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Before You Speak | Episode 26 | School Vouchers · Before You Speak

• Derek Peterson: What's up y'all, welcome back to the Before You Speak podcast. I am your host, Derek Peterson, just processing the fire hose of my newsfeed with this guy over here. Elwyn: What's up everybody, I am Elwin and the fire hose of my newsfeed this week is filled with $400 million in taxpayer money for the ballroom. Hey, I thought that was going to be taxpayer free. Apparently not. Derek Peterson: ⁓ yeah, I guess that when opportunity comes a-knockin', you know, it's like, it feels a lot like these football teams are like, ⁓ yeah, we're gonna build this stadium and then like three weeks later and by that we mean we're gonna ask the taxpayers to chip in for all of this. Like, assholes. Which actually brings us to our first subject for the day, the correspondence dinner, which I'm pretty sure there's not a single person in America that... Elwyn: Yep. Derek Peterson: legitimately believes that this guy was you know in some way shape or form not like I don't know I don't know if coerced or like maybe just that they knew and it was like docile like it just something feels so off about all of this which I'm gonna get to you but before I before you speak Owen ⁓ I saw Elwyn: No, I'm one. I don't think this was staged. Derek Peterson: ⁓ you don't think it was staged? Well there's still a bunch of stuff like the CCTV footage that I watched this dude that was an ex-sniper for the military break down the CCTV footage of the guy running through and the initial like most people are saying this guy never got off a shot and that the cop that was shot was actually shot by the cop that was directly across from him that when he saw him turning the corner basically opened fire. and immediately after the cop that's directly across from him goes to the ground so which would They basically they're just covering up the fact that the one cop shot another cop and this dude You know, but for the most part this guy was pretty far away from ever making it past security, know like they the door the doors of the Hilton were less guarded but The actual ballroom, the guy was a half a floor away. He still had to go down an escalator and then get through the ballroom doors to actually get anywhere close to anybody, which wasn't going to happen. Right. You know, you had probably another three levels of security between him and, and the actual, ⁓ so the whole pitch that this is reason to have a ballroom and all of it is dumb as shit and, ⁓ you know, opportunistic on their end at best and at worst. ⁓ staged for the fact that they want to have a ballroom. Elwyn: Yeah, I don't, I'm not, I'm not on that this one is staged. I mean, I think the guy was staying in the hotel and he took the stairs down to that, like, I guess it's a mezzanine style level that probably overlooks the lobby. So as you described, you can take an escalator down ⁓ from the mezzanine. And I don't think he ever got all that close. And yeah, he may have, may not have gotten a shot off, but I do think, I don't think that he was put up to it. I don't think that the whole thing was staged. His, you know, his. Derek Peterson: But why here? Why this situation? Like this has to be one of the most heavily ⁓ guarded events of the year. I mean, you literally have all, what do they call it, when the president and then the next successor, like you had three successors in a row in the same room, which is something that they, well, but that's what I'm saying. that's why you would say he would have. Elwyn: Well, that's probably why. Why wouldn't that answer your question? Like, why isn't that the why now? Right, because they've got everybody in one place. Derek Peterson: Yeah, but unless you're doing it with a bomb, like a bomb, would, guess it would make sense, but like getting it. ⁓ Elwyn: Yeah, but I don't think that you can layer logic on top of any of this stuff. Right? Like, I don't think you can layer logic on top of the guy in Butler or the guy hiding in the trees at Mar-a-Lago or the guy who took a shot at the White House or an Obama who, by the way, 11 assassination attempts that were spoiled under Obama's watch. So I just don't think you can layer logic onto it. And I just don't think that like, ⁓ we're going to stage this whole thing. Derek Peterson: Okay, fair point. Elwyn: for the ballroom. I just don't buy it. think security was not great. think they, the bar was lower. I heard that too. I think all that's probably true. But I also, you the guy's manifesto was like not very manifesto-ish. It was pretty clear. You know, he was frustrated, you know, not a stupid guy, but clearly something had broken a little bit in him. You know, he had a pretty good, ⁓ Derek Peterson: Yeah. Elwyn: Not good, but like a pretty clear like hotel security, not the problem. Secret service, not the problem. Like these, all these people, I don't want to hurt them. So no, I don't think this was staged. I think it does say something that immediately we're all like, this was staged. know, something happened, this was staged. Derek Peterson: Well, mean, yeah, because, so the two things that we have that are fresh off the top of our head are the Butler, is the Butler situation where the guy that was taken into custody, we've heard nothing about after they killed him at scene. Elwyn: No, Butler, Butler, guy killed. The shooter was killed. Derek Peterson: Yeah, he was killed, we, we like very little was disclosed after that and his body was incinerated two days later. There was very little like, ⁓ talked about as far as the investigation goes, very little talked about, about as far as motives and everything else. I granted, understand you need to protect, you know, hopefully the privacy of a family, people that weren't necessarily involved in it, but could be impacted by that, that kid's decisions, but like, And then you look at the Charlie Kirk situation, there's a lot of similarities with all this stuff. It's like, there's a lot of things that just don't match. part of me is like, how many times do we get the same story where dude writes a manifesto, does something, and then the byproduct of it is that, the byproduct of Butler is that Trump wins the election, right? Like that he was prior prior to all of that prior to that photo of him bleeding from the fake blood on his ear with you know and he was losing he was he was he wasn't he wasn't doing well that that really did change some momentum and then you know the the motives behind the Charlie Kirk stuff those are obviously much more entangled with a bunch of other stuff going on in the Republican Party. But there's a lot of smoke there about that being staged. Elwyn: Charlie Kirk, I'm yeah, I'm sitting down for dinner with the conspiracy theories on Charlie Kirk. The Butler one, I can't get there. Derek Peterson: Meaning like, yeah, but meaning like what I'm seeing is a pattern in that they were like, this shit works. So what it feels like is that the Butler and the Charlie Kirk thing, they were effective in getting what they wanted out of it. so like for me, this immediately, I go down the conspiracy theory hole, not because I ever want to or enjoy this at all, but I'm like, yeah. The fact that within seconds they came out and they're like, well, if I had a ballroom, this wouldn't have happened. And you're like, ⁓ God, there it is. Like it's. Elwyn: Yeah, but that's just opportunistic. I mean, I don't like that's like you gotta you gotta give Trump one thing. The guy knows how to seize an opportunity right right away. So I don't I don't think that it's a hard leap for someone like him to be like, you know, ⁓ shit, I there was this thing that just happened. Okay, well, cool. Everything settled down. We're not going to go back out there. Hey, we know the ballroom is incredibly important. It's like priority number one. So Derek Peterson: Oop, sir. Elwyn: To me, it's not a leap that his brain goes there. Charlie Kirk, I don't see where the Trump administration has benefited from that. And even if they have, I do believe there's a natural inclination of humans to see something like Butler and be like, wait a second, is this guy this bad? I don't want that. Like, wow, you know, and to have this backlash of like, you know what? If the other side hates him so much, I'm not going to buy into it or I'm going to listen to him more or I don't want to be associated with that. You know, to me, there's just this natural, that's just a natural part of the human condition, you know, that he, you know, the butler thing, you know, I just can't get there because it's too out in the open. The Secret Service, look, the Secret Service, we have this idea that the Secret Service is great at their job. ⁓ I don't know, they're not. They fuck up all the time. ⁓ So, you know, that they fucked up is not a thing. And also, it's not a big thing. And also, that guy died. You know, a guy actually died. And the bullet did come really close to Trump. that's, wow, that almost was fucked up if he had been hit. And it was supposed to be a fake, like, whoa, that's some high stakes shit. And another guy did die. And I feel like he would have just been like, hey, cool, we're gonna, we might kill you, shooter, or we're certainly gonna arrest you, but man, miss high, don't fucking kill anyone, just take the shots. That's all that's needed is take the shots. So I can't quite get there, and I think it's dangerous that we all go there. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Yeah. It's all this all this shit is dangerous. sucks to be here. And to be honest, I didn't question any of this stuff until at first, know, like none of my initial thought on the Butler thing wasn't, ⁓ this is, know, somebody staged this, you know, like at first, you know, my my soul wants to believe the best in people. It's just that we've been repeatedly prove proven wrong. over these last, you know, this last year and just shown that people are capable of doing the worst fucking things. And yeah, it feels deceptive. feels it feels deceptive at best, to be honest. the rest of it, like what is actually going on? Like if a lot of this stuff is as as staged as it feels like at the moment, like we are much farther gone in our system than I than I ever thought we were like, you know. Elwyn: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. There was a, I two kind of thoughts there that probably go on. Anthony Weiner was this New York congressman back in 15 years ago who was a real firebrand on the floor, darling of the liberals, really effective guy. And he lost his seat and lost all his credibility in a sex scandal where he was sending, you know, pictures of his junk in his underwear, like pictures of his underwear, clearly just. covered up dick pics basically ⁓ to people, to staffers or whatever. And all on the left websites like Daily Codes and stuff like that, there was all this analysis of like, if you look at the pixelation of this and the XGIF 493 and compared to that, like, this is clearly doctored. It wasn't fucking doctored. You know, the guy did it. It wasn't fucking doctored, right? Like we try so hard. Derek Peterson: I'm assuming he had like giant junk because you like you're only send. You only send those you only send those pictures if you're really confident they're going to impress somebody else. Elwyn: It was surprising, it was surprising. Yep. No, I think it's just, but the point is like, it's just easier, especially for a lefty like me. Like it's a lot easier to be like, no, this was staged and blah, blah, blah, than to be like, God damn it. You know, I do not subscribe for one second to the fact that the left engages in more political violence than the right. The right is just better at covering it up and not talking about it. But if we want to own that issue, we have to stop taking shots at Trump, right? So to me, it's much easier to be like, no, no, no, it's staged, didn't actually happen, than to be like, fuck no, we have a problem here on our side of the aisle that needs to be resolved. yeah, it gives huge opportunity. And the other side, Trump and the Republicans are masters at taking that small lane and blowing a 30 lane highway through it wide enough to fit a ballroom. They're just really good at it. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Fair points. know, like I still I still have a hard time believing any truth to any like any of the reporting coming out of this. It's so weird seeing all the different videos of some people not even giving a shit to the point where they are just sitting there still eating like, you know, there's so much there's so much confusion going on. just like, yeah, active shooter and. Elwyn: Well... Derek Peterson: ⁓ whole bunch of people that decide to just chill in the other half or be like not but you know whatever we can move on from that because you know it is what it is but alright you ⁓ have a few things you want to run through here in our news segment today which Elwyn: So I was gonna start like this morning I woke up and I was like, you know, I don't have a big news thing. So I'm gonna find like three examples of just the dumb shit that flies below the radar that's so fucking stupid in this administration. So I was like, I'll do three stupid things and then the Supreme Court opened their stupid mouths. But I'm gonna do the three things, three stupid things anyway. Kid Rock actually standing in the Pentagon in front of all the generals. and everything talking about the fucking war in Iran. Come on, like, get the fuck out of here with this stuff. Kid Rock, give me a break. No, he has to go away, like. Derek Peterson: Kid Rock has never inspired a damn person in his life. Kid Rock doesn't even inspire his kids or people that are close to him. There's zero benefit to that to our military. If anything, it probably worked the opposite direction. Elwyn: This, The hero worship of Kid Rock is like just very stupid, hence my stupid things. Second stupid thing, the Comey indictment. James Comey was reindicted. He literally was reindicted because he took a picture of seashells on a beach spelling out the numbers 8647, 8647, which they're saying was a death threat to President Trump, 86 being common lingo for like, oh, let's 86 that. Derek Peterson: Yes. Elwyn: Right? Like kind of throw it out and 47 being President Trump's second term as the 47th president. It's a picture of seashells on a beach. So the whole thing is it's fucking ludicrous that this is a threat. It's also ludicrous that Cash Patel in the press conference was like, we spent 11 months investigating this, bro. It's a picture of seashells on a beach. What is what? What is the 11 month investigation? What? You know, it had to be 11 months to find someone to sign the indictment. That had to be it. Derek Peterson: It's like... We spent 11 months investigating this and we still don't know what beach this is. We have yet to be able to find these seashells. Elwyn: Yeah, because now... Yeah. Someone on good authority has told us these represent the numbers 8647. You know, this is so stupid. And then finally, you know, some time ago Trump introduced this idea of a golden visa, like people would spend a million dollars or five million dollars and buy a visa, and everybody was like, this is amazing, it's gonna ring five billion dollars a year in revenue, pure revenue for us. They've sold one. That came out this week. They've sold one. So those are my three stupid things. Derek Peterson: You All right. Sounds right. And that person probably still doesn't even have their visa. ⁓ Yes, it's one of Elon Musk's relatives. It's got to be. That's the only way any of this makes sense. So well, before we jump into our school voucher subject this week, do you want to discuss Supreme Court real quick? Elwyn: Definitely a white South African person. Derek Peterson: ⁓ based off of ⁓ rulings today Elwyn: Yeah, so, you know, last week we did the episode on gerrymandering and hey, we are on it in terms of timeliness because today the Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case coming out of Louisiana that is, it is about gerrymandering. So the real quick background is Louisiana had drawn ⁓ a majority minority district, meaning one of their congressional districts in the maps that they have is, majority people of color. And that was challenged by Louisiana, by the governor or whoever, secretary of state, whoever does it, ⁓ as being racial gerrymandering. So like, ⁓ hey, and if people are listening to this and they're like, wait, what? Louisiana racially gerrymandered for a minority district? This is all backwards? Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it is, right? They drew a map. It had been through the courts before, their prior maps were ruled ⁓ impermissible because they did not have this majority minority district, so they drew the majority minority district, and then the Secretary of State challenged that district. And the Supreme Court today said that that district, preserving that one majority minority, ⁓ that that map, preserving that one district, was ⁓ impermissible racial gerrymandering. Now, We talked last week about what is the line between partisan gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering? Can't they very easily be the same thing? That's precisely what this case does. What they basically say is, and I'm gonna try and pull it up and read it verbatim, Alito, that shit, wrote the decision, and he said that... He said, can only find racial gerrymandering and a map is bad. We can only impose liability when circumstances give rise to a strong inference that intentional discrimination occurred. Okay, so in other words, they didn't overrule the Voting Rights Act, but they hollowed it out, whatever is left of it. And what they're saying is, if you want to say that there's racial gerrymandering, you have to show a very, very strong case. not just that there's ⁓ a racial component to this map, but that that racial component is intentional. So strong inference of intentional gerrymandering. And in Supreme Court lore, that's almost an impossible bar to clear. Similar bars exist in other areas of litigation under something called strict scrutiny, and that's like the highest standard to win. So he's basically saying, no, no, Voting Rights Act. Yeah, still there. Cool. We love the Voting Rights Act. It's just impossible now to win a claim, which Justice Kagan in her dissent says. Now, the perfect example of why this is complete bullshit is actually the Texas gerrymandering case that they have not ruled on yet. They have overturned a lower court ruling, but if we go back in time, Texas passed their map, they got sued, there was a long trial, a lot of discovery ⁓ in the state level, and ⁓ a federal court, federal district court, wrote a whole long decision. showing all the ways that this map had been racially constructed in order to dilute the votes of people of color. The ruling is right on point on all of that. It is written in the language of racial discrimination, not partisan gerrymandering. The Supreme Court overturned that, on the shadow docket, overturned that ruling and said, well, know, we'll hear the rest of the case later. But, like now, we have the Supreme Court saying, you have this incredibly high bar to prove a racial gerrymander. And you also have the Supreme Court already having sort of put in limbo and suppressed the lower court ruling, showing that that bar was cleared. They didn't write this case so that they could go back and reverse themselves on the Texas case, right? What they're doing here is encapsulating into law the very thing we said last week, which is that There is no difference between partisan gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering. All you have to do now is say, ⁓ well, whatever. ⁓ Sure, there's some racial carryover to this, but it's not what we intended. And that's it. That's good enough. And it is activist, and it takes away rights, and it is not what the law says, and it is just another example of a broken Supreme Court. Derek Peterson: Yeah, a Supreme Court that needs to be changed very drastically. ⁓ All of it. You know, it's interesting because like there was a woman on The Daily Show, I believe it was yesterday, that was discussing the Supreme Court and how secretive and private the decision making process and all of this is. And yeah, we're at a point now where all of this needs to be exposed. Like all of them, like every decision should be on record like all of this should be something of public record at this point because like, know, like we're how do we know that we're not experiencing just extreme racism from a few justices? You know what I mean? Like how? Well, that's what I'm saying is we are. like they're they're not it's not as forward as that. Like me and you can see see that and make a claim to it. like. Elwyn: But we are, I mean... Derek Peterson: There may be real conversations that happen behind the scenes that are actually fully like, yeah, racist conversations in which like, you know, this stuff should be known. Like this should all be this like everything else in the world in our world now is televised or captured on phone or, you know, documented in some way, or form. There is no reason why the highest court in the world that sets the precedence for our country, but not even just our country. A lot of other countries that follow suit with democracies follow our legal structure and how we've done things. Yeah, it all needs to be transparent. And if they can't do it transparently, go fuck yourself. Elwyn: Yeah, I mean, I think... There are certainly areas where like Supreme Court hearings should be televised without a doubt. You can listen to them online. There's an audio stream of them all, but they should absolutely all be televised ⁓ for us all to see. That's simple and straightforward. ⁓ And I think that also the drafts that they work from. Yeah, maybe it's not a bad idea that we have access to those drafts. It's just not workable to put ourselves in the room for all the deliberations. ⁓ Derek Peterson: Well, what this woman was saying yesterday is that she actually obtained copies of like some of the back and forth between clerks that show some of the discriminatory bias from some of the judges, different things. like, yeah, this stuff needs to come out. Like we need to understand what we're working with. Cause these are the people that are setting like all of the laws of the land. And yeah, they're just other fucking flawed human beings. So. They shouldn't be able to hide behind these guys of like, I'm a Supreme Court justice. It's like, yeah, you're a Supreme Court justice, but you also might be a racist piece of shit. Elwyn: It also shows, Democrats have to win. They have to take the Senate. They have to hold the Senate long enough to make some changes on the court, and they have to also write laws that, by the time they have the court, can be used to overturn this type of shit, right? Like, the only way that this ruling goes away is for there to be a liberal Supreme Court, for the Democrats to write a piece of legislation that outlaws any sort of gerrymandering. for the Republicans to challenge it, for it to work its way up to Supreme Court, and for a liberal court to say, this is okay, all these other cases are overturned. It's the only way. So Democrats have to win now, they have to win in 2026, they have to win the Senate, and they have to hold it for, well, they have to hold it until Alito and Roberts, Alito and Thomas die, and maybe Roberts, he's getting pretty old too. Derek Peterson: Or to be honest, Congress needs to come together and decide that this system needs to be changed. Elwyn: Congress isn't coming together for that. Republicans are never gonna, you know, give us your gold. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Okay. Correct. At least not at the moment. Yeah. Or, you know, if, you know, if the, if the Supreme Court gets flipped back to a liberal, then Republicans will come to the table to talk about it. Cause that's a, then they'll, then they'll be interested and then maybe we can actually make some change. Cause, ⁓ but you know, it's interesting. We need more, we need regular people running for office. We need. Elwyn: That's right, they'll be really interested. Derek Peterson: We need people that refuse to play the political game as much as it's being played at the moment. And I don't know that we're gonna see a change until we see, and maybe that's my hope now, although the Daily Show also did a bit on all of the influencers and people now that are trying to run for different offices in different places. It's ridiculous. There is one woman in Austin that filed to run for mayor, not realizing that it wasn't up until 2028. And so she made her announcement on on TV only to get asked the question like, you know, this is pretty early. Why are you doing this now? And she's like, wait, it's not this year. So she found out literally while being interviewed on TV that it wasn't the vote was it? Elwyn: I love that. I love that for her. Derek Peterson: And now and now she's running for city council so So but yeah the world we live in bro, it's just we're gonna have a the more we allow like people that crave money attention and power to be You know the leaders of our our country the more we're gonna have a sociopathic and narcissistic government so Elwyn: Yeah. Derek Peterson: ⁓ We need regular people that actually want the best for other people to run for politics and we just, we don't have enough of those. speaking of... Elwyn: and who are willing to legislate against their interests. Derek Peterson: Yeah, exactly. But the people that are willing to like, Hey, I'm not just here to get rich. Like I'm here to actually make change for the world and, you know, put something in motion that will hopefully change the middle class and the, and for a life for the poor and give people opportunities that they didn't have before, or at least a, you know, a life that is a little bit better than what they currently have, you know? I was just telling somebody this the other day, like if you just imagine if we had universal healthcare for a second, just, just take the, a, the stress of like, you don't care, cover carry healthcare, like of like that, you can never go to the doctor and B if you are paying for healthcare, can you imagine how much that stimulates the economy? Like for our family, that's, you know, almost a thousand dollars a month that we just give ourselves in a raise if universal healthcare came and you know, you can, and after seeing what's going on with our war, don't fucking ever tell me again that we don't have the money for this. you know, we can, if we can, if we can give our, ⁓ you know, the Pentagon, another $1.5 trillion to go blow on bullshit that they've, ⁓ overpay for soap dispensers on airplanes, then, you know, we can cover healthcare for, you know, kids that need it. Elwyn: Let's try it. We don't need a ballroom. We need a workable healthcare system. Derek Peterson: Yeah, yeah, we need we need people that actually give a shit about the people that are living in our country, not just idolize the wealthy. So which unfortunately like this, I do this idolization of and this is common amongst it's common amongst everybody, but really amongst my Republican friends. I've never had more people go to bat for billionaires that they don't know defending them at all costs than. ever before and I just don't understand it. I'm just like, okay, well. Elwyn: I bet you they're all happy about school vouchers though. Derek Peterson: Yeah, which is what we're about to talk about. ⁓ well, all right, I'm gonna let's we're jumping into school vouchers. So let's talk, let's start with a what our school vouchers and B what, you know, started the process of this conversation coming to pass in the first place. Elwyn: Ha So school vouchers are basically this idea that public schools operate from taxpayer money. And there's a certain amount of money that each student costs. I assume it's more complicated than this, but divide the number of dollars allocated in the budget for education by the number of students, and you have an answer. So school vouchers are the idea that No, we should make that money available in some way to the family directly so that they can choose where the kids go to school. It's also to be as down the middle about it as I can, I would say that school vouchers are the way to effectuate school choice. That would be certainly how it's pitched. So on his face, that sounds like, right. So on his face, like, ⁓ yeah, that sounds good. Like I my kid, I should be able to choose where my kid goes to school. Derek Peterson: Yeah, that's how it was pitched. Elwyn: So it's an effective pitch. They take a couple of forms primarily. The most common, and there are like 26 different states that have some version of this. The most common, and I'll talk a lot about Texas in this one because that's where we live, are... Derek Peterson: Yeah, this is why this conversation is coming up. So, because our school vouchers just went into effect. Elwyn: Yep. So the most common of these are educational savings accounts, which is basically, we'll open an account for you and we'll put in, in Texas it's roughly $10,000 if you are going to, you have to unenroll from public school in order to do that. And you can use that to go to whichever private school you want and not all private schools accept them. So whichever private school that accepts them, you can use them for. The other, so that's like a direct, to the taxpayer model. The other is more of a direct to the school model, and that's actually a voucher where it's like, oh, hey, you get a ticket worth X that you can take to the school, and the school will present that ticket to us, us the state, and we'll pay them directly. So those are the two most common models. The education savings account is the one that's used the most. Vouchers, I think, was probably the first one though that came out there. Derek Peterson: Gotcha. So what like let's so what's the purpose of this? Like what's like what would drive people like what would drive the state in general to to even put this on the table? Elwyn: So the people who want school vouchers, they don't like public schools. So they're saying, we want our kids to be able to get some sort of different education, a Catholic school, a magnet school, a school that specializes in something else. Usually it's some sort of religious based school. It seems unfair that we don't have that choice You know we pay taxes for schools and we don't have a choice as to where we get to go to school and that seems unfair to the proponents of this so that's kind of the first reason the second reason and they're all of course tied together is this argument that if more kids are going to private school that forces the public schools to compete more to provide a better education product because people are walking with their feet. You know, they're going away, they're going to the private schools and not to the public schools. Well, that means that the public schools aren't that good. So public schools, if you want those students to stay, you have to get better. That's an important last sentence, so we're going to come back to that in a second. The third reason mostly is like, well, the test scores are better. Students get a better education. Derek Peterson: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: And we'll probably come back to that too, but it's just not true. Like it's not true that it's worse, but it's not true that it's better either. The thing about all of this though is, you know, and this kind of goes into why not is the public schools are operating from a fixed amount of money, right? So let's go back to that competition argument again. If 10 % of a school student body leaves and uses their vouchers to go somewhere else, the school is going to see its funding reduced by 10%. And the proponents of this say, well, you have to get better in order to get that 10 % back. It's like, well, we just lost 10%. So it's not enough to fire a bunch of teachers, right? So the only way to do this is to make our services worse. So by saying, you well, you got to compete to be better, you're at the same time. pulling the financial rug out from the public schools and giving them less money with which to compete. And in Texas, that's especially egregious because Texas's school stats are terrible. How much they pay their teachers, like bottom five. Educational outcomes, like bottom 10. Texas schools as a state suck. So the argument that we need to increase competitiveness by reducing funding is insane. Now, people know it's insane. In 2023, the first time that Abbott really took a shot at this, he lost, and he lost because Republicans voted against it. Rural Republicans, they don't have a ⁓ private school within 100 miles of their school district, right? All this does is take money out of the system, and they need every penny of that money. So they voted against it. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Yep. Elwyn: It didn't go down in Texas the first time because the Democrats somehow mounted an effective opposition. They don't have the numbers. So Abbott's response was to primary all those Republicans, vote their ass, get their asses voted out, get people who were receptive to school choice in, and pass it. And that's exactly what happened. It was a $1 billion program for the first two years in Texas. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Yeah, which is, know, like, so on the surface, there's some of this stuff I agree with, you know, especially even like, for example, using our family and, you know, say we had a deaf child, you know, my wife is deaf and say we had a deaf child and we decided to send and granted the deaf school is already funded by it gets state funding and I think maybe even some federal funding as well. ⁓ But. you know, like having school choice, like being able to send your kid to a school that best suits their needs, that would make sense, especially if you had a deaf child, like, and because sending your child to a deaf school compared to a regular, like elementary school that has a pretty big impact on their wellbeing and upbringing. it's there's data points to support all of it, right? Like when kids have language and are around other kids that speak their language, it just their learning goes through the roof, which is fantastic. But, ⁓ you know, and so like there is part of me that is like, yeah, in general, I tend to stand on the side for in most arguments that for the most part, parents should be able to decide what's best for their children. Meaning, you know, if public school is not the right thing. Yeah, don't send your kid to public school. There's a myriad of other options. The fact that we're deciding to take away from public schooling though in order to fund this is where the rubber meets the road for me because that's look there are ⁓ there are a number of different options for schooling that are still reasonably like it's priced and within reach for most people to get their kids in alternative schoolings. So ultimately for me, this feels like the entire purpose of this is actually to erode at the school system, is to take public schooling down. So then my question is why? Why would we be, what is the purpose and what is the benefit to anybody by having a a shitty public schooling system and the only place I can land on any with any of this is just like control like is it do they just want people to be stupid or that is it religious are they just wanting people to be indoctrinated with the things that they believe are correct because like in my head I'm like man if we have great schools just in general like if we're just if we are funneling our attention and energy into the future of our country constantly, like that has nothing but positive outcomes for all of us. ⁓ But what it feels like is happening is that the, it feels like that the Republican party has become kind of the old guard and that there is a threat in that liberal ideas are what are conveyed through the public schooling system. And like, Meaning liberal ideas of like, ⁓ man, there's a kid in your class that ⁓ might, like has already come out and said that they're gay and they're in seventh grade. Now you're having to learn how to accept that kid. and which is, to be honest, this is the best time in life for our kids. We have a bunch of middle school and high schoolers. Like this is the time in their life to learn how to do that. To accept somebody else for who they are and. and grow and change. Public school offers a ⁓ myriad of different experiences for kids and that's one of them. And so part of me is just like, is this what they're not wanting? Are they not wanting our kids to be around kids that are different? Are they not wanting, like, I'm just not, I don't understand what the long game is in all of this. Elwyn: Well, so maybe the best way to answer that is to kind of start from a fact that is probably shared across the ideological spectrum, which is that our public schools could be doing better. You know, our science, math scores when rated against other countries are poor, you know, quite poor, to be honest. So, you know, our public schools across the country, there are great ones, you know. but there are also really, really underperforming ones. ⁓ So I think if we start from there, we can start to build, right? So from there, you would start to now have this kind of natural partisan divide where I would say as a lefty, okay, so we need to invest more in public schools. ⁓ Public schools are the, they are the most efficient way to educate large numbers of kids. ⁓ They serve a lot of societal uses. To some extent, they get the kids out of the house at a certain age so the parents can work. have inter-scholastic activities, have band, you have all these, and you have what you just said. You have exposure to other kids and other ideas. Someone on the right would come back and say, I don't give a shit about any of that. I want my kid to learn. and I'm gonna pick on Christians, I want my kid to learn according to Christian teachings and Christian writings, and I want them fully ensconced in my version of Christian values. So now you see, right, it starts to divide out from there. At that point though, I do think, I wanna go back to like, the idea that school choice has this like, kernel of it's a good idea. To me, it's like our voter fraud discussion. know, they're like, ⁓ voter ID has this kernel of a good idea. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. That shit needs to be shut down right away. And I understand that you're the perfect guy to talk to about this because ⁓ of your family, right? But you also noted that a lot of the deaf schools are publicly funded, right? So, you know, the... Derek Peterson: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: choice like the ability to... You have the ability to choose schools. You don't have to go to public school. Pay for a fucking private school if you don't like your public school. Okay? I don't have to pay for... That's right. I don't have to pay for your private school. My kids education doesn't need to suffer because you don't like the public school district that you're in. Okay? I'm not gonna tell anybody to move because when people say that to liberals I flip my fucking lid. Derek Peterson: You do. which is what most wealthy people are already doing. Elwyn: Okay, but go to private school. Okay, this conversation or homeschool. Okay, this conversation about, you know, school choice and school vouchers exists primarily amongst more well-off Republican families. And that's born out in the data of who uses them, right? The vast, vast, vast majority. I think it's 70 % and up in almost every state that has these. ⁓ this conversation about, you know, school choice and school vouchers ⁓ exists primarily amongst ⁓ more well-off Republican families. And that's born in the data who uses them, right? The vast, vast, vast majority. I think it's 70 % and up in almost every state that has these. ⁓ used by people who are going to go to private school anyway or that and and this is just a subsidy for them or That have the means to send their product their kids to private school, know But just now that it's $10,000 a year cheaper now, they're actually gonna do it, used by people who are going to go to private school anyway or that and and this is just a subsidy for them or That have the means to send their product their kids to private school, know But just now that it's $10,000 a year cheaper now, they're actually gonna do it, So they were just they hadn't sent their kids to private school yet, but it was on the table It was something that could afford anyway. This was just the kicker. It's like a federal tax credit a Tesla So this doesn't solve the problem. Right? This doesn't make public school, if we go back to that shared problem of public schools need to be better, this doesn't make public schools better. It doesn't provide better educational outcomes. There is zero data to show that schools that accept vouchers are churning out kids that get higher test scores, that do better on these standardized tests, or that have better educational outcomes that are unrelated to the fact that they're rich to begin with. And all that stuff is public and the people writing these laws, they all know it. The people pushing for these laws, I believe they all know it. So what do they want? They want to not have their kids exposed to what they perceive as woke ideology. They don't want their kids sitting next to ⁓ somebody with two dads or two moms. They don't want a teacher who says all are welcome here and we believe in science. That hard crime. They want their kid ensconced in the teachings that they want. Great, pay for it yourself then, okay? It's not my problem that you don't like what public school you're in. Don't make it my problem. Derek Peterson: Yeah, correct. like 90 % of my friends were the kids that grew up in those families. And just for notes for those parents is that if you shove religion and specific idealism down your kids throat, there's a good chance that they're going to go the other direction anyway. know, it's a it's a move fucking point. like the here's here's the part that gets me in all of this. So like, you know, like I've worked in a number of different professions my whole life and I've typically picked professions that I was passionate about. ⁓ And to be a teacher, you have to be fucking passionate about that job. There is not, ⁓ you know what you're walking into. You know that you are doing something that probably 90 % of the time is gonna feel shitty and then you are going to... You know, just about every person in the world, I think has a moment with a teacher, a mentor, a coach that changed their life, right? That you have one person in your life that was like, man, and I can look back at a number of my teachers through middle school and high school that changed my life, that said something to me that finally clicked and I was like, oh, I'm doing this wrong. So the teachers that are fighting to like stay in this game. And the saddest part about all of this for me is that so many of them have left to take on other jobs and different roles. They were passionate about teaching, but you know, if you go through a divorce and your partner was the breadwinner and you're a teacher, there's a good chance you're looking for another job after that because you can't afford to live as a single parent on a teacher's income. Right? So like there's a, there's so much that goes on in this world that I'm like, man, how in God's name, like, okay, There's, I've been throughout the different parts of the world at different times, but like, dude, you don't need a bunch of amazing shit for people to learn. Like you need a building that's in decent shape and like, but really you need people, you need good teachers. And this doesn't seem like rocket science to me. Like why in God's name are we just not making becoming a teacher one of the most competitive jobs in the country? Like. If you found a way to like make becoming a public school teacher financially, like financially make sense. And then on top of that, like, why don't we like, if you're a teacher and you're a great teacher, like there should also be incentive, like retirement incentives or something like being able to get me, you know, college tenure, what they call it, like a tenured professor, correct? like. Elwyn: Yep. Derek Peterson: Why don't we allow shit like that to happen in, like, dude, if you're a public teacher and you have a great track record for 20 years, like, why can't you get it? Be a tenured high school teacher or, you know, like that has some kind of extra benefit of like, Hey, you devoted your life to, you know, growing the minds of our children while we were all out doing other shit. Like, thank you. And here's your, you know, the benefit to you, you know, like the Elwyn: Yeah, I mean, I have questions about the efficacy of tenure, that's a small point. Yeah, it's a small point. The larger, yeah. Derek Peterson: I mean, one, yeah, one idea of the overarching theme is just fucking pay these people what they're worth. And it changes everything. Elwyn: Well, yes, and the larger divide there though, right? It is political, right? To me, where it's, you again, we go back to the problem. We would all agree that our public schools could be doing better. We might argue about how much better. I might say they should do much better. And Chris Ruffo, conservative school choice guy might say they should do much, much, much, much better. It doesn't fucking matter, right? We're all starting from the same place. The question though is then, What do we do? And on the left, people and politicians and policies are more structured to what you just described, right? Like, pay the teachers more, okay? This shit where every August there are drives to buy pencils and markers for classrooms is insane. We shouldn't have it. That should be funded by the state. We need to take the billion dollars that we're giving to school vouchers and put it to teacher salaries and to improving the school buildings that need improvement and to... providing better supplies and providing better technology across the board and we need to have bandwidth and broadband that reaches rural schools so that they can learn the same way. This is all public investment and it comes back for the public good by having a more well-educated population. Right? That's what Democrats, that's what liberals would say. Republicans though, you know, this is just where I lose it. Republicans are like, fuck you, give me my money. and let me go solve my problem for myself. The fact that our public schools are not good enough is not a societal problem, or it is a societal problem, but I don't care about fixing it for society. I only really give a shit about fixing it for myself because I don't want to sit in the boardroom and talk to two dads whose kid sits next to mine because I don't like the idea that there are two dads. I need that woke shit out of here. I don't want to... I don't want the pride flag in my kid's classroom because I don't believe in that movement at all. So I'm going to take my toys and I'm going leave the sandbox. I'm going to take my money and I'm going to leave. And that is just this inherent tension that will always exist in every society ever. And it's not a bad tension because there are certain times where it's like, no, you know what? I should be able to make that choice. We don't choose our own policemen, we don't choose our own firefighters, we don't choose our own road pavers for the road, the public road that goes past my house. Okay? And we pay taxes for all that shit. You can hire a private firefighter if you want to. People do it in California all the time. You can hire private security, sit outside your house. Public shouldn't pay for that. That's your choice, other person. Don't make it my cost. And I don't see funding public schools as any different than that. Right? The better we all benefit, right? I live in a district that's one of the best in the country. My property values are double what they are in the rest of Austin because of the schools. Doesn't matter if you have kids in the schools or not. Okay? That's unimportant. We all benefit in increased property value. And there's arguments we had all that. Derek Peterson: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: But don't tell me that having a good school in your zip code doesn't help because you're sitting on a mountain of cash and equity in your house in all likelihood, right? And your kids are getting the opportunity for a great education. Just because you have that doesn't mean that it needs to be denied everybody else. And if you want something better than what you have, than what is provided for everybody, go buy it. Buy your first class ticket on the plane. Eat at the fancier restaurant. Buy your private security. Derek Peterson: it. Yep. Elwyn: but don't fucking take away from my kids' education. I'm not taking away from yours. Someone who goes to public school, know, my two kids go to public school and one of them has special needs and she gets more funding, but it's not taking away from anyone. It's all in the sauce. And when you send your kid to private school under a voucher, you're taking away from my kid. You're not just helping yourself. So whenever somebody starts throwing around policies that purely help themselves while taking away from me, Derek Peterson: Yep. Elwyn: I get a little angry. I don't like it. Okay? I don't think it's right. Not in this type of situation. I'm sure there situations where I'd agree with it. But not in this case, right? Public school is the norm. We need to support and improve the norm, not degrade it. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. And it goes back to kind of a found foundational principle that I think we've been tapping into for like a month now, which is just this concept of like, is the is the values and political policies that you hold dear things that expand the rights and well-being of others? Are they things they restrict and contract the well-being of others? Because ultimately, like this is the path that we're on. Like this is more of the dividing line that I feel like we are, we're in. And I almost don't even want to claim it as Democrat and Republican, although the line seems to be relatively clear that of like party lines, but you know, there's selfish Democrats and there's, you know, very generous Republicans. So I'm not going to, I don't necessarily, I don't want to like claim, claim that line is clear, but what I will say is yeah. The school voucher program looks like a clear step to marginalize poor people and minorities more and more because it's their schools that are going to lose the majority of their funding. It's their schools that are going to get shut down and require them to get bused further to go get a similar education farther away, spend more time away from home and their family. It's harder on the parents. It's harder on everybody. And this is the system that we're in. And the this is the byproduct of what happens to when the when the working class and the poor lose their voice in politics. Like we've Greg Abbott is ⁓ is a is a gatekeeper. Greg Abbott is one of the wealthiest human beings now in Texas and a large part because his donor base is wealthier than he is. and they've made sure of it. And he caters to their needs, which has been what's constantly going on. It feels like almost everything that's happening around us is happening for the sake of billionaires. But when you actually look at the trickle down economics of it all, people like us that are on the, like we're fortunate because we're in a good enough school district that we're gonna be fine. And we're far enough along with our kids that, We're our last kids out of elementary school next year. So this is a fight that we're not going to have to fight for much longer anyway, you know? So, but it's one that I want to stay engaged in because dude, this impacts the livability of our state. And, you know, as somebody that's ⁓ proud to be in Texas and proud to be in Austin, like, yeah, I want to see this shit change and I want to see it change for the better. Elwyn: There's an episode of Seinfeld where George is waiting for a payphone and somebody jumps in front of him. turns around, somebody jumps in front of him and grabs the payphone. He just turns around and he screams, we're living in a society here. That's kind of it, right? Like we live in a society and there are times when your kids are in public schools. Yeah, we all benefit. You benefit more than others from the robust public education system. and you're more concerned than others when that education is not meeting its mark. Right? And there are times when your house is on fire and you need the fire department and I don't. Okay? That's just how this works. That's the inherent bargain. And there is privacy and there are private rights that exist there. Right? I don't think anybody should be able to come into my house and tell me how to live. Okay? But the minute that I send my kid off to public school, I am accepting that they are going to be taught by a ⁓ set of lessons that have been generally agreed upon by a much, much, much larger populace. And that's the choice I make then. I don't have the right to impose my will on what books my kids should read on anybody else, and nobody else has the right to impose that on my kids. This is a thing that's settled at the state and district level. That's what public school is. And school vouchers give people the out. to say, no, I just think that a private school is better. Right? That's all. It's nothing more than that. It's like, no, it's a lot more than that. OK? Because if you can afford $10,000 a year for private school, the chances are good you can afford $20,000. And if you can't afford $20,000, but you can afford $10,000, I'm sorry. You don't get $10,000 of my money to make up the gap. That's not fair. And that's what school vouchers do, and they do it under the guise of this shiny kernel of freedom called school choice. And it drives me bonkers. Derek Peterson: Yeah, it's in general and I'll end on this note is just that, you know, like there is a grain of all of this that is like, there's this feeling that, you know, uh, teachers and liberals tend to run the school system. Like that the majority of teachers that teach public school, maybe lean more liberal, which is maybe that's one of the reasons why Republicans feel like this is that they don't want their kids in Docker indoctrinated with, you know, positive LGBTQ values or some bullshit like that and it just reminds me I'm like man like if your value system or your belief system is weak enough that it can't be questioned and and ⁓ and those values deepened then you have a bigger fucking problem on your hands and so you know like your your kids should be exposed to a lot of different ideas and the the home base for all of that is the the communication as a parent that you have with your kids to dissect those things that they're taking in and figure out how teach them how to parcel them through their own values. Like the things that like, Hey, my kids come home from school and we have conversations all the time. And I'm like, Whoa, how'd you feel about that? Like that sounds like it was kind of messed up. How did you process that? And it's like, yeah, that's not a threat to our values. It's a situation that they heard something that might not be true or heard something that was different than what we believe. and they ask a question. I have to deal with that with my ex-wife. Like we're complete opposite ends of the spectrum on this stuff. And I have to deal with the bullshit of dissecting, you know, her views and values all the time against what we stand for. You know, there's a lot of people that had probably some fantastic, you know, teachers and mentors that taught, you know, equality amongst women and minorities and... Elwyn: you Derek Peterson: I'm sure a bunch of those boys that were in those classes went out and found Andrew Tate because he validated something deeper in them. you know, they're now part of the bro clan. They're complete pieces of shit. So there's people that grew up in racist households that end up finding somebody that teaches them like, ⁓ all people are equal. And they're like, man, this is what I was missing from my life. So look, the idea and concept that somebody else can influence your child. Elwyn: Yep. Derek Peterson: or that person beyond what you're capable of doing as a parent, that's something to me that is just ⁓ a horseshit concept. if it is, it's because somebody else has stronger values than maybe you do, and that's probably the bigger threat to who you are and what's going on. Elwyn: Well, I would say that you are going to be, your kids values are going be influenced by who they meet outside the house. That's called living in a society. That's life and that's a good thing. And I think, right, and I think, we didn't talk that much about this and it's not that big of a deal, but like schools, a healthy school system, a healthy school district is a community good. Friday night, liked football here. Derek Peterson: ⁓ correct. Yeah, that's the what you want. Elwyn: tracks that where all the kids youth sports, soccer, youth lacrosse. the school tracks here are packed on weekends with club sports going on. You know, all that stuff comes from, starts from a healthy funded school system. It's well beyond what goes on in the classroom. And when we start to, you know, kill that at the root by taking money away for the select few who don't like the pride flag or whatever. believe, know that everything I'm saying is full shit and they actually just want school choice. Okay, you're undermining a whole series of things that you probably use, right? When you're talking about Westlake football or when you're going to Austin FC football club, like the Westlake football club to watch your kid play, who do you think is paying for that field, guys? When you take money from it, you are taking money from that as well. ⁓ that schools root communities and when you uproot the money you're going to wind up making the community worse. Derek Peterson: Yep. Agreed. So all in all, think the voucher system is a bullshit scheme to take money from public schools for reasons that aren't fully aware to me. But if there's one thing I'm sure of, the whole system is going to benefit wealthy people far more than poor people and probably put a lot more pressure and make poor people's life much more difficult, which seems Elwyn: Proven fact. Derek Peterson: Yeah, which seems to be what's going on. ⁓ man, well, other than, you know, Greg Abbott and the entire Supreme Court, who are we telling to shut the fuck up today? Elwyn: Riley Gaines, shut the fuck up Riley Gaines Riley Gaines who 5th place finisher at the NCAA swimming championships a few years ago and one of the people that finished ahead of her was Leah Thomas who finished 4th I think or maybe podium I don't know who was a trans athlete and set Riley Gaines off on a ⁓ Derek Peterson: It's a good one. Elwyn: classic culture warrior social media influencer bullshit rise to fame as where she just rails against the injustice of trans athletes helps get Donald Trump elected pictures of her with Donald Trump put out recently had a baby and put out a post complaining about her medical bills showing all these medical bills from when she gave birth about how why is this so expensive and what does this even mean what is $270 for discharge day and what is $1,200 for this and just you know stunned at the current state of our health insurance system. Riley Gaines shut the fuck up or in this case don't pivot and fucking go all in on like universal health care. Use your following to actually expose this problem that you didn't think existed because of privilege. because you never had to experience it until now. Okay? You made your fame shitting on people. And when you shit on people, you elected a guy who doesn't, and a party who does not care at all about things like health insurance. Donald Trump has been two weeks away from a health insurance plan for 11 years. He doesn't even say it's a plan anymore in the debates last year. He said he had the concept of a plan. He cares zero about health insurance. Republicans care zero about health insurance. But when you, Riley Gaines, put your through your lot in with them because you hate trans people and you're pissed off that you finished fifth at the NCAA championships, you weren't making the Olympics anyway, okay, I'm sorry, ⁓ you elected a party that's going to preserve the system that now you complain about, okay? You elected the face-eating leopards and now you're mad that they're eating your face. Shut the fuck up about it. I just can't stand it. I can't stand it. If you have a platform, take the time to try and understand what is important to other people instead of just crapping on a tiny, tiny, tiny segment of the population because your feelings got fucking hurt. And if you do do that, don't sit there with your baby as a prop and fucking complain about, my God, I just learned that our health insurance system sucks. You know what? Every fucking mom of a trans kid whose life is worse, whose borderline is suicidal now because of you, Riley Gaines, stood there once with their one-year-old baby and worried about health insurance. Okay? And they didn't worry about it because their kid was trans. They worried about it because they're human who needs health insurance. You sat there and you took your life and shit on those people, and now you want some fucking sympathy for health insurance, for your health insurance bills? Fuck all the way off. And if you're not gonna shut the fuck up about it, speak up and change the system. Because I have no fucking bandwidth for assholes like that. Derek Peterson: Well said, fist bump it. Yeah, Riley, go ahead and hold racist, bigoted, misogynistic views. Can you be misogynistic and be a woman? I don't even know if that's possible. I mean, you can, but be an advocate for universal healthcare, god damn it. Yeah, you can be a total piece of shit, but at least. Elwyn: Boom. Probably, sure, why not. That's right. Do some good with your ill-gotten fame. Derek Peterson: You know, like you can also hold multiple views in life. You can be Democrat on universal healthcare and then be a piece of shit everywhere else. We're okay with that. Elwyn: Trans people are going to have access to that healthcare, so this is probably a long shot. Derek Peterson: She's gonna be like, my baby will die before I'll give healthcare to people I don't like. I'll have to sell my house and everything I own to pay these bills, but my hatred. Elwyn: Yeah, that's right. That's right. God damn it, if a trans athlete is gonna get healthcare. Not on my watch! Derek Peterson: Not on my watch. ⁓ Well, this was a good one today, Elwin. I liked it. I feel like there's probably a lot more we could have covered here, but we didn't, which means we may come back to this in the future. So. Elwyn: Yeah, I think it was good though. It was good that we talked to the Supreme Court stuff and all that shit. Derek Peterson: Yeah, we had a little extension at the beginning. I have an idea for next week. Christian nationalism. I feel like this one might be fun. The semi-Christian and Jewish guy talking about Christian nationalism, I think this will be great. Elwyn: I am more than happy to talk about Christian dispensationalism and all of that really good. ⁓ Derek Peterson: Look, as somebody who is a Christian and still goes to church from time to time, ⁓ as of recently, the last probably five years or so, I've probably read my Bible less than I did previously, but I would actually say my faith is probably deeper than it's ever been in something beyond this. ⁓ So. Elwyn: Do you know who Doug Wilson is? Derek Peterson: I do not. Elwyn: Pastor to the stars, pastor to Pete Hegseth. I don't know if he's actually, that's not true. He's not actually his pastor, but yeah, that guy. Derek Peterson: ⁓ that dude? Yeah, dude, that dude's a douche. That actually was the interview with that guy of him getting roasted on the bulwark that made me be like, hey, this is probably a good conversation for us to have. So. Elwyn: ⁓ have to listen. I've listened to him on Sam Harris. didn't know he was on the bulwark. Derek Peterson: Yeah, it was a he got roasted by somebody but well, we'll bring it up next week. You know, we have we got a week to do some research. So tune in next week, y'all to our Christian nationalism episode unless something else happens in between now and then that's more important. So see you all night. See you next week. Elwyn: That's right. Gonna be a heater. Later.