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Owens promotes Education Choice of Children's Act, criticizes DEI and affirmative action
Summary
Congressman Burgess Owens described proposed legislation that would let private donors receive tax credits to fund scholarships through nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations, and he criticized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and affirmative action during a Washington Watch interview.
Congressman Burgess Owens promoted legislation he described as the Education Choice of Children's Act, saying the bill would create nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations funded by private donors who would receive tax credits and that parents could use those funds for public, parochial or homeschool options.
"The blessing of the last 4 years is that we now are 1 as a nation... 30%, only 30 percent of our country's kids are proficient in math and reading. That is... unacceptable," Owens said, introducing the proposal. "It's a nonprofit. There's no link to the Department of Education at all." He said the program would allow parents to "request funds for anything they want" and argued the measure "does not touch 1 red cent of public educational funds."
Owens framed the proposal as restoring what he called a merit-based approach to education. He said the bill would include tax credits for donors to scholarship-granting organizations and, in his view, create competition that would "reward the best teachers" and improve outcomes. Owens did not provide bill text, a Congressional bill number, or details about implementation timelines, nor did he specify which states — if any — already use the proposed model beyond saying that "6 different states" had seen positive effects in his view.
Earlier in the segment the host played a recorded clip of former Democratic National Committee chair Jamie R. Harrison describing gender-balance rules for party leadership positions. The clip and Owens's subsequent remarks prompted extended criticism from Owens of DEI policies and affirmative action; Owens characterized affirmative action as "a very racist, a very demeaning, ideology or process" and said the country should "get back to" selecting people on merit. Those comments reflect Owens's opinions expressed during the interview; no policy change or vote was announced on the segment.
The interview included a discussion of broad goals — expanding parental choice, using private tax-credit funded scholarships, and increasing pay for high-performing teachers — but provided few implementation details. Owens did not say whether he had introduced the Education Choice of Children's Act as formal legislation in Congress or when such a measure might be publicly filed.
