Virginia Foxx retakes chairmanship of Committee on Education, setting stage for clash with Biden admin
Representative Virginia Foxx, staunch critic of federal involvement in public education, has won back her chairmanship of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Based on past statements and material from her website, Foxx generally opposes the federal government involving itself in education. This is in stark contrast to the Biden administration
Representative Virginia Foxx (R., NC), a staunch critic of federal involvement in public education and student loan debt relief, has won back her chairmanship of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Per its website, the committee “oversees programs that affect all Americans, from early learning and higher education to job training and retirement security.” This jurisdiction includes higher education programs, job training, and public K-12 initiatives.
Foxx has long been a skeptic of university conduct and how federal funds are used in higher education.
Last month, a report she requested from the Government Accountability Office found that financial aid offers from universities often make it “difficult for students to compare offers and assess college affordability” with “91% of colleges understat[ing] or [not including] the net price in their offers.”
Foxx has also voiced support for free speech at colleges, having recently partnered with FIRE, YAF, and the Alumni Free Speech Alliance to host a campus free speech roundtable in the U.S. Capitol.
[RELATED: 26 attorneys general stand up against Biden penalizing schools over LGBTQ+ agenda]
Foxx has additionally taken up staunch opposition to the Biden administration’s attempts to cancel student loan debt for certain borrowers. She has claimed the proposed program would cost the government more than $1 trillion and would cause the debt to “be shifted from Americans who willingly took out student loans to those who did not,” costing the average taxpayer “at least” $2,500.
In addition to opposing the Biden administration’s push to cancel student debt, Foxx has also taken a stance against critical race theory.
She called the framework “indoctrination” and criticized an attempt from the Department of Education to implement the theory into public education. Critical Race Theory began as an obscure idea developed by legal theorists in academia and has since been pushed into the mainstream, with the Biden administration advising teachers to use materials from the discipline in their classrooms.
Foxx is a proponent of alternatives to traditional college, leading her committee during the 115th Congress to pass the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, which required states to develop four-year plans to improve access to technical education.
Based on past statements she’s made and material from her website, Foxx generally opposes the federal government’s involvement in education. This is in stark contrast to the Biden administration which, only months into its tenure, reversed a Trump-era executive order which prohibited federal funds from being used to fund diversity training at colleges and universities.
Representative Foxx’s office and the Committee on Education and the Workforce have been reached for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
