Christian Mango is 10 years old.
In April, his fourth-grade teacher at Canterbury School in Greensboro, North Carolina, gave the class an assignment. Write a persuasive essay on any topic you want and mail it to someone who should hear it — a representative, a CEO, a decision maker.
Christian picked electric cars. He wrote that the federal government should give people a $5,000 tax rebate for buying one. “They’re better than normal cars,” he said. “They’re better for the environment. You pay less. And there’s no gas.”
His teacher slipped a note into the envelope: “Please enjoy this student’s hard work and passion.”
The return address said Canterbury School. It said 4th Grade.
Christian sealed the envelope and mailed it to his congresswoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx. He was proud of what he wrote.
What Came Back
A few weeks later, Canterbury School received an email from Foxx’s office.
The congresswoman started by thanking Christian for writing. She said they agreed about the importance of innovation in the automobile industry.
That was the last kind thing in the letter.
Foxx told the 10-year-old that his request meant taking money out of the pockets of hardworking taxpayers who might not be able to afford an electric vehicle themselves. She told him the country was heading toward bankruptcy and economic failure. She wrote that 2038 is only 12 years away, and that “YOU and your classmates will be responsible for paying down the national debt.”
She capitalized “YOU.” She was writing to a fourth grader.
Then she linked him to six articles from Fox News, National Review, The Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal editorial board — articles about the failures of climate change policy.
And then she turned on his teacher.
‘How Sad’
“Please ask your teacher to explain propaganda to you,” Foxx wrote. “My guess is that your teachers will not give you a good educational experience and help you learn to think as they are too interested in indoctrinating you. How sad.”
Christian told Fox 8 in Greensboro that when the letter came back, he couldn’t follow most of it. “I could understand half of it,” he said. “But not all of it.”
His mother, Emily Mango, had to sit her son down and explain what the congresswoman was saying. That the woman he wrote to — the one he trusted enough to mail his homework to — was telling him that his teacher couldn’t be trusted. That the classroom where he learned to write that essay was the problem.
When Christian finally understood, he wasn’t upset about the disagreement over electric cars.
“I think that was wrong,” the 10-year-old said. “Because the school didn’t do anything.”
The Person Who Sent That Letter
Virginia Foxx is 82 years old. She holds a Doctor of Education degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She was an instructor at Caldwell Community College and at Appalachian State University. She was president of Mayland Community College. She served on the Watauga County Board of Education for 12 years. She chaired the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce across two terms and sat on the committee for two decades.
Her entire professional life — before Congress, during Congress — has been built on the premise that she understands education better than most people in the room.
That person read a fourth grader’s homework assignment and concluded that his teacher was feeding him propaganda.
What a 10-Year-Old Understood That an 82-Year-Old Didn’t
Christian chose his own topic. His mother confirmed it. His teacher didn’t pick it. A 10-year-old decided on his own that electric cars were worth writing about, put his argument on paper, and mailed it to the adult he thought could help.
The adult wrote back and told him his teachers can’t teach him to think.
Emily Mango posted the letter on social media and called it “horrific” and “reprehensible.” She told Foxx directly: “You crossed a line when you attacked a child and attacked teachers. 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 NC is 50th in education funding level under your ‘leadership.'”
Foxx’s office has not answered whether she personally wrote the letter or a staff member did. They have not said whether she plans to apologize. Foxx now chairs the House Rules Committee and is running for re-election in 2026 with Trump’s endorsement.
Foxx, who voted for the spending bill that the Congressional Budget Office projected would add $3.4 trillion to the national debt, told a 10-year-old that he and his classmates would be responsible for paying it down.
Christian is in fourth grade. He wrote an essay about electric cars. He sealed it in a school envelope, mailed it to someone he thought would listen, and waited.
What came back told him his teacher was the problem.
He was doing his homework.