Michael Corbin on School Safety, Teacher Pay, and Election Integrity

In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, Rico Figliolini interviews Michael Corbin, the Republican candidate for Georgia State House District 97. With his background as a parent and husband to a Gwinnett County public school teacher, Corbin shares his deep commitment to school safety, advocating for immediate actions like enhanced security measures, mental health resources, and more school resource officers. They dive into topics such as using state-of-the-art technology to protect schools and fostering a safer learning environment without making schools feel like prisons.
 
The conversation also spans broader issues, from the importance of teacher pay to ensuring fair and secure elections in Georgia. Corbin emphasizes his dedication to making housing more affordable for teachers and public servants while also supporting job creation in tech-focused communities like Peachtree Corners. Tune in to hear Corbin’s thoughtful perspectives on the future of Georgia's schools, housing, and government.
 
Resources:
Michael Corbin’s Campaign Website: https://www.corbinforga.com/
Michael’s email: [e-mail]
 
Timestamp:
00:00:00 - Michael Corbin's Perspective
00:04:11 - Securing Schools and Practical Measures to Protect Our Kids
00:06:48 - Addressing Mental Health and Warning Signs in School Shootings
00:09:51 - Leveraging Technology for Student Safety
00:11:48 - Addressing Teacher Pay and Affordable Housing for Educators
00:17:27 - Cost of Living Adjustments for Teachers
00:21:29 - Leveraging State Support for Tech Hub Development
00:26:30 - Identifying and Fostering Technical Aptitude in Students
00:28:48 - Balancing Healthcare Access and Affordability
00:31:36 - Healthcare Costs Crushing Middle-Class Americans
00:33:30 - The Real Costs of Natural Disasters
00:35:13 - Navigating Disaster Recovery for Businesses
00:38:53 - Ensuring Secure and Accessible Elections in Georgia
00:40:53 - Secure Elections and Voter ID in Georgia
00:45:01 - Importance of Accessible Voter IDs
00:49:02 - Voting for Candidates with Your Interests in Mind

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because you know, schools and businesses or the lifeline of
communities when it comes to their success or failures.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're listening to Peachtree Corner's Life, a podcast sharing ideas, opinions,
and news about the city of Peachtree Corners, the community
we live in and the people that are your neighbors.
Now your host, Rico Figliolini.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hey everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachre Corners Live.
You're in the city of Peachre Corners. We're at Anthy, Georgia.
I have a special guest tonight that we're going to
be spending some time with tonight, I say, because it's
Thursday at eight o'clock PM and nothing ever stops around there.
We just keep going on, so it'll be an interesting

(00:51):
time with Michael Corbin, who's running for Georgia State House
District ninety seven, is a Republican candidate. Hey Michael, thanks
for joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hey Rico, thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure.
I was on a couple of years ago when I
was running for Congressional District seven at the time, and yeah,
thank you for doing this and having candidates on so
voters can hear directly from us and get a little
bit more background about just talk also our stance on
some of the issues.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
For sure, the candidate interviews, funny enough, days or leading
a week leading up to election is always the most
searched on our website. So it's always good to see
that people actually look for.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
That, people are looking. Yeah, that's good to know. Yeah,
that people are looking and researching the candidates before they
cast the cast vote.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, does my heart well to see that, Yeah, exactly.
We're going to be touching on a lot of subjects
here tonight. We're going to be touching a bit on
school safety and education, public safety in general, jobs in
the economy, healthcare, voting, election integrity, forget to it's technolo
to an online safety. So a bunch of topics that

(02:03):
we're going to start off with. Let's get right into it.
School safety and education, you know that. You know, obviously,
with more shootings going on, more active shootings, whether it's
schools or it's candidate like Donald Trump out in the
field making speeches, there's just a lot a lot going on.

(02:26):
A lot seems a lot more violent for some reason
this year the most but schools have from volved from
some of the recent shootings. It just it becomes you
almost feel like if you're watching enough TikTok and Instagram,
and it feels like it's happening all the time. But
we should attend to school safety, right. I think one

(02:47):
of the proposals you made was, obviously, as many candidates do,
that we should be looking to create a safer environment
in our schools to protect our children from active shooters.
That's the question would be, can you elaborate a little
bit on what those solutions might look like? You know,
what are your thoughts about implementing what should be done

(03:08):
along those lines.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, definitely, And it is near and dear to my heart.
Number one, both my children are in public school here
in the state of Georgia, right in our community, and
you don't want to be a parent worrying about your
kid not coming home at whatever level it is there.
They're in elementary school now, but time time flies, and

(03:32):
the beginning of mid middle school as well as high
school soon. And just to mention it was, you know,
a few weeks ago, right after Appalachi, there was a
middle school student that was found with a gone for
Duluth Middle School, which is where my daughters will be going.
It's where I went to school. Yeah, so it's near
and dear to my heart. And my wife is a
public school teacher here in Quinnett County. So I am

(03:54):
highly invested in this. There's a lot of people that
I think, you know, propose is I would say, feel good,
do nothing proposals out there number one, because they're they're
they're two partisan in nature. You know, with red flag
laws and gun safety, those are such high overarching discussions

(04:20):
that are going to take so long, and I'm tired
of it. We there's things that we can do and
we can do now to protect our kids. And yes,
we need to, we need to look at some some
some of the issues when it comes to gun safety
and mental health and things of that nature. But why
are we waiting to protect our kids? Why do we

(04:41):
have metal detectors and airports to protect people that are traveling.
Why do state legislators have to have people that come
to come through the capital doors get screened for guns? Right?
So there's all these these it's technologies that are out
there that we're using in other places courthouses that we're

(05:05):
not putting into our schools. Why that's the question that
I ask That should be the most bipartisan thing that
we can talk about is investing in the technology, security assessments,
and gaps to make our school safe. And nobody wants
their kid going and feeling like they're in prison. But

(05:26):
I'd rather have my kid going to where I know
somebody is going in and out of the school and
they're being screened by a in these days, I'm in technology.
We have very state of the art metal detectors that
aren't these you know, nineteen eighties looking metal detectors that
you see and have it a picture in your head.

(05:48):
They can be embedded in walls, you can put them
in to where it doesn't look like a prison. And
we have the money as a state to spend on this,
and we're not doing it. You know. So you asked
about your question just to get back to that. But
you know, nobody likes to hear mandate, but you know,
we need to mandate having security assessments where the gaps

(06:10):
at every school, and then we need to make sure
that those gaps are filled with the technology that's available,
you know, talking about metal detectors, cameras, alarms at all
ingress and egress points, entry extra exit points. Another simple
thing that we can do is hire more school resource officers.

(06:31):
You know those jobs can't exist, there's people that want
to do it, and you can maintain a ratio of
student resource officer to student body enrollment. And then also,
you know mental health, right, we don't have the mental
health experts in our school system to identify and once
it has been identified, to adequately deal with those people

(06:54):
that may be vulnerable to using a gun or some
type of violence. There's the things we can do right now.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Would it make sense to Obviously you want to prioritize things,
right If I look at past shooters, there's always been
a it's antal mental issue or family issues that that
starts it off. I don't want to lessen the importance

(07:24):
of you know, metal detectives in schools, but you know,
if you look at State of Georgia, how many times
as an active shooter happened in the State of Georgia
and how many schools do we have actually out there
and without investment would that be I think that a
lot of times that we find out that a child
is just not being listened to, and if they were,

(07:46):
we would know what The problem is, right, several of
these shooters had already been in touch with either school
officials or police, and they weren't taken seriously. Right, So
we're prioritizing getting social you know, psychologists into the school's

(08:07):
staff of that nature first makes sense, and then work
your way through because budgeting, you know how that works.
It takes two years to a bill out out of
the Senate or even that.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Right, right, it does, And I agree, you know you
have to all of them were not really in I
would say an order of priority. Getting one of those
things that I listed in action would be great, and
then work your way towards what you can work towards,
because there will be an investment. You got to get
it past, you know, from a budget, from a budget perspective,

(08:40):
But I do believe that it can be done. There
can be something that's put in place. But yeah, there,
you know, we need people that can identify and deal
with those situations and isolate those situations. When it comes
to known issues and mental health. Now, there's going to
be some that slip by, right, even the best of
mental health experts to for people that are around them.

(09:01):
That's going to happen. But I agree with you, Like
most of these that we hear about, there were warning
signs and they're just weren't adequate enough resources to take
care of or help the individual that was affected, Right,
So I think that that's an easier entry point in.
And then the second piece is you're not going to
be able to catch all of it, and not all

(09:22):
of them. A lot of them do have mental health,
but some of them just could. It could just be
somebody that you know, I wanted, you know, gang violence,
something else that that comes up. So you know, the
technology would still have to cover for that because that
person may not have been identified with somebody with the
mental health issues. So it's really kind of all encompassing.
But I think we have to really have that comprehensive

(09:44):
program in place to protect our students because they shouldn't
have to worry about going to school and dying, and
parents shouldn't have to worry about sending their kids to
school to die. I grew up through the Columbine you know,
school shooting. That was my senior year in high school.
It was kind of one of the first times that
really hit home for everybody, and it was a very

(10:05):
odd time and even me, you know, as a high
school senior, big football player, I was scared death go
to school. You know, we had we had no resources
there to protect us. So, you know, I don't want
my kids growing up in that I know, nobody, nobody
wants their kids growing up in that state.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, of course not. And you know, like you said,
the technology allows allows the ability, if it's done that way,
to install these things so then you don't feel like
you're in pressent, because that's the biggest thing. I mean.
I went to a public high school in Brooklyn, and
that particular high school did not have back then those
types of you know, metal detectors, although there was another

(10:46):
high school further a little further away from us that
did that. I visited, and you could tell the night
and day. I mean, it just felt like you were
you were in a high you know, in a almostly
high maximum security prison to some degree, right, you know,
and they had to change the jaws shut and stuff.
I mean here in Georgia today, I mean, you have

(11:09):
kids sometimes I won't say which particular high school it
was public high school, but the kids would just leave
the building when they pleased, and we'd just hang out
somewhere not too far from there, because that's why they
can either wait until the end of the school day
and then go home or do whatever they were doing.
But they would leave, They just walk out through the
parking lot, just hang out somewhere at some office park

(11:31):
or something, and you can't stop them. The same way
you can't stop anyone from really walking into the building either.
So you're right, having detection would be helpful, I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
And to your point, you know, we have such great
technology now that we can leverage to where students don't
have to feel that way and they can still be protected,
unlike you know, back you know when I was in
high school. A year in high school, they if you
walked in those were these archaic look and metal detectors
and you felt like you're going into going into prison.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So let's tick on education a
little bit, and let's talk a little bit about teacher pay,
about you know, specific steps, about what it would mean
to raise teacher pay and whether it's a salary of bonus,
a signing bonus, you know, what, what is the adequate amount?
I mean, I know that sometimes these departments, like the police,

(12:28):
they have their tasks or they understand they need to
hire a certain amount, they budgeted that money, and yet
they can get they cannot get enough candidates to fill
the spots even yep, So I guess that works hand
in hand. Well, what do you see as as a
solution to something like that.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
You know, it's I do have to applaud you know,
Governor camp He's he's put a lot of emphasis on
raising you know, teacher pay, and I think we that's
a great first step. But I think we need to
continue doing that, and I think there's reasonable ways to
do it based off of inflation, but also just based
off of certain criteria factors when it comes to really

(13:12):
poverty level. Right when we're looking at a teacher's base salary,
take my wife out of it. If she was raising
our two kids and living in p Street corners once,
she wouldn't be living here. She can't afford, she won't
be able to afford. It's it's not attainable. So the

(13:33):
problem is, you know, we don't budget for it, and
we don't feel like it's necessary. I think as a
society to pay teachers the amount of money that they're worth,
and eventually, what happens in any industry is you will
get unqualified people doing those jobs because people will move
on to get higher paying jobs or they'll quit. And

(13:55):
my wife sees that all the time, especially in struggling
school districts. Right, we talk about not not to pivot
away from teacher pay, because teacher pay there can be
a let's just call it a path to progress kind
of kind of a system put in into place. We've
got in the corporate world, we can have it in

(14:15):
in in the public service world as well when it
comes to teachers. But the funny thing is, you know,
it's it's it's and it's not funny. It's it's teachers
that that teach in the hardest school districts sometimes get
paid less or they still get paid the equal of
teachers that pay They that that are working in safer

(14:37):
school districts with less transient families, and their their jobs
are so much more challenging. Right. And and we did
pass the you know, the voucher for the bottom twenty
five percent schools, right, you know, to be able to
take your your child out and use that that money
to apply it, you know somewhere else. And I think
that's a great thing for underperforming school districts. But the

(15:01):
second step to that is we need to be able
to pay teachers that are in those districts or attract
teachers that want to be in those districts a higher wage. Otherwise,
what's going to change If you have teachers that are
there that are not performing well today, we're not able
to incentivize those, you know, from a monetary perspective to

(15:24):
do better or to attract people to get into a
tougher situation and try to make education better in those areas,
then we're just going to be in a really bad cycle.
So it kind of goes hand in hand, right. I
think it depends on the school system you're in, depends
on where where you're teaching, and also depends on where
that school ranks how much you should get paid.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right, true, for sure, and every county is not equal, right,
and every district is not equal. I know, for example,
in where we live in History Corners Simpson with Simpson Elementary,
the PTA raises lots of money because of the affluence
of the parents in the area, and they share some

(16:06):
of that with some sister schools, so they're not just
keeping it to some side. But but if you're able
to do that, that's good. And if you're in the
district that can't, well that that becomes a problem. Right.
Portable housing is another issue, not that I want to
segue to that, yeah, but affordable housing for teachers that
are that can actually live in the community their teaching

(16:29):
would be, it would be nice. You can't do that
in peat Re corner because there is not affordable housing here.
I think housing starts for the most part, any new
housing now starts at like four hundred thousand, and you know,
is that a starter home, not really if anyone that teaches,
or if there are two teachers in the family, so

(16:50):
maybe you know it. Does you know, do you see
housing as being an issue as well? I mean, do
you see the state looking at taking some responsibility for
at the ability to have affordable housing in communities, but
incentivizing developers to actually create affordable house because they can

(17:12):
if they want to, if the rules are in the
right place, they can. You'd have to restrict who buys
those houses this way, private companies, Like the biggest trend
right now is build to rent versus build to sell,
and things are moving that in that way because most
people can't afford to buy a house, although you're probably

(17:32):
paying the same in rent as you would for a
mortgage if you could get their mortgage, so it's no different.
In some cases, you're paying even more in rent than
you would for a mortgage. So do you see the
state doing something along those lines economically to help What
do you think that could look like from your point.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Of view, I would think it would be it would
be a cost of living adjustment based on where they're
teaching for housing specifically, So I wouldn't say it would
be you know, government owned housing or anything like that
to put them in, but I think you can look
at it from a cost of living adjustment. You do

(18:13):
that in the corporate world today, right if you move
from Atlanta to New York to take a job, you
get most companies will give you a cost of living
adjustment to make sure that you can have the same
type of lifestyle or at least similar based on where
you're coming from to where you're going to, based on housing,
housing prices, all the other different economic factors that are

(18:34):
going to influence you. So if we're doing that at
the corporate level across many states and even countries, pretty
sure we can fix it here with counties and school districts.
Data is not that hard to really gather, and thanks
to AI, it can spit it out pretty dang quick
in terms of what those adjustments probably would be. I'm

(18:56):
not saying we're going to use AI to do that,
but it's it's not rocket science. But to answer your question, yes,
if if you're living in p Street Corners or an
area that that has a you know, higher standard of
living just to just to be able to get by
and you don't want to have to drive three hours
to work because that happened, that's what's happening in a

(19:17):
lot of cases, and then you know there there could
be a cost of living adjustment that would be able
to help bridge that gap when it comes to housing,
whether it's buying.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Or renting the And you're right, I mean there are
people that are traveling all sorts of things. There are
a couple of people I know that work in Pea
Street Corners and there they live in Sugar Sugar Low,
Sugar Hill or well Buford and driving south here. So yeah,
because they can't afford to live here, and yet they
work in the city of Peace Corners. I think as

(19:51):
many people work in the city sometimes as work outside
the city is the way they was pointed out at
one point. I don't know if that's that has change.
But with new housing coming and new apartments, new town homes,
these things aren't cheap seven hundred and fifty thousand starting,
I don't know who can afford to buy that. When

(20:11):
I was at the Patriquns festival of a couple came by,
young couple. They found out that the boyfriend was a
real estate agent the late twenties, early thirties maybe, and
they were looking at buying a townhouse on on the Green.
You know, those things are like easy seven to fifty
eight hundred.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, yeah, so I know they're like many brown like
many brownstones in New York. It's like they yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know they put them up. They're beautiful down homes, right, yeah,
it's it's they're really nice down homes.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
And if you want to listen to the to the
concert across the way, you sit out on your patio and.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Do that exactly exactly. So yeah, it you know, it's
it's a nice area. There's been a lot of building
going around, you know, Peace Corners since we got here,
and you know, it's a good thing, but at the
same time, it's tough because you put yourself back in
into the shoes of a new homeowner, first time homeowner. Right,

(21:09):
how many of those you know, thirty year olds or
late twenties or whatever they're trying to start families can
look at Pa Street Corners and say, hey, that's where
I want to start my life and not many since
it's expensive.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
So let's talk a little bit like that, because you'll
be representing if you're elected. District ninety seven represents more
than Peatrick Corners, but Peatrick Corner is part of that representation.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Right, a great bit of it. Yet, Yeah, and you.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Know we're we're you know, we look at it at
ourselves as a smart city, different different city like al
Faratta has like seven hundred different tech companies. Let's say
they're right, they're probably one of the most populous of
the smallest cities outside Atlanta with tech companies. How would
you do you what do you see the states responsibility

(22:03):
and to be able to help a place like hours
like I want to I want to be centric to
Pecetre Corners. What what could you leverage to help create
jobs here or support small businesses or startups and in
the city of p Stree Corners. You know, how should
the state be working with localities like us?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, to me, it's about just making it easier to
do business, right. You know, when it comes to p
Street Corners, there's a there's a very specific plan, right
and and I know that, right, you know, it's you know,
we're we're we're a tech of We're we're going to
continue doing that, you know, with incubation of tech, and

(22:45):
we're going to continue attracting that type of talent here.
And we need to make sure that, you know, we're
providing easy access for companies to come in here. And
whether that's you know, through some you know, some type
of Yeah, I want to want to call it a stimulus,
but you know, some sort of incentives that we can
give to different cities based off of what type of

(23:07):
industries that that city is trying to attract to their
communities would be would be huge, right, because cities are
on competition with each other. Sure, And yeah, so you
know you're trying to attract you know, tech companies. Alpharett
is trying to attack, you know, attract tech companies. The

(23:27):
city of Atlanta is and you have to really get
it specific to you know, what those cities are trying
to attract, and that's where we're at in our in
our community. We're not in an industrial community in South
Georgia or farming community. So we have to make it
specific and make sure that the that the the infrastructures

(23:48):
there to support the businesses that want to go there
a long term and that and that the state has
the backs of those communities based on the type of
business that they're trying to cultivate within their communities, because
you know, schools and businesses or the lifeline of communities

(24:09):
when it comes to their success or failure. If the
schools start to fail and the businesses start to fail,
the people start to leave the houses, the housing market crashes,
and you end up with the failed city. So you
have to invest in business, and you have to invest
in the businesses that those cities want to attract, and

(24:30):
you have to invest in the school systems that are
in those in those areas as well.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
For sure. When you know, go back just to the
Turni center of the twentieth centric when Ford decided to
make his line of cars and stuff, how to educate
the plant workers to be able to operate the systems. Right,
So it's still different today in a way. Right, you
have to have to have an educated workforce to be

(24:57):
able to do things. So for example, Intuitive Robotics, which
is building their campus here in the middle Peachtree Corners.
That five hundred jobs that look to expand to twelve
hundred jobs. They're always looking for they're always constantly recruiting,
ye for the for it's not a plant, that's an

(25:17):
assemblage plan, if you will. So they don't manufacture anything,
but they put things together there. The parts come from
other places. But they need skilled labor to be able
to do that, and they look at the local you
know what they can hire here, you know, and they
don't need a college level. If you if you have
a kid graduating from a good STEMS, nice school that

(25:40):
does not want to spend four years in college because
they feel I've learned CAD, I've learned three D printing,
I understand coding, they could go right out in the workforce,
mulch and be trained in that environment. Do you see,
you know, I mean we don't have shop classes for example,
I mean you don't learn unless in a STEM school.

(26:01):
You're you're you're not able to learn any any niche
stuff like like that. Right. Do you see any changes
needed in the school system to be able to accommodate
the kids that don't want to go to college at
that level and be indebted one hundred thousand dollars and
then decide that what they went for, they're not going

(26:23):
to be doing that job. They're going to be doing
something else, because that's what's happening for the most part.
And you know, if you're not a doctor or an
accountant and you're doing philosophy or psychology, might not end
up in the job that you think you want.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, I think it needs to be identified and it
needs to there needs to be a pathway for their students.
I think, you know, not everything in life is linear,
and maybe they change their mind, but there are kids
that you know and students that had that aptitude and
that's what they want to do, and there need there
needs to be curriculum that will foster that number one

(27:01):
to number two, be able to identify and make sure
that those those students are on the right path. Because
there are a lot of great programs out there. I
mean Gwennet Tech's one one school system here in Georgia
just down the road that does miraculous things when it
comes to scholarships, to training and all kinds of different trades.

(27:22):
And not just kids out of high school. I mean
there's the adults. They can get in there, get trained
and come out and be making eighty ninety hundred and
twenty thousand dollars, you know, with no college, no liberal
arts degree, no master's degree, no nothing, right and they
love what they do. So I think you have to

(27:43):
identify that. But you also have to have those classes
for those students instead have identified because I don't think
every if you force all the students into it, some
of them are just going to take up spots of
people that really are serious about it. So I think
you have identify it, get them in there, cultivate it,
and get them on a path that will either send
them to a technical college or a technical program, depending

(28:07):
on what their their decision is after after high school.
But I mean we've got you know, Paul Duke Stems.
I mean that is you know, every time my wife
goes in there because they have training in there for
her for Quenet County, She's like this, this place is ridiculous,
Like you should see it. I still have not seen it,
you know, I just don't let well, they just don't.

(28:29):
I mean, let's I guess because they're I mean, it's
hard what you should be. It's hard to get in school.
So I can't just go in there. I would have
to go maybe with my wife while she was going
there for some training or something. But she's like, you know,
it's amazing, right, So we need to be able building
more of those. I think We're blessed to have that
in our community. I'm so close by.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
For sure. Let's look to your point, just yes, good, No, No,
I was just to your point.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
I think we we are reducing too many people that
go into college, and there's there's a high percentage of
those folks that could go into the working force immediately,
and businesses are looking for that talent. To your point
that we could be tapping into right here in our
backyard and keeping those businesses here and keeping the talent

(29:18):
here and helping the community, I don't think that's happening.
I think that we can make sure that that happens
by funding those programs at the public school level.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
So keeping businesses here, I guess. I guess part of that,
you know, so part of its education, part of it
is taxation, part of its healthcare costs for their employees
and for the company. One of the things you talk
about is the continuing rise of healthcare, and especially especially
for people that need specialists. You know, out of pocket

(29:52):
becomes more expensive. Everything's just becoming more expensive. I mean,
just whether you're going shopping or wherever you're going health
there's no different although that doesn't really have a price
that you can look at. You don't usually see the
price until way after you get the bill of the
explanation of benefits all of a sudden, and you may
not realize how much you're out of pocket. How do

(30:14):
you see your position if you were to be a house,
you know, when the seat, you know, what innovative solutions
would be, you know in mind when it comes to
healthcare in the state of Georgia.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, you know, there's been a lot talked about when
it comes to healthcare. You know, Camp has the Pathways
program that he pushes outside of you know, expanding Medicare
here in the State Georgia. But when it comes to
just having health care in general, let's just take it
back to a general statement here. You know, everybody should

(30:53):
have access to healthcare, whether you want to whether you
want to say it's you know, a socialist thing and
non socialist thing. I think it's a human thing. But
at the same time, people that can afford healthcare shouldn't
be price gouged. So there's that balance, and I think

(31:13):
it comes with you know, competition in that space. You know,
working in the corporate world for over twenty years now,
I mean I haven't put a percentage on it, but
it's it would have to be fifty percent at least
higher than I probably did when I first entered the
work first after college for medical expenses and at that

(31:36):
time i'd even have a family. But you know it,
it's so hard, and I've seen so many people that
I worked with get crushed in a year, literally crushed
in the year financially because of the healthcare program that
they have. Had a friend with the hip surgery and
then his wife had multiple medical visits, and you know,

(31:57):
with the high deductible and premium ate up everything, things
that could have been you know, socked away for savings
for them, for retirement, for their kids, and in my opinion,
you know, the insurance companies the medical industries or ripping
and take ripping off and taking advantage of middle class Americans.

(32:18):
So I think it's a it's a it's a universal
right to have healthcare. But I also think it's a
universal wrong to punish those that are middle class Americans
that don't have very much choice other than to take
what's given them by their company. And there's no competition really,
and they go out and they shop it per se. Right,

(32:40):
the companies do. But how can you really trust that
When they talked about price transparency, Yeah, you get the
statement and the mail afterwards, you see what they charged you.
I don't see the cost. I don't see what they paid. No, love,
I love, I would love this. I would love to
see their margins.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Yes, I mean the costs and the pas. Yeah, you don't.
And even if you're using even if you're using healthcare
dot gov to do comparisons between plans, let's say if
you went at yourself together. Right, there's so many it's
not a price per price. It's not apples to apples.
It's it's like car insurance in a way. You know,

(33:19):
someone says, well I can't get that cheaper. Sure you can't,
but you know, you get in the same liability coverage
comprehensive insurance. There's too many variables to be able to say,
to be able to shop it smartly, you need almost
need AI to actually do it for you. But right
because this way, at least at least you can get
it's got a sense of what the real costs are,

(33:41):
which is going to be also something that's going to
be happening, and I'm sure the state, the elected officials
as well as some of the like the insurance commissioner,
is going to have to look at now with what
happened with Hurricane Helene coming through and cousing billions of
dollars in damage. Is probably the most expensive hurricane in
a century. I've seen insurance companies leave a state because

(34:05):
they just can't afford to ensure anyone in that state,
I mean most people, I think instead of Georgia, I
think it was the percentage was less. Some one percent
of the people that had huge flood flood damage are
insured for flood damage. Most insurance doesn't carry that, right,
and so they're going to be looking at FEMA if that,

(34:27):
you know, FEMA even can help them in the short term.
Do you see, you know, that there's businesses like that
are affected by too, just like locally Angles shopping center
for example, the main distribution was out of the Carolinas
completely flooded. Probably some of the servers were damaged there too.

(34:49):
They were taking the financial charges from their stores because
they're only accepting cash at this store, for example, the
piece recorners, they're not even accepting.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, we shot there all the time, and my wife
went there on Monday Tuesday and they were only except
the cash. The line for so long she had to
go to Leedle really so we never shopped there, but yeah,
she didn't have time to wait.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Yeah, I mean, and I shopped at pretty decent amount
of times. And its just having seen that there almost
felt like, wow, what's happening here? But you know, that's
one store Probablics gets. Most of this stuff coming out
of Florida wasn't as bad, I guess as South Carolina.
But how do you work with businesses then that are

(35:35):
being hit by insurance they you know, and how they
have to provide it through their employees disasters like this happening.
How do you cut through red tape? How do you
how do you make business is being able to survive
in situations like this, you know, can the state do
anything along those lines.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
The state probably can. But I also want to look
at the insurance companies, those that say, I can't, we
can't afford to ensure people in the state anymore. If
you're saying that you're going to make an exit from
the state, then your entrance to the state should be
that much more rigorous when it comes to checking your books.
If you're saying, if you're going to tell me that
you're that broken when it comes to your your financials,

(36:17):
then I need to see your books. If you've been
doing business in our state for you know, ten years
and we had one natural disaster, now you're saying you're
going to exit, I want to see your books, right,
so you know if there's going to be laws about
if you're going to be doing business in our state
as an insurer. And I don't want to make it
completely ridiculous or almost impossible, but there's companies that want

(36:43):
to come in and do business insurance companies in the
State of Georgia. But if you tell them, hey, here's
the guidelines, right, you know, if you enter, if you
try to exit, this is what we're going to do
when we look, we're going to look at your books,
We're going to look at your probability. We're going to
see what you guys were doing. Because if if you
were not adequately keeping enough cash on hand to be

(37:04):
able to help out you know, your your customers to
where you're now so razor thin and you can't survive
another natural disaster, then you shouldn't probably ever been here
in the first place. Or this mismanager finances.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
And there's been insurance companies, like health insurance companies that
have left the state because they don't want to ensure
here anymore. Yeah to one to raise or another.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
But I don't think they and and and I'll have
to fact check myself on this one, but I don't
think there's penalties for them leaving.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
I don't believe so.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
So they get in, but and we let them because
we want them, we want the business. But if you
want in, you know what is the penalty to get out?
Because things may have changed or maybe they didn't change,
and then you just want to get out, right, It's like.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
That's that's when you need a real strong insurance commissioner
that doesn't bend to the will of the companies. But
then but you need the legislation in place, I think,
right to be able to.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Build the laws to hold them accountable.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Yeah, the let's move away from that a little bit.
We're obviously heading towards November. VP debate was recent, was recent,
and it was a bit of a snooze. I think
most people were just like I hear people saying, well,
fell asleep during part of it and stuff. I mean

(38:34):
they were very they were very nice to each other,
which was good. It was a little different than usual, right.
I think they both spoke well, although not that I'm
a Trump supporter, but jd. Vance actually spoke better I
think than than Waltz. Probably a little bit more experience maybe,
But you know, we're moving towards that. We're moved moving

(38:56):
towards an election where Georgia may or may not be
a swing state. Probably is. You know. One of the
things that I think you mentioned is voter and election
integrity and the voting down the ballot, right, because people
follow down the ballot did they stop at some point? What?
What is? So? I guess that's that's the topic that

(39:19):
we'll get hotter as we get closer to the elections,
although early voting has already started in some states. I
think it has a starter, and I think it started
in Georgia.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Right fifteenth in Georgia, but voting has already started, and
Carolina North Carolina has already started, I believe early voting. Yeah,
which that that's another major issue there because a lot
of them can't vote because they're obviously disaster news. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Sure, So what do you what do you know, what
how do you ensure elections are going to be secure
and accessible to every voter in the stead of shorts?
I mean, are you are you comfortable with the way
the systems run at this point?

Speaker 1 (40:07):
So you know that this is always one of those
issues that that bothers me, is you know, being a
Republican because we can't you can't make everybody happy, like
it's hey, are you a camp supporter? You a Trump supporter?
Did you believe the election was stolen? Did you not
believe the stolen? And you know, the past is the past,

(40:28):
and I think you know we had some some flaws
in our election process, right, you know, without voter IDs,
I think you know, most if not all states, there's
only a few in Jorders, one of them that didn't
have that, and you know, a lot of blame got
pushed on to Raffensberger into Kemp. But right, nobody, nobody

(40:50):
foresaw COVID happening, right, massive absentee balloting coming in, So
he's fixed it, right, you know, And and I think
there's going to be much more secure elections. I think
it's it's being taken seriously. I think Kemp has been
a good governor of the state. He's got like a
sixty percent approval rating, which is you know, fantast I

(41:13):
mean even among Democrats, he's he's got a pretty high
approval rating. So he's done a great thing when it
comes to he's done a lot of great things. I
think for the state of Georgia. It's this this like
internal you know, battle between you know or do you
think the voting is still going to be fair and
secure here in Georgia? And yes, I do you know

(41:35):
the from the tech From a technology perspective, people say, like,
you know, they can or can't be hacked? You know
it It would take a lot and those machines are
pretty i would say, from a technology perspective, pretty archaic.
It would be very obvious that they were, so I
feel confident that the votes that are cast are going

(41:58):
to be correct and that we're going to have a
fair election. You know, when it comes to whether people
think the laws ever passed are fair or not, I
think that just comes down to people wanting to win,
and you know, and and and what is more fair
and what is less fair. But you know, most most

(42:18):
states have always had you know, happen to have a
photo ID to vote, and you have to have a
photo ID to prove who you are for just about
anything in life. And one of the most important things
that we have in our country is to vote. And
you should be able to prove that you are who
you say you are, and that is one of the
biggest things that's going to safeguard are elections moving forward.

(42:41):
There's too many other hosts of conspiracy theories that I
don't I don't entertain or get into, and as a Republican,
people will grape up and down about me because I'm
not going to entertain that, because I'm going to look
forward and look forward to what we fixed and making
sure that every vote cast is one that's going to

(43:02):
be true and valid.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Yeah, I gat, I mean, I feel the same I mean,
looking forward makes sense and voter I voter I D
I just don't understand why no one would want that,
because you have to you have to if you buy
cigarettes or alcohol, or you have to show an idea

(43:24):
to be able to do those things in life. And
like you said, most things, you have to show some
sort of identification and to not to say that we
don't need that for voting just has written No, there's
no respect then for the system of that. So many
people have died for. I mean, it's just like, I

(43:45):
just don't get that.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yeah, I don't get it either. And you know, it
was it was very disheartening back when that that bill
was passed, and and you saw even Major League Baseball
go as far as to take the All Star Game
out of Atlanta over that. And I would press the
Commissioner of Major League Baseball to tell me why, why

(44:11):
African Americans not people born in the Dominican or Venezuela
or Curious Hour or anywhere else, African Americans that are
truly from America. Why that's dwindled and dwindled and dwindled.
And he is calling out the state of Georgia for

(44:32):
being racist, and he polled. I think all five African
American players in Major League Baseball now to get their opinion.
So I would love to see what are you doing
to promote the growth of the sport amongst African Americans
in the United States, not outside of the United States,

(44:52):
mister commissioner and taking money out of the state of
Georgia over political stances. So it was very disheartening to
see that you would play politics and hurt the economy
of a city over something that was so simple, like
you just mentioned, showed it showing an ID being yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
I don't that doesn't mean anyone's racist. If anything, I
think what might have helped and they don't think the
bill provided it is that an easy pathway to get
that ID, because not everyone needs a driver's license, right,
so a state photo ID. You know, you shouldn't have

(45:35):
to travel thirty miles away to be able to get that.
To make it as easy as possible for anyone that
needs an ID to be able to get it at
least the initial time in their life, and then they
can renew it later online or it lasts for ten years,
just like a passport lasts for ten years, and then
you have to renew a passport. It's so different. I mean,

(45:57):
if it's just as long as there's no barriers to
getting an ID, a photo ID, then there should be
no problem with that. But I think that's you know,
what it's sent to them and stuff.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Yeah, and you know that there could have been you know,
some provision provisional you know, I would just say flipnotes
to that bill of you know, we will be building out,
you know, more centers to be able to get voter
IDs based on areas where they're lacking. You know, I

(46:31):
think that would have been something that was would be
very prudent. And in saying that, hey, you know, if
there are gaps, we will do an assessment and see
if there are gaps when it comes to people's accessibility
to get to being able to get to a physical
location to get an ID, and we will build that
out and make sure that those are you know, whether
they're smaller let's call them satellite offices and not a

(46:55):
major d m V way to get there and get
those licenses or that call licenses voter I D call
it just an identification card. So I agree, I haven't
actually be completely transparent dug into the data to see
how many centers there are based on the population, based

(47:17):
on travel, but you know there's probably some room for
or I would say opportunity for growth there.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, two have where where I stually had a good
point to start winding down on the interview. What have
we not spoken about that you think that you want
to share in the next few minutes. We there any issues
that you covered that we.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Haven't You know, I would say we've covered a lot
of them. You know, I would just urge any voters
that that are that do look this up, because voters
do look it up, you know, when they come down
to the ballot, whether it's them standing a line looking
at their phone being like I saw Mike Corman's and
look at his website. What the heck cause about? I mean,

(48:02):
sometimes it takes that and sometimes people just go up
and up and down the ballot. What what we have
to and and this is starting to become a potential
threat in in our in our in our government at
all levels, local, state and federal is down the ballot voting,
and more so in state than anything because they're often overlooked,

(48:28):
but they're very important and they impact your life faster
than any federal legislation and local legislation at piece your
corners does even quicker, right, So people don't pay attention.
People need to pay attention to what people like me
are running for. Why I even ran, why even care,

(48:48):
And it's because I love this community, I love this state.
And you have to make sure that who you're voting
for has your back, and if you don't feel like
they do, then you don't don't vot for them. And
there's some of nefarious characters out there that have now
determined and have made public that they know they can

(49:10):
get in regardless and push their own agenda and not
really even care about their own party because it's not
really their party. They just will get on a ballot
because they'll get into a district where they know that
that down the ballot will win because it's a Democrat
or Republican district. So I just urge people to really
look into the backgrounds of the candidates that are running,

(49:34):
especially for state office, because you may end up with
people in there that don't have George's best interest, don't
have America's best interest in mind, and eventually it will
become a national security threat. So people just need to
really look into that because there is a blueprint out
there for people to infiltrate into our government at the
state level and continue to work their way up at

(49:56):
the federal level.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
If anyone wants to find out more about Michael Corbin,
where would they go your question?

Speaker 1 (50:03):
That's www dot Orbin four that's f O RGA dot com.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
All right, cool. So if anyone has any comments, you
could leave it in the comments either on here if
you're watching it on Facebook, or on YouTube if you're
listening to this as an audio podcast, well from the website,
I'll have show notes, so you could you could find
these links as well. Early voting starts the fifteenth percent

(50:31):
and in person voting is November fifth, if I remember
that right.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Yep, that's correct.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
So all the.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Early voting locations are on the Secretary State website as
well as the Gwinnett Elections website.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Excellent. And if anyone wants to reach you directly, how
would they email you or where would they email or cale?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
You can email me directly anytime people do all the time.
I will respond right back. So it's just Michael dot
com at Corbinforgeorgia dot com.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Excellent. All right, Michael, I appreciate you being with me
this evening and having this discussion. Everyone else's listening, so
why don't you hang in there for a second. But
everyone else that's listening, there will be other interviews over
the next few weeks. Certainly look at the candidates that
are representing not only you know, in the state House,

(51:25):
but where they're representing. Right, so the majority of District
ninety seven is Peachtree Corners, so you should really understand
who's representing you, and you know, like Michael said, look
into the backgrounds of everyone where they stand on certain
issues and such, what if is important to you, and
make sure that you go at and vote.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Thank you everyone, thanks for listening to Peachtree Corner's Life
with Rico Figliolini.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
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(52:18):
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