Dom discusses the outcome of this weeks elections and how the results may impact the scho…

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 post-election. What an election for an off-year. Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano. My email is domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W at AOL.com.

And looking now through the prism of what we do here on Old School, New School, Next School, parental rights, subsection, school choice is one of the major, major elements. How are we now after this off-year election that's an election of a lot of consequence? And the answer is we are in deeper trouble than we ever were. Now, I've had on this podcast Ryan Walters, who is the former head of the

Oklahoma schools, most provocative guy, almost was the U.S. Secretary of Education, would have been great at that, and now heads up a group that's trying to take apart the teachers' unions, not that they can exist, but taking their influence apart, which is a major, major thing, particularly in something like the off-year elections. And I talked with him on my Noon to Three show on Talk Radio 1210, 50,000 Watt, WPHT in Philadelphia.

Post-election.

And the thing we got into, let's start with New York.

Let's start with socialism, which every 10 years, or communism light, seems to get people juiced up.

It seems new.

It's fresh.

It's not only a good idea.

It's like, why did they never think about this before?

Well, Waters talked about what he did in Oklahoma to make people adhere to the curriculum in schools.

so that socialism would be put out as what it is, something that's evil and enslaves people and results in a lot of misery, not what's being pitched in New York with Mondami. So with that as a launch point, let me talk about the results in each of the two states and New York, or really in Pennsylvania, and then upcoming elections and the big, beautiful bill.

and where choice and parental rights, particularly parental rights, are moving. Well, in New York with Mondami, the new mayor now, he recently started a battle in the New York public schools. First of all, the night that he was elected, we're seeing already hundreds, if not thousands of people pull their kids and make moves to pull their kids from the New York City public schools. Because Mondami, as a true socialist, doesn't believe in parental rights.

wants to get rid of, at the early years at least, gifted and talented programs in the New York public schools. Now, there are pockets in the New York public schools, just like where I am in Philadelphia, where the system is set up and people that want public schools, it's good. This was also the case in New York. What does he have against this? Equity. Equity. Always that word, meaning equal outcomes. Why not put kids,

In the early years, we're talking kindergarten through third or fourth grade. It depends. Why not just put them in a regular classroom? Well, the reason is you can imagine you have a sense in New York how competitive this is. There's wealth. It could be anything. Some of these kids are coming to kindergarten reading perfectly well in a third, fourth, fifth grade level. What would happen if they're just put into the classroom? Well, they'd be miserable. Everybody will be miserable. That's what socialism is all about. Wall Street Journal wrote a big piece on this.

They talked about one guy who's an Asian, I believe he's Indian, talking about fewer educational opportunities for his daughter. He was busy plotting his three-year-old's future this month when New York's smartest toddlers were thrust into the political spotlight. This is the type of thing you're going to see in New York. And why? Because this is what socialists, this is what socialism does. Just on this simple thing.

So how do you think Mondami would be on issues of parental rights when it comes to being told that your child wants to use different pronouns in school? He's not going to inform you. You're only the parent. And school choice? Your choice is whatever he dictates, whatever they do with the New York City Board of Education. That's your choice. No choice. So you're going to see quite an upheaval in New York. Everybody's talking about moving out.

I'm talking though something that's a little bit underplayed but just as important.

These parents and their kids and what's going to be left in the New York public schools would be people that can't move out, can't go to the private schools, have more difficulty doing that versus those that are in there because they believe in public education, but they want to accelerate their child.

So as a result, they believe in public education. They're willing to put up with some of the stuff. They have the means. They could go to private school, and apparently that's what they're going to do. So let's check that box. Socialism, New York, reaching down to kindergarten. Let's talk next about what is the result in one that I know even better. That would be the big race in New Jersey, which was a big surprise that the Democrat, Mikey Sherrill,

was able to win going away versus a close election.

Well, what I know about this is Mikey Sherrill, one of the things during the campaign that was talked about, she went after home scores.

She was in the camp in Jersey in the Murphy administration going after home scores, making them submit to the same indoctrination around transgenderism, LGBTQ and all the rest.

She will be a continuation of the Phil Murphy administration over the last eight years, roughly. In that, in the last eight years, they have not had one charter school approved. As I understand it in New Jersey, charter schools, not even vouchers, charter schools are approved by the Department of Education and the governor appoints the person who does that.

I would predict right now if she has four or eight years, they're not appointing any more charter schools. And she is also very much someone during the campaign who was outraged that people would question boys or men in girls and women's sports. So New Jersey will be a disaster. I've had on this podcast the woman that I think Jack Cattarelli would have appointed, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia,

to be in that slot heading up the Department of Education. She runs charter schools, charter school movement, etc. She is tremendous. Now, you know, you can't bring up everything during the campaign. It was filled up with all kinds of issues. Maybe a little bit more on this would have been helpful, but that's what you're going to get in New Jersey. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, who won, has been someone who has been all over the map with every defense imaginative.

on the issue of transgender. Now, you probably know the Loudon schools and a couple of those really affluent school districts on the border of Washington, D.C. that are in Virginia have been in the center of the national debate around this. And that's where a lot of parental rights advocates, that's why Yunkin won his term, his four-year term against McAuliffe.

She is someone who is just almost a clone of Mikey Sherrill. So you're going to see in Virginia the same thing going on, the same regressive attitude toward parental rights. School choice is just part of parental rights. So, so far, we've seen what's going to happen in New York, what this election is about when it comes to parenting, what is going to happen in New Jersey, and what's going to happen in Virginia.

All three, three out of three. One other smaller race in Pennsylvania, where I am, we had three Supreme Court justices up for retention. Meaning if you said yes on the ballot, they would get another 10-year term. If you said no, three of them would be out and the court would be much more balanced. These are all very liberal. These people have ruled up and down the line on all kinds of things involving parental rights.

Like the parental right not to be overtaxed.

They have acted as a legislature to tax people in suburban school districts to pay for these big urban districts, which are often failures.

So that is sadly another loss.

Now, let's look down the road, though, of where things are coming up when it comes to the politics of parental rights, school choice and the like.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Well, one of the biggest things that's going to happen coming forward, we're starting to see, for example, in Pennsylvania, the governor's race, where Stacey Garrity, Republican treasurer, will be running against the sitting governor and someone in the top three choices as presidential candidate, Josh Shapiro. Stacey Garrity has been on this podcast, is a huge advocate of school choice, particularly in rural Pennsylvania.

an even bigger advocate of parental rights. Josh Shapiro is an advocate of trans rights in sports. He's the guy who famously said that every child is a child of God. And then he whiffed when the legislature a couple of years ago was poised to pass a very meaningful school choice bill that would have put Pennsylvania, the biggest states, one of the biggest states on the map, particularly a swing state, with this.

So this is going to come up during this struggle in the governor's race in Pennsylvania, which will have the national spotlight due to the fact that Josh Shapiro is one of the, as I said, one or two leading candidates to be the presidential nominee on the Democrat side.

And yesterday on my radio show on Talk Radio 1210, Jeff Andrew, a congressman from New Jersey, when I asked him about this, we talked about something that will come up.

the big beautiful bill the trump bill that passed and we've told you before

there are billions of dollars in there that would go to non-profits that parents could apply to

say in a state like jersey pennsylvania virginia all of these new york and get out of these public

schools for any number of reasons that was not emphasized enough during this off-year election

The governor, like Governor Shapiro, will decide on this. It appears to me he'll reject the money, even though the money is not taken from public schools. It's just funding that would give people a choice. This will be a big issue in this governor's race. This will come up. And of course, in the midterms, which we're already moving forward, that will determine the fate of the last two years or so of the Trump and

If Democrats win, you're going to see more of the agenda go forward.

Well, in that race, it does appear as if parental rights, school choice, boys and girls sports are all going to be front and center.

At least I'm hoping they are, and there are indications that they will be.

So this election cycle was not a good night, even though the school choice movement, the cyber charter movement, charter schools are all moving forward. We did not get people in position here. My one hope coming out of this is silver lining. The guy in New York, Mayor Mondani, is going to be so out there. There's going to be such an outcry. Give it three to six months of what he'll do him because of the fact he's a declared socialist.

that you're going to see this filter down to people, as I said already, escaping from the public schools.

When you're reaching down and trying to meddle with the kindergarten through third or fourth grade gifted at talent and program screaming about equity and how we have to dismantle it, you are identifying what socialism is about.

You're identifying the elements of it.

You're identifying why there's going to be a huge backlash.

So are we going to see parents that are a little bit more liberal in New York City,

but really want to accelerate care for their kids?

Are we going to see them join the movement?

I don't know that they'll be homeschooling, but will they join the movement for more charter schools?

Will they join the movement to be outside the public schools and the school voucher movement?

Because we all know, if you listen to this podcast, the biggest civil rights issue that can be solved here for children in any zip code anywhere is school choice. And the idea that Mondami or Mikey Sherrill, governor of New Jersey, or Abigail Spanberger, governor of Virginia, would be a better decider, that and the public school teachers' unions, than a parent is ludicrous. It's just on its face insulting.

and ludicrous. So watch for this issue. It is not dead. This night was a setback. We really didn't score in any area that I can see on all these big national elections and a lot of school boards in Pennsylvania, at least where I am, they want blue. They went to the Democrat side, increasing that side, increasing the pushback against parental rights. But this issue will not die. This issue is out there. People yearn for this.

people realize that this is the core. The parent is the first and best teacher. We will have many more shows on this coming up. We will talk with people in the core. We'll talk about solutions to this and pushing forward. One of which is you have to be involved in voting no matter how big or small the office. You can have any president that you want. We've seen during COVID, local school districts, their control. You're going to see at the state level, as I mentioned,

It's going to be brutal in New Jersey. They haven't had a new charter school put in in coming up on eight years. That's what Mikey Sherrill will do also. In Virginia, they've had some of the loudest battles over parental rights because of all the nonsense in the Fairfax and the Loudoun districts, public schools. And it carries over across the state. And as far as New York, that is going to be a battleground of battlegrounds. So here's what I'd like you to do as we move into this exciting phase of this.

move forward on parental rights. Send me an email. Let me know what you think of the podcast, questions you have. Let me know what's happening in your state. DOM show, all one word, D-O-M-S-H-O-W at AOL.com. That's the way to get it to me. And it may appear on an upcoming podcast. For now, though, this was a night of losses. And the way to recoup this are local elections, special elections, school board elections, and then

the big midterms. People are lining up as we speak to get on board with what's going to happen during the midterms. Be part of that and tell people each week about this podcast. 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.