Interview with Brandon Detweiler

10/20/23 • 26 min

The movement to expand parental freedom in education continues to experience momentum, an encouraging sign that families are demanding more choices for their children. Dozens of states have passed laws to open K12 opportunities over the last few years, and even more are considering doing the same. Yet many families still don’t send their children to a school that best fits their needs even after these laws are passed because they are unaware of their new education options.

Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom is Brandon Detweiler. Brandon’s work focuses on ensuring that information about a family’s K12 opportunities is literally at their fingertips.

Topics discussed by Brandon Detweiler and Rick Graber, President and CEO, The Bradley Foundation, include:

· Obstacles that prevented education freedom from taking off earlier

· The development of Schoolahoop, an app that informs families about their K12 options

· Lessons learned from the initial launch of Schoolahoop, including feedback from parents and the education community

· Outreach efforts to inform families of educational opportunities, including scholarships

· The implementation measures that parental choice advocates should consider as they try to advance education opportunity in their states

Brandon Detweiler is the head of product at the Foundation for American Innovation. He has a background in edtech, online learning, and e-commerce at Veritas Press, where he helped lead and grow the largest and oldest online classical Christian school in the country and launched the Phonics Museum Reading App.

Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom is Brandon Detweiler. Brandon’s work focuses on ensuring that information about a family’s K12 opportunities is literally at their fingertips.

Topics discussed by Brandon Detweiler and Rick Graber, President and CEO, The Bradley Foundation, include:

· Obstacles that prevented education freedom from taking off earlier

· The development of Schoolahoop, an app that informs families about their K12 options

· Lessons learned from the initial launch of Schoolahoop, including feedback from parents and the education community

· Outreach efforts to inform families of educational opportunities, including scholarships

· The implementation measures that parental choice advocates should consider as they try to advance education opportunity in their states

Previous Episode

Interview wth Carrie Lukas

The free exchange of goods and services has profoundly improved living conditions throughout the world. In the past two decades alone, free markets have helped reduce the child mortality rate by almost half and have lifted 130,000 people out of extreme poverty.

Yet according to a recent poll, twice as many people believe that socialism, rather than the free market system, can best meet everyone’s basic needs. Breaking it down further, men are far more likely to have a favorable view of free markets than women (68% vs. 48%).

Carrie Lukas is our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom. She is working to change the way women think about free markets, and to promote a better understanding of how liberty-oriented policies open opportunity for individuals and families.

Topics discussed by Carrie Lukas and Rick Graber, President and CEO, The Bradley Foundation, include:

Debunking the myth that free markets are incompatible with compassion
What conservatives can do to show women how their policies advance opportunity
The impact that federal paid family leave would have on parents
Solutions to the issue of childcare affordability and accessibility
The reasons for the pay gap between men and women
Whether DEI policies have their intended effect
How efforts to redefine gender are harming society

Carrie Lukas is the president of Independent Women’s Forum, vice president of Independent Women’s Voice, and a member of Independent Women’s Network. She is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism, Checking Progressive Privilege, and Liberty Is No War on Women. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post , USA Today, and numerous other outlets.

Next Episode

Interview with Anne Bradley

The ubiquitous smartphones that are a staple of modern life provide access to nearly every good or service that one could possibly imagine. We can have food delivered within minutes, book our next vacation, pay a bill, and order our children’s hot lunch all with a swipe of our fingers.

We often don’t consider that our numerous digital transactions, saving time and energy, are possible because of free enterprise. The same is true of the countless innovations that make our lives easier. Instead, many today are apt to criticize economic freedom, believing it causes inequity.

Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom is Anne Bradley. Through research, education and teaching, Anne brings the marvels of free markets to life, with the goal of ensuring that the next generation is prepared to preserve an economic system that creates opportunity and vastly improves lives. Topics discussed by Anne Bradley and Rick Graber, President and CEO, The Bradley Foundation, include:

Finding the economic angle in everything from income inequality to the political economy of terrorism.
Teaching economic concepts in a way that’s relatable and accessible.
The link between markets and morality; why the free-market system is the most humane economic system.
Markets and the acceleration of materialism.
The myth that economic freedom creates and exacerbates income inequality.
Industrial policy’s consequences.
Where to turn for thoughtful, accurate economic analysis and commentary.

Anne Bradley is the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies, where she enhances the impact and reach of economic education programs, oversees the development of economics curriculum and teaches economics courses. She is the author of several books on the intersection of theology and economics and is working on a book about the political economy of terrorism.