Refining Rhetoric with Robert Bortins

What if everything we've been told about making college "affordable" is actually making it more expensive and worse?
Robert Bortins sits down with Dr. Ben Merkle, President of New St. Andrews College and Oxford-educated scholar who wrote the foreword to "Woke and Weaponized." As one of fewer than a dozen colleges that refuse all federal student loan dollars, Dr. Merkle offers a rare insider perspective on how government money has corrupted higher education—and why K-12 schools should learn from their mistakes.
Dr. Merkle traces the problem back to the GI Bill after World War II, explaining how federal funding changed the customer of education from students to government. Once colleges became dependent on Title IV money (Pell Grants and student loans), they became subject to Title IX mandates—leading Christian colleges to spend a year teaching students "how to receive consent for fornication" and removing backbones from administrators who now compete to be the most compliant rather than the most excellent.
The financial impact is staggering. While other colleges charge $55,000-$60,000 annually (with fake "scholarships" discounting sticker prices), New St. Andrews provides superior classical education for just $18,600 per year—proving that without compliance officers and administrative bloat, quality education is affordable. Dr. Merkle exposes the Bennett hypothesis: every dollar added to federal grants causes reciprocal tuition increases within 18 months, creating a self-perpetuating cycle that makes education more expensive and worse quality simultaneously.
Most provocatively, Dr. Merkle warns that classical Christian education—"the single biggest cultural victory for the American evangelical church"—is being handed over to the state through school choice programs. Charter schools aren't pulling kids from public schools; they're pulling families from Christian education into secular classrooms. He challenges administrators: stop serving mammon, define your mission clearly, and understand that funding is authority. The institutions we've sacrificed to build will be wasted if we trade them for government money.
Resources:
https://nsa.edu/
This episode of Refining Rhetoric is sponsored by: 
"Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education—And How We Can Win It Back" – A new book written by Robert Bortins and Alex Newman. 
Discover the shocking truth about how current education reform efforts may actually accelerate the destruction of educational freedom. Through meticulous research, Woke and Weaponized traces the philosophical roots of educational corruption from Robert Owen and John Dewey to critical race theory, while offering practical strategies for families ready to pursue genuine educational independence. Join our exclusive list to be notified the moment it becomes available — plus receive special launch updates and insider information. 
www.WokeAndWeaponized.com

"The government doesn't give you money because they love you. Government gives money so they can have power."
Join host Robert Bortins as he sits down with Rachael Jensen, homeschool advocate and mother of six in Arizona—the state hailed as the "gold standard" for school choice. Rachael contributed Appendix A to "Woke and Weaponized" and shares what's really happening on the ground with ESA (Empowerment Scholarship Account) programs.
The shocking reality: Arizona homeschoolers must surrender their homeschool affidavit and sign a Department of Education contract, legally converting their children to public "school-at-home" students. State officials confirmed most ESA recipients aren't escaping public schools—they're private school and homeschool families being absorbed into government control.
Rachael exposes devastating consequences. Christian charity has collapsed. Homeschool activity prices have skyrocketed 300%, costing her family $42,000 annually to stay independent. ESA funds have paid for a $900 abortion, four identical $200 Lego sets per child, $8,000 espresso machines, and ski passes. One program manager confessed: "I cannot believe we had this many conservatives who want their government money and then want to be left alone."
Most striking: wealthy communities where 80% took funds versus poor ranching families who unanimously refused, saying "That's a dumb idea, we don't trust the government." Arizona expanded from 100 special needs students in 2011 to 84,000 universal participants. Rachael warns this is socialism at its core—teaching conservatives to be collectivists. Children are God's inheritance, and our provision comes from Him, not government bailouts.
This episode of Refining Rhetoric is sponsored by: 
"Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education—And How We Can Win It Back" – A new book written by Robert Bortins and Alex Newman. 
Discover the shocking truth about how current education reform efforts may actually accelerate the destruction of educational freedom. Through meticulous research, Woke and Weaponized traces the philosophical roots of educational corruption from Robert Owen and John Dewey to critical race theory, while offering practical strategies for families ready to pursue genuine educational independence. Join our exclusive list to be notified the moment it becomes available — plus receive special launch updates and insider information. 
www.WokeAndWeaponized.com

What if the architect of America's public school system was literally taking orders from demons through Ouija boards?
Join host Robert Bortins as he talks with co-author Alex Newman to discuss their new book "Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education and How We Can Win It Back." This isn't hyperbole—it's documented history every Christian parent needs to know.
Alex reveals shocking truth about Robert Owen, the intellectual godfather of public education, who openly admitted communicating with spiritual entities through séances to receive his vision for reshaping society. Owen's explicit goal: raise a generation freed from "the trinity of most monstrous evils"—private property, Christianity, and marriage. When his Indiana commune failed, he realized children needed government conditioning first, creating the public school blueprint we have today.
The conversation exposes how robber barons like Rockefeller funded this system to create "complacent worker drones," not critical thinkers. Alex shares bombshell findings from the suppressed 1950s Reece Committee Report, which concluded a revolution had already occurred in America through education, funded by foundations working to merge the U.S. with the Soviet Union.
Most urgently, Alex warns the same billionaires pushing globalism—Gates, Soros, Bloomberg, Zuckerberg—are the biggest school choice funders today. He traces the playbook from Sweden, where "free" government money trapped private schools under state control and destroyed homeschooling. The UN openly admits their strategy: use public funding to capture all "non-state education actors."
Before government education, America was the best-educated society in history—your great-grandma's eighth-grade education was harder than today's master's degree. The solution requires complete rejection of government funding and recognizing God made parents—not the state—duty bearers for their children's education.
Resources:
https://face.net/
This episode of Refining Rhetoric is sponsored by: 
"Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education—And How We Can Win It Back" – A new book written by Robert Bortins and Alex Newman. 
Discover the shocking truth about how current education reform efforts may actually accelerate the destruction of educational freedom. Through meticulous research, Woke and Weaponized traces the philosophical roots of educational corruption from Robert Owen and John Dewey to critical race theory, while offering practical strategies for families ready to pursue genuine educational independence. Join our exclusive list to be notified the moment it becomes available — plus receive special launch updates and insider information. 
www.WokeAndWeaponized.com

"There is no such thing as vouchers without government control. They just simply don't exist."
Join host Robert Bortins as he sits down with KrisAnne Hall, constitutional attorney, former prosecutor, and founder of Liberty First Society. With her background in constitutional law and as a former homeschool parent, KrisAnne delivers a compelling legal and biblical argument against government-funded school choice programs.
KrisAnne explains why the federal government has zero constitutional authority over education and reveals how states have traded their sovereignty for federal dollars. Drawing from nearly two decades of warnings, she exposes what's already happening in Florida and Texas: mandatory ethics policies forcing Christian schools to teach evolution, regulations prohibiting single-source curriculum (biblical truth), and requirements around gender identity and sexual orientation.
She dismantles the illusion that vouchers "follow the student, not the school," explaining why this actually gives government authority to audit your personal finances and exercise fiduciary control over your children. Those tax dollars legally belong to government the moment they're collected—when you take Caesar's money for education, you're converting your home into government property and your private school into a public one.
Resources:
https://www.krisannehall.com/

https://libertyfirstsociety.com/
 
This episode of Refining Rhetoric is sponsored by: 
Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education—And How We Can Win It Back – A new book written by Robert Bortins and Alex Newman. 
Discover the shocking truth about how current education reform efforts may actually accelerate the destruction of educational freedom. Through meticulous research, Woke and Weaponized traces the philosophical roots of educational corruption from Robert Owen and John Dewey to critical race theory, while offering practical strategies for families ready to pursue genuine educational independence. Join our exclusive list to be notified the moment it becomes available — plus receive special launch updates and insider information. 
www.WokeAndWeaponized.com

"The enemy is not at the gate—the enemy has infiltrated our classrooms."
Join host Robert Bortins for the first episode in a powerful School Choice Week series as he sits down with Dr. Joshua Pierson, who contributed to "Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education and How We Can Win It Back."
In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Pierson—a retiring counterintelligence agent with 25 years of experience—reveals the shocking history of Soviet infiltration into American education. Drawing from his extensively researched appendix, he traces a direct line from 1917 Soviet intelligence operations to today's classroom controversies.
Dr. Pierson exposes how Soviet strategist Willi Münzenberg architected a century-long disinformation campaign targeting American education, media, and government. He explains how Columbia Teachers College became a hub for communist influence, and why influential educators like John Dewey and George Counts became "useful idiots" after visiting carefully staged Potemkin villages in Soviet Russia.
The conversation explores why communist ideology persists generations after its architects have died, how tactics like ANDEMKA (Admit Nothing, Deny Everything, Make Counter Accusation) still shape today's debates, and why accepting government funding transforms institutions into "agents of the state." From SEL programs to modern educational policy, discover how the Soviets succeeded in their strategy beyond their wildest expectations—and what Americans were willfully ignorant about as it happened.
 
This episode of Refining Rhetoric is sponsored by:
Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education—And How We Can Win It Back – A new book written by Robert Bortins and Alex Newman.
Discover the shocking truth about how current education reform efforts may actually accelerate the destruction of educational freedom. Through meticulous research, Woke and Weaponized traces the philosophical roots of educational corruption from Robert Owen and John Dewey to critical race theory, while offering practical strategies for families ready to pursue genuine educational independence. Join our exclusive list to be notified the moment it becomes available — plus receive special launch updates and insider information.
www.WokeAndWeaponized.com