Chicago Public Schools Superintendent/CEO Macquline King is expected to face a grilling from Republican lawmakers Wednesday during her scheduled testimony under subpoena at a U.S. House education committee hearing.
The subject of the hearing, titled “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools,” is broad, so King could face a litany of pointed questions.
But Republican committee members are likely to press her about Chicago’s policies for transgender students and the district’s Black Student Success initiative, which aims to improve the experiences and academic outcomes of Black students. Both are under investigation by the Trump administration.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. Central time, and will be livestreamed. King is slated to appear alongside school leaders from San Francisco and Loudoun County, Virginia, a district in suburban Washington, D.C., A representative from the National Center for Youth Law, a nonprofit that has defended school districts with policies like CPS, is also listed as a witness.
School leaders and education policy experts are closely watching the hearing, the first at which K-12 superintendents are being questioned about these hot-button issues during President Donald Trump’s second term.
King will be walking a tightrope. Chicago parents, students and community activists have demanded the policies being scrutinized. And they want her to come out in support of them. But she doesn’t want to give federal education officials a reason to pull any more funding, after the district already lost a $20 million grant over its Black Student Success Plan.
This is a developing story that will be updated throughout the day.