{"id":646,"date":"2011-01-26T10:36:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T15:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=646"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:59:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:59:28","slug":"introducing-congresswoman-virginia-foxx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/01\/26\/introducing-congresswoman-virginia-foxx\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Congresswoman Virginia Foxx"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay Willis<\/em><\/p>\n

In the wake of November\u2019s midterm elections, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) was appointed this past January as\u00a0Chair of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness<\/a>. \u00a0She takes over from Congressman\u00a0Rub\u00e9n Hinojosa (D-TX), who chaired the subcommittee during the 111th Congress. Though she is undoubtedly qualified to chair the committee, some of her recent comments indicate that she may pose serious resistance to the President\u2019s educational goals.<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Fox\u2019s professional background fits nicely with this position. \u00a0She holds a Doctorate of Education from UNC-Greensboro and, prior to launching her legislative career, held both faculty and administrative positions at Appalachian State University. \u00a0She also served as President of and, later, consultant to Mayland Community College (NC) before entering the North Carolina Senate in 1994. \u00a0In addition to her recent appointment and her education credentials, Foxx is a member of the powerful House Rules Committee, and she previously gained notoriety in 2009 during\u00a0House debate over the Matthew Shepard Act<\/a>, when she referred to the characterization of Shepard\u2019s murder as a hate crime as a \u201choax\u201d (a statement that she retracted soon afterward<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>Foxx\u2019s appointment comes on the heels of a legislative session that yielded significant changes in the country\u2019s higher education policy; the\u00a0Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010<\/a>, as implemented, included provisions that eliminated federal subsidies for private lenders and invested billions into the Pell Grant program, the federal government\u2019s need-based financial aid system. \u00a0 The Act also included $2 billion to expand the nation\u2019s community college system, one of the\u00a0principal higher-education goals<\/a>\u00a0of the Obama Administration.<\/p>\n

It appears, though, that Congresswoman Foxx is poised to take a hard look at some of these reforms in her new leadership role. The\u00a0Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em><\/a>\u00a0points out that Foxx has publicly opposed President Obama\u2019s proposed expansion of the system, stating that she is \u201ccurious to find out what the basis is for the claim that we have to graduate five million more people.\u201d Congresswoman Foxx also expressed concern over the Act\u2019s education loan reforms. \u00a0As Secretary of Education Arne Duncan explained in a\u00a0February op-ed<\/a>, the Act eliminates federal subsidies for banks that provide education loans, meaning that taxpayers no longer foot the bill when students are unable pay. \u00a0Congresswoman Foxx, however,\u00a0counters that direct lending from the Department of Education eliminates \u201cchoice, competition, and innovations from student lending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though her positions may seem odd given her significant experience within the education and community college systems, Foxx\u2019s stance is likely motivated more by House Republicans\u2019 general commitment to cut government spending than by a genuine suspicion of the value of community colleges or financial aid. Still, in continuing to push his ambitious higher education reforms, President Obama will likely face significant resistance from the newly appointed Congresswoman Foxx as the 112th Congress gets underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Willis In the wake of November\u2019s midterm elections, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) was appointed this past January as\u00a0Chair of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-aq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}