Rick Allen Asks Witnesses: ’How Do We Change The Direction’ Of Our Public Schools?

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During Tuesday’s House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) questioned experts about proposed policy surrounding school choice and private school vouchers.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00The representative from Georgia, Mr. Allen, is recognized for five minutes.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have 14 beautiful grandchildren, and boy, they're different.

00:11You know, God created every child with unique characteristics, and guess what? They deserve

00:19the best, the best school for every child. And it might not be the best school for another.

00:28Now, let's be clear. We don't want to lose one child in this country.

00:35All of us are sick of that, and it's creating real problems.

00:41But at the same time, how do we change the direction?

00:47We know we're going in the wrong direction. I mean, 70 percent of the country said this

00:52country is going in the wrong direction. A lot of it starts right there in education.

00:58I have, I bring you good news to fill the need for young students who are struggling in public

01:04schools. We established Heritage Academy, and we give low-income single moms a choice for their

01:12child's education. These children are receiving a faith-based education, and every child has

01:20thrived. These children, these moms send these children to Heritage Academy because basically

01:26they're told they're losers in the public school system. They are growing both academically and

01:32spiritually, and most, I think all of them, are awarded a full scholarship to any private school

01:38they want to go to in my district. That's the good news. So, and again, in my state,

01:51school choice is an 80 percent issue. Ms. Clark, one common argument we hear about school choice

01:58and ESAs in particular is that they defund traditional public schools or otherwise degrade

02:04the quality of public education. Have you seen that in Arizona? Absolutely not. In fact, not a

02:12single public school has closed in Arizona in the over 12-plus years that we've had the ESA program

02:18in our state. Okay. Well, I got to speak up for my daughters. I have one daughter that's sending

02:24her children to a faith-based private school where she attended. We sent our children because

02:31we wanted to get a faith-based education, but I have another daughter who is sending hers to

02:37public school, and she has gotten in there and gotten involved in that public school,

02:41and the parents have, and it's beginning to thrive. Now, it took a lot to do that,

02:48and I applaud. My wife did the same thing when our children were in high school.

02:53Dr. Machein, I have reviewed the data you presented in your testimony. I'm impressed by

02:58how overwhelming the research base favoring school choice, which again, in Georgia, is an 80

03:04percent positive issue. What would help make the public more aware of the results you've offered

03:10here today? Research is boring. I noticed when I saw in the lineup that I was going to have to

03:19open for Jenny and Walter, I felt like a band that has to open for two significantly better bands,

03:26and you're just going to kind of get the doors blown off you there, but

03:30it does highlight an important point that ultimately the research that I do, the research

03:34that others do, the data points that we collect are real human beings that are trying to do right

03:39by their children or children themselves, and so I think doing as much as we can to tell the

03:44stories underneath those data, because research ultimately, look, we do averages, right? We take

03:49all the voucher kids on this side and all the non-voucher kids on this side. We look at what

03:53they are at the average, but we know under averages are big bell curves, right? There are

03:56some people that are doing better. There are some that are doing worse, so trying to tell those

04:00actual stories and learning from them is important. Right. I understand. Mr. Banks, thank you for

04:06coming and testifying today. Your story is, I mean, Ben Carson's a good friend of mine. He had

04:13a similar story, and like I said, you know, we want every child to have the same opportunity

04:22you had. Thanks for being here, and thank you for speaking out for every young person in America,

04:30because it's important. Thank you for that, and I just want to be very clear that I'm not the only

04:35one. There are thousands of students across the country who have benefited from similar programs,

04:40are thriving, and are doing great work. There is an army coming up behind me. I could introduce

04:46you to hundreds of families, and to quote Coach Prime, I ain't too hard to find. I'm going to

04:52continue this work because I believe in it, and I've benefited from it, and I've seen the results,

04:57and I believe that every child should have the same experience that I did. Well, that's what

05:01has made America the great country it is today. Thank you. Thanks to all of you, and I yield back.

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