The NEA, Parental Rights and School Choice

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 in to this week's edition of old school new school next school with dom giordano and this is a big week in the world of parental rights school choice even though you're thinking come on school's out now what could be happening the throes of summer well what's happening that we're covering is the nea national education association the big guy

There are about 2.8 million teachers, many of them labor activists, have been holding their annual convention even on July 4th. And Corey DeAngelis, who's our special guest this week, who is the nation's leading school choice advocate, the evangelist for school choice and parental rights, he'll be with us. But he has tapped into sources inside the NEA in which he gets, even before they hold their meetings,

That's what their business agenda is, because at times they try to hide that vision of what they're going to be up to. So this year they are proposing at a price tag of five million dollars, the NEA, the teachers, a march on Washington. To take President Trump out of office to do this before the midterms. Now, you have a sense by now why people are fired up. And I'm going to ask Corey, too.

coming up about where we stand with the big, beautiful bill and how is the arrow moving? We've been getting some pretty good traction around the issue of getting that money in state after state. I think it's about 32 states have agreed to take the money, which comes from donors who then get a federal tax relief for that money. And then nonprofits distribute that money to parents so their kids can have school choice.

you're going to hear, particularly once we get through the summer.

There is a good bit of money in this big, beautiful bill for schools that can go to public schools, for example, for added supplementary things like more tutoring, one-on-one tutoring, those kinds of things.

Now, you watch when the teachers unions and others start to attack on this.

Remember, you heard it here on Old School, New School, Next School.

Actual Money to Help Students as far as tutoring and things of that nature.

So at this NEA convention, the president's retiring president, Becky Pringle, spoke.

And she talked about how the teachers union is all about power, power, power, power.

That's what they're about. Does that seem like an organization, the biggest teachers union in the country?

that is primed to help parents and students. Or does it seem like, and look, teachers, I was a former teacher, they deserve comparable pay, they deserve benefits and all that. We're certainly in agreement with that. She also talked about COVID and how resilient they were to get through COVID. COVID was a turning point. American parents saw what their kids were going through vis-a-vis those Zoom classes.

And they were not appreciative of what's going on in the average public school.

So all these things are in play when the NEA meets, the AFT, that's a Randy Weingarten group, the second biggest teachers union.

And the question that's out there is, are the teachers unions, are they truly just an adversary at best to parents?

And I want to answer yes, they are.

They are not your friends.

They are not helpful.

in the rights of kids to get the best education possible. They are more geared to the adults, the teachers. And again, we want teachers to be well-paid, respected, etc. So without further ado, the guy that is my go-to on this, not only on these issues, but the whole world of school choice, we're at an inflection point. Let's bring back to old school, new school, next school, the one and only Corey DeAngelis. Hey, Corey, this is DeAngelis season.

I don't know how you do it but it's tremendous stuff. Hey thanks so much for having me yeah I'm an internet sleuth and last last year's convention they had one of the delegates gave me the their business items and they were all off the wall they've started to make these as private as possible that same person was not allowed to go to the meeting this year so I had to figure out some other ways to get the business items but they're just as crazy as they were last year. We'll we'll get into them in

But first, on a positive note, let's get an update from you. Where are we on the big, beautiful bill, school choice, clock ticking, what, about five months left before decision day? What are we seeing among the Democrats, et cetera? How many states have signed in? Yeah, 31 states have already signed on to President Trump's new nationwide school choice program. Two of them are Democrats, and that includes Colorado's Jared Polis. He called it a no-brainer decision. He said he

be crazy not to do it why would he leave money on the table and then the other one's new

york's kathy hokel of all places has indicated she plans to opt in as well some other

democrats were trying to have their cake and eat it too by basically trying to uh get guidance to be

able to use the money only for kids in public schools which flies in the face of the point of a

That would be a school stay program where you get money for staying put in the government school system. That is an allowable scholarship avenue. You could use it for tutoring and after school programs in public schools, but you can't prohibit the private students going to private schools to be able to pay for tuition with this scholarship money. So Josh Stein tried to do this in North Carolina most recently in Vermont.

They have a Republican governor, and he signed this bill from the Democrats, which basically says that only scholarships can be used for kids in public schools, which that's not going to fly with the rules that are being put out by Treasury. I would predict now, Corey, I'm heavily leaning after seeing him this weekend. He's going to run more of a progressive. He's made that calculation. I'm talking about Josh Shapiro. What he did, co-opted.

America 250 and the way he approached this, the way he approached the trans thing, he's going to try to find a lane not to do it, but a unique lane and then talk incessantly about that unique lane. What do you say? Yeah, I mean, Jared Polis took one direction. You know, people say he's going to run as the moderate Democrat in 2028. And I think that's the right call to say, look, this is a 80-20 issue. Basically, Republicans,

Democrats support school choice. No one wants to be trapped in a failing school.

And families want to raise their kid in a way that's aligned with their values, whether you're on the left or the right.

So I think Jared Polis is taking the right direction.

But we did see Michael Bennett lost the primary in Colorado to a progressive.

You saw Mamdani's socialist candidates won in New York.

So, you know, maybe maybe Josh Shapiro tries to play to the left.

I'm not quite sure.

I mean, he told us that he supported school choice when he was running for governor after he got called a hypocrite on the issue in 2022 for sending his own kids to private school and attending private school himself. And then he vetoed his own campaign promise. He almost can't make this stuff up after he went on Fox News saying that he supported school choice. So he's now trying to kick the can down the road. Every excuse in the book. I've talked to his education guy. They've won and given me an answer.

the median answer. And so he's trying to straddle the fence, I think, still by pretending he supports school choice and then not lifting a finger to do anything about it, when now he can't blame the House anymore. He's the sole decision maker in Pennsylvania. The governor has the decision to opt in. And I think all 50 states will opt in at some point. The thing is, you know, it's going to take some more Democrats to get a bigger domino effect.

to have everybody go in. Corey, while all this is going on, you have an eagle eye. We went through quite a battle here, and we've stopped them, sort of. But they made a big play in Pennsylvania, while the rest of the nation, at least even if they're being dragged, is slowly moving toward choice. They fielded an all-out attack, these miserable people attacking poor kids and their families. This wonderful scholarship program that's worked for over 25 years.

And it was an 11-hour sneak attack. It was incredible where this came from. So there's still out there these elements. One or two pivot. They were trying to take away 30,000 scholarships from kids in Pennsylvania in the House. Thankfully, the floor, they amended that part out, but they still wanted to regulate the crap out of the program, make it as least attractive as possible, and to try to protect the status quo. But that's dead on arrival in the Senate.

Corey, moving forward now, the teachers union, are they serious about this? They even have a price tag on it. I'm praying they lead a national march on Washington, bring those Chicago kids, bus in thousands of them, whatever they want to do with Trump. That doesn't matter if the nation sees these. And I think due to your efforts and a couple of other people, I'm looking at a story of real clear education, the decline of the teachers union and how to advance the trend.

The NAIA is down by 400,000 members, and it's not going back up. We are gradually seeing this. So what we're left with are the real hardcore of hardcore, the Randy Weingartens, Becky Pringles, the ones that come after you. Why are we seeing this decline in union members, which is a good thing? Well, the 2018 Janus decision now says that you cannot be forced to pay dues as a condition of employment, whether you're in a red state or a blue state. So that's one part of the puzzle.

COVID woke a lot of people up and a lot of teachers saw their money's going to

Democrat politicians. There's a lot of conservative and independent teachers.

And even if they're Democrats, they may not want to fund through their paychecks political causes when they just want to focus on the basics.

So 15,000 teachers alone have left their unions and joined the Teacher Freedom Alliance in the past year.

They provide free liability insurance. And so teachers in red and blue states can go to optouttoday.com to leave their unions. And this is one way to starve the beast. This is how you hold Randy Weingarten and Becky Pringle accountable. And when you start to see these resolutions that came out, they want to spend $5.2 million of teachers' paychecks this year on calling for the impeachment, conviction, and removal of Donald James.

from the U.S. presidency. That's straight from their resolution. They want to, quote, national march on Washington, D.C. to remove Trump before the November 2026 midterm election, end quote. That sounds like an insurrection to me, and teachers shouldn't be forced to fund it. It's just it's so crazy how off the rails they've gone. And this is why people are leaving the union, because it makes them look bad. You see Becky just freaking out at the annual convention,

Just this past week in Denver, screaming about things as usual. And she makes half a million dollars a year. Randy Weingarten spent $1.4 million in union dues over the past year to promote her book calling conservatives fascist. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. It's crazy. And teachers are looking at this and they're saying, you're not paying me enough money. And you guys have all these political agendas.

and the vanity book projects and they're not seeing the benefits of it. It's just really making the profession look bad.

One more item, too. What are educational reparations? You posted on Twitter, Business Item 24 calls for educational reparations by the NEA.

You'd think I'd know a little something about this. I mean, what in the world are educational reparations? I don't know.

If you look at their business item, it says,

it would immediately reduce student loan debt, create equitable funding for historically black colleges and universities,

and support African-American black students in special education programs, end quote.

So I don't know if this is calling just for funding for black students.

I think that's a violation of the Civil Rights Act to only say that one, just because you look a certain way, because you're a certain race, that you should get an additional benefit and more taxpayer money. I think that's ridiculous that the union is calling for this. But I'd have to look more deeply. I mean it's just another crazy thing where it's like you see these things and it's like what in the world are they even fighting for now? They want reparations?

And you have the unions calling for this. It just really goes to show you, I looked through all these business items. None of them had anything to do with improving educational outcomes. It's all just political garbage. Yeah, absolutely, Corey. Well, you, this is your season here. They just go inside. It's amazing. Where do we find you? And tell us about the book one more time. By the way, they did this on the 4th of July. Yes. I mean, while Patriots were, I was in D.C., you know, supporting President Trump.

and everything he's done for the country and the great the biggest fireworks show in world history was it was phenomenal the unions are out here screaming about donald trump crying about things and going to denver colorado where they were trying to pass a bill earlier this year to label parents as abusers if they quote unquote misgendered their young children i mean it's just of all places of course they picked uh this place where they're assaulting parental rights over the past year you can get my book it's the parent

It's endorsed by Trump at Amazon or basically anywhere else. And you can follow me on X. It's at DeAngelisCory.

Corey, thank you so much. Keep them coming. I'm sure they'll have a few more before the day's over.

That's right. Yeah. So keep an eye out. They elected a new president as well. Her name is Princess Moss.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Her name is Princess Moss.

Her name is Princess. Yes. And she's from Virginia.

And I think she was at an event during the election cycle in Virginia with that guy who's now the attorney general who wished death upon children, Jay Jones in Virginia. So we got a real winner. This person is a super far leftist, and they just picked her as the new teacher gene boss. She might even be worse than Becky Pringle.

Wow. Thank you, Corey, as always. Appreciate it very much.

His sources, his information, his insight, get his book.

And we will continue to chronicle this idea of a national march on Washington led by the NEA and I guess the AFT in order to take President Trump out of office.

Do you see a laser focus on the crying need of American kids to make up for what happened during COVID? How far behind some of these kids already were and exacerbated by that? You do not. This needs to be a Manhattan Project to rectify that. I would charge the NEA, the AFT. That's not their Manhattan Project. That's not what they're trying to rectify. So the only thing we can do,

until we get reform there is do what? Give parents and students a choice to go to schools where their mission is not to march on Washington, but it is every day the urgency of trying to educate students so that they can do better in the school and then later in their lives. And that's the mission of this show. That's what we're about.

We've just over a year anniversary, a lot of stuff in the pipeline. Spread the message. Let people know about Corey DeAngelis. Everything that he said there is right on the cutting edge of what's happening in our field that we all share. Now, if you have a question, a comment for me, just send me an email. Domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W at AOL.com.

I will see you here next week 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.