School Choice Will Put Meritocracy Back in American School System: Rep. Burgess Owens

As schools go back to full-time in-person learning, many parents are paying closer attention to what their children are learning and even attending school board meetings to ask questions and protest policies that allow indoctrination with transgender ideology, sexually explicit graphic novels, and Marxist critical race theory in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Many Republican lawmakers are rallying behind parents and believe that the American public education system needs to be made accountable to parents.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) said America’s education system needs to prioritize the needs of the students, and school choice would allow meritocracy to improve education for all.

Owens said he is for the idea of tax dollars following the child and parents having school choice.

“Just imagine those dollars in a backpack, and that parents [can pick a school] based on the school’s focus, based on how they respect my child, based on the values,” Owens told NTD’s “Capitol Report” program in an Oct. 3 interview. “What that does is it gives us a meritocracy.”

Other aspects of society operate on a meritocracy, Owens said, especially in business. He said the best hotels and restaurants get the best income, based on the quality.

“[School choice] will eliminate those systems that are not working for our kids,” he said. “And we need to be able to eliminate the bad and highlight the good.”

Burgess said many inner-city schools are not producing literate students, especially in lower-income black neighborhoods.

“In 2017, 75 percent of black boys in the state of California did not pass standard reading and writing tests. That is a disaster. You have Baltimore districts which have zero percent proficiency in math,” said Owens.

“The problem is, they’ve been getting away with it,” he added.

Burgess criticized the teachers unions for prioritizing adults and their needs over the children’s needs.