Rep. Virginia Foxx on America’s Education Crisis

The United States is facing an education crisis as a result of the Biden administration pleasing teachers’ unions by keeping schools closed, said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the top Republican on the House Education Committee.

“We got an education crisis, it’s gonna take us a long time to catch up with what’s happened,” said Foxx in an interview on NTD’s Capital Report ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of Union address on March 1.

“During COVID, schools were shut down for a long period of time,” she told host Steve Lance. “This administration cares more about making the unions happy than it does about the education of our children. So the unions were in control of what was going on with education.”

It was revealed last year that under the influence of the American Federation of Teachers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had set unreasonably strict standards on when and how schools should reopen. AFT is the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union and one of the top donors to the Democratic Party.

According to emails obtained and publicized by the New York Post, at least two of the teachers’ union’s suggestions were adopted almost word-for-word into the final draft of the CDC’s school reopening guidelines, including one allowing teachers to continue working remotely from home if they live with someone deemed to be in high-risk for COVID-19.

Foxx added that American children also lost “tremendous opportunities for development” when they had to wear a mask as a condition of attending school in person. In a Brown University-led study published last November, researchers concluded that masks worn in public settings and in school or daycare settings may “impact a range of early developing skills” among young children, including attachment, facial processing, and socio-emotional processing.

“Fortunately, parents saw what was going on with the virtual classes that were happening and they began to take more control over what was happening. Yet, then the Biden administration turned on the parents and called them domestic terrorists,” Foxx continued, referring to a now-notorious letter to Biden from the National School Boards Association. “But the parents are the ones who should be in control of the education of their children, not the federal government.”

When asked about a proposal touted by some Democrats to make college education free, Foxx said that would not only encourage colleges to raise the cost of education, but would also unfairly increase the burden on taxpayers.

“That just is a bigger burden on average taxpayers,” she said. “Seventy percent of the population of this country hasn’t had the opportunity to pursue education beyond secondary education, so why should those 70 percent pay for the other 30 percent?”

The Republican Party, with a hope to regain the majority in the House, are aiming to become “the party of education,” said Foxx.

“We are going to show the American people we’re going to pass the Parents Bill of Rights as soon as we get in the majority,” she said. “We’re going to show the American people we’re turning the control of this country back to them, and away from the bureaucrats in Washington, and away from the union bosses.”

Proposed by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in November 2021, the Parents Bill of Rights Act would, among other things, prohibit nondisclosure agreements for parental review of curricula; allow parents to make copies of curriculum documents; require schools to have parents opt their children into field trips, assemblies, and other extracurricular activities; and in general require more transparency from school boards when it comes to things like classroom materials, school records, and student safety.

“I can’t imagine why anyone would oppose the Parents Bill of Rights Act,” Foxx said last year in support of Hawley’s proposal. “Making school spending and curriculum transparent should already be the norm. After all, what do schools have to hide?”