They pulled
working principals
into a
culture-war circus.

On June 10, the House Education and Workforce Committee will haul three sitting superintendents to Washington for a hearing about pronouns, books, and "indoctrination." Chicago, San Francisco, and Loudoun County. Three leaders who would rather be running their schools in the final weeks of the year. The committee will not let them.

§ 01What's happening on June 10

Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 10:15 a.m., the full House Committee on Education and Workforce convenes in Room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building for a hearing titled "Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America's Schools."¹

Three superintendents have been called to testify: Dr. Macquline King of Chicago, Dr. Maria Su of San Francisco, and Dr. Aaron Spence of Loudoun County. The committee escalated to compel testimony after its invitations were not answered on the timeline it wanted.

§ 02Three working educators

These are not activists or political operatives. They are career educators running large, complicated districts, called away from that work to provide footage for a hearing.

• CPS Dr. Macquline King is a Chicago Public Schools graduate who spent more than a decade as a classroom teacher and principal before rising to lead the district. The Chicago Board of Education voted 18-1 to make her permanent CEO. Her contract begins July 1, 2026.²
• SFUSD Dr. Maria Su is a 25-year veteran of San Francisco public service who took over SFUSD in October 2024 to stabilize a district facing budget collapse. The Board extended her contract through June 2028.³
• LCPS Dr. Aaron Spence leads Loudoun County Public Schools, one of the largest districts in Virginia, serving more than 80,000 students.

Each of them was invited, and when the committee did not get the appearance it wanted on its timeline, it escalated. The work these leaders were hired to do, running schools for hundreds of thousands of kids, is not the work the committee called them to Washington to answer for.

§ 03What the hearing is actually about

The hearing is titled "Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America's Schools." It is built around a slate of culture-war bills that have no path to becoming law in this Congress.⁴

The bills will not pass. They are not meant to. The hearing is the product. The clips are the product. The superintendents are the props. Meanwhile the bills that could actually help kids, on teacher pay, school safety, and student mental health, sit in the same committee with no hearing at all.

§ 04The opportunity cost

While Dr. King and Dr. Su sit in Washington under oath, three districts of children continue their school year:

§ 05What parents are saying

The National Parents Union represents 1.7 million families through 1,800+ affiliated organizations across all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. Our position on the June 10 hearing:

• 01 Send our superintendents back to work. Dr. King and Dr. Su have districts to run in the final weeks of the school year. The committee can put its questions in writing.
• 02 Stop using kids as props. The hearing's title and witness list are designed to produce footage, not legislation.
• 03 Move the bills that matter. There are bipartisan bills sitting in this committee right now on teacher pay, school safety, and student mental health. Give them a hearing.
• 04 Parents define parental rights. Not a committee. Not any single political party. Parents.