Former Miami Head Start Teacher to Lead House Higher Education Panel

Representative Frederica Wilson, a former Head Start teacher and coordinator in the Miami-Dade school district, will head the House education committee’s higher education subcommittee.

The Democrat from Florida said in a statement she’d work to increase access to higher education. “I will seek to help make attaining a quality degree more accessible for all, which includes robust investment in historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions,” said Wilson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fisk University and a master of science in elementary education from the University of Miami.

Wilson also said she will work toward “fostering a more inclusive environment on our nation’s campuses, and stronger support for first-generation, low-income, and minority students. I also will seek to address the nation’s student loan crisis and fight to reverse the harmful policies put in place by the Trump administration and former education secretary Betsy DeVos. As many institutions struggle with pandemic-related challenges, I will work to ensure that they have the resources and funding needed to meet this moment of crisis.”

Representative Greg Murphy of North Carolina, who was formerly affiliate professor and chief of the urology division at the East Carolina University School of Medicine, was named the top Republican on the higher education subcommittee. Murphy, a graduate of Davidson College, said he plans to work on issues like “the cost of tuition and campus free speech.”