WATCH: 5 Big Questions for Rep. Nancy Mace

Rep. Mace says 'being anti-mandate doesn't mean you're anti-mask or anti-vaccination.'

The freshman Congresswoman says students should never be required to learn Critical Race Theory.

Representative Nancy Mace sounds off on mask mandates, Critical Race Theory, and the costs of college in a new interview with Campus Reform. 

Mace says college students should be permitted to make their own decisions about wearing a mask, rather than being subjected to mandates. 

”If you’re an adult, then you should be able to make your own healthcare decisions for yourself. And no one is banning a mask, anyone can wear a mask,” Mace says. “Being anti-mandate doesn’t mean you’re anti-mask or anti-vaccination.”

[RELATED: WATCH: 5 Big Questions for Congressman Jim Jordan]

As one of Washington’s most outspoken opponents of Critical Race Theory, Mace says that no student should be required to take a course that uses that worldview. 

”Critical Race Theory is Marxist ideology; it’s indoctrination. I am absolutely totally against mandating it anywhere,” Mace says, adding that students who wish to take Critical Race Theory classes in college should be permitted to do so.

Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, also shared her concerns over higher education’s deep financial ties to hostile foreign countries like China. She says colleges must do more to protect American intellectual property from foreign agents who are sent by hostile nations to steal the products of university research.

[RELATED: 5 Big Questions for Rep. Kat Cammack]

Mace calls out the federal government for driving up the cost of college with subsidies. “When we subsidize an entire industry, it doesn’t mean costs go down,” she notes. “There’s no incentive there to reduce costs and make [college] affordable...it’s not run like a business. If it were a business, many colleges and universities would have gone out of business.”

Though the Congresswoman is a few years away from sending her own kids to college, she says she is already having conversations with them about students’ rights. She advises all students to know their rights and speak out when colleges infringe on their rights and freedoms.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AngelaLMorabito