2 Lawmakers Vow to Reduce Role of Dept. of Ed. on Campuses

The lawmakers hope to reverse the department's expansion under the Obama administration.
Published: January 13, 2017

Two prominent Republican lawmakers said they hope their party’s majority can limit the Department of Education’s role on campuses.

Senator James Lankford, the chair of the Regulatory Affairs Committee, and Representative Virginia Foxx, the chair of the House Education Committee, expressed their desire to lessen the role of the department on K-12 and college campuses in separate statements to The College Fix.

“Some of the most egregious examples of executive overreach and intimidation” occurred at the Department of Education, “and I believe it was this type of overreach that the American people repudiated in this election,” Lankford said.

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Similarly, Foxx, who is a former college president with a Ph.D. in higher education, said she wants to reevaluate the department’s operations.

“I definitely see the opportunity to see the [Education] department scaled back,” Foxx said.

Foxx has advocated giving states more discretion to craft education policies.

Meanwhile, Lankford focused on the department’s Office for Civil Rights more directly, saying federal government officials “have abused ‘Dear Colleague‘ letters and ‘guidance documents’ to mandate policies for schools without adhering to legally-required regulatory processes.”

“The new leader of the Department of Education, and especially the Office for Civil Rights, must restore the action of the office to their original construct and stop the practice of using the office as an unchecked regulatory entity,” Lankford said.

Campus Safety previously reported on advocates for the department’s current role targeting President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee of secretary of education Betsy DeVos. Additionally, Representative Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) says she is forming a coalition of Title IX advocates to respond to legislative proposals affecting the law.

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