Everyone knows that politics and hypocrisy go together like chicken and waffles. But when it comes to the issue of school choice, those on the opposing end tend to embrace the maxim “choice for me, but not for thee.”
Congressman Burgess Owens (R-UT) exposed this during an exchange on the House floor with an anti-school choice advocate.
Jessica Levin, litigation director at the Education Law Center, gave testimony arguing that private school vouchers do not benefit students or their families. “Data from multiple states shows the majority of vouchers are used by more affluent families who are already sending their children to private schools and not the low-income families they purport to target,” she asserted during the hearing.
Congressman Owens wasn’t buying it. He asked Levin, “So did you go to a public school system?”
Levin replied, “No, I went to a private school.”
The Congressman continued, noting that Levin attended Head Royce School in Oakland, California and that she “had a choice in Oakland to go to public schools also.”
“Why didn’t your parents do that for you?” he asked.
Levin responded, pointing out that “children generally don’t choose the school that they go to,” which Owens concurred with before laying down the hammer.
No, your parents did. Yes, that's correct. Your parents had a choice. Your parents paid $30,000 to $50,000 a year for your choice. What gets me is how people like yourself, I would say this, across the board, parents who have an option, they put their kids in the best school because they know that's an investment for their kid's future. And yet you come here and say how well it doesn't work.
Owens quoted Levin when she argued that vouchers bring about “worse educational outcomes than their public school peers.”
“Obviously, your parents didn’t think that way because they put you in a private school,” Owens said.
Congressman Burgess Owens just CALLED OUT the main witness testifying against school choice for being a HYPOCRITE.
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 12, 2025
She went to a private school.
She works for Education Law Center.
They're funded by the teachers union. pic.twitter.com/dpwEi15Obl
There it is. pic.twitter.com/TgC4nYE973
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 12, 2025
Funded by Randi Weingarten’s union. pic.twitter.com/nTP9VT0vfq
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 12, 2025
That couldn’t have been a comfortable moment for Levin. But it is quite common for high-profile anti-school choice advocates to have benefited from the programs they wish to destroy.
Indeed, folks on the right like school choice evangelist Corey DeAngelis have constantly pointed to this hypocrisy.
BREAKING: Chair of the Texas House Democrats just said parents send their kids to private school "so they don't have to have their kids with your kids."
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) February 3, 2025
He sends his kids to private school. pic.twitter.com/x8R2vOtWqV
The reality is that these people care nothing for children in low-income families. They have no problem with using school choice for their kids, but when it comes to everyday folks, they want them trapped in failing government-run schools where they can be indoctrinated into progressive ideology. Fortunately, the tide appears to have turned. Several states are considering school choice legislation – and federal lawmakers are doing the same. For the time being, it appears school choice will win out in the end.
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