NC mother calls Rep. Virginia Foxx's letter to 10-year-old 'reprehensible'

Danielle Battaglia, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on May 12, 2026

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Christian Mango, a 10-year-old from Greensboro, worried about the lives of 6.5 million people being threatened by pollution.

He worried about what would happen to the glaciers.

And he worried about the worsening weather.

So he wrote to U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, North Carolina, with a solution: a $5,000 tax rebate from the federal government for new electric vehicles.

The letter, obtained by McClatchy through Foxx’s office, was submitted through Christian’s fourth-grade teacher. “Please enjoy this student’s hard work and passion,” the teacher wrote.

Foxx responded to the student with a strongly worded letter that has gained national attention — and criticism — after Christian’s mother, Emily Mango, posted the congresswoman’s letter to her son on Instagram.

“How sad,” Foxx wrote the student, telling Christian that she guessed his teachers would not provide him “a good educational experience and help you learn to think as they are too busy indoctrinating you.”

Foxx’s letter also included her counterpoints to Christian’s suggestion, including that a tax rebate would come from the pockets of everyday Americans and how the United States is on the path toward bankruptcy and economic failure, and he and his classmates would have to shoulder the burden.

While Foxx’s team provided McClatchy with Christian’s letter, they did not answer whether Foxx regretted her response to the 10-year-old following the national attention.

Emily Mango and the head of her son’s school — a private, Christian school in Greensboro — also did not respond to a request for comment. A classmate’s family said the Mango family had been inundated with requests.

But on Instagram Mango called Foxx’s response to her son “horrific” and “reprehensible.”

“You crossed a line when you attacked a child and attacked teachers,” Mango wrote. “You don’t deserve to be on a Committee for Education when you talk to children like this and think so lowly of teachers. No wonder N.C. is 50th in education funding level under your ‘leadership.’”

She told the longtime congresswoman: “Please set a better example.”

Foxx is education leader in Congress

A 2025 report by the Education Law Center ranked North Carolina 50 out of 51 for its funding level, including the District of Columbia, which ranked last. The state legislature decides on funding levels for schools.

Foxx, 82, serves in Congress as a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor and chaired the committee from 2017 to 2019 and 2023-2025. She also served as the top Republican on the committee from 2019 to 2023, when Democrats controlled the House.

She left the top position on the committee in 2026 to lead the House Committee on Rules that oversees which bills make it to the House floor for final passage.

And her comments to Christian repeat a long history of accusations from the congresswoman of accusing schools of “indoctrinating” students.

Typically, these accusations are directed at public schools, and Foxx, a product of that system, works on legislation for school choice and parental involvement.

In 2021, she wrote an opinion piece for Fox News accusing Democrats of overhauling civics and history education in schools.

“Instead of fighting to reopen schools or promoting policies that allow parents to find the best education for their children, the Department of Education, with its powerful teachers union allies, is aiming to radicalize students with ideological curriculum,” Foxx wrote.

Her focus on indoctrination isn’t just centered on K-12 education, but also universities.

In December 2021, she gave a floor speech on the First Amendment rights of college students and said, “Too many universities are more committed to liberal indoctrination than to providing an education.”

In March 2024, during debate on the Parents’ Bill of Rights on the House floor, Foxx said, “teachers unions and education bureaucrats worked to push progressive politics in classrooms while keeping parents in the dark.”

Foxx suggested Christian ask his teacher about “propaganda.”

Mango addressed Foxx directly in her Instagram post, saying, “We have amazing teachers who are lifelines for these kids, and teachers don’t deserve the contempt and disrespect you have shown.”

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