Ep 1155 ｜ Debunking the Biggest School Choice Lies ｜ Guest： Ron Simmons
Episode Stats
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Summary
My dad Ron Simmons joins me to talk about the continued resolution to keep the government funded through September 30th, the impact of the shutdown, and the truth about school choice. We also talk about my mom's recovery from back surgery and how she is doing.
Transcript
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What's going on with the economy? Is it time to panic? Also, will Republicans come together
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and be able to pass a continued resolution to keep the government open? And what is the
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truth about school choice? We've got my dad, Ron Simmons, here to break it all down for
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so
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far. Okay, before we get into the interview with my dad, which was recorded yesterday,
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I want to make sure to give an update on something we talked about, the continued resolution,
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which my dad will break down today, give some background on where the GOP is disagreeing.
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That ended up passing yesterday afternoon. Along party lines, mostly, there was one Democrat
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who voted yes on the measure, and there was one Republican, Thomas Massey, whom we will
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discuss today, who voted no. The legislation will fund the government if it passes the Senate
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through September 30th. So we're avoiding that end of week government shutdown. So that is
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at the end of the fiscal year, September 30th. So it boosts funds for defense programs, imposes
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cuts to non-defense spending. Current funding expires on 11.59 p.m. on Friday. So the government
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will continue to be funded. We will talk about the good and the bad and the ugly of that in
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just a minute with my dad. But first, let me tell you about Share the Arrows, y'all. I am
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so excited. October 11th, Dallas, Texas. This is a women's conference. I think unlike any other
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women's conference, I mean, this is clear, hard-hitting, deep theological teaching that
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will arm you, equip you with truths from the Word of God to combat the craziness and the
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chaos of our culture and to raise your children and courage and boldness in the Lord. One of
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my favorite reviews from last year, I got a message after the conference concluded that said,
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I walked out of there with zero fear of man. And that is my hope for every attendee.
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The worship will again be led by Francesca Batticelli, Grammy Award winning artist. We have
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an amazing lineup of speakers that we will be announcing very soon, but go ahead and get your
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tickets. We are on pace to sell a lot more tickets than we did last year already, which is just
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incredible, which means it is very likely that this stadium will fill up. And once we fill up,
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that's it, there are no more extra seats. Go ahead, get your tickets now, bring a friend,
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bring family members, bring your small group, your women's ministry, your co-workers, get your
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flights, get your hotels, just get all the logistics nailed down and start the countdown to Share the
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Arrows 2025, Dallas, Texas, October 11th. Go to sharethearrows.com. All right, without further
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ado, here's my dad. Dad, welcome back. It's been a while. It has been. It's good to be back. I'm glad
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you and I've got both got blue on today. I like that. We're matching our blues. Okay. A lot of people
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have been praying for you. You had surgery a month ago, which is why you haven't been on the couch in
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a while. Can you give everyone an update on how you're doing? Sure. Yeah. It's actually been four
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weeks right now. Today. Yeah. So, but things are progressing along as they should be. You know,
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it's a, it's not a, it wasn't a minor surgery. It was a reasonably major surgery, but doing well,
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doing well and just probably a couple of weeks more. So I'm back 100% being able to play golf is
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the way I define a hundred percent by the way. So I've been missing that, but you know, I've enjoyed
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actually having some downtime being, being at home. Mom's done a great job. Yes. She has,
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although that's not something she probably enjoyed, which I don't blame it. She's done a
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great job and I appreciate everybody praying for it. It really does mean a lot. It's amazing. You
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know, I haven't had too many physical setbacks in my life. So not, you know, experiencing people
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praying for you really is important. I've really felt that. So thank you. And it makes you appreciate
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the times when you aren't stuck in bed, when you can drive, when you can play golf, whenever you feel
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that kind of pain, whenever I've, you know, given birth afterwards, I'm like, wow, I have
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so much sympathy now for people who have chronic pain and who are in the hospital a lot, who have
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to get surgeries a lot. It just gives you another level of compassion and it makes you really want
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to pray for the relief of other people because you felt it yourself. You can empathize a whole lot
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easier with that. That's for sure. Yes, absolutely. Well, I'm so glad that you're back. We've got a lot
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to talk about. Let's first talk about the stock market because it's causing anxiety. Of course,
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you've got people on the left taking advantage of what's going on there, looking at the markets and
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saying, see, he's causing turmoil. And then you've got other people saying, slow your roll. Things are
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going to be fine. So tell us what is going on here. And let's start really, really fundamental.
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When people say, oh, the stock market is crashing, it's not doing well. What are they talking about?
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Well, what they're generally talking about, the stock market is really made up of three,
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what we call indexes. And these are just groups of companies that represent a broader industry,
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like the Dow Jones Industrial is 30 kind of the core companies in the United States. Things like AT&T,
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Exxon, those would be part of the industrial complex. Okay. Then there's the NASDAQ, okay,
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which is a different whole stock market exchange where you can buy and sell stocks,
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but that's primarily tech stocks. That's more tech heavy. All right. And so when AI stocks go up and
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down or meta goes up and down or alphabet goes up and down, that's going to be influenced a lot in
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that. And then there's the S&P 500, which is the one I follow the most. S&P 500 is 500, the 500
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largest public companies in the United States. And that is a very good barometer of how the economy is
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going at that particular time. Now, remember, stock markets overreact to news on the good side and on
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the bad side. So what happens is, is when these tariffs were announced and then the other countries
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like Canada, we're going to tariff you back. And, you know, well, it's kind of like, no, no, I'm going to do this
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to you. No, I'm going to do that to you. That people get panicked. Okay. And it's a psychological
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thing more than anything. The fundamentals of Exxon or Apple or AT&T, or those didn't change from one
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day to the next. Okay. They don't change like that. The fundamentals and most investors should
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just do nothing. That's my recommendation. Do nothing. If you try to sell into this market,
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you're going to get whipsawed and it's not going to work out. Whipsawed means what you're trying to do
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is you're trying to sell because it's gone down and then you won't, then you'll, then it starts going
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back up and you're going to end up buying, you know, selling low and buying high. And that's a
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recipe for disaster. You just have to be calm. In fact, what I tell people, look, if any money that
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you need within the next 12 months, no matter what 12 months you're looking at, it should never be
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invested in the stock market. If you're going to have to use that money, stock market should be
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longer term investments. And it's the best return you can get over a long term, over any 10 year
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period. The S&P 500 has been the best performing investments for the last 75 to 80 years. So you
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just stay calm in that. So some people may not know who maybe haven't read your book yet, or haven't
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been listening to you since you first started coming on, but you ran a successful, very successful
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investment firm for a long time. And it's not like you grew up learning about the stock markets,
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or that's not really something that was talked about on your kitchen table. How did you learn
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about all of this? How did you get to this point of being able to say, okay, I've seen enough to where
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I know that right now I have to remain calm and not act rashly?
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Yeah. Well, the main thing that I, the way I learned that is having to educate myself through
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reading different books, reading people that were, I would say, when I say mentors of mine,
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they weren't personal mentors, but they were mentors of people I read. And these were long-term,
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what I would call free market economists, people like a Peter Lynch or a Milton Friedman, those types
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of people, which were economists that looked at the big picture of how economies work. And then look at
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history. Then the final thing though, was just experience over time. I, I've seen the, you know,
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when we first started our investment company, this is funny. The, we first started our investment
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company, probably three weeks after, uh, that we started it, the market went down almost 20%.
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Now the bet that gave us the best selling line ever. We didn't have any clients at the time. So when I
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would start to meet with potential clients and say, you know what? We didn't have any money in
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the market at that time. Now, the reason we didn't is because we didn't have any clients. Right.
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But I mean, and what, but what I saw in that it bounced back the next year. And this is what
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happened. You remember 2022, not that long ago, the stock market yesterday or Monday fell more than
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it's fallen since 2022. And 2022 was a tough year for the market, but 2023 was a great year for the
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market and 2024. What happens is people sell thinking, okay, I'm going to just wait it out
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right here, but they don't know when to get back in and they wait too late to get back in. And
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therefore, again, they've sold low and they're buying back in high. And you just don't want to
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do that. The best thing is if you're invested, stay invested. Okay. If you're not invested,
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I wait to invest when I see the market start turning the corner. Cause it may go down a little bit
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more. Okay. When it starts turning the corner and you have two or three days in a row where you've
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got, you know, pretty good, solid gains and you want to get, and you want to start investing,
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it's okay to do that. If you're in your 401k plan or whatever, just keep doing what you're doing.
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Okay. Quick pause for our first sponsor for the day. And that is We Heart Nutrition. So Chief
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So we talked about tariffs last time and what they actually mean. We don't have to rehash all of that.
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People can go back, listen to, or watch that episode that we did. But there are going to be some
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people saying, see, this is the result of a trade war. And because of this, we're going to be
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worse off than we were before. Is this the result of tariffs? What's going on there?
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Well, none of those tariffs have actually gone into effect and hurt anything yet, right? Because so
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it's psychological. People worry about that. Now, what will happen in that?
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I thought the tariffs on Mexico and Canada had gone into place.
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Yeah, but see, he paused some of those, okay? He paused most of those that make any difference.
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And remember, 99% of the goods from Mexico and the U.S. and Canada, between those three,
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those are tariff-free because of the MCA, whatever it is that we signed last time he was there.
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Yeah. So it's a small number of them. And again, the amount that we buy from them as a percentage
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of our economy, we talked about this one time, is much smaller than the amount they buy from us as
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a percentage of their economy. And we're tariffed. Like, if we were to try to import maple syrup to
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Canada, that would be tariffed because they're protecting their industry. That's right. But
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we're going to buy, we're going to, what we buy from them is a larger percentage of their economy.
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So, and what they sell to us is a large percent as well. So what, if we tariff what they're doing,
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it's going to hurt them more than what we're buying.
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Right. On Monday, China started imposing tariffs on U.S. imports such as chicken, wheat,
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Well, you know, I mean, China is a different story because they are actually an enemy in a lot of
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ways, right? Yeah. Culturally, government-wise, all that type of stuff. That can have an effect on us.
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But remember, we also, when we're talking about chickens, they're really talking about eggs more
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than anything else. Okay. But we do a lot of that ourselves. So I'm not overly concerned about that.
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We still produce most of the wheat that countries eat around the world. Again, it's going to have a
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short-term effect, but it's not going to be a long-term effect. My prediction is, is that the
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stock market will be higher at the end of the year than it is today. Okay. And even Trump is saying,
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okay, there's going to be a period of transition here as we're imposing these tariffs. Do you agree
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with that? Oh yeah. I think it could be. How long that'll last, it could last a few months or what
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have you. But I think there'll be, when we say transition, it's because nobody has ever taken
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this tough of a stance, at least in our lifetime, that we remember. We've always been much more
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globalist than we are today. And all he's trying to do is reset the scale because it's gotten way out
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of whack and that the trade deficit during the Biden administration I read the other day was
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over a trillion dollars, meaning that we bought more from other countries by a trillion dollars
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than they bought from us. All right. And that's not good for our manufacturers, our farmers and
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whatever. We need to be sold. We need to sell to the world. We're only 300 million people. There's six
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or 7 billion people in the world. Right. So why do we have a trillion dollar trade deficit? It
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shouldn't be that way. And he's trying to make it better for American industry. What he's saying
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is reciprocal. Look, if you don't tariff us, we're not going to tariff you. But if you tariff us,
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we're going to tariff you. This idiot up in Ottawa or whatever that guy's name is,
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that's putting the tariffs on the electricity going down to Minnesota, Michigan, whatever.
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Some of our northern states buy electricity from Canada. And he's put a 25% tariff on that.
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That guy is going to end up losing that whole fight. I promise you that. Right. And he's going
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to lose it because somebody else in the government is going to call him and say, hey, buddy, because
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he's not head of Canada. He's head of this province. Right. Yeah. So the way that this makes
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it reciprocal and makes it better for American industry, if a product that we're getting from
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China or Canada or Mexico is tariffed, that makes the price go up for us. People say a tariff is the
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tax on the consumer. So to make up for that tariff, they're going to charge more and we're going to pay
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more. Canadian maple syrup. And so how that helps American industry is that American products will end
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up being cheaper than the imported goods because the imported goods have a tariff. And so that is what
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he is hoping revitalizes a lot of American industry. We'll buy more American products that way.
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And it's been going around. It's been going on for since our country was formed.
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Yeah. So people saying that this is a new trade war that's destabilizing the U.S. economy. That's
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just not honest. No, it's been going on for a long, long time. And yes, we did get rid of a lot of them
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because, again, we were globalists. But it's something that's happened many, many times over the years.
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So the jobs report. I read something this morning saying that the jobs report could also be a reason
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why the stock market is doing what it is. U.S. employers hired 151,000 workers last month,
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fell short of the expected 170,000 jobs added. Do you think that has a big effect on the stock market?
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I don't think that's enough to really make a difference. Those are usually adjusted to the
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next month. 150,000 versus 170,000. It's not that much. I don't think it makes so much of a difference.
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That's what I was thinking too. And those numbers could also get worse unless you carve out the
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government now. You'll have to look at non-government payroll. And I don't know what
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those numbers were, but the government's going to have some job losses, right? Because of what's
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going on up there with Doge, which is a good thing. Yeah. Okay. There's some good economic news. You
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can tell me what you think. Consumers' assessment of current business conditions has moved higher
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recently. Mortgage rates also have dropped for seven consecutive weeks. Yeah, I think that's good.
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We do need the Fed to lower the interest rates, the kind of the interest rates that banks can
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borrow from the government from. That hasn't happened yet. They're holding them steady. But
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the other thing, you know, Mr. Powell, I think, said yesterday is that we're not in threat of a
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recession at this time. Okay. And that's what the Democrats and the news media are putting up.
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We're not, we're not, we're all of the leading indicators. The stock market is not an indicator of
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recession. Okay. That's an indicator of psychological predictions, right? The, the recession
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indicators are like jobs or like unemployment, those types of things. And so we're not, we're
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not at danger of that at this time. So is there any justification for concern about stagflation?
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You know, we haven't had stagflation since the seventies. And so.
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And that stagflation is when inflation, so prices continue to go up and growth.
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It just stays the same. Yeah. I don't, I don't see that, uh, again, temporarily because of what
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we're doing with these other countries maybe, but I don't see that as a long-term issue. It hasn't
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been around. I think the feds have figured out how to control that after we had that the last time.
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And they, they do that by increasing or decreasing money supply, making it easier or harder to borrow.
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Okay. My biggest question is, and I don't think this has anything to do with the economy. I think
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it might have to do with bird flu, but I am tired of not being able to find eggs literally at our
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local grocery store for the past several weeks. I cannot get eggs. I'm ready for Trump to do
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something about that. I don't know what it is. Have you noticed that? Uh, no, I haven't noticed
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because we bought up ahead of time because we were long-term planners and eggs last a lot. No,
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I really haven't noticed that myself because I don't go to the grocery store probably as much as you do.
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But, uh, but I do know that we had to buy eggs for the boys coming in this week. So I did see them.
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Yeah. Well, you have to like, you have to hunt for them in the Metroplex.
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We need to get, uh, Brooke Rollins on here and have her talk about it. Cause she definitely
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is dealing with that issue. Yes. Now I need to look into this, but I, I read a headline,
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so I'll have to fact check it. And then maybe I can talk about it, uh, on Thursday, but that the
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Biden administration, because of some kind of overblown fear of bird flu ended up killing
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like hundreds of thousands of chickens. Oh, I read the same thing. Yeah. That they killed the
00:20:00.580
chickens. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but maybe it
00:20:05.480
was to cause a little bit of distress before Trump took office. I'll look into that and I'll fact check
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myself. Well, it's kind of like, you know, we also need to look into the, uh, electronic signing of
00:20:15.540
all his executive orders. Yeah. That's something else. I know that's something else.
00:20:24.900
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Allie. Okay. Speaking of Washington and what's going on there, continuing resolution H.R. 1968,
00:21:51.640
the full year continuing appropriations and extensions act 2025 was just introduced in the
00:21:57.720
house of representatives yesterday in order to prevent a federal government shutdown. According
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to the associated press, the bill would trim $13 billion in non-defense spending from the levels in
00:22:08.020
the 2024 budget year and increased defense spending by $6 billion with an overall top line of nearly
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$1.7 trillion in discretionary spending. So my sense is that most Republicans are on board with
00:22:21.340
this, but then you've got people, you've got, interestingly, you've got Chip Roy and Thomas
00:22:24.820
Massey who are usually on the same page about things. I like both of them a lot, but Chip Roy is
00:22:29.500
saying, no, I think that this is good. I think we're good to go. Thomas Massey is saying, no,
00:22:32.960
I'm not signing another omnibus bill. Rand Paul says, despite Doge's findings of loony left-wing
00:22:38.540
USAID programs, the Republican spending bill continues to fund the very foreign aid that
00:22:43.480
Elon Musk proposes to cut. The bill continues spending at the inflated pandemic levels and
00:22:48.800
will add $2 trillion to the debt this year. Count me as a H-E double hockey sticks. No,
00:22:57.940
Well, I think it'll pass. All right. I think it'll pass. There may be some additional adjustments
00:23:03.760
to it. I was going to see if I had a text this morning from my, uh, friend that I asked about,
00:23:09.560
uh, congressional friend. Yeah. He said, when I talked to him this morning, he said he thought
00:23:16.280
they had the votes to pass it. Okay. Now, um, it's hard to believe that all the Democrats are going to
00:23:23.800
vote no on this, especially those that are in swing state districts, but they are usually pretty good
00:23:30.900
at keeping their nose together. Um, and it's hard to believe that all of them, there'll be some
00:23:36.140
compromise between here and the Senate, between the house and the Senate. What, what it's doing is
00:23:41.140
it's leaving. And this is why Chip Roy is voting for it. It's leaving spending levels the same.
00:23:46.960
Okay. No increase in spending overall. And it leaves Doge in place, right? If you shut it down,
00:23:53.980
then Doge is not going to be able to go in there and do anything during this period of time. Right.
00:23:58.280
Which is maybe what the Democrats want to have happen. And 80, you know, Rubio came out today and
00:24:03.100
said 83% of the USAID programs have been terminated. I'm not sure what Rand Paul said. It may not be
00:24:09.840
doing everything he wants it to. I get that, but we are making progress and the wheels of progress do not
00:24:16.480
turn on a dime. Right. It takes some time. You have to be able, people have to understand.
00:24:22.600
And this is what your friend, Thomas Massey does not understand. So Thomas, I know you listen to this.
00:24:28.220
Oh, don't be a hater. Don't be a Massey hater. Listen to Allie's dad. Take a win when you can get a win
00:24:35.860
and go back and get another win later. That's what, that's what you do.
00:24:40.500
Hmm. His beef, it seems like, is that he doesn't believe just in principle in these omnibus bills.
00:24:48.280
He wants the bills to be separated. So the American people and so Congress people actually
00:24:54.500
have time to read what is in them. You know, that Nancy Pelosi famous line, which said we have to
00:24:59.360
pass the bill so we can know what's in it. Well, he's fundamentally opposed to that, which I appreciate
00:25:04.680
that level of transparency. I think his constituents do. I'm not even saying that you're wrong, but you
00:25:10.800
know, Trump is out there on truth social saying we've got a primary Thomas Massey. We're going to
00:25:15.560
get him out. And Trump said he's going to see to it that Thomas Massey is removed because I guess his
00:25:21.240
opposition to this bill. Well, he's been primaried, I think, three times by people who claim to be more
00:25:26.380
MAGA than him. And his constituents say, no, they love Thomas Massey and what he stands for.
00:25:32.660
And so I don't know. I, I understand what you're saying, but there seems to be something to the
00:25:38.140
strategy for him and to be one of the only people to stand up and say, sorry.
00:25:42.020
Okay. Well, what does he, okay. What does he accomplish by having that strategy?
00:25:50.220
He doesn't have any. Okay. I can tell you what the list is. Zero. Okay. Of his wins.
00:25:57.360
He doesn't have, well, I think he has done something. He stood up and said what he said. Of course,
00:26:03.920
Yes. And he was the kindest person to me there.
00:26:06.240
He was. He's very strong on that. But that really wasn't a very high bar as far as kindness
00:26:12.960
But, but I don't, you know, he had, and maybe there's some stuff behind the scenes that he's
00:26:17.100
accomplished, but he hasn't accomplished. He's making a point. All right. He's making a point,
00:26:21.460
but really the way, if you want that, if you want that bill broken down to individual appropriation
00:26:26.840
bills, which I would not be opposed to at all. Okay. Then you just got to do, you got to go meet
00:26:32.220
with a speaker in his office, not on the TV station, not on podcast and you work out a deal. Okay.
00:26:39.700
And you see, how do you get to the point? Maybe you can't get all of them, but maybe you can break
00:26:43.440
out one of them. Okay. Start it. Start, start small.
00:26:46.960
Thomas Massey. I wish that I had a list of your accomplishments, Congressman, so I could defend
00:26:52.400
you right now. If your team wants to send me a list of the bills you've passed, I will read some of
00:26:58.500
them on air. I'm, I'm a Massey fan. I think he's, I don't, I don't know if he's entirely right on this
00:27:05.780
subject or not, but in general, I'm a Massey fan. Brie's looking those bills up right now.
00:27:10.560
And I bet she's coming up with a big zero. No, that is, I doubt it. I bet Brie is a Massey
00:27:15.800
fan too. I actually have no idea. I didn't say she wasn't. I'm just saying, I don't think Massey's
00:27:19.320
a Taylor Swift fan. Okay. So Donald Trump, he's upset about this. He says, thank you to the House
00:27:25.260
Freedom Caucus for just delivering a big blow to the radical left Democrats. Oh, by the way,
00:27:29.040
speaking of radical left Democrats, I forgot to mention this. You mentioned the Democrats.
00:27:32.220
Hakeem Jeffries says, he's the minority leader. He says that they will oppose the bill, that
00:27:39.220
Democrats will oppose this bill. I don't know if all Democrats, but he's saying that they're going
00:27:44.320
to. And, um, as I said, Donald Trump goes on to say about Thomas Massey, that he's going to be
00:27:49.560
primaried and that, that Thomas Massey reminds him of Liz Cheney. That's kind of crazy.
00:27:56.600
Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's too far. I agree with you on that one.
00:27:59.900
I mean, that's insane. But he's saying he's grandstanding. That's why.
00:28:03.260
Yeah. And you agree with that. It seems. Well, I don't know that he's a showboat. Like I would say
00:28:08.440
a Jasmine Crockett's a showboat. I think he's principled. Okay. I think he is principled,
00:28:13.800
but I don't think that he is going about getting things done the correct way.
00:28:18.780
You're not a fan of Jasmine Crockett. I had no idea. She said, she's so serious and intellectual,
00:28:24.440
dad started on her. Well, we already, we already talked about her last time and she's only gotten
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00:30:01.940
Okay, let's talk about school choice. Because in Texas, there is school choice legislation that is
00:30:12.480
being debated right now. And there are two competing school choice bills that have been proposed on
00:30:18.140
each side of the Texas legislature. We've got the Senate version of the bill SB2 passed the Senate on
00:30:24.280
February 5th. The House Bill HB3 was proposed on February 20th. That is currently still being debated.
00:30:31.340
Obviously, you are a big advocate of school choice. That was something you fought for when you were in
00:30:37.120
the Texas legislature. Interestingly, this has become a national conversation. A lot of people
00:30:42.120
have been asking me, what's the truth about this? There's a lot of information, competing information
00:30:47.480
out there. So first, give us the lowdown on what's going on.
00:30:50.840
Well, the reason it's national news is because it's five and a half million public school students in
00:30:55.620
Texas, right? It's huge. And when this school choice passes, which it will pass in some form,
00:31:02.240
that will mean that almost 50% of all of the students in the United States will have some
00:31:09.660
type of school choice option, which it's amazing. When it was maybe four or five years ago, that number
00:31:16.460
was in the 20% range or less. I mean, it's just amazing. But I'll tell you one thing. This is what
00:31:21.800
what Satan intends for bad, God intends for good. All of this stuff with COVID, okay? This is when it
00:31:28.180
all started. You remember when the school started, parents started getting involved in their kids'
00:31:33.980
schools when they were going to school online and all that type of stuff. And it really started in
00:31:39.600
Virginia, if you remember, where the parents fought back. And this is the result of all of that.
00:31:44.820
This is the absolute result of us finding out they were teaching CRT. They were teaching all of these
00:31:51.240
other things that they shouldn't be teaching. And sometimes they weren't teaching at all. And so
00:31:56.440
it's been incredible. And that's a, and you know what I think about teachers. I mean, my, your
00:32:01.120
grandmother, my mother was a teacher. Your mom is a teacher. We have cousins that are teachers, nieces,
00:32:06.100
nephews. So we love teachers, but the whole system is something that's broken. But what's happening in
00:32:12.200
Texas alley is, and this happens all the time. And that is, you have a Senate version and a House
00:32:17.480
version. And the Senate version come, came out first. And it's done by my friend, Brandon Creighton.
00:32:24.720
Of course, Lieutenant Governor Patrick's very involved in it. And it essentially says that
00:32:30.480
we're going to put a billion dollars aside for parents to be able to choose whether or not they want,
00:32:39.460
where they want their kids to go to school. And that billion dollars though, is prioritized.
00:32:44.520
It's prioritized first for parents with kids with special needs. And then for parents who fall within
00:32:53.420
a poverty, what we call low income. Okay. And that's a certain percentage of the national poverty
00:33:00.900
level. Okay. Up to two or 300%, I think maybe more than that. And then if there is any money left over,
00:33:07.920
which there won't be, by the way, anybody can apply for it. All right. So the rhetoric out there
00:33:14.140
about it's only for the rich kids is just simply, it's just a false, it's just totally false. And
00:33:19.780
they're going to allocate about $10,000 per student, a little bit more in the Senate version for disabled
00:33:25.200
students and what have you. And even a couple thousand dollars for homeschoolers that want it.
00:33:30.640
Now, some of the people are saying, well, I don't want the government in my business. Okay. Well then
00:33:35.140
don't take it. You do not have to take it. You don't have to take it. If I had little kids again,
00:33:40.180
I wanted to send them to a private school. And I said, okay, I'm using this, this money that's
00:33:44.460
coming through the state, the school, we don't accept that. There's no, there's no have to do
00:33:48.500
that. But I think the fear is that once a school starts accepting students who are subsidized in this
00:33:57.880
way that, okay, the government has its foot in the door and that later on they will say, okay,
00:34:04.660
any school that, that takes this government money through these kinds of school choice programs,
00:34:11.200
you have to follow this list of rules. You have to teach this, or you can't teach this,
00:34:16.660
or you have to have this non-discrimination policy or whatever it is. I think it's a fear that
00:34:23.260
in the name of giving kids a choice, you are allowing the government into Christian private
00:34:29.420
schools and even homeschool co-ops. Well, the only way that the government could ever do that,
00:34:34.220
which remember they can do that on anything, is it would have to pass through the legislature. It
00:34:38.840
cannot be done by fiat. It has to pass through the legislature. This is all in statute. So the people
00:34:46.120
that people need to talk to about that, they need to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror
00:34:49.740
because it's the very people they're voting in. If they don't want that to happen, then make sure
00:34:54.640
that you're voting in people that don't believe in that. All right. Don't, there's nobody to blame
00:34:59.600
but ourselves if that happens because it's the voters that determine that. It's not, it's not
00:35:05.800
some bureaucrat, right? They can't do that. The statute in both of these bills is very specific and it
00:35:12.560
really, all these bills do from a government standpoint is it makes sure that if I get the money,
00:35:18.300
I don't go spend it on a vacation to Florida, right? That that money goes to a specific list
00:35:24.140
of things. All right. The only other requirement in there is that if you are a private school,
00:35:29.920
then you have to have some type of accreditation test, but it doesn't tell you even what to have.
00:35:37.280
And all schools have that already. All right. Now for homeschoolers, I have less sympathy for them
00:35:43.880
because they don't have to take the money. They can keep doing what they're doing. It's not going
00:35:48.720
to get involved in their lives at all. All right. So if you want the $2,000, got it. If you, if you're
00:35:56.600
worried about it, don't take it. It's okay. All right. You don't have to, there's no requirement to do
00:36:01.540
that. Some people have expressed concern that this actually raises the cost of tuition at private
00:36:07.800
schools. I guess the math works as if you're a private school and you're saying, okay, we're only going to
00:36:13.100
take a hundred students and now say 25 of those students are subsidized. Well, then the school
00:36:18.420
has lost money. And so they will, to make up for that money that they lost, they will now charge the
00:36:25.240
other 75 students more than they were before. Now, why are they saying they're, I don't understand
00:36:30.700
the subsidized part of it. Well, I subsidize through school choice. They're subsidized in the sense that
00:36:36.020
now their parents are given the money to pay for the tuition at the private school. But aren't they
00:36:40.740
paying the same price as everybody else? Well, but the, yeah. Okay. I, I, yeah. I think they're
00:36:48.040
paying the same price as everybody else. The question could be though, let me, maybe the argument is
00:36:52.400
supply and demand. Maybe I misunderstood. No, maybe it's supply and demand. In other words, if there's
00:36:56.100
more demand for private schools now, cause there's more money available that the supply is not there yet.
00:37:04.380
So therefore we'll look, if I've got 200 people wanting to go to a hundred person school, then I can
00:37:10.500
raise the price. Okay. I mean, that's the theory. I think, uh, that hasn't happened. Yeah, that probably
00:37:16.560
is. That hasn't happened in the other 30 States. All right. Now may what we hope will happen is that
00:37:23.760
the supply will increase. And usually where there's opportunity there, somebody comes in to meet the
00:37:30.460
demand, right? Usually where there's demand, somebody usually provides a supply. Yeah. And I've
00:37:36.240
gotten a lot of messages from a lot of families. When I was talking about this on Instagram, they live
00:37:40.980
in Arizona, they live in Iowa, they live in different places. There's always going to be
00:37:45.020
debates and different feelings about school choice, but the families I've talked to who say,
00:37:49.140
I would not be able to give my kids the Christian education that they're getting without the education
00:37:55.460
savings account that I have, depending on the state or the voucher that they have, depending on the state
00:37:59.480
that they live in. I mean, that's an incredible testimony. And it basically comes down to the idea
00:38:04.260
that your fate should not be bound to the zip code in which you were born. Right. And if we really
00:38:11.260
believe in equality of opportunity, if we really believe in so-called social justice, this is like,
00:38:17.880
this is a justice issue. If you want to see it through that lens, kids who are born into
00:38:23.100
these communities where there's not a lot of hope and not a lot of opportunity,
00:38:27.800
they are given that hope and opportunity through education.
00:38:31.260
It's going to change people's lives. I mean, you know, I think it's, I think, you know,
00:38:36.120
you and your brothers having Christian education was a big factor. Yeah. And I just think it'll
00:38:40.940
change, it'll change people's, the direction in people's lives that we don't even know yet.
00:38:45.840
Just think about half the population being eligible if they choose to for something like this.
00:38:50.540
You know, one of the other big misrepresentations, let's say, be kind, is that this takes money from
00:38:58.480
public schools. All right. And I don't know how everything worked in other states, but I know in
00:39:03.740
Texas, that's just an out and out falsehood is that public schools received, they're going to receive
00:39:10.240
the funding that they receive. $80 billion is spent allocated to public K through 12 public schools
00:39:19.860
in Texas. Okay. $80 billion. Now it is true that $6,200, I think of that, a price average, okay,
00:39:30.060
goes towards something they call WADA, weighted average daily attendance. So each school district
00:39:36.800
gets paid this $6,200 on the average attendance that they have. Like if it's 11,000 students,
00:39:45.000
okay, they get $6,200 per one of those. Well, when, if I take my kids out of school, then that $6,200
00:39:52.520
go, that's not in their, you know, WADA anymore. All right. That is true. However, the total funding
00:39:59.920
for each student in Texas is about $15,000. And if you don't believe me, take $80 billion,
00:40:08.700
divide it by 5.5 million, and it comes to right at $15,000. So the $6,200 of that $15,000 is technically
00:40:18.460
going away, but $9,000 is left, right? So when you take that, now you take that $9,000, that there's
00:40:27.180
not even a student there to use that money, you actually get more money per student overall than
00:40:34.040
you would if that $6,200 stayed with you. So you get more money for less students. I mean,
00:40:40.360
I don't understand what the big issue is. Also the billion dollars that we're using in Texas,
00:40:46.140
it's just coming out of the general revenue fund. It doesn't come out of the, the school's funding,
00:40:51.200
right? It's not money they would have gotten otherwise. All right. So, uh, it's just, it's
00:40:56.240
just so many misrepresentations on this. And that that's really what is disappointing. I've
00:41:00.980
actually did a Facebook video. If people want to watch that on my Facebook page,
00:41:05.380
explain it about a 10 minute video that kind of talks about it. Yeah.
00:41:13.360
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That's preborn.com slash Allie. And for those maybe on the conservative side who are afraid that
00:43:07.780
this change would just like change private schools or would change Christian schools, the Christian
00:43:13.800
schools who now might get applicants that couldn't be applicants before, they will not be
00:43:19.500
forced to accept these people. They'll still have the same standards. For example, the school that I
00:43:24.040
went to, at least one parent, but preferably both parents had to be born again Christians,
00:43:30.160
give their testimony. They had to be a member of a church with a pastor recommendation in order to
00:43:37.240
even get your foot in the door to interview. All of those standards will still be in place.
00:43:42.240
It just might accept someone who financially couldn't make it work before, but did share
00:43:47.860
all of the values and desires that you as a parent have.
00:43:51.300
Yep. That's what it's intended to do. And not all of them will be faith-based schools. Some of them
00:43:57.740
will be private STEM schools or something like that. And so, you know, I just encourage people to go
00:44:04.340
look and see what's happened to Florida faith-based schools, if they're concerned about that, as to what
00:44:10.080
the government has done there, which I think they'll be comforted by that. Yeah. And, and, you know,
00:44:16.540
uh, it looks like we have the votes. Uh, I filed the bill in 2015 and 2017 for this. So if we get this
00:44:23.720
through, this will be a big, a big, uh, moment of celebration. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's things like
00:44:30.980
you said, they don't happen overnight. Yeah. Thomas. Yes. Yes. Okay. Speaking of Thomas Massey,
00:44:37.940
I have some unfortunate news. Fortunate for you. Unfortunate. And you know, my dad's motto growing
00:44:44.680
up was start, he said, start with me being right. And then back up from there. I may not always be
00:44:49.780
right, but you do get there quicker. Yeah. Just start there and then try to figure out the answer.
00:44:54.900
And it appears that you are correct. Okay. As of March 11th, 2025, representative Thomas Massey
00:45:01.900
has not successfully passed any bills he sponsored into law during his tenure in Congress, which began
00:45:07.660
November, 2012. So that's been a long time. So, and then I was like, okay, well, did he block anything?
00:45:13.400
Anything during the passage of the cares act, the $2.2 trillion relief package in response to the COVID-19
00:45:19.600
pandemic, Massey attempted to block its approval, which I appreciate by the way,
00:45:24.020
it's a valiant effort, but couldn't get enough support. Massey didn't block a COVID specific
00:45:28.720
bill via unanimous consent post cares act, but he introduced bills opposing COVID mandates like HR
00:45:33.980
3860. And, uh, that didn't advance past committee. I will say though, that doesn't mean that all of
00:45:42.160
these efforts are wasted or bad. I do still believe that he is a prophetic voice many times when it comes
00:45:48.340
to Congress and he speaks truth. But when it comes to what he has tangibly accomplished,
00:45:54.040
Ron Simmons is correct. Yeah. Sorry, Thomas Massey. Well, it could be too, Allie, like school
00:45:58.620
choice for me. I mean, that was very disappointed I didn't get that done, but it just may be timing,
00:46:03.380
you know, he may be ahead of his time. Yeah. And it wasn't wrong of you to push it at the time,
00:46:07.300
even though you didn't succeed at the moment. As a matter of fact, I was mentioned, I got a Google
00:46:11.560
notice this week about a bill that I filed in 2017 regarding the use of locker rooms and stuff.
00:46:18.780
Yeah. And, uh, because there's another bill that's filed, that's absolutely going to pass this time.
00:46:24.200
Right. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? The thing is society's view on that has just changed. I was
00:46:29.320
just a little bit ahead of the game on that, even though we knew we were right. Maybe Mr. Massey
00:46:34.620
knows he's right on some stuff. Now, what I did though, is I really worked behind the scenes to try to get
00:46:40.260
stuff done. And I would encourage, and maybe he does that. I would encourage him to, if he hasn't.
00:46:44.560
Yeah. And just to say, just this legacy really matters of school choice and what you helped
00:46:51.020
accomplish. You pushed the ball down the field and it's going to get all the way soon. But, um,
00:46:57.260
according to the daily signal, because a lot of people say, you know, this actually has a negative
00:47:01.040
effect on students, but according to the daily signal, as of March, 2023, there have been nearly
00:47:06.680
190 studies on the impact of school choice. Researchers have looked at financial effects,
00:47:11.580
parent satisfaction, test scores, civic values, school safety, and racial integration in both
00:47:16.600
red and blue states to collect information for these studies. This is according to the Mountain
00:47:20.500
States Policy Center. Remarkably, 84% of these studies, 84% of the 190 studies show a positive effect
00:47:27.760
and only, and 10% show no impact at all. And 6% show a negative result. So when it comes to test
00:47:35.140
scores, when it comes to educational attainment, parent satisfaction, all of those things,
00:47:39.700
most parents are saying that this has had a positive effect on my student and a positive effect
00:47:46.540
on our family. And actually test scores have gone up. Their comprehension has gone up. I mean,
00:47:53.280
I don't think anyone could argue with the fact that our public schools by and large are failing.
00:47:57.920
Well, yes. Well, yeah, it's, it's, it is. And it's not a money issue, right?
00:48:03.580
Some of the places that spend the most money have the worst performance. And that's very,
00:48:08.900
Yep. Absolutely. So there's a lot more to talk about on the school choice. Go check out my dad's
00:48:15.180
Facebook page. He's got more on that and we can talk about it more as time goes on. There's a lot
00:48:20.420
There'll be more, uh, you know, when she gets through committee, what happens is it gets through
00:48:23.960
committee. Okay. And then it goes, uh, to the floor. It's already passed the Senate floor and
00:48:31.960
then it, the house will pass their version. Some, it may be amended and then they'll get
00:48:37.000
into conference committee and merge the two somehow they'll come to compromise and it'll
00:48:42.340
get voted. Probably won't get voted on until, uh, out of the house, maybe sometime in April.
00:48:47.900
Okay. Gotcha. Well, dad, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah. Tell everyone about your book.
00:48:52.440
Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon. You know, it's never more pertinent than it is today
00:48:57.620
because as we go through uncertain economic times and what's going on in DC and all that,
00:49:02.500
you need to have a foundation of where you are. And what this book really does for us is it just,
00:49:08.440
first of all, it makes sure that you don't overreact to something. And also it reminds us,
00:49:15.340
you know, the last few weeks have reminded me of this. I've been, I've been in the wagon. I haven't
00:49:19.520
been put on the handle. Yeah. I can't even push the wheels for very long. Because of your recovery.
00:49:24.220
Because of my recovery. I've been in the wagon and sometimes that recovery period in the wagon
00:49:29.140
in certain areas of your life can be the most beneficial to you. Yep. So. Amen. Well,
00:49:34.460
thanks so much, dad. You bet. Thanks for having me.