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New Ways To Educate Our Children ~ Schola Labs
Clara Del Villar, CEO & Founder of Schola Labs, focuses on the new thinking and demand for educational choice. In the wake of concerns with our educational systems at the local, state, and national levels, Scola has experienced remarkable growth. CEO/Founder Carla Dell Villar reports that more students and families are opting for personalized learning pathways. However, existing systems are struggling to keep pace with accelerating societal changes. America has been hindered with the limitations of choice in our educational options. Schola Labs recognizes the urgent need for scalable solutions that can accommodate the increasing demands for educational choice,
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
New Ways To Educate Our Children ~ Schola Labs
Chris Ruddy: [00:00:00] This is Chris Ruddy, and I love Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. Make sure you’re tuning in just like I do every day, every week, every minute.
With breaking news and political commentary from a public servant, serial entrepreneur, community leader, philanthropist, and American patriot, and a darn nice guy, it’s time for the GrassRoots TruthCast, and your host, Gene Valentino.
Gene Valentino: Hi friends, Gene Valentino. Welcome back to another episode on Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. I’m proud to have Clara Del Villar with us today. She’s with Schola Labs. She’s with me by Zoom out of her operation in New York City. I had the privilege of meeting Clara recently, uh, at an unrelated, uh, venue, and we had the chance to explore Of all things, [00:01:00] the future of education in the United States and where it’s going.
Uh, Clara, thanks for joining us here today.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Gene, I’m delighted to join you and to be with you and talk about, uh, all things education.
Gene Valentino: And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do a deep dive on all things education when we come back right after this.
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Gene Valentino: Hi friends. Welcome back to GrassRoots TruthCast. Today’s episode is with Clara del Valar and Clara is with Schola labs. Schola labs. Clara is a very interesting concept. Tell us what Schola labs does.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Thank you again, Gene. I’m really happy to be here joining you and spending time discussing these issues.
Obviously, in my opinion, I think education in the K through 12 demographic is the most important issue facing our country. And what many of your viewers may or may not be aware of the school choice [00:03:00] movement, known as universal choice. Or open enrollment has been in action for the last 30 years, which means that, um, that so many advocates and administrators and folks have been interested in shifting.
The public school education mode to modernize it to give more choices to parents so that they can find the optimal education platform for their children. And while I’ve been involved philanthropically with entrepreneurial ventures. And, uh, non profit groups that help provide grants to children in low income areas or troubled neighborhoods to give them more opportunities.
The school choice movement now has really gained rapid speed, which means that a portion of the public school money will be placed in parents hands so that they can decide to take their child to another public [00:04:00] school, or a private school, Or homeschooling, they can provide and provide access. And what Schola labs does is provide the up to date innovative technology to smooth this process, both for the school administrator, the administrator and the parent so that they can seamlessly keep track of the funding.
Gene Valentino: So it’s a, it’s a technology platform. But what I find interesting, Claire, about it, which is what turned me on about this topic that you’re involved in, is that it sits against the backdrop of a failing educational system in this nation. This nation has, um, Injured itself with the way it’s mismanaged its education.
Let’s start at the national level. First, I find it most interesting that Donald Trump, while we are be a few weeks before a November 5th election, we find ourselves, um, we find the Republicans and the, uh, Trump regime [00:05:00] talking up the, uh, takedown of the national educational system, the Department of Education, as we’ve known it on the federal level and shifting its burden to states.
While a lot of that seems appealing to me, I’m concerned about how we might lose standardizations nationwide, like the like the scholastic aptitude test. I’m used to when I was in high school getting ready for college. The S. A. T. Was what everyone was sweating over during their junior and senior years of high school.
Now, today, the focus is It’s, it’s as if it’s not a concern at all. The, uh, attention and, uh, rhetoric going on in the college level systems has muted the issues of, and the importance of a lot of these standards. And the, and the mother and father are finding themselves in a situation. [00:06:00] of having to say, what do I do about the education of my child through elementary, secondary, and secondary school systems before they even get into college?
What, what do you say about this Scholar Labs initiative? Are you finding it? popular? Where in the nation is it popular? Is it in red states or blue states? Let me let you answer.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Sure, of course. And so as, as you know, you’ve opened up a very complex topic. So let me focus on the K through 12. area and how this issue in school choice blew open during the COVID period when parents started to see their child sitting in front of a laptop because they couldn’t go into the schools and parents started to realize that the quality of the education of their children, you know, in K through 12 was not what they expected it to be.
to be. [00:07:00] And for a long time, for many years, particularly, uh, particularly Jean in the low income areas. So I’m trouble, I’m talking about troubled communities in Harlem, in Bronx, in Detroit, in Philadelphia, in Maryland, in places in Maryland, where children are graduating without being able to, high school, without being able to read.
Or write without the competency to read at grade level. And so we’re looking at a period of time where costs have never been higher. It’s not going to be, you’re not going to be able to buy a 50, 000 home. Education costs are higher. And so children are at a point where they aren’t being able to read, write, or do math problems.
What kind of job opportunities await them? Let alone entry into higher academic. Universities where they can continue to hone their skills. So the point here is that educational choices for K through 12 [00:08:00] are made by the Board of Ed. So to clarify, while we have the Department of Education, certainly in Washington, and it really isn’t going to be dismantled, um, Educate Board of Ed K through 12 is really decided state by state and school board by school board.
They’re 98, 000 public schools around the country and they have school boards and those school boards make decisions about how the lesson plans are going to be, how the teachers unions weigh in on what the lesson plans should be. And when there was a shift. that happened where in K through 12, particularly that, you know, fifth grade to high school level, where all of a sudden sexual education classes or all kinds of other classes started being integrated away from the standard, you know, Educational choices that we had when we [00:09:00] were growing up.
Mathematics, you know, geometry, English, geography. There’s no geography taught in schools anymore in public schools. So when those lesson plans started to shift to more generic. and less robust educational choices. Parents started to get furious and Florida led the way. Governor Jeb Bush looked at the educational rankings of particularly the black and Latino families and saw them at the bottom of the barrel of the 50 states.
And he said, I’m going to change this by allowing parents. If they aren’t happy with the public school where their child is because of educational quality or because of safety, they have the right to move their child from the zip code where they are to another zip code so they get a better education.
Gene Valentino: Claire, is this an, let me get political for a second. Is your service [00:10:00] finding roots in, um, in, uh, the, the red states or the blue states? Do you find more need in sanctuary cities and sanctuary states? Or where, where do you go with your service? Where is it most popular?
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Well, well, to answer your question quickly, the red states are taking the lead.
So if Florida took the lead, Arizona is number two in terms of the thousands of students in school choice right now. So the red states, one by one, Georgia, Arizona, Utah, et cetera, are really taking the lead in school choice, but there is a dramatically important need in the blue states. I’m here in New York City, and I’ve been an advocate and supporter of public school choice for decades at this stage.
I did some volunteer teaching, entrepreneurial teaching, in grade schools in the late 90s, Jean. And I went to Crown Heights, [00:11:00] Brooklyn, a very impoverished area. And when I went through that middle school to help teach them, uh, basically business, very, very simple business terms. That was the first time I went through a gun detector.
This was in 1998. So the violence, the safety issues, as well as the dramatic Deterioration of educational quality that all the students in that classroom. There were probably 22. Um, there, there weren’t enough desks. There were kids sitting on the window sills. So we can also touch on the fact that the, the, um, dramatic violence against against school choice by the teachers union.
Makes me very, very upset because we don’t know how the money is being spent when I go into a classroom and I don’t see enough supplies, or I don’t see enough basically equipment for the children to use. I wonder why it costs 38, 000 a student to [00:12:00] educate them. In public school here in New York, what’s happening to the money?
How is it being spent? And why are children graduating without being 38,
Gene Valentino: 000 a year per student on average in New York City,
CLARA DEL VILLAR: New York City? Yes, between the state funding. The property taxes and 10 percent of the federal money as well as 38, 000. By contrast, in Florida, it costs 9, 000 per student. So
Gene Valentino: I was going to say in the panhandle here, I’m aware of numbers at the school board levels in the six counties around me of between six and 12, 000 a year, drilling down more specifically, but What I’m having trouble with is understanding, so your service is a platform service that these educational platforms sit on, like programs sit on a Microsoft platform.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Right, so I’ll give you a quick example. [00:13:00] Um, when a school choice program goes into effect, um, what happens is it has to be administered in a department of education or a department of treasury at the state level because each state has its own definition of what school choice will be and gene who will be eligible for school choice programs.
So some states choose to make parents that are low income More eligible than parent than families that may be higher middle income. They may only provide or there might provide the educational school choices to parents that have a disabled child, you see, so, um, so every state has its own definition of how they will execute the school choice program.
So the administrator is located in, let’s say, the Department of Treasury. And what happens when school choice is enacted? is [00:14:00] they have, um, they’ll, they have a budget. So the state legislature will say, we will give you 50 million. It goes towards the school choice program. So that 50 million comes out of the public school state contribution to public schools, right?
And they give that money to, uh, thousands of different families. And so the administrator that’s located In that state department has to account for every penny that is being allocated by the legislature and school labs provides the administrative platform to facilitate the accounting and the execution.
It’s an
Gene Valentino: interesting point you bring up, uh, the source of funds, you know, at least in Florida, most of the education is paid for as it is in many, uh, states in the nation, uh, from the property tax at the local level, right? [00:15:00] Half the budget was the, um, Was the local county or city’s property tax system that was funding education.
In fact, in Escambia County, Florida here, we had nearly a billion dollar budget, about 450 million of it was education. The other half was all other services of, uh, of the county, including police and fire. And in that context, if I didn’t like the education, my son was getting in a given school system and wanted to move him into another.
as a city or a county to get education there, I would be able to and I would pay a stipend or feed to that county for the admission of that student in that school. But I wasn’t credited for the taxes I was paying in my own hometown, which were Earmarked in part for education So my question to you is if it’s coming out of a state [00:16:00] fund or a state credit Is it intended to?
How is it? Are we paying the school back directly? uh from that, um from that stipend or is the Um mother and father the property owner of that student um, uh being reimbursed to put their student into another system You
CLARA DEL VILLAR: So the way it would work, Jean, is that the property tax, so think of this as a pie, and so there are three parts of the pie, state, local, which is property taxes and then the federal.
And so the property taxes that go towards the school in your zip code cannot be changed, cannot be moved. That money stays with that public school. The money that can move is the state portion, the 45 percent of that state portion. And so when the state legislature says we’re going to [00:17:00] Uh, we’re going to, uh, legislate 50 million so that, you know, 50, 000 parents can send their children to whatever public school they want to send.
It’s that state portion that moves, but keep in mind, if the child decides to move and right now across the country, across the country without Florida, as an example, we’re looking at 680, 000. Students gene. So it’s just a tiny microcosm, right? There are 49 and a half million children in public schools around the country.
They’re 98, 000 public schools with again, almost 50 million students. So we’re still talking about just a sliver of students that choose and families that choose to make this move. So when a parent, let’s say Florida is an example, decides to take their child from one public school district to another school [00:18:00] district.
Um, that’s the state funds that go from one to the other. Because you live in Florida, you’re still paying state taxes no matter, excuse me, there are no state taxes. So it doesn’t impact you one way or the other, your property taxes are still going to support the school in your district, no matter what, with the choice and and here’s another point that state funding, um, that goes to the public school stays with the public school for three years, even when the student leaves.
So when teachers unions. Come out and they violently protest against public schools and people that support school choice or anti teacher. Nothing could be further from the truth because the school district budget still stays relatively intact and Florida has a very interesting case study because they’ve been doing this for so many years.
For the last 25 years, roughly, um, that the public school system in [00:19:00] general has actually improved academically, you know, because school choice has brought in some competition that yes, increase their. Academic. That’s the key
Gene Valentino: word. That’s the key word, Clara. I think you’re mentioning is competition. You know, we think of education.
We think of college sports and college athletes and even some competition at the high school level being sports based. But what you’re doing through Schola Labs, correct me if I’m wrong, is introducing a competitive environment for the educational system at the state and local levels to become more competitive with each other from an academic point of view.
I think, I think that that has just as much merit, if not more merit, and might bring our scores back up nationwide. What do you say?
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Well, it certainly happened in Florida, and the group that’s been doing this in Florida is called Step Up for Students, and that was founded by Jeb Bush, Step Up for Students, again, [00:20:00] almost 30 years ago, uh, you know, just under 30 years ago, Jean, and so they have led the movement, uh, To make this happen.
And so it’s been, it’s been a struggle, a very, very apocalyptic struggle that is not over yet. And, uh, and it, it loses steam because politics, as you know, puts a clog into every, you know, any, any benefit or gift. Public school. As we know, them were invented in the 18 sixties. And so this movement, uh, to change it has been monumental.
And let me just add if Donald Trump is elected president in November, he’s promised to make Uh, school choice, a national program. He wants to bring it. He’s going to create a national school choice program, which would change the game.
Gene Valentino: Well, there you go, Clara. That’s where I was going with this. That means that your focus and your marketing and efforts, at least for Schola Labs, correct me if I’m wrong [00:21:00] again, is not.
State by state based red state blue state based. It’s it’s based on a assistance because the stand. I don’t mind the federal government setting standards. I have a problem with them getting involved with the administrative process, whether it’s an election booth. which involves our ballots or, uh, the standards of the construction of a highway, the highway system, but it is managed at state and local levels and maintained at state and local levels.
Uh, uh, you know, some of your data showed that in, I think it was 2021, if I remember reading your data correctly, about 7. something percent of the nation was showing interest in this private school charter school concept, the Genesis away from public schools. Has that number gotten larger since 2021?
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Oh, oh yes.
And, and, and the [00:22:00] tragedy of this now, again, I’m going to speak as a New Yorker gene. So there are 3, 700 charter schools Across the country and charter schools are actually public schools. They cannot charge a tuition, but they are funded by nonprofit organizations or other parts of the school district.
Um, so they’re funded privately. But they don’t charge tuition to their parents. In New York, we have Success Academy, and it has been a uphill struggle for Eva Moskowitz to really run that academy. The children that go there are 99 percent black or hispanic, the family is Are low income and these programs were set up to help that demographic specifically and a huge percentage of those students go on to college, they graduate and go on to college and successful careers, but.
The state, the blue states have been violently against [00:23:00] these charter schools again. Why? Because they don’t like the competitive element that puts the public schools in a bad light because the
Gene Valentino: teachers union being held more accountable
CLARA DEL VILLAR: and the teachers unions. So, uh, Biden, president Biden and our own governor here tried to shut down the expansion of public schools because in New York.
We have a waiting list for parents that want to send their children to these charter schools that are located in Harlem, in the Bronx, et cetera, of 150, 000. Think of that. Where have
Gene Valentino: you been, Clara Delvillar? We’ve needed this in our communities throughout the nation 10, 15 years ago when the deep state was beginning their Secrets towards undermining education and the system of education.
Uh, folks, we’re talking with Clara del Villar. She’s founder and owner of, uh, Schola labs. She’s in New York and with her team of six [00:24:00] folks, uh, she’s, let me give you a little quick background, 20, 28 to 30 years of experience in policy evaluation, successful financial. industry career entrepreneur. She’s also, uh, uh, been in many entrepreneurial ventures, digital media, uh, and very interesting.
We haven’t touched on it. Uh, energy technology. Her involvement is also been in prestigious, uh, organizations and, and been a strong, has had a strong commitment and excellence. Uh, her leadership has shown, uh, it’s come through with the way a school of labs has propagated its strategy nationwide. And I think with President Trump in place, the this synchronizes Clara, correct me if I’m wrong again, is this synchronizes nicely to the genesis of what we really want anyways.
And that’s more control. Of our educational [00:25:00] system on so many levels for our infants, our Children at the very earliest of ages, all the way up to college. And, um, I love this competitive aspect to which ties into the business chemistry of, uh, of Donald Trump’s thinking. The idea that we make school itself a competitive thing again.
Physicists in high school that outmatch our students here in the United States. Physicists in China, I should say, in high school who are, who are advancing themselves at geometric rates and surpassing the United States. Once a leader in the world in education. Where the United States was once elite, once a leader in many other areas as well, is coming back.
The door is swinging back the other way on so many levels. And Clara Del Villar is a perfect example. Schola Labs of how that’s happening. Uh, Clara, you want to touch on a [00:26:00] few more points before we call it quits?
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Well, I think, I think you’ve summed up the importance of this issue and, and the passion certainly that I share, but also all the many amazing people that have been on this journey for the last 28 years, Jean, there’s so many, and Florida, again, so many wonderful people and organizations in Florida and across the country have made championing the future, a future of unlimited opportunity for children across this nation.
Young people today in school, in grade school, middle school, et cetera, are gonna be facing a future where as of today we have $32 trillion in debt. We have an incredibly dysfunctional federal government , and so I think if they aren’t prepared more. Robustly than ever before to handle whatever the future holds the they’re going to be at a tremendous disadvantage.
And [00:27:00] I mean, in particular, the low income communities, the black Hispanic communities, I think that really have a tremendous Have have a desperate need for more opportunity and the tools in order to do that. We are not against teachers. We’re opportunity. And so that’s what really we’re trying to focus on.
And I think Donald Trump. This isn’t a campaign, you know, announcement, but I think we need to overlook some of the personal issues and really say we need someone that’s going to champion for these Children and put everything else aside.
Gene Valentino: You hit the nail on the head. I just want someone to get something done.
I remember when I was in politics. Well, I remember chatting with you about this over dinner. You know, you don’t have to like me, but do you like what I’ve gotten done for you? And full stop right there. When he told me Yeah. That, uh, he was interested in making sure that the mother and father of that student had more [00:28:00] say over that child’s education.
This, um, uh, you know, we’re part of a grand community, and the school system is taking on a role of under education. Owning the, uh, authorities and control over the student, the child is crossing a line. It’s one step too far for me. I think that, um, we, the parents just needed to be empowered to have that authority over our children.
Uh, look, there’s a lot of social and political problems in our nation and around the world, but that doesn’t mean the fundamental principles should be abandoned. It doesn’t mean we should turn away from a quality education where mom and dad are participating in that process with a friendly teacher who’s invited over for dinner, who’s almost, it’s a friendly environment, the teacher relationship.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: And parents have the [00:29:00] ability, yes, to decide what makes best, what’s the best educational choice for their children. That’s not anti teacher. In fact, that just brings more brain power to the decision on what’s best for the child.
Gene Valentino: I see a few different paths you’re taking. You’re, you’re, you’re addressing a national standard that you hope Donald Trump is able to implement.
Point number one, you are continuing your own personal company marketing at the state, maybe local levels, regional levels. Um, and at the same time, uh, you’re probably, your footprint’s going to have to expand even for the homeschooling concept for mom and dad who say, Hey. Full stop bad environment all over the place pay me a stipend state pay me a stipend county and city for that which I’m now doing on my own for you and that’s teaching my [00:30:00] student my my child if I’m going to homeschool that student who’s my child Uh, there’s got to be a discount or a credit coming off my tax bill.
And I think what you’re talking about is, is sort of the, the beginning of that transformation. Now I’ve, I’ve made a hell of a leap when I said, take a credit off my bill because I’m teaching them at home, but what else, what else, I mean, I don’t want to pay twice for the same education.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: There are tax credits that are available in, in a couple of states.
Again, Donald Trump would make those, those tax credits available to many more people in states. And this is in addition to the school choice issue, Gene, that means is, um, there are nonprofit organizations, Children’s Scholarship Fund and others that provide grants. to parents so that they can also take their children to public school.
Those donors would get [00:31:00] a tax credit. So what that means is you’re incentivizing donors to contribute personally to the educational future of parents that can’t afford to send their children to Spence or Dalton that cost 60, 000 a year. You see, because what we’re discussing here is opening up opportunity for people.
That the wealthy already have, that if they don’t like the public schools, they could send them to the best public, you know, private schools in the country. Middle income, lower income people don’t have that choice. We want to open it up so that they do.
Gene Valentino: Isn’t it amazing that the AOC squad, the Bernie Sanders and the deep left who accused Donald Trump and the elite rich within the Democrat, within the Republican party, the, uh, of being, uh, disconnected from, um, uh, mom and pop.
I saw Donald Trump in a local restaurant the other day or, or store handing out [00:32:00] 100 to someone at the counter who couldn’t pay their, pay their bill. I haven’t seen any of the AOC squad or, uh, or Kamala doing any of that stuff. Talk about being, uh, worried about the real people in this nation.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: You raised the most important issue.
You raised the most important issue that I want to emphasize, is that, is that those guys are so worried about the billionaires, of which there are only like a thousand, and not worried about the 10, 50 million, the 50 million youngsters that don’t have opportunities, and they close it off by preventing school choice, by preventing charter schools, by preventing the educational tools that those families need.
And folks,
Gene Valentino: Clara Del Villar and Schola Labs is a solution for that. Clara, how can they find you? Give us, for those watching and listening, please give, uh, give us a plug now. How do they reach out to Schola Labs to, to get involved?
CLARA DEL VILLAR: [00:33:00] Well, certainly you can reach me at my email, claraatScholalabs. com. And I’m happy to respond to any questions or point into directions of the, of the hundreds of organizations involved in this movement.
And then my website is Scholalabs. com, but you feel free to use an email and ask questions, seek any information or advice. I’m happy to spend time and help.
Gene Valentino: Claire, any closing comments you’d like to make?
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Well, I, I like you, Jean. Um, I am enthralled by people that take risk and build companies and build opportunities because that’s building opportunities and to spend time with you.
And you have a background that only emphasizes that in a way that should be highlighted by many. And I will remain an optimist for this country, the education, the freedom that it’s provided, and the opportunity. And the opportunities that are provided should not be diminished by. Political [00:34:00] blather. It should be self every day.
And you said
Gene Valentino: a lot there, boy, you know, Clara, I’m, I’m humbled by your comment. And, um, uh, that’s one of the reasons I like doing these podcasts. Uh, I have the chance to meet so many people from various walks of life, but this is a deep dive today on something that’s probably below the radar. It’s not the salacious, uh, commentary in the news of the moment.
But it’s the deeper issues that protect the longevity of our constitutional republic, our democracy. It’s the educational system under which we were founded. It’s so important to this nation. And I’m so impressed with a concept like Schola Labs coming up and designing a platform to give educational systems at the local level a mechanism to accelerate alternative education [00:35:00] in a streamlined way and improving the quality of it in the process for the teacher so the teacher can spend more time teacher teaching not being administratively wasting their time with reports that means more face to face time with our students our children and um and you’re you seem to be the solution for that and what I’m trying to do on these podcasts is find more solutions
CLARA DEL VILLAR: I think that’s, that’s, uh, an amazing, amazing, uh, benefit that you’re sharing with so many, Jean, and I applaud it.
I, I’m the daughter of immigrants that came to this country in the 1950s, and again, my parents left because of a dictatorship, and I just want to share, one can never diminish the incredible, um, blessings that this country has. And still has no matter how negative. No liberals have a tendency to portray it.
And I don’t want to call [00:36:00] anybody out. But we have to constantly celebrate the opportunities here and not diminish, not diminish.
Gene Valentino: Yeah, you brought up your early days. What’s your heritage and how did you end up here? Let’s have that a few extra minutes on that story
CLARA DEL VILLAR: where I am a one of many that came here.
My parents came here in the 1950s because of the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. And so Trujillo was a very, like many of the violent dictator. My grandfather spoke out against him and he paid with his life in prison and, uh, injected with turpentine and then killed essentially. But this is a story that is reflected among millions of Americans that have come here over the last 200 years or more.
And so they came here to New York. And um, my father was a young medical student. Um, and then we ultimately moved to Pennsylvania, but I just want to end by saying my parents never lost their [00:37:00] awe at the freedom that our country provided to people of all shapes and sizes. And so they celebrated that in our household growing up.
And so that’s probably why I was born, you know, uh, a flag waving American. They never, they had hard times and they certainly, you know, had many obstacles along the way, but the point is that didn’t diminish the opportunity, um, that they wanted to share with us growing up and which remains very intact with me today.
Gene Valentino: You know, I regret that this topic came up at the very end of our show. Your story mirrors mine. My grandparents were immigrants and, um, I remember in my early youth, my father and my grandfather having a little, having some words with each other. Uh, don’t worry about him learning Italian. Just let him, I’m, I’ve got to learn English.
He doesn’t have to learn Italian. And they’re [00:38:00] going on with this argument. It turns out my grandfather, who was, um, a very proud immigrant who served in world war one for, for us. And, um, was, uh, a medal recipient for his, uh, acts of heroism was, um, was more concerned. About America, he couldn’t leave Italy fast enough after the Mussolini regime.
And when he came to the United States, he, um, he, uh, I remember before he died, he grabbed me and he said, You serve your country. And I was a snot nosed kid who didn’t know what the heck. And I said, Yeah, Grandpa, I will. No, no! Did you hear me? You serve your country. You be a proud American. This is an Italian immigrant telling me to be a proud American.
Yeah, Grandpa, I will. Promise? [00:39:00] I promise. Two days later, he died.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Whoa, Gene.
Gene Valentino: It, uh, It got the best of me and all my life I spent my time trying to, uh, make it in this world. And so I focused on business and entrepreneurial projects and did very well for myself, thank God. I couldn’t serve my country and promise to serve his country because now I was much older.
So I served my country by serving my county and getting elected and doing things in that way. And now I’m extending it further with shows like this with you. We are a nation of immigrants. We don’t have a problem with immigrants coming into our nation. We have a problem with the illegal immigrants. And the terrorists that sit within them taking down that which is so [00:40:00] precious to your father and grandfather and mine.
And and that’s why I revere you being on with me today. And When I think about it, education is the absolute essential corpus of this nation to look up on the wall and see the declaration of independence, our constitution, the bill of rights, and all the other, uh, papers that were written, that were the founding documents.
Absolutely. Remind us, remind us of just how lucky we really are. So I look at you, I hear a little accent, you look at me, you hear a little accent, I’m here in the South, I hear an accent, I go anywhere USA, I’m hearing accents, welcome to America. Amen. Right? Amen. And I’m proud to be part of the same nation that you are, and we [00:41:00] both together can call ourselves Americans.
Folks, give, uh, Clara, give the folks your, your email and website address again, please.
CLARA DEL VILLAR: Clara atScholaolaLabs. com and the website company, the company website, ScholaLabs. com. Thank you, Jeanne.
Gene Valentino: Folks, don’t, there’s more here than meets the eye. She’s one heck of an entrepreneur as well. So don’t be,
CLARA DEL VILLAR: I’m taking lessons.
Gene Valentino: As they say, Clara, still waters run deep. Thank you for joining me here today, Clara. Clara Delvillar from Schola Labs. And thank you everybody for joining us on another episode of Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. See you soon.
Thanks for joining us for Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. Be sure to like and [00:42:00] subscribe and God bless America.
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New Ways To Educate Our Children ~ Schola Labs
on the GrassRoots TruthCast with Gene Valentino
ORIGINAL MEDIA SOURCE(S):
‣ Originally Recorded on September 25, 2024
‣ GrassRoots TruthCast: Season 2, Episode 266
‣ Image courtesy of: GeneValentino.com