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Stephen Owens (Georgia)
From Ballotpedia
Stephen Owens is running for election to the Atlanta Public Schools school board to represent District 2 in Georgia. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.
Owens completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2025
See also: Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia, elections (2025)
General election
The general election will occur on November 4, 2025.
General election for Atlanta Public Schools school board District 2
Marlissa Crawford, Tony Mitchell, and Stephen Owens are running in the general election for Atlanta Public Schools school board District 2 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Marlissa Crawford (Nonpartisan) | ||
 | Tony Mitchell (Nonpartisan)  | |
 | Stephen Owens (Nonpartisan) | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
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Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Stephen Owens completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Owens' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a proud parent of three APS students (as well as two more who will attend soon) and 10 year resident of West End. I was honored to teach for 5 years and earned a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction before leaving the classroom to pursue a doctorate in Education, Administration and Policy from the University of Georgia. Now, as Dr. Owens, I have worked in the Georgia Department of Education as a data and policy analyst before transitioning to advocacy at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI), where I was Director of Education. At GBPI I researched, wrote and lobbied for full and fair funding for students, particularly those who have been traditionally marginalized like the residents of Southwest Atlanta. Now I work for a non-profit promoting school integration and resource equity across the country. I have served as the GO Team Secretary for M. Agnes Jones and am always a willing volunteer for the school. My family and I attend church at Atlanta Westside Presbyterian, where I am an elder.
- I have been in the classroom or fighting for equitable, excellent public schools for my entire professional life. From volunteering at my children's local public school to lobbying state government officials for additional state investment in education, I am qualified to steward Atlanta Public Schools to do right by students.
- Many schools, including the one my children attend, are facing closure from the district. I have been in community meetings pushing back against this short-sided closure narrative for years, and will not stop until the district refuses to close a single school without significant community investment first.
- We can't just wait for the opportunity gap to close, we have to slam it shut ourselves. So many of our students are ready for rigorous classwork (like AP or IB classes), but are being ignored because of outdated policies, biases and ignorance. We can expand the net of who is eligible for honors courses and set thousands more of our graduates onto a path to the highest math, science or English classes.
Education finance and policy. I've got a doctorate in Education, Administration and Policy and have been working in the field for 10 years.
My mother. She's the brightest, most humble and most giving person I've ever met. I would be lucky to be half the person she is.
Experience and conviction. No one should be running for school board if they're just looking for fame or to use this office to jump to the next one. We need experts who are willing to put in the work--but a huge part of that work is a conviction that ALL Atlantans deserve a seat at the table. Not just the 1,000 or so super-voters, every single person. Because we're all invested in these schools.
Oversight of the school district via personnel (including the district superintendent), budget, curriculum and policy. These are only possible by holding true to the value of community feedback and responsiveness.
I'm running for seat 2, which is the west side of Atlanta, from Home Park to Center Hill to Mechanicsville. Every single person, including those who don't have kids or who haven't voted in a single election, are the people who I will earnestly seek their support. But once elected, it's every Atlantan. Now I will be honest here, while I will fight for all students, my primary focus is on those who have traditionally been ignored because of racist, classist or ablest polices. Many of those students are my neighbors, and go to my kids' school. If we can do right by those kids, then we will truly be a success as a district.
We need to have a thorough review of the amount of our local tax dollars that are being redirected away from the schools to prop up already hot real estate markets in the city. With the money lost there we could beef up the finances of the district and make sure our educators are paid well.
So many! First, we need to cement the rights of students that might only have protections at the federal level (students with disabilities, homeless students, etc.). The president is trying to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and Atlanta needs to do the work to protect those students in district policy and accountability. Second, we need to expand the net for honors courses so that we don't just rely on gifted programs as our pipeline. Automatic opt-in programs in places like Dallas show how helpful it can be to close the opportunity gap. Finally (at least for the purpose of this survey), we should significantly reduce the number of suspensions for primary grades. Districts like Charlotte showed that we can do this without any negative effect to the classroom discipline.
A place where they are safe. Not only from physical danger, although that is a priority, but with a teacher that is invested in their success and a coursework that recognizes their dignity. That means having a teacher workforce that resembles the classroom, and a curriculum that celebrates the rich history of Black and Brown Americans. It also means that it is the school professionals, not some police officers, that handles correction.
I'm incredibly distrustful of AI and think that too many districts are negotiating with this technology from a place of weakness. I want all teachers, leaders and students to be well-acquainted with the dangers (privacy concerns, inaccuracy issues, etc.) before we consider this a helpful tool in the classroom.
My first grade teacher saw that I was struggling with the fact that it was storming outside. You see, I grew up in Riverdale and a tornado had knocked a tree onto our house when I was 4, so I hated storms. Ms. Brooks took me to the side, hugged me, and told me that thunder was nothing more than God bowling. I knew that wasn't true, but I was made safe by her concern for me. I want to make sure that all students in APS feel as safe as I did right then.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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