James Moylan Highlights The ‘Flexibility’ School Choice Gives Working Families

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During Tuesday’s House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Del. James Moylan (R-Guam) questioned experts about how school choice and private school voucher programs help families.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00The representative from Guam, Mr. Moylan, is recognized for five minutes.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Madam Ranking Member, and thank you for hosting this important hearing

00:08on expanding educational choice. School choice allows parents and families the freedom to choose

00:15the schools that work best for them. In my district of Guam, people often work outside their villages,

00:21sometimes on the opposite side of the island. Situations like these sometimes make it difficult

00:27for parents who want to ensure that they are home for their young children when they are out of

00:33school. So expanding school choice across the board, both private and public, empowers families

00:40to choose what works, giving needed flexibility in districts like my own. My question is for

00:48Mrs. Clark. You mentioned that your family had to jump through a variety of hoops, and before

00:54qualifying for an educational savings account, we all want to make sure that the government

01:01funds are spent responsibly. What ways, if any, can state lawmakers slash red tape or

01:08redundant reporting requirements so that families can navigate the system more easily?

01:14Thank you for the question. Well, the whole idea behind school choice and ESAs is parents' rights.

01:19We want to give control back into the hands of parents so that they can direct the dollars and

01:25put them in the education environment that best meets their child's needs. So I advocate for

01:31really flexible ESA programs that are open immediately or what we call universal to all

01:36families. It took us over 12 years to get that in Arizona. And of course, once we had universal ESA,

01:42the number of students on it just skyrocketed because we removed those barriers. I also think

01:47requiring prior public school attendance, it's not good for the public school system, and it's

01:52very difficult for families, especially students with disabilities, who often, you know, would have

01:56to go enroll their child in a public school and then pull them out just to qualify. And also,

02:00what I mentioned earlier, we don't want to burden public schools. And so allowing families like

02:04Arizona has to use a private diagnosis of your student with a disability instead of having to

02:10go through the public school system, you can if you want to, but you're no longer required to go

02:14through the public school system to prove your student has a disability. Those are three reforms

02:19and removal of red tape that I think other states should consider. Thank you. I appreciate that.

02:24My last question will be for Mr. Blanks. You mentioned that school choice nurtured your

02:29intellectual and academic potential. Can you elaborate further on how school choice programs

02:36can help create pipelines to meaningful, well-paying jobs in rural, remote districts like mine?

02:43Yeah, well, thank you for that question. And to go off of some of that, I was supposed to

02:47be a statistic. I was supposed to be in prison or not even here today. And if it weren't for

02:53school choice, there's no telling where I would be. And so thinking about not just the academic

03:00portion that school choice helps a child, I always say that you may not be in the classroom,

03:04but you're always a student. And being able to take advantage of those opportunities to progress

03:10even after graduating high school or college or whatever the case may be, has been monumental in

03:15my own life. I mean, never in a million years would I imagine sitting before you all today.

03:22And it was all because of my educational journey. And we can stop a lot of the criminal justice

03:28aspect of middle-aged people and people my age if they have a great education. And so I believe that

03:34when we're talking about school choice, and we didn't hear a lot about why, once again, as I said

03:39earlier, why families want to send their children to a different school in the first place, or why

03:44are they not a part of the conversation when we're talking about education, I've seen up until this

03:49point a lot of protection for the bureaucracy. And I'm here to fight for students. I'm here to fight

03:53for parents and be that voice for them, because even just looking in the room, there's not too

03:57many of them here. And so my perspective is we give every single family school choice and allow

04:03parents to drive where they send their child to school, because that's the most important thing

04:08that a parent can do for their child. Continue the fight and we're here to support you. Thank

04:13you very much to the panel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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