The two Republicans vying to lead the House Committee on Education and the Workforce share a culturally conservative outlook and a commitment to their party’s political agenda.
But Reps. Tim Walberg of Michigan and Burgess Owens of Utah have different backgrounds that would shape the way they guide the panel. The House Republican Steering Committee could select a successor to the Education panel’s outgoing chairwoman, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, as early as Monday.
The Education Committee has been at the forefront of some of the nation’s most divisive social and political debates, including the participation of transgender students in scholastic sports, campus antisemitism and free speech, parents rights, school choice and the Republican push against diversity initiatives and the “woke agenda” in public schools.
