Allan Parker: Freedom of School Choice Advocacy

In the latest episode of Raven’s Radar, host Raven Harrison welcomed special guest Allan Parker, president of the Justice Foundation, to discuss the important topic of school choice. As an advocate for parents’ rights and the freedom to choose the best education for their children, Allan Parker shared valuable insights and resources on this pressing issue.

Episode 17 Summary with Allan Parker

During the episode, Allan Parker highlighted the significance of school choice and the need for parents to have the power to decide how and where their children are educated. He emphasized that parents are ultimately responsible for their children’s education and should have the freedom to make choices that align with their values and goals.

Transcript

Raven Harrison: Welcome, Patriots! It’s going to be an incredible episode of Raven’s Radar. It has been a week! Woo! So let’s get right to it. If it’s in your sights, it’s on my radar. We’ll be airborne shortly.
[Intro Video]
Raven Harrison: Welcome, Patriots! We have got an incredible episode of Raven’s Radar for you today. Do I say that every week? It’s thankfully true every week. It has been an incredible week. We have a lot of stuff to get to there. Boy, it’s been a week. This is like the, this administration is like the hold my beer of crazy politics. Every time you think it can’t get any weirder, more dangerous, crazier, leftist, it’s the Biden hold my beer ice cream or whatever the heck he happens to be holding at the time. Now we’ve got, we’ve got the, the State of the Union coming up. So at the time of this recording, it will have just passed. So let me give you guys the cliff notes. It sucks! Okay, we are in crazy times right now. The State of the Union is a disaster. It is a dumpster fire. So we’re getting ready to listen to a package of lies, you know, read off the teleprompter, you know, with a combination of whispering and shouting at us with hopefully no red neon red colors blaring. And I’m just going to be happy.
We have a little bet in our house of, you know, whether he’s going to say State of the Union or State of the Union. So guys, you can tune into my social media to you see which one of us won the bet. I am betting my husband that it’s going to be a, it’s going to be an interesting, but that’s going to be a safe bet. I’m going to tell you what the not safe bet is. The not safe bet is anybody who’s going to do the drinking game of taking a shot anytime Biden mumbles, trips over his words or calls his wife, his sister, you wouldn’t be able to afford the alcohol. So I’m just telling you, don’t anybody do that. But that’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to be reporting on that. I’m going to be doing a kind of minor version of the rebuttal of this on the Scripps network. So definitely tune in for that guys, but here’s the thing. We are not in unicorn land anymore.
When I say the State of the Union is bad, it is because it is bad. We are real facts here at Raven’s radar. We are not thoughts and feelings and, you know, projected offenses and outrageous. We are facts and facts are we have crippling inflation. Facts are grocery store shelves are still empty. Facts are it is now as of January 2023 or February 2023. It is now more expensive to charge your electric car than it is to fill up your gas tank. Let that one sink in for a minute. That’s where we are. Okay, we have an unconsurmountable amount of illegals in our country right now. And Biden is touting numbers we will get to that are garbage. And my favorite, which came out for those of you who were all paying attention last week, you saw that good night table, good night moon, good night, Chinese spy balloon.
Did you guys happen to catch that? That was what I would call the most profound test we have had of our military intel and our state of military readiness. And let me give you guys another spoiler alert. We failed. Okay, how does a Chinese spy balloon, okay, of that magnitude start on the West Coast, enter our airspace, traverse all the way across the United States over a period of days. Okay, over a period of days, people got to see this, this spy balloon. And it went over Maelstrom Air Force Base, my not Air Force Base and a host of nuclear facilities on its way across the country, gathering our military intel and nuclear secrets.
And then was finally shot down off the coast of South Carolina. Was it shot down or did it actually just run out of gas and fall out of the sky? I’ll let you guys decide. But this is what I try to warn people about inept leadership. Our enemies can smell the blood in the water. This doesn’t just happen. Okay, how does a spy balloon cross our entire country? And we’re sitting over here going, okay, it’s over uninhabited Montana and we can’t hit it because we’re afraid we’re going to hit a cow or a blade of grass. This is horrible. And the fact that the Chinese are threatening to retaliate, if it was just a weather balloon, why are they retaliated? This, this is just garbage. Patriots, it is ridiculous. It was shot down after it gathered all the intel it needed. And because it was shot down the ocean, we are not able to retrieve it.
I can tell you having two military parents who were stationed at the Pentagon, I don’t think I’ve heard my father laugh so hard at Biden’s response to anything else he said. It is a joke. And just to wrap up that thought of guys, we need to be honest, every one of you know that if Trump had been in office, okay, as soon as a nylon fiber had hit American airspace, that would have been shot down and he would have sent the bill to China for the missile he used to take it down. So facts matter. So I just want to make everybody aware that this is the time that we need to come together and universally and in one voice say this is not okay. It’s not okay. This doesn’t happen. This is inept leadership. Biden needs to go. Kamala needs to go with him. Pelosi should go along for the ride. Don’t get me started. Here we go.
So this is where we put our elected leaders on task. Congress, do your job. Senate, find your way to a subpoena or some kind of judiciary hearings and somebody needs to do a perp walk. American people are ready perp walk. Somebody needs to do the perp walk too many people breaking the law and not enough going to jail. You heard it here first. So in that vein, we want to put that economy aside and get to something else. It’s really important, which is liberty and school choice. Parents rights are fading as fast as our national security and we need to know what to do about it. So today we have a fabulous guest on on. We have Allan Parker. He’s going to be coming on talking about what resources parents have for school choice and where this legislation stands in our country. It’s going to be a fabulous action packed segment. Don’t miss it.
[thetweeterofthefreeworld.com spot]
Raven Harrison: Welcome back Patriots. Did I tell you we are getting to it today? So in that vein, we have an incredible guest on our show today. Don’t we always have incredible guests? This is what it’s all about. Verbs in the sentences, boots on the ground and frontline generals who are getting it done. And today is no exception. We have the Allan Parker. He is the president of the Justice Foundation. I think it was formerly the Texas Justice Foundation, but he is an incredible warrior and advocate for school choice and many other frontline issues that are facing parents and Texas as a whole. Welcome, Mr. Parker.
Allan Parker: Thank you, Raven. It’s great to be on the program with you.
Raven Harrison: I am so glad to have you. This has been an incredible time. I want to start by first introducing you. You have a really distinguished resume and I want you to tell our listeners and our viewers a little bit about you.
Allan Parker: Well, thank you. As applied to the issue of school choice, I think it’s most interesting. I went to the University of Texas Law School in Austin, Texas, and I graduated very close to the top of my class on the Law Review and did very well. Then I went into the practice of law and I represented public school districts for the first seven years of my professional career. And then I became a law professor at St. Mary’s University School of San Antonio. I taught civil procedure because I did mostly litigation, but I also taught education law, got that into the curriculum because it was a growing field where lawyers had to be involved. Sadly, I have to say.
Raven Harrison: True story.
Allan Parker: But then we founded the Justice Foundation in 1993 to be parents advocates rather than school district advocates. And part of what I saw in the public schools needed changing. And as a professor of law, actually, I had looked into the issue of school choice. This was 1991, I think when I wrote my first article, would school choice be constitutional under the Texas Constitution? And to my surprise, it’s not only, I believe, constitutionally permissible. I actually felt and wrote an article that it was constitutionally required under the Texas Constitution.
Raven Harrison: This is really interesting. Let me just ask you, sir, in that vein, what do you think occurred in that 1991 to 1993 range that went from you being an advocate for the school to needing to be an advocate for the parents? Because this is what we’re seeing right now. When did all of a sudden the parents need protecting from the schools?
Allan Parker: Well, you can see it beginning even in the 1990s. And the first set of schools in Texas was called community schools under the current Texas Constitution. Any group of parents could start their own school, hire their own teachers, and apply to the state for reimbursement of the teachers, based on student attendance, they’d get a certain amount of money, and they’d pay the teacher. So it was very parent-centered, very community-centered. But by 1954, there was an article published in some teacher organization magazine that they finally centralized public education in Texas. And pretty much since the 50s and 60s, it’s been going downhill ever since.
Raven Harrison: It really has been. And I am one of those parents. But now, why is this such an issue? I mean, I’m from a time when, you know, if you took government out of education, I’m just a firm believer that government and education don’t belong in the same sentence together. But that parents didn’t need protecting until the government got involved with education. What do you see the state of it now? Well, that was a big debate in 1876, when we actually started education funding in Texas. Some said, no, it’s the parents’ responsibility to educate and fund their children. Other people said education is so important that we as a society should fund the education of all children so that everyone can be literate and advanced. And that, it was about 40 percent who said no government funding, 60 percent, yes.
But here’s the reason we educate in Texas. This is from the Texas Constitution. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential for the preservation of liberty, it shall be the duty of the legislature to establish a suitable and efficient system of public free schools. Now, who would think a government monopoly would be an efficient system? It’s the least efficient way. And so ours was a decentralized system. And the purpose was to give knowledge to defend liberty, not to make people into a pawn of the state, a cog in the industrial machine, which is kind of what it’s become.
Raven Harrison: And liberty, being the operative word, right? Liberty implies choice. So that is a, that’s where we’re, we’re getting for people who don’t understand the rage in this debate. You know, parents’ choice, I am responsible for my two until they reach adulthood. So I should not have, should I not have the choice on, you know, I have a choice on what they eat. I have a choice on what they watch on television and what they engage in, but I should not have the choice on where and how they’re educated. That’s where we are right now, though, aren’t we? This is a fight that you’re having on a pretty much daily basis, become a lucrative, a lucrative thing. Where does it stand in Texas right now? Are you on the front of some legislation?
Allan Parker: Yes. We started in 1991 because we thought it was a good idea. Today, the majority of Texans of all ethnic backgrounds and both political parties believe it’s time for the funding to follow the child to the school of the parent’s choice. That’s what school choice means today. Not that you get to educate your kids at home if you want to. That’s a great right. But every child has a right to a free, publicly funded education in Texas. Currently, you can only get it if you take the way the government wants to give it to you. And we’re just simply saying, no, the money belongs to the parents. That’s why the board of managers of the school district are called trustees, not directors, not owners. They hold the money in trust for the children’s benefit, not for the employees, not for the district. That’s from an old case called City of Love versus Dallas, Love v. City of Dallas.
Raven Harrison: Oh my gosh. That is everything. Come on now. That is something I’m usually pretty good with the zingers. But this is, that was it. Trustees, parents. That’s why they were initially called trustees is because that’s a relationship that was supposed to, and it should follow the child. It’s the child’s education. It is the child’s lot in life. It is their path. It is their responsibility, you know, at some point. So that is fantastic. So what are the cases you are? So are you actively, you know, who do you propose to? How do people start this cycle if they’re having issues in Texas with the public education or school choice?
Allan Parker: Two ways to get involved. One is to contact your legislature directly. The governor of Texas is now for full school choice for every child, even those who are currently in private school. The education establishment likes to say, oh, we’re for the education of all children. But that’s a fraud. They don’t want to educate or pay for the education of children in private schools. They just want government schools to be involved. But we’re now for the education and the governor is for it. Representative Briscoe Cain has filed a bill which we think is excellent called the Parental Empowerment Program Act, HB1892. HB1892. And what it does, it says every child in the state of school age is eligible. If you want to receive reimbursement for the cost of your education and you’ll take a little bit less than the public schools get, and I’ll explain why in a minute, if you’ll take 80%, which is about $8,800 per child, then you can take it to any school you want, public, private, charter, non-charter, religious, non-religious, whatever you want.
And the reason we take less is because first of all, first of all, we leave 10% with the public schools because we say no federal funding. Federal funding comes with strings. That’s the only way the federal government can control education. It has no constitutional authority over education. The state does, but we’re willing to take state money, but not federal money. That’s 10%. And then another 10% is for the debt services that the public schools have. So we don’t want to then go into bankruptcy. So if you take 80% of your maintenance and operation, that leaves per pupil spending will automatically rise. There’ll be no child left behind because every child has a choice. If you choose to stay in your public school, your public school gets the money. You choose to go somewhere else. So there’ll be no children left behind. And those are the governors for it.
He hasn’t announced his bill yet, but Briscoe Cain, HB1892, and Senator Mayes Middleton, that has a little more complicated bill, but it’s a very good bill called Senate Bill 17, the 176, SB176. And then the other way you can get involved is there are organizations, there’s a new organization in Texas called Liberty for the Kids. And that is a C4 activist organization. If someone’s listening to this line, and you want to join the army for school choice, you got to get emails, you got to get information on what’s going on. Liberty for the Kids is a single issue advocacy group to get school choice. That’s their goal. And as I’ve told some of the elected officials in office, if there’s not a substantial bill for a lot of people, there’s going to be people who are upset this time. And well,
Raven Harrison: absolutely. And we don’t, we don’t want that. Let me just ask just to clarify real quick as we’re wrapping up. So for the ones that the credit, so we have this $8,000 credit, does that go into the parents’ hand or that directly? Who’s responsible for allocating that money to the child’s needs?
Allan Parker: That will go into an education savings account. Once you register and you have a child of school age, you know, you show birth certificate, you’ve got to be school age, and the comptroller runs it. Not the commissioner of education, because we don’t want them controlling the education. It’s the parent and the comptroller. And basically then you submit receipts and they’ll send you a check from your own education savings account. And the best ones are set up. If you don’t spend all the money, you can roll it over into a college fund and spend it on college for your children.
Raven Harrison: Now that is excellent. And if it doesn’t go exactly like that, then that’s when they start calling you, correct?
Allan Parker: That’s exactly right. I’ve been able to help draft a lot of the bills in the past. We litigated for school choice in 1993. Based on that theory I talked about, that you have a right. Well, the Texas Supreme Court had become Republican, more status quo than constitutionalist, I’ll say, but they said even though the legislature currently chooses to provide school education through districts and agency, there’s nothing in the Texas Constitution that requires them to do so. They can choose any method. So if things get out of line, we’ll litigate again to help get school choice. And we did get charter schools, which are nonprofits with non-governmental employees running schools, but they’re considered public schools, so they are somewhat restricted. Now we need to get full school choice.
Raven Harrison: That is excellent. I’m hoping there’s some very encouraged parents out there like me who just have whopper of a story to tell, we were discussing before the show, but this is fantastic. So where can the listeners and the warriors watching this podcast reach out to you? Can you give them websites and contact where you can get involved with this amazing effort?
Allan Parker: Thank you. Well, the Justice Foundation website is www.thejusticefoundation.org. The Justice Foundation, if you Google it, you’ll probably find it. And we have resources for school choice up at the top. There’s another organization called Liberty for the Kids, which is more activist. We are an educational organization. They’re more activist. You can sign that one, libertyforthekids.org. And they’ll keep you up to date on emails, tell you which legislators are voting which way or that way, who’s the good ones, who’s the bad ones, and you can get involved. And it’s a battle for every Texan right now.
Raven Harrison: Yes, it is. And parents in particular, we can never say enough about people who give parents some resources. It is the most frustrating thing. They say parenting doesn’t come with a manual. What should come with backup? And that’s where you come in. And I am so grateful. No, please go ahead.
Allan Parker: One more thing on our website. If you email us, we will send you the notice and declaration of parental rights. You fill it out the way you want to, and then you give it to the school district. And that puts them on notice of all the federal and state rights that you have, and will help prevent them from violating your rights and your child’s rights in the public school. You can opt out of all this terrible indoctrination and sexual grooming of children. And then you could have legal remedies if they violate your rights. So please, that’s free. No charge. We give that to everybody that wants it.
Raven Harrison: Okay, parents, that’s it. You have to find Allan Parker. He is doing this on the front line. And you and I need to have a long and hard talk before I put my kids back in any kind of school based on, but that’s what we need. We need to have resources. Remember, Patriots, what’s wrong and what are we going to do about it? Allan Parker.
Allan Parker: One more thing. Nowhere has this destroyed public schools. It only helps improve public schools. And the question is not whether public schools are private. Really, the question is, what’s best for my child at this phase of my child’s life? People may go back and forth. They may stay out of public forever based on their experience, but that’s some people, most people have choice. Usually go back and forth. Some child may really want something that only a public school can have, like a championship football team. Other kids don’t care a big about football, and they want something different. It’s what’s best for my child at this phase of my child’s life.
Raven Harrison: That’s where it is. And we will leave it there. So Patriots, you know, we will have information on our Facebook page so you can reach Allan Parker. You can get involved. Thank you, sir, for giving parents a voice and some rights and some resources. Hopefully we can call upon you again.
Allan Parker: Thank you anytime.
[thetweeterofthefreeworld.com spot]
Raven Harrison: Well, Patriots told you we were going to keep it on the front line. It was a great segment. It’s a great time. And I really want to remind people, you guys see me get worked up because we’ve got a lot going on. But doesn’t it feel amazing to be here for a time such as this? We are the frontline warrior. We are God’s chosen. We were made for a time such as this. So we’ve got a lot going on in the world, but we are no longer asking to take our country back.
We are doing this. We can do it. It just requires diligent. We have gotten complacent and quite frankly lazy and I’ll own some of that Patriots. We have allowed this kind of corruption to go unchecked for too long. And it is time for us to get back in the fight. It is time to realize that freedom is not free. It’s paid for by the blood of Patriots, the sweat of Patriots, the tears of Patriots. And we are going to do this. Want to also remind Patriots to reach out to me, keep feeding me what you want to see us address and attack on these front lines. You can reach me at RavenHarrison.com.
You can find us on social media as Raven, the conservative warrior. And you can find Raven’s radar on all social media platforms, Rumble, Spotify, anywhere where podcasts are. And want to remind people that the pre-sales will be available soon of Raven’s mantle. This is a frontline story you’re not going to want to believe. Yes, guys, I am old enough. I do have lived through the Cold War. I was at the Vegas Massacre. I had a parent in the Pentagon at 9-11. There are some serious details that Patriots need to be informed of of what it means to fight the betrayal of America. And I’m going to dish it in this book. We’re going to be doing that. But until then, remember, guys, we have got this, the spoiler alert is the Bible.
We know who wins the victory. We’re just occupying until he gets here. Take care.

Wrap-up

In conclusion, Allan Parker’s advocacy for school choice resonated strongly with Raven Harrison and her viewers. The episode shed light on the importance of empowering parents and allowing them to make informed decisions about their children’s education. The call-to-action urged parents to join the fight for school choice, whether by contacting their legislators directly or getting involved with organizations like Liberty for the Kids.

By actively participating in the discussion and advocating for school choice, parents can help shape the future of education and ensure their children receive the best possible opportunities for learning and growth.

Now is the time for parents to take a stand and fight for their right to choose their children’s education. Reach out to your legislators and let them know that you support school choice. Visit the Justice Foundation’s website for valuable resources and the declaration of parental rights to protect your children’s education. Get involved with organizations like Liberty for the Kids, which aim to promote school choice. Together, we can make a difference and empower parents to have greater control over their children’s educational journey.

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AVEN HARRISON

Conservative Warrior