The U.S. House education committee is compelling CPS Supt. Macquline King to testify next month at a congressional hearing about “attacks on parental rights” and “legal abuses” in connection with how school districts like CPS are addressing issues related to gender identity and sexual orientation.
The committee subpoenaed King Wednesday. Chicago Public Schools did not immediately comment on the subpoena.
The demand to testiify comes as the federal government continues to investigate whether the school district is breaking federal law by having a Black Student Success plan and for having policies that allow transgender students to use facilities that match their gender identity.
The June 10 hearing will discuss several pieces of legislation, including the Say No to Indoctrination Act and Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.
These bills would prevent federal education funding from being used to “teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology” — the term the Trump administration uses to refer to gender identity — or provide materials to children that include “sexually-oriented material.” The bill says that would include exposure to nude adults or “lewd” dancing.
Two other superintendents, Aaron Spence of Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia, and Maria Su of the San Francisco Unified School District, are scheduled to testify at the same hearing.
In a letter sent Wednesday to CPS, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, the Republican chair of the House education committee, said King declined to participate in a similar hearing originally scheduled for April.
Walberg said that since then, a CPS lawyer has provided excuses, such as “undefined” scheduling conflicts, for why King could not testify on future dates.
In the letter, Walberg states that the committee is trying to determine whether CPS is complying with the two bills introduced by Republicans and federal civil rights and privacy laws. He states that King’s testimony “will help the Committee to determine whether and, if so, what further changes in law may be needed to ensure children are protected and federal funds are spent responsibly.”
CPS gets about $1 billion from the federal government, or 10% of its revenue.
CPS has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and conservative groups and lawmakers ever since the president took office last year.
In February 2025, Defending Education, formerly known as Parents Defending Education, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over Chicago’s Black Student Success plan. The plan was created to try to improve academic outcomes of Black students who lag behind their peers on several measures.
A month later, the Trump administration said it was opening an investigation into CPS for allowing transgender students to change in the locker room that aligns with their gender identity.
And last fall, the Trump administration canceled an $8 million federal grant that CPS got to support magnet schools. The top-ranking Education Department official for civil rights specifically called out the Black Student Success Plan as rationale for canceling the funding, calling the plan “textbook racial discrimination.”