As the nominee for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, said in her confirmation hearing last week, “Education is the issue that determines our national success.” And yet education in America has been broken for decades. Fixing it will be a gargantuan task, one that requires overhauling the regulations and taking on the education bureaucrats that have trapped students in a failing system for too long. President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is up for the fight.
While school-choice advocates have called for downsizing or closing the Department of Education (ED) since it opened in 1980, the headwinds against doing so have been too strong. Proof of this is that despite the media attention of controversial Cabinet picks such as Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, the confirmation hearing with the most disruptions was that of Linda McMahon. The two-hour long hearing was interrupted five times by protestors who had to be dragged out by Capitol Hill police, people who shouted about how they were teachers or how they supported public schools.
Those who support reducing the size of the federal Department of Education have nothing against teachers, or even against public schools. In fact, they see the ED as an impediment to teachers being able to do their jobs or those schools being able to serve students well. There is a myth that has long pervaded the sphere of public education that if the government just throws more money into programs, the state of American education will improve. That ideology has proven to be wrong time and time again, to the detriment of the nation’s schoolchildren.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), who introduced McMahon, pointed this out in his opening statement. He noted that there are “13 schools in Maryland where … 99% of kids can’t perform at grade level,” as well as “Chicago on the south side … where 95% of the kids cannot perform at grade level.” The recently released National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores emphasize the failures of public education by showing that only one third of 8th graders can read at a basic level.
Because the idea that more money equals improved education has been touted as fact for so long, many administrators, teachers, and bureaucrats in the education system are extremely hostile to the idea of downsizing the ED, that body most responsible for sending federal dollars to public school systems.
Fortunately, Linda McMahon is not one to be swayed by a few unhappy protestors or entrenched powers-that-be. Best known as the former President and CEO of the wrestling conglomerate WWE, McMahon also ran the Small Business Administration in the first Trump Administration. She is a woman unafraid to take on a challenge, to try to accomplish achievements that many say cannot be done.
Because of President Trump’s stated goal of reducing the federal role in education, the majority of questions from Senators of both parties had to do with the future of existing programs administered by the Department if it is downsized or closed. Some of these questions are legitimate – programs such as Title I, which helps ensure low-income students can receive an education, and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), which serves students with special needs- do provide a benefit to those students who qualify. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was one of the first Senators to ask, “How do we maintain and administrate the oversight of these programs if we abolish or substantially reorganize the Department of Education?”
McMahon pointed out that Title I programs are currently appropriated by Congress and sent directly to state departments of education to distribute to local school districts and that the Trump administration is not looking to defund or reduce any of these programs. As for IDEA, she asked “Might it be better served in a different agency?” When first passed, IDEA was administered by the Health, Education, and Welfare Department, which was renamed Health and Human Services after the Department of Education was created. Because IDEA is meant to serve students with various mental and physical health issues, McMahon suggested that the nation’s top health agency may be able to provide better oversight than the ED does currently.
Throughout the hearing, whenever this line of questioning came up, McMahon repeated that she wants to cut the red tape and bureaucracy, not important programs, and return education to the states.
Questions also arose about the department’s handling of schools who receive federal funding yet blatantly break the law by violating the safety and security of their students.
For example, many of the colleges that have seen the worst examples of antisemitism over the past few years are recipients of federal education dollars. When asked questions about how McMahon would combat that divisive ideology, she emphasized her belief in the freedom of speech and the ability to have free discourse, but violent protests that threaten the safety of certain students are unacceptable. She told the committee that “Those schools that accept federal funding that allow that to happen should face defunding.”
The Department of Education is also on the frontlines when it comes to keeping men out of women’s sports. As the agency that oversees the enforcement of Title IX, the statute that requires institutions to provide separate educational and athletic opportunities for women, it has the power to investigate and defund any schools that violate Title IX. Due to the Biden Administration’s attempted rewrite of Title IX to include gender identity, the ED has not been fulfilling its duty to protect female students.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) pointed out that over the past four years, multiple universities have allowed men into women’s lockers rooms and onto their sports teams under the guise that the previous administration’s regulations made them do it. However, even after a court struck down the Biden-era Title IX rewrite and after President Trump issued an executive order barring men from women’s sports, several universities are still allowing men into women’s spaces. Hawley asked McMahon “What can be done to ensure these colleges comply with the law?” To which McMahon promised that each of these colleges will be investigated, and the law will be enforced.
Not all important questions hit on hot political issues. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado) touched on a topic that demonstrates the importance and benefit of local control over education – apprenticeships. He pointed out that “The idea that everyone should go to college is prevalent and persistent,” with academic advisors so focused on pushing the typical four-year track that many parents do not know that there are other options available. McMahon noted that communities know best what they need and are best positioned to tailor curriculum, including apprenticeships and internships, to meet those needs. Putting education into the hands of local jurisdictions empowers students to make choices that will put them on a path to success. By raising this issue, Hickenlooper demonstrated that both parties recognize the important role communities play in education, and that education should not be one-size-fits-all.
Federal education policy should be focused on empowering students to succeed and enabling educators and communities to help them do that, not implementing regulations and federal strings that prevent local school districts from doing just that. As McMahon said in the hearing, “What we are doing today is not working, and we need to change it.” We look forward to helping her be that change agent and usher in a new era of education in America.