Latest / Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza / Ep.61 - Trump’s Ed Ban: Keri Ingraham’s School Choice Win | School Choice | Education Reform | Parent Empowerment

Transcript

Ep.61 - Trump’s Ed Ban: Keri Ingraham’s School Choice Win | School Choice | Education Reform | Parent Empowerment · Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza

0:00
Kerry what's it like to meet President Trump?
0:03
It was an incredible opportunity to be invited to the White House
0:06
at the end of March to see the executive signing ceremony to
0:10
dismantle the US Department of Education.
0:13
While I was there, I was able to meet with 9 different governors,
0:16
speak to them. Lots of allies were also invited
0:20
from around the country doing this work to advance education,
0:23
freedom in our country, get the bureaucracy out of the way.
0:27
Now, I didn't get to speak directly with the president that
0:29
day. He'd been on an international
0:31
call. He slipped in for an hour for
0:34
the presentation signing ceremony, but really appreciate
0:38
just the opportunity that he would invite me and recognize my
0:41
work. It was a really special day.
0:44
Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, So what?
0:45
What exactly did you do that led to this invitation?
0:50
Well, I've been working with many others around the country
0:53
to advocate that parents would be empowered to have a portion
0:58
of their child's education funding to allocate to the
1:01
school of their choice. So we call that Education
1:03
Freedom, school choice, but also advocating for the things that
1:09
are hindering effective education in our country.
1:13
And one of those things that has been an absolute disaster for
1:16
the last 40-5 years is this U.S. Department of Education.
1:20
It was created. That's so.
1:22
True. Yes, it was created by President
1:24
Jimmy Carter as a payback to the teacher unions who helped get
1:30
him elected, and it has not improved student learning, but
1:34
it has spent $3 trillion over the 45 years.
1:39
Many presidents have talked about downsizing it or getting
1:42
rid of it, but nobody has followed through until President
1:45
Trump, and so is there for that signing ceremony.
1:49
They are dismantling this thing. And while it will take the votes
1:52
in Congress to fully eliminate the department, they can
1:55
dismantle this line by line down to the ground, return education
1:59
to the state and get it closer to moms and dads having a say in
2:03
their child's education. What are the successes so far in
2:08
that dismantling process? Oh, so many positives have
2:12
already happened. You know, the Trump
2:14
administration came in extremely well prepared, prepared.
2:18
They had a game plan of what they wanted to do across policy
2:22
areas. And they brought in an elite
2:25
team of leaders, not just at the cabinet positions, but in those
2:30
Tier 2 tier, tier 3 leadership positions as well.
2:35
The best and the brightest have brought in, been brought in, and
2:38
education is no different. And so happened was immediately
2:44
cutting millions of dollars that were being spent on DI.
2:48
As one example, critical theory, they eliminated hundreds of
2:53
pages on the department's website that had to do with DEI
2:58
resources for schools. So.
3:00
How are we going to stop systemic racism if we get rid of
3:02
DEI? Things that have nothing to do
3:05
with reading, writing, math, reasoning, what our children
3:08
need in this country. And so getting these
3:11
distractions, getting these attacks on the basic identity of
3:16
children, whether it's radical gender ID, radical gender
3:19
ideology, critical race theory, or funneling this anti American
3:23
world view to them through American public education, those
3:27
things are being cut. They've also cut over half of
3:31
the bureaucrats that have worked in the department.
3:33
So they downsize over 4000 to a staff around 2000.
3:38
Wow, they've already done that. That's impressive.
3:40
Yes, just hit the ground running and they are making such great
3:45
strides, but they are far from finished in making a education
3:49
effective in our country and again, moving out those things
3:52
that have no place in schools and no place in classrooms.
3:56
When you're talking about having good people in positions not
3:58
just as the Secretary of Education, but other position,
4:02
is that is that the Project 2025 Heritage Foundation you're
4:05
referring to or where did this coming in with the good policy
4:08
come from? Yes, I can't speak specifically
4:11
to that. I was not involved with any of
4:14
that. My work is at Discovery
4:15
Institute as well as Independent Women's Forum.
4:19
But with Trump being in office prior, you know, he understood
4:23
how things work. And then he had four years when
4:25
he was not in office to prepare a team and to get people around
4:31
him who could help recruit those who are going to be the most
4:35
strategic and would be the most effective in these positions.
4:38
And so this team was built many days and months in advance and
4:43
even years in some cases to be so prepared to hit the ground
4:48
running. And we've seen that across all
4:50
policy areas. Yeah, I think him getting shot
4:53
really helped because now he's even more motivated.
4:57
Yes, You know, there's kind of a joke of people that work in
4:59
policy now is like, you just can't keep up with the man.
5:02
Like, we know that he doesn't sleep much, but what he's
5:05
accomplishing on all fronts is truly incredible.
5:09
And the American people are grateful.
5:12
You know, this is what they voted for.
5:13
They voted to get our country back to a place where freedom is
5:19
protected, preserved, as well as to have common sense.
5:24
And we see that across policy areas.
5:26
Education is no different. Yeah, it's nice to know that not
5:29
every election can be stolen. All right, I'm not going to get
5:34
into the weeds of that. Actually, last night I didn't
5:38
need a debate, so I will leave that there.
5:42
But in Oklahoma, they now are having kids look back at that
5:48
critically and not just be told, you know, that there was no
5:53
election interference or anything.
5:55
But the state through the draft leadership of their state
5:59
Superintendent is saying, hey, we want kids to think
6:02
critically. We want to present all of the
6:04
information, all of the facts. And so hats off to Oklahoma for
6:08
doing that and having the courage to say, like this
6:12
narrative of the media, you know, and what's been reported
6:17
is not necessarily true. And we want students to look in
6:21
at evidence, make decisions, be critical thinkers, things that
6:24
are going to pair them for life. And that's just the latest
6:27
example of how they're using something timely that has been
6:30
in the news in these children's lifetime as an opportunity for
6:34
kids to learn. So love it.
6:36
Yeah, I'm just curious on a, on a personal level, what's it like
6:39
walking into the Oval Office, seeing those governors, seeing
6:41
the president, just being there? Yeah, so this event was held in
6:45
the East Room instead of the Oval Office due to the amount of
6:48
press on hand as well as attendees.
6:51
The room is absolutely packed, the East Room and the White
6:54
House is the largest room. They convert it, you know,
6:58
sometimes looks like a ballroom, other times it's for executive
7:01
order signing ceremonies. They transfer on that room.
7:05
They use the front of the room, sometimes the side of the room.
7:07
It's really incredible what the events team at the White House
7:10
does. But it was absolutely amazing
7:13
just to walk in and have the opportunity for about 45 minutes
7:17
to an hour before the event started to just speak
7:19
individually with these 9 governors who are there who have
7:22
led in our country on education reform.
7:26
Just as meaningful conversations.
7:28
Some of the governors I've met before, some I hadn't.
7:31
Truly unforgettable and just such a day of celebration as we
7:35
kicked off the beginning of dismantling the US Department of
7:38
Education with the goal of making education in our country
7:43
truly back to the basics of core academics as well as returning
7:49
to high expectations. Getting out this notion of
7:52
equity, just dominating really what this notion of equity in
7:56
public schools is doing as it's dumbing down education.
7:59
And we can afford that for the future of our children, for
8:03
their opportunities. We've got to keep high
8:04
standards. And so getting rid of this
8:07
department is going to save money, cut bureaucracy, get it
8:10
back to the states. It's going to provide true
8:12
accountability and hopefully move us towards a place where
8:16
America returns to be competitive on a world stage
8:19
because we are not competitive with what our students are
8:22
learning right now internationally.
8:26
How would you say Linda McMahon is doing?
8:29
She's doing absolutely terrific. I was listening to an interview
8:33
that she gave recently, and she said when the president asked
8:37
her to serve in this role, her first response back, these were,
8:41
in her words, was, you know, I'm not an educator.
8:44
You know, although she had gone to school to get her teacher
8:46
certificate and she's been on a board of a university for 16
8:53
years and she'd been on the State Board of Education.
8:55
She said despite all of that, like, I'm not an educator.
8:58
And he said, I'm not looking for an educator.
9:01
I'm looking for a true leader with a track record of running
9:05
something efficiently and effective.
9:08
And he needed an executive who was the job down as done, as
9:13
well as a great communicator, somebody that's going to be
9:15
transparent. And she's just hit it out of the
9:18
park. Really proud of the work she's
9:19
doing as well as the team she's continuing to build.
9:23
Great. So in order to get to that that
9:27
amazing event it was you had to do a lot of work.
9:31
You're the director of the American Center for Transforming
9:33
Education. Can you tell us a little bit
9:35
about what the work specifically you've done to get to this this
9:39
spotlight? Yeah.
9:41
Well, let me jump back and give you a quick overview of what my
9:45
professional journeys look like, because it's been different than
9:48
most public policy experts. I did not study public policy at
9:53
the university and then go straight into this fresh out of
9:56
college, move to DC, which is a typical path.
10:01
When I graduated from undergrad, I moved to Little Rock, AR I was
10:05
from Seattle, and I was a teacher for eight years.
10:08
In the classroom. I was also a high school coach.
10:12
And then after those eight years, I went back to school to
10:16
get my masters in school leadership and then began as the
10:21
head of a small school. And so my first administration
10:24
job was actually head of school. So it was a big, big stair step,
10:28
learned a lot. And after doing that, went on
10:32
got my doctorate, did some research with that as I was
10:34
doing my dissertation and got really excited about the idea.
10:38
What if we deliver education more than this factory model, 1
10:42
size fits all, which isn't the best for all kids.
10:46
You know, every individual is unique.
10:48
And so I got excited about what if we deliver education through
10:52
virtual, through hybrid models, through university model.
10:56
And so started leading a school that was serving students.
11:00
Several were elite athletes where they needed high quality
11:04
morning, but they needed the flexibility to train with these
11:07
unique gifts that they had. We also had students who are
11:11
battling very serious illness in and out the hospital.
11:15
So online gave them that flexibility.
11:18
Other kids maybe with learning differences or with incredible
11:21
learning strength could work faster, work slower.
11:25
And so just, you know, being one of the front running online
11:29
academies in our country, we can do this thing different.
11:32
And then also through a hybrid program of some classes that
11:35
could take on campus. Maybe it was like a science
11:38
where they wanted the on campus lab portion for that hands on
11:41
learning, but their English class, they wanted to do that
11:44
online. So allowing for flexibility
11:47
customization, So did that for several years and then after
11:51
that, had this 20 years experience as a practitioner,
11:54
decided I want to move into public policy and help shape the
11:58
nation's education through bringing in these ideas that I
12:02
learned at a classroom level and as a coach, as an administrator,
12:06
and then on the non traditional delivery side.
12:08
So had a lot to learn when I came into public policy later in
12:12
my career doing that. But the last 4 1/2 years truly
12:16
been incredible. Advancing universal school
12:20
choice throughout our country is one of the primary things I work
12:23
on. So when I began this work in the
12:25
fall of 2020, less than 1% of kids in our nation had access to
12:31
a school choice program. 0 states had universal school
12:34
choice, meaning all the families had the opportunity for a school
12:37
choice program. No one had anything close.
12:39
We'll Fast forward over the last four years I've been doing this
12:42
work. So excited to share with you an
12:44
update that as of today, more than 50% of kids in our country
12:49
are eligible for a school choice program where their parents are
12:53
empowered, you know, this free market environment to select the
12:56
learning Ave. that's going to best serve their unique child.
13:01
And we have, so 16 states have universal school choice, and
13:04
then some states have partial school choice and that totals
13:07
over the 50%. But we're not stopping there.
13:10
There's so much more work to be done to make sure that every
13:14
child in America has the opportunity to be in the best
13:17
learning environment for them that's going to prepare them for
13:21
life. You know, education sets the
13:23
trajectory of somebody's life, and we want to make sure that
13:26
our kids have every opportunity possible to absolutely flourish.
13:31
So a little bit of history, but that's what I've been working
13:33
on. OK, so I had a guest on
13:37
recently, Alex Newman of Liberty Sentinel.
13:40
So he gave me a different perspective on this, on this
13:43
topic. Initially I was really, really
13:47
in favor of like the vouchers. And I mean my parents sent me to
13:51
private school, like great expense, very difficult for
13:54
them. And I thought like, hey,
13:56
anything, that anything that can get kids out of the public
14:00
schools into better schools is better.
14:03
Alex shared this perspective that you know what what could
14:06
happen is this allows for greater government control of
14:10
private schools because the schools then get dependent on
14:17
the parents being able to send their kids there because of the
14:20
vouchers. And then that could the
14:22
government could influence the criteria of the schools that are
14:27
receiving those vouchers. What what is your first of all,
14:30
does that objection make sense? And second of all, how would you
14:33
address that? First, I would address it by
14:36
saying that has been the strategy that the teacher unions
14:42
who have very much incentives to keep children locked in these
14:45
public schools have fed into, particularly the home school
14:50
community. And then in other states, the
14:52
Christian community, private school community, To create the
14:56
sense of fear that if parents are given any portion of that
15:01
state funding and the freedom to exit this public system, that
15:05
schools in turn all of a sudden are going to be highly regulated
15:09
and homeschool autonomy and freedom is going to be stripped
15:11
away. Well, I can tell you with my 20
15:14
years of working and private education, that government
15:19
overreach that is always going to be there.
15:21
There's always that reality. Look at COVID private schools to
15:26
not take the COVID relief money because they didn't want those
15:29
strings attached from the government.
15:31
Now where school choice is different is the money is not
15:34
going to those schools. It's going to moms and dads.
15:39
And we look at the states where homeschooling is under attack.
15:43
In Illinois, as one example, that was a major headline last
15:46
month of this very blue state that has almost no school
15:51
choice, is trying to regulate even homeschool to an outrageous
15:56
extent. Well, that's not happening in
15:59
the states where education freedom is flourishing.
16:02
And so I would just debunk that fear notion.
16:05
It comes from the teacher unions.
16:07
They've done an incredible job of spreading this fear.
16:10
The money goes to parents and the parents allocated.
16:13
And that is no more going to speed up government overreach
16:17
than the, you know, possibility of a government overreach that's
16:21
always been there. So I would say, you know, when
16:26
somebody's a homeschool family and they've benefited from
16:29
school choice or they're a private school family and
16:31
they've been able to do that without that funding, the last
16:35
thing they should do is have this mindset of school choice
16:38
for me, but not for you and try to block that out of fear.
16:43
You know that their autonomy is going to be under attack.
16:46
It's simply not true. But you know what?
16:50
A lack of empathy and care where something has been able to
16:52
transform their family, that they've been able to homeschool
16:55
their child. They see it's a tremendous
16:57
benefit or a private school, but they want to block that for
17:00
others. That's exactly what the
17:02
Democratic politicians who are so against school choice because
17:06
those teacher unions help get them elected.
17:08
That's their position while they send their children to these
17:11
elite private schools. So we need to cut that nonsense
17:15
and say it's moms and dads who need to be empowered forward
17:18
with full flexibility to take a portion of that child's
17:22
education funding and allocated accordingly.
17:26
You've really thought about this and I haven't, but which way?
17:30
It makes me want to understand a little bit better.
17:31
So if the government did want to overreach and use the voucher
17:36
system as a way to manipulate education, what how would they
17:39
do that, given that the money's going to the parents and not to
17:42
the school? So that's a great question for
17:45
those who are spreading that fear.
17:47
You know, I would ask them that question and say, you know,
17:50
you're touting that this is going to, you know, education
17:53
freedom, school choice is going to result in this government
17:56
overreach. Well, show us where that's
17:58
happening in these states that are passing robust school
18:02
choice. You know, show us where is that
18:05
happening? It's actually happening in the
18:07
states where school choice is being blocked, where those in
18:11
political power have the opportunity not only to block
18:14
school choice, but to over regulate the home school and
18:17
private school environment. So.
18:19
Yeah, I guess that argument actually makes sense because if
18:22
it was such a great tool to for the government to manipulate
18:26
education, then seems like the most liberal states would be the
18:29
ones to pass it. Absolutely.
18:32
Because again, it's those teacher unions who get those
18:36
progressive policy makers and governors elected.
18:41
You know, they take the teacher dues and then they funnel it to
18:45
these political leaders. And then in turn, you know,
18:49
there's this kind of you give the money, you get a favor back.
18:53
They protect that public school monopoly.
18:55
So they help get them elected. And they know that that payback
18:58
is going to be to block school choice to keep this captive
19:01
audience. Because when they keep more
19:03
students, they keep more teachers.
19:05
More teachers pay higher amount of dues, and that keeps the
19:07
union's coffers full of funds. And so it has nothing to do with
19:12
the best interests of children or they're learning, but it's
19:16
all about adults and power and control.
19:19
We've got to break that. And our country was founded on
19:23
free market principles. We've got to bring that to
19:26
education. What we're going to see not only
19:29
is allowing parents to exit the system, but the byproducts of a
19:32
free market are going to be increasing quality, driving down
19:37
costs, spurring innovation. What they always do and
19:40
education is absolutely desperate for all three of those
19:43
things to happen. Do you know some of these
19:46
teachers unions leaders and what motivates them?
19:49
I'm just like, do they? Do they actually care about the
19:51
children and their well-being and their education?
19:55
That's such a great question. I mean, look no farther than
19:57
Randi Weingartner. You know, she's pretty
19:59
notorious. She's in the news a lot.
20:02
She's the head of the second largest teacher union in our
20:04
country, the American Federation for Teachers.
20:08
There's. Data that shows that she worked
20:11
during COVID to specifically influence the CDC reopening of
20:18
schools. And she continued to block that
20:22
completely. Not in the best interest of
20:24
children. And now you know who's the
20:26
biggest one against closing the Department of Education?
20:30
Randi Weingartner. In her own words, she's quote
20:32
spitting mad over everything that's happening to get
20:36
education back to the states, get education more accountable,
20:40
to get rid of bureaucracy. And so it's a jobs program.
20:44
You know, her job is to have more members, to have more
20:48
political power. Just as one other example,
20:52
during Covic, the LA Unified School District, their teacher
20:56
unions held kids out of returning to school for multiple
21:01
school years. I mean, private schools returned
21:03
in full in person across our country by the fall of 2020.
21:07
They proved it was safe. But in LA, they said we're not
21:10
going to bring children back these teacher unions until our
21:14
political demands were met. And those included defunding the
21:17
police, a moratorium on charter schools, so not even giving
21:22
parents choice within the public system and Medicare for all.
21:27
Nothing that had to do with the education of children.
21:30
But that's how they leverage that power and that control.
21:33
It's very, very dysfunctional and it's harming education for
21:38
kids. That's such a perversion of
21:40
justice. The people who should be looking
21:41
out for the kids while being the most, at least when it comes to
21:44
education, are actively destroying it.
21:48
Yes, there was no reason that schools needed to stay closed.
21:51
It spanned 3 different school years in in our country because
21:57
of that teacher union control. And so parents saw through those
22:00
remote Zoom sessions what was being peddled to their children
22:04
at the expense of quality academics.
22:07
And many parents left. There was this mass exodus,
22:11
those who were able to homeschool, those who were able
22:13
to afford private school. There was an explosion of micro
22:17
schools popping up, which are just small schools.
22:21
And we see that as a result, the general public as well as
22:26
parents have grown in their huge supportive school choice across
22:31
our country. And with the voters, that
22:33
support is across the aisle, the political aisle.
22:37
Now, when it comes to those political leaders, their
22:41
relationship of who gets them elected influences their
22:45
decisions. And like I said, many times
22:47
they're sending their own children to these elite private
22:49
schools, but they will block it because they know who, you know,
22:54
funds their campaigns. OK, so let me, let me take this
22:57
voucher idea a step further, because so another criticism is
23:01
that it, it's actually not, how do I say this?
23:06
I, I think a popular way of saying it is it's not
23:09
conservative enough that it's like the parents are in a
23:12
situation of begging the government for their own money
23:16
back, right. So when the wouldn't the more
23:21
natural thing be, hey, the parents, they they're not
23:26
compelled to pay for public education to begin with and they
23:30
can just do whatever they want. It's not a voucher.
23:31
It's just they just do whatever they want for the best the
23:34
dependent of their kids. Well, for many parents, you
23:39
know, they don't have the feasibility to have a stay at
23:42
home parent to make homeschool a reality or a grandparent or
23:45
somebody who can be there, whether it's a single parent to
23:48
working parent household and others simply can't afford
23:53
astronomical amount of tuition, you know, per year in our
23:57
country. And so these families are
24:01
already paying taxes for their child's education.
24:04
That that's what I'm saying is. So we've got.
24:06
It why are they being forced to pay those taxes to begin with?
24:11
That's a question for Uncle Sam, so hopefully Doge is going to
24:14
look at that. But in the interim, you know,
24:18
that's a like down the road, two node 3 point O in the interim,
24:25
when children are not learning these basics, we need an escape.
24:30
We need to allow them quickly to get out because the life of a
24:32
child, you know, there's certain things that happen each year of
24:36
their life developmentally. And if they miss those windows,
24:41
you know, we saw this during COVID, they don't catch up or
24:45
they're not able to grasp something when they've missed
24:47
years of the time that they would develop, whether it's, you
24:50
know, speaking or learning sounds different things.
24:54
And so we've got to get them out quickly.
24:57
And the opportunity to do that is to empower parents with a
25:00
portion of that funding to select an alternative because
25:04
what we saw as our NAEP scores, it's the National Assessment of
25:07
Education Progress exam scores, it's known as the Nation's
25:10
report card. Those came out in January this
25:13
year. 7 out of 10 children in public schools in our country
25:18
are not learning to read on grade level or do math on grade
25:21
level. 7 out of 10, that's a death sentence to their future.
25:26
You know, parents have to hope that their child's going to be 3
25:29
out of 10 children at school. That's learning.
25:31
That is absolutely unacceptable and parents have to have a way
25:36
out. That is so crazy.
25:39
And those standards to begin with are are not that high.
25:42
That is low, in fact. Continued to be dumbed down over
25:45
the years, especially through COVID.
25:47
You know, this idea that, well, we know we weren't teaching
25:50
kids, so we can't really test kids.
25:52
That's going to look bad on us. And so we've seen, like, great
25:54
inflation, standardized tests be removed.
25:57
And again, you know, kids aren't learning and these tests have
26:01
been dumbed down. So even with that data, you
26:05
know, as shocking as it is, if the standard was where it should
26:08
be, those numbers would be even higher of kids that are just not
26:12
learning the basics. Yeah, it makes me wonder who
26:16
wants the populace of the US to be uneducated and therefore
26:22
easier to control. I mean, this has got to be
26:26
intentional on some level. But definitely I would agree
26:31
because, you know, we can look back even in the Congressional
26:35
Record dating back decades, where it was said on record, if
26:42
the teacher unions control education and fail to provide,
26:46
you know, high quality education, that we're going to
26:49
be able to have greater government control in our
26:51
country and we'll be able to indoctrinate kids.
26:54
That's like a quote. Oh my gosh.
26:56
That was in there in the record. I mean, it was a strategic
26:59
effort to say, you know, an uneducated electorate is going
27:04
to allow for greater government control.
27:07
And it is so corrupt. That is not the principle that
27:10
our country was founded on. And we've got to get back to
27:15
freedom, especially when it comes to education.
27:19
How are we going to destroy the teachers unions?
27:23
I don't know if destroy is the right word for that, but to take
27:27
some of that power and control, the fastest way to do that, as
27:31
well as to improve public schools, is to allow families to
27:36
exit because money talks and the principles of free market.
27:41
So when parents can exit and have an alternative, that's
27:45
going to put pressure market forces, a competition on those
27:49
public schools to improve and get out these non academic
27:52
priorities that are taking up astronomical amounts of time
27:55
during the school day at the expense of the learning the kids
27:59
need to learn. And so, you know, you can't just
28:01
beat down the teacher unions doors and tell them, you know,
28:04
here's what you've got to do. Some states, you know, you can't
28:07
pass all this legislation, but you've got to allow families to
28:10
exit and let the free markets take away their power as people
28:15
leave and their true competition in K12 education.
28:20
Well, I'm glad that someone's doing this.
28:21
What else do you want to share with us, Doctor Kerry?
28:25
I would just say there's so much to be hopeful about in our
28:28
country. So as I said, we've gone from
28:30
zero states having universal school choice over the last four
28:33
years to 16 as of today. More on the way this year, this
28:38
legislative session, as well as in coming years.
28:41
And as we continue just state by state to do this work, our
28:46
country's going to benefit from individual children, their
28:50
families, their communities, our larger society, our American
28:54
culture, and the competitiveness of our country on a world stage.
28:58
All of the byproducts are beneficial to us.
29:01
Improving education and the status quo is not working.
29:05
We've got to try something else. And really grateful for the
29:08
leadership, these governors who are doing the work to advance
29:12
school choice in their states as well as coming from the White
29:15
House to say, you know, we cannot continue course.
29:19
This is absolutely detrimental to these individual children
29:22
future of our country as well. And so getting rid of things
29:25
like the US Department of Education and bringing in
29:29
innovation to education. There's recently an executive
29:33
order talking about AI that's got to be a part of our kids
29:36
education. They need to know what it is,
29:38
but why not leverage this technology that can individually
29:43
help students learn, whether it's 101 tutoring or
29:46
differentiating instruction to where that learner is.
29:50
You know, we can't continue this factory model system where kids
29:52
sit in rows and they do worksheets.
29:54
You know, whether those worksheets are on a computer or
29:57
print out. It's still just low level
29:59
learning. And it's assuming that all kids
30:01
come in with the same interests, abilities, background knowledge,
30:04
skills, knowledge. It's just not true.
30:07
Like they're all unique. And so leveraging things like
30:10
artificial intelligence, making education more customized,
30:15
bringing in innovation, we've got to do that because we're
30:18
preparing them not for today's world, but for the world of
30:22
tomorrow that they're going to enter.
30:23
And it's only becoming, you know, more and more technology
30:27
advanced. I think I've misunderstood the
30:30
statistic the first time you said it.
30:31
So you said in the last four years went from zero states
30:36
having full school choice to 16? Yes, and that's translated
30:41
that's amazing. All those you know, those 16
30:44
states that have full school choice for all families being
30:47
eligible plus states that have partial school choice programs,
30:51
those have grown tremendously since COVID as well.
30:56
You know the state maybe wasn't able to pass the full universal,
30:58
but they were able to increase a program or start a new program.
31:02
And so you take those numbers and we were in 2022, less than
31:08
1% of kids in our country that had access to school choice
31:12
unless their parents have the feasibility to home school or
31:14
thousands of dollars a year for tuition.
31:17
And now we're at over 50% of kids.
31:19
But again, like we're not stopping till every single
31:22
family in our country has that freedom.
31:25
That's that's really encouraging.
31:27
And thank you for your role in this.
31:30
Yeah, I really do feel strongly about it.
31:32
And it it makes life so much easier for these parents and
31:35
gives these kids a greater opportunity.
31:36
So thank you, Gary. Such a joy to do this work and
31:40
colleagues around the country that are doing this work.
31:43
It's an army of us and we're continuing to grow that army and
31:47
see such success, which is bringing more success, you know,
31:50
because when one state passes universal school choice and it
31:54
borders a state that doesn't have school choice.
31:57
For example, Idaho passed universal school choice this
32:00
year. Well, Washington and Oregon
32:02
border Idaho and they have 0 school choice for families
32:07
outside of that public system. And so it's very attractive to
32:12
families. You know, we saw during COVID
32:14
people move to pro freedom states, especially when it comes
32:18
to the education of our children.
32:20
So we're going to see families relocate.
32:23
This comes at the perfect time where more and more workers have
32:27
job flexibility. You know, they don't necessarily
32:29
have to go into a physical office so they can relocate.
32:34
And so as families move, that's going to put pressure then on
32:38
those states that have been so hostile to school choice.
32:42
As I see their workforce leave, they see companies leave because
32:46
of the regulation and because of lack of school choice.
32:49
And so in due time, I truly believe we're going to have
32:53
universal school choice in all states in our country.
32:55
It's going to take a while, especially for those two states.
32:58
I didn't mention on the West Coast, Washington, Oregon,
33:01
California, those might be the last three states, but we're
33:04
going to continue course. And as this grows, it's going to
33:08
put pressure on those purple States and those blue states in
33:12
due time to get the job done and empower parents.
33:15
Let's keep fighting. Absolutely.
33:19
Awesome.