Learn about the outrageous conditions at one Philadelphia elementary school.

Welcome to Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano, a podcast devoted to shedding light on issues pertaining to making America smart again. These include, among many topics, school choice and parental rights. This podcast is dedicated to reversing the deeply disturbing trend known as the dumbing down of America. Now, 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.

Repeat visitor Guy Sciarocki is with us. Guy, in no particular order, is a softball coach, columnist at Broad and Liberty, columnist at Real Clear, Pennsylvania.

He's run for office before. And some of the things he covers are suburban politics and what is suburbia all about, but also school choice. And he recently wrote a devastating piece about a local elementary school in Philadelphia that really takes us to this point. We seem to be winning all over the place, Guy. But what is, well, I have the direct quote here. I was so impressed by what you wrote.

Even though the news covered this, they didn't cover it in quite the way that you did. And your lead was, if the district Philadelphia schools will not allow students to leave school where almost no one else is learning, won't allow students to leave schools that are violent, at least allow students to leave schools where eight-year-olds have to hold their breath, hold their pee, and dodge rats?

That is Shakespearean to me, a guy nicely played. So how long has this been going on at South Work? I see little kids out there holding up signs, please let us pee, something like that, and their parents, and yet it goes on and on and on. Tell us about it.

It's been going on there at South Work since at least September of this school year, and thank you for highlighting the column, but I was moved to write it.

You and I share a passion for school choice and it's not an academic exercise. It's an attempt to let children reach their capacity and in many cases like in places like Philly, it's a rescue mission. And South Work is an example where the test scores are abysmal, which is bad enough. But yes, literally since at least September, they've had issues with leaking roofs, which is the least of it. But the bathroom store stall, the doors don't close. The toilets open.

They can't drink the water and there are rats that run around because there's of the feces that backs up from the toilets and I remind folks that this would be horrible if it's high school but it's an elementary school. These these children are eight nine and ten years old and you know Dom you know what the Philly school district's plan is they've installed outdoor trailers and part of their master plan is the children will go outside to use the restroom until 20

which means that every child there today will be gone and into middle school or high school until a child in South Philadelphia is able to use a restroom indoors. This is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States of America in 2026. And we send children to trailers to use the restroom. And I was unaware, I apologize, of the date until 2032. And you're right, they're just a tick below.

So how much the school district of Philadelphia budget coming up is how much? Almost $5 billion. They're spending nearly $25,000 a child. When I helped organize my first school choice rally, when you were already a legend in Philadelphia talk radio, but back in the late 80s, early 90s, when I helped do my first school choice rally, Philadelphia public school spending was just about $7,800 a child.

It's now at $25,000 a child. They can't read. There's violence. But now they can't use the restroom or drink the water. So, Guy, let me give you a proposition. We have a governor's race, even though Josh Shapiro is beyond ruthless, beyond some of the stuff we're not going to go into here, and a gigantic national figure. If I were on the other side, I'd be looking for an issue. And the way that we talked about with Southwark,

I would do a news conference from there. I would I told Governor Corbett to do this when the Philadelphia schools blamed him they didn't have enough toilet paper yet they were selling toilet paper online. They just didn't bring it to a school. I think it was Baldy in the Northeast. I said let's bring whole pallets giant pallets of toilet paper might cost you a thousand dollars gigantic and the governor throwing out toilet paper bags take it home. Is could this be an issue.

Not just because what you and I believe about school choice, not just because Shapiro's position, which is getting dodgier and dodgier, but because a school like this and the date that you said until 2032, that seems to be impossible in Pennsylvania in America. Yeah, look, it's unfortunate that it has to be a political issue, but the campaign provides, as you all know all too well, will provide local and national coverage.

We want to educate children and we want to rescue children in horrible situations.

It's a shame it's partisan, but it needs to have that sort of statewide national

limelight put on it to realize that this is going.

This fellow Shapiro, whatever one may think, he has no business being at a book tour

in Manhattan, Washington, or at a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa, when children in

in South Philly are using an outdoor restroom. The school district budget's $5 billion. The Commonwealth's budget is in excess of $50 billion. We have money to fix the toilets. There's the plumbers union. There's the electrician. There are all sorts of men and women in South Philly that will fix these toilets. And you know what? Again, as I mentioned in my column, if this were housing, if this was public housing, we'd move the residents, we'd give them a voucher and let them go somewhere else until we fix it. Let's allow these children to leave

Leave while we fix the bathroom. I don't know whether it's going to take a week, a month, or two years. What I know is no eight-year-old should go there. So you're exactly right. The campaign is unfortunately partisan, but it's a wonderful time to draw the state and the nation's eyes to this rescue mission, free these children. Yes, and the point I'm making, not just Republican, Democrat, just because the Democrat is on the other side on this, is I just want to see school choice during the mid-term.

I know there's gargantuan issues out there, but I don't know that we've reached political campaigns to say this is an issue that wraps around so many other different things that are there. We're winning, but it's only inch by inch on this, and it's not seeping into the national conversation enough. Even though we have the big, beautiful bill, and we have, I believe, 30 governors now that have done this, and even Governor Paulus, who I think

is left of center, fairly far left of center in Colorado guy, has said, yeah, you got to take this money. He's the guy I would be bringing. He's like our Fetterman of school choice here. He gets it on this. Yeah, we're up to, of the 50 states, we're now up to 34 of them that have made a decision, a few that have said no. We're getting to a shrinking pool, and as you and I have discussed other times as well, the pool of people who haven't decided

is very crowded with Democratic governors who want to run for president.

Newsom, Pritzker, Moore, Shapiro, what they have in common is they're thinking about the Democratic nomination for president.

Look, I believe school choice is an issue that puts the children's future right into focus because, look, it's an academic issue.

It's an economics issue.

I tell people, look, you covered it.

You know, not too far back, Amazon was going to build its East Coast headquarters. And they tried to do it in Brooklyn and AOC said no. And Philadelphia made a huge pitch in all the chambers and my chamber was involved. Everybody was involved making the pitch. One of the reasons Amazon picked Northern Virginia, you know, Loudoun County and Arlington, one of the reasons they said Philadelphia could not guarantee them a supply of an educated workforce to do AWS.

12 year old and 16 year old children in Philadelphia matters to those children, those families, but it matters to our regional economy. So I agree with you. Look, if I were the nominee, I'd talk about it every day and I would be at that school and I would meet with those parents. And Dom, I would just point out South Work is sort of the screaming example, but by the Philadelphia School District's own admission, 24 buildings are either considered unsafe or in fair or poor condition. There

are 24 buildings that they're willing to admit they would like to close and either permanently close or close for repairs. None of those children should go to those schools, putting aside from the fact the academics are abysmal.

And I like your point, too, for political campaigns. That's the only way this is going to happen, which is if this were housing, slumlords would be going to fill off your schools are slumlords, but they're they're not driven by any force out there to change this.

Those kids would be moved to a different school. In this case, we're talking about school choice. We're talking about something else that would be done. They'd have vouchers. They would pay for it. Some legal authority would step in and do that. Any legal authorities with Southwark or is it, hey, this happens, they're old schools? Look, I think there's a case to be made, but you're dealing with a circular argument. In other words, I think there's a case to be made in Philadelphia.

the health department, children, youth, and family services. Again, if you and I owned an apartment building on South 4th Street in South Philly, and we had 100 apartment units, and the toilets clogged and overflowed, and we told folks to use porta-potties outdoors, and there were rats in the building, they would take our license away, and they would give the, if you and I were doing subsidized housing, they would give those residents a voucher to leave.

So to me, I think it's the Board of Education, but I also think it's City Council. I also think it's the City Board of Health. It cannot be safe to have feces, to have a back. Look, you know, if you live in the real world, at some point, your toilet clogs. You cannot have systemic daily toilets overflowing with feces. You cannot tell eight-year-olds to go outside because that's a safety issue. It's a health issue.

You don't want to send eight year olds out alone going to the bathroom. So look, I think that's the other avenue. And as I said, so many of my columns, Dom, I wish the Democrats were as outraged as the Republicans, because the kids in those schools are the children of Democrats. They're poor families. A wealthier family will send their kids to Epiphany or Thomas Aquinas. They'll send them to another school. The children left behind are the poor children who can't get out.

So I wish more city council members and state legislators. That's where the outrage has to come from, for those folks that are elected to represent them. Where's the local city councilman? Where are the councilmen at large? And where's the city health department? I'm not a health expert, but raw sewage and backed up toilets are not where we want our children to be, regardless of your politics. Exactly. Parting area for you guys, Shiraki, with us. We'll find out where we can find you all over the place.

Starting a series and each person I have on that is a great analyst of this been added for a while. What is a big lie? I have my top 10 kind of mapped out, but I'm flexible when it comes to school choice. Even Forbes magazine, Forbes has what I think are big lies, one of which they say parents are incapable of making this. There's over choice out there. So stay with the school with the feces because you can't, you know, navigate the world of school choice here.

Guy, what would you say is the big lie that maybe is the best the other side has on this that keeps them going a bit?

Yeah, well, the first thing I would share is I don't get the the the attribution, but I'll repeat Newt Gingrich.

30 years ago, Newt Gingrich said mom may not make the best choice.

She'll never make the worst choice.

The arrogance. Right.

Maybe mom doesn't know the best choice, but mom knows what Masterman is and mom knows that a school with backflowing toilets and rats is nowhere for her daughter or her son to be. For me, look, the big argument is argument number one. You're taking, you know, vouchers, school choice, scholarships, whatever you want to call it, takes money from public education that is desperately needed. You're taking away the school district's money. And it's a lie because,

One, it's not the school district money, it's taxpayer money. You and I and listeners pay so the children can learn. We should let the money go to the school where the child shows up. And secondly, the school district actually, usually in almost every state this happens, they get to keep the difference and they actually have more money for less kids. It's sort of like your family income. If both spouses working, you have three kids and one child gets married and moves out. Now your grocery bills divided

It's not divided by five. If South Work has 500 students and 100 of them leave for local schools, the overhead is for 400 children, not 500. And by the way, it's not South Work's money. It's the parents' money. It's the taxpayer money. The idea of pitting people against each other and portraying it as if Susie gets a voucher, Jimmy somehow being cheated is a big lie. It's mathematically incorrect.

It's financially incorrect, but it also perpetuates this idea that it's government's money and not the taxpayers.

And I would add with the big, beautiful bill, too, the new part is it's new money.

It has nothing to do with the money allocated already to public schools. Guy, where do we find you? You write prolifically. Where do we find you? Plus all the other stuff you're involved in.

Sure. So my columns appear in Broad and Liberty and Real Clear, Pennsylvania, and then I'm blessed they get echoed in other publications time and time again. My social media handle, Dom, I've changed it. It is now Phila Freedom Guy. I changed what it used to be, but you can still find me on Twitter and X as a guy who was born and raised in Philly. So Phila Freedom Guy is my handle, which will get you to Twitter, Facebook, and all the other media.

and different platforms. And I write for those publications. I'm a senior fellow with the Commonwealth

Foundation. And if there's an issue or a way to fight for kids, I will. If not, you'll find me on a softball field coaching girls softball for 12 year olds. And that's part of the reason I coach is because I enjoy the kids and I want to help them not only learn softball, but, you know, learn the skills they need for life. Perseverance, teamwork and all that stuff. So Broad and Liberty, Real Clear Policy.

or find me on a softball field? Thank you, Guy. Thanks for joining us, as always, to be continued. Thanks for kicking off the big lies. Thank you, Guy. You're welcome. Take care. Thanks again. All right. There is Guy Shiraki, and I couldn't start with anybody better to talk about the 10 big lies involving school choice. And each week, I will give you two or three or four as I work them up fully, and I'll give you the counter to them. Now, what Guy just told you about with the South

school, though. It's happening right here, wherever you are across the country, across the world in Philadelphia. We didn't even get into Foley because it's multifaceted. Why in the world is there not more screaming by these parents for choice? I haven't interviewed each one of them. I don't know. I know big picture were winning. I know this week there was a big confab of people that were pretty liberal, like Nicholas Kristol, brilliant writer for The New York Times.

And Christoph, even though a liberal, said, why is it that Mississippi right now, a black kid in Mississippi, his words, has 2.5 times more of a chance of being proficient in reading and writing and math than a black kid in California? Because we do know there are certain things that work, like phonics. And we do know, if you're a believer in that, you should have the opportunity to go to a

choice where your kid is going to be instructed in that manner because you realize the efficacy

of this versus the nonsense that still goes on in many public schools where you have no choice.

In other words, this guy said, you are the best. You're the first and best teacher of your child.

You know them better than anyone, not a bunch of experts. And this show is dedicated

to two things to make America smarter again. One, parental rights. That leads to good outcomes. And still, some people haven't gotten that memo. And the other is with parental rights, the vehicle of those rights, what drives those rights to actuality? And that vehicle would be school choice. So in coming weeks, Guy started us off with one here today. I will break down. There could be 50 of them.

But I've kind of started to whittle them down to the top 10.

He hit upon one of the biggest, oh, you're just going to decimate the public schools.

So box check there.

And guys answer, particularly with the big, beautiful bill, that's new money.

None of the money was allocated toward public schools.

He mentioned also 34 have said what they're going to do in this.

That leaves 16.

I think there's still some convincibles, though, out of those three or four of them are maybe changing their mind.

And if you notice some of the leading democrat candidates. They are not saying what they're going to do yet. Because they're gauging that America is on to this. And it's got to be really difficult for parents who are working hard. Have a lot of stress. Want their kid to do better. Better education. Going to south work. It's beyond belief. And the only mechanism that I know of. Is to stir this up. Through the politics of it.

Make it a major issue. Which side are you on? Clearly. Are you for school choice? State your policy, what that means to you, or are you against this? This governor's race I'm trying to agitate in Pennsylvania and across the country that had become a prime issue because it drives all these other issues. And maybe there are more people out there who think, no, this is just a plot, big lie, to decimate the public schools. What it is, is to make sure,

every child is going to a school that works for that child. That's what we ought to be about. And the South's work thing, it's not made up. It's happening. We have documentation. So each week, expect you'll get that. Thanks to Guy Shiraki for joining us here again. You can follow me, too, at domshow1210 or send me an email with your questions, comments, domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W, at AOL.com, domshow at AOL.com.

I will see you next week here on 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.