Eight o five, a fifty five krc DE talk station, A very, very happy and special Tuesday. Brian Thomas, host of the fifty five Carssee Morning Show, couldn't be more excited than I am right now.
Happy to welcome for the first time.
Actually at the first time, we talked about his book Woking, but he has announced his intention to be Ohio's next governor. Fivek Ramas Swimmy, Welcome to the fifty five KRSE Morning Show. Distinct pleasure to have you on the program today, sir.
Thanks for having me. Brian. Good to talk to you again.
And it's great to just I'm going to congratulate you out right after your nets you immediately got the endorsement of President Donald Trump.
Thank you. It was an honor to receive his endorsement. He and I have worked together over the last year and I'm so proud of what he's doing for the country, and in my view, he's making America great again. He's reviving our conviction in America. We need a leader here at home who's going to revive our conviction in Ohio. And I'm going to be honored hopefully to serve as our next governor and to take our state to the next level.
Well, considering what I know you've identified as your campaign platform, economic excellence and building Ohio as a state with educational excellence, you seem to have the recipe for success down I've seen I know you know about people fleeing California, New York, and Illinois to other states that have a better business environment.
Typically it's Texas and Florida identified. But you want to make Ohio a even better magnet, and it seems to me the recipe for that is low taxes, reduction to regulatory burden, and of course the quality education that you plan for. And if we could start with that, because I'm a huge fan of your ideas on education, most notably school choice and improving vocational opportunities as well.
Absolutely, I mean you stated my platform directly, that's exactly the core agenda for the state. There's just one key element to that I would add, Brian, is that I also want to be a governor who makes sure that our public schools are equipped to compete with the best of those alternatives. I'm going to push for harder school choice, but with our public schools, I'm going to implement merit
based pay for every teacher, principal, administrator, and superintendent. Because to be clear, the best teachers actually deserve to be paid much more than they are. But that means we have to actually rationalize the waste of expenditures elsewhere in our education system. It's not just throwing more money at our public schools, it's how that money is spent. Other basic common sense reforms like finally getting the cell phones
out of our classes. Yeah, bringing back physical education at a younger age, and the Presidential Fitness Test, which we'll bring back physical health, it's mental health, it's civic health. To Brian is we're going to bring back civic education that teaches our kids to be proud of our state
rather than ashamed of it. And one of the things I'm particularly passionate about is every high school senior who graduates from Ohio Public High School is going to have to pass the same Civics test that every legal immigrant has to pass in order to become for them citizen in the country. And so anyway, these are basic changes where we can lead the country, and I'm excited that we're going to take our state to the next level.
I love that it sounds to me like you're a proponent of as I am a classical education.
Yes, I think that you can't be proud of a country that you don't know the history of. And I do think that young people, I think all of us in some sense are hungering for purpose and meaning and identity. And I do think that filling that void with the real thing, not the fake stuff, but the real thing is actually what's going to give us our true fulfillment individual, family, nation, and God beat race, gender, sexuality, and climate, if we
have the courage to stand for it. And at the same time, I was clear, and I'm opening last night, and I'll deliver the same message in Toledo where I'm headed right now, delivered the same message in strongsbol where I'm head, and deny it that. My message to every Democrat in the state and every Independent in this state is that we may not agree on one hundred percent of issues. And that's okay. Diversity of thoughts a beautiful
thing in Ohio. But if you care about economic excellence in this state, if you care about educational excellence in this state, if you care about your kids having the same shot at the American dream that this state, in this country gave to me, and we're actually on the same team. As the way I look at it, if a seat at the table in this movement, let's take our state to the next level. And I want to work together with everybody do it, not just constitutional conservatives
like you and I, which of course that's important. We're not going to compromise on our principles, but we're going to work with everybody in this state to lift us up economically and to give our kids the world class education that I believe is their birthright in Ohio.
Well, I certainly enjoy hearing what you're saying. It's in You're right, you know, rising tide lifts all ships. Doesn't matter what your political stripe is. You got to a better business environment, better educational environment, every single human being in the state will benefit to Flipping over to I just I'm reacting to your idea of merit based compensation
for teachers, which of course is a great concept. You know, if you live in a meritocracy, the better you are, the brighter you are, the harder you work, the more likely it is you're going to make more money. And that's just the proven recipe all from the beginning of time. How do you do you judge the merits though, how is what is the great question? Yeah, go ahead, that's a great question, and there's a good conversation to have. The way I believe it should be judged. As a
starting point, okay, is objective results. There you have test scores and the results combined with the assessment of parents. And I think this conversation to be had whether you add some element of peer review as well, where the way the teacher works within the context of the school with their other peers is also at least an input.
But you have then objective metrics, rental assessment, peer assessments, and most importantly, objective assessments of the success of our students. To be clear, that's what this is all about. Seventy five percent of eighth graders right now are not proficient in math intional standards. We have kids in other countries where English isn't even their first language doing better on English proficiency than our own students right here, Brian, I think that's not acceptable to me. So we've got to
measure how we're improving on those metrics. From the inner city of Cincinnati to Cleveland to Appalasia, the whole state to actually give our kids. We owe it to the next generation. I'm a father of two sons myself, and I care about passing that American dream on to my kids and their generation, and we're going to do that here in Ohio in a way that sets a model for the rest of the country. And one thing I want to say about this is we do have an issue where many kids who grow up in this state
end up leaving to pursue opportunities in other states. I want them to stay here and pursue the American dream in Ohio because it is the best place for them to make that decision, close to their parents and to their grandparents. Keeping the generational families in this state because that's the place where they have the best educational and economic opportunities. That's where I want to lead us.
Well.
One of the stumbling blocks and the elephant of the room on all of your wonderful and logical and reasonable ideas about education happens to be the teachers Union. And they they exist for their own benefit, not for the benefit of students. I just have to generally speak, but that seems to be the case. And how are you going to cope with them and their uh, and and and and deal with the opposition you're most certainly going to face from the teachers union.
Look the way I said it, I was crystal clear last night in both my speeches, and I'll say it again today. I don't want to pick a fight with the teachers' unions. Frankly, I don't want to pick a fight with anybody. But I'm not going to back down one either. I'm going to do whatever is required to stand for the achievement of our students. And let me be crystal clear, as they said earlier, the best teachers
deserve to be compensated better than they are. Right now, I think of missus Kinney, this teacher of mine in sixth grade who lit a fire under my feet. She changed my life. She helped me see potential in myself that I hadn't seen. That was at the public schools in Princeton outside Cincinnati at Realis Roberty Lucas Intermediate School with a Magnet program. That family is closed now. As Kinny is somebody who I reflected on last night in
my speech. She unfortunately died a couple of years ago in a tragic accident, but I'd be thanking her today if she were alive, and I will tell you this, I want more teachers like her. But that's not an anti public school teacher message. That is a pro teacher message. But any obstacle that stands in the way, if that's the unions for anybody else, we're going to deal with that to do what's right for our students with strength.
Well, you are an obviously wildly successful entrepreneur. You built ctl aerospace right here in Cincinnati. In spite of the regulatory and challenges you face in the state of Ohio at least still currently, you were able to do it. So I highlight that in illustrated because in spite of the obstacles which shouldn't be there in the state of Ohio for business advancement, you're.
Able to do it.
But you know where the skeletons are, you know where the problems lie, and you know where the reforms need to be made.
Well, thank you for that. I mean, just to be crystical. We launched the event at Ctail Aerospace last night and it's a great founder and a great family that invited us in sok But no, that's close to home where I grew up. So I grew up. My first house that I grew up in until I was five is a few minutes away from there, so you know, I could see the commonality that being said. I've built successful businesses. I was across biotech, across financial services, across other industries,
and I understand what it takes to have success. It means that you're able to pursue your our own vision and serve your customers and serve the people for whom you exist without the government of bureaucracy standing in your way. And that's my vision for Ohio. I want this to be the most competitive state in the country to start and grow a new business, for young families to flock to to raise your kids in. Are we heading in the right direction? I think we actually are headed in
the right direction. This is in California. We don't need a U turn. But what we do need to do is we need to step on the gas without holding back. We don't need to be shooting to be a good state in the Midwest. We just shoot to be the best state in the country to actually lead economically and educationally. And I don't think that that's unrealistic if you look at the last century, really even at the turn of the last Industrial Revolution, Ohio led the way in the nation.
We were the economic powerhouse of America. And I think if Silicon Valley led the way in the last ten years, I think it should be the Ohio River Valley over the next ten years. And so that's the ambition I want to bring to leading this state. Ambition for every ohioan ambition to lift up the lives of every kid in this state. It's a moment for a modern Northwest ordinance is the way I look at this. We're at conservative state. We deserved to be governed accordingly. And that's
not going to lose US elections, Brian. It's going to win US elections because it'll put more money in people's pockets, lift up more people in this state from poverty. It'll revive civic pride and self confidence in our young people. And I don't care whether you're a Democrat or Republican, black or white, man or woman, urban or rural, if you care about economic excellence and educational excellence in this state, and we got a seat for you at the table
in this movement. And I want to work with everybody to take the state to the next level and dare I say unite this state in a landslide victory next year. That's what I'm shooting for at this point.
Well, I understand you also are in favor of work requirements for Medicaid and welfare. We have a bit of a problem in this stay with Medicaid one of the worst in the country in terms of fraud, waste, and abuse. And I found out recently talked to the representative Jennifer Gross just a few days ago, and they did a recent analysis as statistical sampling, and found out that twenty six percent of the Medicaid payments go to individuals that do not even live in our state, which translates to
like ten billion dollars. Mister Ramswami, that might help solve the school funding problem. We're already operating under an unconstitutional structure for funding schools. If we could claw back that or not send it out of the state, apply that to education, we might get some relief on our property taxes, which are killing so many people in this area.
So look, I want to give a shout out to Jennifer Gross. She's been outstanding on this issue of Medicaid and spotlighting areas for savings. So she's doing a fantastic job. She was actually at our event last night as well. I'm grateful for her supporting Butler, but I will tell you we need to now do something about it as well,
and to me part of the solution. First of all, we should make sure that there aren't recipients who, literally, as you're mentioning, out of state or other places where it's just error, should not be receiving money that wasn't intended for them. But even more broadly, as a policy measure, that's just an implementation failure. As a policy measure, work requirements for medicaid and welfare are not only reasonable, they're necessary. They're necessary not just as a budgetary matter, but even
for the recipients. That's not compassion. To increase somebody's dependence on the government, that is cruelty. That is a form of cruelty. And I think the true form of compassion is helping somebody not with the handout, but a handout in their time of need, to give them a bridge to self sustain themselves on their own two feet. That's the American way. And so I do think that even well intentioned folks who say that, well, are these work
requirements too aggressive. To be clear, the work requirements we're talking about are age eighteen to fifty four. If you're able bodied, if you don't have kids, then you're talking about twenty hours a week of working or at least trying to find work. I think it's really reasonable. That's where the federal standards are today. Ohio should not be seeking an exemption from that or a waiver from that. We should be embracing it and leading the country to
say that we embraced hard work. We're going to end the war on work in this state. By the way, Brian, at a time when we do have a shortage of workers, why are we paying people and incentivizing them not to work. That doesn't make any sense. That goes back to the other point we were making about making Ohio the best place to start and grow business. If we have a more plentiful work population, population of workers who aren't being paid by the federal government, by the state government to
stay home, that helps them too. So it's a pro American message, it's a pro Ohio message. At times, I do believe in speaking the hard truths, even when they're tough. Think about that educational achievement crisis. It doesn't land well on people's ears to hear that seventy five percent of kids aren't proficient in math, but you got to see the problem clearly in order to fix it. Doesn't land on some well of people's ears to say we got
attach work requirements to medicaid in welfare. But actually, when you explain, if people understand, even good Democrats understand where you're coming from. I'll give you another one of those, Brian, which is a little bit controversial, but I'll go there because I think it's important when we think about ending the wave of crime and rising poverty and homelessness in cities.
In our cities, I think we need to think about and we will bring back the psychiatric hospitals that were shuttered in decades past, because right now our jails are the top form of mental health care in our state, and that doesn't make any sense either. Some of these solutions. I'm confident that if we explain it to the people, even to Democrats who may have a different opinion today, I believe we're going to be able to bring them
away along with respect and with open dialogue. And I think that culture of mutual respect is the way I'm going to lead our.
State with that gramma, Swimmy.
It's just a distinct pleasure to hear such logic and reason, and I wish you all the best in your efforts become governor the next of the state of Ohio. I hope to someday call you Governor Ramas swim when we talk after that moment in time. But I just have to observe this, that work requirement when there's so many trade jobs available twenty hours a week. If you can work in the trade, you can earn while you learn
as an apprentice. Put that opportunity in front of someone and say, listen, you're not going to get this benefit, but look, here's a great opportunity if you have a career and a sustainable life and a good salary.
It just makes so much sense.
Yes it does, which is a far bigger benefit. So you're right to say it.
It is well.
I look forward to having you on any time you like on the program, Sir. I'm inspired by your words, and I wish you all the best on the campaign trail, anytime on the fifty five KRC Morning Show.
You want your you have an opportunity, sir.
I appreciate it, my man. Take care.
We'll go to say safe travels.
Eight twenty two fifty five CARES Detalk Station Daniel Deep Davis Daniel Davis Deep Dive Coming up next.
Fifty five car the talk station for seventy