Dom discusses how cyber charter schools offer safety to school-aged students in high-crim…

Welcome to Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano, a podcast devoted to preserving your parental rights, including the right to choose the best school for your child. This podcast is dedicated to gaining the option of school choice for every parent in America.

Here's your host, educator and noted talk media commentator, Dom Giordano.

Hey, everyone. Welcome into this week's edition of Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano, your host.

And this week, it's a special episode. This is episode 20.

And when I take a look back at the episodes that we've already done, I see the great guests that we've had.

Some of the things that we proclaimed wanted to talk about where we are at this point in time, how critical this is to move school choice forward in at least two states that are. And there's very few states this year. Well, there are three, really. Virginia and New Jersey, where school choice is a big issue. And the next door state, Pennsylvania, if things happen right in Jersey, I think.

Who'd go the way of school choice?

So I was just at a big rally for Jack Cittarelli, the Republican running in New Jersey.

Second time around, he came pretty close the last time against Phil Murphy.

This time he's running against Mikey Sherrill.

Now, New Jersey has a very, very strong ability for a governor to influence charter schools, for example.

Homeschooling through the Department of Education.

In other words, the person that Jack Cattarelli, if he wins, versus Mikey Sherrill, puts in charge of the Department of Education, will help to open up or continue to be closed charter schools. For the last seven and a half years, Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, two terms, he's near the end, thank God, went with no charter schools, his Department of Education in his direction, essentially.

If Jack Cattarelli wins at this rally, we talked about it a lot, that will make a big difference in New Jersey. He will open up charter schools. He is a big proponent of school choice. He is not going to be going after the home scores as the Murphy administration is now. If it's Mikey Sherrill, her blueprint will be very similar to Phil Murphy. That's what you're going to get. Now, there are other big issues in this that people are looking at, all sorts of claims and counterclaims.

But parents ought to take a look at this in voting. Because if New Jersey elects Chattarelli, and over the next months, when he actually takes over, Pennsylvania is right next door. We have two bridges that connect downtown Philadelphia. Well, one South Philly, the Walt Whitman and the Ben Franklin. So how New Jersey goes will put tremendous pressure, if it's Jack Chattarelli, on Governor Shapiro.

When Governor Shapiro has to decide going forward about accepting or not accepting the money from the one big beautiful bill, the billions of dollars that are coming to the 50 states, to allow them to spend that money on school choice through nonprofits that people would apply for, scholarships. And I'm telling you, if Jersey Nextdoor is moving forward on this, it increases the

pressure, because they will be talking about using that big, beautiful bill money to have thousands of kids freed from some of these schools that really are bad. And you will see that play out. And hopefully it will put more pressure on Shapiro, who wants to run for president, was a VP choice potentially this last time around. His opponent, Stacey Garrity, during the election cycle, will emphasize this point again and again and again.

She represents the treasurer of Pennsylvania, a lot of rural Pennsylvania, and she is very, very much a fan of school choice across the board. In other news this week around school choice, particularly here in Pennsylvania, I happened to see an article from Chalkbeat Philadelphia, cyber charter schools. Now, the cyber charter schools, we've talked about this, are a tremendous value for parents because

They're afraid of safety in some of these schools for their kids. The kids do this from home. It is a very, very advanced curriculum that they can tap into. Chalkbeat Philadelphia chronicled Samara Abdullah. She sends her three school-age children to a cyber charter school for some of the same familiar reasons that other families across the nation do, including the flexibility and personalization. For a financial literacy class,

They go to the bank to open an account for science class.

They head to a museum on nice days.

They try to get out for the day and into the woods,

but our motivations are also deeply personal,

cultural,

and in some ways unique to Philadelphia.

Abdullah was an intern for a school guidance counselor in West Philly before having children and was struck by the exhausted teachers,

the unappetizing cafeteria food,

the students cursing and bad behavior.

And here's the topper about safety.

The city's gun violence epidemic has only strengthened her resolve. Her nine-year-old son, Musa, was separated from his father during a mass shooting in a West Philadelphia park during a celebration in April and has struggled with loud sounds ever since. Imagine having that for your kids. Wouldn't you want to consider as a choice, as a parent, whatever Josh Shapiro and Mikey Sherrill and these others said, wouldn't that be a driving reason, potentially,

to essentially homeschool your kids, but in a unique way, with cyber charter as a protective device. Chalkbeat says, in fact, Pennsylvania has quietly become the cyber charter capital of the nation, according to a report from the education advocacy group Children First PA. Nearly 60,000 students cite Wiber and rate full-time in cyber charters in 2023-24. So why are they under such fire?

because people on the other side are proponents of the teachers' organizations, and they just want public schools. Let's face it. They do not want choice for parents. Even this woman whose child, still when he hears loud noises, is traumatized by what he went through. Imagine being in a shooting with the father just in a park as they had this celebration. One other reason in Pennsylvania why we have this.

There's a guy in Montgomery County, state representative Matt Bradford. He's the head of the Democrat Party in the House. And he is, by all accounts, I must have spoken to 20 insiders now, some of them with elective office all the way up and down the line in Pennsylvania. He is the co-governor with Josh Shapiro in that he's the power behind the throne. He might be the throne. Shapiro needs him to pilot all this stuff to get everything done. And then Shapiro runs for president.

That's what's working here. And this guy is in the suburbs. He's white. And yet he's standing in the schoolhouse door. This big mouth progressive, this bellicose progressive, Matt Bradford. That's what's going on. That's one man essentially is blocking Pennsylvania from moving forward because Shapiro for his own ends. Looks like he would sign off on a lot of these school choice programs in limited ways. More on that as we continue.

to develop it. Yes, I have invited Matt Bradford multiple times on my radio show. He came on a few times years ago. We'll see if he comes on in the future or comes on this podcast. I'd love to get that type of challenge. We'll put the PSEA on to tell us why we can't have school choice. What would they say to this mom in West Philly that I told you about from Chalkbeat, who has this dilemma with her kids, and she's

We solved it for now with cyber charters, even though they're trying to cut the budget, trying to undercut them constantly. Why? There's only one explanation. It goes back to the power of the teachers unions who want nothing but public schools, thus no competition. They want to continue the monopoly. The monopoly they have already is tremendous. So since Matt Bradford wouldn't come on today, I started to look around and see what are some of the major arguments.

against school choice. Here's one. Bad argument number one. School vouchers waste public money by sending it to private schools. Well, we're not talking about, first of all, before we get to vouchers, you know, that's on the Mount Rushmore, that's higher up, which I wholeheartedly support. We're only talking about charters, cyber charters, homeschooling. How do they take money in the management of school?

is being talked about when we're talking about private schools and vouchers.

Argument number two, if you accept any money for private or home schools, you're contributing to the inevitable government takeover of non-public education.

Wow, that's wild. You talk about a rope-a-dope tactic.

This is what is known as a slippery slope fallacy.

Now, the big, beautiful bill does give money for private schools, for scholarships and the like.

Are we really going to believe suddenly the very people that have captured the system are trying to tell us, oh, we're only looking out for you parents, because if you take this federal money, if this money gets in there from outside sources, this slippery slope, if you accept money for private or home schools, you're contributing to the inevitable government takeover of non-public education. That's not happening.

I don't see any desire to do that on the part of anybody other than maybe the teachers unions would like to do it. But can you imagine this is the type of stuff that is offered up as compelling reasons that I would go to this mom in West Philly and say to her, nope, we can't be doing this, madam. Do you realize if we do your child and you, the kid who loud noise is bang, bang, goes off, is scared to death?

will allow the federal government or somebody out there to take over this education system. It's going to happen. Bad argument number three. School choice was created by segregationists, and deep down, that's still the motivation for the movement. Okay. This woman I keep referencing in West Philly is African American. The dad is. They're Muslim. So are the children. This is not the playground of

But this shows you how despicable the arguments are against something as all-American as school choice. And as Reason Magazine points out, even if some briefly used the voucher idea, segregationists were hardly the first to think of it. More than a century before Brown v. the Board of Education, liberal theorists such as Thomas Paine, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill sketched out precursors to the modern voucher concept.

The policies earliest practical examples can be traced to the still existent town tuitioning systems of rural New England implemented in the decades after the Civil War. This is one of the worst arguments. Bad argument number five. Charter schools and private schools are the only are only options for the wealthy because they do not provide transportation and school lunches. Wow. This seems to be.

the most weight of the anti-school choice arguments.

For the moment, charter schools may not provide all of this, but I know in Pennsylvania,

busing and things of that nature are often provided.

So these arguments are just a few that you'll hear each week as they win their way through

what we're talking about here.

And you know the mantra of this show, old school, new school, next school.

is parental rights, is letting the parent decide, giving them the resources to have a fighting chance to make this decision. And here's what the most current polling tells us. Public support for school choice is strong and appears to be growing in Pennsylvania. Recent polls showing high approval across different demographics. While there's widespread support for the concept, legislative action, thank you, Matt Bradford, is limited.

Here are some of the takeaways from a recent poll. Support is high among Republicans for the concept of school choice, 84%. Independent, 79%. And Democrats, even, 56%. Not bad for Democrats. It also shows strong support among African Americans, 81%. And Hispanics, 86%.

Fundamental Question to all this, because I deal in the world of winning, getting this done rather than just pie in the sky. You just heard those last two. African-Americans, 81%. Latinos, 86%. So what is it that is stopping this? I've been told reliably by a multitude of people, if school choice vote actually came up in the House of Representatives and it was allowed to be voted on,

You would see any number of Democrats that would vote for it who are African-American. The game that's played is this. Matt Bradford apparently threatens these people. You can sit there. You're an incumbent. We're not going to challenge you. He and his progressive cronies. You vote for something like this, though, and it's going to be all out and we're going to knock you out of office. That's what it comes down to. Just think of how pathetic this is that in Pennsylvania,

We have the polling data that I gave you that shows overwhelming.

Well, these people don't know what's good for them.

This guy, Bradford, is the kingpin of this.

And exposing this publicly is what I plan to do.

And calling him out and maybe a few other people that have some degree of power.

He takes a lot of money from the teachers unions.

They are a major part of this.

It couldn't be more simple. It's not complicated. I gave you all the cockamamie reasons. The big reason that blocks this, though, is what I just told you. So I do hope you'll tell people about this show. I do hope you'll send more information to me as we continue on this. And next week, we're going to talk with the Pennsylvania Family Institute, who have resources, are pushing hard on this. And to give you some more tips as a family or families, you know, grandparent, parent.

how to break out of this system and get true education quality and choice for all students all over the place. It is possible. We're on the side of the angels here. The polling data tells us this. Calling a segregationist, calling up all these spurious arguments against school choice, tell that to the mom in West Philly.

this chalkbeat article thanks god that her kids don't have to go through dangerous

streets to schools every day particularly the child who was there with a massive gunfight and all

that loud noise and is frightened every time he hears that matt bradford why don't you go over to

west philly and talk to these people what would you tell them would you tell them that you know better

you're a big mouth guy out there in the suburbs that knows better about what's good for these children

And that is the local public school. You'll probably say then, we just don't have enough money, though. People like you, Dom, are the ones that don't want to give us enough money. How many billions and billions of dollars have been proposed and are being spent? And just take a look at the nonsense that goes on in the public schools. Lincoln High School, due to, I believe, and the Philadelphia Inquirer does too, illegal immigration, is now overwhelmed. And the freshman class, there's not enough room.

due to the staggering numbers in northeast philadelphia they're going to school in trailers all 900 of them are in trailers trailers and we're going to continue to prop up the public schools based on what go to west philly matt and your cronies tell that to the mom the dad and their kids that at least at this point have cyber charters to get them through which is an increasing something that's in demand for more and more

All right, thanks for listening this week. Now, if you have a tip, a story, you have a question, easy email, my email, domshow at aol.com. That's D-O-M-S-H-O-W at aol.com. And if you happen to see Matt Bradford, if you're over in Montgomery County or anywhere, tell him Dom's asking for him. Dom would like to talk. Dom would like to give him an opportunity to tell me where I'm wrong about what's happening here in

More importantly, I'd like to put them on with the mom in West Philly who sees the cyber charter schools as an unbelievable life and death maybe blessing where she is in her situation. That's what every parent should have across Pennsylvania, across New Jersey, and across America. Thanks for listening. More next week here on Old School, New School, Next School.

Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano is a presentation of Giordano Productions LLC. Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.