Privacy vs Freedom - Crystal Malloy

Show Notes

Join us for an in-depth conversation with Crystal Malloy as she opens up about her transformative journey from public servant to political candidate, offering rare insights into what it truly means to run for office while maintaining your moral compass. In this candid follow-up to our November interview, Malloy tackles the harsh reality of how society treats those willing to serve, challenging the automatic assumption that entering politics makes someone a "criminal or sleazeball." We dive deep into the corrosive effects of identity politics and explore Malloy's refreshing commitment to policy-focused discussions over personal attacks. She shares her philosophy of serving "an audience of one" and reveals how her faith guides her decision-making process, including a powerful moment when a fellow church member prayed over her in the church lobby. The conversation takes a compelling turn as we examine critical policy issues shaping Arkansas and beyond. Malloy provides her thoughtful analysis on the delicate balance between privacy and public safety, discussing everything from surveillance cameras to digital ID requirements for social media platforms. Her approach to evaluating policy through the lens of "what happens when the bad guys get control?" offers a unique framework for understanding government overreach. We also break down the controversial Education Freedom Accounts program, with Malloy providing firsthand experience as both a legislator and a homeschooling parent who participates in the system. She dispels common misconceptions about the LEARNS Act, explains how the funding actually works, and shares an inspiring example of a specialized micro school being developed for autistic and special needs children in her district. This episode offers an unfiltered look at local politics, the human cost of public service, and the real-world impact of education reform. Malloy's commitment to dignity, integrity, and principled leadership provides hope for those who believe politics can be about service rather than self-interest.

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Because the first podcast we did for everyone just now tuning in. Yeah. We did it back in November. Yeah. So now it's February 3rd and time's approaching. So what have you learned? Oh, here's a question. Are you more of a politician now or then? Because, like, the thing us regular non people that aren't doing what you're doing think once you get involved in this ring, you become one of them. You know, I've been talking to my dad about this recently. Does working in Little Rock make you. Does it do anything to you? Okay, you want to know what I want to say to that? After however many months I've been pounding the pavement, if you treat people that are willing to step up into this role as criminals and sleaze balls, then who are you going to get in the position? Criminals and sleaze balls. I. I mean, where has the respect, where has the dignity gone, the grace that we afford to people who are like, I look at this as service and I'm willing to stand up and serve, you know, automatically you put your name on a ballot, and people are like, oh, politician. It has this negative connotation. I have a friend of mine who, their brother is very high up in politics, and he likes to refer to himself as a statesman. He says, I'm not a politician, I'm a statesman. And I like that idea of bringing dignity back to the positions. You know, I look at it as. I'm a servant to my community. I serve on city council now, and if you call me with a city issue, it's my job to go reach, research that, to find an answer and to help solve it. And if that makes me a politician, okay. You know, but. Yes. Can you go down there and can you get into this whole rigamarole? But are we making people like that because of how we treat them? Like, if you're. If you're accusing everyone of being a criminal on sleazeball all the time. Yep. What are they gonna do? Yep. They're either going to become one or you're only gonna. Or leave and go home. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a. That's a good point. I haven't thought about that. And I just think it's a lot of the national stuff that's damaged the brand of. It's identity politics. And I would say that's one thing that. What have I learned through this is that I'm sick and tired of identity politics. I try to get baited all the time to attack a specific person, and I'm like, let's stop. Let's talk about policy. And so I will. I will talk about policy all day long. Tell me what the issue is. Not the problem you have with the person, because the people come and go, and if we're ever going to get anywhere, we have to start really focusing on policy and what are we doing. And it's kind of like in business, your systems. Your systems make and break you. Right. You're dealing with this podcast, too. You're creating systems, and that's what we need to focus on and quit getting distracted with identity politics. In the clickbait, you know, on the governor did this or did that or who's going to stand up to this person instead of saying, well, what's the issue? Let's solve the issue. Yeah. So is there a level of mudslinging going on in your race right now, do you think? No, there is here in this. This other. The district Russville's in. You know, there's a little bit of that. I don't know. I'm. You know, my. My blinders are on and I'm in this race. I know. And I've heard other people say how they are really proud of the four of us in our race and how we are not mudslinging. You know, there's 14 days till early voting. I guess things could change, but I don't think so. We're in. In rooms together a lot, and I don't know of any. I don't know of any. But there was. There was one issue earlier where there was an ethics complaint filed. And, you know, I think that that was kind of icky. But as far as nasty mailers, you know, I haven't seen. That's what Russell is getting right now is these mailers with the caricatures of the other person. And, you know, I don't know. I just. I saw it and I was like, okay, that's interesting. I had a man at church. You just talk about this. He stopped me in church Sunday and he was asking about me, you know, and he's like, how you doing? How are you hanging it? You know, how are you staying faithful? And I was like, audience of one. Right. I try to remind myself I serve an audience of one. At the end of the day, I have to stand before God Almighty. And he was like, that's a good answer. He goes, let me pray for you right now. And he just prayed over me right there in the church lobby. And I love that. And it's a reminder for me I am human. And there are times where I just want to, you know, rile up and fight and say something, you know, and. But ultimately, do I believe God is sovereign and that he's going to put me where I need. Need to be or do I have to make it happen and manufacture it? Yep. Don't force it because, like, if you did force it and say you won, it'd be a disaster. Oh, if you could. I don't think you can. I don't think you can thwart the ways of the Lord. I think you can just lose your integrity along the way. And that's worth more to me than a race. So let's talk about policy a little bit because there are some issues out there that the public is wondering about. Ones like privacy versus protection. And we were talking about this a little bit before the show. You hadn't heard about this so yet, but now you have thought about it maybe for a few minutes. These flock cameras. Yeah, I did not know about those. So let's just think about the idea of it. And of course, all the details, you know, they are what they are. But like public surveillance. Yeah. You know, like one argument is, hey, this is going to protect people, because we'll know. Have you ever seen that show Person of Interest? No. It's like this camera system that can predict when someone's gonna do a crime. And this vigilante superhero that uses it. That's cool. But the government having that level of knowledge, the police department's looking at you and profiling you based on the way your gate is and you're walking and Neighborhood Crime watch, but through the eyes of Big Brother. So how do you feel about that? Here's the question I ask myself when we talk about policy, is here's the question I think any legislator should ask. That might be well and good when good guys are in control, but what happens when the bad guys get control? Am I okay with my enemies having that kind of power? And that's the question we have to ask. Would you be okay if. I mean, Hamas took over Arkansas and they had that power, then you shouldn't be okay with the people in power now having it. And so those are the questions I always have to come back to. And we have to protect our liberty. And it's like the. The. The pull is always liberty or safety, Liberty or safety. And every time you trade for safety, you lose your liberty. And so we have to be willing to say, no, I'm not giving up my liberty. We'll deal with what may come, but not at the cost of safety. The privacy issue. I got a call from one of these agents, one of these groups, it's like a political group, and they want you to fill out a survey. And one of the questions on the survey was, you know, do you want to protect kids online? And do you want to protect kids online? And, I mean, what jerk is going to say no to that, right? Like, of course I want to protect kids online. But what they're getting at is this idea of requiring social media companies to verify your age to be on. Well, how are they going to verify your age? Scan your id. Scan your id. Or maybe. Maybe you need a digital id, even better. Right? And then give that to meta or TikTok or, you know, whoever, and let them have that information for their database. Oh, yeah. And I'm just. These databases they have are proven to be the most secure places. Right. I never get broken into. And, you know, then if you have a say, you end up being like the UK and you spout off online. You know, you make an ex post where you're saying something that's not politically correct and then police show up at your door. You know, we need a layer of privacy and security in that sense to make sure that we are not under threat of malicious actors. So I am not, I'm not for it. I think that. So who protects kids online? Parents. Parents are the ones that God ordained to protect their kids online. And when it comes to these things, you know, I don't want to see any kids suffer. Or that's why as a parent I have strict rules on that. And ultimately though, I want to protect all Americans online and for our safety. And so anyways, this person said, well, we've heard, you know, people say that before, but what if we had a third party vendor that checked your id, made sure you're okay and then deleted everything? And I just, I just laughed and I mean, I thought, oh yeah, sure, we just give it to us, we'll delete it right after we see it, you know, put it in the shredder or something. I'm like, whatever. Do you think in your experience that that would ever happen? There will be a digital trail forever? Let's say it did happen. Let's say that this third party vendor immediately deleted the ID or whatever it is. There's still an attack vector for a nation state or a hacker to target, right? There's still information being collected digitally. It's being sent over the wire, so to speak. And here's what is done with that information. It's harvested by the thousands, right? They're not coming after you individually, they're just getting all this information. They sell it on the dark web to people that want to steal your identity, open up credit cards in different countries. Chances are if you're listening to this, you know, someone that's been affected by this, and maybe even some people listening to this are affected by it, they don't even know. And in this money, if it is a nation state, is funneled to wars overseas. So it's on this issue, you know, as we get through different policy matters, we'll see where we might agree or disagree. But I'm completely with you like you do. Privacy is incredibly important. There's always going to be the argument, well it's, it's, you're going to end up protecting the bad guy in some instance. And like, yeah, you, you are sometimes. But the, the trade off there is just everyone loses their human right to privacy, right. And it's going to be abused at some point in the future. So let's, let's find other ways we can perhaps Stop the bad guys. And a lot of. And a lot of these bad guys we're talking about stopping are usually in some way a victim themselves. Right. I'm not excusing what they're doing because it's disgusting, but they're have mental illness. They were abused as a child. So, like, let's address the fundamental things that's making this country sick. Yeah. That's my opinion on, number one, privacy versus safety. Yeah. That's what I would say to that. Yeah. And. And so when people ask me what are some of the initiatives, I'm like, this is going to be a battle in Little Rock. And it's going to be a battle that we face. And it's going to be tough because you know what the headline will read? It'll read, crystal Malloy hates kids. Right. You know, Chris Malloy wants to protect pedophiles. Right. That'll be the headline. And you got to have tough skin and you got to be able to speak and explain. No, that's not the. This is why. And, you know, I'm ready for that. I'm ready for that battle. Good. So what's the battle going on in Little Rock right now about this Education Freedom Act? In fact, there was just a committee hearing the other day. Yeah. And they were talking about it and how to allocate, you know, and there's arguments going on. Yeah. So what's going on there? So Arkansas introduced, through the LEARNS act, school choice. And through that, they created Education Freedom Accounts. And so the idea is that you could get a percentage of state funding to follow your child to their school of choice. So if you choose a private school, if you choose a micro school, if you choose homeschool, you can get 90% of the state allotted funding to go towards that education. Now, there's a lot of confusion out there because people think I've sat in conversations and they're like, these parents are just financially gaming the system or financially gaining this money. And I've even been accused of it. And it's. Nobody's getting a check. Nobody. No parents just don't get a blank check for $7,000. It's about how much the EFA is this year. What happens is you are allowed to have specific vendors that you can, like, say, a private school that you can send that money to, or you have specific education things like curriculum. I am a homeschool mom with my youngest. I participate in the EFA for the first time, and it's been really great for me to see it firsthand to Be able to talk to people and know what's true and what's not true about the system. But so for her curriculum, I paid for it out of pocket and then re turned in my receipt and someone had to manually check that receipt and then reimburse for that curriculum. So there's no parent. No parents are getting rich off of EFAs. The meaning that you're talking about was that they needed to top off some money for that program this year. And so they were asking for approval to do that. And the other misinformation is people say, oh, well, they're taking money from public schools. That also is not true. But public schools are being completely funded and that is a separate fund from the EFA program. Two separate buckets. And Public Schools learns actually invested 250 million additional dollars into public schools. Largest one time. One time, I don't know the word, you know, investment into public schools. And then since then, they've been increasing funding at record rates. Okay. Public schools are being funded and funded. Well, this is just allowing parents who want a different option to be able to utilize and allow the money to follow the student. Because, you know, our government is here to serve families, not families serve the government. So we're allowed to, as a family, sit at the table and decide what do we want for our kid, what school is best for them. I told you about a micro school that's getting ready to open in my district that specializes in autistic and special needs kids. It's born from a mother who had an, who has an autistic child. And it comes from that world, that specialty. And they're orchestrating a micro school to specialize to that population. And I love it. I think this is exactly right. This is what needs to happen is so that these kids who maybe need a different environment, maybe they need a different desk, maybe they need a different chair, a different structure that you can structure the day around them and still find their superpower and still find how they're amazing and to be able to let them be just as successful as they can be. So I know that's a big long answer, but hopefully that helps something. You know, I've. I know good people that you mentioned the learns act, right. And that's like a term we saw posted around several years ago, probably two or three years ago. And you were there for it or against it. I know good people that were against it. But you're. So you're saying the learns act is the act that brought the EFA fund to the table. What else did it do? Because sometimes my opinion, as someone that's still learning about all this stuff, is sometimes these acts are bringing 10 things to the table. Eight of them may be okay. One's really great and one's like, well, you're just staunchly opposed to. Sometimes they're bundled together. Have you seen that to be the case? I mean, you see it on a federal level a lot. Omnibus bills. Right. And so it is a huge issue Learned was, was education focused, but it did cover a lot of different areas like you're talking about. One of the things was increasing teacher salary, increasing the base pay for teachers, and then giving all teachers a race. So I thought this was extremely important because you had some teachers that were making $36,000 a year, and you can't support a family off of $36,000 a year, let alone pay for student debt or loans. So we needed to figure out a way to increase teacher pay. I think that's extremely important. Also in learn, they offered a cost share maternity leave plan for teachers. And since then they've expanded and done more. There were just a lot of really great things that happened. But yeah, it was a lot to go through. And so I can see where people could just pick and choose a headline, you know, and, and target that one. Was this also the act that brought forth like some book bans and stuff like that? I. Or is that different? I. I don't want to misspeak. I don't know of book bands that were involved in that. Okay, well then don't commentate on what I'm about to say. But this is like my personal opinion. I know there was some debate in the last few years, and again, I'm. I ignore news all the time. Whether you agree with that or not, that's just what I do. But I heard people getting upset about books being banned from libraries, books about sensitive topics, that some parents didn't want their kids coming across a book. But some people saw that as like government overreach. And there were certain communities that were upset by this. So I could see if. And this is a big if. I don't know if that was a part of the LEARNs act, but I can see, like if that was involved. That would explain why some people I'm thinking of were opposed to this bill. But my opinion is on this topic. Glad you've shared yours. Is that, you know, people should be able to choose where they send their kids to school. And, and people say, well, they were always free to choose. Right? That's the Argument, as people say, we always had school choice in Arkansas. You did if you were, if you were privileged and wealthy enough to afford it or you know, your family was able to be structured right for that school choice. But if you were a lower income family, you do not have the same choices. And so this opens it up to where it says, you know, this is optional for you. I've been homeschooling for over 12 years and when I first started, it was a huge stretch for our family for me to do it and to pay the curriculum, you know, and to do those things. And I thought many times, man, I wish I could have some of my tax money to help offset these costs because it was really a sacrifice for our family. And there are so many people who, who are in the same boat or maybe wouldn't have done it unless they had a little bit of help. You know, my, my child's curriculum was over thirteen hundred dollars. And that is a lot of money, you know, to middle class family to be able to just for, just for the curriculum, let alone the amount of hours that I spend with them that I'm not working, I'm, you know, focused on them. So I think it's really important to acknowledge the fact, yes, there was choice if you had the resources. And now we're saying to these underprivileged students and families, you can have the same, you can have the same option. And even people who, if you look at it at a, at a house district, there's multiple school districts within it. And one of the things that's been around for quite a while is that you could school choice, like which school you went to and the money would follow your student there. But what about the kids that don't have someone that can drive them 30 miles away to a better school, a better performing school or a school that has programs that they want to participate in. What about those kids that are left there, you know, what's, what's available to them? They only have what's right there. And now this is allowing for micro schools to open up in these really rural areas to be able to give more choice. my, my opinion on this as well is like, we're, we're talking a lot as a society about treating the symptoms like the budget allocation. In my opinion, as someone that has recently come up through the public school system and the universities is the system is broken. Fundamentally. It especially in the world we are now in, where tech, where technology has information is so free. And you know, in my opinion, we're going to be facing some major changes as a society soon. I think public school and college is a broken system. You don't have to comment on that. But I think it's something that we need to be thinking about as a group. What are we going to do to fix this? I don't dislike the teachers. Like, the teachers are not the problem. It is. The institution itself was designed to create a certain type of worker that no longer has a place in this world. So here's. I will comment on that. I, my oldest graduated from public school in May. My middle is in public school right now. And sometimes I'm terrified coming out here talking about school choice because I don't want her to feel the effects in public school from, you know, the people around her, because I don't want her teachers or administrators to think that I am against them. And I want to see public school suffer. I don't, I did great in public school. Okay, public school is great for me. Give me a standardized test, I will nail it. Give me, you know, a project like my brain works that way. I am the perfect example. Like, I could be a perpetual college student forever. I am the round hole in the round peg, right? And so for, I believe that for public school, for some, you know, some students, public school is still really a great fit. And my middle is there, obviously, because I feel like at this stage in her life, it is a great fit for her. But if at any point I felt like it wasn't, I would have no problem pulling her out and say, oh, no, no, let's figure out what's best for you then. So I don't use the word broken when I talk about it. I use, I talk about. It's standardized. Okay, Public school is standardized. And so what happens when your child doesn't fit the standard or maybe isn't a to their full potential at the standard? And then we talk about that like the micro school that's opening up for autistic and special needs children. What happens when they don't fit the standard? They're still really valuable. I share a story and I've shared it many times. My husband, who you've met, is a contractor carpenter, and he's amazing at what he does. He built my wedding venue. He built our home. He is a skilled craftsman. When he went to public school, though, they just passed that sucker through because they liked him and they thought, just, just get him to the next grade, right? Like he's, you know, he's nice. Just get him on through. He was probably dyslexic and never diagnosed. He got through, got his diploma and graduated. We actually graduated the same, the same school, same year. Weren't friends, but he goes on. And he actually had started in 9th grade pulling nails out of boards on a construction site. So he started there. People in church kind of took him in and said, here's a job. And so he started doing that. And he fell in love with woodworking in ninth grade. And so when he, it was his senior year, he didn't even take the act. He's like, I'm not going to college. He's like, I'm not doing it. And he said, I'm going to go build houses. And so right out of high school, he went full time into working on construction sites and working in construction. And I think about, like, with this idea of micro schools and thinking outside the box, what if he had had the opportunity to attend a carpentry micro school or a Tradesman micro school from the time he was in ninth grade, you know, and he could have been that much further along and invested and been able to study different types of builds different types of structures. Like to try lots of different trades and figure out is carpentry his best one. So for him, no, public school didn't work, was not valuable to him. He just got through it. But for me, honors, honor society, did all the clubs, did all the things, loved every minute, you know, different people. Yep. And for me, my, my, I found this out later. My teachers didn't know which way I'd go. So shout out to the teachers. I might have ratted you out on that one. Yeah. But okay, so let's see other policy things that I've written down here so we can get through these. Let's see, we've hit on a lot of these. Really. I mean, I wrote down things like. Okay, here's a good one. If you're running as a Republican. I am. You get in the Republican club, you're elected, you're doing your thing and all your, what do you call them? Peers. Yeah, yeah. Your other states party members, they're pressuring you to do something that they really want to do, but you don't, you don't feel. And maybe, you know, this threatens the future you have, what are you going to do? Face with that hard reality. You're making somebody mad. No matter what I think that to me, I'm already doing it. I'm already stating what policies I believe in, what I think needs to happen. And I'm already like everywhere I go talking about my, my political compass, my legislative compass, on how I'm going to look at laws and how I'm going to look at bills and how I'm going to legislate. And so I think it's just continuing that to beat that same drum so that they know what they get. Like, you know, you come to me with something. There's an issue right now that I've been asked about a couple times and you know, a lot of members are in support of it and I'm not. And I just go back to. That's because I'm a free market capitalist. Right. I just go back to the policy into the issue and I talk to him about it. I will say that my experience has been really good so far in talking to other members and talking about issues that we don't agree with. And I think if you're respectful to them, they know they're not going to agree with you on every Issue. Right. But there's going to be one issue where we are going to agree and we're going to fight together and it's going to be good. And so, yes, I mean, I think you will see some of that. And you just have to be able to say it's kind of like, okay, my oldest, very strong willed and she's enneagram8, like rule follower. Very. Has a strong sense of justice. And so when she was younger, we use this trick, we'd have the rules, you know, and so instead of me saying, I'm telling you not to do that, I would just say, well, the rules say this. It's against the rules. And so the rules are the bad guy. I'm not the bad guy. The rules are. And it's that same thing. It's like, well, my, my philosophy as a constitutional conservative, as someone who believes in smaller government, these, this is my criteria, my rubric. And so this is, this is what you need to get mad at. Not me, it's this that I follow. And so I think that that's the smartest way to go about that is to not make it about me and my decision, but rather the principles that I stand behind. Absolutely, absolutely. And ideally, you know that what's. Your constituents. Yeah, is that the term? Your constituents know what they're voting for and. Exactly. And I talk about it, I talk about it everywhere. Because I'm like, even in my business. Okay, we've talked about business before. I have a wedding venue and I'm not for every bride. I tell my brides when I talk to them on the phone, from the first conversation, I'm like, listen, I put a ton of stuff out on social media because you're going to either love what we do or hate what we do. And I want you to know up front. Right. Are we a good fit for you? I feel the same way. In my political race. I'm talking about the issues, I'm talking about stuff because you're either gonna love my philosophy or hate it. You're either gonna like how I think about things and how transparent I am, or you're not. And so I want you to know up front and then vote for the person that you agree with and align with the most. So in the event that you are elected, how is this gonna change your day to day life? I mean, you don't really know until it happens, I guess. But what are you, what are you planning for? Man? I'm working so hard on this campaign right now. It might be less work. I'M like, I don't know. I mean obviously session. Okay. What's neat about this is I already am ingrained in a very seasonal profession. I know what it is to work seasonally. Right. And in so often in the legislature it also can be seasonal with session which is every other year for three months and then you have your fiscal session on the off years. So there are times where you will be in Little Rock four days a week and then there will be times where you might be there one day a week or one week out of the month. It, it ebbs and flows because you also have a responsibility in your district to be meeting with your mayors, your city councils, your sheriffs, your judges. Like those are the kind of things I want to make a prior to where I'm checking in with those people so that it's not. When they have a problem, they call me. We've already talked. I talked to you last week. How's it going? You know, checking in and so they don't always feel like they have to reach out to me. And now I can do that because it's a small district. It's a small and tight knit district and there are some representatives that, you know, they have 20 sheriffs, you know, they have a lot to take in. And so that's one of the ways that I would like, I would think it would change is it will be seasonal. But for me, what's kind of neat is that session is January, February, March, every other year and I don't start weddings till spring break. So it already fits into my life. And yeah, so what is when does fiscal is going to be around April this year and that's always April. That's a good quiz. Every, every session. I remember it was around April. Okay. And I don't know for how long that's been. Well, any closing remarks you want to. Well, here's two. What would you like to say to those you're running with and then the people that may vote for you? So let's who the people you're running with. Right? My opponents, Your opponents, your running mates. Any, any words to them? You know, thanks for doing it. Thanks for stepping out there and running. Thanks for putting your name on a ballot. It makes our district better to have choice. I just talked about school choice. I just talked about all these choices that we have. And so I think that it's good to have choice and so I appreciate them doing it. And if I don't win, I'm gonna be knocking down your door on these, on these Issues, you know, to make sure that my voice is still heard and that it's a part. And then to the people that are voting. The people that are voting. To the people that are voting, I would just say, please consider me and I will work hard for you. I will be open and honest and transparent and I will tell you my beliefs and my principles and I will try my best by the grace of God, to stick to them. Awesome. And this has been Crystal Malloy sharing her. Her journey with us and her stance on these policies. Early voting opens up February 17th. That's right. Election, March 3rd. Election, March 3rd. Home stretch. Get out and vote, people. Thank you.