Dom presents another in-depth look at ways to advance school choice.

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, where this show is about parental rights.

It's about stopping, if you haven't noticed, the dumbing down of America.

In fact, this is the first generation now officially dubbed dumber than the last.

This comes from the New York Post. Gen Z, this will be smart. They say the generation born between 1997 and 2010 is the very first generation who did worse in school than the generation before them, according to a top neuroscientist. And shockingly, they're proud of it. This is Jared Cooney-Harvat, PhD in Portland, Oregon, who I plan to get on the show.

in the coming weeks.

So, you know, we've all had the experience.

Where you'll have somebody of these generations say, I don't know anything about that instead of like, wow, maybe I should know about that.

There's no shame. There's nothing associated with it.

It's just a statement. Nope. I don't know that I wasn't alive then.

I plan to get this guy on maybe next week on old school, new school, next school to break this down.

And one of the ways to make America smart again, the mission of this show, involved with parents, is to have choice, to have choice of schools who get this and the techniques and the things that are necessary in order to make your kid at least smart again. I'll go through a number of them today. But first, Kim Ward is the president of the Pennsylvania Senate pro tempore.

She is an ardent supporter of school choice. She joined me and I taped this next part of an interview with her laying out the case for school choice in Pennsylvania, which has national repercussions. So far, only one Democrat, Governor Polis, who I think is running for president from Colorado, has signed off on taking the big, beautiful bill, the new money that's in the federal bill that will come into play in 2022.

You have to opt in or out in 2026. Josh Shapiro still has not told us one way or the other. This is huge. If Shapiro does that, it marks him as a different kind of Democrat on paper. More importantly, it opens up more and more states toward doing the right thing, which is to take the money. So here is my interview around the issue of school choice with a real powerhouse in Pennsylvania.

Here is the president of the Pennsylvania Senate, Kim Ward. I know you are passionate about this, your own background, etc., and you've talked movingly about it. And here we have a golden opportunity with the governor, I think, to not only help kids and families, but to help himself. All he has to do is take the new money. Right. Oh, I'm hoping that he does that.

And it really should be simple. It doesn't affect the budget at all because it's federal. It's kind of like they actually use part of Pennsylvania's EITC to model this after the federal. The Trump administration did. So it's a lot like what we have now, and it won't affect anything in the state. He should simply take the money.

Why so much school choice with you? What do you see in your own background or what you see in your role across Pennsylvania? What do you think in general this would do? This is only one part of it, the big, beautiful bill. But in general, doing what he pledged to do, he was following through, and then Matt Bradford and the teachers unions got to him. What would it do in your view? Well, I just think it would give all of these kids, you know, we would start as we tried to start with kids in failing schools.

low-income kids in failing schools. It would give them a chance at life. They're not going to graduate without being able to read, write. They will be able to, if they get the proper education, to get a good job or go to college, go to trade school. We're giving them a chance at life. I think we are hurting them and holding them back by not giving them the opportunities to do better. So I think this is something that is so common sense.

And, you know, it's just hard to believe it's so hard to get something that simple done. But the power of some of the purse strings of the PSEA and the American Federation of Teachers, which is what is in Philadelphia, is, you know, it's very strong. They have a lot of control in the Democratic caucus, House caucus, a lot of control.

Also, the point you just made there, it's not just Philadelphia. Stacey Garrity, I think, in this campaign is illustrating, and I know you two know rural Pennsylvania, you know, want to highlight how neglected this has been many, many times. And this would hit school districts. Maybe they're underfunded. I'm not sure what it is. But there are school districts that are substandard in rural Pennsylvania, just like in Philadelphia.

It would impact the kids across the spectrum. You know, I think when we're trying to get kids to get their test scores up, I don't see them being any better than they have been before. Pennsylvania rents number seven in the country, in the country, for funding public education. That's all in. I write that's local, federal, state. Seventh in the country. But yet, you know, some,

And the legislature on the other side of the aisle continue to scream for more and more money. What are you doing with it? We have less students. Show me the money. Show me the results of all of this extra money. You know, they continuously use the court case. Well, the court case said, no, the court case didn't say we had to give them more money. The court case said we had to change our funding formula. It didn't say we have to add money to the funding. It said we have to change the funding formula. So they keep saying,

We have to do this for the court case, $567 million. Last year, $526 million. The year before, you know, it's in the governor's budget again. I think we need to talk about this. This is not a given to me. It is not a given. You know, we all want a good education for our kids. So why can't we give them a good education? If they're in a failing school, let them out. Let them out of the failing school. You want to give all this money to public education? Fine.

As long as those kids are getting educated and they're able to choose where they go, because I don't think it's making a difference in some of these places at all. Absolutely. So Senate President Kim Ward with us. Are you saying that this 526 million you just mentioned is going to be debated here? Again, I agree with you on the court case. I've read it several times. And you know what word comes up here that Stacey Garrity uses? And apparently it enrages the other side every time it comes up is mediocre.

or number seven in spending. We may not even be mediocre in results. And I would say when I see Josh Shapiro, other than how he acted with I-95 and he did a good job of putting it on the web, showing people that, okay, he's been mediocre at best. Absolutely. He's not. Tell me what he's really accomplished on his own. He's not bragging about very many things that he signed bills for.

then I will tell you that wouldn't be there. Those things would not be there if we did not have a Republican Senate holding the line and pushing for change. It wouldn't happen. All right. That's President Kim Ward. Again, she said a lot in there of how valuable and you know where this really helps to. We think of the inner city, but what about rural America? What about students and their parents out there in rural America?

of those schools. And the answer is probably not that good. Okay? That's what they face also. We got to continue to get that message across on School Choice. By the way, one happy note this week on School Choice, we see that in Texas, over 100,000 students and parents, 100,000 kids, have applied for the statewide School Choice plan to get that scholarship.

to be able to go to the school of their choice. Now, Texas is big, but I'm telling you, over 100,000 kids have already done this. So they're going to need a bigger boat. They're going to have to go back there and get more money, I think, versus continuing to go down this path. Texas, 100,000 kids. On the agenda this week, on your kid and making your kid weather this storm until we get them into the school of

your choice, make America smart again. I saw Dr. Hyatt, who is the guy who really shows how damaging social media can be, on with Bill Maher this week, talking about what they've done in Australia around limiting it to kids under 16. That's something every parent should consider. And the more parents that do, the more you have backing to continue to do it. And here's a curious thing in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania now, I believe it's 18, 19, or 20 states, depending on how you look at it.

The governor, Governor Shapiro, signed a bill this past week that says that cursive writing must be taught in Pennsylvania schools.

Now think about this. Think about when you were a kid, the Palmer Method.

I have beyond horrible handwriting, but I went to Catholic school. It was taught to me. It's my own deficiency.

There are numbers of kids who can't write in cursive, can't write in check in cursive. They can't read cursive. Think of the founding documents. Think of even mail-in balloting you're talking about. And here's the thing. People that have studied writing in cursive have found that intellectually it's a big help to be able to do this, not just a manual skill. So way to go, Pennsylvania, doing it this week. If you're a parent concerned about your kid and they're not doing it wherever you are,

This is something you should look at.

Because it's state by state by state to get this done.

By the way, you know when this started?

This knocking cursive out of the curriculum?

Way back to the Obama administration.

Do you remember the Common Core standards?

Yeah, they weren't really standards.

They were completely ineffective.

And this is one of the things they knocked out for so-called higher standards.

Now, something that is a core of this show, and wherever I go, whatever I do, it is a core for me, and that is to tell you about arming you as a parent, as a grandparent, whatever you may be, even if you don't have school choice yet, where you can fully find an education that you think matches up best with that child. What we do have, and he's still alive, is E.D. Hirsch.

Now, E.D. Hirsch is the guy that put out this book, What Every American Should Know, and what it is, it's a compilation of about, it's called cultural literacy. And he believes, and I believe, if you're truly going to read and comprehend and have nuance and be able to write on a high level, you need to understand the cultural terms of our American society. Things like any port in a storm.

Things like a bird in the hand is where two in the bush.

The significance of 1861 to 65.

Who's Leonardo da Vinci?

Stuff like that.

Attackers will say, you're just having people memorize.

You're darn tootin' memory is part of this.

We absolutely are having memory here.

You have to know that you know it, and you have to be able to use it effectively if you're going to compete on a high level.

So remember the name E.D. Hirsch.

H-I-R-S-C-H.

Cultural Literacy. You can Google it. You'll see most of the stuff there.

But also as a parent, after he did that with a lot of attackers, E.D. Hirsch started to put out this series, What Your Child Needs to Know series.

Okay? And this starts, I don't know if the, yes, preschool through grade six. I don't know if he's going past grade six now.

Now, here's what happens. I'm telling you as someone who formerly taught for years in schools, if the kid in some public schools that are rough just does their homework, they're polite in class, they basically do okay in the test, they're getting at least a B. So when you come to the SATs, you come to any kind of testing that actually matters. Does that mean that kid knows a lot? No, I just told you what's going on. Teacher trying to keep order, get through the day. This is a nice kid. It's a B. Maybe an A in some places.

Is it really an A? You know about grade inflation. So what E.D.

Hirsch does, this series, it provides a comprehensive sequential curriculum for preschool through grade six designed to build foundational knowledge, improve reading comprehension, and ensure educational equity. There's that word, educational equity. In other words, if the school is not good, the school sucks, this is your duty as a parent to supplement till we get you

into the better situation. And even if you think it's pretty good, this is a way you can check. This is a way you can be involved. You could use it over the summertime. You can make games out of it. You can have fun with it. The books provide specific content in general areas. Science, art and music, geography, history, things of that nature. Cultural literacy. This framework is based on the idea that a common base of

knowledge, including idioms, historical events, and scientific concepts, is required for full participation in society. Could not agree more with E.D. Hirsch when it comes to that. So H-I-R-S-C-H, or Google it, put it online, cultural literacy, see the core books. It might be a gift if you're a grandparent. Get it. Get your kid involved in whatever level that they're on. It will help them.

It will move them forward a bit.

And it will reassure you that they're on point based upon somebody who really gets it.

That would be E.D. Hirsch.

Now, this whole idea of making America smart again.

You first have to not live in la-la land and just blame COVID, then do nothing about COVID.

I believe COVID was devastating.

The learning that went on, such as it was, those more months than they should have been out, was minimal. Kids who were already having difficulty are going to have more difficulty. So you can say, well, where does this end? How does America continue on with this? We seem to be doing okay. Well, there's a lot of seem to be there. And also, your concern is about the country, but mainly about your own child, grandchild, your own community. And the stuff I just told you about E.D. Hirsch.

Next week, I'll tell you about math and this guy, John Saxon, who wasn't a math teacher. He then, but he came up with the idea, I think it was an engineer, S-A-X-O-N, of writing books, the math books that he has. Every night, you are practicing the same skills that you started at with the beginning, the genius of doing that over and over and over again while advancing with the harder skills.

I'll break it down in more detail next week about John Saxon. But he and E.D.

Hirsch are my two heroes. They're actually providing direct solutions toward this problem of America growing dumb. And we know I mentioned the neuroscientist who said it's an obvious thing from one generation to another. It is incremental and it's only going to get worse. Do you want your child to be a victim of that or do you want to take action?

The ultimate action is school choice.

But in the meantime, the action is to find the best at home for your child that is doable.

You don't have to be a teacher.

You are a concerned parent.

I'm giving you the blueprint each and every week here of some of the things that work.

So to review, this week, Pennsylvania demands cursive writing in schools.

As I said, that's just not about reading cursive writing.

It's about being able to do it.

And there's a lot of connection to the brain and intelligence with cursive.

You can Google that all that you want, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

E.D. Hirsch, H-I-R-S-C-H, Cultural Literacy, and those books, What Every Child Should Know by the End of First Grade.

And John Saxon, S-A-X-O-N, next week, will tell you a little bit more about math.

Now, the first thing to do is admitting this is a problem.

Don't be going a whole school year and saying, but my child got A's and B's. That's a decent sign. If it's a quote, good school where there are high standards. But how many of them are? People fall between the cracks. I taught in one school where the kid who was the junior class president, when he became a senior, they got to read the morning announcements. Turned out he was a functional illiterate at that point, barely. And it was exposed hearing the announcements.

How did that happen? Well, the school was only mediocre. Kid was nice, did the work, parents nice, and he just kept on moving along, maybe at a B level. In some districts, you don't need 70. You maybe know about this. 70 is not the passing grade. To me, the 11th Commandment Catholic school, 70 will always be the passing grade. It could be 62. 78 might be a B minus. What? Yes. These are all signs of trying to accommodate.

what is happening in America. You have to make a decision that your kid's not going to

participate in this accommodation. Your child's going to advance and you have the roadmap to help with that, including school choice ultimately for the school that you want. Please send me an email with any questions on any of this. I'll be happy to send you a link or illustrate it for you. You can always reach me at domshow at aol.com.

D-O-M-S-H-O-W at AOL.com.

Also, one more thing on the School Choice.

Good news this week.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, how School Choice has won the battle in many ways.

And now Randy Weingarten and the teachers unions are just fighting like the Japanese soldiers in caves, this rearguard action.

But they're not done yet.

They're still able to stand in the schoolhouse door and stop kids from getting into a better school. That's a large part of this show. Remember, each and every week here, Dom Giordano with you at Old School, New School, Next School. Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano is a presentation of Giordano Productions, LLC. Copyright 2026. All rights reserved.