Corey DeAngelis, Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children, joins the Ben Domenech Podcast to discuss Randi Weingarten’s troublesome Capitol Hill testimony and the battle for school choice. Corey’s new book, Mediocrity: 40 Ways Government Schools are Failing Today’s Students, is available now. #foxnews

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So I I wanted to ask you about a bunch Of different things that are going on But first off I want to just sort of Congratulate you because it seems that You have been able to Force a lot of different legislatures Across the country To Grapple with the school choice issue In ways that they have never been able To really do before Why is that what is the reason that You've been able to have success with This momentum post pandemic versus all The different movements that have come Before that have argued for school Choice but not had that kind of Legislative reaction well Ben you're Giving me too much credit we really need To give the real credit to Randy Weingarten and the teachers unions for Overplaying their hand and Awakening a Sleeping giant parents who just want More of a say in their kids education uh Look families who thought that their Kids were in great Public Schools when Because they were a rated by the state Maybe their kids had good scores on Their math and reading test scores Started to see another dimension of School quality that's arguably more Important which is whether the school's Curriculum aligns with their values but As far as things that I've done look I've changed the language I think

Language is really important when it Comes to policy debates and instead of Saying school choice I've really Reframed it in terms of funding students As opposed to systems funding students Not systems that puts the other side on Defense right away if you want to argue With me you're all of a sudden this Weird predicament where you're trying to Argue to fund the system or the Buildings and not the students it really Shows where their priorities lie and it Allows me to talk about analogies in Terms of things like food stamps where We fund people directly and families can Take that money to any private provider That works for them same thing with Higher education Pell Grants same thing With Pre-K programs the Money Follows The decision of the family and the left Supports all these things when you when It comes to every other industry and Every other level of education but only When it comes to K-12 education do they Get all up in arms about it and it's all Because of the influence of the teachers Unions and and special interest politics But things have really changed because For far too long in K-12 education the Only special interests represented the Employees the adults in the system but Now the kids have a union of their own Thankfully and they're called parents Uh talk to me a little bit about what

Randy Weingarten has been engaged in Over the last several months essentially Trying to sell America a revisionist Version of history about what the Teachers unions were doing during the Pandemic I mean it's non-stop gaslighting from Randy Weingarten most recently she Testified before Congress trying to Repeat the lie that they were somehow Pushing to reopen schools all the way Since April of 2020 it's like okay if That was actually true then why weren't The schools open why were your local Affiliates tweeting that it was racist And sexist to reopen schools why were Your board members from the Chicago Teachers Union vacationing in Puerto Rico in person well then saying that They were too scared to go back to work In person I mean it was so much non-stop Hypocrisy nobody's falling for it Twitter isn't even falling for it either Randy's been changing her pin tweet Every day for three days in a row now Trying to say actually you know the Republicans are wrong I actually I Thought I did my very best to reopen the Schools while the community notes have Been slapped on her tweets three days in A row now thank goodness for Elon Musk And the fact Checkers holding Randy Weingarten accountable but look her her Union lobbied the CDC to make it more

Difficult school three open schools as We saw in the hearing she had the direct Phone number of Rochelle Lewinsky the CDC director I mean the CDC wasn't Following the science they were Following the political science you had Randy's Union even threatening safety Strikes and also calling Trump's plan to Reopen schools callous Reckless and Cruel I mean it was no one's falling for This BS particularly parents who saw What happened who had to deal with the Struggles for for uh over a year I mean And it's largely to do with the the Influence of the unions why were the Private schools open why were private Businesses open well it's because they Didn't have the unions making it as Difficult as possible uh to reopen Private businesses knew that they that Their customers could vote with their Feet if we had school choice we wouldn't Have had this mess with the with the K-12 system So uh talk to me a little bit about the Uh push back to the degree that there is Uh from critics that don't feel that School choice is necessarily the right Answer and I'm particularly interested Because I've noticed this uh happen Online a bit with your own uh Twitter Feed that there are some critics who are On the right including like Ann Coulter Asked me at the you know the other uh

Dinner the other day uh you know sort of Why why are you so in favor of school Choice and she was sort of saying that Like oh no this is something that's Justified based on like property values And stuff like that What are the Critics on on either side Kind of really saying against your Argument given that you know it seems on The face to be such a justifiable point In terms of the ability of people to you Know have the money follow the student Have them go into uh the school Environment where it makes the most Sense uh you know have them be able to Make this market-based choice is it just Kind of a an influence based on uh you Know kind of a a leftist uh frame of the Way that we should View schools what Else is going on here I mean look the Major enemies in the school choice Debate are the left I mean you don't Hear Republican politicians saying that They voted against the school choice Bill because of fear-mongering arguments From the right I mean you hear them Saying Oh no I I don't want to defund my Public schools we gotta you hear them Repeating the leftist talking points It's usually the Rhinos who are voting Against school choice and joining all The Democrats and doing so but we are Having a lot of victory in in most of The red states where we have uh activity

I mean in the last two years alone we've Had six states go all in with Republican Trifectas on school choice but look the Leftist argument is this it's you know Um this will defund our public schools And that just really goes to show you Where their priorities lie they they are Focused on the institutions as opposed To the students my main response is the Money doesn't belong to the government Schools the money doesn't belong to the Private schools either to be clear the Money is meant for educating the child Not for propping up and protecting a Particular institution whether it's Public or private we should fund the Student not the system and so that I Mean it and we've seen this we've seen The leftists argue that we've got to Keep secrets from parents that parents Aren't smart enough to choose their School it's a total socialist uh Argument that that the kids belong to These government institutions they have It completely backwards but the main Argument you'll hear from the right is a Fear monitoring argument where they'll Say that you know this will lead to Government intrusion or maybe this is Not the right Paul well first of all They don't provide with the with the Money comes increased government Observation or something like that over Christian schools and private schools

And the like we've had private school Choice for about over three decades now In the country the burden of proof Should be on them making these Fear-mongering claims to show me where This has happened show me where a Private school choice program has ever Forced you to take the funding it hasn't And that's not going to happen today if A bill was introduced to do so I would Fight against it if it forced you to to Take the money but look this is the Textbook definition of making perfect The enemy of the good and what we have Now is far from perfect nine out of 10 Kids are stuck in government schools Without any exit options and so we might As well give them the choice to accept The funding or not to take it to private Alternatives and the government can Already regulate private and home Education today and they have over time Looking 1922 in Oregon they outlawed Private education altogether and Thankfully three years later the Supreme Court in peers Versus Society of sisters Struck down that bigoted law and where The majority of the courts uh famously Said that the child is not the mere Creature of the state and was that Because of a school choice program no It's because they had authoritarians in Government that wanted to control other People's kids you have this in New York

City right now you have uh socialists From the left coming after the Yeshiva Schools the Jewish schools because they Don't get the right test scores or Whatever their arguments are they're not Substantially equivalent to the public Schools well the families and the Yeshivas are saying well we don't want To be substantially equivalent to the Public schools and is that because they Have a private school choice program no It's because they have authoritarians And positions of power and school choice Cuts against the likelihood of Government overreach into the private Sector in at least three ways one you Have fewer people in government schools Being indoctrinated to like big Government policies who will probably Vote to regulate private home education Without without an exit option two School choice allows you to have more People exercising private and home Education which means a bigger tent a Broader coalition to push back against Any calls for future regulations and Then three if more people are using Private and home education the concept Becomes more mainstream it's not some Icky thing that a few people are doing In the corner so the rest of society Should be less likely to call for for Regulation and private private home Education if you have school choice and

Look I mean Randy Weingarten has Repeated this fear-mongering argument is It because she's a small limited Government you know free marketeer no She's a big government socialist she Just repeats this talking point because She knows if it gains traction she'll be Able to keep her gravy training going in Blue States and in red States so she's Just repeating this argument if you're On Randy Weingarten side and not my side You're probably on the wrong side yeah I'm I'm 100 there with you Corey