Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) joins the podcast to discuss his staunch philosophical and …

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.

Dave McCormick, Senator McCormick from Pennsylvania, has been a real player in the biggest issues of the year, without a doubt.

And he recently wrote an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about school choice.

You would think that freshmen at a top-ranked university could do basic math.

You would be wrong. According to a recent analysis, University of California, San Diego, one in eight cannot meet minimum high school standards. He was being kind. I would say maybe even seventh and eighth grade standards. The story is repeating itself across America. It's a proud product of Pennsylvania's public schools. It pains me to say our nation's public school system is failing miserably. Now, you have to understand, McCormick is not somebody that might go,

like I occasionally might do. McCormick is a conservative but moderate in his tone, and he is outraged over this. So I had a chance to talk about this on the air, and people are in agreement. He also is one of the architects of the big, beautiful bill from President Trump, which is law. And in 2026, the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, we can decide right now to take free money to help people get it.

Get Help to get school choice. Because these public schools are failing miserably, and they're not going to get much better, if ever get better. You have the teachers' unions. You have the inertia of it. They're a monopoly that fails. Why do they continue to exist even? Let's have school choice. Let's bring in Senator Dave McCormick to get the backstory on what he did here in writing this editorial for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Hey, Dom. How are you, my friend? Very good. I wanted to start with your visit to Philadelphia. Tell us about the school you chose to visit today and why. Well, it was an incredible visit. I was there to talk about school choice. And we had, in the big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cut Act, we had a provision for school choice, which essentially gives us seven people.

$1,300 tax credit to anyone who donates to school choice programs.

And so that was passed by the House and the Senate, and it was signed by the President.

And that's going to be rolled out next year.

And it's going to be an incredible opportunity to give great school options to every single Pennsylvanian.

And so I visited today.

One of the beneficiaries of this, which was the St. Helena of the Incarnation School in Philadelphia.

And I got to tell you, an absolute inspiration.

You've got families there, most of whom would be in the public school system otherwise, which is failing them.

And you had engaged parents and great kids talking about bright futures.

It was a very inspiring day.

Yeah, you would think who could be against that, Senator.

But let me take the gloves off against my colleagues in the media. I blame them more than Josh Shapiro for not giving an answer. You would think we know everything about this. There's nothing hidden about this. It's not going to take away, as you said in today's inquiry, from the public schools or anything else. In fact, in some instances, it might give some money toward it. And yet Josh Shapiro has no answer of whether he's going to accept this, as I understand it.

Yeah, that's right. And this op-ed was to basically say, listen, this is a great thing for Pennsylvania, but we got to choose. We got to lean into it. We've got about, through the great incentive programs we already have in Pennsylvania, we've got about $600 million a year that goes to school choice. This program at the federal level, if people invest in this through making philanthropic donations,

to get a tax break for. This could be another $900 million billion in Pennsylvania that's not going to take a single dollar away from the public schools but give parents choice. And the one thing that no one can disagree with is our schools are failing our kids. The second thing no one can disagree with, I mean, by any measure, all the test scores are getting worse, not better. The second thing people can't disagree with factually is that we already have school choice. Rich people can send their kids wherever they want.

So the failing schools disproportionately affect poor kids. They disproportionately affect people of color.

So if the American dream is to give opportunity, equality of opportunity to everybody, this is the way, man. This is the path. And that was what we were talking about today.

And this is a governor who came close, at least on paper, I'll give him that, child of God statement in the one budget, came close to actually doing something meaningful.

So here should be a no-brainer for him, Senator, to sign off on this because we just – in the current budget, they just put in record monies for the public schools. Yeah, absolutely. It should be a no-brainer for our governor, and frankly, it should be a no-brainer for any governor. Right. And what we're seeing here – we keep talking about this race for leadership in the world with China, AI and energy and so forth, which I fully believe we're in the middle of.

But there's also another race going on. It's a race with Tennessee and Georgia and Arkansas and Florida and Texas. And what we've got to realize is that capital and talent, they're like water. They go on the path of least resistance. So if we don't have an environment where we've got great kids coming out of our schools and able to perform and learn key skills, then Pennsylvania is going to continue to lag.

And what's happening is other states across the country are embracing school choice. They are, after seeing what devastating, how devastating the public schools were during COVID, they are embracing this idea. So if Pennsylvania wants to give opportunity to all its kids and if Pennsylvania wants to stay in the lead, it was a place where people are going to want to invest, we got to get this thing turned around. And school choice is the way to do it. And this legislation, listen, I've been in the Senate for a year.

One of my proudest things was to be the co-sponsor of this legislation and then able to, you know, be part of something that got signed into law that can help Pennsylvanians right now.

You're the perfect guy for it on that because of what you've been driving in Pennsylvania. Also, though, you can reach across the aisle. You and John Fetterman, it's historic seeing that play out.

So, you know, what is it in your theory then with Governor Shapiro? It seems like you two would talk. You're both guys that are really are in very prominent in this. And this is a no brainer. What's the objection? If you had to boil it down, where's the objection on this from anybody? I mean, he's the decider, right, Dave? He, Josh Shapiro, he's the decider. What's the objection?

He's the one who decides. Well, I don't want to speak for his objections. He hasn't said what he's going to do yet. But what the objections in general are is that, A, if you have school choice, you're going to take away money from the public schools. No, this is all additional money. Second is that, no, no, these non-public schools are not accountable. Well, actually, what we have is public schools that have been held accountable, which have failed us.

And the accountability that's created with school choice is choice. Parents can move their kids wherever they want. You know, I just, as I said, I just did this tour. You know, the cost of these schools is quite extensive. It's up to $10,000 a kid. This is for preschool to eighth grade. $2,000 of that is paid by the parents. $8,000 of that's paid by scholarship money.

So if we want to have kids across Philadelphia and across the Commonwealth have this option, we're going to need a lot more money. And this choice creates competition and accountability. The third thing is bad for teachers. Listen, I'm the son of two public school teachers. I went to public school myself. I'm pro-teacher, man. We've got to have great teachers. They made the difference in my life. But teachers need great schools. And right now we're investing in failing schools as opposed to investing in the school.

and succeeding schools, winning schools, and great teachers.

And so those are the objections.

I don't think they have much merit, to be honest with you.

I think the teachers' unions are dragging their feet, and more than dragging their feet,

they're fighting for their life because they think this puts them at risk.

And you know what?

It's not about them.

It's about the kids.

And if we can do great things for kids, opportunity for everybody, it's going to be great for Pennsylvania and great for every family.

Absolutely.

Senator, thank you so much.

Thanks for joining today.

You got a lot out of that.

You got what has happened, why he wrote this editorial, and what should happen with Governor Shapiro.

Where is the media to hold his feet to the fire to say the only way to make my phrase, make America smarter, is to give people choice.

Make Americans smarter means give people choice.

They want to stay with the public schools.

They have a good one.

Knock yourself out.

Otherwise, let my people go. Don't stand in the schoolhouse door. A couple of other things this week in our quest to make America smarter again, or at least where it used to be. I interviewed on my radio show on Talk Radio 1210 in Philadelphia, Dawn Fantasia, an assemblywoman in New Jersey. And we talked about the fact that New Jersey at the 11th hour here, you know, these lame duck, you got to watch them toward the end of the year progressives.

They're trying to get rid of the high school exam that you have to take in Jersey in order to graduate. You talk about basic stuff. So why would Democrats, progressives, be doing this? They don't like testing. They don't want any of this. Why? The unions don't want it. Why don't they want it? Come on now. You know why they don't want it. It's a simple exit test to say, well, you might be asking, well, how do people get to that point? Come on. They're ready to graduate. Didn't they do that?

the work.

No, they didn't do the work.

They're being passed forward.

I had kids when I was teaching at Triton Regional High School

that were going to graduate.

And I had them in class.

And I gave them an exit test of a sort.

And the questions were things like,

what, and remember, this is in South Jersey,

Runnumbe, New Jersey.

They're about 40 miles from Atlantic City, if that.

What ocean touches Atlantic City?

I got answers like Pacific.

Who was Leonardo da Vinci? Answers like a mob dude. These people were graduating. Just a little sample to give you an idea. So this has to be stopped. It's ridiculous. You should have to pass this test. One other thing in this week's edition of attempting to make America smarter. The big story this year are phones.

couple weeks talking about kids and phones. Why is it that only guesstimates are a third of schools have actually banned having a phone during class time? There are all kinds of arguments on the other side. The guy who I've tried mightily to get on and would love to talk about that is the giant in this field is a guy named Dr. Jonathan Hayden. He wrote a piece for the Free Press, Barry Weiss's place, the Free Press.

He says, I asked chat GPT how it would destroy America's youth. Its answers were unsettling and all familiar. Earlier this year, someone started a viral trend of asking chat GPT this question. If you were the devil, how you would destroy the next generation without them even knowing it? Chat's responses were profound and unsettling. I wouldn't come with violence. I would come with convenience. I'd keep them busy, always distracted.

And that's when he settles into this idea as a school psychologist who's been trying since 2015 to figure out what on earth was happening to Gen Z. I was stunned. Why? Because what the AI proposed during it's pretty much what technology seems to be doing to children today. It seems to be saying if the devil wanted to destroy a generation, we would just give all of them smartphones. And we'll talk about what age.

You know, as a kid getting a smartphone at the age of 10, there's a lot into this about making America happier again, but certainly smarter again. Right there, he has a causal element of this. There's many other elements, not just phones. I'm not saying it's a panacea, but this is a big piece of it. This is something to take a look at. And in coming weeks, we'll get into it in more detail.

and give you advice as a parent, grandparent, concerned citizen about what to do around this. What we should not do is be like Governor Shapiro this week. This guy knows he has all the information he needs about the big, beautiful bill, probably memorized it. Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania, just say, yes, I'm going to take the money which would release kids and parents to make a choice just like he's able to make for his kids, just like wealthier people.

people are. The other thing is, let's tell New Jersey, no, keep this high school test. One of the reasons given in committee, I was told by Dawn Fantasia to be against it. They said, what if a girl broke up with her boyfriend the night before? She might be shattered. Imagine the sexism here, shattered and unable to pass the test, even though she's an A student. Oh, my goodness. Is there anything they will not stoop to?

beck and call of the teachers unions. And I have to get some of that testimony and read it of why you would not have a simple test that's trying to be a certification, if you will, to say we certify this kid that we're giving this degree to has basic knowledge. What about grades and all? What in the world is the objection? The objection is they're afraid that vast numbers of people, as you know and I know, are being graduated without

out basic knowledge. Why is that? All right, that'll be another podcast. That'll be another show.

To give you my experience as a classroom teacher, why that happens, how easy it is to happen, and why thousands and thousands and thousands of kids graduating this year are ending up like Dave McCormick talked about at places like Stanford, and they don't know basic math. Now, that's the extreme. But you can imagine, not everybody's going to Stanford. What about those that can't make Stanford in some way, shape, or form?

How in the world are they graduating? What are they going to do? We'll get into all of it. Just send me an email for old school, new school, next school, and make America smarter again. Massa. Just send it to domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W, at AOL.com. Domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W, at AOL.com. Have a great week. A lot more next week.

He's coming with the smart phones. Dom Giordano, 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.