President-elect Donald Trump introduced Linda McMahon, his transition co-chair and former small enterprise administrator, as his nomination for the subsequent secretary of training.
“As Secretary of Schooling, Linda will combat tirelessly to broaden “Alternative” to each State in America, and empower dad and mom to make one of the best Schooling selections for his or her households.” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump’s high training priorities in his Agenda47 coverage platform embrace restoring and empowering parental rights and parental management.
Conservatives, led by political figures like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and teams like Mothers for Liberty, have embraced the mantle of parental rights and claimed — partially due to the window that distant education opened into the classroom — that public faculty instruction has been hijacked by inappropriate curricula on LGBTQ+ matters, race and discrimination and extra.
McMahon, 76, led the SBA from 2017-2019 throughout Trump’s first administration. The Trump loyalist is the primary cupboard secretary from his earlier administration to be picked for a task within the upcoming administration.
Linda McMahon, former administrator of the US Small Enterprise Administration, in the course of the America First Coverage Institute’s America First Agenda summit in Washington, D.C., US, on Monday, July 25, 2022. The non-profit assume tank was shaped final 12 months by former cupboard members and high officers within the Trump administration to create platforms primarily based on his insurance policies. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
Bloomberg through Getty Photos
McMahon can also be the spouse of former World Wrestling Leisure (WWE) CEO Vince McMahon. The 2 co-founded WWE collectively in 1980.
McMahon, a serious GOP donor who has given tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in assist of pro-Trump causes, is chair of the America First Coverage Institute (AFPI) board. She additionally served two years on the Connecticut Board of Schooling.
Trump selecting a confidante for this place and others creates unhelpful groupthink that might doubtlessly result in unhealthy decision-making for U.S. college students, Wil Del Pilar, senior vice chairman of the advocacy group The Schooling Belief, informed ABC Information.
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 17: Administrator of the Small Enterprise Administration Linda McMahon speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump listens in the course of the inaugural assembly of the Presidents Nationwide Council for the American Employee within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home on September 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Picture by Oliver Contreras – Pool/Getty Photos)
Pool/Getty Photos
“The hazard in appointing loyalists is that you’ve a gaggle of parents who all assume the identical, and so they all assume the way in which that the President-elect thinks,” Del Pilar stated. “By appointing somebody who will provide no resistance, it will get him [Trump] nearer to his final objective, which is to eradicate the Division of Schooling.”
Trump cannot abolish the Division of Schooling on day one with out congressional motion, however his Agenda47 training platform makes clear he desires to take action “very early within the administration.”
“We’ll shut it up,” the president-elect stated in a Agenda47 video message launched final 12 months, including, “All these buildings, all over, and you’ve got people who, in lots of circumstances, hate our kids. We’ll ship all of it again to the States.”
Whereas potential in idea, training coverage consultants who spoke with ABC Information counsel that may be an especially chaotic – and unrealistic — activity on Inauguration Day.
“The Division of Schooling was created by laws,” Cato Institute Schooling analyst Neal McCluskey informed ABC Information. “Laws comes by Congress. If you wish to take the Division of Schooling aside, you must try this by laws,” McCluskey added.
Schooling consultants counsel closing up the division might intestine public training funding and disproportionately impression high-need college students throughout the nation.
Home Schooling and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx argued that it isn’t a constitutional requirement to have such a division. She known as McMahon a “fighter” who will work tirelessly in service of the scholars.
In the meantime, Nationwide Schooling Affiliation (NEA) President Becky Pringle blasted the choice.
“McMahon’s (sic) solely mission is to eradicate the Division of Schooling and take away taxpayer {dollars} from public colleges, the place 90% of scholars – and 95% of scholars with disabilities – be taught, and provides them to unaccountable and discriminatory personal colleges,” Pringle stated in an announcement to ABC Information. “The Senate should get up for our college students and reject Donald Trump’s unqualified nominee, Linda McMahon. Our college students and our nation deserve so a lot better than Betsy DeVos 2.0.”
In keeping with training consultants, an finish to the Division of Schooling might additionally go away billions of funds, scholarships, grants and extra hanging within the steadiness for the hundreds of thousands of Ok-12 and school college students attending colleges within the U.S.
Nevertheless, critics of the division argue that federal training spending has ballooned since its founding — costing $23 billion so far within the 2025 fiscal 12 months, about 4% of presidency spending to this point — however measures of scholar success like studying and math scores have fallen lately.
