During Tuesday’s House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) questioned experts about the importance of school choice for parents.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The representative from Utah, Mr. Owens, is recognized for five minutes.
00:04First of all, Mr. Chair, this is a very, very important and pertinent conversation.
00:07I've noticed I have a couple of things in common with some of the, some of our witnesses.
00:11Mr. Blanks, my dad went to Ohio State.
00:15I was born in Columbus, Ohio.
00:16I was getting his PhD there during that time.
00:19And Ms. Levin, you came from out of Oakland, am I correct?
00:22Okay, well I played with Oakland Raiders, so we have some things in common there.
00:28I have just a couple of things.
00:31Mr. Blanks, you mentioned earlier, what do you say to those who believe that failing
00:37schools and time will be given, if given time, we'll be able to turn things around and be
00:43able to address the issues that you mentioned you had coming up?
00:46Yeah, well in my experience, more often than not, the needs of the students are not met.
00:51And so that instance with my mother happened almost 20 years ago.
00:56And to pull the current, the educational outcomes of that school, 13% of the students are proficient
01:03in math and 34% are proficient in reading.
01:06In both of those categories, for the state of Ohio, the school is considered well below
01:11expectations, almost 20 years ago.
01:14And so for my mom, who said, we don't have that kind of time, but think over the last
01:18two decades, how many students have shuffled through this school?
01:22And some of them have done well.
01:23I know one in particular that was in the same class I was, is now playing for the Buffalo
01:27Bills, doing very well.
01:29So the public education system was great for him, but it was simply was not for me.
01:34And so I needed another option.
01:35And so to tell my mom to wait five years was not an acceptable answer.
01:40Good for your mom.
01:41That's called wisdom.
01:42And by the way, I've been hearing this for 40, 50 years.
01:44Just give us time.
01:45Meanwhile, we're losing kids by the drove.
01:47So I have, Ms. Levin, I'm, of course, very impressed with your background.
01:55Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University, University of Oxford, and J.D. Cum Laude from Harvard
02:03Law School.
02:04I'm going to guess that's because you had a remarkable foundation.
02:07You have parents that truly focus on your education during that process, am I correct?
02:12That was certainly a very important part of it.
02:14Okay.
02:15And you have the same experience, you think?
02:17If you lived in the Baltimore area with 28 schools, you have 2,000 seniors with zero
02:21proficiency of math.
02:23Or in California, study back in 2017, 75% of the black boys could not read, pass reading
02:30and writing tests.
02:31Could you have succeeded in those kind of situations, public school systems, you think?
02:35I think that we need to fully fund our public schools to make sure that all students have
02:40the opportunity.
02:41And Education Law Center advocates for that across the country.
02:45Private school choice.
02:46So, did you go to a public school system?
02:48No, I went to a private school.
02:49Okay.
02:50You went to Head Royce School.
02:52I spent time in Oakland.
02:55You had a choice in Oakland to go to public schools also.
02:58Why didn't your parents do that for you?
03:00Well, I would remind you that children generally don't choose the school that they go to.
03:05No, your parents did.
03:06Your parents had a choice.
03:07And your parents paid $30,000 to $50,000 a year for your choice.
03:11What gets me is how people like yourself, I would say this across the board, parents
03:16who have an option.
03:17They can put their kids in the best school because they know that's an investment for
03:20their kids' future.
03:22And yet, you come here and say, well, it doesn't work.
03:25I just want to repeat, I want to read this real quick.
03:28In reality, students who use biology experience worse educational outcomes than their public
03:34school peers.
03:35Obviously, your parents didn't think that way because they put you in a private school.
03:38In private schools, they're subject to few, if any, quality and accountability standards.
03:46I guess my question is this.
03:49If we had a system in which we were focused on the student versus the institution, if
03:55parents had a choice, like your parents did have a choice, and it did not come out of
04:01the state funds.
04:02We have something called Education Choice of Children Act.
04:04It does not come, not one risk, it comes out of the district, out of the local.
04:08Would you be okay with choice if that was the case?
04:11If parents had a choice, but it did not come out of public schools, which obviously have
04:14a very, you know, very focused on, would you be okay with that kind of choice?
04:19No.
04:20We oppose any type of private school choice program.
04:23I would note that I, as an independent person, have looked at the evidence and looked at
04:27policy and made my own independent judgment.
04:29Would you put your children in the school system here in Baltimore?
04:33If you're stuck there, if you didn't have a choice of what we're talking about everybody
04:37else, would you be okay to leave your child in a school that's failing, zero proficiency
04:42in math?
04:43I will absolutely put any children I have, including the one I'm expecting, into public
04:47schools.
04:48As I said, I come from a family-
04:49And a good public, and these Baltimore public schools?
04:52We're not talking about good public schools, we're talking about schools that are failing
04:54our kids.
04:55Would you be willing to put your child in a school that everybody else, all these parents
04:59are trying to get their kids out of?
05:01I don't believe that our public schools are failing.
05:04I believe that that's a narrative created at the national level.
05:06There's a word called HUSPA.
05:08It's a lot of HUSPA.
05:09When I sit down and talk to people at your table here, they're dealing with this every
05:14single day and their kids are failing.
05:16We've had too much of this.
05:18That being said, I'm excited about the fact that we're going to have a choice process
05:21and kids are going to be able to get out and be successful in the future, so I look forward
05:23to that.
05:24I yield back.