S4E1 - A Table Talk on School Choice with Sen. Stephen Owens

Stephen Owens was Lamar & Tom’s first guest on Getting to 3rd Space in the first season of the podcast. This week he is our first ever Table Talk guest on the podcast and we talk about school choice.

During the first season of our podcast Stephen Owens was representing the 74th District in the Kansas House of Representatives. He served in the Kansas House from 2019 to 2024. In 2025, Stephen was elected to the Kansas Senate and is now serving the 31st Senate District. In another first, Senator Owens is joining as our first guest for a Table Talk. He is a Republican lawmaker in Kansas. The topic is school choice. School choice, as we are thinking about it for this podcast, allows public education funds to be used to support K-12 students whose families choose for them to attend public, private, or charter schools, home schooling, or other educational environments they choose. 

Learn More

Learn more about Senator Stephen Owens, representing the 31st Senate District in the Kansas Statehouse: 

• State of Kansas, Senate Web - https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/members/sen_owens_stephen_1/ 

Learn more about the pros and cons of school choice:

• EdChoice - https://www.edchoice.org/

• University of Rochester - https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/what-is-school-choice-pros-and-cons-564712/ 

• Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/procon/school-vouchers-debate 

A 3rd Space Survey: Acts of Kindness

Sen. Stephen Owens is the most recent of our guests to talk about acts of kindness he has received and given. Do you have an act of kindness that you’d like to share? You can participate through a Google Forms Survey at this link: https://forms.gle/5NQakn6bgeXpm2us5 

There you will find two kindness questions we’d like you to consider and then respond to:

What is an act of kindness you’ve received that made a difference to you? 

What is an act of kindness you have done which you hope changed another person’s life?

How We Check Ourselves

Fact Checking: Because there are a lot of things happening…some true, some false, some unbelievable…we use the following fact checking sites. Take a look for yourself:

• Snopes - https://www.snopes.com/ 

• FactCheck.org - https://www.factcheck.org/ 

• Politifact - https://www.politifact.com/

• RealClearPolitics - https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ 

Because media can have its own biases, we also rely upon these sites to help us get balanced coverage:

• Media Bias/Fact Check - https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

• All Sides - https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news

• Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart - https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive 

Meet Lamar and Tom

Lamar Roth and Tom Klaus are lifelong friends exploring how to get to a 3rd Space - a space where two or more people with opposing viewpoints, ideologies, and worldviews can come together to hear, listen, share, and connect with one another.

Want to watch us do the podcast? Visit the Klaus Haus Productions YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@KlausHausProductions. 

Comments? Suggestions? Ideas for guests or topics? 

Send us a voice message on Spotify or email us at [e-mail] and [e-mail].

Credits:

Wild Opinions and Nonsensical Musings by Lamar Roth & Tom Klaus

Images by Getty Images, Pexels, Pixabay, Roth Images, and Cyberlink AI

Final review and approval by Jake and Ebie Dawgs Inc. 

Photos by Lamar Roth are copyrighted by Roth Images, All Rights Reserved. For permissions or