Speaker 3: to speak, their ability to assemble, and their ability to
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Speaker 3: do so free from government retaliation, and that sets out
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Speaker 3: what the lawsuit is. Our next stept will be to
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Speaker 3: seek a temporary injunction and then a permanent injunction from
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Speaker 3: this law ever going into force.
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Speaker 1: That was Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the National Deputy Director of
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Speaker 1: Care in Houston. The Muslim community is outraged and looks
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Speaker 1: for the governor to change his position. Southwest Regional Minister
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Speaker 1: of Mosque forty five and former host of kpft's connect
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Speaker 1: the Dots, Abdul Helen Muhammad added to the protest.
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Speaker 4: Well, our esteemed governor should consider the book that he
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Speaker 4: took his oath arm, which is the Bible, and he
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Speaker 4: took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
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Speaker 5: Of the United States.
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Speaker 4: Part of the Constitution in the United States is the
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Speaker 4: First Amendment, which is part of the Bill of Rights
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Speaker 4: as freedom of speech, freedom of press, that Congress would
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Speaker 4: not establish a religion, and that the people would be
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Speaker 4: able to assemble peacefully to redress their grievances with their government.
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Speaker 4: Governor Abbot should humble, should humble himself because it's not
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Speaker 4: the lawsuits that Care will file against him. It's not
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Speaker 4: protests or demonstrations that he should fear. He should fear
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Speaker 4: the god of the book that he swore his oath on,
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Speaker 4: because to whom much is given, much is to be required.
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Speaker 4: That he has coven up of the state of Texas
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Speaker 4: does not take care of the poor. As one of
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Speaker 4: the worst health care systems for the poor in the country,
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Speaker 4: whose educational system is subpower, who deregulates our utilities so
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Speaker 4: that during natural disasters the people left without power for weeks.
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Speaker 4: He should humble himself, because the God of Justice is
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Speaker 4: on the scene today, coming from the very book that
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Speaker 4: he swore his oth phone. And lastly, the deepest depths
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Speaker 4: of hell hold the people who are the greatest hypocrites.
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Speaker 4: You cannot say that where one nation under God, indivisible
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Speaker 4: with liberty and justice for all, and then denies some liberty.
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Speaker 4: The governor has engineered a jerry Mandarin system that di
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Speaker 4: loots the voting power of black and brown people. And
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Speaker 4: the governor of the State of Texas, Yeah, the government
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Speaker 4: of the State of Texas is engineered on behalf of
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Speaker 4: the White House, a system of Jerry Mandarin that deluces
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Speaker 4: in the political power of black and brown people. The
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Speaker 4: governor of the State of Texas.
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Speaker 5: Obviously has not told because.
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Speaker 4: How they gouge organizations anyway, because they're.
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Speaker 6: Now they're gonna try and deny you the right the
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Speaker 6: old prophets.
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Speaker 4: Well, I mean that's the Texas Revolution was based upon
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Speaker 4: property rights. It just so happened, is that that property
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Speaker 4: that they were fighting for independence from Mexico was with
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Speaker 4: black people that they owned. So private property is chacro
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Speaker 4: sink in the State of Texas. It is the holy
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Speaker 4: grail that the Texas War of Independence was fought on.
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Speaker 4: And if you're want to deny people the right to
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Speaker 4: own property, you go against the very essence of the
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Speaker 4: spirit of the Republic of Texas. And what people seem
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Speaker 4: to not realize is is that Governor Abbott and the
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Speaker 4: State of Texas have seceded from the United States of America.
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Speaker 4: It is obvious that he has because he's now following
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Speaker 4: the Constitution of the United States. He followed some other
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Speaker 4: constitution because it's not the one that was written in
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Speaker 4: seventeen eighty seven.
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Speaker 1: That was Southwest Regional Minister of Mosque forty five and
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Speaker 1: former host of KPFTS Connect the Dots, Abdul Halim Mohammad
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Speaker 1: Kerr has also issued a statement that attacks and threats
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Speaker 1: to Muslims in their organization has gone up in recent
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Speaker 1: days since the proclamation from the Texas Republican Governor. Not
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Speaker 1: being able to buy land is also a scheme that
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Speaker 1: was passed by the Republican Texas legislator on Chinese nationals
14:56
Speaker 1: last year. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host
15:02
Speaker 1: of the People's News. If you have a story that
15:05
Speaker 1: needs to be told, come to us. We accept fully
15:08
Speaker 1: produced audio written material, or just give us the idea
15:13
Speaker 1: and we will run with it. Shiny new one hour
15:16
Speaker 1: episodes of The People's News drop each Sunday on The
15:20
Speaker 1: People's News podcast hosted by spreaker dot com and linked
15:25
Speaker 1: to my website Gallington dot com. Ever since segregation has
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Speaker 1: ended in public schools across the South, white conservatives have
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Speaker 1: been fighting to take money from public education so they
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Speaker 1: can send their kids to private school. Republican Texas Governor
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Speaker 1: Greg Abbott has fought for years to bring vouchers to
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Speaker 1: Texas on a wide scale basis, and has accepted millions
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Speaker 1: and millions of dollars of campaign contributions from across the
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Speaker 1: country very little from Texas to get there. Finally, after
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Speaker 1: fighting for over sixty years, the Republican Texas Legislature passed
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Speaker 1: the current voucher scheme, which will set aside a billion
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Speaker 1: dollars of your taxpayer money and give seven hundred and
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Speaker 1: fifty million dollars of that two students already enrolled in
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Speaker 1: private schools in mostly urban areas and predominantly white families.
16:27
Speaker 1: The remaining two hundred and fifty million dollars will be
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Speaker 1: portioned out ten thousand dollars at a time two individuals
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Speaker 1: who apply. The sad news that parents will find out
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Speaker 1: is that the average tuition for private school in the
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Speaker 1: state of Texas, if you can find a private school
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Speaker 1: many rural areas do not have any private schools, is
16:47
Speaker 1: about twenty three thousand dollars a year, so the voucher
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Speaker 1: program doesn't pay for all of it, and if your
16:54
Speaker 1: child is a special education student, those fees run up
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Speaker 1: in excess of thirty or forty thousand dollars a year. However,
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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five State of Black Texas Report put
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Speaker 1: out by the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey
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Speaker 1: Center shows that black and brown parents are hopeful of
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Speaker 1: getting funds and putting their students in alternative programs that
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Speaker 1: will benefit them better. They will find out in twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty six, just in time for the midterm elections, that
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Speaker 1: this voucher scheme does not provide money for them. They'll
17:28
Speaker 1: never be able to spend that money because they can't
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Speaker 1: find any place that affords it. Right wing pundits, fundraisers
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Speaker 1: and pack organizers have been a static over this bell passing,
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Speaker 1: this bill finally passing, and Mandy Drogan is one of those.
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Speaker 1: She's a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation,
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Speaker 1: a right wing think tank based out of Austin. Prior
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Speaker 1: to this, she was part of the Heritage Foundation and
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Speaker 1: has been spending the last twenty years fighting for rich
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Speaker 1: people to get taxpayer money to help send their kids
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Speaker 1: to school.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, it's giving parents the ability to select the very
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Speaker 7: best education for their child, whether it's because their child
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Speaker 7: is in a poorly performing school and their child is
18:18
Speaker 7: not doing well. You know, fifty percent of kids in
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Speaker 7: Texas cannot read a grade level, sixty percent can't do math,
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Speaker 7: and seventy percent have failed our Social studies Civics exams.
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Speaker 8: So it's a big problem. There's a crisis in the classroom.
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Speaker 7: So if you're dissatisfied in your schools, unable to educate
18:34
Speaker 7: your child so that they can prepare to launch and
18:36
Speaker 7: reach their full potential, education freedom accounts are for them.
18:39
Speaker 7: If your child's in a school that it's the wrong environment,
18:42
Speaker 7: maybe they're being bullied. We hear from parents all the
18:44
Speaker 7: time whose children are being bullied to the point of
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Speaker 7: suicidal ideation and even suicidal attempts. Look, this generation is
18:52
Speaker 7: the most anxious, depressed, and suicidal that we've ever seen.
18:56
Speaker 8: And this is a true crisis for parents.
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Speaker 7: So if you're looking for a different warement, particularly a
19:01
Speaker 7: faith based environment that parents can send their children to
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Speaker 7: and get them out of a negative situation that's impacting
19:07
Speaker 7: their mental health and their academic attainment, this is what
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Speaker 7: education Freedom accounts are doing. It's saying mom and dad,
19:13
Speaker 7: you may not have the resources, but we as Texans,
19:16
Speaker 7: our social contract agrees that every child deserves access to
19:19
Speaker 7: an excellent education. And of course, the passage of education
19:22
Speaker 7: freedom freedom accounts through SB two that guarantees that no
19:26
Speaker 7: longer were a child's success in life their education be
19:30
Speaker 7: dictated simply by the street they live on or the
19:33
Speaker 7: money in their parents' bank accounts. It now gives parents
19:36
Speaker 7: that agency the ability to say, I might live on
19:39
Speaker 7: this street, but a different school that my child is
19:41
Speaker 7: not zoned for would be better for them. It would
19:44
Speaker 7: be a better environment, they will have better academic achievement,
19:47
Speaker 7: and that is the greatest feeling ever as a mom
19:50
Speaker 7: of three, I cannot imagine being zoned to a school
19:54
Speaker 7: that I didn't feel like was best for my child.
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Speaker 7: And we have finally, in the great state of Texas,
19:58
Speaker 7: delivered freedom to every single parent.
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Speaker 5: Okay, lots of questions.
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Speaker 9: First of all, ten thousand dollars, Okay, Yeah, the cheapest
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Speaker 9: private school that I know of in the area is
20:15
Speaker 9: Luther Luther High Sound, and that's roughly over ten thousand dollars.
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Speaker 9: That's about, let's fourteen thousand dollars, and that doesn't include
20:26
Speaker 9: uniform travel to school.
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Speaker 5: What do you say to that?
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Speaker 7: Yeah, so I would say, I will guarantee you that
20:34
Speaker 7: a large portion of their student body is scholarship or
20:37
Speaker 7: receiving some sort of financial aid.
20:38
Speaker 8: In fact, most schools.
20:40
Speaker 7: Particularly the face based schools, they do scholarships and financial
20:43
Speaker 7: aid for at least forty percent. That's what we hear
20:46
Speaker 7: out of the forty percent. That's what we hear out
20:49
Speaker 7: of the Catholic and Protestant schools. But of course there
20:53
Speaker 7: are so many schools across Texas, and actually the median
20:56
Speaker 7: cost of a private school education MEDIU and so half
20:59
Speaker 7: above below is nine eight hundred dollars in.
21:03
Speaker 8: The great state of Texas.
21:05
Speaker 7: So it does cover at least half the schools in Texas.
21:08
Speaker 7: But to your point, we know that there are massive
21:11
Speaker 7: numbers of kids, some of them one hundred percent Dallas
21:14
Speaker 7: King's Academy, right there in the heart of Dallas, Texas.
21:18
Speaker 7: They're one one hundred percent scholarship, and they ask that
21:21
Speaker 7: parents give what they can. That's so important to note
21:24
Speaker 7: that that we have so many great philanthropic efforts, we
21:27
Speaker 7: have so many community efforts that already scholarship. A large
21:32
Speaker 7: number of students whose parents have said, I want my
21:34
Speaker 7: child in this school. It's where they're thriving, it's where
21:37
Speaker 7: they're getting a great education, it's where it's value aligned.
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Speaker 7: So the narrative that, oh, the schools don't cover this, well,
21:43
Speaker 7: that doesn't really hold.
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Speaker 8: Water when you look at the actual legislation.
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Speaker 7: So ninety eight hundred dollars meeting calls are above and
21:51
Speaker 7: below for private schools in Texas. But also the great
21:54
Speaker 7: thing about Education Freedom's accounts is that they're not vouchers
21:57
Speaker 7: of the old It's not just to pay for tuition.
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Speaker 7: You can use it on uniforms, fee for transportation providers, tutoring, therapies,
22:07
Speaker 7: coro curriculars. You can use it on all the additional
22:10
Speaker 7: aspects of education that you touched on. That is what
22:13
Speaker 7: Education Freedom's accounts are all about. So ten thousand dollars
22:16
Speaker 7: goes a really long way for families, and then of
22:19
Speaker 7: course there's a lot of philanthropy that bridges the gap,
22:21
Speaker 7: or maybe families themselves can actually make that gap. Maybe
22:24
Speaker 7: they can't do fourteen thousand dollars as you touched on,
22:27
Speaker 7: but they could do four thousand dollars, or they could
22:29
Speaker 7: do two thousand dollars and get an a scholarship or
22:31
Speaker 7: other scholarship, or the school could against offer financial.
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Speaker 8: Aid as they already do.
22:36
Speaker 7: So the reality is is that this opportunity is out
22:39
Speaker 7: there for every single family, regardless of their.
22:42
Speaker 10: Income, apprendation course, making sure the school is like, I know,
22:49
Speaker 10: we have test standards for HSD for most public schools.
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Speaker 5: What about but that doesn't it didn't fall for private.
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Speaker 8: Yes, of course it does. It's not the same credited
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Speaker 8: private schools.
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Speaker 7: So TEPSACK it's our accredit our private school, the Texas
23:05
Speaker 7: Private School Association accrediting body.
23:07
Speaker 8: There's nineteen different accrediting bodies.
23:09
Speaker 7: So you've got the Catholics, you've got the Baptist, you've
23:11
Speaker 7: got the Classical d You've got all of these different
23:15
Speaker 7: nineteen different accrediting bodies. And I do expect that some
23:18
Speaker 7: more will be added, because remember this is not something new.
23:22
Speaker 7: This has been done all across the country. Texas came
23:24
Speaker 7: in bold with one hundred thousand kids, the largest day
23:28
Speaker 7: one program, but it's been going on across the country
23:31
Speaker 7: for over thirty years.
23:33
Speaker 8: So there's lots of great accrediting bodies.
23:35
Speaker 7: And of course when you go through an accreditation process,
23:38
Speaker 7: they're doing financial auditing or during any academic standards. And yes,
23:41
Speaker 7: in the state of Texas, if you're an accredited private school,
23:43
Speaker 7: you are already offering some form of a norm reference testing.
23:46
Speaker 7: So whether it's the MAP exam, the IOWAS standard, whatever
23:50
Speaker 7: it is.
23:50
Speaker 8: Parents want to know, particularly parents that are.
23:53
Speaker 7: Actually selecting the school, going through the effort to research
23:56
Speaker 7: schools and select the schools.
23:57
Speaker 8: They want to know, is this school going to provide
23:59
Speaker 8: a great education? So schools are already.
24:01
Speaker 7: Doing that through the accreditation process and reporting to that body.
24:05
Speaker 7: So absolutely, of course there are standards, and of course
24:09
Speaker 7: we can also look at the numbers. And it's no
24:11
Speaker 7: secret that students that are going to private schools, regardless
24:14
Speaker 7: of their family's income, are outperforming our public school kids
24:18
Speaker 7: across the board.
24:19
Speaker 9: What do you say about the public schools. I know
24:23
Speaker 9: you say that it's going to increase the the credibility
24:28
Speaker 9: of the public school because they they would have to
24:30
Speaker 9: step up.
24:31
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's exactly it. It incentivizes them. Again, we can
24:34
Speaker 8: see that all across America.
24:35
Speaker 7: Look when Florida started this over twenty years ago. Florida
24:39
Speaker 7: started their first school choice program in two thousand and
24:43
Speaker 7: three is when it launched.
24:44
Speaker 8: It was the Hope Scholarship.
24:46
Speaker 7: It was specifically only for eight about ten thousand kids,
24:50
Speaker 7: very poor kids in chronically failing schools.
24:53
Speaker 8: And what they found.
24:55
Speaker 7: For across the board as that program grew, because right
24:58
Speaker 7: the first year is ten thousand, and it grew more
25:00
Speaker 7: parents said hey.
25:01
Speaker 8: I want a choice of verd to send my kids.
25:03
Speaker 7: Within sixteen years, Florida's low income demographic, they ranked number
25:08
Speaker 7: thirty three in the nation in two thousand and three
25:11
Speaker 7: on the NATE Scores that's the National Assessment of Education
25:15
Speaker 7: Progress that's considered the nation's report card. They rank number
25:18
Speaker 7: thirty three within sixteen years, Florida's low income demographic went
25:22
Speaker 7: from number thirty three to number one, where they still
25:25
Speaker 7: are today. When we adjust for demographics Florida's low income students, that's.
25:30
Speaker 8: Not an anomaly.
25:30
Speaker 7: We can look at Indiana where their students we're number
25:33
Speaker 7: twenty two, they're low income kids. We're number twenty two
25:36
Speaker 7: on the Nate scores in the early two thousands. Within
25:39
Speaker 7: the same time period, they went from twenty two to
25:41
Speaker 7: number three. We can look at Arizona, these states that
25:44
Speaker 7: bring in freedom where we trust parents to make the
25:47
Speaker 7: best decision for their child, the best education environment for
25:51
Speaker 7: their child. They do an excellent job because nobody.
25:53
Speaker 8: Knows love a child like a parent does.
25:55
Speaker 7: So we absolutely see that it gets better, not just
25:57
Speaker 7: educational outcomes, but life outcomes. More kids end up going
26:01
Speaker 7: to a post education, whether it's a college of higher
26:06
Speaker 7: education or whether it's a trading school.
26:08
Speaker 8: They also have better outcomes.
26:10
Speaker 7: There's less crime, there's less conviction, there's less out of
26:14
Speaker 7: wedlock birth rates. All of this this gives children, particularly
26:18
Speaker 7: our most disadvantaged children, the opportunity to reach their full
26:23
Speaker 7: God given potential. They are not held back, and that's
26:26
Speaker 7: what this is all about freedom for every student.
26:28
Speaker 9: I did hear something in the speech, in the statistics
26:33
Speaker 9: that we use, they say we're not We're not providing
26:37
Speaker 9: rich parents or parents are fluid the opportunity to get
26:41
Speaker 9: to scholarships, which is what happened in Florida where a
26:44
Speaker 9: lot of a lot of especially in Miami area, which
26:47
Speaker 9: I know a lot of parents are well to do.
26:50
Speaker 9: Parents use the money got scholarship money, and they use
26:53
Speaker 9: your goingships.
26:54
Speaker 7: And well, I don't know about that we've got so
26:57
Speaker 7: I can't speak to you about.
26:59
Speaker 8: But that's the great thing.
27:00
Speaker 7: Look, we may not have been led the way thirty
27:03
Speaker 7: years ago with this, but the great thing about watching
27:05
Speaker 7: and seeing is a we can see, yes, it does work.
27:08
Speaker 7: Free market principles capitalism, which made this the greatest, most
27:11
Speaker 7: benevolent country to exist, does work in the education sector
27:15
Speaker 7: as well. So we have that data, we can see that.
27:17
Speaker 7: But also we were able to see where do people
27:19
Speaker 7: get it wrong? What mistakes did they make? So how
27:22
Speaker 7: can we ensure that you don't have the waste fraud abuse?
27:25
Speaker 7: And that's one of the really wonderful things about ensuring
27:27
Speaker 7: that it's accredited schools that already go through the auditing
27:29
Speaker 7: process that we're not supplying for reimbursement right now, or
27:33
Speaker 7: that parents can you know, I saw in Arizona somebody
27:36
Speaker 7: used it for eighteen thousand dollars with crystals or some
27:39
Speaker 7: nonsense like that.
27:39
Speaker 8: So those we have right.
27:42
Speaker 7: We have protections in the program to ensure that it
27:44
Speaker 7: is used for great, high performing.
27:48
Speaker 11: Schools.
27:49
Speaker 7: We can use it for career in technical education. That's
27:51
Speaker 7: a fantastic part of it. Kids can go to Texas
27:54
Speaker 7: State Technical College. They can start training to be a
27:56
Speaker 7: welder at just sixteen years old, or an airline pilot
27:59
Speaker 7: or whatever it is. They can use their education Freedom's
28:02
Speaker 7: accounts to truly set themselves on a path to graduate
28:06
Speaker 7: high school also with a degree in plumbing or going
28:09
Speaker 7: into pie fitting or all these really high demand fields.
28:12
Speaker 8: And it is so important. We don't need to claim
28:15
Speaker 8: that this one.
28:16
Speaker 7: Size fits all education system or a one size fits
28:18
Speaker 7: all post education system fits every student.
28:22
Speaker 8: It does not. This is about choices.
28:24
Speaker 7: This is about every single child having an opportunity to
28:27
Speaker 7: seek the path of which they are destined for.
28:30
Speaker 1: Mark Jones, professor of political science at Rice University, looked
28:35
Speaker 1: into the twenty twenty five state of Black Texas Report
28:40
Speaker 1: and had his comments as well well.
28:42
Speaker 12: So the goal was to provide of the survey was
28:45
Speaker 12: of nine hundred Texas parents to get their understanding of
28:49
Speaker 12: what did they know about the voucher program, how familiar
28:52
Speaker 12: with are they with it? And then once they know
28:56
Speaker 12: a little more about it, do they support it? And
28:58
Speaker 12: then how likely are they to apply for an education
29:01
Speaker 12: safets account for one or more of their children? And
29:04
Speaker 12: what we found is that about half of Texas parents
29:08
Speaker 12: are at least somewhat familiar with the Texas Education freedm
29:11
Speaker 12: account program, but about half or not. So the glass
29:14
Speaker 12: half full perspective is half parents know about it. Class
29:17
Speaker 12: half empty perspective is half do not. I think it
29:20
Speaker 12: does suggest when only one in five parents are very
29:23
Speaker 12: familiar with it, it does suggest that that we need
29:26
Speaker 12: to have a greater education campaign, either by the state
29:29
Speaker 12: or other groups, to make sure that parents are fully
29:31
Speaker 12: aware of the program, how it may benefit or may
29:35
Speaker 12: not benefit their child, and how they would go about
29:38
Speaker 12: applying for it. And then we did ask about once
29:41
Speaker 12: they learned about it, how likely they be to apply
29:43
Speaker 12: for it, and about you know, twenty percent said that
29:46
Speaker 12: they'd be very likely and another twenty five percent say
29:50
Speaker 12: they would be somewhat likely to apply, and the principal
29:53
Speaker 12: reasons are that it would provide their child with better
29:56
Speaker 12: access to a better education, and we allow them to
29:58
Speaker 12: put them in this that is the best fit for
30:01
Speaker 12: their child, with the third most popular reason being that
30:04
Speaker 12: it would allow them to choose a school for their
30:06
Speaker 12: child which best matches their family's values. Now, if you
30:09
Speaker 12: flip it around and ask the approximately want three fisits
30:13
Speaker 12: of the parents who are not going to apply or
30:15
Speaker 12: unlikely to apply for an education savings account, the pencilpal
30:18
Speaker 12: reason why they aren't going to do so is because
30:21
Speaker 12: they're very happy with their child's current.
30:23
Speaker 5: Public school and they don't see any reason to change.
30:25
Speaker 12: And the next most common explanation is that they don't
30:28
Speaker 12: believe the approximately ten thy eight hundred provided as part
30:31
Speaker 12: of the education savings account would be enough to pay
30:34
Speaker 12: for the private schools they would want to send their
30:36
Speaker 12: child to, and they can't pay for it out of pocket.
30:39
Speaker 5: One final thing that we looked at.
30:41
Speaker 12: Was asking about for those who attend church regularly or
30:46
Speaker 12: other house of worship regularly, do they think that if
30:50
Speaker 12: their church were to open a school, those that were
30:53
Speaker 12: there is in a school, would they be enthusiastic about
30:56
Speaker 12: sending their child there? And about a third said test
30:59
Speaker 12: they would be very enthusiastic, and about a third so
31:02
Speaker 12: that they would not at all, be not at all enthusiastic.
31:05
Speaker 12: But enthusiasm was much higher among black and Latino parents
31:09
Speaker 12: than among white parents.
31:10
Speaker 5: That's something we see pretty much across the board.
31:12
Speaker 12: Black and Latino parents tend to be more supportive of
31:16
Speaker 12: custis education freedom accounts than white parents, as well as
31:19
Speaker 12: more likely to apply for one for their child than
31:21
Speaker 12: white parents.
31:22
Speaker 5: Would that go for? And I was curious about this,
31:25
Speaker 5: Would that go for?
31:26
Speaker 9: Say, we always have a school for Muslim students in
31:31
Speaker 9: schools for Jewish students. Yeah, and they have Jewish schools
31:35
Speaker 9: and Muslim schools.
31:36
Speaker 5: So will they get the same time?
31:38
Speaker 6: Yeah?
31:38
Speaker 12: Yeah, exactly So the any house of worship and our
31:42
Speaker 12: survey question, depending on the religion that somebody said they were,
31:46
Speaker 12: we would change the question about would it be your
31:48
Speaker 12: mosque or your synagogue? But certainly this applies to Muslim
31:53
Speaker 12: schools as well as Jewish schools. They can form if
31:56
Speaker 12: a mosque wants to form a school, if a temple
31:59
Speaker 12: wants to form a school, if the senegag ones to
32:01
Speaker 12: performed a school, then that there are people who attend
32:05
Speaker 12: that church or others from outside in that mosque could
32:09
Speaker 12: then use an education savings account to pay for that education.
32:13
Speaker 5: And so you're definitely you're going to see I think many.
32:15
Speaker 12: Churches as well as other houses of worship, mosque and
32:18
Speaker 12: synagogues use the education and freedom accounts as a way
32:23
Speaker 12: to bolster that either they're already existing schools or to
32:26
Speaker 12: create new schools.
32:27
Speaker 9: What would that No, we got division of church and
32:30
Speaker 9: state and how would how would that go in effect
32:33
Speaker 9: when you have you know, we have allusions involved in
32:36
Speaker 9: the education.
32:37
Speaker 12: Generally, the Supreme Court is ruled that spending these tax
32:41
Speaker 12: dollars going towards private schools for things like education savings
32:45
Speaker 12: accounts or vouchers, then that's constitutions. So the Supreme Court
32:48
Speaker 12: has been pretty clear at least on that element that
32:52
Speaker 12: this is a constitutional use of money, that it's it
32:54
Speaker 12: there is that it's not likely to run a foul
32:57
Speaker 12: of the violation.
32:58
Speaker 5: Of church and state.
32:59
Speaker 12: To say, the way that legislation recently adopted in Texas
33:02
Speaker 12: to put the Ten Commandments on the wall of classrooms
33:05
Speaker 12: has been blocked by the courts and is likely going
33:08
Speaker 12: to be overturned by the course.
33:10
Speaker 1: So in summary, the twenty twenty five State of Black
33:13
Speaker 1: Texas report only really asked two questions. The first is
33:17
Speaker 1: are you aware of the voucher scheme? Only about half
33:21
Speaker 1: responded yes. And for the second question was well, if
33:26
Speaker 1: you are aware of the voucher scheme, will you be
33:28
Speaker 1: planning on filing to go ahead and get your children
33:32
Speaker 1: the ten thousand dollars year payment? And the answer is
33:36
Speaker 1: a majority of black and brown respondents to the survey said,
33:40
Speaker 1: if you're going to give me free ten thousand dollars
33:42
Speaker 1: a year, yes, I'll go ahead and take it. The
33:45
Speaker 1: majority of the white respondents said no, because many of
33:49
Speaker 1: them already have their kids in private schools. Carol Doe Porter,
33:53
Speaker 1: along with her husband Hurt, founded Kidcare in nineteen eighty six.
33:58
Speaker 1: It became the first meal on wheels program in the
34:01
Speaker 1: Houston area and delivered up to twenty three thousand meals monthly.
34:06
Speaker 1: Local TV station Channel thirteen and reporter at the time,
34:09
Speaker 1: Wayne Delchafino, broadcasts numerous stories about Kidcare and the organization
34:15
Speaker 1: stealing and defrauding millions and discrediting the name kidcare. The
34:20
Speaker 1: Texas Journey General went forward with charges against Miss Porter
34:24
Speaker 1: and her husband and banning them from their property and
34:27
Speaker 1: ending kidcare at the time. It was not until two
34:31
Speaker 1: thousand and four that charges against Miss Porter and her
34:34
Speaker 1: husband were dropped and they were vindicated. Miss Porter is
34:39
Speaker 1: back with a new program to end hunger in the area.
34:42
Speaker 1: She spoke with the People's News after going to city
34:45
Speaker 1: council about feeding the poor.
34:47
Speaker 11: Well, first, will my name is Carol Dope Quarters and
34:51
Speaker 11: my husband herts Porter, and I studied tack here especially
34:57
Speaker 11: and nineteen did say nineteen eighty four, But prior to that,
35:05
Speaker 11: we were in the community passing out Hodson reps in
35:10
Speaker 11: blankets with big pots and traveling around look at the
35:14
Speaker 11: people who needed assistance. Excuse me. We created the first
35:21
Speaker 11: meals on wheels program for children in the world. I
35:25
Speaker 11: did not realize Richards that they were Third world communities
35:34
Speaker 11: right near where I lived. I didn't know that. And
35:38
Speaker 11: when I found out that children were eating in the
35:42
Speaker 11: dumpsters of a local fast food store restaurant, I was appalled.
35:48
Speaker 11: I couldn't believe it. But their third world conditions right
35:52
Speaker 11: here all over America. So it may sound very naive
35:58
Speaker 11: to think that hurt and count or had decided that
36:02
Speaker 11: they were the end cure of hunger among children. We
36:08
Speaker 11: just started feeding people, started feeding children adopted in the
36:11
Speaker 11: whole entire apartment complex and it just grew from there.
36:19
Speaker 6: And told us about what happened the kid care and
36:22
Speaker 6: just tell us a little bit about this new programs
36:26
Speaker 6: you're trying you're trying to trying to.
36:28
Speaker 11: In that well.
36:31
Speaker 6: You know, people are people are hungry. Yeah, no time
36:37
Speaker 6: in history so I speak.
36:39
Speaker 3: That's right.
36:40
Speaker 11: They are very they're very hungry. My main objective has
36:44
Speaker 11: been that of my husband, who passed away a year
36:49
Speaker 11: ago November the fourth, was to implement a national meals
36:53
Speaker 11: and meals programs for children. That is my life goal
36:58
Speaker 11: that and that was what we were heading forward to accomplish.
37:02
Speaker 11: And how it's counting. This food staff suppression really shook
37:09
Speaker 11: me up. It's really really good because families that I
37:15
Speaker 11: personally need was struggling. There's an ordinance on the books
37:21
Speaker 11: to zero one two dash to set his mind that
37:26
Speaker 11: basically says an ordinance to zero one two dash too
37:31
Speaker 11: sixty nine that individual churches physical organization can be penalized
37:38
Speaker 11: for feeding people and everybody can't go out and get
37:45
Speaker 11: a license certification, people will just out there wanting to help.
37:52
Speaker 11: And so you don't keep many people helping today because
37:56
Speaker 11: they don't want to get involved with the cities getting
37:58
Speaker 11: in trouble. And I couldn't help it. I think, my goodness,
38:04
Speaker 11: if ever a time when people needed help from their neighborhoods,
38:09
Speaker 11: this is the time. And so I just trarid about
38:14
Speaker 11: it and said, okay, what can I do? And then
38:18
Speaker 11: I was impressed that I need to establish the kid
38:24
Speaker 11: killed right to eat at? And what is the kid
38:28
Speaker 11: kill right to eat at? Basically, what it says is
38:33
Speaker 11: nobody should be penalized by helping to assist the fellow laws.
38:39
Speaker 11: That's really it is a nutshell and throw out that
38:43
Speaker 11: Jaconian bill ordinance to a one two dash two sixty minds,
38:49
Speaker 11: the government cannot be expected to do it all. But
38:53
Speaker 11: what's the programmed in this country?
38:54
Speaker 3: Now?
38:56
Speaker 11: The government into all the cure all, but it just
38:59
Speaker 11: been help us to see what can happen? Then we
39:03
Speaker 11: are blind. We are blind at any time in America's history.
39:12
Speaker 11: We should eliminate anything that keeps us from helping each other.
39:19
Speaker 11: It's time to change the law, and so I wentn't
39:24
Speaker 11: be forced to be counseled November SI and presented before
39:28
Speaker 11: mail with min to be counseled. The kid care righting
39:32
Speaker 11: that which I'm praying we'll get Empolympics has to because
39:37
Speaker 11: because this is going to happen again. This is not
39:40
Speaker 11: going to be the only time people are gonna suffer.
39:44
Speaker 11: It's not. We need to be prepared. So that's my thrust,
39:48
Speaker 11: that's my push, that's my obsession right now. To get
39:54
Speaker 11: the kid care rights to eat that passed and to
39:59
Speaker 11: keep walking would a Mills and Wills program for children,
40:03
Speaker 11: using Harris County as the inuator, that will go all
40:11
Speaker 11: over the United States of America. That's my player.
40:14
Speaker 6: So you start, you're starting a city council. Have you
40:18
Speaker 6: approached Harris County the Harris County judges about this?
40:22
Speaker 11: No, I haven't done that. I just one before the
40:26
Speaker 11: mayor uh and city county. I truly UH. And I
40:32
Speaker 11: know about politics, but I'm not a political animal. Well
40:36
Speaker 11: I know every single thing, like go to the before
40:39
Speaker 11: the commissioners caught you're saying, mhm, okay.
40:45
Speaker 6: How are you gonna go? How how are you going
40:47
Speaker 6: to take this to a state, state level, or even
40:51
Speaker 6: a federal level.
40:52
Speaker 11: Uh, well, we'll wait and see what happens with the runoff,
41:00
Speaker 11: and whoever is in the seat of Chilia Jackson, Lee
41:06
Speaker 11: and every other representative is solidified. I'm going to go
41:13
Speaker 11: talk to all of them and ask them to marveling
41:17
Speaker 11: because of course it needs to be on a on
41:20
Speaker 11: a state level to get rid of these ordinances. They're
41:23
Speaker 11: all over tests, they're all over test. We need to
41:27
Speaker 11: get rid of anything, anything that interferes and my desire
41:34
Speaker 11: to help my neighbors, pure and simple neighbor helping neighbors.
41:41
Speaker 6: And what are you doing? What are you doing now
41:43
Speaker 6: as far as uh getting getting getting getting supplies out
41:48
Speaker 6: of food out.
41:50
Speaker 11: Well, we have a very healthy relationship with a hopeless
41:54
Speaker 11: market and we volunteers pick up and distribute food, uh
42:01
Speaker 11: that is given to us. We've been doing that since
42:06
Speaker 11: Wholefoods Market first opened. My mother when Whole Food's Market
42:10
Speaker 11: was in the location of Traded Joe's down on Shepherd
42:15
Speaker 11: m she was noticing that the employees were calling the
42:22
Speaker 11: foods and vegetables and she watched and she recognized, oh,
42:26
Speaker 11: they got to throw this away, and she was following
42:29
Speaker 11: them through the side for the daughter said employs only,
42:33
Speaker 11: and Jean Claude, who with John mackew, the developer of
42:39
Speaker 11: whole Foods markets, saw her thought she was high as killful,
42:44
Speaker 11: but before he could get her to respond to what
42:50
Speaker 11: his proficients were, she turned on him and said, why
42:54
Speaker 11: are throwing all the way for all this good foods
42:56
Speaker 11: when people are needing and they could use this, And
43:00
Speaker 11: he said, well, nobody wants it. He said we did,
43:05
Speaker 11: and so he said, well, if you wanted, you could
43:07
Speaker 11: pick it up. So we started picking up food as
43:09
Speaker 11: a whole boot smarket my husband. Every day we'd go
43:12
Speaker 11: pick it up and start distributing it out to the community.
43:17
Speaker 11: And then one day he said, you need to get
43:20
Speaker 11: up five or one C three in order for us
43:23
Speaker 11: to continue giving you the food over the rules. I said, okay,
43:27
Speaker 11: we'll do it, and we ended up getting on five
43:32
Speaker 11: or one C three and officially calling out that, uh,
43:36
Speaker 11: we care about kids, kid care for sure, and so
43:41
Speaker 11: that's what we still do. That is what we're doing today.
43:46
Speaker 11: We have volunteers that help us.
43:49
Speaker 6: How's the meals or wheels that we have that we
43:52
Speaker 6: have now compared to what you're what you're trying to
43:57
Speaker 6: plan out.
43:58
Speaker 11: Well, kid, I'm happy that Kids Nails is here. We
44:04
Speaker 11: need more than just kids and meals. We need everybody.
44:08
Speaker 11: We need more organizations, we need more kids meals. But
44:11
Speaker 11: our organization was very very different, and it's very very different. Feeding, yes,
44:18
Speaker 11: is the first line of overcoming poverty. So we've said
44:24
Speaker 11: children for a number of years. Because what I saw,
44:31
Speaker 11: and because of my background it a nurse, I saw
44:35
Speaker 11: third world physical ailments among the children. I saw a
44:39
Speaker 11: ricket where your bones are not developed popularly and have
44:44
Speaker 11: like a wishbone kind of length sometimes to help people
44:48
Speaker 11: to vision that. I saw a rib sticking out of
44:53
Speaker 11: little children's bodies. You can count them, you can see them.
44:59
Speaker 11: I don't like, Oh my goodness, I can't even express
45:06
Speaker 11: the horror that I saw. Now I'm an army brand
45:09
Speaker 11: that I lived overseas and I saw people living in
45:17
Speaker 11: countries that were in need, but not Americans. Not people
45:22
Speaker 11: were an Americans for it. No not no, no, no
45:26
Speaker 11: no no. This is not something that I am witnessing.
45:30
Speaker 11: This is a dream, but it was real. It was real.
45:36
Speaker 11: So we had adopted an entire part of complex. Like children,
45:40
Speaker 11: they were living in no running water because the bills
45:44
Speaker 11: weren't paid, no lights, no get It was horrible. It
45:48
Speaker 11: was absolutely horrible. And then we just went about systematically
45:54
Speaker 11: making sure that each chilo had beans and life, some basics,
45:59
Speaker 11: and we did. We know, instead of our own pocket,
46:01
Speaker 11: we helped the community for five straight years. Nobody knew
46:04
Speaker 11: who we were at. We just did this out of
46:07
Speaker 11: our out of our love for our fellow man. But
46:11
Speaker 11: my husband, whose wisest sand in the world, came to
46:14
Speaker 11: me and he said, listen to us. At that point,
46:18
Speaker 11: we were doing four hundred a week, and he said,
46:24
Speaker 11: we can't continue doing this. We've got to get completely.
46:27
Speaker 11: I didn't want any I didn't want anybody to know
46:30
Speaker 11: what we were doing. This is a stree us in God,
46:33
Speaker 11: That's how I selt, he said, because I'm tapping into
46:37
Speaker 11: the reserve. And when he said that, I knew that
46:39
Speaker 11: was the death Field said. My husband was a fabulous
46:43
Speaker 11: money manager. He said, you've got to get help. If
46:46
Speaker 11: people out there that they knew what we were doing,
46:48
Speaker 11: they would help us. And so one day, soon after
46:53
Speaker 11: we made that declaration, do not it anymore kills us,
46:58
Speaker 11: I got a phone call from Norm York channel leven TV,
47:06
Speaker 11: and he said he was looking for Carl Portland. I said,
47:08
Speaker 11: I'm seeing he said in Hunger Network, Mary Francis said
47:17
Speaker 11: that if anybody knew, because there was a new report
47:21
Speaker 11: that came out about poverty. But here was a slant
47:25
Speaker 11: which I already knew because I saw it that white
47:30
Speaker 11: children were hungry. I saw white children hungry. I saw
47:35
Speaker 11: less black children hungry than white children hungry. And Hispanics
47:39
Speaker 11: were hungry. And he went around trying to find people
47:43
Speaker 11: who knew about white poverty. He couldn't find anybody. So
47:46
Speaker 11: she told him to go talk to me, because I
47:49
Speaker 11: met her one day and I told her what I
47:51
Speaker 11: was doing. When we established a relationship, he asked if
47:55
Speaker 11: he could come and visit. Sure. Then it comes out
47:58
Speaker 11: the visit and I can remember, like it was yesterday.
48:01
Speaker 11: I was cooking. I was in the process of finishing
48:05
Speaker 11: cooking four hundred chickens. Oh boy, And he said, can
48:11
Speaker 11: I go with you? I said sure. So he traveled
48:14
Speaker 11: around with my husband and myself and and he was
48:17
Speaker 11: speech to us. He was speaking people could go and
48:22
Speaker 11: who was he saw? On YouTube? And look up for
48:29
Speaker 11: hidden children and he and you can see hidden children,
48:34
Speaker 11: and you could see some of the scenes that he
48:36
Speaker 11: prograssed Carol and Mungo, who was a reporter for Channel eleven.
48:43
Speaker 11: She did the clipp but it was the same then
48:47
Speaker 11: that he saw. He couldn't believe it. And then David Goldberg,
48:53
Speaker 11: who was over the general manager Channel eleven, when Norm
48:57
Speaker 11: brought the footage back, he was all he couldn't believe it.
49:01
Speaker 11: He said, look, wherever that woman wants you to film something,
49:06
Speaker 11: you go with him. And actually that's began our getting
49:12
Speaker 11: known into the community, because every time anything was going
49:17
Speaker 11: on Channel leaven would sin Norm or someone else and
49:21
Speaker 11: they film and he put it on the air, and
49:24
Speaker 11: slowly but surely we became a household word. And then
49:30
Speaker 11: Dragging Easy a Channel twenty. The Cartoon Network heard about us,
49:36
Speaker 11: wanted to meet us, and we met with me and
49:40
Speaker 11: his wife, and he fell in love with the concept
49:43
Speaker 11: of seeing children and ending hunger. So he did an
49:49
Speaker 11: entire filming of kid chilling what we did and put
49:53
Speaker 11: them on a loop and so twenty four hours of
49:55
Speaker 11: the Cartoon Network the children were seen and the mothers
50:01
Speaker 11: of their path get care were feeding children, and it
50:05
Speaker 11: got so incredibly popular, so children would break away from
50:09
Speaker 11: their parents when they see me in the store. It
50:11
Speaker 11: wasn't the ramble. It was amazing. And then his wife, Milcamedi,
50:16
Speaker 11: was a graphic designer and she designed five billboards and
50:24
Speaker 11: then Brad got people to sponsor them and they went
50:28
Speaker 11: all over the city of Houston for a whole year,
50:31
Speaker 11: and that just propelled us all over the city, all
50:36
Speaker 11: over the state of Texas, and then we began to
50:40
Speaker 11: be known in different parts of America where we started
50:43
Speaker 11: getting national publicity. It was amazing and it was a
50:51
Speaker 11: very humbling experience really because we recognized that we were
50:56
Speaker 11: making a difference. And then we ended up uh being
51:00
Speaker 11: people would reach out to us in different parts of
51:03
Speaker 11: the world because this went viral in certain places and
51:07
Speaker 11: asking us how to do this, what it would do,
51:11
Speaker 11: and so I just began consulting with people, and we
51:16
Speaker 11: ended up in Columbia, South America and had a meeting
51:22
Speaker 11: with then the first Lady in North of Flana of Columbia,
51:29
Speaker 11: South America and collaborating with her on amercan World Program
51:34
Speaker 11: for children beginning in tata Hanah, because in tata Hanah
51:38
Speaker 11: there was a body of called the Nelson Mandela Barrier,
51:42
Speaker 11: one of the poorest, most pitiful looking environments that you
51:47
Speaker 11: ever want to see, just like television, like they made
51:51
Speaker 11: it up. And children, hundreds of children of be on
51:54
Speaker 11: top of the garbage, moms looking for drink at something
51:58
Speaker 11: to sell, to buy food air is terrible, awesome, heart wrenching.
52:05
Speaker 11: And out of those beginnings, I recognize rediments. We need
52:14
Speaker 11: more than just feeding them. They need healthcare too. Because
52:18
Speaker 11: I'm a nurse and I'm a bootleg. I was a
52:21
Speaker 11: bootleg doctor and a bootleg nutritions an herbless and I
52:27
Speaker 11: would give them a homemade remedies because health care was
52:31
Speaker 11: not co accessible and then you go into the emergency
52:35
Speaker 11: room and you sit for hours and hours and hours
52:37
Speaker 11: an hours before they help you.
52:40
Speaker 10: HM.
52:41
Speaker 11: And so we created the prototype for all these urgent
52:47
Speaker 11: care subjects called the kid Care health Bussies and where
52:52
Speaker 11: them parents and the children could come.
52:55
Speaker 1: That was Carol Doe porter our End talking about getting
52:58
Speaker 1: a new program to feed the homeless. You can reach
53:02
Speaker 1: her at Kidcare Inc. All put together at gmail dot
53:06
Speaker 1: com to help out or to donate. While the corrupt,
53:10
Speaker 1: criminal and cruel Donald Trump addled with dementia, besieged by
53:16
Speaker 1: his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and Gallaine Maxwell continues to
53:20
Speaker 1: distract by committing war crimes against Venezuela. The Venezuelan football
53:26
Speaker 1: team still brings joy to those Venezuelans living here in
53:30
Speaker 1: the US. Friday night at Shell Dynamo Stadium, the Venezuelan
53:34
Speaker 1: national team played Australia in a friendly match during the
53:38
Speaker 1: international break. Venezuela won one to zero with a goal
53:43
Speaker 1: by Aesus Andres Ramirez Diaz, which brought joy to those
53:47
Speaker 1: here and back home. As Trump Threton's war on the country.
53:53
Speaker 5: It has gotten better.
53:54
Speaker 13: We still have to go to the welcome, that's the
53:57
Speaker 13: main goal though, but it has gotten better. I think
54:00
Speaker 13: we're now today and the last game. We're looking at
54:03
Speaker 13: a new generation for Venezuela and football soccer. So I
54:07
Speaker 13: believe we're gonna be in the worlcome very soon. We
54:10
Speaker 13: were very close this time around, and I mean ideally
54:14
Speaker 13: with this new development of the team, new coaching staff
54:17
Speaker 13: and everything coming in together, I think it's gonna be
54:20
Speaker 13: a very nice couple of years coming up for.
54:21
Speaker 11: Us with football.
54:23
Speaker 9: Football is very popular in Venezuelas, yes, along with baseball.
54:29
Speaker 9: But with the politics involved with with with with the football,
54:32
Speaker 9: how's that going.
54:33
Speaker 5: How's that going in check?
54:34
Speaker 9: And Howard is playing football in the United States today?
54:38
Speaker 4: You know, we don't want with the climate right.
54:40
Speaker 5: Now, we're talking about that.
54:42
Speaker 13: So the first part, I believe this politics shouldn't really
54:45
Speaker 13: be involved into sports. Unfortunately, politics do have a huge
54:50
Speaker 13: impact on federation teams, so it is heavily controlled by
54:55
Speaker 13: unfortunately the wrong people. And that's what we're trying to,
54:58
Speaker 13: you know, trying to get push game and get into
55:00
Speaker 13: results and get into a World Cup, get into a
55:02
Speaker 13: good spot in Copa America.
55:04
Speaker 5: That's kind of like the goal right now.
55:05
Speaker 13: But yeah, and playing in the US I think is
55:08
Speaker 13: growing as well. Now with like more teams in the MLS,
55:12
Speaker 13: you know, more exposure to come into the league with MESSI,
55:14
Speaker 13: with Inter Miami in general. You got Koreans going into
55:18
Speaker 13: LAFC with Song so you have a lot of I
55:20
Speaker 13: already coming into the league. And I believe that's gonna
55:23
Speaker 13: be like a very good like thing for the US
55:26
Speaker 13: in general.
55:26
Speaker 9: The politics between Venezuela and in the United States and
55:29
Speaker 9: status needles.
55:30
Speaker 13: You talk about that, I mean, yeah, I mean we're
55:34
Speaker 13: here to have fun, We're here to talk about football.
55:36
Speaker 13: So I don't really I believe the conflict is gonna
55:41
Speaker 13: benefit our country in general, but you know, their sacrifices
55:45
Speaker 13: to be made along the way. We're being suffering for
55:48
Speaker 13: so long now, like anything that helps us really is
55:51
Speaker 13: gonna it's gonna be a blessing. But yeah, I believe
55:54
Speaker 13: the US and Venezuela never play against each other in soccer, so.
55:59
Speaker 5: I don't think it's.
56:01
Speaker 1: Also this last week, Houston activists gathered at the Meekham
56:05
Speaker 1: Fountain on Saturday to demonstrate the US escalation as they
56:09
Speaker 1: march down Hermann Drive to Caroline and enter the McGovern's
56:13
Speaker 1: centennial gardens at Herman Park. Gathering at the bust of
56:17
Speaker 1: Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia
56:22
Speaker 1: and Panama, they rally and invoke the anti colonial fighting
56:27
Speaker 1: spirit of Bolivar.
56:29
Speaker 5: Hi.
56:29
Speaker 1: This is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
56:34
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56:37
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Speaker 1: People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News podcast,
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57:03
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