Congressman Tim Walberg represents Michigan’s 7th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Walberg came to campus last week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hillsdale Academy.
How does Hillsdale Academy stand out from other schools as a model for classical education?
It is based on a higher principle that the academics and morality and spirituality must work to achieve. You go back to the Northwest Ordinance and Article VIII, Section 1 of our state constitution, and it says religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
From what I can tell in my involvement around this school, they truly believe that religion and knowledge have to combine. And that faith aspect, the character aspect, the integrity, builds the opportunity for education to take root and expand into something valuable. I think that’s probably the uniqueness about a classical education: that it builds present reality on timeless truths.
The American education system is often described as broken and dysfunctional — a failure to America’s youth. What’s your plan to make the education system work again?
No. 1, the Department of Education ought to be abolished. The U.S. Department of Education has no purpose — has no place in our Constitution. The federal government has no responsibility constitutionally for education: That comes down to the states and the local communities. Our state constitution says that we have the responsibility. So doing away with the Department of Education would be a great start.
But in lieu of that, I think we ought to be doing what we’ve been attempting to do on the House Education Committee, and that’s restore responsibility to the states and the local districts to decide how they will evaluate student progress — having consulted with parents, the teachers, the school board members, the local administrators, and the state Department of Education. What do we want to do for Michigan?
I think Michigan would do well in the state or local districts to fit your academics to the needs of your community and build it into a system that relates itself to the real world like the jobs, the economy, etc. But again, I come back to what sets us apart. It’s based upon truth. It’s not your truth or my truth. It’s truth. And when a student learns in a context of there is truth and there is falsehood — we’re going to teach you truth so you understand that anything else is not to be considered something worthy of your life. I think that’s a great approach.
Do you know yet who you’ll support in elections for Speaker of the House on Oct. 8?
I’ll listen to all of them.
What do you think are the qualities most required in House leadership, specifically in the Speaker’s position?
Certainly a leadership ability that is willing to listen to the members of our conference but also has the ability to stand and ultimately say, having listened, this is the direction we need to go. The question is whether our conference the way it’s made up right now is leadable. I’m not sure our conference at this time is willing to be led. I say that because, to a great degree, we’re broken and lack a commitment to unifying for the greater good of leading this country. The reality is that we have right now of the president who doesn’t understand America in the way the Founders understood it, and a Senate, democrat leadership that’s unwilling to work together toward even a suitable compromise. I think our House Republican conference needs to decide, “Are we going to be a team that continues to move the right direction with the right agenda and with the right principles, but not expecting 100 percent?” And on the basis of that, McCarthy or Webster or Chaffetz will be a failure or a success. The problem wasn’t so much John Boehner, it was us.
So we’ll see. We’ll see if in two months from now, people are hollering about Kevin McCarthy because of an inability to proceed and do what the talking heads on Fox or “Morning Joe” or whoever else say they should do.