Owens Blasts School Choice Hypocrisy

WASHINGTON D.C. — Education and the Workforce Committee Vice Chair Burgess Owens (R-UT) questioned witnesses in a committee hearing on the benefits of school choice. 

Owens called out Jessica Levin, Litigation Director for the Education Law Center, for opposing school choice despite benefiting from an elite private school education.

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Owens: “Ms. Levin, you had every advantage—a top-tier private school education, Ivy League degrees—because your parents had the ability to choose what was best for you. Yet you sit here today and tell parents in failing districts that they should accept their circumstances while you wouldn’t accept them for your own child.”

Levin justified her stance by advocating for increased public school funding, but when Owens asked if she would place her own children in the worst-performing schools, she avoided the question.

Owens: “We’re not talking about the best public schools. We’re talking about schools where 0% of students are proficient in math. Parents are desperate to get their children out, yet you tell them to stay put—while you had a choice. That’s hypocrisy.”

Owens asked Levin if she would support the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), a bill he proudly supports that would provide tax credit scholarships to give low-income families real educational options without pulling funding from public school districts.

Owens: “What if that school choice was funded entirely outside the public school system? If parents had access to scholarships through private donations and tax credits—no public funds taken away from public schools—would you support that?”

Levin: “No, we oppose any type of private school choice program.”

Owens: “Even if not a single cent came from public school funding? Even if it meant children could escape failing schools with no impact on public budgets?”

Levin: “Yes, we oppose all forms of school choice.”

Owens: “That’s all I needed to hear. It’s not about funding. It’s not about public investment. It’s about control—about keeping families trapped in a system that works for bureaucrats, not for students.”

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Owens also questioned Walter Blanks Jr., spokesman for the American Federation for Children, on the long-standing failure of the public education system to improve over time.

Owens: “What do you say to those who claim that failing schools just need more time to improve? That parents should just wait—another five years, another decade—for the system to get its act together?”

Blanks: “My mother heard that excuse 20 years ago, and today, that same school is still failing—only 13% of students are proficient in math. She didn’t have time to wait, and neither do the millions of parents who are watching their kids slip through the cracks today. If she had waited, I wouldn’t be here speaking to you today—I’d be just another statistic of a school system that let me down. For some students, sure, maybe they can make it work. I had a classmate who went through that same school and is now playing for the Buffalo Bills. But for kids like me, who needed a different approach, who needed a school that fit our needs, the answer couldn’t be ‘just give it more time.’ My mom made a decision because she knew what was best for me, and I thank God every day that she had the ability to make that choice.”

Owens: “And yet, for decades, we’ve heard the same talking points—just wait a little longer, just pump in more money, just give the system more time to fix itself. Meanwhile, generations of kids are being lost to schools that have no intention of improving. How many more kids have to be sacrificed before we admit the current system is broken?”

Blanks: “That’s exactly the problem. It’s not just my story—it’s millions of kids across the country. And for every one student who somehow beats the odds in a failing school, there are thousands who don’t. But instead of empowering parents with options, we tell them to be patient, to accept the system as it is. That’s not right.”

The full hearing can be viewed here.

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