Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1155 | Debunking the Biggest School Choice Lies | Guest: Ron Simmons

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Starting point is 00:00:46 That's fellowship homelones.com slash alley, term supply, see site for details, fellowship home loans, mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819382. What's going on with the economy? Is it time to panic? Also, will Republicans come together and be able to pass a continued resolution to keep the government open? And what is the truth about school choice? We've got my dad, Ron Simmons, here to break it all down for us on today's episode of Relatable. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Okay, before we get into the interview with my dad, which was recorded yesterday, I want to make sure to give an update on something. something we talked about. The continued resolution, which my dad will break down today, give some background on where the GOP is disagreeing. That ended up passing yesterday afternoon along party lines mostly. There was one Democrat who voted yes on the measure and there was one Republican Thomas Massey, whom we will discuss today, who voted no. The legislation will fund

Starting point is 00:02:03 the government if it passes the Senate through September 30th. So we're avoiding that end of week government shutdown. So that is at the end of the fiscal year, September 30th. So it boost funds for defense programs imposes cuts to non-defense spending. Current funding expires on 1159 p.m. on Friday. So the government will continue to be funded. We will talk about the good and the bad and the ugly of that in just a minute with my dad. But first, let me tell you about share the arrows, y'all. I am so excited. October 11th, Dallas, Texas. This is a women. conference. I think unlike any other women's conference, I mean, this is clear, hard-hitting, deep theological teaching that will arm you, equip you with truths from the Word of God

Starting point is 00:02:53 to combat the craziness and the chaos of our culture and to raise your children and courage in boldness in the Lord. One of my favorite reviews from last year. I got a message after the conference concluded that said, I walked out of there. with zero fear of man. And that is my hope for every attendee. The worship will again be led by Francesca Bateselli Grammy Award winning artists. We have an amazing lineup of speakers that we will be announcing very soon. But go ahead and get your tickets. We are on pace to sell a lot more tickets than we did last year already, which is just incredible, which means it is very likely that this stadium will fill up. And once we fill up, that's it. There are no more extra seats.

Starting point is 00:03:38 go ahead, get your tickets now, bring a friend, bring family members, bring your small group, your women's ministry, your coworkers, get your flights, get your hotels, just get all the logistics nailed down and start the countdown to Share the Arrows 2025 Dallas, Texas, October 11th. Go to share the arrows.com. All right, without further ado, here's my dad. Dad, welcome back. It's been a while. It has been. It's good to be back. I'm glad you and I've got both. I know. We're matching our blues. Okay, a lot of people have been praying for you. You had surgery a month ago, which is why you haven't been on the couch in a while. Can you give everyone an update on how you're doing? Sure. Yeah. It's actually been four weeks right now. Today. Today. Yeah. So, but things are progressing the long as they should be. You know, it's a, it's not a, wasn't a minor surgery. It was a reasonably major surgery. But doing well. Doing well. And just probably a couple of weeks more. So I'm back 100 percent being able to play golf is the way I define.

Starting point is 00:04:42 100% by the way. So I've been missing that. But, you know, I've enjoyed actually having some downtime being at home. Mom's done a great job. She has, although that's not something she probably enjoys, which I don't blame, but she's done a great job. And I appreciate everybody. Pray for it. It really does mean a lot. It's amazing. You know, I haven't had too many physical setbacks in my life. So not, you know, experiencing people praying for you really is important. I've really felt that. So thank you. And it makes you appreciate the times when you aren't stuck in bed, when you can drive, when you can play golf, whenever you feel that kind of pain. Whenever I've given birth afterwards, I'm like, wow, I have so much sympathy now for people who have chronic pain and who are in the hospital a lot, who have to get surgeries a lot.

Starting point is 00:05:31 It just gives you another level of compassion. And it makes you really want to pray for the relief of other people because you've felt it yourself. You can empathize a whole lot easier with that, that's for sure. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. They're going well. Well, I'm so glad that you're back. We got a lot to talk about.

Starting point is 00:05:46 Let's first talk about the stock market because it's causing anxiety. Of course, you got people on the left taking advantage of what's going on there, looking at the markets and saying, see, he's causing turmoil. And then you've got other people saying, slow your role. Things are going to be fine. So tell us what is going on here. And let's start really, really fundamental. When people say, oh, the stock market is crushing, it's not doing well.

Starting point is 00:06:10 What are they talking about? But what they're generally talking about, the stock market is really made up of three what we call indexes. And these are just groups of companies that represent a broader industry, like the Dow Jones Industrial, is 30 kind of the core companies in the United States. Things like AT&T, Exxon, those would be part of the industrial complex. okay. Then there's the NASDAQ, okay, which is a different whole stock market exchange where you can buy and sell stocks, but that's primarily tech stocks. That's more tech heavy, all right? And so when AI stocks go up and down or meta goes up and down or Alphabet goes up and down, that's going to be influenced a lot in that. And then there's the S&P 500, which is the one I follow the most. S&P 500 is 500, the 500, the

Starting point is 00:07:06 500 largest public companies in the United States. And that is a very good barometer of how the economy is going at that particular time. Now, remember, stock markets overreact to news on the good side and on the bad side. So what happens is, is when these tariffs were announced and then the other countries like Canada, we're going to tariff you back and, you know, well, it's kind of like, no, no, I'm going to do this to you. No, I'm going to do that to you. that people get panicked okay and it's a psychological thing more than anything the fundamentals of Exxon or Apple or AT&T or those didn't change from one day to the next okay they don't change like that the fundamentals and most investors should just do nothing that's my recommendation do nothing if you

Starting point is 00:07:59 try to sell into this market you're going to get whipsawed and it's not going to work out good for you Whipsawed means what you're trying to do is you're trying to sell because it's gone down and then you won't then it starts going back up and you're going to end up buying you know selling low and buying high and that's a recipe for disaster. You just have to be calm. In fact, what I tell people look, if any money that you need within the next 12 months, no matter what 12 months you're looking at, it should never be invested in the stock market if you're going to have to use that money. Stock market should be longer-term investments, and it's the best return you can get over a long-term. Over any 10-year period, the S&P 500 has been the best-performing investments for the last 75 to 80 years. So you just stay calm in that.

Starting point is 00:08:52 So some people may not know who maybe haven't read your book yet or haven't been listening to you since you first started coming on, but you ran a successful, very successful investment firm for a long time. And it's not like you grew up learning about the stock markets or that's not really something that was talked about on your kitchen table. How did you learn about all of this? How did you get to this point of being able to say, okay, I've seen enough to where I know that right now I have to remain calm and not act rashly? Yeah, well, the main thing that I, the way I learned that is having to educate myself through reading different books, reading people. that were, when I say mentors of mine, they weren't personal mentors, but they were mentors of people I read. And these were long-term, what I would call free market economists, people like a Peter

Starting point is 00:09:41 Lynch or a Milton Friedman, those types of people, which were economists that looked at the big picture of how economies work. And then look at history. Then the final thing, though, was just experience over time. I've seen the, you know, when we first start our investment company, this is funny. The first started our investment company probably three weeks after that we started it, the market went down almost 20%. This was what year? 1987 in one day. 1987.

Starting point is 00:10:12 Now, that gave us the best selling line ever. We didn't have any clients at the time. So when I would start to meet with potential clients, I'd say, you know what? We didn't have any money in the market at that time. Now, the reason we didn't is because we didn't have any clients, right? But I mean, but what I saw in that, it bounced back the next year. And this is what happened. You remember 2022, not that long ago, the stock market yesterday or Monday fell more than

Starting point is 00:10:37 it's fallen since 2020. And 2022 was a tough year for the market. But 2023 was a great year for the market and 2024. What happens is people sell thinking, okay, I'm going to just wait it out right here, but they don't know when to get back in. And they wait too late to get back in. in and therefore again they've sold low and they're buying back in high and you just don't want to do that the best thing is if you're invested stay invested okay if you're not invested

Starting point is 00:11:08 i wait to invest when i see the market start turning the corner because it may go down a little bit more okay when it starts turning the corner and you have two or three days in a row where you've got you know pretty good solid gains and you want to get and you want to start investing it's okay to do that if you're in your 401k plan or whatever just keep doing what you're doing. That's the main thing. It's going to be okay. Okay, quick pause for our first sponsor for the day, and that is WeHeart Nutrition. So Chief Related Brough and I are getting all of these tests done right now, just to make sure that we are in good health. So far, so good. Very grateful for that. And I give a lot of credit to WeHeart Nutrition, the supplements that I started taking about a year ago,

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Starting point is 00:12:26 the stuff that I really need. And my husband has also now switched to WeHard Nutrition. He's a big supplement guy and he swears by this stuff too. Go to Weheartnutrition.com. Take the 20 second quiz so you can know which vitamin regimen is right for you. Use code Alley for 20% off. Wehardnutrition.com code Alley. So we talked about tariffs last time and what they actually mean. We don't have to rehash all of that. People can go back, listen to or watch that episode that we did. But there are going to be some people saying, see, this is the result of a trade war. And because of this, we're going to be worse off than we were before. Is this the result of tariffs? What's going on there? Well, none of those tariffs have actually gone into effect and heard anything yet, right? Because so it's, it's psychological.

Starting point is 00:13:16 Things are people worry about that. Now, what will happen in that? I thought the tariffs on Mexico and Canada had gone into place. See, he paused some of those, okay? He paused most of those that make any difference. And remember, 99% of the goods from Mexico and the U.S. and Canada between those three, those are tariff-free because of the MCA, whatever it is that we signed last time he went there. Yeah. So it's a small number of them. And again, the amount that we buy from them as a percentage of our economy, we talked about this one time, is much smaller than the amount they buy from us as a percentage of their economy. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:57 So I, if we had to be tariffed, like if we were to try to import maple syrup to Canada, that would be tariffed because they're protecting their industry. But we're going to buy, we're going to, what we buy from them is a larger percentage of their economy. So, and what they sell to us is a large percent as well. So what, if we tariff what they're doing, it's going to hurt them more than what we're buying. On Monday, China started imposing tariffs on U.S. imports such as chicken,

Starting point is 00:14:25 wheat, soybeans, what is your thought about that? Well, you know, I mean, China is a different story because they are actually an enemy in a lot of ways, right? Yeah. that can have an effect on us. But remember, we also, when we're talking about chickens, they're really talking about eggs more than anything else, okay? But we do a lot of that ourselves. So I'm not overly concerned about that. we still produce most of the wheat that countries eat around the world. Again, it's going to have a short-term effect, but it's not going to be a long-term effect. My prediction is that the stock market will be higher at the end of the year than it is today.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Okay. And even Trump is saying, okay, there's going to be a period of transition here as we're imposing these tariffs. Do you agree with that? Oh, yeah. I think it could be. How long that'll last? It could last a few months. or what have you.

Starting point is 00:15:25 But I think there will be, when we say transition, it's because nobody has ever taken this tough of a stance, at least in our lifetime that we remember. We've always been much more globalist than we are today. And all he's trying to do is reset the scale because it's gotten way out of whack. And that the trade deficit during the Biden administration I read the other day was over a trillion dollars, meaning that we bought more from other countries by a trillion dollars than they bought from us. All right. And that's not good for our manufacturers, our farmers and whatever. We need to be sell to, we need to sell to the world. We're only 300 million people. There's six or seven billion billion people in the world, right? So why do we have a trillion dollar trade deficit? It shouldn't be that way.

Starting point is 00:16:09 And he's trying to make it better for American industry. What he's saying is reciprocal look. If you don't tariff us, we're not going to tariff you. But if you tariff us, we're going to tear if you. This idiot up in Ottawa, or whatever that guy's name is, that's going to. It's putting the tariffs on the electricity going down to Minnesota, Michigan, whatever. I don't know about this. Some of our northern states buy electricity from Canada. And he's put a 25% tariff on that. That guy is going to end up losing that whole fight. I promise you that. And he's going to lose it because somebody else in the government is going to call him and say, hey, buddy.

Starting point is 00:16:48 Because he's not head of Canada. He's head of this province, right? Yeah. So the way that this makes it reciprocity. and makes it better for American industry. If a product that we're getting from China or Canada or Mexico is tariffed, that makes the price go up for us. People say a tariff is the tax on the consumer. So to make up for that tariff, they're going to charge more and we're going to pay more.

Starting point is 00:17:09 Canadian maple syrup. And so how that helps American industry is that American products will end up being cheaper than the imported goods because the imported goods have a tariff. And so that is what he is hoping revitalizes a lot of money. American industry, we'll buy more American products that way. And it's been going around, it's been going on for since our country was formed. Yeah. So people saying that this is a new trade word that's destabilizing the U.S. economy, that's just not honest. No, it's been going on for a long, long time. And yes, we did get rid of a lot of them because we, again, we were globalist, but it's something that's happened many, many times over the years. So the jobs report. I read

Starting point is 00:17:47 something this morning saying that the jobs report could also be a reason why the stock market is doing what it is. U.S. employers hired 151,000 workers last month, fell short of the expected 170,000 jobs added. Do you think that has a big effect on the stock market? I don't think that's enough to really make a difference. Those usually adjusted to the next month. 150,000 versus 170,000. It's not that much. That's what I was thinking too. And those numbers could also get worse unless you carve out the government now. You'll have to look at non-government payroll and I don't know what those numbers were, but the government's going to have some job losses, right?

Starting point is 00:18:27 Yeah. Because of what's going on up there with Doge, which is good thing. Yeah. Okay, there's some good economic news. You can tell me what you think. Consumers assessment of current business conditions has moved higher. Recently, mortgage rates also have dropped for seven consecutive weeks. Yeah, I think that's good.

Starting point is 00:18:43 We do need the Fed to lower the interest rates, the kind of the interest rates that banks can borrow from the government from. That hasn't happened yet. they're holding them steady. But the other thing, you know, Mr. Powell, I think, said yesterday is that we're not in threat of a recession at this time. Okay. And that's what the Democrats and the news media are putting up. We're not, we're, all of the leading indicators. The stop marker is not an indicator of recession. Okay. That's an indicator of psychological predictions, right? Yeah. The, the recession indicators are like jobs or like unemployment, those types of things. And so we're not,

Starting point is 00:19:19 And we're not at danger of that at this time. So is there any justification for concern about stagflation? You know, we haven't had stagflation since the 70s. And so. And that stagflation is when inflation. So prices continue to go up and growth levels up. It just stays the same. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:39 I don't see that, again, temporarily because of what we're doing with these other countries, maybe. But I don't see that as a long-term issue. It hasn't been around. I think the feds have figured out how to control that after we had that the last time. And they do that by increasing or decreasing money supply, making it easier or harder to borrow. Okay, my biggest question is, and I don't think this has anything to do with the economy. I think it might have to do with bird flu. But I am tired of not being able to find eggs.

Starting point is 00:20:07 Literally, at our local grocery store for the past several weeks, I cannot get eggs. I'm ready for Trump to do something about that. I don't know what it is. Have you noticed that? No, I haven't noticed because we've, We bought up ahead of time because we were long-term planners. Oh, okay. And eggs last a lot.

Starting point is 00:20:23 No. We eat a lot of eggs in our family. I really haven't noticed that myself because I don't go to grocery stores probably as much as you do. But I do know that we had to buy eggs for the boys coming in this week. So I did see them. Yeah. Well, you have to like, you have to hunt for them in the Metroplex. We need to get Brooke Rawlins on here and have her talk about it because she definitely is dealing with that issue.

Starting point is 00:20:42 Yes. Now, I need to look into this, but I read a headline. So I'll have to fact check it. and then maybe I can talk about it on Thursday, but that the Biden administration, because of some kind of overblown fear of bird flu, ended up killing like hundreds of thousands of chickens. Oh, I read the same thing, yeah, that they killed the chickens, yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:01 Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but maybe it was to cause a little bit of distress before Trump took office. I'll look into that. Well, it's kind of like, you know, when you also need to look into the electronic signing of all his executive orders.

Starting point is 00:21:16 Yeah. That's something else. I know. That's something else. Second sponsor is Good Ranchers. We're eating Good Ranchers almost every night in the Stucky household. We especially love the ground beef just because it's so versatile. I love making casadillas or tacos or I love making hamburgers out of them and it really just tastes so good and it tastes even better knowing that it comes from a God-loving, America-loving, Christian, family-owned. company like good ranchers and that I'm supporting American farms and ranches. Hundreds of thousands of these farms and ranches that have existed for centuries in the United

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Starting point is 00:22:37 Goodranchers.com slash Alley code Alley. Okay, speaking of Washington and what's going on there, continuing resolution, HR, at 1968, the full year continuing appropriations and extensions Act 2025. It was just introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday in order to prevent a federal government shutdown. According to the Associated Press, the bill would trim $13 billion in non-defense spending from the levels in the 2024 budget year and increased defense spending by $6 billion with an overall top line of nearly $1.7 trillion in discretionary spending. So my sense is that most Republicans are on board with this, but then you've got people, you've got interestingly, you've got Chip Roy and Thomas Massey who are usually on the same page about things. I like both of them a lot. But Chip Roy is saying, no, I think that this is good. I think we're good to go. Thomas Massey is saying, no, I'm not signing another omnibus bill. Rand Paul says, despite Doge's findings of loony left wing USAID programs, the Republican spending bill continues to fund the very foreign aid that Elon Musk proposes to cut. The bill continues spending.

Starting point is 00:23:47 at the inflated pandemic levels and will add $2 trillion to the debt this year. Count me as a H.E. Double Hockey sticks, no, Rand Paul says. Okay, your take. Well, I think it'll pass. All right. I think it'll pass. There may be some additional adjustments to it. I was going to see if I had a text this morning from my friend that I asked about.

Starting point is 00:24:10 Congressional friend. Yeah. He said, when I talked to him this morning, he said he thought they had to vote. to pass it, okay? Now, it's hard to believe that all the Democrats are going to vote no on this, especially those that are in swing state districts, but they are usually pretty good at keeping their nose together. And it's hard to believe that all of them,

Starting point is 00:24:35 there'll be some compromise between here and the Senate, between the House and the Senate. What it's doing is it's leaving, and this is why Chip Roy is voting for it. It's leaving spending levels the same. okay no increase in spending overall and it leaves doge in place right if you shut it down then doge is not going to be able to go in there and do anything during this period of time right which is maybe what the democrats want to have happened and 80 you know marupeo came out today and said 83% of the

Starting point is 00:25:04 u.s. aid programs have been terminated contracts so i'm not sure what ran paul said it may not be doing everything he wants it to i get that but we are making progress and the wills of progress do not turn on a dime, right? It takes some time. You have to be able. People have to understand. And this is what your friend Thomas Massey does not understand. So Thomas, I know you listen to it. Oh, don't be a hater. Listen to Allie's dad. Listen to Allie's dad. Take a win when you can get a win and go back and get another win later. That's what you do. His beef, it seems like, is that he doesn't believe, just in principle, in these omnibus bills. He wants the bills to be separated. So the American people and so Congress people actually have time to read what is in them. You know, that Nancy Pelosi famous line, which

Starting point is 00:25:59 said, we have to pass the bill so we can know what's in it. Well, he's fundamentally opposed to that, which I appreciate that level of transparency. I think his constituents do. I'm not even saying that you're wrong, but, you know, Trump is out there on truth social saying we've got a primary Thomas Massey. we're going to get him out. And Trump said he's going to see to it that Thomas Massey is removed because I guess his opposition to this bill. Well, he's been primaried, I think three times by people who claim to be more MAGA than him. And his constituents say, no, they love Thomas Massey and what he stands for. And so, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:26:34 I understand what you're saying, but there seems to be something to the strategy for him and to be one of the only people to stand up and say, sorry. Okay, well, what is he? Okay, what does he accomplished by having that strategy? Where's his wins? What's his wins? I don't have a list of Thomas Masson's wins. I can tell you what the list is, zero, okay, of his wins. Really?

Starting point is 00:26:55 He hasn't, he hasn't done anything? Well, I think he has done something. He stood up and said what he said. Of course, he had you up to testify on the pro-watch stuff. He was the kindest person to me there. He was very strong on that. But that really wasn't a very high bar as far as kindness in that hearing. Yeah, there's a lot of mean people.

Starting point is 00:27:13 But I don't, you know, he had, and maybe there's some stuff behind the scenes that he's accomplished, but he hasn't accomplished. He's making a point, all right. He's making a point. But really, the way, if you want that, if you want that bill broken down to individual appropriation bills, which I would not be opposed to at all, okay, then you got to do, you got to go meet with a speaker in his office, not on the TV station, not on podcast, and you work out a deal, okay?

Starting point is 00:27:39 And you see, how do you get to the point? Maybe you can't get all of them, but maybe you can break out one of them, okay? Start it, start small. Thomas Massey, I wish that I had a list of your accomplishments, Congressman, so I could defend you right now. If your team wants to send me a list of the bills you've passed, I will read some of them on air. I'm a Massey fan.

Starting point is 00:28:02 I think he's, I don't know if he's entirely right on this subject or not, but in general, I'm a Massey fan. Bruce looking those bills up right now, and I bet she's coming up with a bill. Big Zero. That is, I doubt it. I bet Brie is a Massey fan too. I actually have no idea. I didn't say she wasn't.

Starting point is 00:28:18 I'm just saying, I don't think Massey's a Taylor Swift fan. Okay. So Donald Trump, he's upset about this. He says, thank you to the House Freedom Caucus for just delivering a big blow to the radical left Democrats. Oh, by the way, speaking of radical left Democrats, I forgot to mention this. You mentioned the Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries says he's the minority leader.

Starting point is 00:28:35 He says that they will oppose the bill, that Democrats will oppose this bill. I don't know if all Democrats, but he's saying that they're going to. And as I said, Donald Trump goes on to say about Thomas Massey that he's going to be primaried and that that Thomas Massey reminds him of Liz Chaney. That's kind of crazy. Yeah, that's that's too far. Yeah. I agree with you on that one. I mean, that's insane.

Starting point is 00:29:01 But he's saying he's grandstanding. That's why. Yeah. And you agree with that, it seems. Well, I don't know that he's a showboat. Like I would say, a Jasmine Crockett's a showboat. I think he's principled, okay? I think he is principled, but I don't think that he is going about getting things done the correct way.

Starting point is 00:29:18 You're not a fan of Jasmine Crockett? I had no idea. She's so serious and intellectual, Dad. Not getting started on her. Well, we already talked about her last time, and she's only gotten worse somehow. Yep, she is. All right. Next sponsor is EveryLife.

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Starting point is 00:31:14 And there are two competing. school choice bills that have been proposed on each side of the Texas legislature. We've got the Senate version of the bill SB 2, passed the Senate on February 5th. The House Bill HB3 was proposed on February 20th. That is currently still being debated. Obviously, you were, are a big advocate of school choice. That was something you fought for when you were in the Texas legislature. Interestingly, this has become a national conversation. A lot of people have been asking me, what's the truth about this? There's a lot of information. competing information out there.

Starting point is 00:31:48 So first give us the lowdown on what's going on. The reason it's national news is because it's 5.5 million public school students in Texas, right? It's huge. And when this school choice passes, which it will pass in some form, that will mean that almost 50% of all of the students in the United States will have some type of school choice option, which it's amazing. when it was maybe four or five years ago, that number was in the 20% range or less. I mean, it's just amazing. But I'll tell you one thing. This is what Satan intends for bad, God intends for good.

Starting point is 00:32:25 All of this stuff with COVID, okay? This is when it all started. You remember when the school started, parents started getting involved in their kids' schools when they were going to school online and all that type of stuff? And it really started in Virginia. If you remember where the parents fought back. And this is the result. of all of that. This is the absolute result of us finding out they were teaching CRT,

Starting point is 00:32:50 they were teaching all of these other things that they shouldn't be teaching. And sometimes they weren't teaching at all. And so it's been incredible. And that's a, and you know what I think about teachers. I mean, your grandmother, my mother was a teacher. Your mom is a teacher. We have cousins that are teachers, nieces, nephew. So we love teachers. But the whole system is something that's broken. But what's happening in Texas Alley, And this happens all the time, and that is you have a Senate version and a House version. And the Senate version came out first, and it's done by my friend Brandon Creighton. Of course, Lieutenant Governor Patrick's very involved in it.

Starting point is 00:33:27 And it essentially says that we're going to put a billion dollars aside for parents to be able to choose whether or not they want, where they want their kids to go to school. And that billion dollars, though, is prioritized. It's prioritized first for parents with kids with special needs and then for parents who fall within a poverty, what we call low income, okay? And that's a certain percentage of the national poverty level, okay, up to 2 or 300% I think, maybe more than that. And then if there is any money left over, which there won't be, by the way, anybody

Starting point is 00:34:10 can apply for it. All right. So this, this, the rhetoric out there about it's only for the rich kids is just simply, it's just a false. It's just totally false. And they're going to allocate about $10,000 per student, a little bit more in the Senate version for disabled students and what have you. And even a couple thousand dollars for homeschoolers that want it. Now, some of the people are saying, well, I don't want the government in my business. Okay, well, then don't take it. You do not have to take it. You don't have to take it. If I had little kids again, I wanted to send them to a private school and I said, okay, I'm using this, this money that's coming through the state. The school, we don't accept that. There's no, there's no, there's don't have to do that.

Starting point is 00:34:48 But I think the fear is that once a school starts accepting students who are subsidized in this way, that, okay, the government has its foot in the door. And that later on, they will say, okay, any school that, that takes this government money through these kinds of school choice programs, you have to follow this list of rules. You have to teach this or you can't teach this, or you have to have this non-discrimination policy or whatever it is. I think it's a fear that in the name of giving kids a choice, you are allowing the government into Christian private schools and even homeschool co-ops. Well, the only way that the government could ever do that, which, remember, they can do that on anything, is it would have to pass through the legislature. It cannot be

Starting point is 00:35:39 done by fiat has to pass through the legislature this is all in statute so the people that people need to talk to about that they need to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror because it's the very people they're voting in if they don't want that to happen then make sure that you're voting in people that don't believe in that all right don't there's nobody to blame but ourselves if that happens because it's the voters that determine that it's not it's not some bureaucrat right they can't do that the statute and both of these bills is very specific. And really all these bills do from a government standpoint is it makes sure that if I get the money,

Starting point is 00:36:18 I don't go spend it on a vacation to Florida, right? That that money goes to a specific list of things, all right? The only other requirement in there is that if you are a private school, then you have to have some type of accreditation test. But it doesn't tell you even what to have. And all schools have that already. all right now for homeschoolers i have less sympathy for them because they don't have to take the money they can keep doing what they're doing it's not going to get involved in their lives at all right so

Starting point is 00:36:52 if you want the two thousand dollars got it if you if you're worried about it don't take it it's okay all right you don't have to there's no requirement to do that some people have expressed concern that this actually raises the cost of tuition at private schools i guess that math works as if you're a private school and you're saying, okay, we're only going to take 100 students and now say 25 of those students are subsidized. Well, then the school has lost money. And so they will, to make up for that money that they lost, they will now charge the other 75 students more than they were before. Now, why are they saying they're, I don't understand the subsidized part of it. Well, I subsidized through school choice. They're subsidized in the sense that

Starting point is 00:37:36 now their parents are given the money to pay for the tuition at the private school. But aren't they paying the same price as everybody else? Well, but the, yeah, okay, I, yeah. I think they're paying the same price as everybody else. The question could be, though, let me, maybe the argument is supply and demand. Maybe I misunderstood. No, maybe it's supply and demand. In other words, if there's more demand for private schools now, because there's more money

Starting point is 00:38:00 available, that the supply is not there yet. So therefore, well, look, if I've got 200 people wanting to go to a hundred person school, then I can raise the price, okay? I mean, that's the theory, I think. Yeah, yeah. That hasn't happened. Yeah, that probably is. That hasn't happened in the other 30 states, all right?

Starting point is 00:38:19 Now, what we hope will happen is that the supply will increase. And usually where there's opportunity, somebody comes in to meet the demand, right? Usually where there's demand, somebody usually provides a supply. lot. Yeah. And I've gotten a lot of messages from a lot of families when I was talking about this on Instagram. They live in Arizona. They live in Iowa. They live in different places. There's always going to be debates and different feelings about school choice. But the families I've talked to who say, I would not be able to give my kids the Christian education that they're getting without the education savings account that I have depending on the state or the voucher that they have,

Starting point is 00:38:58 depending on the state that they live in. I mean, that's an incredible testimony. And it basically comes down to the idea that your fate should not be bound to the zip code in which you were born, right? And if we really believe in equality of opportunity, if we really believe in so-called social justice, this is like this is a justice issue if you want to see it through that lens, kids who are born into these communities where there's not a lot of hope and not a lot of opportunity, they are given that hope and opportunity through education. It's going to change people's lives. I mean, And you know that I think it's, I think, you know, you and your brothers having Christian education was a big factor.

Starting point is 00:39:39 Yeah. And I just think it'll change, it'll change people's, the direction in people's lives that we don't even know yet. Just think about half the population being eligible if they choose to for something like this. You know, one of the other big misrepresentations, let's say, be kind, is that this takes money from public schools, all right? And I don't know how everything worked in other states. But I know in Texas that's just an out-and-out falsehood is that public schools receive,

Starting point is 00:40:09 they're going to receive the funding that they receive. $80 billion is spent allocated to public, K-12 public schools in Texas, okay, $80 billion. Now, it is true that $6,200, I think, of that, it's average, okay, goes to, towards something they call WADA, weighted average daily attendance. So each school district gets paid this $6,200 on the average attendance that they have, like if it's 11,000 students, okay, they get $6,200 per one of those. Well, when, if I take my kids out of school, then that $6,200 go, that's not in their, you know, WADA anymore, all right? That is true. However, the total funding for each student in Texas is about $15,000.

Starting point is 00:41:05 And if you don't believe me, take $80 billion, divide it by $5.5 million, and it comes to right at $15,000. So the $6,200 of that $15,000 is technically going away. But $9,000 is left, right? So when you take that, now you take that $9,000, that there's not even a student there, to use that money, you actually get more money per student overall than you would if that $6,200 stayed with you. So you get more money for less students. I mean, I don't understand what the big issue is. Also, the billion dollars that we're using in Texas, it's just coming out of the

Starting point is 00:41:47 general revenue fund. It doesn't come out of the school's funding, right? It's not money they would have gotten otherwise, all right? So it's just so many misrepresentations. on this. That's really what is disappointed. I've actually did a Facebook video if people want to watch that on my Facebook page, explain it about a 10-minute video that kind of talks about it. Yeah. Last sponsor for the day, and that is pre-born. So you might not know this about these people, but Steph Curry, Justin Bieber, Tim Tebow, so many other celebrities, many that we don't even know, they were all almost aborted. Their mom had a crisis pregnancy, and they had a moment where they thought, okay, I can just in this pregnancy, I can abort this baby, and I can go on about my life,

Starting point is 00:42:36 and they made the more difficult choice in that moment, the right choice to protect their child's life and to save their baby. And obviously, these are people that have a very public platform and a lot of widespread influence. But the truth is, every single baby in the womb, whether they will be rich and famous or not, matters equally. Because they are all made in the the image of God. They are all knit together purposely in their mother's womb, and they all have a soul that will live forever. So the work that we do in protecting babies matters, not just here, but also in eternity. And that is why preborn, which is a network of pro-life clinics exist. They offer free resources to moms in need, including free sonograms. When a mom sees that baby

Starting point is 00:43:25 on the screen, here's the beating heart. She is so much more likely to choose life for her baby. and the only way that pre-born can do this work is through your donation. So if you want to be a part of this life-saving work, this gospel work, go to pre-born.com slash alley, make whatever tax-deductible donation you can, whether that's $5,000, maybe that's $5,000, whatever you can give. That translates into saving a life from abortion. That's pre-born.com slash alley. And for those maybe on the conservative side who are afraid that this change would just like change private schools or would change Christian schools. The Christian schools who now might get applicants that couldn't be applicants before, they will not be forced to accept these people. They'll still have the same standards.

Starting point is 00:44:22 For example, the school that I went to, at least one parent, but preferably both parents had to be born again Christians. give their testimony, they had to be a member of a church with a pastor recommendation in order to even get your foot in the door to interview. All of those standards will still be in place. It just might accept someone who financially couldn't make it work before, but did share all of the values and desires that you as a parent have. That's what it's intended to do. And not all of them will be faith-based schools. Some of them will be private STEM schools or something like that. And so I just encourage people to go look and see what's happened to Florida faith-based schools if they're concerned about that as to what the government has done there, which I think they'll be comforted by that.

Starting point is 00:45:14 And it looks like we have the votes. I filed the bill in 2015 and 2017 for this. So if we get this through, this will be a big moment of something. celebration for me anyway. Absolutely. It's things like you said, they don't happen overnight. Yeah, Thomas. Massey. Yes. Okay. Speaking of Thomas Massey, I have some unfortunate news. Fortunate for you. And, you know, my dad's motto growing up was start, he said, start with me being right and then back up from there. Yeah. I may not always be right, but you do get there quicker. Yeah, just start there and then try to figure out the answer. And it appears

Starting point is 00:45:56 that you are correct. Okay, as of March 11th, 2025, Representative Thomas Massey has not successfully passed any bills he sponsored into law during his tenure in Congress, which began November 2012. So that's been a long time. So, and then I was like, okay, well, did he block anything? Anything. During the passage of the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion relief package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Massey attempted to block its approval, which I appreciate, by the way, It's a valiant effort, but couldn't get enough support. Massey didn't block a COVID-specific bill via unanimous consent post-cares act, but he introduced bills opposing COVID mandates like HR 3860,

Starting point is 00:46:35 and that didn't advance past committee. I will say, though, that doesn't mean that all of these efforts are wasted or bad. I do still believe that he is a prophetic voice many times when it comes to Congress and he speaks truth. But when it comes to what he has tangibly accomplished, Ron Simmons is correct. Sorry, Thomas Mousy. Well, it could be too, Allie, like school choice for me. I mean, that was very disappointed.

Starting point is 00:47:01 I can get that done. But it just may be timing, you know, he may be ahead of his time. Yeah. And it wasn't wrong of you to push it at the time, even though you didn't succeed at the moment. As a matter of fact, I was mentioned, I got a Google notice this week about a bill that I filed in 2017 regarding the use of locker rooms and stuff. Yeah. And because there's another bill that's filed that's absolutely going to pass this time. Right.

Starting point is 00:47:24 Yeah. Isn't that crazy? The thing is society's view on that has just changed. I was just a little bit ahead of the game on that, even though we knew we were right. And maybe Mr. Massey knows he's right on some stuff. Now, what I did, though, is I really worked behind the scenes to try to get stuff done. And I would encourage, and maybe he does that. I would encourage him to if he hasn't.

Starting point is 00:47:44 Yeah. And just to say, just this legacy really matters of school choice and what you helped accomplish, she pushed the ball down the field and it's going to get all the way soon. But according to the Daily Signal, because a lot of people say, you know, this actually has a negative effect on students. But according to the Daily Signal, as of March 2023, there have been nearly 190 studies on the impact of school choice. Researchers have looked at financial effects, parent satisfaction, test scores, civic values, school safety and racial integration in both red and blue states to collect information for these studies. This is according to the Mountain States Policy Center. remarkably 84% of these studies, 84% of the 190 studies show a positive effect and only and 10% show no impact at all and 6% show a negative result.

Starting point is 00:48:34 So when it comes to test scores, when it comes to educational attainment, parent satisfaction, all of those things, most parents are saying that this has had a positive effect on my student and a positive effect on our family. and actually test scores have gone up, their comprehension has gone up. I mean, I don't think anyone could argue with the fact that our public schools, by and large, are failing. Well, yes, well, it's, it is. And it's not a money issue, right? No, it's not. Some of the places that spend the most money have the worst performance, and that's very, very disappointing. Yep, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:49:10 So there's a lot more to talk about on the school choice. Go check out my dad's Facebook page. He's got more on that, and we can talk about it. more as time goes on. There's a lot of propaganda out there. There'll be more, you know, when she gets through committee, what happens is it gets through committee, okay, and then it goes to the floor. It's already passed the Senate floor. And then the House will pass their version, some, it may be amended. And then they'll get into conference committee and merge the two somehow. They'll come to compromise and it'll get voted. Probably won't get voted on until

Starting point is 00:49:44 by the House, maybe sometime in April. Okay, gotcha. Well, Dad, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, tell everyone about your book. Life lessons from The Little Red Wagon, you know, it's never more pertinent than it is today. Because as we go through uncertain economic times and what's going on in D.C. and all that, you need to have a foundation of where you are. And what this book really does for us is it just, first of all, it makes sure that you don't overreact to something. And also it reminds us, you know, the last few weeks that reminded me of this. I've been in the wagon. I haven't been put on the handle.

Starting point is 00:50:21 I can't even push the wheels for because of your recovery. Because of my recovery. I've been in the wagon. And sometimes that recovery period in the wagon in certain areas of your life can be the most beneficial to you. Yep. So. Amen. Well, thanks so much, Dad.

Starting point is 00:50:35 Thank you for having me.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1155 | Debunking the Biggest School Choice Lies | Guest: Ron Simmons

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