October 29, 2025 • 17 mins
We talk to Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell about his latest article, which is about the most recent push to defund voucher schools that teach Islamic faith.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back to the Jim Colbert Show, right here on
the wonderful Real Radio one oh four point one. Your
four o'clock keyword is cash C A s H. Get
over to Real Radio dot FM and send that away
from your chance in a thousand bucks.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
If you're playing the game, phone on, phone.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Up, answer it when it rings, even if you do
not recognize the number, even if it says no caller ID.
You gotta pick that up. That's how they tell you
you've won.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Take the chance. I'm Jim, there's dead Hello. Check is
here as well?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, every single Wednesday around this time we have had
a good friend. Obray writes for The Orlando Sentinel. You
can read his columns Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Give it up for sweet Heat the Truth Dragon.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Mister Scott Maxwell, Yay.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Doing well? How are your friend? You froze solid on?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You say that, Jim, you're doing well.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
But I your voice and your intonation makes me wonder
because I have to tell you. As I came in, uh,
Jack had a look on his face that looked like
maybe a dog had taken a radioactive dump right on
his keyboard or something. So what was there anything interesting
happening during your break?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
There, sir, there's a possum in here, and uh yeah,
and I had to I basically had to pour pure
alcohol in the desk here to make sure that nobody
gets possum diseases, which I don't even know who they are.
But he smeared himself all over this counter. We had
to get that cleaned up.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Now, what does the possum do leave behind?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't want
to know. I don't want to smell.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I know that possums actually have a unique situation. They
can't get rabies. Yeah, because I believe there is it
too cold or too hot their blood.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Their blood's too hot that I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I just know that they can't get rabies. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I think their temperature, their body temperature is too warm
for rabies to live or too cold.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's one of those things. But they cannot get rabies.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
But but as I understand that the glamorous life of
a top rated radio host in Orlando, it includes dumping
bottles of churel to get up possible slab.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, biggest rocks are in town.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Opossums have a lower body temperature than most other bad motals,
which make it difficult for the rabies virus to survive.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
There you go, Well, you know what I will say this.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I may not be entertaining or that informational, but I
will never leave any body fluid.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I appreciate it. Don't make that problem.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's great. No, that that's greatly appreciated. Just another great
attribute of yours.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
That's right, Thank you, sir, Very good.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Hey, buddy, I this morning, as I prep for the show,
one of the one of the things I do, obviously
is when I know that you're gonna be calling in,
I go and read.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
The piece that you written that day. A lot of
times that you will write them.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
You'll have another piece comes out a little bit later
that afternoon, and we can kind of mix and match
which ones that we want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I thought your piece to.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
On vouchers for schools was absolutely poignant, and really we
were almost you know, I know that we haven't spoken
about this, but weren't we both kind of waiting for
a situation that happen like happened. I mean, didn't we
kind of know this was coming. We just didn't know
when or where. But here it is.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think that is fair to say.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I think we also didn't think that the people who
would be sort of, in my estimation, making fools of
themselves at this point in time would do it so blatantly. Yeah,
and for background, for background, if you don't mind me
setting this up a.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Lott, sure please.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
There are a lot of issues that come in my
mind when you start using public money to fund private schools.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And I am a Christian.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I sent my kids to early years to a private
Christian school with our own money, I might add, because
that's the way I think you should do it. But
there are problems when you start giving public money to
private faith based organizations because not all of them accept everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Some of them only accept people who think the same
way they do.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
We and we have written at the Orlando Sentinel for
damn near a decade about dozens more than one hundred
and fifty schools, for instance, that take public money but
will not accept all members of the public. Some will
not accept students who are gay, some will not accept
students whose parents are gay, Some will not accept kids
with disabilities. They are actual written policies that say you
(04:23):
have to be able to stand on your own, you
cannot have things like autism or Asperger's disease if you
want to attend their faith based schools. In those cases,
it's not because they're you know, they're ideologically opposed to disabilities.
They just don't want to serve students that take more
you know, cost and teacher and time to teach, and
(04:45):
they have the luxury.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Of doing so.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
The federal law says faith based organizations are exempt from
things like the Americans with Disability Act when it comes
to handling well, not all aspects, but at least when
it comes to teaching students. So we've written about all
of the problems that happened when people don't, particularly Christian schools,
get this money and won't accept.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
All of the tax paying public who fund their bills.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
But nobody has cared, nobody has given one wi for
a decade. Who's in charge until last month when they
learned that it turns out Muslims can also run private
schools with vouchers, And now they got a problem.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, a big problem, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It started.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, it was started by the UH sort of the
Freedom Caucus in Congress, which is sort of the hard
right group. It includes Locally it's got folks like Byron
Donald's and Greg Step, but nationally it's like Chip Roy
And they they found out there was a school school
in Tennessee that has uh that's run by Islamic emms,
(05:52):
and they just flat out said, we believe in choice,
but we don't believe.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Trouble even state right, Yeah, yeah, we believe in choice.
Our choice, yes, our choice.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
And so then apparently the folks in Florida went, oh, hell,
you don't think any of them, damn Muslims are running
schools in Florida, do you. Well, yes, sir, they are,
because that's the way choice, universal choice. They literally call
it universal. Anybody could use it. And they're about a
dozen schools in Florida that get taxpayer money to teach.
(06:27):
And all of a sudden, now they're throwing out things
like sharia law and sympathies to terrorism as a as
a fig leaf to say they want to end the practice.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Of letting Muslims run vouch your schools.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I don't know any possible constitutional way they would be
able to do that, but they sure seem book determined.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Can I tell you to me it goes beyond that.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I can't even understand constitutionally how they can even set
the voucher system up and deal money to schools because
they're faith based alone.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That to me, and by the way, no regulation.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Some of these teachers, uncredited, uneducated, they you know, some
of them are complete travesties. And a couple of them
is shut down in the middle of semesters, stranding students
with nowhere to go. It's just a complete nightmare. And
by the way, this is nationally. It's not even just Florida.
This program sucks everywhere.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
There are problems everywhere, but Florida is the leader in this.
We were the first to go sort of ball to
the wall and say anybody can use them for you
don't have to be poor, you don't have to have
a disability for any reason.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
You can take it and you are right.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
There are great I should say this because people always
say I.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Went to a Christian school when it was good.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Absolutely, I just said that first thing I said. I said,
my own kids there when they were very young. There
are a lot of faith based schools that do a
great job. People know schools like Bishop Moore that have
a great reputation. But those schools existed long before this
fly by night voucher system came along, and all of
a sudden, all these people, some of them are grifters,
would basically say, oh my god, you mean I can
(07:54):
get eight thousand bucks a kid if I claim I'm
running a good school.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
And then what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I'm gonna tell every one of these parents they're little
angels who are.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Flunking out of public school.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Are suddenly straight a students once they start going to
my academy in a strip mall right next to a
drug testing lab.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
These are actual things.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Some of them, as you pointed out, absolute financial disasters.
Some of them have literally shut down in the middle
of the school year. Like kids show up to the
school and the school's no longer there. Say what you
want to criticize public school, it ain't ever gonna happen.
That you're gonna send Johnny to fourth grade and fourth
grades done.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
In fourth grade's waiting for him.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
And then there's what they're teaching these kids. I mean,
most public schools have standards they have to teach, for instance, truth,
We've gotten hold of some of the curriculum that have
all kinds of crazy lesson plans, some that say, you know,
segregation in the South wasn't really that bad. We read
some that said slavery some of the slaves kind of
enjoyed being slaves. They earn lots, learn lots of good skills.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And things like that.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Seen pictures that talk about man and dinosaurs were frolicking together.
There's actually a picture of one of these books of
two men and long pants and button down shirts and
there's a brontosaurus behind them, and this is a biology textbook.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Didn't they just make a move in Florida to incorporate
what is that guy? He's a talk show host or
radio host. Prager You, Yeah, Dennis Prager, Praguer You. They
want to inject some of Preger You's teachings into public schools.
And when you read some of that stuff, you literally
laugh out loud at how awful and uneducated it is,
(09:33):
unscientific on everything, but it fits their curriculum, so they're
gonna spit it at them.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You are absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
In fact, I did a column a few years ago
about Praguer You, and.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
It's just what you said. It would be funny if
it wasn't scary.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
One of the videos I looked at was one where
Prager was trying to basically rehab Columbus's image. And you know,
we can have whatever discussions you want about you know,
people are not all good or bad. But they were
trying to make the case that Columbus was good. And
it's this little cartoon Columbus and this kid's like, hey,
but weren't you a big part of the slave trade
And Columbus is like, but we didn't kill them, and.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
The little kids like, oh, thank you, Columbus.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And hey, somebody sends us a question. I think it's valuable.
We'll ask.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
This says, you think Muslim schools are going to accept
gay kids or kids with different beliefs. Naw, they shouldn't
be allowed to teach Muslim religion at all in the US.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Wow. Wait, this is the US, right, And these.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Are people I may not be understanding their caller correctly,
but are they arsuing that Muslims shouldn't be able to
keep gay kids out but Christians should?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, they're not.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
What they're saying is is you're taking shots at Christian
schools for not allowing gay kids and then saying that
the Muslim schools are taking the vouchers. Do you think
that Muslim schools would allow gay kids as well?
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Oh no, let me be crystal clear as I was
in the Peace, I don't believe any school that discriminates
or indoctrinates should be taking taxpayer money to run a
school that does not accept all tax For one, you're
also right that it's non constitutional. The way they've gotten
around it is the court ultimately ruled, in my estimation,
(11:08):
it's unconstitutional. The court ultimately ruled that they are not
giving the money to schools. What they argued is that
they're just giving the money to families, and then the
families decide to give the money to the schools. So
we've talked about legalized laundering before. That's what this is.
So they say the families get the money and the schools.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Don't get it.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
The bottom line is many of these schools could not exist,
would not exist without this public money. They get the
majority of their money way. And you know, we've also
we found, as you mentioned, when you open one of
these private schools, there's no regulations. You don't actually have
to be a teacher, and by that I mean you
don't have to have a teaching degree. You don't have
to have a degree at all. Our reporters found that
(11:48):
there were teachers and I'm putting air quotes around that
at some of these schools that had not graduated from
high school teaching high school.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Sweet. Sweet.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And by the way, you in any public school in Florida,
you have to have a certificate that has to be regie.
Doesn't have to be rebooted every few years. You have
to go through a program to make sure that you're
still up to snuff on what's being taught.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And the way they would get around it is they
would say every teacher, including it about your schools has
to have a certificate like a public schools teacher would,
or have a special quality. And that special quality might
be smiling.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Real nice.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Hey, I don't have a hey, look look, look I
don't have a degree, but I can juggle.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah. Yeah, And and and the.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Other problem that we've talked about is a lot of
the complaints we've heard come from the parents themselves.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
They send their kids to these.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
School because they heard other parents say, oh my god,
everybody's a straight a school, you know, at Winter's World
School for the Gifted, and then they send their kid
there and then they take some standardized test and they
get like a four out of a one hundred, and
they've lost two years of school. Sometimes they go back
to public schools.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
We've had parents that sent them place to the state
that said, I thought them so this was okay, but
then what took my kid? And it was a lunch
lady who is a teacher.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Wow, the cafeteria worker was the one that was teaching
my kid.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Scott.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
You I mean when they said that's what choice is
all about. If you don't like it, you choose to
take your kids to another school.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
The argument I make is no other public funding works
like that.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, we don't give people food stamp money. We don't
give them five hundred dollars and say, you know what,
blow it on whatever you want, whether it's a Jack
Daniels and nerd string candy. Taxpayers are supposed to get
something for that dollar, and that money for school should
be a quality education. There is no, virtually none of
that being here.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Scott.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
When you go and when you when you go to
apply to get a voucher, do you have to tell
them what school it's for and tell them I.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Don't know if you have to tell them what school
it's for.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
What there is is a list.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
The state basically approves all the schools that you can
spend it at, and I we have not ever seen
a school that was not approved.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Actually, that is not completely true.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
I just remembered another Whackado story that you you remember
because I remember you talked about it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Uh. There are a.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Handful of occasions where a school has been shut down
in about three years ago, two or three years ago.
Do you remember when Ron DeSantis got in his head
that park Maitland, which was just relatively prestigious school, What
do you mean being secretly run by the Chinese communists?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah? Yeah, what do you mean relatively?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I mean I mean outside of Lake Highland Prep and
like Master's Academy. I think it's right up there with
one of the more expensive, elusive or exclusive schools in
the city.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It has a very good reputation.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
But DeSantis and his education department found some documents.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's found.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
You know, some of their or corporate leadership was based
in time China, so he said they were basically run
by communists, and they took part Maitland off the list.
So at least last I checked, that's one.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Of the very few. You can still take your kids.
Your kid to these Strip Mull.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Schools next to drug testing labs, but you cannot take
it to Park Maitland because that's Chinese common.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah is part I don't think. Is Park Maitland faith based.
I don't even know if it's really faith based or not.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Maybe maybe, at least of my knowledge, it is not.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Maybe that's the rule.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I don't. I don't, I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
And here's the thing, Jim, I don't think this is complicated.
I don't think this is complicated, even.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
For people of faith.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
I've had people who are die hard Christians who say, you.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Know what, if I want to send my.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Kid to a Christian school, that's what I should spend
my money on.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
That's not what public money for is.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
But if the state is going to say any people
of faith can run schools, then guess what Any people
of any faith can run a school, Jewish, Muslim, him, do,
Christian or anything else except now in Florida. And it's
not just James Uthmeyer. He's the state of the Attorney General.
He's the one leading the charge in Florida. As soon
as he said, I don't want this Muslim school to.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Get voucher money.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
The Agriculture Commissioner, Wilton Simpson, he piped right up that
said the same thing.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So now it's a race to defund Muslim Wow.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, somebody just texted and said, uh, it's mostly democratic lies. Look,
I would tell you anybody to text the show with
stuff like that. You're welcome to google this. I mean,
it's got a is a forty year journalist who has
a lauded career. It would only cause himself harm to
come on the air and lie about stuff like this.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
So you're welcome to google any of this stuff. Please go.
We're begging you to do it.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
He followed up with prove it, and I said, read
any one of his articles.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
They're well sourced.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
There was a story on the front page today that
I mean. And by the way the lawmakers are saying
it themselves. I mean, we we have quotes where we said, hey, uh,
these Christian schools don't accept gay students, and they say
that's what choice is. Then they say, well, what about
Muslim schools And they say no, we're just going to
cut them off. I mean, these aren't our words, it's
it's there and go. You know what, don't take my
(16:50):
word for it, go google the Freedom Caucus's Twitter account.
The Freedom Caucus is the one defund Muslim school.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's also a good lies and because you're a Democratic
instead of a Democrat. Oh lord, yeah, well Scott, look, man,
we always love your call, and your piece today was great.
I would urge everybody to go to Orlandosentinel dot com
and read it. It's always on that third page, Local
and State. It's the headline Wednesday, Thursdays and Sundays. You
can read his column some of the best writing in Orlando,
(17:19):
uncovering some of the most gnarly stuff out there and
make sure that the light gets to hit it. That's
what Scott does and the rest of the crew of
the Orlando Centinel as well.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
I appreciate it, and I hope the rest of your
week is possum free.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Much thanks buddy, have a good one, Budy, We'll see
you soon.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Take care, you got it, buddy?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
All right?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Four seven nine one six four one text us seven
seven zero three one Back in a second with more
of the Jim Colbert Show.
Welcome back to the Jim Colbert Show, right here on
the wonderful Real Radio one oh four point one. Your
four o'clock keyword is cash C A s H. Get
over to Real Radio dot FM and send that away
from your chance in a thousand bucks.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
If you're playing the game, phone on, phone.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Up, answer it when it rings, even if you do
not recognize the number, even if it says no caller ID.
You gotta pick that up. That's how they tell you
you've won.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Take the chance. I'm Jim, there's dead Hello. Check is
here as well?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, every single Wednesday around this time we have had
a good friend. Obray writes for The Orlando Sentinel. You
can read his columns Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Give it up for sweet Heat the Truth Dragon.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Mister Scott Maxwell, Yay.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Doing well? How are your friend? You froze solid on?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You say that, Jim, you're doing well.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
But I your voice and your intonation makes me wonder
because I have to tell you. As I came in, uh,
Jack had a look on his face that looked like
maybe a dog had taken a radioactive dump right on
his keyboard or something. So what was there anything interesting
happening during your break?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
There, sir, there's a possum in here, and uh yeah,
and I had to I basically had to pour pure
alcohol in the desk here to make sure that nobody
gets possum diseases, which I don't even know who they are.
But he smeared himself all over this counter. We had
to get that cleaned up.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Now, what does the possum do leave behind?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't want
to know. I don't want to smell.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I know that possums actually have a unique situation. They
can't get rabies. Yeah, because I believe there is it
too cold or too hot their blood.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Their blood's too hot that I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I just know that they can't get rabies. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I think their temperature, their body temperature is too warm
for rabies to live or too cold.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's one of those things. But they cannot get rabies.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
But but as I understand that the glamorous life of
a top rated radio host in Orlando, it includes dumping
bottles of churel to get up possible slab.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, biggest rocks are in town.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Opossums have a lower body temperature than most other bad motals,
which make it difficult for the rabies virus to survive.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
There you go, Well, you know what I will say this.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I may not be entertaining or that informational, but I
will never leave any body fluid.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I appreciate it. Don't make that problem.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's great. No, that that's greatly appreciated. Just another great
attribute of yours.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
That's right, Thank you, sir, Very good.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Hey, buddy, I this morning, as I prep for the show,
one of the one of the things I do, obviously
is when I know that you're gonna be calling in,
I go and read.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
The piece that you written that day. A lot of
times that you will write them.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
You'll have another piece comes out a little bit later
that afternoon, and we can kind of mix and match
which ones that we want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I thought your piece to.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
On vouchers for schools was absolutely poignant, and really we
were almost you know, I know that we haven't spoken
about this, but weren't we both kind of waiting for
a situation that happen like happened. I mean, didn't we
kind of know this was coming. We just didn't know
when or where. But here it is.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think that is fair to say.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I think we also didn't think that the people who
would be sort of, in my estimation, making fools of
themselves at this point in time would do it so blatantly. Yeah,
and for background, for background, if you don't mind me
setting this up a.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Lott, sure please.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
There are a lot of issues that come in my
mind when you start using public money to fund private schools.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And I am a Christian.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I sent my kids to early years to a private
Christian school with our own money, I might add, because
that's the way I think you should do it. But
there are problems when you start giving public money to
private faith based organizations because not all of them accept everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Some of them only accept people who think the same
way they do.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
We and we have written at the Orlando Sentinel for
damn near a decade about dozens more than one hundred
and fifty schools, for instance, that take public money but
will not accept all members of the public. Some will
not accept students who are gay, some will not accept
students whose parents are gay, Some will not accept kids
with disabilities. They are actual written policies that say you
(04:23):
have to be able to stand on your own, you
cannot have things like autism or Asperger's disease if you
want to attend their faith based schools. In those cases,
it's not because they're you know, they're ideologically opposed to disabilities.
They just don't want to serve students that take more
you know, cost and teacher and time to teach, and
(04:45):
they have the luxury.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Of doing so.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
The federal law says faith based organizations are exempt from
things like the Americans with Disability Act when it comes
to handling well, not all aspects, but at least when
it comes to teaching students. So we've written about all
of the problems that happened when people don't, particularly Christian schools,
get this money and won't accept.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
All of the tax paying public who fund their bills.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
But nobody has cared, nobody has given one wi for
a decade. Who's in charge until last month when they
learned that it turns out Muslims can also run private
schools with vouchers, And now they got a problem.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, a big problem, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It started.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, it was started by the UH sort of the
Freedom Caucus in Congress, which is sort of the hard
right group. It includes Locally it's got folks like Byron
Donald's and Greg Step, but nationally it's like Chip Roy
And they they found out there was a school school
in Tennessee that has uh that's run by Islamic emms,
(05:52):
and they just flat out said, we believe in choice,
but we don't believe.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Trouble even state right, Yeah, yeah, we believe in choice.
Our choice, yes, our choice.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
And so then apparently the folks in Florida went, oh, hell,
you don't think any of them, damn Muslims are running
schools in Florida, do you. Well, yes, sir, they are,
because that's the way choice, universal choice. They literally call
it universal. Anybody could use it. And they're about a
dozen schools in Florida that get taxpayer money to teach.
(06:27):
And all of a sudden, now they're throwing out things
like sharia law and sympathies to terrorism as a as
a fig leaf to say they want to end the practice.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Of letting Muslims run vouch your schools.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I don't know any possible constitutional way they would be
able to do that, but they sure seem book determined.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Can I tell you to me it goes beyond that.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I can't even understand constitutionally how they can even set
the voucher system up and deal money to schools because
they're faith based alone.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That to me, and by the way, no regulation.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Some of these teachers, uncredited, uneducated, they you know, some
of them are complete travesties. And a couple of them
is shut down in the middle of semesters, stranding students
with nowhere to go. It's just a complete nightmare. And
by the way, this is nationally. It's not even just Florida.
This program sucks everywhere.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
There are problems everywhere, but Florida is the leader in this.
We were the first to go sort of ball to
the wall and say anybody can use them for you
don't have to be poor, you don't have to have
a disability for any reason.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
You can take it and you are right.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
There are great I should say this because people always
say I.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Went to a Christian school when it was good.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Absolutely, I just said that first thing I said. I said,
my own kids there when they were very young. There
are a lot of faith based schools that do a
great job. People know schools like Bishop Moore that have
a great reputation. But those schools existed long before this
fly by night voucher system came along, and all of
a sudden, all these people, some of them are grifters,
would basically say, oh my god, you mean I can
(07:54):
get eight thousand bucks a kid if I claim I'm
running a good school.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
And then what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I'm gonna tell every one of these parents they're little
angels who are.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Flunking out of public school.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Are suddenly straight a students once they start going to
my academy in a strip mall right next to a
drug testing lab.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
These are actual things.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Some of them, as you pointed out, absolute financial disasters.
Some of them have literally shut down in the middle
of the school year. Like kids show up to the
school and the school's no longer there. Say what you
want to criticize public school, it ain't ever gonna happen.
That you're gonna send Johnny to fourth grade and fourth
grades done.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
In fourth grade's waiting for him.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
And then there's what they're teaching these kids. I mean,
most public schools have standards they have to teach, for instance, truth,
We've gotten hold of some of the curriculum that have
all kinds of crazy lesson plans, some that say, you know,
segregation in the South wasn't really that bad. We read
some that said slavery some of the slaves kind of
enjoyed being slaves. They earn lots, learn lots of good skills.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And things like that.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Seen pictures that talk about man and dinosaurs were frolicking together.
There's actually a picture of one of these books of
two men and long pants and button down shirts and
there's a brontosaurus behind them, and this is a biology textbook.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Didn't they just make a move in Florida to incorporate
what is that guy? He's a talk show host or
radio host. Prager You, Yeah, Dennis Prager, Praguer You. They
want to inject some of Preger You's teachings into public schools.
And when you read some of that stuff, you literally
laugh out loud at how awful and uneducated it is,
(09:33):
unscientific on everything, but it fits their curriculum, so they're
gonna spit it at them.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You are absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
In fact, I did a column a few years ago
about Praguer You, and.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
It's just what you said. It would be funny if
it wasn't scary.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
One of the videos I looked at was one where
Prager was trying to basically rehab Columbus's image. And you know,
we can have whatever discussions you want about you know,
people are not all good or bad. But they were
trying to make the case that Columbus was good. And
it's this little cartoon Columbus and this kid's like, hey,
but weren't you a big part of the slave trade
And Columbus is like, but we didn't kill them, and.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
The little kids like, oh, thank you, Columbus.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And hey, somebody sends us a question. I think it's valuable.
We'll ask.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
This says, you think Muslim schools are going to accept
gay kids or kids with different beliefs. Naw, they shouldn't
be allowed to teach Muslim religion at all in the US.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Wow. Wait, this is the US, right, And these.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Are people I may not be understanding their caller correctly,
but are they arsuing that Muslims shouldn't be able to
keep gay kids out but Christians should?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, they're not.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
What they're saying is is you're taking shots at Christian
schools for not allowing gay kids and then saying that
the Muslim schools are taking the vouchers. Do you think
that Muslim schools would allow gay kids as well?
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Oh no, let me be crystal clear as I was
in the Peace, I don't believe any school that discriminates
or indoctrinates should be taking taxpayer money to run a
school that does not accept all tax For one, you're
also right that it's non constitutional. The way they've gotten
around it is the court ultimately ruled, in my estimation,
(11:08):
it's unconstitutional. The court ultimately ruled that they are not
giving the money to schools. What they argued is that
they're just giving the money to families, and then the
families decide to give the money to the schools. So
we've talked about legalized laundering before. That's what this is.
So they say the families get the money and the schools.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Don't get it.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
The bottom line is many of these schools could not exist,
would not exist without this public money. They get the
majority of their money way. And you know, we've also
we found, as you mentioned, when you open one of
these private schools, there's no regulations. You don't actually have
to be a teacher, and by that I mean you
don't have to have a teaching degree. You don't have
to have a degree at all. Our reporters found that
(11:48):
there were teachers and I'm putting air quotes around that
at some of these schools that had not graduated from
high school teaching high school.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Sweet. Sweet.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And by the way, you in any public school in Florida,
you have to have a certificate that has to be regie.
Doesn't have to be rebooted every few years. You have
to go through a program to make sure that you're
still up to snuff on what's being taught.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And the way they would get around it is they
would say every teacher, including it about your schools has
to have a certificate like a public schools teacher would,
or have a special quality. And that special quality might
be smiling.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Real nice.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Hey, I don't have a hey, look look, look I
don't have a degree, but I can juggle.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah. Yeah, And and and the.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Other problem that we've talked about is a lot of
the complaints we've heard come from the parents themselves.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
They send their kids to these.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
School because they heard other parents say, oh my god,
everybody's a straight a school, you know, at Winter's World
School for the Gifted, and then they send their kid
there and then they take some standardized test and they
get like a four out of a one hundred, and
they've lost two years of school. Sometimes they go back
to public schools.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
We've had parents that sent them place to the state
that said, I thought them so this was okay, but
then what took my kid? And it was a lunch
lady who is a teacher.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Wow, the cafeteria worker was the one that was teaching
my kid.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Scott.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
You I mean when they said that's what choice is
all about. If you don't like it, you choose to
take your kids to another school.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
The argument I make is no other public funding works
like that.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, we don't give people food stamp money. We don't
give them five hundred dollars and say, you know what,
blow it on whatever you want, whether it's a Jack
Daniels and nerd string candy. Taxpayers are supposed to get
something for that dollar, and that money for school should
be a quality education. There is no, virtually none of
that being here.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Scott.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
When you go and when you when you go to
apply to get a voucher, do you have to tell
them what school it's for and tell them I.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Don't know if you have to tell them what school
it's for.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
What there is is a list.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
The state basically approves all the schools that you can
spend it at, and I we have not ever seen
a school that was not approved.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Actually, that is not completely true.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
I just remembered another Whackado story that you you remember
because I remember you talked about it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Uh. There are a.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Handful of occasions where a school has been shut down
in about three years ago, two or three years ago.
Do you remember when Ron DeSantis got in his head
that park Maitland, which was just relatively prestigious school, What
do you mean being secretly run by the Chinese communists?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah? Yeah, what do you mean relatively?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I mean I mean outside of Lake Highland Prep and
like Master's Academy. I think it's right up there with
one of the more expensive, elusive or exclusive schools in
the city.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It has a very good reputation.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
But DeSantis and his education department found some documents.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's found.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
You know, some of their or corporate leadership was based
in time China, so he said they were basically run
by communists, and they took part Maitland off the list.
So at least last I checked, that's one.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Of the very few. You can still take your kids.
Your kid to these Strip Mull.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Schools next to drug testing labs, but you cannot take
it to Park Maitland because that's Chinese common.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah is part I don't think. Is Park Maitland faith based.
I don't even know if it's really faith based or not.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Maybe maybe, at least of my knowledge, it is not.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Maybe that's the rule.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I don't. I don't, I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
And here's the thing, Jim, I don't think this is complicated.
I don't think this is complicated, even.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
For people of faith.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
I've had people who are die hard Christians who say, you.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Know what, if I want to send my.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Kid to a Christian school, that's what I should spend
my money on.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
That's not what public money for is.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
But if the state is going to say any people
of faith can run schools, then guess what Any people
of any faith can run a school, Jewish, Muslim, him, do,
Christian or anything else except now in Florida. And it's
not just James Uthmeyer. He's the state of the Attorney General.
He's the one leading the charge in Florida. As soon
as he said, I don't want this Muslim school to.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Get voucher money.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
The Agriculture Commissioner, Wilton Simpson, he piped right up that
said the same thing.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So now it's a race to defund Muslim Wow.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, somebody just texted and said, uh, it's mostly democratic lies. Look,
I would tell you anybody to text the show with
stuff like that. You're welcome to google this. I mean,
it's got a is a forty year journalist who has
a lauded career. It would only cause himself harm to
come on the air and lie about stuff like this.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
So you're welcome to google any of this stuff. Please go.
We're begging you to do it.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
He followed up with prove it, and I said, read
any one of his articles.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
They're well sourced.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
There was a story on the front page today that
I mean. And by the way the lawmakers are saying
it themselves. I mean, we we have quotes where we said, hey, uh,
these Christian schools don't accept gay students, and they say
that's what choice is. Then they say, well, what about
Muslim schools And they say no, we're just going to
cut them off. I mean, these aren't our words, it's
it's there and go. You know what, don't take my
(16:50):
word for it, go google the Freedom Caucus's Twitter account.
The Freedom Caucus is the one defund Muslim school.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's also a good lies and because you're a Democratic
instead of a Democrat. Oh lord, yeah, well Scott, look, man,
we always love your call, and your piece today was great.
I would urge everybody to go to Orlandosentinel dot com
and read it. It's always on that third page, Local
and State. It's the headline Wednesday, Thursdays and Sundays. You
can read his column some of the best writing in Orlando,
(17:19):
uncovering some of the most gnarly stuff out there and
make sure that the light gets to hit it. That's
what Scott does and the rest of the crew of
the Orlando Centinel as well.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
I appreciate it, and I hope the rest of your
week is possum free.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Much thanks buddy, have a good one, Budy, We'll see
you soon.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Take care, you got it, buddy?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
All right?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Four seven nine one six four one text us seven
seven zero three one Back in a second with more
of the Jim Colbert Show.
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