Welcome to empowering families and education. Please welcome lindsay burke. [applause] welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. I am delighted to what i have what i know will be a fantastic conversation. There has never been a better moment for education freedom. America has never been closer than it is today to realizing the vision for universal educational toys. Choice. The Arizona Governor signed into law the nations first truly universal Education Choice program. An Education Savings Account open to every single arizona family. West virginia wins nearly as far as the last year. 32 states and the district of, your offer 76 columbia offer 76 private School Choices. To nearly 50 million. Teachers unions remain a powerful force in case law education but we are here today to suck showcase a new coalition that will bring special Interest Groups this coalition understands the old summit objective is freedom for families into selective learning environments that align with their values. This volume based case for School Choice is the heart of what my calling has deemed education colleague has called education to point out. It represents a coalition of organizations reflected not just education groups, but groups like mom for liberty and partners like parents defending education, the Alliance Defending freedom and the independent mens forum who understand womens forum who understands the movement as a solution to current cultural battles. Thats also at the heart of new efforts like the promise to americas parents, developed by the alliance freedom, rooted in accountability for parents, Education Choice and transparency. Before i introduce our speakers, market calendars, because on september 9, the Heritage Foundation will be releasing our first ever education freedom report card showing just how well states are or are not doing on Education Choice and host of other freedom measures. We look at Education Choice, Regulatory Environment, academic transparency, and return on investment. Place your bets now for which states. You think will end up on top. It is now my pleasure to introduce a great lineup of speakers we have today. I will welcome them up on stage. Dr. Kevin roberts as president of the Heritage Foundation. Dr. Roberts served as the chief executive officer of the texas Public Policy foundation. He has a deep passion for education after earning his phd in American History from the university of texas and spending several years teaching history at the collegiate level, dr. Roberts founded the academy, a coed k12 catholic liberal arts school in louisiana. He served as the academys president and headmaster for seven years. In 2013 he resigned from the academy to become president of wyoming catholic college. Tiffany justice as the cofounder of moms for liberty, an organization dedicated for fighting for the survival of america by unifying, educating and empowering present parents to have parental rights and throughout all levels of government. Is she served a fouryear term on the School District she served a fouryear term on the School District. He is also the executive director of the educational freedom institute, an adjunct scholar, and a board member of the Liberty Justice center. Dr. Deangelis has coauthored 40 journals, setting the record straight on educational freedom. Monitoring our conversation today is kaylee white, a commentary writer and the Deputy Editor of restoring america for the washington examiner, focusing on religion, politics and culture. Please join me in welcoming our panelists. [applause] thank you all so much for being here. Im excited for the conversation we are about to have. Theres so much we could say about School Choice and education freedom. I want to start by asking you guys, what do you believe that School Choice and education freedom is . What does it mean for families . School choice and educational freedom means trusting parents, to make the best decision for their children. Unfortunately we have seen a nation that has not trusted parents to make the good decisions for their kids. Educational freedom means parents get to direct the upbringing and education of their children and thats the way forward in america. Trusting parents. Yes, four words for you, funding students, not systems, allowing Family Education daughters dollars for Public School, few like Public Schools you can keep it. If not you will be able to take that funding to a private school or homebased option. We fun people directly when it comes to Higher Education with the pell grant and g. I. Bill, we do this with prek programs and headstarts. You can take the money to a private religious prek provider if you want. We do the same thing with food stamps. The funding follows the decision of the family. We can take it to walmart but you can go to trader joes or whole foods or safeway, or any other provider. Same thing with medicaid, hospitals, you can take your medicaid dollars or vouchers to a private, religiously affiliated hospital. Im arguing for funding students directly, we apply the same logic with everything that we do with everything else, to those in between years of k12 education. I agree entirely with what tiffany and corey has said. What i would add is School Choice is about equality of opportunity. Its difficult for me as a historian of our republic to think of another example in the last 75 years of a system that is gone so much money, that is done so much to resegregate american kids, resegregate them racially, domestic ethnically, and socioeconomically. It is aborted to the american ideal that this not only exists with this is a controversy. We need every dollar for every child so every parent can make a decision for his or her child so that he can guarantee quality of opportunity, which is the defining characteristic of the u. S. Would it help it . Yes. Theres a lot of reasons for School Choice. We made the testbased argument for a long time, was School Choice, your kids are stuck in a Failing School because of the massive reading test scores but there is a dimension of quality that parent started to look into in the past couple of years whether these schools align with your values. Now, was School Choice you can have the funding follow student that goes tuned to dachshund to duchenne that values your that goes into the values. To follow but not, the relationship to follow up on that, the relationship between the students and school is important. No matter where you are sending your child to school you need to build a relationship with that school. I dont think the idea of educational freedom frees us from worrying about the ideology creeping into schools. Parents during the pandemic, sometimes when they wanted School Choice it wasnt there for them in their communities. They also thought that they would move their child into another school that they thought was a. Favorite place and it wasnt. What you need is informed decision makers. A lot of information about what a good quality education looks like for their child, making those decisions about what is best for the child. That starts with the relationship between the parent, the child and the school having good communication. Because School Choice increases transparency, it i provides datan the market. Data in the market that doesnt exist now. It breaks up the monopoly government funded schools has now. Put the power in the hands of parents, highlighting something we have learned, the more parents discovered the curricula that were being offered to their kids, the more unpopular Critical Race Theory became. Theres a direct correlation, the two great patriots sitting between us deserve a lot of credit for highlighting that. They provided the ammunition for parents to go into their School Boards and say, in spite of the fact that youre not answering our question, in spite of the fact that you are calling us domestic terrorists, we demand on behalf of our kids, on every american child, because this is america, that you stop teaching that nonsense. The more as a going to the next round of a state legislative sessions, we can really push towards every dollar following every child, you will see that transparency. As American Families are going to decide keep their kids in Public Schools, that will be fine provided we recognize, provided we think about the research that where School Choice exists, Public Schools improve and in every measure. We ought to have the optimism to embrace this. For a lot of my time i heard School Choice, it was School Choice or die. It is not School Choice and not Public Education but a School Choice and Public Education and reforming that system and recognizing that there are children being as a educated in america that are being taught that america is not a very good country. Is that what we as americans want being taught in Public Schools . Its a question a lot of people need to grapple with. We should take a moment to thank the Teachers Union for doing so much to advance the concept of School Choice and homeschooling than anyone could have ever imagined in the past couple of years. She overplayed her hand, you have the cdc closing schools, hurting kids academically and mentally. Two weeks to slow the spread turned it to two years to flout the generation of children. You had the chicago Teachers Union, they overplayed their hand and show their true colors. We are all better off for it because in 2021 we are dubbing it the year of School Choice. The biggest goal choice expansion in a single year that i have ever seen. As lindsay mentioned earlier, arizona went all in and one upped all the other states and that, were going to expand educational them to every single student, every family regardless of income. Theyre going to take their statefunded education dollars to the state providers of their choosing. In arizona they have a majority lay the house. And the senate. They all had to show up and vote for the party issue and that got it done. That makes me optimistic or other states, particularly red states to empower every singlefamily to have educational freedom. Domestic terrorists, that back fired, 26 states left the and sba. We may as well call them the Regional School board association. Those domestic terrorists vote and push back, their new special interest group, parents who are going to win the battle in the long run. You can call us whatever we want we will not stop writing. Fighting. Democrats in the past have made themselves out to be the party of the little guy for years. Why is it they oppose a School Choice so vigorously . What is the motivation for them to oppose giving parents the power to direct the education of their children . It undermines the power. In fact it is a misnomer to think the american left the Democrat Party is a part of the little guy when he think about this deplorable consequence of the not so Great Society and the ridiculously named war on poverty, building out government funding schools. We ought to embrace the project of a Public Schools because it is part of our tradition of transmitting american ideals from one generation to the next. The workingclass movement in the u. S. Is all about bureaucracies and systems. It is really important to wrap up here, that conservatives who have not spent a lot of time on education reform recognize this is the civil rights issue of the 21st century period. American parents got to see very clearly th what the unions had. I remember sitting in bargaining sessions and the district of our getting for the district and the union are arguing for those of the table. I called randy the arsonist to pretend to be a firefighter. You have union, and who was bargaining for the kids our parents . I watched it in School Districts, controlling things you would never imagine unions being can controlling. You need to look that up if you are a parent. America, all of america got to see as parents were struggling to the pandemic, the unions working to keep schools closed. We fastforward to representative assemblies and the meetings they had and you look at the agenda on the things theyre concerned about, climate change, abortion, Foreign Policy, ukraine. Focus on our children. American children are not learning to read in school. What other industry would you pour more and more money into and how the outcomes that we have . If you are surgeon and two thirds of the kids died on the operating table would we still let you operate on children . I said, i tried to be as with the is corey, its hard but i said, they should change their name to the National Extremist association because they are representing the most far Left Progressive ideology and is not reflective of what parents and what we believe teachers want. They dont represent teachers either to be honest. The National Extremist association and the armen of Indoctrination Department of indoctrination, this firefighter just throws more money into the fires and keeps earning. She doesnt bring water to the fight. Another reason for this, 99. 97 of campaign contributions, the American Federation of teachers have gone to democrats as opposed to republicans. School choice is not a partisan issue with voters on the ground. Texas released a poll yesterday, at tyler, 59 of democrats, a majority of independents as well, and a clear Opinion Research polling nationwide in february 22 also found that super majority of republicans, democrats and independents, support School Choice. Another thing has changed, is the political wind. This is becoming a litmus test issue for republicans and coming out against parental rights in education is becoming a form of political suicide. Look at what happened to Terry Mcauliffe and virginia. I dont think parent should be telling teachers to teach. He laid out a bloop a blueprint for success for republicans going forward. The democrats are in a catch22 situation on education. If they come out for these parents the unions will be mad at them. If they come out against parents, the news special Interest Groups, parents are pushing back, they woken up, theyre paying attention and they are holding politicians accountable. In tennessee you had their republican primarys primaries. Nine of the tenant lost their seats. Wake up and listen to the parents who are never going back to sleep again. X amen amen. School choice comes in a variety of forms. There are many different policies including curriculum transparencies that parents are interested in passing. What do the next few years look like for School Choice movement . Where should we be looking at next . All eyes on iowa. Governor reynolds is a staunchest of order of educational freedom. She pushed the Education Bill this past year. It made it to the senate with all republicans except for one voting in favor. It will easily pass the chamber it got to the house, 16 of the 100 seats had an r next to their name, but they could not get it done even though reynolds held the legislature and passed the 100 day mark. She fought, she actually took action and took it a step further and went to the primaries and endorsed nine republicans with mostly School Choice as a dividing line in that primary. Eight of those nine School Choice supporters one. It looks like we have the votes in the iowa house. Its not a matter of whether iowa will get School Choice next year but how big of an initiative it will be. Hopefully it will be universal, like they did in arizona. Lets make sure we do it. Ive been looking at texas. No disrespect iowa. Governor abbotts voice, calling in may of 2022 to have the state funding while every single child to the public, child or Charter School private or Charter School. The Senate Passed it before it was cool back in 2017 with all the to report with all but two republicans voted, the house quietly killed it people do not make that much of a ruckus about it. The people things have changed. If that would happen this year in texas there would be a National Uprising and everyone would be talking about it. It would be a National Embarrassment for the texas house if they do not get it done. This session but again politicians have changed. In arizona, this past year, they needed every single vote in favor on the republican side. Just last year they tried something similar to the republicans voted against the republic measure in arizona. One of those no votes actually cosponsor the bill this year, which is the biggest victory in School Choice in history. On the floor, they said part of the reason why was because they heard from parents. Parents can make a difference and they are doing so. Im going to push back a bit. I was sent a video that Governor Abbott was speaking about education and said some rings that were little concerning. To bring this down, what our parents concerned about . Parents are concerned about a system that has been lying to them. When youre looking at School Choice in whatever education 2. 0 looks like, really listening to parents and hearing their concerns about these issues is important. What im hearing from parents, when theyre talking about School Choice, how my going to know that a lot of these things we are seeing being rushed down from the federal level are not going to continue to be tied to my childs funding when i move them to another school . It is a big deal to change where child goes to school. Its important decision families make. Another question that has been thrown out, is how do you make sure you dont get the walmarts of schools in certain communities . How are we going to make sure that what the government cannot get to the front door they will not try to get through the backdoor, through monopoly capital . We have to look at some there are some real questions. There are some answers. But if we want to move forward in a transparent way, Building Trust with parents, which is what we want to do, we want parents to feel good about their kids education because they know their kids are getting what they need. Moving forward there has to be transparency in the School Choice movement. We have to be able to listen to the hard questions and be able to answer them in a transparent manner. That raises a really quick question i wanted ask you guys. One of the concerns that some have said about School Choice is it is a trojan horse that would allow the federal government to have financial control over schools and the curriculum. Is it true . What are your responses . Victories in 2021 and the one in arizona these are statelevel policies not federal once. We do not have to worry about federal strings with those. Two, we dont want to miss the forest for the trees. You dont want to make a perfect enemy of the good. I understand libertarian utopia of not having any government involvement, but each individual family has a choice to accept the fund youre not. They can waive the cost of accepting that funding. But we should not be able to tell another family that she that they should not have the opportunity to accept the funding. Another person excited about whether this is going to be a step in the right direction or not, i think most people believe it is an incremental win, is randi weingarten. She has repeated in this argument on twitter. This is going to control private education. She saying that because she is a libertarian . Absolutely not. Its because she understands that the incremental win doesnt happen, but we are left with is the status quo, skids are stuck and families are forced to take their kids education dollars to residentially assigned government assigned school. As far as having walmart schools pop up, i have seen that. We have 60 School Choices over the at least you have an individual choice, a public monopolies much worse than a private monopoly which i dont think those exist without government involvement. The great economist said it best. There are no solutions, their only tradeoffs. Each policy switch or policy solution has cost and benefits associated with it. The people who are making perfect of the enemy are focusing on one possible cost that might happen in the future while ignoring the real guaranteed cost of the status quo. We should accept the incremental victory, not make public enemies. We should fight together against any regulations that may be included in these bills. We should watch the bills very closely. In arizona, then a testing requirement. Parents pushed back. The amended the requirement is a bill. The last thing i will say before moving forward is that the government can regulate private education if it wants to today without giving us a choice. We might as well allow families have the opportunity because the government look in 2020, you had a list from Harvard University calling two homeschooling without School Choice involvement. You might as well get a bigger coalition on our side to defend against those future calls for regulation by having more people to experience private education and homeschooling. When that happens society tends to have a more favorable view of things that a mormon stream. If you have more opportunities of private education, the likelihood of calls for regulation is lower. Nine outoftown kids are in government run schools today. The institutions are cranking out socialists that are going to vote for Big Government in the future. And you might as well allow for an escape hatch which is not perfect. It is better than what we have. We should join arms and fight together against any culture regulations going forward. [applause] theres no bigger skeptic of federal funding and the Strings Attached the me. As president of wyoming catholic college, we were told that the federal government cap that Student Loans and grants. We told the creditor that it was not our business that they were doing that. I empathize with those friends, especially the political right, were concerned, as corey described about strings being attached. Having said that, all of these programs are built around each parent, each family making that decision. To the point about the tradeoffs, assessing what those tradeoffs are. One of the things to go back to his comment about the 2017 bill that passed the texas senate is that we fought against an overwrought Regulatory Environment that would have taken that choice out of the hands of parents. Its really important for people who are concerned about that to be part of the process of ill writing, ill writing bill writing, to minimize the threat of Strings Attached. The School Choice effort is but one part of reimagining american education, simultaneously, we had heritage with the help of many in this room will be ending the accreditation cartel in the next decade. Then, by new years eve, 2029, it is our goal to celebrate the end of the u. S. Apartment of education. Department of education. [applause] when those things happen it does minimize those concerns. We have mentioned how School Choice benefits minorities in low income disadvantages students the most. Why is that . Is it something that minority families tend to support across both sides of the political aisle . I will start with the story. Im very interested in what corey and tiffany have to say. When i started in louisiana, we were the second to participate in the program. All of the data that my colleagues here at heritage, that other education reformers report to that those demographic groups that are victimized by governmentfunded schools are cicely those 12 are precisely those who benefit the most. That would be any group who are socioeconomic disadvantage, but a month into the program this young mother came up to me at the school in the pickup line, a young africanamerican mother and she said at dr. Roberts, she had tears in her eyes, she said i need to speak to you. I thought, oh my gosh, what did we do . She said being in the school has changed the life of mine seventh grader. But it has also changed my life, speaking about herself, and therefore the lives of everyone in my family and every generation follow. That is true for any american. It is particularly true for those americans who have not in benefited from a government funded programs. If you accept the definition of systemic racism, the government is one of the clear examples. The government run School System is highly an equitable. Funding students directly allows more families have educational opportunities. School choice is the great equalizer. If you look at the pole that i talked about from ut tyler yesterday, the highest support of the breakdowns in the School Choice question was among black and latino individuals, that responded on the survey, higher than white respondents. The survey works. If you look at on the ground when these programs are implemented. Nonwhite families are disproportionately more likely to use them. If you look at the florida tax credit scholarship, thats the case there. In d. C. There is the voucher program. 95 of participants are black or hispanic. The average Household Income of the Florida Program is 36,000 a year. In d. C. It is about 30,000 a year. Of participants using the program. If you already have a Great Public School and it is working, why switch . If you like your Public School you can keep it. Thats part of the options. This is not a private versus public. This is a choice for families. Allowing families to choose their Grocery Store does not mean you are antisafeway. Allowing families to choose their school does not mean they are antiPublic School. This is really a winwin solution. Yeah. Again, american mothers are united. We want to see our children thrive and reach their full potential. When moms have been able to witness how their kids are doing in school, whether their children like school or learning, what we are seeing is they dont. They are not doing well in school. We got to see what they were learning, look like garbage. They are being pitted against each other and told on somehow, your capabilities in life is somehow related to the way that other people are perceiving you or that there are some factors that may keep you from reaching your full potential. Moms across the border, where you dividing our kids . Are you not teaching our children what they need . The idea that any mother cannot make a decision that is best for their child is just ridiculous. We have to look and decide what is that we really want our Education System to be doing and empower parents, all parents, when it is not doing that, to be able to have their voice heard. Unfortunately, what education in my experience as a school board member, what the Education System has done has tried to make it something that parents cannot understand. Just leave it to us, you dont understand what were trying to do in school and dont ask any questions. So, moms are done with that. I think the future looks, a lot like parents saying my kid is getting in a, what is that a mean . Every american mom is asking that question. To wrap us up, i think it is clear from this conversation that the support for School Choice is there. Weve seen that in arizonas new legislation. How do we communicate the message for School Choice among parents who might not know much about it but who do want to have the power to direct the education of their children . I think you start by saying, we across the political spectrum believe in american kids. We believe in publicly funded institutions that transmit shared values from one generation to the next. Second thing is, we really need lean into the equality of opportunity. Especially when you consider we are also the most Pluralistic Society in the history of the world, since the roman empire. This is very noble. It is not republican and it is not democrat. It is very prohuman. Intrinsically is that true, but it is the issue that will allow americans to speak more civilly about other differences of opinion we may have. It is the linchpin to the future of america. People agree with that. Follow me on twitter. [laughter] that is true. Fonda students, Fund Students there. A lot of the same people who support all of these other initiatives that funded the person directly as opposed to a government run institution, the only freak out about it when it comes to k12. They will say public money in Public Schools. Theres no such thing as public money it is taxpayer dollars. At the same time why do you support public on he going to private hospitals and colleges, prek providers . Why is it only ok for public dollars to go to everything private but not through for k12 education. I have seen people stop in their tracks. They dont know how to respond to it. That is usually when you get blocked on social media. You can block me in person. I will walk out of the room and said i want to talk about this anymore. That is where you start. If just saying fund a students, if you want to argue with that, you are in a position to say why not fund the student . Turning the burden of truth to the other side has been helpful in messaging. Their only argument is it is going to destroy or defund the Public Schools. The best response to that is why would that happen . [laughter] they can answer it. Thats when i get blocked and say, thats because people want to go to private school. Why do you want to trap them in government run schools . They say, parents dont know any better. They can choose. Well, im not a doctor but i can choose my doctor. Im not a mechanic but i can choose a car dealership. People can figure these things out. It doesnt matter if your low income family are not. You have the best interest of her child in mind and you know about their needs then the bureaucrats in the office hundreds of miles away. Putting this burden of truth on the other side is helpful. The audacity that some bureaucrat thinks they know better than me for my child right . I think that is what we saw. Even as an elected school board member, other members abdicated their authorities. It important to reengage every level of government in the u. S. But were doing is encouraging parents and people in their community to get involved in run for office. I think that more people talking about what it is we really want, the primary duty of schools to be which is educating students is important. There is room and space for everyone in this conversation. Everyone brings a different perspective to this fight. It is important. Great. I think we will take some questions from our audience members at this point. Thank you for wonderful conversations. Im from california. We had ethnics duties studies curriculum, which had some bad material in it, which was poured in the teacher training material. When parents try to access that, its private material, under contract, it not subject to review. All of the peoples being poured into teacher training. How do we address that . Past laws and state legislatures to require all to be transparent. Youll see the little demons that protect that money run for the hills. I mean that intentionally. This is evil, because it is dealing with our kids. In the name of a right that doesnt exist, this is a public entity, using our darn money, their imposing unjust, evil, doctrines on our kids. So, we have to demand, we have to have the political courage to cause our elected officials to have political courage. The good news is it has already started. Even california will not be able to withstand it. To that point, you saw the San Francisco school board have that recall happen. What we are trying to do, by getting people elected into the school board that are paying attention, is the school board has access to professional development. They are able to set the course for the district, what the policy looks like in the vision with the superintendent. We see a lot of activist groups working through procedure, going through professional development, weaseling their way in. I watched a video that says something about, were changing the words around so we can warm our way around all of the roadblocks. Were going to keep putting up roadblocks and stopping these people in their tracks. We are tireless. We are not stopping. Parents are not stopping. The Ripple Effect that is going to happen from people that are informed, paying attention, sitting on these election boards. Years from now, the momentum that will create, locate a new Political Class in america for people who are not career politicians are concerned about their communities and are taking the helm. That is how we continue to keep letting the sun in and pulling the curtain back. The transparency stuff is big. What do you have to hide . Why can i see what youre teaching to my kids . That is a good move, to introduce the bill. Also to return the pathways to teacher certification is huge. Defund the universities. Taxpayers spend 400 billion or more per year nationwide on Higher Education. Which is more than what we spend on k12 education. It is the funding people not paid attention. School choices another solution too. Youre more likely to have an array of different viewpoints of teachers in different sectors. It can happen in the private sector but at least pay families will have a choice. Once the demand is there parents have the dollars, you will have more conservative private schools pop up as well. Hi, everybody. I am curious to know, what do you find is the most common thing you hear in terms of parents having a breaking point with their Childs School . I get a lot of phone calls talking about the pornography in the libraries, this radical or Critical Race Theory. What is the most common thing you hear about what parents say of what is done . But now they have become School Choice advocates because they cant handle the madness anymore. It was when they came to the board meetings. When the exercise their First Amendment rights. When they approach the teachers and administrators and they have been ignored. They said, wait a second i thought we were partners in our childrens education . I am raising my kids youre educating my kids we work together, oh no we dont . You wont answer my questions. You just gave me a bill for 30,000 to be able to look at the curriculum youre teaching my child . That was a breaking point for a lot of parents. They had enough, they said it was ridiculous and we have to save our kids. Not every parent has the means to take the child out of school. That is why we have to gray more options so every parent has the create more options so every parent has the ability to direct the education of their child. Lot of the problems are the valuebased problems. Families in Public Schools are starting to see that they are being trusting brainwashing my kid circuit. Brainwashing their kid. Some legislatures have been proposing bans certain concepts which could be a step in the right direction but we are seeing videos come out from a group called accuracy in media. Idaho, tennessee, the administrators and teachers are saying, we have a ban but im going to call crt social emotional learning, or student mental health. And we will incorporate the concept even if it is not in the curriculum. The bans, even if they are a step in the right direction and work sometimes, as only a piece of the puzzle. School choice has to be a part of that, as a last resort, if things are not changing on the ground. Wherever there has been a lack of transparency is where parents had a breaking point. That is a lesson about something larger which is as power is accrued in the Imperial City of washington, and the increasing number of state capitals, parents realize, people realize, that part of accruing powers not having transparency. It is the first step to breaking that power because as soon as rational people, which would be the vast majority of americans, they want to take action. It is important as each of you contemplate your first step you will take as a result of this panel, it is what can i do to increase transparency in education, higher ed, tax policy, whatever it is you care about, Foreign Policy . This is the very first step. It is the lesson for a free people. We have a right, moral right, to understand how government is spending our money. Im sitting back here you cant see me. First of all, great discussion. Thank you so much. I am from the city of detroit. We all know that the horrible system that exists there. One of the things that is common is the single moms who are not married, trying to raise kids. Can you talk mccullough mentioned that parents should have a decision on what their kids are learning. He says that because he is relating to a lot of people that do not have time to be concerned with that. Can you talk about the breakdown of the family and how that is contributing to this . It is immense. I will start. Cory is a libertarian so i am wondering how he will answer that. [laughter] i was going to bring up what happened in texas. The democrat candidate said terry, hold my beer, vouchers are for vultures. You could get away without when all kidding aside, a serious question and a serious issue. That is a problem, the breakdown of the nuclear family. That is the problem upstream from everything we work on in Public Policy. Therefore, if we can culturally and socially, outside of politics and policy, for the most part, focus on that in our second step as a result of this panel, then we begin, 50 years down the road to have less of a problem. We are kidding ourselves as a people. Kidding ourselves, if we think we could solve any Public Policy issue without first restoring the nuclear family. I would just point out, during covid in the pandemic, we have a lot of moms who are single moms, the burden that was placed on mothers to try to work and to try to educate their children or find someone that could sit with their child. I have four children of my own. The stories i could tell you from virtual learning. It was intense. I was able to be there with them. So what we have seen as a nation, it has turned their back on moms and women, we see it more and more every day. We believe i believe every mother has the best interest of their child at heart when theyre making decisions. I choose to have that belief. We need to support women and give them as much information as possible so they can make the best decision for their child. It is their decision to make. As a society, democrats in general, contributed to a lot of the policies that have hurt single moms, more than anyone else. That is the reality i see is a mom. That is how the left is losing so many women right now. I think School Choice could lead to higher likelihood of having an intact family. There was a study, that said private education i did a study on the milwaukee voucher program, one we found it lead to a reduction of criminal activity. The students were 30 years of age. We found a 38 of reduction of paternity disputes. There been other studies, one by harvard and princeton researchers, in new york city, the Charter School winning a lottery to attend one of those Charter Schools was associated with 100 in incarceration of male students and a 59 of reduction in the likelihood of a teenage pregnancy or a female student. Theres a lot of these benefits associated with School Choice as well that less people do not consider. I would be remiss if i did not mention the fact that we are moms for liberty. We believe that strongmen support from women. But honestly, thereve been moments, as i watch women stand up across the country that have questions about where the men in america standing up and having an issue with this . We have pushed men out of our society of having an opinion on education or childrearing. We need to invite them back into the conversation and empower men to be our partners, riding ship of america. Mention Governor Youngkin multiple times. As a virginia resident i am hopeful he will do something with education freedom but i have not seen too much evidence that that will happen. Virginias way behind other states. We only have seven Charter Schools, where other states have hundreds. We have a tiny private tax credit scholarship program. The governor restored funding for it in the budget. What do all hope to see from the governor when it comes to education freedom . What do you think he should be doing as he prepares for the next legislative session . Given his abilities and cheerfulness, the fact that he is one of the next generation of leaders, not just in the conservative movement but american policy innovators, we expect universal School Choice in virginia. Yup. [applause] i was going to point out, the Amendment Proposal in the budget, it was going to be a cut of 50 of the tax credit scholarship program. You can expand the tax credit scholarship, it is only 65 right now. You can tweak that to 100 . We will have more supply funding available to families. He was talking to w ml ao wmlao, he was asked, and he said he wasnt supportive of choice of education. They did pass it out of the house with all republicans in favor. 5248. Who knows maybe theres a democrat or to allay the Senate Democrat in the senate. Thank you all very much, you are you talked about 100 reduction in incarceration. Those are pretty damming statistics for the other side. Yet, it seems like their ranks are still growing. So, im curious, could you speak to the urgency of the moment a bit . Help us all understand that, even though it doesnt make sense, they are still getting their way. I could be loathed into a false sense of confidence when i lulled into a false sense of confidence when i reflect on how bad these ideals are but theyre pervasive. Can you reflect a bit on that on what we could be doing . I dont think they are getting their way. We have had so much victory in School Choice. 19 state victories in 2021. Arizona going whole hog, allowing families have a choice. In primaries, union back politicians are getting there boats kicked butts kicked. We are at 79 of the primaries we have been involved in. This is becoming a political winner. Has anyone seen the graph which shows the democrats support on education versus republicans over the past decades, it has switched to republicans. Republicans have a golden opportunity to become the parents party. A lot of people thought that was a onetime thing, schools have been closed. It was a long time ago. Last month, two leftleaning groups had polling, with a republicans on education. Randy weingarten, Zone Commission at the pole, finding republicans on education by one point. Coming from 2017 gallup, finding democrats up by 19 points on education. This is a Seismic Shift in support towards republicans. Hopefully they dont mess it up. The one way to secure parental rights in education is to allow them to have a choice, there are other policy reforms as well but School Choice is the ultimate way to secure parental rights and education. So, if the republicans want to give a gift to the democrats they will still quiet on education like they have done for far too long. If they want a red wave in november they will lean into it. It is time people put money whether mouth is where their mouth is. The aft and the nea put money into School Board Races there. But we need to understand is good at School Board Candidates need to be funded. The union has done for a long time they take all of those dues and money put it to work. They become the boots on the ground for candidates. Its time for us to contribute to candidates, get out there knock doors, get involved and recognize, if we want to gain ground we are going have to do the work to make it happen. I think we have time for one more. Its hard to get to the people in the middle. I was wondering, back in 2018, Governor Desantis one heavily by over 100,000 a black moms who supported School Choice. That was their issue. Where do you see School Choice going in florida . I think we could expand it. Just last month, the governor walked up to Governor Desantis, and a snatched the School Choice belt out of his hands. But, it was just signed into law, the most expensive by far School Choice initiative, empowering everything a family. Hopefully this sparks from the competition. I think Governor Desantis should come back and say, give it back, were going to do the same thing in power empower every singlefamily. Florida, i dont want to make light of the florida victory in 2021 either. That was the most expensive School Choice victory in florida in 2021. It just wasnt the most expensive in the nation. I think i do see that there is friendly competition. You see abbott coming out, desantis, thats the next state we would like to see. Florida leads in so many ways. We have seen ron desantis lead in so many ways. I have been impressed, he continues to be an advocate for School Choice. He looks to reform Public Education and bring transparency and make sure parents have a voice in every decision. So, i think the future looks a lot like that, putting parents in the driver seat and making sure they have all of the information they need to make the best decision for their child regarding education. I want to thank you all for coming out. I want to think our excellent panelist and encourage you all to Pay Attention to washington examiners site where we will be publishing dozens of beds from heritage experts beds opeds, from heritage experts. Thank you guys again. [applause]