Rep. Burgess Owens Warns Against ‘Equity’ in Schools: ‘It’s Always Lower Expectation for Black People’

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) cautioned educators against infusing the concept of “equity” into teaching while he spoke during an education-related roundtable hosted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Wednesday.

Owens, the lead Republican on the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, said equity, which is often contrasted with equality, is “as racist as you can get” as it ultimately requires treating students who are racial minorities differently than white students.

“This whole thing with equity. I want you guys to just keep in mind, it’s always lower expectation for black people. It’s as racist as you can get. It’s what I grew up in when I was in the ’60s,” said Owens, who attended school in Florida during the civil rights era before going on to play college and professional football.

Owens described the idea of equity in the classroom as “insidious” because it results in lowering academic standards on the basis of race.

“The most insidious thing we can do is to start lowering expectations for anybody, any kid, based on their race, based on their color, and that’s what we see on the left,” Owens observed. “Equity is always, in their mind, lowering expectations and bringing everybody else down to that lower expectation. So education should be one in which we see the best in every individual, every child.”

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The Utah Republican’s comments were pertinent as they came on the heels of the Virginia gubernatorial election, in which Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in an upset victory. Youngkin had centered his campaign largely around education, promoting parents’ say in school policies and curriculums, school choice, and an expanded education budget. Youngkin also campaigned on the promise that he would ban Critical Race Theory from schools, an issue that has outraged parents nationwide and driven many to speak out in defiance at local school board meetings.

“I want to thank Virginia for standing strong for parents, for bringing this topic [of education] to the forefront that’s needed to be for a long time, and I want to congratulate America because we’re now waking up,” Owens said.

The roundtable also included McCarthy, House Republican Conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), a Loudoun County parent and his child, and other education advocates.

The event came as part of a series of roundtables McCarthy is hosting primarily to expose the various provisions packed into Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar spending plans, covering topics like increased gas prices, IRS surveillance, and small business regulations.

The topic of Wednesday’s was “nationalized education,” and Stefanik, who led the discussion, noted Democrats’ reconciliation proposal would “drastically increase the cost of sending children to preschool and take away parental power when it comes to education and put it in the hands of the federal government. We know that that is not a message that resonates with America.”

Stefanik, like Owens, applauded Virginia for reinforcing that notion. “Virginia spoke loud and clear last night that parental rights is an issue that we can run on and we can win on when it comes to education, and Republicans are committed to always standing up for our parents and students.”

In addition to Virginia, approximately 75 percent of the 58 school board candidates backed by Ryan Girdusky’s 1776 Project PAC won their races across seven states. The PAC backed candidates who oppose Critical Race Theory, the New York Times’s debunked 1619 Project, and other ideas built into education practices that assume America is inherently racist.

Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected].

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