School Choice and Educational Reform | Corey DeAngelis #social333podcast #75

Summary

Social 333 Podcast with Chris D. Bentley

Episode 75: School Choice and Educational Reform with Corey DeAngelis
Original Air Date: November 28, 2025

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Overview of the Episode

This episode of the Social 333 Podcast features Corey DeAngelis, a prominent advocate for school choice and educational reform. Hosted by Chris D. Bentley, the conversation explores the flaws of the U.S. public education system, the concept and impact of school choice, the role of teachers’ unions, and the implications of homeschooling. DeAngelis provides data-driven arguments, personal anecdotes, and candid commentary on why he believes education funding should follow the student rather than systems or buildings.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to School Choice

[01:11] Corey DeAngelis:

• Defines himself as the “school choice evangelist.”
• Explains the foundational principle: "The money should follow the child."
  • U.S. spends ~$20,000 per child/per year in public education.
  • School choice means families can direct these funds to a school that fits their values—public, private, charter, or homeschool.

2. Personal Motivation & Economics of Education

[01:39] Corey DeAngelis:

• Personal background: Attended public schools.
• Problem with location-based school assignment and lack of parental recourse.
• Notes that increased spending (up 108% since 1980) hasn’t led to better outcomes—“they've actually gotten worse.”
• Argues monopolistic systems don’t use money efficiently.
• Cites other taxpayer-funded programs (food stamps, Medicaid) where funding follows users, not institutions.

"We should fund the student, not the system." — Corey DeAngelis [05:08]

3. School Choice Policy Mechanisms

[06:30] Chris Bentley & [07:06] Corey DeAngelis:

• Discussion of Texas school financing:
  • New scholarship program will allow $10,000 per student in state funding to follow the child.
  • Local districts retain property tax funding, positioning it as a “win-win.”
  • Example: If a student leaves, the district keeps a share of funding but doesn’t bear the full cost.

4. Teachers’ Unions and Education Funding

[08:34] Chris Bentley & [08:45] Corey DeAngelis:

• Critiques union leadership for prioritizing politics over education or teacher welfare.
  • Union presidents make over $500,000 annually.
  • Claims only 9% of NEA’s revenue goes toward teacher representation; most contributes to Democratic campaigns.
• Teacher salaries have stagnated despite large increases in per-student spending.
• Administrative bloat cited as a key issue.
• Advocates for teachers to opt out of unions and join alternatives (e.g., Teacher Freedom Alliance).

"It's more of a money laundering operation than anything else. It’s a one-sided political arm of the Democrat party." — Corey DeAngelis [10:23]

5. Homeschooling: Benefits and Criticisms

[12:43] Chris Bentley & [14:39] Corey DeAngelis:

• Bentley shares mixed perceptions: concerns about discipline, lack of socialization, and value alignment.
• DeAngelis responds:
  • Critiques the idea that public schools provide positive socialization—shares anecdote about “walking with a limp” to fit in.
  • Sees homeschooling as an extension of parenting and a way to minimize negative peer influence.
  • Notes options for co-ops and hybrid models to support social development.
  • Highlights academic benefits: individualized instruction, avoidance of “lowest common denominator” teaching.
  • Homeschooling and school choice on the rise post-COVID, with homeschooling having tripled since 2019 (Census Bureau data).

"A lot of people say, look, they need to fit in with society, but have you seen society today? I don't want my daughter to fit in with society if that's what society looks like." — Corey DeAngelis [14:39]

"Not all forms of socialization are positive." — Corey DeAngelis [15:42]

6. School Environment, Integration, and Long-Term Impact

[21:37] Chris Bentley & [23:34] Corey DeAngelis:

• Bentley recounts shift from affluent schools to “integrated” high schools with more crime and bullying, linking this to negative peer impacts and lost opportunities.
• DeAngelis explains Florida’s Hope Scholarship for bullied students.
• Both reflect on how social networks and private schooling can impact future career opportunities.
• DeAngelis critiques the “factory model” origins of U.S. public schools, claiming they were designed for obedience, not excellence.

"You shouldn't be trapped with your abuser for 13 years of your life for seven hours a day." — Corey DeAngelis [23:34]

7. Systemic Reform & Ideological Concerns

[25:42] Corey DeAngelis:

• Connects educational design with young adults’ political leanings and openness to government solutions.
• Explains U.S. schooling was modeled after Prussia for workforce obedience:
  • “Our school system…was created to have obedient soldiers and obedient factory workers. And I think you see the same structure in America today.”
• Emphasizes homeschooling allows for lifelong, interest-driven learning and fosters diverse socialization via family and community.

8. Personal Commitment and Outlook

[29:41] Corey DeAngelis:

• Shares his personal plan to homeschool his daughter and their growing family.
• Promotes his book, The Parent Revolution, and ways to connect with his ongoing advocacy.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• School Choice Philosophy:
  “We should fund the student, not the system.” — Corey DeAngelis [05:08]

• Public School Monopoly Critique:
  “If your customers are stuck there and they have no recourse, what do they do? ...this whole fairytale model of democratic accountability...it actually doesn't work out that way.” — Corey DeAngelis [02:48]

• Teachers’ Union Politics:
  “Only 9% of [the NEA’s] teachers union dues...go towards representing teachers.” — Corey DeAngelis [10:10]

  “It's more of a money laundering operation than anything else. It's a one-sided political arm of the Democrat party.” — Corey DeAngelis [10:23]

• On Homeschooling and Socialization:
  "A lot of people say, look, they need to fit in with society, but have you seen society today? I don't want my daughter to fit in with society if that's what society looks like." — Corey DeAngelis [14:39]

  “Not all forms of socialization are positive.” — Corey DeAngelis [15:42]

• Education System’s Purpose:
  “Our school system...was created to have obedient soldiers and obedient factory workers. And I think you see the same structure in America today, where it's really structured around obedience, not excellence.” — Corey DeAngelis [27:00]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:11] Corey DeAngelis introduces school choice concept
• [02:08]–[05:30] Economic critique of public schools and the case for choice
• [07:06] Explanation of Texas funding model for school choice
• [08:45]–[12:00] Deep dive on teachers unions, funding, and administrative bloat
• [14:39]–[15:42] Homeschooling, socialization, and public school criticism
• [21:37]–[25:37] Personal stories on school environment, socioeconomic impact, and peer influence
• [25:42]–[27:50] Factory-model origins of public education and ideological consequences
• [29:41] How to find more from Corey and his book, The Parent Revolution

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Conclusion

Corey DeAngelis argues persuasively for school choice, tying the vision to both parental control and systemic accountability. The episode interweaves personal anecdotes, data, and ideological critique of U.S. educational institutions, challenging listeners to rethink the purpose—and beneficiaries—of public funding in education. Both Bentley and DeAngelis advocate for alternatives including homeschooling and better teacher representation, ultimately promoting a model where education fits the needs and values of families, not bureaucracies.

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Transcript

[Twilio Announcer]

Twilio empowers the builders who shape tomorrow. Whether you're scaling a startup or transforming an enterprise, you need a customer engagement platform that keeps up. Twilio gives you the power to build, test and scale with confidence, connecting data, AI and customer communication into one seamless, open system. No silos, no barriers, just everything you need to bring your biggest ideas to life. Learn [e-mail] whether you write code or shape strategy, if you build, you belong. Twilio's customer engagement platform is the ultimate toolbox for developers, designers, business leaders, and everyone in between looking to create truly memorable customer experiences. With Twilio, you can combine data, AI and real time communications in one open, flexible space. So you can build without limits, with without workarounds and without compromise. So what will you build today? Learn [e-mail] hey, welcome to the Social 333 podcast.

[Chris Bentley]

I'm your host, Chris Bentley. Today my guest is Cory DeAngelis. How are you?

[Cory DeAngelis]

Hey, doing well. Thanks for having me, Chris.

[Chris Bentley]

Awesome. Tell the audience a little bit about yourself and what you got going on.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah, I'm Cory DeAngelis. They call me the school choice evangelist, which is the basic concept that the money should follow the child. In education. In America, we spend about $20,000 per kid per year in the public school system. And school choice just allows families to take that funding to a school that aligns with their values. That could be another public school, one that you're not assigned to based on your address, or it could be a private school, charter school, or a home based education option.

[Chris Bentley]

There's a lot of questions I have for you about this stuff, but what is it that, like, really got you into educational reform? Like, what is it that made you be like, okay, well, you know, in my opinion, and that's probably my own opinion, but I think public school sucks.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah, I went to public schools.

[Chris Bentley]

Me too.

[Cory DeAngelis]

So if I make any mistakes today, it's because I went through the government school system and I really started getting interested in the idea. As an economist, I did my bachelor's and master's in economics. And the main problem that I see is that we're assigned to schools just based on where we live for the most part in America. And if it doesn't work out for you, it's basically like, too bad you're stuck there. And if you have enough money, you could, you can buy a house in another neighborhood that's assigned to a better quote, unquote public school that happens to be run by the government too. But they'll just tell you, hey, give us more money. We promise we'll do a better job next time. That hasn't worked time and time again. I mean, since 1980, since we started the Department of Education in America, we've increased per student spending by 108%. In real terms, the outcomes haven't gotten 108% better, they've actually gotten worse. And so I believe the main problem is that when you have a monopoly, you have no incentive to spend money wisely. So if your customers are stuck there and they have no recourse, what do they do? They tell you, well, you just gotta go complain to the school board. They'll listen to you. We saw that. They don't actually care what you have to say if you don't agree with them. During the COVID era, when the schools were closed and families wanted alternatives and they didn't like the curriculum that they were seeing through Zoom School, a lot of the school boards cut off the parents mics because they didn't want gender ideology in the classroom. They didn't want critical race theory in the classroom. And in one instance, they even wrote a letter to the Biden administration, the school boards association did, implying that parents, under the Patriot act of all things, should be investigated for, quote, unquote, domestic terrorism. So this whole fairytale model of democratic accountability where you go tell the school board that you're upset and then everything is magically better, it actually doesn't work out that way. So I think school choice through the lens of an economist solves part of this problem, at least in that if you can vote with your feet and take your money somewhere else, well, the school board isn't going to cut your mic off anymore. They're certainly not going to call you a terrorist. They're actually going to try to work with you, they're going to listen to you, they're going to treat you with respect as a customer. And I think that makes it a rising tide that lifts all boats when you have more competition, that improves outcomes just like it does with every other industry. It works in education too. And what's really interesting to me and what I really started when I first started looking into this, what really kind of a light bulb went off in my head and for so many other people is that with so many other taxpayer funded initiatives, and we do pay for schools through taxes, we have the funding follow people as opposed to institutions. So you think about food stamps. The food stamp doesn't go to a government grocery store that you're Assigned to. And then if you don't like it, you basically have no recourse. Well, instead the food stamp follows the decision of the family. Same thing with pre K programs, including the federal Head Start program and other state level pre K programs that are funded by taxpayers. You don't have to go to one specific provider that happens to be run by the government. You, you can take it to a private provider of pre K, even a religious one if you'd like. But again, the decision comes first and then the money follows. And so all I'm arguing with school choice is, is that the funding should follow the student. Also when it comes to K12 education, like it does with higher education, with Pell grants, with pre K programs like the Head Start program, when it comes to food and groceries, with SNAP benefits, with Medicaid vouchers, the funding, you don't have to go to a government hospital for Medicaid. And you know, I'm not arguing whether we should have more or less Medicaid or whether we should have more or less spending on food stamps. I'm just arguing if we're going to spend the money, it should follow people, not buildings. We should fund the student, not the system. And thankfully over the past few years we've had a lot of movement on this topic. We've had 17 states, including my home state of Texas, I live in San Antonio, Pass universal School choice, which means everybody can take their kids state funded education dollars to the school that works best for them, whether that's a public, private, charter or homeschool. So we, we've had a lot of success in the past few years. We're winning so much. I'm almost getting tired of winning at this point. But we're not done yet. We only have 17 states that have gone all in. We have several more to go.

[Chris Bentley]

So I have some questions. So for this area, it's Frisco isd, Independent School District and Prosper isd. And usually what most parents do if they have the funds is they relocate into that school district.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Right.

[Chris Bentley]

And that's why Prosper and Frisco are probably the most, I wouldn't say overpriced, but definitely more expensive than like a neighboring Plano or a Garland or something like that just because of the school district and their ratings. So someone that is doing that, someone that's relocating their child to just keep it public to an isd and then you say that they have like funding. So that funding that that particular child has every single year, does that funding follow that child or how does that kind of work?

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah, it depends on the specific state and school district and what kind of transfer is happening. And most of the recent victories have been something called education savings accounts. So in Texas, on average, the public school System spends about $18,000 per student, if you look at the latest data from the Texas Education Agency. And so with the scholarship program that just passed in the legislature that rolls out next school year in Texas, you'd get to take about $10,000 per student. So the district that you leave gets to keep all the local property tax funding. And so that's not touched. It's the state level funding that follows the kid on average is about $10,000 per student. And so it's a win win scenario, really. The school district that you're leaving because they lose the full cost of educating the kid, but they don't lose the full 18,000 on a PER student basis, they're actually financially better off than they were before. I mean, just imagine if you stopped shopping at Walmart and you wanted to go to h E B a better grocery store and Walmart got to keep half of your grocery funding every week. That wouldn't make sense. But with politics, you bake in these win win solutions so that you can get policy passed. Otherwise nothing would ever pass. And so the win win here is that families get more opportunities. They get a choice to take a fraction of that money if they want to or not. And it's a win win for the district too, because, well, now they, on a per student basis at least, they're more well off financially.

[Chris Bentley]

So what does the teachers unions have to do or say anything about this kind of stuff? I'm sure they get involved. I mean, most of the teachers that I've run across and are make very much money.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah. And the teachers unions are not representing the teachers very well. I would argue if you look at people like Randi Weingarten, she makes over half a million dollars a year. She's the president of the American Federation of Teachers. And Becky Pringle, she's kind of the other on the other end of this, on the same side as Randy. She runs the nea, the largest labor union in the country. The National Education association also happens to make over half a million dollars a year. And at her annual convention this year in Portland, Oregon, they were passing all these resolutions that had nothing to do with education and everything to do with politics. And one of them was a declaration to call President Trump a fascist. And in that same resolution, they misspelled the word fascism. Because of course, I mean it's beyond parody at this point, but a few years ago there was a resolution put before them that they voted on to realign themselves to being more about student learning than anything else. And they voted down that resolution. So they killed the resolution that was about academics, but they passed all these activism resolutions that had more to do with politics than anything else. And so the teachers, the teaching profession is filled with tons of teachers who are doing a good job, who don't want to push their politics into the classroom. But you have their union bosses and leadership fighting to for their political pet projects. You look at where their union dues go and it actually, and the NEA, the largest teachers union in the country, only 9% of their teachers union dues, their total revenues go towards representing teachers. If you can look at their own LM2 reports, it's publicly available information from the latest year. So a lot of it goes towards donating towards Democrat candidates. And this actually happens with the nea. You can look at the Open Secrets website. They have the data publicly available every single election cycle. And most recently the last 2024 election cycle, 98% of their campaign contributions from the NEA went to Democrats. It's more of a money laundering operation than anything else. It's a one sided political arm of the Democrat party. And even if you're a Democrat, you might not want your dues going towards political causes. And so I've been telling teachers recently they should opt out of the union and keep their own hard earned dues, keep their paychecks in their pocket and they can join alternatives now like the Teacher Freedom Alliance. You can go to optouttoday.com and you can click on your state how to opt out of the union. Because I think so many of the teachers, they see that spending has gone up over time. Since 1970 in America, per student spending in the public school system has skyrocketed by about 170% in real terms. But teacher salaries, you're right, have only increased by, well, haven't really increased. They've only nudged up by 3% in real terms. So where's all the money going? It goes towards administrative bloat. Superintendents, we have about a half a dozen of them in Texas who make over $400,000 a year more than the President of the United States salary. And you know, President Trump isn't taking the salary right now, but the stated salaries is supposed to be $400,000 for presidents. And so you have superintendents who have their fiefdoms trying to protect their districts from any competition whatever. And so I think teachers benefit from competition, not just kids and students, in the form of school choice, because the money's not going to the classroom right now. It's going towards politics, it's going towards hiring more people, it's not going towards rewarding the best teachers in the system right now. But if you had competition, well, their bosses, the current monopoly, the school district would have an incentive to say, hey, maybe we should funnel the money towards the classroom this time. Maybe we should increase teacher salaries. Maybe we should have merit pay, which the unions fight against every day of the week and twice on Sundays because the unions just fight for the lowest common denominator. But there's so many good teachers who deserve to be rewarded.

[Chris Bentley]

Talk to me about homeschooling because I know a couple years ago when the liberal movement was really going on and they were starting to teach stuff that they shouldn't be teaching, and then they had the cross dressing thing and all that stuff, which I really don't want to get into, but I know a lot of parents were like, okay, I'm done. Yeah. And either it was going to be private school or it's just going to be homeschool. And it was like, hey, look, I'll crack open a book and homeschool my kid. And I've heard some good stuff and I've heard some bad stuff and usually the good stuff is I don't have access to whatever that teacher's point of view about politics or whatever they want to teach that particular day. And my child gets to stay with me and I get to teach them kind of what my mentality is. And then I've heard also that discipline isn't the same. You know, the discipline to show up every day at 8 o' clock and work until, let's say 3 o' clock and just have one break or whatever it is, how that is, the discipline kind of goes away. Because as a parent you're like, well, you know, Johnny did well today this morning. Like he could take the rest of the afternoon off and watch, you know, I was going to say Flintstones, but that's like way too old school. But you know, like some cartoons, right? And then also on the flip side of it, there just isn't really any socialization. You know, like, you got your kid locked up. Maybe they go outside. I'm not a big outside person. I know this kind of generation isn't really outside. They're mostly on like their tablets and stuff like that. But you know, you go outside and you go meet somebody and you know, the kids go and bicycle together or whatever it is, if you had that luxury. So what is kind of like your take on the staying at home, home teaching situation?

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah, a lot of people say, look, they need to fit in with society, but have you seen society today? I don't want my daughter to fit in with society if that's what society looks like. So. But there's also a lot of negative forms of socialization that happen in the public school system. I experienced it myself. I mean, I have a friend who I'm gonna see who lives in Dallas actually tomorrow, who during middle school, I won't name him by name on the podcast, but he told me that I was walking the wrong way because I wasn't walking with a limp. That was kind of the socially desirable thing to do at my middle school, to act like you got shot in the, in the leg because that was a cool way to walk. I was walking like a door.

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[Cory DeAngelis]

Learn [e-mail] way I guess just too normal. And so that is not the type of socialization I think is going to help my daughter or if we have a son soon, we're working on number two. My, my wife is here as well, behind the scenes. Her name's Miranda and we have a daughter named Angelina. She's 15 months old, almost 16 months, and we plan to homeschool her. I'd argue we already are homeschooling her. We are raising our child with our values and not shipping her off to a daycare or to a. And we don't plan to send her to a government run school. And I just see education as an extension of parenting. It's, you know, you could choose a private school and I'd say that's probably better than most public schools and partially because you get to pick that community that your child is surrounded with and instead of having them fight with everything that you're trying to do at home, that you guys can row in the same direction. So I just think homeschooling, with the socialization aspect, you get to cut out all the negative forms of socialization as much as Possible. I mean, kids were doing drugs at my middle school. People were getting into fights. That was the cool thing to do. And even now, today, you see it all the time on social media. The kids are recording each other, fighting at school and thinking, that's so amazing. They're like, oh, my gosh. And they're like, they're cheering each other on. And so that not all forms of socialization are positive. So I'll just leave it at that. And then also say that you can also have your kids be involved in community sports, play with the other kids in the neighborhood. There are homeschool co ops. They even have hybrid homeschooling now, where you could go in person for one or two or three days a week, and then the rest of the days of the week, you stay home and work from home. And I would say that, you know, there's a lot of benefits for academics with homeschooling as well, because when you're going to the government school system, it's not based on your child's interests. It's they're one teaching to the lowest common denominator student. And so if your student is excelling, if your child is excelling, then, you know, they might get bored at the public school, even at a private school. And so you can tailor the education to the individual unique needs of your individual child with homeschooling, and you don't have to lose the benefits of positive forms of socialization to do so. And I think you're right that a lot of families, when they saw through Zoom school during the COVID years because the public schools were closed, a lot of families said, wait, they're not just teaching math, reading, and writing. What are. What are they talking about? With 52 genders, I thought there were only two, male and female. What are they doing saying that my child is an oppressor or that other child is the oppressed? Why are they pitting people against each other and families, you know, even if they agreed with those ideas, maybe they thought, well, they're not teaching it the right way, or like, these are sensitive topics. Maybe I want to talk about it at home instead of a teacher who can't even teach reading and writing. Why are they trying to get into these other topics that. That are kind of should be in the hands of the parents instead? And there's been a mass exodus from the government school system since 2019. There have been over a million kids. Enrollment has dropped from the public school system. And homeschooling, according to the Census Bureau, has essentially Tripled since then. So people are already voting with their feet. They're already. And I think it's partially because during the COVID years, you got a taste of home based education. A lot of families didn't like it, but a lot of families, and mostly because it was involuntary. It was kind of this government schooling trying to be done at home. It was not done in the right way. The virtual systems were a mess. And with home based education, a lot of families who kind of did it themselves, who wouldn't have tried it before started to get a lot more confidence and saw, well, look, my children is less, My child's less anxious now. They're learning more at a fraction of the time. And, you know, we can do this. And so we saw this, this huge increase in homeschooling and also school choice programs over the past few years. Actually, I have a book called the Parent Revolution. I didn't bring a copy today, but it became a national bestseller after President Trump endorsed it. And Pete Hegseth, the current Secretary of Defense, endorsed it as well. I actually dedicated it to Randy Weingarten for inadvertently doing more to advance school choice and homeschooling than anyone could have ever imagined. And it's because the unions stepped on a rake. They overplayed their hand. They were so drunk on power for so long. But because they fought to keep the schools closed for so long and held children's education hostage, one, they revealed their true colors. The Chicago Teachers Union. They even tweeted out that it was racist to push to reopen schools. They, they had a board member vacationing in Puerto Rico over a thousand miles away. While they were saying it was too unsafe to reopen the schools. Their union boss, Stacey Davis Gates, who just got promoted to the statewide union presidency, she called school choice racist a couple years ago, and now she's sending her own kid to a private school. I mean, you almost can't make this stuff up, but they have 55 public schools there in Chicago where not a single kid is proficient in math, and they spend about $30,000 per student per year in the public school system in Chicago. And so, you know, I'm really excited to be in this fight now because the wind is at our, at our sails. We're, we're seeing so much advancement. I mean, I wish Milton Friedman were alive today. He was the Nobel laureate economist who in 1955 wrote an article called the Role of Government in Education, where he proposed the idea of the funding following the student. And now his ideas are finally coming to fruition. Right before our eyes.

[Chris Bentley]

You know, I was going to touch back on my experience, so kind of people can kind of understand. And so I grew up in an affluent neighborhood. I won't get into race or anything like that. I grew up in an affluent neighborhood or semi affluent, and then I went to affluent schools. You know, like, we. I got into fights. Some other people got in fights. We all liked fighting. Like, we. Our grade, I think we were in third grade and we fought sixth graders. I mean, it was really nothing.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Did you win?

[Chris Bentley]

Yeah, yeah, we won.

[Cory DeAngelis]

But like third graders beating the sixth graders.

[Chris Bentley]

But yeah, I mean, that's kind of how it was. But there wasn't really any sort of drugs or crime, Nothing like that? No, it's elementary through middle school. And then once I got into high school, we got integrated with Section 8 individuals because they were another form of.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Vouchers that can be used at private housing. Right. It's the funding following the decision of the home buyer.

[Chris Bentley]

Yeah, it's just they're in our. In our district. Right. Like in our. They have ISDs here in Texas, but back then I think they just had like school zones or something. So we got, you know, people that their brothers and sisters are in jail or their parents are in jail. Drugs is like, not a big thing. Just being a bad kid was not a big thing. Being broke and robbing people was not a big thing. And where I came from, like, I didn't even know that stuff existed. I was like, whoa, like, what's going on here? So it took a lot to acclimate. And then it was kind of the same thing that you're talking about. If you're not walking with a limp or you don't have this color pants on and this color hat, then you're not like one of the cool kids. And we will jump you in at lunch. Right. Like, it was just kind of.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah, that's not a type of socialization that's helping anybody. Some people will say, oh, you got to learn how to be bullied. It's like, no, you don't. This is abuse. And you shouldn't be trapped with your abuser for 13 years of your life for seven hours a day. I mean, there was actually a scholarship program that started in Florida called the Hope Scholarship. A few. Not a few years ago, before they opened it up to everybody, they would allow scholarships for different groups of students based on income, special need. Now it's everybody. But they also had it for students who were bullied in the public school system. They could get A scholarship to get away from their abuser, basically.

[Chris Bentley]

Yeah, it was bad. And then I became a bully because I got bullied.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Monkey see, monkey do.

[Chris Bentley]

I got bullied when I was younger, and then I became a bully, and then I just fell into, like, a bad crowd. You know, I got tired of doing schoolwork, and I was like, all right. Like, all these kids get to, you know, get, you know, in school suspension. It passed. So, like, I just didn't have to do anything except get in school suspension. So I would just be a bad person. But looking back at that, I had a friend that was more financially or his family was more financially endowed, and he got sent to private school, and he skipped all that high school stuff until, like, the last year or so. And he came in, but he met, like, a lot of people. He had, like, connections. He had networks. So as soon as he graduated high school, like, he had a job. He had a job going into college. Like, he just had connections. And it was, like, really awesome. And I wish that I would have kind of, if I had the means or whatever. My mother was really into it, but put me into something like that because it was just all connections. Like, he was just like, okay, well, I went to, you know, high school or, you know, private school with this kid. Now this kid's going to this college or going to this particular college, and his dad is, like, the CCO of some big pharmaceutical company. And, like, as soon as we graduated out of college, like, we're made.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yep.

[Chris Bentley]

And, like, I didn't really have that access. I was just hanging out with a bunch of, like, low lives.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah. And we should all have that access. I mean, we're all paying for it, and. Or at least the taxpayers are paying. Paying 18,000 a kid in Texas. That's higher than the average private school tuition here in Texas. So, you know, if we're already spending the money, I mean, I'm not arguing to increase taxes on anybody. I actually got into this as a libertarian. I want to decrease taxes. And I think government control of our education is probably the biggest mistake that America has ever made. And it's probably why New York City just elected a socialist, Zaria Mamdani, who has literally called for government to control the grocery stores. I mean, you have kids on this conveyor belt called the government school system for 13 years, for seven hours a day. It shouldn't surprise us that when they're out of the system, they're 18 years old. They get off the conveyor belt. They're now able to vote, and they keep hearing these ideas that big government's the solution to all their problems. Of course they're going to vote for more big government. And Zohraim Hamdani in New York City won the vote among the young, I think it was 18 to 25 years old by like 50 points over Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo won the older generations, but Mamdani won the younger generation. I think it's because partially they're being indoctrinated with this Marxist ideology in the schools. And this also reminded me of something else, that with the socialization aspect of homeschooling, in nowhere else do we only interact with people in other areas of life that are only our age, just based on where they live. And then with the school system, we have these factory model schools, which actually we copied our school system from the Prussian model, which is modern day Germany. And in the 1830s, our first, you know, father of public education was the guy Horace Mann. He was the first secretary of education in Massachusetts, also happens to be the first state and first colony that had compulsory education laws. He went over to Prussia and thought they did such a great job over there with their education system, which they created to have obedient soldiers and obedient factory workers. And I think you see the same kind of structure in America today, where it's really structured around obedience, not excellence. And you're just a cog in a machine. And you're just, you have to sit in your desk, raise your hand to do anything, and you're just part of this big factory. And I think that crushes creativity, it hurts kids in a lot of ways. And with homeschooling, it's based on your individual interest. The knowledge isn't just shoved down your throat from the top down, which, let's be frank, it's just regurgitated on a standardized test. Later on, maybe you have really good memory like I did during the public school system, and you could, you know, cram before the test and then get it out on the paper and then you forget it later on the next week. Why are we doing this? Just. And so with homeschoolers, they're learning based on what they're interested in, and they're not going to forget that information if they're actually interested in it and not just like, oh, I just want to fill in the right bubble on the test, do a good job, everybody gets a trophy and get my diploma that isn't worth the piece of paper that it's printed on. And so you can also interact with people who are not just your exact same age. You're interacting with your siblings. If you're in a homeschool co op, you're interacting with the other grades. A lot of times they'll have the older students tutoring the younger students, which helps the older students as well. Because if you really master a subject now, you can actually not just regurgitate that information on a Scantron, you can also teach it to other people as well. And so yeah, we're really excited to homeschool our daughter Angelina. And we're in the process of creating baby number two as well. And hopefully they will have a great form of socialization growing up together.

[Chris Bentley]

That's awesome. I'm really proud of you guys. Really looking forward to some big news in the future. Corey, tell everybody where they can find you if they want more information about school choice and your advocacy towards it.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Yeah, you can follow me on X. I'm can get my book the Parent Revolution. One place is Amazon. You can basically get it anywhere else, but Amazon has it for like 40% off right now. It was endorsed by Trump, Pete Hegseth and others. Again, it's called the Parent Revolution.

[Chris Bentley]

Corey, appreciate you coming on the show.

[Cory DeAngelis]

Thanks so much, Chris. Good talking to you.

[Chris Bentley]

All right.

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