Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina is a vocal opponent of the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan and has said she would shutter the Department of Education if given the chance. Foxx has led the Republican minority on the House Committee on Education and Labor since 2017 and is the top candidate to chair the committee when the GOP majority takes over next year.
Due to term limit rules, Foxx received a waiver this week from the Republican steering committee to run for chair. Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan is currently challenging Foxx for the gavel. Both Republicans support charter schools and the privatization of public education, and they regularly attack teachers’ unions and organized labor in general. The House GOP’s steering committee is expected to announce committee chairs in the next few weeks.
“If installed as chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, Foxx has made clear her top priorities are defunding the Department of Education, keeping students saddled with … student debt and lining the pockets of corrupt for-profit colleges,” said Zac Petkanas, senior adviser to the House Accountability War Room, in a statement.
The House Accountability War Room is an independent group of Democrat-aligned strategists that recently formed to keep tabs on extremists in the new House majority. Progressives say tensions between the House GOP’s far right flank, still bristling with MAGA energy and hungry for revenge, and the party establishment over the next two years will reveal to voters just how extreme Republicans have become under the influence of former President Donald Trump and his base of supporters.
Congressional Republicans did not release a platform and were wary of discussing the specifics of their agenda ahead of the midterms, opting instead to make the election a referendum on President Joe Biden.
“Her extreme MAGA positions — which put the interests of the massively wealthy above those of everyday Americans — are an indication of the dangerous level of extremism we can expect from the new House majority across all committees,” Petkanas added.
Foxx hails from a conservative district in North Carolina, and her views reflect those of state-level right-wing activists who have lashed out at educators since schools closed during the pandemic. The so-called parental rights movement demands censorship of LGBTQ and racial justice materials in school libraries and curricula while pushing for voucher programs that would direct funding from public schools to private schools.
Foxx, apparently one of the most vocal members of the House, has told conservative news outlets that she would abolish the federal Department of Education given the chance.
“If the Lord put me in charge, I would do it,” Foxx told Real Clear Politics in 2017.
Foxx was a staunch ally of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, the billionaire champion of school privatization who said the department she ran should not exist. Sen. Bernie Sanders once called DeVos the “worst education secretary in the history of America.”
Abolishing the Department of Education has been a quixotic goal for Republicans since the department was created four decades ago. Achieving this goal has proven to be a deeply complicated and so far impossible task that would open up Republicans to intense attacks from Democrats and the left.
Public support for the department is largely divided along partisan lines, and the relatively tiny federal agency manages massive student loan and grant programs, collects data on schools nationwide, and looks out for the civil rights of marginalized and disabled students — at least when Republicans like DeVos are not in charge.
The Department of Education may get some lip service from the House if Foxx chairs the committee, but student loan forgiveness would clearly be a target. Foxx is a vocal supporter for the lawsuit that has held up Biden’s student debt cancellation plan in court, saying in a statement that Biden “will say and do anything to appease his radical progressive base.”
Foxx’s press team did not respond to Truthout’s request for comment on Friday.
A recent poll found that 77 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 say the student debt relief plan motivated them to vote in the midterms, when the long-expected “red wave” of GOP victories failed to materialize. With a Democratic majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely that legislation from Foxx’s committee would make it to the president’s desk. Still, if committees debate bills sponsored by the party’s far right, leaders like Foxx will be under pressure to live up to previous statements aimed at the MAGA base.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $136,000 in one-time donations and to add 1440 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy