Dom welcomes Chicago talk radio host, Shaun Thompson to the podcast.

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. Our guest, Sean Thompson.

Sean started as a commodities runner, whatever the heck that is, in Chicago, and then moved up in the mercantile world and then called a talk radio station.

And now he holds forward central time 4 to 7 p.m. on 560.

The answer. I've been on with him twice. Really enjoyed it.

Talking education, school choice, but mainly education.

Make America smart again is what I'm trying to do.

So, Sean, thank you. Thanks for joining us. Is that fairly accurate, your background?

Yes, it is. Punk in school, one year of college, got a job as a runner at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The crash happened the following week of 87 and I was hooked. I was hooked. So I stayed there until 2005 and always had a real estate license. And as they shut down the free trade, as they shut down open outcry, most guys didn't reinvent themselves. But I like money too much to lose it. So I went into the real estate business and that's why you're seeing me in South Florida.

Uh-huh. Excellent. So, Sean, too, let's go back to where you're headquartered, though. The Chicago Public Schools are notorious now. I'm in Philadelphia, and we've been embarrassed this week. I think you may have seen it. I don't know. You're in Florida. By our sheriff, who's not in charge of law enforcement, Rochelle Bual, and is a graduate, I believe, of the Philadelphia Public Schools. But to me, in a world of these teachers' unions, like in Minnesota,

where they are really the de facto head of schools now. They've gotten them to say you can learn

remotely until February 12th because ICE might be in our entire city. You are in the capital of what cries for a school choice or other remedies, Chicago. Day to day, give us an idea of what it is that drives this union in Chicago.

Failure is what drives it. You know, when you look at the kind of money they've made for failing, this is the way to look at the political scams as I see them. They are in a very unique position. It's actually the perfect position. The more they fail, for some reason, the more money and the more power they get. The more of a monopoly in the market. Illinois is the first state to negate the option of school choice. It was passed by law. And J.B. Pritzker, a lifelong corrupt tax cheat,

Democrat made certain that kids would not have that option. You see, when you are a political swindler, the last thing you want is an educated constituency. You cannot afford to educate these kids. So you have to make it look as if you're attempting, but you just can't do it. And in the meantime, the city of Chicago, per property, a taxpayer pays $32,000 per head for 18 out of 100 that can read at grade level. 11 can do math. There are 40 schools or 20,

where zero can read at grade level and zero can do math.

And the median teacher, the median teacher is 119,000 a year.

Why would you change anything?

You absolutely need more failure, more excuses.

And as you look at society devolve, when the teachers come on to articulate their argument, I don't think they can read.

I say 80% of the teachers cannot read.

And we have a scandal like Texas has a scandal, like Philly has a scandal, like New York has a scandal,

where they're cheating on the tests of credentials for teachers. So it is the perfect system of mafia failure. And they've got everybody right where they want them, helpless. And that's the goal.

So the reform movement there, I mean, even in a place like that, I mean, you're a guy and you have a very good audience that listens to you and I think is in empathy with the types of things you're talking about.

What is happening as far as, if not school choice, charters and things of that, anything? The silver lining, the incredible silver lining, and you and I talked about this when you came on my show. The silver lining is homeschooled, and the silver lining is the potential of what can happen with the advancing of artificial intelligence in education, in the programs you're involved with. This is the silver lining, and it is the only answer. You know, time is the enemy of all of us. It's only today, right now.

Tomorrow is already almost gone. So you don't have time to waste to fight a Leviathan that has been successful for 50 years. For 50 years, it has been successful. Your kid is only in third grade once. So that's the time to save these kids. You do not have time to mess around with a system that steals billions, not even millions or hundreds of millions. It's billions of dollars, which is why all these failing systems needed to be sanctuary, as they call it.

They nullify the immigration laws because they get paid per head. They don't care how many heads they are. They don't even care if the kids show. Chicago has ridiculous absentee rates. It's insanity. And the only thing that comes second are the teachers' absentee rates. So if you are in these, I had a girl on my show Friday. It's called Chicago Flips Red. She's a lovely lady who's been victimized of this her entire life. She's in her 60s. And she's trying to fight. She goes to the city hall, and it's fantastic.

But for her grandkids right now, you raise them in your home. You educate them. We have the tools. Look at how you and I are communicating today. This is something that would have been thought ridiculous 40 years ago if we would have talked about it. Now look at us. We have the technology right now to successfully homeschool our children. And if you've ever met these kids who have been homeschooled, you realize we've been doing it wrong the whole time anyway. Right. Do you see a lot of that? You mentioned the one woman. Do you see a lot of that, Sean, of homeschoolers? Absolutely.

A massive uptake. And to the left. There's a number that are to the left at this point, too. For different reasons. I don't care, but that's good. They're opposed to the system also. Here's the thing we understand. We've allowed the opponent to freedom and to our system to put us in these categories of right and left. I really think it's more people that want to achieve and more people that want better versus everybody else. And, you know, the funny thing is people, I don't know what it is. I never felt this way. And I know a lot of guys that never felt this way.

People want to be in a group. They want to be accepted by people. I don't know how anybody in America in the year 2026 can call themselves a Democrat or left. How much failure is enough before you recognize you're a victim if you're not in on the scam? If you're not profiting directly from this political thievery, this piracy, then you're a victim of it. Why would you still rub the feet of your slave master? When someone tells me they're a Chicago Democrat, to me it's a confession. You're either a moron or you're in on it.

That's exactly how I view all Democrats. And by the way, I say this not being a Republican ticket. The Republicans that go along and cannot put up the fight against this for five decades, you're just as culpable, you moron. What have you been doing? Give me why we have you here and have an opportunity to talk with you, particularly from Florida. You're sort of on vacation coming back. Sean Pritzker looks from afar, well, you and I know, but for viewers and listeners, just a guy that inherited a

and is tired of being governor, is going to run for president definitively. Give us a little insight, though, day to day with Pritzker, what he's like.

So it's a legacy, legacy Democrat mafia crime family. It has been since his grandfather.

To give you a scope into the character of J.B. Pritzker, it's the greatest example I think I can give of character.

He inherited $2 billion, $2,000 million. And he lives in a very exclusive part of the city of Chicago,

or at least he spends some of the year there. He doesn't live there, believe me. His wife didn't spend any time in Chicago during COVID unless she absolutely had to. They live on the other side of Florida from me. But he inherits $2,000 million. He lives in a mansion. The mansion next door goes for sale. He doesn't want anyone to buy it. By the way, this is all in the news. You can find this out yourself. He buys it. The taxes on the property were $287,000 or $300,000, give or take.

He removed the kitchen

because at that point it is uninhabitable

He then used his

He's got a thousand lawyers that kiss his ass

to go to the county

and reduce the taxes by

$200,000

Now you and I

listen, a funny thing about

that kind of money when you never work for it

He doesn't do a thing

never worked a day in his life to butterhanded pansy

He sits there and gets

tremendous amounts of money a month based on what the money's making. So he's making hundreds of millions a year on this money. And the kind of character he has of the city he says he's proud of and the state that he wants to be the governor of, he cheats them out of the taxes of property, of which if you and I and the guys I worked with who came from nothing, listen, I lived on top of a fracking garage. For me, a house was a big deal.

The guys who scrap and buy something on that block somehow invent a widget or create something or are good at something, they take their money that they make and they pay their taxes. But here's this mafia-connected fat slob who never worked, who is willing to cheat the people. And the idiots in Chicago, the morons in Illinois, don't care because they want in on that scam. That is the psychological subversion of why I live here permanently. I live here because I have respect for myself and my mom.

And I do a radio show that's broadcast out of Chicago. And you want to know something? So does the morning show guy who's my dear friend. I sold him his property. I'm still a real estate broker here. Because that's the difference between us and them. We don't want anything for free. We just want to keep what we can of our own money. That's the difference. You're fighting a psychological extortionist who has coveted your assets and coveted people who make money. You cannot, I'm telling you, I know it's a harsh reality, but you cannot coexist.

with this if you work for your money and you have respect for it.

Sean, thank you. Thanks so much. Didn't know the backstory. I can hardly wait till we talk again.

What are you talking about tonight? Do you know yet? You're basking in the sunshine.

What are you talking about tonight?

Well, you know what I do? I walk and I listen to all news. I don't watch any sports and everyone gets mad at me because of the Bears and I don't give a rip.

They're mercenaries, right? I care less what they do.

So what I do is I constantly digest news and I don't like to think about how I'm going to do it.

I just want the day to progress. Because what I might talk about might not have happened yet, right? So I kind of let it happen. But I love it. And I love when you come on. So please, I can't wait to have you on my show again as well. Absolutely. Well, come to Florida to do it. That's even better. You'll probably sell me a house. We're looking. No, you can stay with me. You're fine. You got a place whenever you need it. Okay. Thank you, Sean. Thanks for joining us today. That is Sean Thompson. You hear him 4 to 7 p.m., 560 The Answer. And you heard what he said there in the beginning.

before we got fully into Pritzker, but it's all part of the same. How in the world, we know this here in Pennsylvania where I am. We know it in New Jersey. Chicago is the worst. You heard some of those statistics. You have a sense of it. What does it take? All right, he says homeschooling. Whatever the answer is to disrupt this. Now, as we start the new year, we are seeing the big question of the year. I'll bring you back to it each and every week here on Old School, New School.

The big question of the week is what will these governors do? They have to decide, are they going to take the money from the big, beautiful bill that would allow nonprofits to be set up? And then those nonprofits would give out the money to parents trying to flee places like the Chicago public schools, the Philadelphia public schools, the New York public schools, particularly under Mondani. Governor Polis in Colorado,

who might be running for president. So maybe that's part of it. He's a Democrat. He's progressive on some things, but he's pretty clever. He's not your average moronic candidate. He has signed off for it for Colorado saying, hey, how could he deny his constituents? The money would just go to other states around them. What will Josh Shapiro do? What will Mikey Sherrill do? Will they accept what is free money? I'm using that in quotes.

Of course, it's coming from taxpayer-funded federal government. By that, I mean, we will not take away from the public schools. They already have record numbers in Pennsylvania. Here's the other leg of this that we have to work on. It's the Philadelphia Inquirer. It's the big media in Pennsylvania, in Chicago, in New York, across the country. Are they putting this top of mind to guys like Shapiro, who's running for governor and also running for president?

decide on this and tell us what you're going to do. In Iowa, the governor just decided in the last few days that Iowa is going to accept the money. This is a no-brainer. The information's out there. It's not Sanskrit. It's not the Rosetta Stone. All the governor has to do is say yes or say no and tell us why. But they should be made to do it now, not to some news dump on a Friday morning. This is a major

issue now in Pennsylvania, when we have Stacey Garrity on old school, new school, next school, education is going to be a major issue. And here's the nugget. If you miss any week, I try to say it once a week. The numbers indicate that K-12 across America, we are now spending a trillion dollars a year, maybe even a little bit more, a trillion dollars a year. You heard the Chicago results. You have a sense of where you're

you are. A trillion dollars a year. It's bad enough to be spending that.

We're stealing it from people. And you heard the average teacher shot salary,

$119,000 median in Chicago, the Chicago way, a trillion dollars.

So think about that for a moment. You know, one of these weeks,

I have to put out what a trillion dollars is,

how many hundred dollar bills you could stack up to Mars and back.

But it is an inordinate amount of money. Why not give people a chance to make a decision on their own? People that may not have means like Pritzker or Shapiro or whomever. Shapiro sends his kids to a private school. I think it's a religious reason. That's fine. That's his choice. That's good. I'm not here saying he's got to send him to a public school just because he's governor. But the point is, why is he standing in the schoolhouse door?

Why is Pritzker doing that? And here's a guy who is a, I don't know about a progressive, a liberal governor in Colorado, the first and only Democrat so far to say, yes, I'm going to do this. This ought to be job one. Yep. I looked at it. We're getting money. Our kids are getting choice. Parents and students can be educated better. I'm signing off. The problem is the teachers unions, the pressure of the teachers unions.

They are de facto running the schools. You heard me tell Sean today, Sean Thompson, that the public schools in Minnesota, you can learn remotely. Well, you can be on remote, meaning not going to school allegedly because of ICE. That's what they pushed for and got the teachers union again. Are you learning it? We learned that during COVID. You're not learning. All right. So I hope you enjoyed Sean Thompson. It gives us the flavor of one of the very worst in Chicago.

Are we going to see, in a place like Illinois, a robust movement to push back on this? I think we are in Pennsylvania. We're starting to see some of it in Jersey. Wherever you are, realize you're not alone. That's what this show is about. It's about making America smart again. And one of the ways to do that is to give people school choice. That's probably the biggest. All right, more next week. Remember, you can email me at domshow at AOL.com. Domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W, at AOL.com.

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