Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King testified under subpoena before a contentious U.S. House education committee hearing in Washington, where Republican lawmakers pressed her on race, transgender students, religion and sex. King repeatedly said CPS polic
When Chicago Public Schools Supt./CEO Macquline King walked into a livestreamed U.S. House education committee hearing Wednesday under subpoena. the questions were already sharpened into a familiar culture-war frame: race. transgender students. religion and sex. The committee’s Republican chair. Tim Walberg. accused King and other superintendents present of representing school districts with “radical” policies that he said “sideline parents” and “compromise student privacy rights.”.
Walberg went further. telling the hearing that some practices he described—such as allowing a transgender girl to sleep in the same room as cisgender girl on an overnight trip—could rise to the level of “child abuse and neglect.” Advocates for transgender youth say those protections are meant to keep trans students’ privacy and safety intact.
King’s testimony came as lawmakers. and the Trump administration. put federal compliance pressure on districts around how civil rights laws are being interpreted. The hearing. titled “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights. Inappropriate Content. and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools. ” was the first time K-12 superintendents have been questioned during President Donald Trump’s second term about issues that have dominated right-wing discourse in recent years.
Republicans pressed King on two fronts in particular: whether CPS requires teachers to disavow Christian beliefs in order to teach in the district. and what grade she believes is appropriate for providing condoms to students. Lawmakers also returned repeatedly to overnight accommodations for transgender students. asking whether the district is taking steps they say undermine parental involvement.
To most questions, King responded with the same line: CPS policies are aligned with state laws.
Across the hallways of Washington, the stakes were not theoretical. Education leaders nationwide are watching closely because the Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that run afoul of its interpretation of civil rights laws.
The administration is investigating Chicago Public Schools over at least two specific policies. One allows transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Another is the district’s Black Student Success initiative. which aims to improve the experiences and academic outcomes of Black students. Trump and other Republicans have said these policies violate federal civil rights laws because they discriminate against students who are cisgender and who aren’t Black.
For King, the tightrope is both political and financial. Many Chicago parents. students and community activists have previously demanded CPS enact the same policies now being scrutinized by the administration and Republicans in Congress. But King also has to consider what happens if federal authorities decide to escalate pressure further.
The district already absorbed a major hit tied to that Black Student Success Plan: CPS lost a $20 million grant over the initiative.
In her opening statement, King framed CPS diversity as a practical asset rather than a flashpoint. She said the district’s “diversity — in culture, language, faith and more — is a strength,” and she described it as central to how the district works to meet students’ needs.
“Our classrooms are not homogeneous, they are vibrant communities where students learn alongside peers whose lived experiences may differ from their own,” King said. “The only way to truly serve a student is to understand and embrace what makes each student and community unique.”
King testified alongside school district leaders from San Francisco and Loudoun County, Virginia. A representative from the National Center for Youth Law, a nonprofit that has defended school districts with policies like the ones at CPS, was also a witness.
At the hearing, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx. a Republican from North Carolina. asked whether CPS and the two other school districts tell teachers to “lie” to parents about the name their children are using in school. Foxx’s question appeared to reference concerns that transgender students could use a name or pronoun other than the one they were given at birth without their parents knowing.
King said she knows of no instance in which a CPS educator lied to parents, and she said they wouldn’t be asked to do so.
Outside the room, the hearing’s narrative clash was visible before the testimony even began. At a press conference ahead of the hearing. CPS parent Mary Kay Devine said she came to Capitol Hill to defend policies she said have allowed her transgender daughter to have a safe and joyous high school experience. Devine declined to provide the name of her daughter’s school.
“Her teachers used her chosen name,” Devine said. “She landed a female lead in the spring musical, and she used the women’s bathroom without anyone batting an eye. In fact, her classmates cared a lot more about their grades and honors stats than about her gender identity.”
Devine urged Congress to do its job, and she said she will do her job raising her children.
Inside the committee, Democrats tried to steer the focus back toward day-to-day education concerns. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, a Democrat from Connecticut and a school teacher, criticized the hearing’s purpose and told the superintendents not to get pulled into “culture war” issues.
“Your job is to create places where children can learn,” Hayes said. “We’ve had zero hearings, not one in this Congress or the last, on school shootings that are killing children in our classrooms. Zero hearings on chronic absenteeism. Zero hearings on the mental health crisis that we’re facing.”
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, who represents part of Chicago and the western suburbs, held the press conference before the hearing. She surrounded herself with about two dozen students, parents, teachers and advocates who traveled to Washington, D.C., to show support for King.
Ramirez called the Republicans holding the hearing bullies and said the House education committee should focus on improving schools and finding more money to fund them, rather than attacking protections for vulnerable students. She thanked the teachers and students who came from Chicago.
“You will not bully me into not having education. You will not bully me into not being proud of who I am,” Ramirez said.
Taneesha Henderson, a CPS teacher and parent, said she came to Washington, D.C., to defend the district’s Black Student Success Plan. Henderson said that as a teacher who works with special education students, she sees students who have a lot of needs—needs she said Congress should address.
“Districts are facing budget cuts, staffing shortages, mental health crises and learning gaps,” Henderson said. “We should be talking about how to save schools, protect positions and support children.”
The hearing’s central fight was framed as trust—who should be trusted. whose rights should be prioritized. and what gets treated as “inappropriate content” or legal abuse versus what is treated as basic student privacy and safety. King’s steady insistence that CPS policies align with state law landed against a backdrop of federal scrutiny and funding threats.
This is a developing story that will be updated throughout the day.
Macquline King Chicago Public Schools CPS Tim Walberg Virginia Foxx Jahana Hayes Delia Ramirez Trump administration federal education funding transgender students bathroom policy Black Student Success Plan civil rights