AFP - Education Opportunities in Ohio

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, and a happy one too you Brian Thomas welcoming

(00:04):
back to the thirty five RC Morning Show, Americans for Prosperities,
Donovan and Neil Donovan. Always good to have you on
the show.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
My friend, Brian. It's a good Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Morning, always with you on, of course, on the heels
of Jack Avenue. And we've got Congressman Davidson coming up.
I love my Wednesdays. Here miss Judgement Paulatana for folks
wondering why they have n't mentioning the judge. He's on
vacation this week. So pivoting over to Donovan and Neil,
let's talk about education opportunities in Ohio. What's this all about, Donovan.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, it's one of our favorite topics, of course, and
one of our top priorities in our Buckeye Blueprint. And
just because the Columbus is sort of on summer recess,
we're still keeping the pressure up talking about the big,
bold ideas what we've got to do to move Ohio
forward when.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
It comes to educational opportunities.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
We had a big event in central Ohio last week
with a number of guests, keynote from the vig Kwamaswami
and it was a great time, Brian, I know this
issue is really important to you as well.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
It's a huge issue I guess in Ohio is improving
in terms of educational opportunities. I mean the idea being
stuck in an underperforming, terrible public school. At least parents
have some options now, more than they used to. And
that's a direction we're going here in Ohio. Is that
part of the focus of this to get people out
of the traditional you know, public school education get into

(01:29):
something I don't know, more classical education wise.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, I think part of it is making recognizing that
we don't exist within a vacuum. Right here in Ohio
we have done some really good work. We've made some
leaps and bounds in folks. Yes, here in Ohio can
access You know, if your parent, your parent, you're looking
at your kids report card or you're thinking about their
how their education's going, and you say this doesn't work
it for me. You have the opportunity to take them

(01:53):
to schools for programs like the Edgewoice voucher. But as
I said, we don't exist within a vacuum, Bryan, and
there are other states that are working aggressively to be
even more competitive and create more opportunity. And so there
are a few things we need to do here in
the Buckeye State, and that's part of what we're trying
to begin to lay that foundation for and talk about
in what we got to do to sort of keep

(02:14):
the ball moving and make sure that Ohio doesn't fall
behind while you know, states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida
and others try to try to lap us in this
education race.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, when you had this meeting, what did the educators
and the parents and the leaders who all attended this
advanced education meaning what areas did they identify? They say, well,
Ohio is behind and here are illustration. Here's what Texas
has done, and they are better than us or more
appealing for folks in terms of a destination to move
and settle than Ohio because fill in the blank.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, well, I think there are a couple of different things.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
One is, at first and foremost, making education opportunity through
school choice programs easier to access. So you know, there's
still are some income verification and things you need to do.
If you're you know, you're the proverbial single mama three
who's maybe just trying to figure out how to navigate
the bureaucracy.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
There could be some challenges there. Well, Ultimately we want
folks to be.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Able to do is very easily have that money follow
the child backpack.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Bill type stuff here. Right.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
The other thing that we're finding is we need to
be empowering the teachers and rewarding the best. This is
something that they could talks quite a bit about and
I think is critical. I've got my wife actually as
a teacher, my sister. I've got a family of teachers.
They're all around me, Brian, and you can see over
the years the way that the unions sort of grind

(03:37):
these folks down.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
My wife's a private.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
School teacher, so she's fortunately I'm experienced that, but you know,
the unions grind these folks down and lock our public
school districts into contracts that eliminate the ability for administrators
to reward the great and good teachers at a compensation level.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
They are deserving of. And then finally, we need to.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Also figure out how to improve our existing government funded schools.
We spend insane amounts of money to get abysmal results,
and that's part of at the heart of this property
tax issue that's got so many folks riled out and
looking to eliminate the tax the ability to levy those outright.
So it's from strengthening and making educate school choice easier

(04:22):
for folks to access who want it, to empowering teachers,
to strengthening our existing public school infrastructure. That's how we
unleash education opportunity here in the state. And that's the
future of education and what our great panel was able
to sort of dial in on last week.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I'll bring you back down and we have a couple
of questions here, most notably about objective evaluation of teachers
and how we bring that about so that we do
know who the good ones are and and the bad
ones aren't. And also a question or two maybe be
property tax hold on more with Americans for Prosperities, Donald
and Neil on education here in Ohio. It's seven thirty
five right now. If you've have KCD talk station and
you want to get in touch with John Ryan Presties

(04:57):
Interiors for your kitchen remodeling project. He's the man, and
I don't think anybody's got more experience in kitchen remodeling
than John. He's been doing kitchens almost exclusively like his
career the thirty five years or so of doing most
notably kitchens. Our kitchen for example, among the many he
has remodeled. Love it we do. I'm sure you'll be
happy with the outcome. With John Ryan as your true
partner with your remodeling project from initial design to final installation.

(05:21):
He's there with you every step of the way, riding
heard over the crew, making sure things are done to
your satisfaction and on time, and as far as ideas.
He's got great ideas. So invite him to your home talk.
Take a look at your kitchen. Small project like replacing
cabinets and countertops, no problem. John's the man. But if
you want to gout the whole thing and start from scratch,
absolutely I recommend John. That's what we did and couldn't

(05:42):
be happier with the outcome. A plus the Better Business
Bureau member of the National Kitchen Bath Association. You can
find John online at Prestige one two three dot com,
Prestige one two three dot com five one three two
four seven zero two two nine. That's two four seven
zero two two.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Nine fifty five KRC dot com.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Weather not bad, sunny sky for the most part, low
humidity in high seventy five, fifty five tonight with clear
sky seventy seven with partly sunny skies tomorrow, few clouds
every night that at fifty seven and I have seventy
eight on Friday, also partly sunny, fifty degrees right now.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Time for traffic update from.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
The UC up Traffic Center. Trusts the same team for
your care that keeps the UC Bearcats on the field.
Count on uce Health Orthopedic Sands sports Medicine no matter
the injury. Visit ucehealth dot com. Cruisire working with an
accident left shoulder westbound two seventy five over seventy one
southbound seventy five solows through Westchester and through Lachland in

(06:37):
beound seventy four, now backing up to North Bend. Chuck
Ingram on fifty five KRC Detalk station.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Seven forty here fifty five kr CD talk station. Very
Happy Wednesday to you.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
By time.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
It's Donovan and Neil from Americans for Prosperity. Of course,
AFP's always looking for ways to make Ohio a magnet
state for business and residents to move in. Lowering the
town helps, of course, Education and education opportunity is a
key component if you can, you know, advertise yourself as
a state with flexibility and choice and maybe, like the

(07:11):
backpack Bill, a state where the money follows the child,
giving you and every other family greater flexibility to choose
the education opportunities. That to me sounds like a wonderful
marketing scheme you mentioned though, in the context of this
Donovan and I've also talked with VV. Ramaswami about it.
This idea of rewarding the good teachers perfect. You know,
if you do great in a private business, you might

(07:33):
be eligible for a bonus, and how well you do
might increase the bonus, may lower it, but you're evaluated
on it. And I think teachers are worthy of that
type of thing. We should, you know, demonstrate and highlight
the ones that are doing a great job and reward
them financially with that so they're happy with their job fine,
and also to penalize those that are underperforming or are
bad teachers. Question though, how does one do an objective

(07:55):
evaluation determine who's a good teacher? You mentioned the words
great and good teachers. Well, if I'm some leftist idiot
and I'm a DEI person, I believe in woke and
the whole idea that men can be women and participate
in women's sports. And I'm of that ilk, then I'm
going to think that the teacher who is of that
mindset is a great and good teacher who gets the

(08:18):
vote on who's great and good. And doesn't this end
up getting involved with subjective issues of politics and other
more sticky wicket issues that might water down the ability
to rely on any evaluation that we have in place.
Long wooded question, Donovan, But I guess I presume you
get where I'm coming from.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, No, I think I think those are all part
of the conversation we need to be having.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I mean, at the end of the day, moving to a.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
More subjective based system I think is better, right of
how the free market works, it's in the eye of
the beholder. And then I think the accountability mechanisms that
you begin to have at play here are a couple
of things. One I think I think you do allow
local school districts to sort of decide some of this
some of this stuff right, and so you know, in

(09:05):
a community they might say they like the woke teacher
and some of this some of this stuff. But I
think it's also why you didn't need a robust school
choice system. Right at the end of the day, we
can't have parents and families trapped in school districts that
aren't getting the education outcomes or aligning with the values
of that particular family. And so you apply another market force, right,

(09:27):
so you could have that go woke, go broke school
board that takes that approach. I think Brian, though, they're
going to see their pop student population declined dramatically and
voters will will impose a whiplash on them that will
bring you know, will write the ship.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Giving them right, giving them an option of a school
system that has a board of education that does not
follow woke ideology, maybe like the since a classical academy.
There's a parent out there that says that is for me,
I want a classical education for my child. They are
not woke, they are not ideologically use I'm going there
rather than the school which has out loud said and

(10:03):
embraces these, you know, sort of leftist philosophies. Got to
be a choice though, to make that work, and up
until fairly recently in history, there has been no option
other than the public school.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Absolutely absolutely so, and I think those all come together
because we would still you know, you still have the
opportunity then elect that school board.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Right.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
So if yeah, yeah, we aren't getting the right outcomes.
And so it's not one silver bullet, right that solves
this problem, Brian, But it's having a multiple layer of
mechanisms that allow the consumer at the end of the day,
the family, the parent, the student to exert market forces
in the education system. We're on the customer, right, but

(10:43):
every think we've got to do those couple of things
to really take the system to the next level and
achieve what ultimately the outcome is here a better quality
education for all the students here in Ohio.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
All right, Now, the unbelievably sticky wicket property taxes and
how you end up distributing the money to backpack. However,
the money is going to end up in the hands
of the child or the family, It's got to come
from somewhere, and currently that is coming from the property
taxes that we all pay. Obviously a big impediment for
many people, most notably seniors, are on fixed incomes. They

(11:14):
had an opportunity to make some changes in Ohio. Governor
Mike DeWine line item vetoed them out and now it's
in the hands of some committee behind the scenes. I mean,
we're running headlong into this repeal property taxes by way
of constitutional amendment. I have struggled to figure out what
I will characterize, perhaps a bit blue Charlie Fox trot

(11:37):
of a reality if we eliminate property taxes, and how
Columbus is going to deal with the allocation of whatever
funds are going to go to fund public schools or
parks or anything else for that matter. Where is Americans
for a Prosperity have a position on that amendment or
how to fix the property tax issue, since this is
all wrapped up in school and education.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, So the answer I give We've got a number
of activists and supporters who are circulating that petition, Folks
you know, who work with us on a number of
different issues, right. You know, we're an organization that's number
one issue is actually eliminating the income.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Tax of the state.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
So we are fans of eliminating taxes. So the short
answer I give brain is yes, supportive. The long answer, though,
is much more complicated, because you know, you can eliminate
that form of taxation in the state and the constitution,
and based on some recent pulling, sixty one percent of
Ohioans would do that if given the opportunity today. The challenge, though,
is right and the sobering reality is you have there

(12:36):
are a number of services people expect, right, police, fire, roads, bridges.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Schools, all of this.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Most a lot of this is funded through property taxes,
and so the answer to what you do when it
goes away, I don't think anybody's been given a sufficient answer,
and so what you would presumably see happen is they're
going to collect those taxes through other ways. So in
a lot of ways, we're not really eliminating attacks, we're
shifting a burden. At the core, the problem here, Brian,

(13:05):
is the amount of local government political subdivisions. More accurately,
Ohio has. We have the fifth most political subdivisions in
the country. We're in the company of California, Illinouits and
New York on this sort of stuff, Brian, you never
want to be close to those states on anything, especially
as a red states like Ohio. Our problem is we

(13:25):
have too much duplicated services overlapping layers of government. It
doesn't have to be this way. I think that is
something that we really need to take a stronger. Look,
I mean, we've been looking at this for a while.
That's at the core of the problem. You can eliminate
a form of taxation, but if you aren't also shrinking
the size of government to go along with it, we're
just we're just moving the pieces around on the board.

(13:48):
Another point here, real quick. Kansas, when they eliminated their
income tax overnight, they were applauded for it, but because
they didn't also make subsequent changes to the amount of
government and spending they were doing, it was a disaster
and the problems.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
See that's where that's my real that's the reality that
I see. But I hate property taxes done, and don't
get me wrong, I'd love to get rid of them.
So you absolutely outright own your home after you pay
it off. Good, that's wonderful. It's private property and it's
all yours now. But it's so damn complicated once you
move beyond that general concept, or a general concept which
I think most of my listeners probably embraced, because it is,

(14:24):
you know, private property, it's ownership, it's it's it's it's
a foundation of our country. But who's gonna dole? Where's
the where are these charges gonna come from. Are we
gonna you know, that little tax here and extra sales
tax there.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I just really don't know how it's gonna work out,
don And that's the complicating thing for me.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
See, I mean, the way we've eliminated begun to get
we've gotten to a flat tax and are on the
path to eliminate in the income tax here in the
state of Ohio has actually been to to restrain spending
growth year over year and put triggers in that as
revenues increase, which they do right the Laugher curve in
full force here, it.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Allows us to lower that amount.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
You may you don't get there overnight, but over five
or ten years, you will see states that are at
zero percent income taxes because they've not increased their they
just slow the rate of growth at local government level,
though they're on the ballot year after year after year
unvoted tax increases. Those are the kinds of reforms though,
that the legislature is working to put into place that

(15:30):
would limit the ability to decrease on unvoted tax increases, that.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Would tap the growth.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
You know, in these high inflationary years that caused us
to experience the crisis where in today, I think tapping
property taxes and in slowing that growth folks can absorb it.
Coupled with lowering the amount of government we have in
the same they are those couple of things together will
get us where we want to be.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Well, if you don't feed the government, and you cut
off the government, it necessarily will have to contract or
we're all going to go bankrupt. So I guess the
point is, you know, forcing them to do what we
want them to do, which is reduce the size and
scope of government, always a good thing. AFPs, go ahead, No, absolutely, Amen,
all right, Cat A little amen from Donovan to the

(16:16):
talent machristom prosperity Donovan, I'll appreciate what you're doing. Is
there a call to action you're looking for for my
listeners website they need to go to or is there
a call they need to make to help the speed
this process along?

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Well, always go to Buckeye Blueprint dot com.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
We're going to be out on tour all fall into
the winter on our Buckeye Blitz.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Hopefully we'll see folks out that stops across the state.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Fantastic, and I'll encourage my listeners to make a stop
and participate. Thanks again, Donovan for rallying the troops and
doing all this great work for us in the state
of Ohio. We'll talk again next week.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Thanks Brian.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
My pleasure seven to fifty right now, if you I
have kre see the talk stage. Remember Congressman Davidson's going
to join the program at the top of the arn news.
You want to relax, you want to pray, you want
to meditate, you want a peaceful surrounding. If you want
to contemplate the beauty of life, you need Gay of
Heaven Catholic seitary been around for seventy seven years serving
the Cincinnti Christian community, and they honor life on sacred
ground there. It's their mission celebrating life at every phase.

(17:08):
So it's not just about death, which you might think
about it as cemetery, but you know you can be
there and think about your life, your children's life, life's milestones,
and of course passing into eternal life. Many people optimistic
about that reality, but Gate of Heaven recognizes and revers
the sacredness of every phase of human journey, and that's
why the place is so beautiful. They want it to
be a magnet for folks to pray and reflect and remember.

(17:31):
So they create this beautiful, comforting experience for visitors with
the beautiful landscaping, the wonderful walking paths, gorgeous trees. So
contemplate life, pray and enjoy it. It's Gate of Heaven
dot org. Find more information there. It's on Montgomery Road,
Real close to two seventy five in Montgomery Road. Gate
of Heaven dot org fifty five KRC the talk station.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Make this your summer of energy.