Much like a student being sent to the principal’s office, San Francisco Schools Superintendent Maria Su has been summoned to Washington, D.C. next month to testify before a Congressional committee. Joining her in the hot seat will be Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Macquline King and Loudoun County, Virginia Public Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence.
The June 10 hearing is entitled, “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools.” Ongoing drama in advance of the hearing suggests that Superintendent Su may be spared the brunt of the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s attention. Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) has issued a subpoena requiring Chicago Superintendent King to attend. At the same time, the superintendent of the schools of Loudoun County, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., is fending off recent publicity from a high school student’s arrest for filming other students in a school restroom. The committee’s Rule 8(e) allows Democratic members to present witnesses, but none have yet been announced.
Issues related to transgender students are expected to be a major focus of the hearing. Chairman Walberg has told one of the superintendents that the committee wants to discuss H.R. 2616, the “Parental Rights over the Education and Care of Their (PROTECT) Kids Act;” H.R. 2617, the “Say No to Indoctrination Act;” and H.R. 7661, the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.”
It could be that San Francisco’s reputation as a nationwide center for LGBTQ respect may have been enough to prompt Superintendent Su’s inclusion in the hearing.
The acronymically named PROTECT Act — introduced by Chairman Walberg himself — requires elementary and middle schools to obtain parental consent before changing a student’s gender marker or preferred name on school forms, or making gender-related changes to locker rooms or restrooms. H.R. 2617 was introduced by a Utah Republican committee member to prohibit schools from teaching or advancing “gender ideology” contrary to “biological truth.” The third bill, H.R. 7661, authored by an Illinois Republican committee member, prohibits exposing children under age 18 to sexually oriented material described as including nude adults, individuals stripping, or lewd or lascivious dancing (except for recognized art and literature).
The timing of the hearing calls into question its stated purpose. These bills were already approved by the Walberg committee by significant margins on party-line votes, so there is little reason for it to conduct further fact-finding or discussion. Chicago Superintendent King sought to avoid testifying because her school district is the subject of pending federal Department of Education investigations into the same or similar topics. While Loudoun County has been the subject of recent public attention on LGBTQ student issues, San Francisco has not.
It could be that San Francisco’s reputation as a nationwide center for LGBTQ respect may have been enough to prompt Superintendent Su’s inclusion in the hearing. As a member of Congress, Walberg has taken a lead role against gay equality, supporting a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriages. In 2024, he was condemned by his state’s LGBTQ+ Commission for his support of Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law that imposed life imprisonment for a person who “commits the offense of homosexuality.”
Chairman Walberg’s stance on LGBTQ issues may also explain the uncharacteristically aggressive posture his and his colleagues’ bills take toward advancing federal government intervention in local school matters. Last year, Chairman Walberg told Republican students at Hillsdale College, one of the nation’s most conservative colleges and located in his district, that he wanted to team up with Trump administration Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle her agency and to be the last House Education Committee chairman. At an earlier Town Hall meeting, he stated, “There is not one reference in the U.S. Constitution to our responsibility for or against education in any way, shape or form.”
Democrats on Walberg’s committee have questioned his priorities on education policy. Its leading Democratic member, Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon stated in December, “This subcommittee has held several hearings this year, but we have not had a single hearing related to gun violence.” Chairman Walberg had described a committee hearing about school sports as “a hearing on gun violence” on the basis that participation in team sports would improve a student’s outlook on school. Meanwhile, H.R. 6809, a bipartisan bill supporting evidence-based school safety plans, has not been granted a hearing or a vote in the Walberg committee.
Here at home, Superintendent Su has many assignments to complete before the end of the school year and fiscal year. During last week’s school board meeting, she unveiled the start of a multiyear effort to reform school assignment systems and to decide on school closures. How being compelled to testify at a Congressional hearing will aid Superintendent Su, the school board, parents, or student outcomes remains to be seen.
The Voice of San Francisco will examine further developments in the days leading up to the June 10 hearing.
