House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township) today issued the following statement after the committee’s approval to seek a subpoena against the Michigan Department of Education. The subpoena seeks to gather communications, including meeting minutes and records of meetings with outside groups, regarding the department’s proposal to update health education standards to push radical ideology such as gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation:

“Families and taxpayers throughout our state deserve to know if special interests from outside Michigan are impacting state policies and curriculums. Our committee recently asked the department for various materials relevant to this question and were given a vague and unrealistic timeline in response. The pressing nature of this issue and the inadequate response from the department led us to seek this subpoena.

“Our committee’s role is to examine the inner workings of state government, ensure it is working for the people, and review things that are potentially noncompliant with current law. I look forward to receiving this information from the department so representatives of the people can drill down into what went into this proposal in the first place. There has been a lot of warranted concern and mistrust from parents about what these changes would entail and what business government has in presenting this material to children. Our committee will deliver additional and needed transparency regarding this move.”