Candidate for PA Governor, Stacy Garrity, joins Dom to discuss why current PA Governor Jo…

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 in to this week's edition of Old School, New School, Next School.

As we turn toward Christmastime, a lot to report.

Stacey Garrity is running for governor in Pennsylvania, the ultimate swing state, against a guy with big-time presidential aspirations.

And Stacey Garrity talked to me about education and how it plays out in a race that's going to spend an ungodly amount of money for governor and how it plays out with her opponent, Democrat governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro. We talked about choice. And we also talked about just plain garden variety test scores, things that they differ on when it comes to teachers unions, making Pennsylvania smarter again, not just making

Making America Smarter Again. Here's what candidate Stacey Garrity told me about how she sees this issue coming up with Governor Josh Shapiro. Talking with Treasurer Stacey Garrity and also former decorated military colonel in the reserves, Stacey, Dave McCormick was on the show. He wrote this piece in the Inquirer that I think summarized where we are with the issue of choice. And it comes down to if you're elected governor, which certainly,

We back and hope that happens. Will you sign the big, beautiful bill, the part that deals with school choice? And as we understand it, McCormick lays it out, money that comes, no strings attached, doesn't take away from the public schools. I would 100 percent sign it, Dom. And thanks for having me on. It is always great to be on your show. Well, now the media doesn't seem where you go and the media coverage and all that, particularly across rural

where we don't have as much access to. Do people realize that this is an offing? And Josh Shapiro, apparently, I don't know what more evidence we need. We have the bill. He has experts. He's a lawyer. To read the bill and say yes or no, I think the media ought to press him on that or hear why he might object to it. I don't know what the possible objection could be. Are people aware of this or maybe not yet?

I don't think they're aware of it yet, Dom. And yeah, particularly in rural PA, when you look, there's not as many options. And you know what? A lot of those schools don't even have the reserves that the larger schools have. And so just the fact that he passed a budget four and a half months late, that really hurt our public education and particularly our schools and our rural communities because they had to dip in the lines of credit, take out loans and make tough decisions.

You creatively got involved with that though with the loans to school districts and other entities like rape crisis centers during this. What's the final tally on that? What was the net effect of that? You know we ended up pushing out close to 50 million dollars so we helped all the rape and abuse crisis centers. Domestic violence ticket and I think it was 27 head starts in pre-k's and we were just getting ready.

to basically push out money to schools or public schools because we knew they couldn't survive much longer. And then they passed the budget. But I have to tell you, when they passed the budget, they snuck something in the fiscal code that says that I can't help these entities during a budget impasse, which to me is unconscionable because why wouldn't you want to help vulnerable people?

when the state is still collecting taxes and still earning interest.

So I just think that's absolutely horrible that people, you know, politicians would put politics over Pennsylvanians.

Well, you know what, too? Again, I plead that we are ignorant of that.

We didn't know that because the media, I'm glad you mentioned that and will really amplify that.

The media hasn't covered that.

I just saw today here in Philadelphia on Axios that the Philadelphia public schools are getting a lot more money now after this budget impasse and yet they are losing students in the hundreds if not thousands. Yet the charter schools in Philadelphia are up by 500 and the cyber charter are up by 600. You and I know there are caps on them. What could a governor do to remove these caps on how many charter school students

Is it a city thing or is there a statewide emphasis? In other words, statewide, a city like Pittsburgh or Harrisburg, can they have thousands of kids go to charter schools? Well, you know, the Shapiro administration is trying to put a cap on how many kids can go to charter schools. And if you just look at the recent budget, he flooded K-12 education with just about $900 million in new funding.

And you know what that means that 50%, we've had 50% increase in the Commonwealth support for public schools over the past eight years. And yet, yes, he slashed public funding for public cyber charter schools. He cut the funding by $178 million. And you know what, that directly hurts 65,000 Pennsylvania students. So I would say our next governor needs to have clear priorities for improving our education system.

And if it's me, I will stick to them. Funding needs to go where there is the greatest need. Parents, not bureaucrats, need to be empowered to make decisions that best meet the need of their child. And a zip code should not be a factor in whether or not they get the best education possible. And cyber charters, they are a lifeline to kids across the Commonwealth. And yeah, if it were me, I'm all about school choice.

As you know, and I would certainly do more with cyber charters, homeschool, you name it.

Also, as treasurer, you announced a new way to give the gift of education this holiday. What are you doing as treasurer?

Yes. So it's called YouGift. And so, you know, if I were a parent, and if your kids have a lot of toys,

then basically they can deposit money right into their child's PA 529 college and career savings plan which would be fantastic. Yeah this is the road we have to go until we have you in the governor's chair. I realize you know they were doing what we can around this. Overall as you're out there now campaigning fiercely across the state we've had on the station the senate pro tempore and I think another female republican senator.

Talking about this issue with Josh Shapiro and women, not just the sexual harassment part that's still in the air. What's your experience with him and that reputation that's gaining steam here? These are accomplished women who don't make wild charges. What indicators do you see of this with Shapiro and particularly Republican women? Well, you know, he certainly doesn't like to be challenged, particularly by

And you saw when the reporter, I don't know if you saw this, but the reporter asked him about the comments that Kamala Harris, who of course is a Democrat, made about him in her book. He kind of lost his cool a little bit, and he typically doesn't, so I don't think he saw that question necessarily coming at him.

Yeah, we did see that. And you're right. We see a little bit more what he's really all about. The other issue, Stacey, as treasurer, wanted to dig into with you, the numbers when I had on Senator Coleman investigating the cost to fix the residence or to rebuild it, if you will, in Harrisburg, and then his own Abington home, his own Abington home, there was like an $80,000 bill in there just to trim trees, not even to plant trees.

trees, just $80,000 to trim it. And the residents, the figure that I had, was in the tens of millions of dollars.

It is in the tens of millions of dollars. And the private residents, I'm surprised that, first of all, he stole his neighbor's land, used some sort of eminent domain, had huge landscaping charts, you know, put rocks, landscaping, new fencing.

And of course we want them to be safe, but how can you justify spending more than the value of your home on upgrades when it's a private residence? Yeah, and there's still a lot of mystery. I agree with you. We want any governor, you or Shapiro, whoever it is, to be safe, to be protected. I want accountability, too, for how this guy got there, and I want to continue to state the reason the guy gave.

It's coming from the left of his party more than anything else.

It seems to me the governor wants to reap the benefits of this,

but doesn't want to be transparent about cost, the motive, and just protection of a governor.

It ought to be the whole package.

I agree.

And transparency, lack of transparency is certainly a theme that keeps coming up over and over and over again,

from the sexual assault with one of his top advisors, you know, all of a sudden there were deleted emails, to getting an ethics decision after he had the work done at his private residence, to not disclosing, you know, who's flying with him, you know, on the flights that he takes all over the country. It just goes on and on and on. And it amazes me because, you know what, this is our money. It's not Harrisburg.

Absolutely. A parting question for you, Stacey Garrity, treasurer, candidate to be governor of Pennsylvania with us. And that is when you're out there on the trail, we talked about school choice, et cetera. Education, do people have a sense or maybe there's still the media not covering it enough, the differences between you and Governor Shapiro, for example, the trans issue in school or particularly female sports and all maybe some of it.

is involved with the governor and these Republican women like Martina White, who was a college athlete.

And he has just made it that you're just mean if you don't go along with having males compete against females.

You know, that's a very good question.

So I bring that up quite a bit that, you know, he's managed to pull the wool over the eyes of a lot of Pennsylvanians who think he is a moderate.

And when I say, well, you know, he supports biological males competing against our girls in sports. He supports gender-affirming care for trans little kids using our care dollars for no work requirement. I mean, people are typically surprised that we have to get the message out that he has a lot of far-left policies and views. And I don't know if you've covered this, but, you know,

So he's claiming that he supports energy because he pulled out of RGGI, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is basically a legal tax. But then he turned around and ordered a study of offsets, setbacks, I should say, a mile. And if that was enacted, it's essentially a ban on fracking.

So on one hand, he says he's pro-energy. On the other hand, you know, you would think he wrote the Green New Deal. Yeah, quite a chameleon. He's not a moderate in any way, shape or form. Although bottom line, I don't even know what he believes in other than which is the critical thing for people in Pennsylvania. You make it. You are grassroots out there running to run Pennsylvania as you have as treasurer. He's out there running for president. And Matt Bradford, our buddy, seems to be the guy that essentially,

is running Pennsylvania. It is a weird situation. He cares more about Pennsylvania Avenue than Pennsylvania for sure. And you can see that just because he continually puts politics ahead of Pennsylvanians. I mean, think about it. We rank 38th in the economy, 39th in education, 41st overall in the nation. I mean, that is just unacceptable, which means we're mediocre at best when you compare us to, you know, our neighbors. And it doesn't have to be that way.

And when you bring that up to people, they're like, you're right, because we have everything here in Pennsylvania that we need to succeed. Absolutely. And hopefully a new governor. Thank you so much. If we don't speak between now and Christmas, have a great Christmas. And thank you. Thank you, Stacey. Thank you very much, Treasurer. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. All right. That's the thought process as we run into this race. And of course, Shapiro is somebody who takes on President Trump.

And one of the things he's taken on President Trump on is the big, beautiful bill. You heard us talking about the fact he refuses to say, needs more information. What? I have more information than you do. Call Dom, Governor. I'll tell you about the big, beautiful bill and the choice you have that you won't make because of people like Matt Bradford, the majority leader in the House and others who are after you all the time. They will not allow choice of any sort.

And I'm going to give you another example with the charter schools in Pennsylvania, but this is nationwide. So Stacey Garrity has the footing here. You heard her clearly say, yes, if given the opportunity as governor, I will instantly sign the big, beautiful bill. Thanks to Dave McCormick, Senator and others who provide oodles of money for school choice in that bill, which when this kicks in January 1, we're going to be talking about it a whole lot more.

Why won't Governor Shapiro take a position on this? If he opposes us, opposes it, why? What there? How much more do we have to go over that this is what he should do? But I want to give you an example. Not just Shapiro, the clowns in Harrisburg, and this is a nationwide story. Philadelphia Inquirer covers it as if they're actually reporting factually on this.

And it's the argument that charter schools are dumping kids. In other words, they make this argument this week in the Philadelphia Inquirer that all the public school gurus, which are going so well, say these charter schools take some kids in, and when those kids are hard to teach, they dump them at various parts during the year but still collect the money.

the other side of it that I guess I should get on. Mr. Jones of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School. Now, Richard Allen is a notorious housing project where I did substitute teaching in Philadelphia with a school there. The charter school is going great guns. And he says that we do not do this. We do not engage in dumping. Parents enrolling their children at Richard Allen have told him, they were told his school could provide better services.

The staff at the farmer school, the district school, the inquirer says. And he says it is fair what they do. They are trying with kids. Most of these kids are black or brown students, and they are being let down by the Philadelphia public schools, which they are increasingly. So these charter schools are constantly vilified by the media. This is nationwide. This is not just in Philadelphia.

And yet, I know that any number of these charter schools, like the Mass Charter School in Philadelphia, one year had 9,000 applicants they had to put into a lottery. Why is it that parents are voting for choice? Why is it they're voting for charter schools? In many instances, this article in the Inquirer says, well, you know, in the charter school, they will throw you out for things like fighting, if it's a few times, something like that.

In the Philadelphia public schools, you don't get thrown out for that.

It has to be a mass threat of violence or weapons involved.

Well, guess what?

Maybe the Philadelphia public schools should expel students and put them in disciplined schools if they're disrupting others.

And maybe the charter schools have it right.

If you're that type of disruptive force, then you can't be there to disrupt learning.

And I tell you that as a former classroom teacher, you have one disruptive child or two in a classroom. See what you do. You'll hold on for dear life. You don't give the best to the kids that are there really to learn. So this is just an example. It's locally, but on our mission to make America smarter again, it's an example of the type of nonsense that's out there. We'll have more on this in coming weeks. And one other example on this cover, my friend over in Jersey,

The State Assemblywoman who's been on the show, Dawn Fantasia, tweeted out the continuous battle going on in New Jersey to stop high school exit exams because many kids, more sizable numbers, cannot pass the exit exams. She remarks about this that Asbury Park, Bruce Springsteen, think of that school district, nearly doubled its graduation rate by,

And yet we're going to pick on the charter schools

because they take disruptive students and they may expel them. It's not right. It's not fair. And it goes on all too much. And this show is about improving the results for American kids. Make Pennsylvania kids smarter again. Make America smarter again. The way to do that is to get the hell out of the way of the charter schools that are functioning. Because if they're not functioning, the parents are going to vote with their

That's what's going to happen here. And as we head toward Christmas in the Christmas spirit, I say bah humbug to these attempts to tell us that the charter schools are conning people. This is the game here constantly. We're spending ungodly amounts of money. President Trump was right with the big, beautiful bill. Josh Shapiro, let my children go. Let these kids go. Just tell us you're going to sign

this bill or tell us you're not so we can critique January 1st is right around the corner and let people know why you are not allowing all children to have the right that you have. You send your kids to private schools. That's definitely your right. You don't want to hold them hostage to the public schools. Definitely your right. You don't want to indoctrinate them that manner. Definitely your right. Let these students and parents have the same result. Hey, thanks for listening again this week.

Let them know each and every week. And send me an email. You can reach me, domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W, at AOL.com. We'll continue to chart this battle between Garrity and Shapiro. The point this week was it's not just about school choice. It's about making America smarter again. It's about all these education issues that the two are going to be duking it out. She will sign that bill.

Instantly freeing up millions of dollars to help parents and kids make a choice. I don't think in the end, Josh Shapiro is going to go for it. I think he's working up an excuse list right now. We'll be there to chronicle this and to talk about it. And remember, this is nationwide. A number of governors are on record already that they are going to sign this and get money for their kids and parents in their state. That's the right way to go. Thanks for listening this week.

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