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A U.S. House committee has subpoenaed Chicago Public Schools’ CEO Macquline King to appear at a hearing focused on “attacks on parental rights, inappropriate content, and legal abuses” in American schools.
Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican and the chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, notified King about the subpoena in a Wednesday letter. It comes about three weeks after the committee first invited King to testify at a hearing titled, “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools,” according to the letter.
Citing scheduling conflicts and an ongoing Office for Civil Rights investigation, King originally declined the committee’s invitation. That hearing was originally scheduled for June 3, but King is now being subpoenaed to appear on June 10.
During the second Trump administration, the district has been under federal scrutiny for compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX, as well as student privacy laws.
Chicago Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
King’s appearance before Congress would thrust Chicago Public Schools into a national spotlight at a time of intense scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education. The department pulled funding last year from CPS, claiming the district had violated civil rights and sex-based discrimination laws with its plan to boost outcomes for Black students and its policies supporting bathroom and locker room access for transgender students.
Superintendents from San Francisco and Loudon County, Virginia are also expected to appear at the hearing. Both districts have been under scrutiny for progressive policies.
Similar hearings have provided a platform for Republican lawmakers to grill leaders from more liberal communities and institutions. Last year, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and other Democratic mayors forcefully defended their sanctuary policies before a congressional committee. University presidents were called by Congress to testify about antisemitism on campus in 2023.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon criticized Chicago about two weeks ago after the Chicago Teachers Union and the district agreed to let students take pre-approved field trips and learn about labor history or civics on May Day.
Walberg’s committee first reached out to King April 16, one week after news that the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS were at odds over closing schools on May 1 — something King opposed.
King responded April 20, declining the invite because of a scheduling conflict and that her testimony would be limited because of the federal government’s civil rights and Title IX investigations into CPS.
The committee then offered six other dates in June, according to Walberg’s Wednesday letter. But CPS General Counsel Elizabeth Barton again cited the ongoing investigations as a reason why King “would not be able to discuss CPS’s policies in detail or share any substantive insight into the process of creating or adopting those policies.”
“We do not believe it would be helpful or informative to the Committee for Dr. King to participate in this hearing given those constraints,” Barton wrote, per the committee’s correspondence Wednesday. “For that reason, she must respectfully decline the Committee’s invitation to testify.”
Neither reason “warrants (King) not participating in the hearing,” Walberg wrote in Wednesday’s letter.
In a separate statement, Walberg said this is the first subpoena during his one-and-a-half-year tenure as chair and does “not take this action lightly.”
“However, the constant refusal to provide testimony blocks the Committee from doing its job of conducting oversight and further deepens mistrust in our education system,” Walberg said.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
Reema Amin 2026-05-13 23:16:14
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