Rep. Burgess Owens, education chief back school choice and parental rights

WASHINGTON — During a House Education and Workforce Committee meeting Wednesday, focused on the policies and priorities of the Department of Education, the department's chief, Linda McMahon, doubled down on the Trump administration's stance to reduce federal involvement in education and to increase spending on school choice.

"We seek to shrink federal bureaucracy, save taxpayer money and empower states who best know their local needs to manage their education in this country," she said in her opening statement.

In the few months McMahon has been in her role, she said there have been many conversations with local leaders, teachers and parents across the United States asking for "accountability and more local control," she said, and "That's our goal, to give parents access to the quality education their kids deserve, to fix the broken higher education industry that has misled students into degrees that don't pay off, and to create safe learning environments."

During the hearing, McMahon also said she would hold college institutions accountable by requiring them to "have a little skin in the game relative to the loans that are made when these colleges and universities set their fees."

McMahon noted that most college campuses lack viewpoint diversity, with more progressive professors compared to conservatives. She also addressed civil rights violations, specifically antisemitic actions against Jewish faculty and students on some of America's most prestigious campuses.

"One of President Trump's campaign promises was that he was not going to tolerate antisemitic attacks on college campuses and universities, and he's clearly fulfilling that promise," she said, adding that along with Harvard and Columbia, the administration is investigating civil rights violations at about 60 other universities, including the University of Utah.

Many lawmakers are upset with the Trump administration's handling of the Department of Education, specifically McMahon's negative opinions of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and practices, as well as the deep cuts to staff and funds the administration is making at the federal level.

During the hearing, Utah Rep. Burgess Owens said that McMahon's role "represent(s) the end of accepting failure as an option" by being in favor of school choice and going after the "scourge of DEI in our educational institutions." Owens asked her to explain how dissolving DEI in education is important in terms of students' civil rights.

Owens said he believes the education system that's been in place for decades is not benefiting young people, and the decline in test scores is proof of that.

"The power belongs to the parents, and we're going to start producing the smartest, wisest and most hopeful students in the history of mankind," he said.

McMahon responded that DEI "did more, I think, to separate and to provide more segregation ideas, because it pitted an oppressor versus oppressed ideology," and that it goes against "everything we've been trying to accomplish in our country over the years, so that everyone really has equal access, equal opportunity under law."

In response, Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., said the administration's removal of DEI practices "has undoubtedly revived the culture of racism we haven't seen since the Jim Crow era."

"It's reminiscent of the suppression of abolitionist newspapers, and this department's financial aid policies harken back to a time when higher education was reserved for affluent, well-connected, and predominantly white students," Lee added.

McMahon responded by saying that studies specific to cultures, like African or Asian studies, are not under the DEI umbrella, "if they are taught as part of the total history package."

Following the hearing and in response to Lee's comments, Owens told the Deseret News that, "They (Democrats) like to fear monger."

"We're the ones that are trying to look after all our kids. (Democrats have) proven over the last 50 years, they have no idea, and they don't care," he said. "So let's ... put her comments to the side, because we're now working to (support) all our kids so that they can live the American dream."

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