Linda McMahon on School Choice and the Mississippi Miracle

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, welcome in everyone. Special edition this week of Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano.

Linda McMahon is the Secretary of Education and the Department of Education, as you probably know, has a great survival instinct.

When President Trump was elected, this is one of the things that people want to be rid of.

Why do they want to get rid of it completely?

I would say she's defanged it. They want to get rid of it because we all know that education at the state, local level, the parental level, that's the best place to be. It is not to be at the level of the national dictates coming out of Washington. So what's the status? We'll ask her that about the Department of Education. But more, she's also very much on top of the big, beautiful bill.

One of the core things of this show, that and also the dumbing down of America, the Mississippi miracle. Can you believe it that Mississippi now is one of the leaders, and I'm going to get into it talking with her about that, one of the leaders in reading right now. Mississippi, remember that? You can just book it. West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, always the lowest in all the bad stuff in education, etc. So, without further ado, let's bring in,

A woman whose job is to get rid of her job slowly but surely. Let's bring in the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here, Dom. The big, beautiful bill has our hopes up tremendously. And I know you've been a big proponent of school choice. We have two Democratic governors, Hochul and Polis. And Polis has been very good in Colorado, Secretary.

But HOCO is under unbelievable fire from the teachers unions millions of dollars going after her to rescind that. Give us a sense of where you think we are with school choice. Well, you know, in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, it was the first time that there's actually been the closest thing to, you know, a national school choice program. It didn't have everything in it that that we'd hoped to get in.

But it has an awful lot to offer to students. And it's sort of you can have a foot in both camps a little bit with, you know, with this particular program because, first of all, governors have to opt in to the program.

And Governor Polis was one of the first governors who did. He recognized that it was going to be a good thing for his state.

And he said, again, it wasn't everything that he would like to see. But what happens is that the governor then works with scholarship-granting organizations. They're 501c3s in his or her state. And the private sector can then donate money into these SGOs to provide scholarships or to provide after-school tutors or services that are needed for students with disabilities.

So many aspects of the money that can be used. And those donors then, doesn't matter how much they can donate up to whatever they want, but they can then get a $1,700 credit on their federal tax return for that donation. And so it's a really good thing if a parent has a child trapped in a school or a failing school. They can apply for this scholarship program to this SGO and get their child out of the school.

of that failing school. Or if a child has special needs or disabilities, then it's an incredibly good program.

But again, the governor works with these different scholarship-granting organizations and has a great deal of control over it. And so I cannot, for the life of me, understand why every governor, including the governor from Pennsylvania, doesn't opt into this program.

I can answer that I don't want to fully draw you into that but I know you

are up to it I can answer it with Josh Shapiro because he's running for president

and the teachers unions will not allow it have you had conversations with him or if not

what would you say would you say what you just said to convince him this is a win-win-win in all the ways you just told us

well it's really uh it's really great program and and it we have to speak to the fact uh that part of

The pushback from teachers' unions and others is that it takes money away from public education. And it absolutely does not do that. This is private money that is contributed into scholarship-granting organizations. It is a bigger money pot, if you will, to be utilized for education to help those students who need it the most. And I think I saw a survey the other day that if you combined all of the students that would be eligible here,

It's about 91% of students would be eligible if all the governors opted in with their programs. And so it could be widely accepted. 30 states have opted in. We'd certainly like to see the rest of the states opt in. And, you know, for that donor that donates money and gets the $1,700 credit, I've heard two governors who said, look, I want to keep this money in my state.

Exactly. Because these donors could donate this money to any state and get this deduction. Why not have it be in my state? Absolutely well put. Now, in your travels, this has started to reach talk radio. There's even going to be an event in Philadelphia around this with a colleague of mine, the Mississippi Miracle. Mississippi used to be one of the lowest ranked, as you know, in education matters. But due to their reading program and other things they put into play,

It is a miracle what they're doing in the state of Mississippi. They're a leader now. I'm sure you must have interacted some way with them. What can you tell us about it? Well, I'm really pleased to see so many states around the country utilizing and returning to what's called the science of reading. And to Governor Shapiro's credit, in his budget, he is insisting on money for that to be used and for teachers to be trained in the science of reading.

because only 30% of students in 12th, 8th grade, and 4th grade around the country are reading at proficient levels. And so for those governors who do, you know, look at those programs and say this is how we need to refocus our education, and the Mississippi Miracle is just absolute proof of that. They were, like, I think last or next to last in reading proficiency in the country. And then this is through state innovation.

And this is why the president is so focused on returning education to states because the Washington, D.C. bureaucracy of education does not control any curriculum on the state level. So innovations at the state level, like the Mississippi Miracle, are the ones that have proven success. We've seen it in Florida and Texas and Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee. But innovation always starts at the state level, not with bureaucrats like the state level.

like me in Washington, D.C. So if we if I mean, who has the best view of the student? The president always says that the best education is that that's closest to the child, that parents, teachers, principals that are involved in that education should be the ones developing that curriculum and having control. I mean, children don't belong to the government. They belong to their parents and parents should be the ones having oversight here. So I encourage parents to go to school board meetings.

to meet with their teachers, to meet with other school officials, and take a look at what's going on in their schools and to make sure that what they are expecting from those schools is what's being taught for their kids. Absolutely. Well, enjoy the time at Villanova. Thank you for coming on today, and thank you for the work with the Department of Education. Thank you so much for having me, Dom. All right. So that is Linda McMahon right in the center ring on school choice, getting rid of the Department of Education.

The Mississippi Miracle, we hope to have her back, and some of the solutions that are out there for parents when it comes to dealing with all these things. To give you an idea, old school, new school, next school, we are premier when it comes to promoting school choice of every form in every way. To give you an idea how out of control these teachers unions are, two Democrat governors have signed off. Well, one fully, the other says she's signing off.

on this idea of the money in the big, beautiful bill, where you as a taxpayer would be able to take $1,700, contribute that to a school choice fund, if you will, and you deduct from your federal income tax $1,700. Billions of dollars are set aside for this. It will liberate all kinds of kids, and you'll get money dollar for dollar from it. It is an ingenious idea.

Well, Governor Paul is out in Colorado, who's site progressive, signed off on it, even though it's a blue state pretty much, because he said, I want that money going to the citizens of my state, not to surrounding states. Governor Hochul, running to be governor again in New York, also said she was signing off on it.

Now the ferocity, I'm looking at the New York Post of the teachers' unions ads, particularly in Buffalo, where Governor Hochul is from. They're spending millions of dollars. The New York Post says shameless online banners, full-page ad in the hometown Buffalo news. They blare, Governor Hochul, don't opt in to Trump's voucher scheme. Fear-mongering, slander, the whole deal that's involved here.

This is how determined they are to stop competition.

So you have to ask yourself, where you are, wherever you are in the country,

are America's public schools, how many of them are performing very, very well?

There are certainly some.

But in the big cities, how many are consigned?

In New York, for example, she's in New York, Governor Hochul.

New York City schools are spending $42,000 a kid.

Don't you think we could do better for $42,000 a student? Of course we can. Teachers unions, once again, I had a guy on my radio show in Philadelphia just in the last few days where the NEA and the AFT, the big teachers unions, are behind a move with AI being used in the classroom to get with the software, to get with the people involved, and to infiltrate DEI.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Remember those magic things that were to be filtered out because of how disastrous they are? To plug them in in an indoctrination form to kids. Some of them could be very, very young. So this is a battle to the death, and it's going to increase going into the midterms. And then when we arrive in January 2027, and it actually is put into play.

I hope that Hochul is able to hold her ground. I don't see why not, but the teachers' unions are relentless. Wanted to also preview the guests that we're going to have on next week. We had him on once before, but he has caught on now at a level that is unbelievable. He is a neurologist. That is Dr. Jarrett Cooney-Harvath.

And NBC News says he went from a relatively unknown educational consultant to the intellectual guide of a grassroots movement to limit screen time in schools, thanks to his self-published book, The Digital Delusion. Well, guess what? This book is so hot, was self-published, thank God he did it, that parents, like where I am in Philadelphia, it's a pretty lavish school district, lower American school district, they are giving copies of said book to friends, etc.

in this battle over too much screen time. So he'll be on with us because he's coming out with a new edition of the book in August in a week or two that has about 20 to 30 pages with new data points in the book talking about why America's kids are having so many problems. Not just learning problems, the dumbing down of America, but emotional, mental health, all the things that are involved. And these parents sense it. And they're telling the schools things like pick up

PutDownThePixel.com is one website you can check out. That's from the Laura Merian people. And what we are seeing play out here is a revolution. A professor named Hyatt, about a year or so ago, talked about phones and screens, put phones, and the amount of time on it, the devastation, the things that are going on. So how are these kids going to learn technology if technology is curtailed in the early grades?

That will be next week with a good doctor. I think you'll enjoy that. This show is dedicated to fighting back against the dumbing down of America's kids. We see it, the dumbing down of America all over the place. How much longer can that go on? Two of the major roots of it are parental rights and one of the major parental rights, school choice. But in addition to that, there are things like this, things as a parent, grandparent, concerned person,

you can do. I recommend this book, Fowey Digital Delusion. Get the new copy coming out. It should be able to be ordered now, in which he's at it since he took off, at it points about what we're dealing with here. I think you'll enjoy it, and I think you'll see this in your kids, that less time. We don't need to have kids hooked up in kindergarten. They're going to learn technology in this generation. They're maybe too much. Their phones,

and everything else. Fourth or fifth grade, more. You start to bring it in. High school years. But even then, too much of this is not a good thing. So be looking for all that in coming weeks. And I hope you enjoyed Linda McMahon today as she dismantles the Department of Education because the education forces are right when they say education ought to be more localized. That's where all this should go on. If you have a question for me,

You can always send me with an email. Just go to my email. Domshow, D-O-M-S-H-O-W

at AOL.com. I'll see you until next week. And remember, you are your kid's first and best teacher.

And the things that we talk about here, tell other parents about it, inspire them, give them hope. Right here on Old School, New School, Next School.

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