Guest: Rich Valdes, host, “America at Night” Subjects: The charter school that he founded…

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. Let's welcome in somebody with quite a varied background. Who else has run against AOC as the star of a nationally syndicated radio show other than Rich Valdez. And, Rich, thanks for joining us here on the School Choice Show.

Thanks, Dom. Pleasure to be here.

Rich, before we get to talking about charter schools and then your sense on air of school

choice, and particularly with Latino and black families, is it moving the needle anymore? Your own schooling, where was Rich Valdez schooled?

What type of thing did your parents try to do? Did you go to public school?

I went to public school 197 in Brooklyn, New York, followed that with intermediate school 240, Andreas Huddy, the middle school on Nostrand Avenue.

in Brooklyn. Then I moved to Jersey and I was in middle. I did a little middle school there and a Klein School. And then I went to North Bergen High School. So I'm a product of all public schools. And how were the public schools, Rich, when you were coming up? What was the era and what were they like? It was the 80s. And I think they were fantastic. When I was in fifth grade, I read the Constitution cover to cover. And it was a big thing. It was a big thing to read the Constitution. They made sure we learned it. And, you know, I learned that moving forward when I had my own kids.

That wasn't always the case. Not everybody reads the Constitution. You're not, you know, required to kind of memorize a lot of the Bill of Rights. And I think that's part of, you know, how we begin to or have began to fall by the wayside. So I think I got the best that I could get out of the public school system. How about your own children now? Are they are they schooled in public schools? Yeah, yeah. Public school. Both my kids. I thought about putting them in Christian schools.

I have 20-12 founders of the Beloved Community Charters

school in Jersey City of all places was the mayor Brent Schundler was he in operation then or did you know of him why Jersey City sure yeah yeah totally that was a project we did with with Brett Schundler at the time I was just coming out of the Christie administration and so was he actually I was still in but he was just coming out and he was serving as the commissioner of education for the state of New Jersey and that was the first thing that he did coming out of the state was open this charter school

And it was a brilliant plan. I mean, the idea of the Beloved Community Charter School was to create Dr. Martin Luther King's idea of the Beloved Community, a community where people love their neighbor. And if they needed food, you would help them eat. And it was really based on a lot of Christian values in a secular public school that was operated by charter. And I love the idea. And we targeted originally Greenville, Jersey City.

We were looking at the old Greenville Hospital as a site. And because that was the most unreached area of Jersey City, where the majority of people, it was the highest amount of poverty. And we figured a big part of the idea here was to prove to the critics that it doesn't really matter if you have a large class size or a small class size, or if you have kids that come from homes where their parents didn't go to college, you could still get very good outcomes.

with kids that go to college and kids that learn this material if you approach it a certain way. And so that was our goal. It didn't work out in Greenville. So we went to downtown Jersey City and there was a charter that had just lost their charter, Schaumburg Charter School. And we started an organization called Friends of Beloved Community Charter School and took a mortgage out to get that building. And that was the beginning of it.

Rich, before we go forward, I know you're very proud of where it is today, the accomplishments, the amenities and all that. You raised something there. I wanted to know if it comes up on your show, America at Night, 9 to midnight across the country, and that is people who still try to tell us that by and large, charter schools do not enhance academic performance. And look, one of the things I know from the charter schools I've dealt with, if they don't, if they're bad, it gets into the pain.

They don't exist. They go out of business. And yet where I am in Philadelphia, I'm in Pennsylvania right now, only one third of students are proficient in reading and math across the state of Pennsylvania. So much so they're thinking of the hold back for the third grade year, which would make kids very awkward socially. Why are we not catching it before we make a decision? You're going to be held back in third grade.

So does it come up on your show or in all the circles that you're around with charters, do they still try to use that kind of attack point?

Well, the reality is that the free markets really do kind of play a role. Competition is real when you're not protected by the teachers union, as well as the benefits that you have when you're part of the government, right?

The charter is an instrumentality of the state, but it really is governed by the bylaws that are put together by those that put that charter together.

So I would push back on that big time and use Beloved as a prime example that we've definitely changed the trend in Jersey City. Just look at the numbers. We're either on par or exceeding in most areas. And that's just because I think we understand how it works. We're able to give them what they need. The school's open from six in the morning to six at night because we have before care and after care because parents are working and we play longer school day.

And guess who's able to handle it? The scholars. Because they're very capable

when you put together a framework where you allow a child to succeed. So I think some of those things we're not afraid of doing. But yeah, the critics that say charters don't make a difference or don't add to the academic enhancement of the community, I think that's dead wrong.

Rich, you're very proud, too, from the beginnings in Jersey City, and you had a little bit of moving back and forth. What are some of the improvements? It seems, I can tell in your email,

how it was glowing, the uptick in this, how it's grown, and some of the things that you can get in this charter school, the facility. Almost every one of our buildings is brand new. We've constructed several buildings. We have the first building we've added on to it with a beautiful annex. And again, none of that was done with any direct taxpayer involvement. This was all money that was either generated through Friends of Beloved or through the revenue generated through the past three dollars that come through with the students. But we were able to do that because we operate

in such a lean manner. And again, I think from the financial side of things, it's a testament to how you can run a school and scale a school system. Since then, we've brought in empowerment charter school and allowed other schools to co-locate with us so that they could get off the ground. This is not something that you see in the traditional government-run public school model, in the district model. So, yeah, of course, how could you not be proud of something like that where you have the community actually involved?

We have parents that are involved. I'm the vice president of the board, our school board. The president of the board is a parent from the school who has two daughters in the school system. To me, this is a testament to what is actually happening there. Not anything that we've done, per se. It's really that we just were able to meet a need and didn't have to deal with the obstacles that are put in front of you by the government. By the way, where do people find Rich Valdez? What's the website to go to?

You're now on 9 to midnight Eastern Standard Time, live from New York. Where do they go? RichValdez.com. That's Valdez with an S. And you can find us there. You can find us on iHeartRadio or wherever you stream your stuff. We're on radio stations, about 250 radio stations all across the country. And that's always growing. So wherever you can get us, I hope you can get us. And Rich, the reason I asked that big picture with this now, too, I still don't. You actually did it. I've just been an education.

and I always thought politically and morally, this is the civil rights issue. This would pop through, particularly with minorities. I'm not sure about African-Americans, but Latinos, we seem to see some breakthrough going on now. What's the hurdle? Because I'm still not feeling it, how magical this almost is. Just the idea of parents making the decision is the biggest magic of all to be empowered to do that, even if you're middle or lower,

middle income. Where are we now? Are we on the cusp of something or what's happening?

Well, I can tell you again, looking at just based on what I know, our school is primarily, I'd say, African-American. The president of the board is an African-American mom, Nicole Jackson.

This is the neighborhood is predominantly black. So this is we're right next to the Lafayette projects.

This was, again, we wanted to prove that it didn't matter what color people are. It didn't matter how much money they made. There's a lot of data that are kind of indicators. If your parents didn't both go to college, you're likely to not be as successful as a student. While I might want to get behind some of that data because you can back it up, I think it's also not determinative of what actually can happen if you try to mitigate those circumstances and show these kids that you too can be a scholar, you will be.

We can create this framework and put together a system where we're going to help you succeed. And a lot of what we did was just doing, you know, a lot. Some of it was trial and error, but a lot of it was just using best practices from a number of charter operators and, you know, kind of picking cherry picking what works best and putting it to use. And if it didn't work, we moved on. Obviously hiring the best people you can. And a lot of times charters have a unique ability to attract the best talent because they're so cutting edge because they're so student centered.

that a lot of educators say, you know what, I might make a little bit more in the district or I make the same because I think we're on par with the district in terms of compensation for our teachers. But they want to, they have buy-in on the mission and they're like, you know, I want to be a part of this. And when they see, last year we had a kid go to Harvard, a kid go to Princeton. These kids are all coming out of a charter school in Jersey City that didn't exist a dozen years ago. Right? So it's amazing to me that we're creating these types of results. And when I say we, I don't really

I mean, they, these students, their moms, their dads, the grandmas, the people that are bringing them to school and picking them up, they're creating this legacy for their community. And how could you not be proud of that? Does it come up on your show? I've talked about it a lot when I filled in a little bit and my own show in Philadelphia, the big, beautiful bill, because I'm doing this podcast and I have people feeding me stuff constantly underplayed. There's $5 billion. Dave McCormick, Senator from Pennsylvania is one of the co-sponsors on the Senate side.

He wanted 10 billion. And that money would go through a system where you would contribute. And then you'd get to take it off your federal taxes. And the belief is we could be liberating 10,000 or more kids pretty easily, maybe even more of that per year. The biggest liberation. I'm just thrilled, yes, the kids finally. But as a parent, to see these parents able to sit around like people that are making a good bit of money and actually make choices, does it come up?

Yeah, it does. And you know, this is actually how I met Brett Shundler. And to give you a little bit of that story, when he was mayor of Jersey City, he had finished his term and then ran for governor. And when he ran for governor, I helped him with one of those campaigns a long time ago now, I think it was 2001. And so it's 24 years ago. But when we were on the campaign, I remember he was like, hey, let's go to Duncan Projects. And we went to these projects over on Route 440 in Jersey City.

And it was mixed black Hispanic type of neighborhood. But he would go in and just say, hey, it's me. He spoke some Spanish and it's a former, you know, I've got the Schundler. And he would go straight to the school choice issue. He would just talk about, you know, I'm running for mayor, I'm running for governor, and I want to sponsor. Brett wrote the charter school legislation that was eventually signed during Christy's term. And he would talk about that and say, you know, I think we need school choice.

We need the ability just because you live in the projects doesn't mean that you don't have the ability to choose where your kid gets to go to school. If you could get a voucher, what would you do? And when he would let them understand how much power they would have, a lot of parents just love that and they got behind him. And I think that's why he was so successful as mayor and it's why these models work educationally for the kids and for these families because it truly is something that works for them. It's not designed to benefit the government. It's not designed

to benefit the teachers union. It's designed to benefit the student.

Parting question for Rich Valdez. Rich, the New Jersey governor's race. I'm in Pennsylvania,

just over the bridge. You're in Jersey. Jack Cattarelli. I see this as a secret weapon,

the choice charter school, et cetera, in that it gets to parental choice, parental rights,

which have been under fire big time in Virginia with McAuliffe. That's why he lost.

and made a national figure out of Yunkin. We've had today, the last day or so, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union, which is the real outlandish union, say, no, these are our children. You're giving them to us and we make these determinations. I see this as the way to push parental rights, not just in choice, but as a broad thing. And I don't see the Democrat in this being able to defend that even a little bit.

No, not at all. I mean, the Democrats, the only advantage they have is that the teachers union in New Jersey is a pretty strong one, and they generate a lot of money and have a lot of power. But when it comes to that particular issue, telling parents, hey, you know better for your kid than I know. And most parents believe that, especially now more than ever. I come from an era where if the teacher said your kid needs this, my parents said that he needs it. Today, you go to tell a parent your kid needs this, and you don't tell me what to do. That's my kid.

My parents would beat me on a dime on anything the teacher said.

Hey, I'm Catholic school all the way through. You can imagine. Yeah.

You know how that goes. Yeah. Funny story. My brother, I didn't get to go to Catholic school because my brother got into a fight with a nun.

She hit him with a ruler and he tripped her down a flight of stairs and they banned our family from that diocese. And that was it. Public school for me.

Absolutely. So parting, Rich, again, is this something you have good experience here that it's what does it need to really pop? I can't. You need a candidate. You're right. You need a candidate that embraces this, that understands it and sees the value in it. I think you see it and it's why you do it, right? The reason you do what you do and I do what I do is because we, I think we have a little bit of foresight into something that we believe in. And we're hoping that as we share it with others,

They'll see what we see. And you need a candidate that can bring that message to a parent and say, hey, look, this is your kid's meal ticket. This is their chance to the middle class, upper middle class, being wealthy, whatever it is. This is the equalizer of all things. You do not have to stay stuck in this situation, what generations before you had to do with a voucher system or even getting into a good charter and that type of thing. And when you can deliver that message of hope, it goes a long way. The question is, do we have a candidate that's going to embrace that and try and, you know,

bring that across the finish line. I don't know as of yet. I haven't heard much about it from either side. My hope is that the Cittarelli campaign will pick up on it and make it an issue. Like you said, Glenn Young can capitalize on that and he was able to take Virginia. And with the momentum that we've seen nationwide on girls and boys and men and girls sports and whatnot, that's still there. And we've made strides there. And Trump has made a lot of good executive orders.

and they passed the one bill. Great. All that's fantastic. I think there's momentum there that can be

harnessed in the New Jersey race. It's theirs for the taking. Absolutely. Rich, an honor. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming on. Thank you, Dom. Now I know even more. I admire that, that you're still involved in the fight and VP with charter schools. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Rich Valdez, national rising star in my business, Talk Radio, my day job, Dom Giordano,

with you. By the way, if you have any questions or comments, you can always reach me at domshowataol.com.

Domshowataol.com. And I was thinking as I was talking to Rich, just to give you an idea of where we are, the big, beautiful bill goes forward. Hopefully by July 4th, we're going to see some kind of compromise between the Senate and the House.

And we're going to see them come up with keeping school choice in there.

But I saw this the other day. It's something really important. This month, the month of June, marks the 100th anniversary of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Pierce versus Society of Sisters. Think of the nuns. If you went to Catholic school, the nuns.

A landmark case defending the right of parents to direct their child's education.

A century-old, it remains significant today, especially as the Supreme Court, considers a case on the question of parental rights this term.

I believe that's a Maryland case where these people were told, not only are we going to have these outrageous things go on in a classroom with young children, but you'll have no right to take them out of the classroom.

In 1922, Oregon voters passed a ballot initiative effectively prohibiting parents from sending their children to private schools. This law appeared to be neutral. The law's animating purpose was to Americanize Catholic immigrants by means of compulsory public education. The chief proponents of the law were the Klan, who saw Catholic education as a threat to their vision of a united white Protestant America.

In a pamphlet widely distributed by the Argon Klamsman, Fred Gifford, the Grand Dragon of the KKK, wrote of Catholic parents and school children, somehow these mongrel hordes must be Americanized. Failing that, deportation is the only remedy. Democratic education, he wrote, is the one unfailing defense against every kind of alienism in America.

So the reason I bring this up, 100 years ago this month of June, this was happening in America. You talk about being anti-school choice. You talk about wanting to limit it to indoctrinate. It was the Klan, and the Supreme Court struck this down and to open up the realm in many ways of making a choice. Now, in this case, if you could afford it,

to going to Catholic schools to fulfill the requirement of compulsory education in the face of the KKK.

Now, I'm not like people on the other side. I'm not comparing the teachers unions or the public schools or anything like that.

But what I am saying is this is a civil rights issue. We have people, for example, Randy Weingarten, the head of the AFT, that's the second biggest teachers union,

But she's the most effective, aggressive union leader versus the NEA. Resigning from the DNC, where she was a chief officer, the Democrat National Committee, on several various boards, major boards deep inside the Democrat Party. She doesn't think, apparently, the party is progressive enough under the new leadership. How do you have the head of teachers and the teachers union as part of the

that fully invested in the Democrat Party. And Weingarten is the one, and I'm in agreement with this, widely reputed to have kept kids out of school at normal lengths during COVID. In other words, we should have come back a lot earlier. But that ought to startle people. So you have a sense of what she's pushing for inside the public school, military industrial complex here versus people making choices for charter schools,

private schools, whatever they may be.

Just something on the 100th anniversary that has struck me big time here.

And here's an example of something coming to public schools across the country.

The guy behind this, it's called Grading for Equity.

I'm looking at what's going to happen in San Francisco.

It will go into effect this fall, Grading for Equity, 14 high schools and cover over 10,000 students.

The school district is already negotiating with an outside consultant to train teachers to a system that awards a passing C grade to as low as a score of 41. That's 4-1 in a 100-point exam. 41 out of 100, kid. You're on the Harvard. The point is, this grading for equity is going to dumb down the system even more. We have kids that can't read, can't write, can't compute, and yet they're

They're moving through the system. Grading for equity is not just in San Francisco. Keep that phrase in mind. It's coming to a school district near you or your school district. It is another silly invention with damaging outcomes. Okay. And again, if you're a parent that thinks you got to be kidding me. Now, I went to Catholic school, so 70 is always going to be the passing grade. When I was teaching,

I had a kid say he had a score of 78, 78%. And he wanted to know why I gave him a C. He said, that's a low B. No, buddy, not in this life, it's not. Watch for grading for equity coming your way. And these are things that propel people to say, how in the world is my kid going to be encouraged to not only succeed in school, but to achieve, to be inspired when we're saying that 41 out of 100

is the passing score. Well, this is all the idea that kids can't handle failure or they can't succeed. So let's lower the bar. Think about it from 70 to 41. Why not if you show up? Why not if you show up every other day? Why not if you never show up? We're going to pass you. Now go out there and earn a living, do whatever. So all these things play into the modus operandi. They play into this show.

The Big Beautiful Bill coming up is going to free a lot of kids if we keep the school choice part in there. I'd like to add billions and billions more. But we will bring you each week people who have succeeded in these fields, people who are making an impact like Rich Valdez, charter schools in the Jersey City area and some of the success they've had. When does it pop? When do enough Americans, you heard Rich and I talking about, when do we have a candidate?

who can enunciate this. Hopefully, Jack Ciannarelli in the

governor's race in Jersey will do it, that we reach the point where people say, yes,

I want to make this choice for my kids. I want the very best. I know my child better than anyone else.

That's classic parental rights. Thanks for listening this week. Again, if you have any questions,

comments, something you'd like to see in the next podcast or future podcasts,

Email me, domgiordano, domshow, at aol.com. Have a great week. Till next time. Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano is a presentation of Giordano Productions, LLC. Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.