How Can Americans Create Better Education Systems?

In an article published at the Deseret News, Gitanjali Poonia discussed remarks made by Representative Burgess Owens (R-Utah). She summarized Owens as saying that meritocracy and the free market are important in creating better education systems in the United States. Owens stressed this idea while speaking to students at the University of Utah at the Hinckley Institute of Politics as part of the Sutherland Institute’s 2024 Congressional Series. He also claimed that American can gain respite from the partisan climate of today by bringing back American values. 

“Utah is very, very unique,” Owens said. The state’s young residents who serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints come back not just with knowledge of different cultures, but also an appreciation for their country, Owens said.

The Beehive State also embodies a culture of compassion and hard work, he said, noting the state’s status as one with the highest number of entrepreneurs.

His work on the House Education and Workforce Committee focuses on making sure the next generation is “capable of generating businesses here and supporting businesses here,” Owens said. “We don’t want to export our kids. We want our kids to grow and stay with us here.”

“We have the kind of educational system that allows our kids to choose and pick, whether it be higher ed, (or) a high-tech career. We have all those options here, and that choice is very important. We’re going to continue to be better at that,” Owens said. While there’s room for improvement, Utah gets a lot right and can serve as a model for the rest of the country, he added….

Regardless of whether a school is private or public, if it fails to teach children, “it needs to be out of business,” said Owens. According to him, the free market should be given a chance to weed out educational institutions that can’t teach children successfully.

Owens discussed the lack of success in U.S. schools over recent years: “one in three Black students in California’s public schools passed the standardized test for English, and only one in five achieved grade level in math” in 2017. If that was not bad enough, “Among 13 of the public high schools in Baltimore, Maryland, not one student scored a proficient score in math last year,” according to Owens. Now, students across the nation are showing learning loss in their test scores due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Owens.

Despite strong support for school choice among parents of color, Owens said, Democrats have time and again voted against allowing parents to pick the educational institution right for their child.

His Educational Choice for Children Act would give parents more autonomy over their children’s schooling. The bill would create scholarships for students in K-12 to pay for tutoring, special needs services, homeschooling curriculum materials, education technology, and other educational needs. Individuals and businesses would receive tax credits for contributing to the scholarships, and a school district’s funding would remain untouched.

The House Education and Workforce Committee has also proposed the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would affirm parents’ right to know what goes on at school, whether it’s the curriculum, the school’s budget or a violent incident.

“We want to protect our children. We want to be heard as parents,” Owens said.

Owens is interested in education beyond the K-12 years and said that “parents need to consider their return on investment in four-year colleges that cost tens of thousands of dollars.” He also hit the cost of college graduation and that students should not be graduating with debt. Instead, colleges should be held accountable for offering degrees that mean nothing.

Owens discussed the College Cost Reduction Act, which he cosponsored and which would “double the maximum Pell Grant awards juniors and seniors can receive.”

According to the American Council on Education, a higher education association, it would also “prevent interest from capitalizing on student loans, simplify the student loan repayment process, and require students to only pay back what they would have owed on a 10-year standard repayment plan.” Owens said this bill would help level the playing field.

Owens discussed how the Black family unit has crumbled since he was a child and that “he worries family values are deteriorating among all young people.” He likened his early years to what is happening today, “I was so proud to be a Black American, so proud of America, and so excited about going out to prove myself, because that’s what our parents were teaching us.”