Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, is discussing her lack of experience in schools as she meets with senators who will decide whether to confirm her for the post.
The founder and former chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment could land a second-in-command spot in Trump’s cabinet if he is confirmed to lead the Department of Education next year. Although McMahon has experience running a large government agency — he ran the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019 during Trump’s first term — he has not worked in education He served on the board of trustees of Sacred Heart University and for more than a decade on the Connecticut State Board of Education.
According to Trump’s Agenda47 policy platform, Trump’s top education priorities include dismantling the agency McMahon would lead and issues he has championed, such as expanding school voucher programs and giving parents back power in schools. McMahon’s allies suggest the businessman and Trump loyalist will disrupt and reshape the federal agency that has been run by Washington bureaucrats for more than four decades.
McMahon met Tuesday with Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and announced Wednesday, “I think it’s going to pass pretty easily.”
Linda McMahon, former administrator of the US Small Business Administration, speaks at the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit on July 25, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
Asked if he had discussed disbanding the Department of Education, Mullin said he would not discuss the specifics of their meeting.
On the House side, Gov. Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the Education and Workforce Committee, called McMahon a fighter who will work for students. And Foxx’s committee colleague, Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., celebrated McMahon’s atypical history.
“We’ve all been educated and some of us know more than these egg-headed educators,” Walberg said. “Definitely bureaucrats who aren’t ready to go into office now. I don’t trust them at all.”
After being nominated, McMahon defended his record in a good X.
“I have witnessed the transformative power of education, both in the classroom and in learning programs,” McMahon wrote, adding, “All students should be equipped with the necessary skills to prepare for a successful future.”
Trump’s nominees this cycle have sparked controversy, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and former Fox News host Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Health and Human Services nominee and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who removed himself from consideration for attorney general at just eight years old. for being a distraction to the Trump/Vance transition today.
The president-elect to lead the Department of Education in her first term, billionaire Betsy DeVos, did not have a degree in education. He needed then-Vice President Mike Pence’s tie-breaking vote to be confirmed in 2017.
Tiffany Justice, founder of the conservative parenting rights organization Moms for Liberty, argued that the president-elect doesn’t need an educator to lead the department as long as parents’ rights are on the agenda.
“I think he (Trump) needs to be somebody who’s going to be America first and put the power back to the people and when it comes to the education of the kids, it’s the parents,” Justice told ABC News, adding, “I think driving with parental rights is probably what he can do. the most important thing.”
Walberg told ABC News that he believes McMahon will be a tough secretary to accomplish Trump’s goal of shutting down the department. Democratic lawmakers on the House education committee weren’t as thrilled with the selection, but they weren’t completely against McMahon.
“It seems like there were others who could have added more from a background perspective in education, but we’ll see,” said Bobby Scott, D-Va. ranking members
Scott applauds McMahon’s support Bipartisan Employee Pell Actit’s a bill he sponsored that uses short-term Pell grants to tailor educational opportunities to the needs of workers. He also admitted that teaching in the classroom is not a requirement for the highest educational position.
“Someone who’s good at education policy doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who’s been a teacher, but, you know, someone who has some ideas about policy and how to improve college access, improve academic achievement, how to close the achievement gap. Graduation rates — meaning the things we’re trying to achieve. I have,” Scott said.
Education experts suggest closing the department It could cut public education funding and disproportionately affect high-needs students across the country. Reps. Scott and Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., are both longtime opponents of Trump commitment to dissolve the department. Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, taught in Connecticut when McMahon was on the board of education. Hayes said he is completely focused on advocating for public schools.
“I’m going to wait for the nomination process,” Hayes told ABC News, adding, “I’m a big believer in public education and I’m always going to advocate not just for the students, but for the profession, and I think we need people who care so much about that. as I do about it.”
But allegations against McMahon and her husband Vince McMahon have clouded the nomination. One last the case claims the pair concealed sexual abuse of minors who worked as WWE’s ringside crew.
IX Under the title, a federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination in educational programs, McMahon and the department would be responsible for investigating complaints of sexual misconduct in schools.
Linda McMahon’s attorney Laura Brevetti said the alleged scandal was investigated by the FBI, which found no reason to continue the investigation at the time, and called the latest lawsuit “baseless.”
Meanwhile, Wil Del Pilar, vice president of The Education Trust, labeled McMahon’s selection a “slapshot,” especially for conservative educators who deserve the job.
“It’s an insult to American education,” said Pilar. “You’re nominating someone, or potentially nominating someone, whose biggest experience was helping to co-found WWE.”
