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Southern Methodist University is renaming its Diversity and Inclusion office
Jenna Ellis: I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview, the U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect the rights that our founders recognize come from God, our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you. And God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time. This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.
Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Friday, September, September 4, and a big breaking story, in the world of diversity, equity and inclusion. You know, where, where the Trump administration, of course, has tried to rid DEI in a lot of the federal funding, obviously Governor Ron DeSantis here in Florida, says, you know, the Florida is where woke goes to die. Love that motto. But, this was a hidden camera video that was posted by our friend Corrie DeAngelis on X. And, he titles it breaking Southern Methodist University official caught on a hidden camera admitting they've done, quote, a lot of maneuvering to keep DEI hidden. They renamed the Office of Diversity and Inclusion the Office of cultural intelligence. And SMU receives $25 million in federal money. So let's welcome in Corrie DeAngelis. He's the host of Education Frontlines for Real Truth Media and the executive director at the Educational Freedom Institute, among many titles and great work that he's doing. But Corrie, this, I think is what conservatives were concerned about happening, is that, during this push to say, okay, we need to, get rid of all of the DEI offices, they would just be relabeled and be renamed. I mean, if, if under the leftist theory, you know, a man can become a woman, we can just relabel him, you know, why not the DEI offices?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. And, conservatives were right to be concerned about this. I mean, President Trump came in, he did his executive order to root out dei, but that's basically where it ended. Right? And so you have these undercover investigations from accuracy and media finding primarily in red states, they Go to these red states and basically point out to the public that you're not safe. Just because you're not in, you know, just because you're not in California doesn't mean you're going to be safe from, DEI and this university, Southern Methodist University there, they receive about $25 million in federal money each year, and they, charge tuition of about 63,000. You look at their own website, they say the total cost of attendance each year is about $90,000 per student. So you might be a Christian family in Texas, a conservative family, saying, hey, I don't want to send my K to UT Austin with all those wackos, so maybe I'll send them to SMU to a Christian private university. And lo and behold, you're still, you're not safe, there either. They're renaming the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to the Office of Cultural Intelligence. It has blown up so much over the past couple of days. my tweet alone has over 1.2 million views already. Just one of them. And I got a response from the university because I sent them an email asking for comment. their Director of communications, and Media, Megan Jacob, responded. And if you look at that email, I posted it on X. It looks like a Kamala Harris gobbity gook word salad, full of gaslighting. I mean, it looks like it was written by AI and it doesn't address anything in the video about the maneuvering to keep DEI hidden. They just basically say, no, we don't have a DEI program. And, oh, by the way, we just teach kids how to communicate and lead and teach and blah, blah, blah, all the buzzwords and innovate. They included that one as well. But it looks like they're trying to just, move the goalpost again and try to sweep it under the rug. But, I think they're hoping the storm passes and everything blows over, but it's only gaining more and more traction each and every day.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, as it should. And I'm glad that stories like this are going viral so that, schools and institutions can't just quietly rename their programs because it's the actual substance, obviously, that conservatives and Trump administration care about. We don't really care what it's labeled. I mean, just saying, this is the Office of Cultural Intelligence, but you're doing the exact same, you know, DEI strategic objectives, as you were when it was labeled the DEI office. That's really not changing anything. So what specifically should investigators examine when we're not just wanting to argue over the name of the office.
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah. They should look at, whether the school is violating civil rights. So what do they mean when they say DEI or cultural intelligence? If they're pitting people against each other based on immutable characteristics, or if they're hiring and firing based on immutable characteristics, that's a huge red flag. And if they're teaching far left Marxist ideology that divides people as well, that's a, that's a problem as well. So I think in order to fix these things, I mean, it's not an easy solution. Right. We have Trump, who did the executive order, which, you know, that's not a law. So it didn't really hold as much teeth as we had hoped. people behind closed doors are going to continue to do what they want anyway. So personnel is policy. And I think one of the first steps needs to be pulling their federal funding. A lot of people responded saying, well, this is a private university. Well, that's true. But they receive 25 to 30 million dollars in federal tax money each year. So they should be held accountable. That money should be withheld. And otherwise people need to pay more attention. The students need to be paying attention as well, because it shouldn't require this undercover group, Accuracy Media, to go in to expose these kinds of things. I got a DM from one of the students that graduated in May, this year from that school. And they said, yeah, I had this lady, Danielle Paloma, who's in the undercover video, for a guest lecture. And he told me that, the DEI was just, was just entrenched in that lecture as well. So it was very obvious to him that this kind of stuff was happening at the university. The Turning Point chapter president has reached out to me as well from, smu and they also believe that DEI is alive and well in the university. They didn't require this video to come out for them to understand this. They kind of know what's going on. And I hope, I wish more parents would understand this so they don't send their kids to these institutions and spend all that money, $63,000 in tuition. Al. and, you know, that's. And then also if the Department of Justice can start filing lawsuits like they did, this week in Kansas City Public Schools, they just filed a lawsuit against Kansas City Public Schools for keeping secrets from parents when it comes to their child's gender changing at school, we need more lawsuits like that. We need more Harmeet Dylan's Yes, 100%.
Jenna Ellis: And this is exactly what needs to happen because, you know, as you mentioned, SMU receives, you know, between 25 and 30 million in federal grants. Shouldn't that obligate, the school to have, you know, some strings attached that accompany that money, particularly under, you know, civil rights, legal framework?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, I think so. And it's gonna need, they're gonna need to do a little better than responding to my email. And then also later on they responded, didn't gave Fox News digital comment as well, and it was copy paste, the same exact thing they sent me. and they didn't address any of the claims, they didn't address anything that was said in the video. It was just, they must have plugged something into AI. How do we respond to this guy's email? And that's what they copied and pasted. I mean, it's so, you know, if that's what they're teaching the students, it definitely isn't worth $63,000 either.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and on that note, I mean, is this in part at least a consumer transparency sort of issue? I mean, shouldn't colleges have to disclose some of these ideological mandates and what these offices actually are, are doing and mandatory trainings and things like this before families sign these really hefty tuition contracts?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, I think so. Especially if they're, you know, branding themselves as a private Christian university that, you know, to most people when they get that advertising, they're thinking, well, this is a conservative institution as opposed to UT Austin or maybe some of the other, more liberal institutions. And so I think a lot of parents would be surprised, to see this video. And maybe that's why it's, it's going viral. And I think it starts in the K12 system too.
Texas has taken a big step forward on school choice
And I'm glad that Texas has taken a big step forward on school choice. We got a lot a long way to go to be like Florida, which has over half a million students using scholarships. Now Texas has a, wait list of over 100,000 kids because they arbitrarily capped the funding for the program in the first year. But you know, if kids could escape The K through 12 left wing indoctrination, I bet you the colleges would kind of fix themselves as well with, the students entering. They would be more vigilant and pay more attention to the left wing indoctrination because they're already being force fed that for 13 years from K12. Once again in the college, it may not be as shocking as if they had a better, K12 experience with more conservative values.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and to your point as well, I mean I think a lot of parents might be shocked at this particular instance because seeing a lot of the other headlines, it seems like there's this view that somehow, you know, a lot of these DEI offices and some of this training, that really undercuts conservative and particularly Christian principles. Only happens at public schools and fully state funded institutions. Not a school that is private and holds itself out as being Christian. How many of these instances, you know, are we talking about? I mean it's more than just this, this school. But are, is there something that parents need to be looking at and aware of when they're contemplating even private Christian school?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, it's not an easy answer once the students are there yet you should be talking to your, to your kids at school just like in K through 12 and have those conversations to see if things are the right fit or not. the problem is once you're, once you're there, right, you're basically going to continue your education there. A lot of people don't like to pull and transfer and deal with all that. But you know, looking at the social media feeds, something as simple as that, as the, of these colleges and universities and what they're saying, and not just the school social media feeds, but the professor's social media feeds and anyone who's affiliated with the organization because again personnel's policy and if you have a bunch of left wing radicals at your private Christian university, well then that ideology is going to make its way into the classroom as well, whether we like it or not. I mean, I don't think there's any such thing as an institution of education that is values neutral. People's values are going to be inculcated in the classroom and you want it to be aligned with yours and you certainly don't want it to be, to subvert everything you're trying to do, when you raise your child in the household. So this isn't just a problem in K through 12, it's not just a problem with public universities, it's not just a problem in blue states. we have to be wary of this. you get these radicals that go into the school system within red states too and accuracy and media has been doing this for quite a long time now. And personally I'm almost not surprised anymore. And I guess that means they're doing their job at exposing just how much of this is going on and how much they're just moving the goalpost. It's a never ending game of whack a mole for K12. The solutions easy have school choice for higher education. I mean we're all forced to fund this through taxpayer dollars, private or public, institutions. And when, you know, we can't really just pull that funding unless we pass policies to do so. School choice would allow us to vote with our feet at K through 12, but for higher education it's a little more complicated.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah.
Jenna Ellis: And you know, that raises kind of the bigger picture of how we move from funding educational systems and bureaucracies to empowering students and families to be able to choose institutions that actually reflect their values and not have this sort of bait and switch or you know, kind of hidden agenda in these offices, from the institution's leadership. And so how, can we try to at least enforce transparency?
Corey DeAngelis: Well, people should be contacting the institution, so they should be contacting the president, Jay Hartzell, they should be contacting their media department. And you know, if they just get one email from Cory DeAngelis and another one from Fox News, maybe they think they can just brush it, sweep it under the rug. but if they start getting a lot more pushback publicly, I think that's when they finally start to do some introspection and maybe think about who they're employing at their university. so you know, I think that's ah, we have to have a backlash publicly. a peaceful one, but allowed one. And at the end of the day that's the only thing that really causes people to change.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and it's fascinating to me in this whole story and I don't want this to get overlooked, that this kind of hidden sort of, you know, bait and switch, is really fascinating to me because if an institution believes that this programming is actually beneficial, why are they maneuvering to hide it? I mean obviously there are, there are the practical considerations that the Trump administration, you know, is telling them they have to. But you know, if it believes that this is actually the way to go, why not fight this more out in the open instead of just saying, okay, fine, yeah. I mean this is kind of the cowards way out to just relabel the office and continue doing what they're doing anyway. I mean it reminds me a lot of people who have, you know, these sort of hidden beliefs that they think that they profess. But but really if you're not willing to stand up and say what you believe publicly and openly, do you really? Do you really believe it?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, exactly. I think they're just afraid of losing that $25 billion in federal money. So it's a cowardly way to go about it. I bet you, you know, if a Democrat gets into the White House, they're going to probably rename it again to diversity, equity and inclusion. So, they're kind of just shifting with the winds based on, you know, this incentive structure they have tied to the federal money. But, you know, they're hiding it. And so it's really up to the Trump administration now to say, well, we need to pull that funding or at least we need to file a lawsuit or, investigate it further. But the problem is that the Trump administration has a full plate right now. There's so much of this going on that they almost have to, you know, pick a few of them to focus on. Like I said, with the Kansas City Public Schools, they launched that, lawsuit this week. And there's parents in Portland, Oregon right now that launched a parent, launched a lawsuit against the school system out there. I don't know if you saw the viral video of the drag queen that was doing the back to school video for the students and staff in Portland Public Schools. I mean, it's just, it's almost beyond parody at this point. but there's a lawsuit filed by Liberty justice center because a parent was not happy about the secret gender, ideology lessons that were going on in class. And, she tried to pass out some information on the public sidewalk near the school about what was going on in the school. And the school, trespassed, her and barred her from the campus for a year, I want to say. And so now the, that parent's doing the school system.
Jenna Ellis: Wow, I didn't see that video, but I mean, I believe it. And it's just, it's so insane what's going on. But, Corrie DeAngelis, really appreciate it. You're going to stay with me through the break. We've got to take a break here, but we're going to talk more about higher, education, school choice. You know, a lot of these topics that, I know so many parents, grandparents, concerned, you know, aunts and uncles who are involved in children's education and even higher education. I have friends, you know, who's, who's, almost college students are contemplating where to go. I mean, all of these things are very important. So we're going to continue to talk about this when we come right back here on Jenna Ellis in the Morning.
Jenna Ellis: Where does the school choice movement stand nationally right now
Jenna Ellis: Hi, I'm Jenna Ellis. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netforward/give. That's afr.net give welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio. Welcome back.
Jenna Ellis: And I'm still here with my special guest this morning, Corrie DeAngelis, who is one of the, best and most prominent school choice advocates in the nation. And we're really grateful, for your work in this area. You can follow him on X where you get all of you know, these, these news headlines and some of these drops. I mean this is where I saw the video of course, of you know, the undercover video of how these these schools are just saying, you know, we're just going to change the label of, you know, our DEI office and just call it something different. And we need to raise this to national and viral awareness. And so this controversy, Corrie, at SMU may involve higher education, but the larger problem, of course, begins much earlier, which you've talked about prolifically for years. Who controls a child's education? Who decides what values are taught and what recourse families have when schools stop reflecting their priorities? So I want to kind of broaden the conversation from one university, just to a school choice and education across America because ultimately the responsibility and also the privilege should belong to the parents. And that's why, you know, dollars should follow students, not institutions. So where does the school choice movement stand nationally right now?
Corey DeAngelis: Well, we're winning so much, I'm almost getting tired of winning. Just kidding. We got all the blue states that we still gotta move forward with, but 18 red states have passed universal school ch, including my home state of Texas, Florida, Arizona and a bunch of others, where anybody can take their child's education funding to the school that works best for them, public or private. A, lot of them allow for homeschooling as well. Some, states like mine, and in Texas, everybody's eligible regardless of income. But we have a wait list right now of over 100,000 kids because the legislature arbitrarily capped the amount of funding, which does it make any sense? Because the scholarships are about 10,000 a kid, whereas the government schools here in Texas are spending 20,000 a kid. So the cap was just the way to get our foot in the door, get it passed. But usually those caps go away. Like we saw in Florida for example over the past couple of decades they now have no cap. Over half a million kids using scholarships in Florida. But President Trump also got a nationwide school choice program done in the big beautiful bill and 31 states have already opted into that. It's a federal tax credit. All the Republican states are doing it, and two Democrat led states have also opted in. Governor, Jared Polis of Colorado said that he would be crazy not to participate. He called it a no brainer decision. And Kathi Hochul of NewSong York indicated that she's going to opt the state in for this program as well. So parents anywhere in any state can donate up to seventeen hundred dollars a year and get a dollar for dollar tax credit getting that same amount back on your taxes. if you donate to a scholarship granting organization for a kid to get a scholarship to go to a private school, or otherwise. And then families can go to those scholarship granting organizations and receive that funding. But you can only get the funding if your governor opts in. That's why Jared Polis called it a no brainer decision because if he didn't opt in, that would guarantee charitable contributions would, would flow out of Colorado to states like Texas and Florida. So he wants to keep some of that money in Colorado. So he opted in. I think at Some point all 50 states will opt into this program, once the more Democrats see the writing on the wall. but yeah, we've, we've had a lot of momentum there and it's because of people like Randy Weingarten, the teachers union boss. She's being investigated by Congress right now actually for apparently spending over $1.4 million of teachers dues on her book calling conservatives fascist. Senator Bill Cassidy out of Louisiana, he just released a report this week on the teachers unions in their far left positions and he's calling for Congress to revoke their federal charter. They've had it for over 100 years of the only union that has this special privilege. And they've swayed so far away from their original mission of teaching kids, they've become just a political animal at this point where 99% of their contributions politically go to Democrats. It's a, it's a one sided money laundering operation. And I'm glad that more people are figuring this out, fighting to hold them accountable and at the end of the day giving families the option to leave the government school system to institutions that are aligned with their values.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and you know, you mentioned Colorado, which is, really interesting because of course, you know, Jared Polis is a Democrat and, and he's also term limited. And so, you know, heading into November, a, you know, really extreme leftist, ah, Democrat is, is the nominee for governor there, like a lot of positions, ah, around the state. I was, just at a leadership forum this week with, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Slate of Leadership. And you know, they made the point that the Democrat Party is the DSA at this point. The Democrat Socialists of America. I mean, they're, they're one in the same. And so how does. I, mean this, this of course impacts a lot of policy, but, it seems like school choice is overall a bipartisan issue. However, the school, the teachers unions are not. and so there's been some clash there. So how do the midterms and some of the changes in governorships, how will that potentially affect all of this?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, so once you're in, you're in. If you're, if your previous governor officer stay into Trump's school choice program, but you could opt out. So, but the thing is, if the new governor doesn't do anything, so people appointed to Virginia, for example, Glenn Youngkin opted in right before he left office, and people are like, well, Abigail Spanberg, or the Democrat radical is going to come in and undo it. Well, she could, she could pull it out, after 2027, pull the state out, but it would be politically damaging for her to do so, at least, because she doesn't have to actively opt in to keep the state in the program. She could just not do anything. The state stays in the program. That would be the best political winner for her to not touch this puppy because she doesn't want to piss off the teachers unions. She doesn't want to upset parents, you would think. And so her best political calculation is to not do anything. But, you know, she might still try to reverse it and cave to the teachers unions. Anyway. and I think a lot of the states, I think like 20 of the states haven't decided so far this year, all Democrat led. I think it's because they're kicking the can down the road till after the election. They don't. They have until the end of December to, make this decision. So people like Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, who ran on school choice in 2022 when he was going for governor, he said he supported it. He put it in his education platform. He went on Fox News saying he supported school and then he pointed his finger at the Democrat controlled House of Representatives and said, oh well I can't do it, it's their fault, it's not my fault. But now Trump's program puts the decision squarely in the hands of the Governor. So Shapiro doesn't have that excuse anymore. He can't point the finger anymore. but now he's just doing the delay, delay, delay, kick the can down the road tactic. And you know, there's groups like Democrats for Education Reform sounding the alarm and saying, you know Democrats, we're losing our edge on education. Maybe we should, I don't know, support parents instead of caving to the teacher unions every step of the way. The Democrats used to have a huge advantage by double digits on education for decades. Now a lot of polls are finding Republicans up on education. So hopefully that means it'll become more bipartisan in the future.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, that would be ah, really great.
Florida legislature passed a property tax amendment that would eliminate public school funding
And you know in speaking about like all of the money and the funding public schools or government funded schools routinely say that they need more money. And and one of the biggest issues here in Florida with the property tax amendment was that the legislature decided to, to change that and ensure that you know, no money was taken out of the the publicly funded schools in order to hopefully get that passed. how much of that do you think is, is accurate? Or you know, maybe the legislature just thinking, okay, I'm going to take away a Democrat talking point. But I mean it, to me it doesn't seem like the, the parents whose children don't benefit from publicly funded institutions or if you don't have children at all, you know, why are all of our tax dollars going to these institutions when you know, we could more freely choose where even our, our money that helps. some of these institutions we should be able to choose as the taxpayer. So how much of this is, you know, kind of just a talking point versus reality?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, a lot of the property taxes go to, towards the school system. So I think you're right that people shouldn't be forced to pay a tax on something if it's your own property. I mean it's just is it really your property if the government can basically hold it hostage and say if you don't pay us we're going to take it away. even if you paid the house off already. And I think a lot of the pushback of getting rid of property taxes because the government school system is afraid they're going to lose Money. So I guess there's a way for the legislature to kind of make, sure that we still have public schools without the property taxes, or maybe they could figure out another way to fund them. But, yeah, it's a rough situation where you have, I mean, I live in Texas and we have atrocious property taxes and basically all the money is going to the school system. And they keep building more and more buildings, even though the schools are losing enrollment. I don't know how the heck that works out. But they should close some of these schools and that should give, even more ability for property tax relief as well. I mean, they have a school in Chicago, for example, that's 97% empty. they're spending 100,000 a kid. Almost not a single child is proficient in math or reading. And they won't close. The Dang School has 27 students, 28 adults. It was built for over a thousand kids. The union just won't let it go. And they also have, I think about two dozen schools in Chicago are over 75% empty. I mean, just think about how much money you could save closing down these empty buildings that aren't serving kids.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, so how much of the opposition to school choices genuinely about protecting education, you know, when the quality clearly is. The proof is in the pudding that it's really not there, but. And how much of it is about protecting jobs and, you know, the teachers union influence and ultimately political power.
Corey DeAngelis: I think it's political power. Yeah. It has nothing to do with improving education. I read through all of Randy Weingarten's 200 pages of resolutions from their convention this year. Not a single one had anything to do with improving education. One of them proposed to cut the military budget by 50%. Like, stay in your lane, you're getting into foreign policy. You can't even focus on academics. I mean, it's a, it's a total disaster. They passed one to abolish ice, another one to keep secrets from parents, another one to support so called gender affirming care, quote across all stages of life. So sex change surgeries and hormone therapies and puberty, blockers for young children. And you have the unions, weighing into this stuff. And again, less than 10% of their total money that they get each year goes towards representing teachers. the majority of it goes towards political causes. And almost all the political money goes towards Democrats. It's wash, rinse, repeat. It's a money laundering operation. That's what they're fighting to protect. Teacher salaries have been flat over time, but the number of employees in the system, an administrative blow, has gone through the roof. For example, over the past decade in America, the number of students has decreased by at least 750,000, but the staffing has increased by 600,000. So it's a jobs program for adults that benefits Democrats more than an education initiative for kids. It's a sad state of affairs, but that's, what they're using the school system for.
Jenna Ellis: Wow. Well, and from, you know, the, the, the federal level perspective and the Department of Education, I mean, I, I've been disappointed that it hasn't been, you know, just completely disbanded and closed under Trump's watch. we were all hoping he would nominate you for secretary and you just go in and shut it down. But, until that happens, you know, Linda McMahon has done otherwise, I think a good job. but where do you see the Department of Ed and you know, some of these, these promises from the Trump administration that weren't more in line with conservatives going into 2028, depending on, you know, potentially who the Republican nominee is. I mean, is this something that you see someone like a JD Vance or Marco Rubio really focusing on?
Corey DeAngelis: I think they'll focus on it. but I just, I don't know how we get around the 60 vote threshold in the Senate unless we, nuke the filibuster and just do what we want anyway. Because the Democrats might do it anyway if they get power. but that's why the department hasn't totally been, the band aid hasn't totally been ripped off yet. they have fired about half the staff, thousands of people. They project to fire up to 86% of the staff by the end of this year. So that's a great, step in the right direction. And what they're currently doing is something called IAAS Interagency Agreement, moving some things that the department currently does to other agencies like Career and Technical Education, to the Department of Labor civil rights protections, to the Department of Justice, the teachers unions are trying to stop it. Some Democrats in Congress are trying to stop those things. And the logic by the Trump administration is basically, well, if the Department, of Education is not doing as much as it used to do, maybe that 60 vote threshold becomes an easier, more achievable goal. I don't know if, maybe that, maybe that happens. But, you know, the unions don't like moving anything around at all, out of the department. Because even if those things are still happening because they want centralized power. They want to be able to lobby one institution with their buddies and control education in all 50 states. But if it's dispersed and if hopefully we can get it back to the states, that makes it more difficult for the unions to control red states. They already have a foothold in the blue states, but they really want that Department of Education to stick around so that they can control your kids, not just. Not just in California, NewSong York, but in Texas and Florida as well.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. Wow. Well, Corrie DeAngelis, really appreciate it.
Cory d'Angelos: Parents need to get involved in school choice issues
A, last question before we let you go. for parents who have been listening to this and, you know, maybe some new listeners who haven't, you know, really done a deep dive, into some of the school choice issues as we were talking about, how can they start to get more involved in their own state and, in just contemplating all these issues and really actually helping policy?
Corey DeAngelis: I want teachers to leave the union. So if you're a teacher listening, go to optout today.com. you just click on your state tells you how to opt out. We had the Janus victory at the Supreme Court, so you can no longer be compelled to pay those union dues and fund Randy weingarten and her $1.4 million book project. but for parents, you need to go to your school board meetings, talk to the teachers in the school system, make sure they're aligned with your values, and if they're not, complain at the school board meeting. And then also go to your legislature, all the legislators, and tell them you want school choice, you want the money to follow the child. there's a lot of different, resources to research more on school choice. You can go to heritage.org I'm a research fellow with, with Heritage foundation, so you can go to the heritage.org and find more information there.
Jenna Ellis: Great. All right, well, Cory d', Angelos, really appreciate your time, as always. You can follow him on X. And we do need to be aware of what's going on in, you know, all of these different policy angles, because obviously, you know, the biblical worldview teaches the truth of the reality to which, God has presented us. And then we build up our policy in all of these different subject matter, including education, and, that touches, of course, on parental rights and freedom, all of that from there. So it's really important, to be well versed in these areas. So really appreciate it. And we will be right back with more here on Jenna Ellis in the Morning.
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Jenna Ellis: Christian parents should have freedom to choose where their children go
Welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And we've been discussing school choice and these, institutions that are just relabeling, you know, some of their departments from DEI to, you know, cultural influence and some of these, you know, ridiculous things, and whether parents should have the freedom to choose where and how their children are educated. But for Christians, this conversation, of course, goes much deeper than funding formulas where our taxpayer dollars go, test scores or even school rankings. Obviously it's important to engage in the civil government and ensure that we aren't funding with our taxpayer dollars, things that we disagree with, particularly on, on the basis of our sincerely held religious beliefs in our Christian faith. And that's one of the things that I think overall needs to change about the legal system that taxpayers should have standing to challenge some of these things. I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to, fund DEI education or, you know, even, even this sort of atheistic regime, or, you know, all of these lgbtq, nonsense that's in some of these. Thankfully, here in Florida we don't have a lot of that. But overall, you know, in terms of the federal tax dollars, that can go toward institutions that are still, ah, doing this. So, you know, that's a fight, of course, that's continuing. But the point is that education is never religiously neutral. Every education system teaches children a Perspective on what is true, what human beings are, what constitutes right and wrong, what gives life meaning. And in other words, every education is a form of discipleship. And so, you know, as one pastor that I was listening to said, you know, if you send your children to Caesar, don't be surprised when they come back as Romans. this isn't a matter of, well, this is the state. And the state has to be religiously neutral. This is just about reading, writing and arithmetic. And so, you know, just matters maybe who, their friends are and what other outside influences. But education itself, content wise, is religiously neutral. That's never true. Because even if a, one particular curricula doesn't specifically talk about religion on face, it is still perspective and it is still ultimately a view of the world. And the real question for Christian parents is not simply, where will my child receive the best academics? The question should be, who is forming my child and toward what end? because parenting, according to scripture, of course, is a stewardship of another human being that you are called as parents to train up a child in the way they should go so that when they're older, they won't depart from it. this is discipleship. And regardless of, you know, what else a child goes on in their adult life, to do or accomplish on a secular or cultural metric, really the goal of parents should be to disciple their children in the things of the Lord. And this isn't just about Sunday school on Sunday mornings or being involved in a church. This is about comprehensive, Christian life and understanding the reality to which God has presented us and having a biblical view of all things. And I think Christians tend to kind of compartmentalize some of our theology and education into buckets and saying, okay, well, when we go to church on Sunday, we learn about the things of God and how to worship God and how to know Him. And then the rest of the week, that's not really all that relevant unless we have, you know, certain things like, well, be kind because, you know, God says so. And some of these, you know, maybe truthful, but ultimately perhaps a little trite, you know, sort of lessons. the biblical worldview is entirely comprehensive. the Bible tells us that God created the world for his own sovereign purposes and that we cannot know the answers to life's most important questions without first knowing who God is, the truth about who God is and then who we are and the reality to which we're presented in light of who he is. And so God assigns that primary responsibility not to the school teacher. And not even to the Sunday school teacher. God assigns the primary responsibility to parents. And Scripture places that responsibility for forming children primarily on parents, not the government, the school district or educational bureaucracy, or even the institution of the church. The church should come alongside parents and reinforce that discipleship. But it primarily begins at home. And we see that, throughout Scripture, you know, including the, Psalm I just referenced, but even Deuteronomy 6, 7, you parents, shall teach them what the, precepts of the Lord diligently to your children. Moses tells parents to teach God's truth throughout ordinary life when sitting at home, you know, walking along, the journey of our Christian life when you're lying down and when you are rising. Biblical education is not confined to Sunday school. It's continuance formation. And that begins at home. Because when we're talking about, you know, all of these other, news of the day and, you know, things that, that we regularly talk about that on this program, this begins our view of policy and our view of the news of the day, our view of, the reality to which God presented. That all begins with a worldview, how we understand life. And for children, they have to first understand life through a truthful perspective, which, of course is the biblical truthful worldview. And so we can't be surprised that when kids get older, if they're not trained in how to view the world truthfully, then they might start viewing the world falsely. And they might not even identify some ways that they're viewing the world falsely or some, lies that come at them through school teachers or through their friends or through the culture around them through social media, of course, because they haven't been taught to identify the worldview behind what they're looking at. movies, you know, all kinds of things, books that they read, arguments they get into with their friends, conversations, all those things they haven't been taught to identify the worldview and then compare that to what the biblical worldview teaches. And that training needs to start at the very beginning. For regular listeners of the show, you know, that my parents homeschooled, for this exact reason. so that discipleship was at the core of the education that we received. We received a great education in terms of, you know, history and philosophy and obviously the basics. Reading, writing, arithmetic, all of that. I was better at the reading and writing than the arithmetic. my brother, you know, was much better at the arithmetic. but, you know, and that's, that's aptitudes and that's all fine, but the point is, the core of the reason of education was so that we received discipleship and could view all of these things through the lens of truth. And that, you know, two plus two doesn't equal five, doesn't equal seven. It doesn't equal anything else. But for why? Because of truth. Because God has ordained an ordered world. And we can expect that order in our world and in the world around us. And why do we see then chaos? Why do we see death and decay? Well, because of original sin. I mean, it all goes back, even in science, even in math, even in all of these other, disciplines. It goes back to what the Bible teaches. And so no education is worldview neutral. And we as Christians have to specifically intend to instill in our children and in the next generation the biblical worldview of every subject matter and every discipline, because every curriculum and every lesson rests on assumptions. Our human beings created in God's image? Or are we merely advanced animals? Is truth objective or individually constructed? Is morality grounded in God's character or a social consensus? Does the family have a divinely established structure? Why can parents enforce rules and discipline in their home? where does justice and our understanding of justice begin? With God and also with, the parents. You are the first measure of justice and fairness and enforcement of accountability that your children will encounter for themselves, for their siblings, and also for you. Do you have a different rule for yourself than you do for your child on things, is that fair? Do they see that? Does, the government grant rights? Or does it have a duty to recognize God given rights rights? is history governed only by material forces? Or does God exercise providence over the nation? I mean, all of these kind of higher education subject matters that students ultimately contemplate, especially in college, they first start to formulate ideas about them K through 12. And if we are failing to instill in students at the very beginning the biblical worldview, then is it any wonder that even Christian students who are raised in a Christian home went to church, you know, their entire lives? They go to higher education that is atheistic or even anti Christian, and then they abandon their faith. Why? Because their faith wasn't grounded to begin with. They weren't taught that Jesus isn't just an add on to your life. He's not the frosting on the cake. It's the foundation of literally everything that we understand about our world and about ourselves and about eternity.
The battle over education is also a battle over formation and over discipleship
And so education matters so much than just academics. It shapes the soul. Christ is over everything and he is lord. And Romans 12:2 warns against being conformed to the world and commands believers to be transformed through the renewal of the mind. The battle over education is also a battle over formation and over discipleship. What does a child learn to love? What authorities does a child learn to trust? What conduct does a child learn to celebrate or to condemn? What does a child learn about the measurable difference between right and wrong, good and evil? Through whose eyes does a child learn to interpret the world? Children aren't merely containers receiving facts and, you know, tests aren't just this regurgitation of information on a multiple choice quiz. Their minds, their affections, habits, loyalties, those are all being cultivated. and so this kind of myth of letting children decide for themselves, you know, some parents say they don't want to impose beliefs what will allow their children, you know, to thrive as they get older. But withholding biblical instruction does not place a child in a neutral environment. It simply allows the other institutions, peers, entertainment, and the culture, and also the algorithms, right in this day and age to perform that discipleship. Every parent teaches a worldview, either intentionally or by default. And so we need to have practical responsibility for Christian parents and an understanding that education is not simply a preparation for a career. It is a preparation for life before God and ultimately our primary ministry and calling, which is to know God and to worship him. For Christians, education must begin with the fear of the Lord, remain under the authority of scripture and point children to the lordship of Christ. School choice gives parents options, but biblical discipleship gives their choices their purpose. As always, you can reach me and my team.
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Southern Methodist University is renaming its Diversity and Inclusion office
Jenna Ellis: I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview, the U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect the rights that our founders recognize come from God, our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you. And God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time. This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.
Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Friday, September, September 4, and a big breaking story, in the world of diversity, equity and inclusion. You know, where, where the Trump administration, of course, has tried to rid DEI in a lot of the federal funding, obviously Governor Ron DeSantis here in Florida, says, you know, the Florida is where woke goes to die. Love that motto. But, this was a hidden camera video that was posted by our friend Corrie DeAngelis on X. And, he titles it breaking Southern Methodist University official caught on a hidden camera admitting they've done, quote, a lot of maneuvering to keep DEI hidden. They renamed the Office of Diversity and Inclusion the Office of cultural intelligence. And SMU receives $25 million in federal money. So let's welcome in Corrie DeAngelis. He's the host of Education Frontlines for Real Truth Media and the executive director at the Educational Freedom Institute, among many titles and great work that he's doing. But Corrie, this, I think is what conservatives were concerned about happening, is that, during this push to say, okay, we need to, get rid of all of the DEI offices, they would just be relabeled and be renamed. I mean, if, if under the leftist theory, you know, a man can become a woman, we can just relabel him, you know, why not the DEI offices?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. And, conservatives were right to be concerned about this. I mean, President Trump came in, he did his executive order to root out dei, but that's basically where it ended. Right? And so you have these undercover investigations from accuracy and media finding primarily in red states, they Go to these red states and basically point out to the public that you're not safe. Just because you're not in, you know, just because you're not in California doesn't mean you're going to be safe from, DEI and this university, Southern Methodist University there, they receive about $25 million in federal money each year, and they, charge tuition of about 63,000. You look at their own website, they say the total cost of attendance each year is about $90,000 per student. So you might be a Christian family in Texas, a conservative family, saying, hey, I don't want to send my K to UT Austin with all those wackos, so maybe I'll send them to SMU to a Christian private university. And lo and behold, you're still, you're not safe, there either. They're renaming the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to the Office of Cultural Intelligence. It has blown up so much over the past couple of days. my tweet alone has over 1.2 million views already. Just one of them. And I got a response from the university because I sent them an email asking for comment. their Director of communications, and Media, Megan Jacob, responded. And if you look at that email, I posted it on X. It looks like a Kamala Harris gobbity gook word salad, full of gaslighting. I mean, it looks like it was written by AI and it doesn't address anything in the video about the maneuvering to keep DEI hidden. They just basically say, no, we don't have a DEI program. And, oh, by the way, we just teach kids how to communicate and lead and teach and blah, blah, blah, all the buzzwords and innovate. They included that one as well. But it looks like they're trying to just, move the goalpost again and try to sweep it under the rug. But, I think they're hoping the storm passes and everything blows over, but it's only gaining more and more traction each and every day.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, as it should. And I'm glad that stories like this are going viral so that, schools and institutions can't just quietly rename their programs because it's the actual substance, obviously, that conservatives and Trump administration care about. We don't really care what it's labeled. I mean, just saying, this is the Office of Cultural Intelligence, but you're doing the exact same, you know, DEI strategic objectives, as you were when it was labeled the DEI office. That's really not changing anything. So what specifically should investigators examine when we're not just wanting to argue over the name of the office.
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah. They should look at, whether the school is violating civil rights. So what do they mean when they say DEI or cultural intelligence? If they're pitting people against each other based on immutable characteristics, or if they're hiring and firing based on immutable characteristics, that's a huge red flag. And if they're teaching far left Marxist ideology that divides people as well, that's a, that's a problem as well. So I think in order to fix these things, I mean, it's not an easy solution. Right. We have Trump, who did the executive order, which, you know, that's not a law. So it didn't really hold as much teeth as we had hoped. people behind closed doors are going to continue to do what they want anyway. So personnel is policy. And I think one of the first steps needs to be pulling their federal funding. A lot of people responded saying, well, this is a private university. Well, that's true. But they receive 25 to 30 million dollars in federal tax money each year. So they should be held accountable. That money should be withheld. And otherwise people need to pay more attention. The students need to be paying attention as well, because it shouldn't require this undercover group, Accuracy Media, to go in to expose these kinds of things. I got a DM from one of the students that graduated in May, this year from that school. And they said, yeah, I had this lady, Danielle Paloma, who's in the undercover video, for a guest lecture. And he told me that, the DEI was just, was just entrenched in that lecture as well. So it was very obvious to him that this kind of stuff was happening at the university. The Turning Point chapter president has reached out to me as well from, smu and they also believe that DEI is alive and well in the university. They didn't require this video to come out for them to understand this. They kind of know what's going on. And I hope, I wish more parents would understand this so they don't send their kids to these institutions and spend all that money, $63,000 in tuition. Al. and, you know, that's. And then also if the Department of Justice can start filing lawsuits like they did, this week in Kansas City Public Schools, they just filed a lawsuit against Kansas City Public Schools for keeping secrets from parents when it comes to their child's gender changing at school, we need more lawsuits like that. We need more Harmeet Dylan's Yes, 100%.
Jenna Ellis: And this is exactly what needs to happen because, you know, as you mentioned, SMU receives, you know, between 25 and 30 million in federal grants. Shouldn't that obligate, the school to have, you know, some strings attached that accompany that money, particularly under, you know, civil rights, legal framework?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, I think so. And it's gonna need, they're gonna need to do a little better than responding to my email. And then also later on they responded, didn't gave Fox News digital comment as well, and it was copy paste, the same exact thing they sent me. and they didn't address any of the claims, they didn't address anything that was said in the video. It was just, they must have plugged something into AI. How do we respond to this guy's email? And that's what they copied and pasted. I mean, it's so, you know, if that's what they're teaching the students, it definitely isn't worth $63,000 either.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and on that note, I mean, is this in part at least a consumer transparency sort of issue? I mean, shouldn't colleges have to disclose some of these ideological mandates and what these offices actually are, are doing and mandatory trainings and things like this before families sign these really hefty tuition contracts?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, I think so. Especially if they're, you know, branding themselves as a private Christian university that, you know, to most people when they get that advertising, they're thinking, well, this is a conservative institution as opposed to UT Austin or maybe some of the other, more liberal institutions. And so I think a lot of parents would be surprised, to see this video. And maybe that's why it's, it's going viral. And I think it starts in the K12 system too.
Texas has taken a big step forward on school choice
And I'm glad that Texas has taken a big step forward on school choice. We got a lot a long way to go to be like Florida, which has over half a million students using scholarships. Now Texas has a, wait list of over 100,000 kids because they arbitrarily capped the funding for the program in the first year. But you know, if kids could escape The K through 12 left wing indoctrination, I bet you the colleges would kind of fix themselves as well with, the students entering. They would be more vigilant and pay more attention to the left wing indoctrination because they're already being force fed that for 13 years from K12. Once again in the college, it may not be as shocking as if they had a better, K12 experience with more conservative values.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and to your point as well, I mean I think a lot of parents might be shocked at this particular instance because seeing a lot of the other headlines, it seems like there's this view that somehow, you know, a lot of these DEI offices and some of this training, that really undercuts conservative and particularly Christian principles. Only happens at public schools and fully state funded institutions. Not a school that is private and holds itself out as being Christian. How many of these instances, you know, are we talking about? I mean it's more than just this, this school. But are, is there something that parents need to be looking at and aware of when they're contemplating even private Christian school?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, it's not an easy answer once the students are there yet you should be talking to your, to your kids at school just like in K through 12 and have those conversations to see if things are the right fit or not. the problem is once you're, once you're there, right, you're basically going to continue your education there. A lot of people don't like to pull and transfer and deal with all that. But you know, looking at the social media feeds, something as simple as that, as the, of these colleges and universities and what they're saying, and not just the school social media feeds, but the professor's social media feeds and anyone who's affiliated with the organization because again personnel's policy and if you have a bunch of left wing radicals at your private Christian university, well then that ideology is going to make its way into the classroom as well, whether we like it or not. I mean, I don't think there's any such thing as an institution of education that is values neutral. People's values are going to be inculcated in the classroom and you want it to be aligned with yours and you certainly don't want it to be, to subvert everything you're trying to do, when you raise your child in the household. So this isn't just a problem in K through 12, it's not just a problem with public universities, it's not just a problem in blue states. we have to be wary of this. you get these radicals that go into the school system within red states too and accuracy and media has been doing this for quite a long time now. And personally I'm almost not surprised anymore. And I guess that means they're doing their job at exposing just how much of this is going on and how much they're just moving the goalpost. It's a never ending game of whack a mole for K12. The solutions easy have school choice for higher education. I mean we're all forced to fund this through taxpayer dollars, private or public, institutions. And when, you know, we can't really just pull that funding unless we pass policies to do so. School choice would allow us to vote with our feet at K through 12, but for higher education it's a little more complicated.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah.
Jenna Ellis: And you know, that raises kind of the bigger picture of how we move from funding educational systems and bureaucracies to empowering students and families to be able to choose institutions that actually reflect their values and not have this sort of bait and switch or you know, kind of hidden agenda in these offices, from the institution's leadership. And so how, can we try to at least enforce transparency?
Corey DeAngelis: Well, people should be contacting the institution, so they should be contacting the president, Jay Hartzell, they should be contacting their media department. And you know, if they just get one email from Cory DeAngelis and another one from Fox News, maybe they think they can just brush it, sweep it under the rug. but if they start getting a lot more pushback publicly, I think that's when they finally start to do some introspection and maybe think about who they're employing at their university. so you know, I think that's ah, we have to have a backlash publicly. a peaceful one, but allowed one. And at the end of the day that's the only thing that really causes people to change.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and it's fascinating to me in this whole story and I don't want this to get overlooked, that this kind of hidden sort of, you know, bait and switch, is really fascinating to me because if an institution believes that this programming is actually beneficial, why are they maneuvering to hide it? I mean obviously there are, there are the practical considerations that the Trump administration, you know, is telling them they have to. But you know, if it believes that this is actually the way to go, why not fight this more out in the open instead of just saying, okay, fine, yeah. I mean this is kind of the cowards way out to just relabel the office and continue doing what they're doing anyway. I mean it reminds me a lot of people who have, you know, these sort of hidden beliefs that they think that they profess. But but really if you're not willing to stand up and say what you believe publicly and openly, do you really? Do you really believe it?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, exactly. I think they're just afraid of losing that $25 billion in federal money. So it's a cowardly way to go about it. I bet you, you know, if a Democrat gets into the White House, they're going to probably rename it again to diversity, equity and inclusion. So, they're kind of just shifting with the winds based on, you know, this incentive structure they have tied to the federal money. But, you know, they're hiding it. And so it's really up to the Trump administration now to say, well, we need to pull that funding or at least we need to file a lawsuit or, investigate it further. But the problem is that the Trump administration has a full plate right now. There's so much of this going on that they almost have to, you know, pick a few of them to focus on. Like I said, with the Kansas City Public Schools, they launched that, lawsuit this week. And there's parents in Portland, Oregon right now that launched a parent, launched a lawsuit against the school system out there. I don't know if you saw the viral video of the drag queen that was doing the back to school video for the students and staff in Portland Public Schools. I mean, it's just, it's almost beyond parody at this point. but there's a lawsuit filed by Liberty justice center because a parent was not happy about the secret gender, ideology lessons that were going on in class. And, she tried to pass out some information on the public sidewalk near the school about what was going on in the school. And the school, trespassed, her and barred her from the campus for a year, I want to say. And so now the, that parent's doing the school system.
Jenna Ellis: Wow, I didn't see that video, but I mean, I believe it. And it's just, it's so insane what's going on. But, Corrie DeAngelis, really appreciate it. You're going to stay with me through the break. We've got to take a break here, but we're going to talk more about higher, education, school choice. You know, a lot of these topics that, I know so many parents, grandparents, concerned, you know, aunts and uncles who are involved in children's education and even higher education. I have friends, you know, who's, who's, almost college students are contemplating where to go. I mean, all of these things are very important. So we're going to continue to talk about this when we come right back here on Jenna Ellis in the Morning.
Jenna Ellis: Where does the school choice movement stand nationally right now
Jenna Ellis: Hi, I'm Jenna Ellis. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netforward/give. That's afr.net give welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio. Welcome back.
Jenna Ellis: And I'm still here with my special guest this morning, Corrie DeAngelis, who is one of the, best and most prominent school choice advocates in the nation. And we're really grateful, for your work in this area. You can follow him on X where you get all of you know, these, these news headlines and some of these drops. I mean this is where I saw the video of course, of you know, the undercover video of how these these schools are just saying, you know, we're just going to change the label of, you know, our DEI office and just call it something different. And we need to raise this to national and viral awareness. And so this controversy, Corrie, at SMU may involve higher education, but the larger problem, of course, begins much earlier, which you've talked about prolifically for years. Who controls a child's education? Who decides what values are taught and what recourse families have when schools stop reflecting their priorities? So I want to kind of broaden the conversation from one university, just to a school choice and education across America because ultimately the responsibility and also the privilege should belong to the parents. And that's why, you know, dollars should follow students, not institutions. So where does the school choice movement stand nationally right now?
Corey DeAngelis: Well, we're winning so much, I'm almost getting tired of winning. Just kidding. We got all the blue states that we still gotta move forward with, but 18 red states have passed universal school ch, including my home state of Texas, Florida, Arizona and a bunch of others, where anybody can take their child's education funding to the school that works best for them, public or private. A, lot of them allow for homeschooling as well. Some, states like mine, and in Texas, everybody's eligible regardless of income. But we have a wait list right now of over 100,000 kids because the legislature arbitrarily capped the amount of funding, which does it make any sense? Because the scholarships are about 10,000 a kid, whereas the government schools here in Texas are spending 20,000 a kid. So the cap was just the way to get our foot in the door, get it passed. But usually those caps go away. Like we saw in Florida for example over the past couple of decades they now have no cap. Over half a million kids using scholarships in Florida. But President Trump also got a nationwide school choice program done in the big beautiful bill and 31 states have already opted into that. It's a federal tax credit. All the Republican states are doing it, and two Democrat led states have also opted in. Governor, Jared Polis of Colorado said that he would be crazy not to participate. He called it a no brainer decision. And Kathi Hochul of NewSong York indicated that she's going to opt the state in for this program as well. So parents anywhere in any state can donate up to seventeen hundred dollars a year and get a dollar for dollar tax credit getting that same amount back on your taxes. if you donate to a scholarship granting organization for a kid to get a scholarship to go to a private school, or otherwise. And then families can go to those scholarship granting organizations and receive that funding. But you can only get the funding if your governor opts in. That's why Jared Polis called it a no brainer decision because if he didn't opt in, that would guarantee charitable contributions would, would flow out of Colorado to states like Texas and Florida. So he wants to keep some of that money in Colorado. So he opted in. I think at Some point all 50 states will opt into this program, once the more Democrats see the writing on the wall. but yeah, we've, we've had a lot of momentum there and it's because of people like Randy Weingarten, the teachers union boss. She's being investigated by Congress right now actually for apparently spending over $1.4 million of teachers dues on her book calling conservatives fascist. Senator Bill Cassidy out of Louisiana, he just released a report this week on the teachers unions in their far left positions and he's calling for Congress to revoke their federal charter. They've had it for over 100 years of the only union that has this special privilege. And they've swayed so far away from their original mission of teaching kids, they've become just a political animal at this point where 99% of their contributions politically go to Democrats. It's a, it's a one sided money laundering operation. And I'm glad that more people are figuring this out, fighting to hold them accountable and at the end of the day giving families the option to leave the government school system to institutions that are aligned with their values.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and you know, you mentioned Colorado, which is, really interesting because of course, you know, Jared Polis is a Democrat and, and he's also term limited. And so, you know, heading into November, a, you know, really extreme leftist, ah, Democrat is, is the nominee for governor there, like a lot of positions, ah, around the state. I was, just at a leadership forum this week with, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Slate of Leadership. And you know, they made the point that the Democrat Party is the DSA at this point. The Democrat Socialists of America. I mean, they're, they're one in the same. And so how does. I, mean this, this of course impacts a lot of policy, but, it seems like school choice is overall a bipartisan issue. However, the school, the teachers unions are not. and so there's been some clash there. So how do the midterms and some of the changes in governorships, how will that potentially affect all of this?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, so once you're in, you're in. If you're, if your previous governor officer stay into Trump's school choice program, but you could opt out. So, but the thing is, if the new governor doesn't do anything, so people appointed to Virginia, for example, Glenn Youngkin opted in right before he left office, and people are like, well, Abigail Spanberg, or the Democrat radical is going to come in and undo it. Well, she could, she could pull it out, after 2027, pull the state out, but it would be politically damaging for her to do so, at least, because she doesn't have to actively opt in to keep the state in the program. She could just not do anything. The state stays in the program. That would be the best political winner for her to not touch this puppy because she doesn't want to piss off the teachers unions. She doesn't want to upset parents, you would think. And so her best political calculation is to not do anything. But, you know, she might still try to reverse it and cave to the teachers unions. Anyway. and I think a lot of the states, I think like 20 of the states haven't decided so far this year, all Democrat led. I think it's because they're kicking the can down the road till after the election. They don't. They have until the end of December to, make this decision. So people like Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, who ran on school choice in 2022 when he was going for governor, he said he supported it. He put it in his education platform. He went on Fox News saying he supported school and then he pointed his finger at the Democrat controlled House of Representatives and said, oh well I can't do it, it's their fault, it's not my fault. But now Trump's program puts the decision squarely in the hands of the Governor. So Shapiro doesn't have that excuse anymore. He can't point the finger anymore. but now he's just doing the delay, delay, delay, kick the can down the road tactic. And you know, there's groups like Democrats for Education Reform sounding the alarm and saying, you know Democrats, we're losing our edge on education. Maybe we should, I don't know, support parents instead of caving to the teacher unions every step of the way. The Democrats used to have a huge advantage by double digits on education for decades. Now a lot of polls are finding Republicans up on education. So hopefully that means it'll become more bipartisan in the future.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, that would be ah, really great.
Florida legislature passed a property tax amendment that would eliminate public school funding
And you know in speaking about like all of the money and the funding public schools or government funded schools routinely say that they need more money. And and one of the biggest issues here in Florida with the property tax amendment was that the legislature decided to, to change that and ensure that you know, no money was taken out of the the publicly funded schools in order to hopefully get that passed. how much of that do you think is, is accurate? Or you know, maybe the legislature just thinking, okay, I'm going to take away a Democrat talking point. But I mean it, to me it doesn't seem like the, the parents whose children don't benefit from publicly funded institutions or if you don't have children at all, you know, why are all of our tax dollars going to these institutions when you know, we could more freely choose where even our, our money that helps. some of these institutions we should be able to choose as the taxpayer. So how much of this is, you know, kind of just a talking point versus reality?
Corey DeAngelis: Yeah, a lot of the property taxes go to, towards the school system. So I think you're right that people shouldn't be forced to pay a tax on something if it's your own property. I mean it's just is it really your property if the government can basically hold it hostage and say if you don't pay us we're going to take it away. even if you paid the house off already. And I think a lot of the pushback of getting rid of property taxes because the government school system is afraid they're going to lose Money. So I guess there's a way for the legislature to kind of make, sure that we still have public schools without the property taxes, or maybe they could figure out another way to fund them. But, yeah, it's a rough situation where you have, I mean, I live in Texas and we have atrocious property taxes and basically all the money is going to the school system. And they keep building more and more buildings, even though the schools are losing enrollment. I don't know how the heck that works out. But they should close some of these schools and that should give, even more ability for property tax relief as well. I mean, they have a school in Chicago, for example, that's 97% empty. they're spending 100,000 a kid. Almost not a single child is proficient in math or reading. And they won't close. The Dang School has 27 students, 28 adults. It was built for over a thousand kids. The union just won't let it go. And they also have, I think about two dozen schools in Chicago are over 75% empty. I mean, just think about how much money you could save closing down these empty buildings that aren't serving kids.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, so how much of the opposition to school choices genuinely about protecting education, you know, when the quality clearly is. The proof is in the pudding that it's really not there, but. And how much of it is about protecting jobs and, you know, the teachers union influence and ultimately political power.
Corey DeAngelis: I think it's political power. Yeah. It has nothing to do with improving education. I read through all of Randy Weingarten's 200 pages of resolutions from their convention this year. Not a single one had anything to do with improving education. One of them proposed to cut the military budget by 50%. Like, stay in your lane, you're getting into foreign policy. You can't even focus on academics. I mean, it's a, it's a total disaster. They passed one to abolish ice, another one to keep secrets from parents, another one to support so called gender affirming care, quote across all stages of life. So sex change surgeries and hormone therapies and puberty, blockers for young children. And you have the unions, weighing into this stuff. And again, less than 10% of their total money that they get each year goes towards representing teachers. the majority of it goes towards political causes. And almost all the political money goes towards Democrats. It's wash, rinse, repeat. It's a money laundering operation. That's what they're fighting to protect. Teacher salaries have been flat over time, but the number of employees in the system, an administrative blow, has gone through the roof. For example, over the past decade in America, the number of students has decreased by at least 750,000, but the staffing has increased by 600,000. So it's a jobs program for adults that benefits Democrats more than an education initiative for kids. It's a sad state of affairs, but that's, what they're using the school system for.
Jenna Ellis: Wow. Well, and from, you know, the, the, the federal level perspective and the Department of Education, I mean, I, I've been disappointed that it hasn't been, you know, just completely disbanded and closed under Trump's watch. we were all hoping he would nominate you for secretary and you just go in and shut it down. But, until that happens, you know, Linda McMahon has done otherwise, I think a good job. but where do you see the Department of Ed and you know, some of these, these promises from the Trump administration that weren't more in line with conservatives going into 2028, depending on, you know, potentially who the Republican nominee is. I mean, is this something that you see someone like a JD Vance or Marco Rubio really focusing on?
Corey DeAngelis: I think they'll focus on it. but I just, I don't know how we get around the 60 vote threshold in the Senate unless we, nuke the filibuster and just do what we want anyway. Because the Democrats might do it anyway if they get power. but that's why the department hasn't totally been, the band aid hasn't totally been ripped off yet. they have fired about half the staff, thousands of people. They project to fire up to 86% of the staff by the end of this year. So that's a great, step in the right direction. And what they're currently doing is something called IAAS Interagency Agreement, moving some things that the department currently does to other agencies like Career and Technical Education, to the Department of Labor civil rights protections, to the Department of Justice, the teachers unions are trying to stop it. Some Democrats in Congress are trying to stop those things. And the logic by the Trump administration is basically, well, if the Department, of Education is not doing as much as it used to do, maybe that 60 vote threshold becomes an easier, more achievable goal. I don't know if, maybe that, maybe that happens. But, you know, the unions don't like moving anything around at all, out of the department. Because even if those things are still happening because they want centralized power. They want to be able to lobby one institution with their buddies and control education in all 50 states. But if it's dispersed and if hopefully we can get it back to the states, that makes it more difficult for the unions to control red states. They already have a foothold in the blue states, but they really want that Department of Education to stick around so that they can control your kids, not just. Not just in California, NewSong York, but in Texas and Florida as well.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. Wow. Well, Corrie DeAngelis, really appreciate it.
Cory d'Angelos: Parents need to get involved in school choice issues
A, last question before we let you go. for parents who have been listening to this and, you know, maybe some new listeners who haven't, you know, really done a deep dive, into some of the school choice issues as we were talking about, how can they start to get more involved in their own state and, in just contemplating all these issues and really actually helping policy?
Corey DeAngelis: I want teachers to leave the union. So if you're a teacher listening, go to optout today.com. you just click on your state tells you how to opt out. We had the Janus victory at the Supreme Court, so you can no longer be compelled to pay those union dues and fund Randy weingarten and her $1.4 million book project. but for parents, you need to go to your school board meetings, talk to the teachers in the school system, make sure they're aligned with your values, and if they're not, complain at the school board meeting. And then also go to your legislature, all the legislators, and tell them you want school choice, you want the money to follow the child. there's a lot of different, resources to research more on school choice. You can go to heritage.org I'm a research fellow with, with Heritage foundation, so you can go to the heritage.org and find more information there.
Jenna Ellis: Great. All right, well, Cory d', Angelos, really appreciate your time, as always. You can follow him on X. And we do need to be aware of what's going on in, you know, all of these different policy angles, because obviously, you know, the biblical worldview teaches the truth of the reality to which, God has presented us. And then we build up our policy in all of these different subject matter, including education, and, that touches, of course, on parental rights and freedom, all of that from there. So it's really important, to be well versed in these areas. So really appreciate it. And we will be right back with more here on Jenna Ellis in the Morning.
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Jenna Ellis: Christian parents should have freedom to choose where their children go
Welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And we've been discussing school choice and these, institutions that are just relabeling, you know, some of their departments from DEI to, you know, cultural influence and some of these, you know, ridiculous things, and whether parents should have the freedom to choose where and how their children are educated. But for Christians, this conversation, of course, goes much deeper than funding formulas where our taxpayer dollars go, test scores or even school rankings. Obviously it's important to engage in the civil government and ensure that we aren't funding with our taxpayer dollars, things that we disagree with, particularly on, on the basis of our sincerely held religious beliefs in our Christian faith. And that's one of the things that I think overall needs to change about the legal system that taxpayers should have standing to challenge some of these things. I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to, fund DEI education or, you know, even, even this sort of atheistic regime, or, you know, all of these lgbtq, nonsense that's in some of these. Thankfully, here in Florida we don't have a lot of that. But overall, you know, in terms of the federal tax dollars, that can go toward institutions that are still, ah, doing this. So, you know, that's a fight, of course, that's continuing. But the point is that education is never religiously neutral. Every education system teaches children a Perspective on what is true, what human beings are, what constitutes right and wrong, what gives life meaning. And in other words, every education is a form of discipleship. And so, you know, as one pastor that I was listening to said, you know, if you send your children to Caesar, don't be surprised when they come back as Romans. this isn't a matter of, well, this is the state. And the state has to be religiously neutral. This is just about reading, writing and arithmetic. And so, you know, just matters maybe who, their friends are and what other outside influences. But education itself, content wise, is religiously neutral. That's never true. Because even if a, one particular curricula doesn't specifically talk about religion on face, it is still perspective and it is still ultimately a view of the world. And the real question for Christian parents is not simply, where will my child receive the best academics? The question should be, who is forming my child and toward what end? because parenting, according to scripture, of course, is a stewardship of another human being that you are called as parents to train up a child in the way they should go so that when they're older, they won't depart from it. this is discipleship. And regardless of, you know, what else a child goes on in their adult life, to do or accomplish on a secular or cultural metric, really the goal of parents should be to disciple their children in the things of the Lord. And this isn't just about Sunday school on Sunday mornings or being involved in a church. This is about comprehensive, Christian life and understanding the reality to which God has presented us and having a biblical view of all things. And I think Christians tend to kind of compartmentalize some of our theology and education into buckets and saying, okay, well, when we go to church on Sunday, we learn about the things of God and how to worship God and how to know Him. And then the rest of the week, that's not really all that relevant unless we have, you know, certain things like, well, be kind because, you know, God says so. And some of these, you know, maybe truthful, but ultimately perhaps a little trite, you know, sort of lessons. the biblical worldview is entirely comprehensive. the Bible tells us that God created the world for his own sovereign purposes and that we cannot know the answers to life's most important questions without first knowing who God is, the truth about who God is and then who we are and the reality to which we're presented in light of who he is. And so God assigns that primary responsibility not to the school teacher. And not even to the Sunday school teacher. God assigns the primary responsibility to parents. And Scripture places that responsibility for forming children primarily on parents, not the government, the school district or educational bureaucracy, or even the institution of the church. The church should come alongside parents and reinforce that discipleship. But it primarily begins at home. And we see that, throughout Scripture, you know, including the, Psalm I just referenced, but even Deuteronomy 6, 7, you parents, shall teach them what the, precepts of the Lord diligently to your children. Moses tells parents to teach God's truth throughout ordinary life when sitting at home, you know, walking along, the journey of our Christian life when you're lying down and when you are rising. Biblical education is not confined to Sunday school. It's continuance formation. And that begins at home. Because when we're talking about, you know, all of these other, news of the day and, you know, things that, that we regularly talk about that on this program, this begins our view of policy and our view of the news of the day, our view of, the reality to which God presented. That all begins with a worldview, how we understand life. And for children, they have to first understand life through a truthful perspective, which, of course is the biblical truthful worldview. And so we can't be surprised that when kids get older, if they're not trained in how to view the world truthfully, then they might start viewing the world falsely. And they might not even identify some ways that they're viewing the world falsely or some, lies that come at them through school teachers or through their friends or through the culture around them through social media, of course, because they haven't been taught to identify the worldview behind what they're looking at. movies, you know, all kinds of things, books that they read, arguments they get into with their friends, conversations, all those things they haven't been taught to identify the worldview and then compare that to what the biblical worldview teaches. And that training needs to start at the very beginning. For regular listeners of the show, you know, that my parents homeschooled, for this exact reason. so that discipleship was at the core of the education that we received. We received a great education in terms of, you know, history and philosophy and obviously the basics. Reading, writing, arithmetic, all of that. I was better at the reading and writing than the arithmetic. my brother, you know, was much better at the arithmetic. but, you know, and that's, that's aptitudes and that's all fine, but the point is, the core of the reason of education was so that we received discipleship and could view all of these things through the lens of truth. And that, you know, two plus two doesn't equal five, doesn't equal seven. It doesn't equal anything else. But for why? Because of truth. Because God has ordained an ordered world. And we can expect that order in our world and in the world around us. And why do we see then chaos? Why do we see death and decay? Well, because of original sin. I mean, it all goes back, even in science, even in math, even in all of these other, disciplines. It goes back to what the Bible teaches. And so no education is worldview neutral. And we as Christians have to specifically intend to instill in our children and in the next generation the biblical worldview of every subject matter and every discipline, because every curriculum and every lesson rests on assumptions. Our human beings created in God's image? Or are we merely advanced animals? Is truth objective or individually constructed? Is morality grounded in God's character or a social consensus? Does the family have a divinely established structure? Why can parents enforce rules and discipline in their home? where does justice and our understanding of justice begin? With God and also with, the parents. You are the first measure of justice and fairness and enforcement of accountability that your children will encounter for themselves, for their siblings, and also for you. Do you have a different rule for yourself than you do for your child on things, is that fair? Do they see that? Does, the government grant rights? Or does it have a duty to recognize God given rights rights? is history governed only by material forces? Or does God exercise providence over the nation? I mean, all of these kind of higher education subject matters that students ultimately contemplate, especially in college, they first start to formulate ideas about them K through 12. And if we are failing to instill in students at the very beginning the biblical worldview, then is it any wonder that even Christian students who are raised in a Christian home went to church, you know, their entire lives? They go to higher education that is atheistic or even anti Christian, and then they abandon their faith. Why? Because their faith wasn't grounded to begin with. They weren't taught that Jesus isn't just an add on to your life. He's not the frosting on the cake. It's the foundation of literally everything that we understand about our world and about ourselves and about eternity.
The battle over education is also a battle over formation and over discipleship
And so education matters so much than just academics. It shapes the soul. Christ is over everything and he is lord. And Romans 12:2 warns against being conformed to the world and commands believers to be transformed through the renewal of the mind. The battle over education is also a battle over formation and over discipleship. What does a child learn to love? What authorities does a child learn to trust? What conduct does a child learn to celebrate or to condemn? What does a child learn about the measurable difference between right and wrong, good and evil? Through whose eyes does a child learn to interpret the world? Children aren't merely containers receiving facts and, you know, tests aren't just this regurgitation of information on a multiple choice quiz. Their minds, their affections, habits, loyalties, those are all being cultivated. and so this kind of myth of letting children decide for themselves, you know, some parents say they don't want to impose beliefs what will allow their children, you know, to thrive as they get older. But withholding biblical instruction does not place a child in a neutral environment. It simply allows the other institutions, peers, entertainment, and the culture, and also the algorithms, right in this day and age to perform that discipleship. Every parent teaches a worldview, either intentionally or by default. And so we need to have practical responsibility for Christian parents and an understanding that education is not simply a preparation for a career. It is a preparation for life before God and ultimately our primary ministry and calling, which is to know God and to worship him. For Christians, education must begin with the fear of the Lord, remain under the authority of scripture and point children to the lordship of Christ. School choice gives parents options, but biblical discipleship gives their choices their purpose. As always, you can reach me and my team.
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Jenna Ellis discusses the critical issues surrounding education, particularly focusing on the hidden maneuvers of institutions to disguise their DEI programs. Joined by Corey DeAngelis, they explore the implications of these changes and the importance of parental choice in education. With insights on the school choice movement and the need for transparency, this episode is a must-listen for anyone invested in the future of education and the values being taught to our children.
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