Linda McMahon told legislators during her confirmation hearing Thursday that if approved, she would reduce the size of the United States Department of Education. She claimed that students and teachers would benefit more from local governance rather than bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. She also stated that she will follow President Donald Trump’s direction to make the agency more efficient, such as transferring the Office for Civil Rights to the Justice Department and disability support to the Department of Health and Human Services. She stopped short of stating she would shut down the department, which Trump has asked for, explaining that it requires an act of Congress.
“I will work with Congress to reorient the department toward helping educators, not controlling them,” McMahon said, adding that “defunding is not the goal here,” according to Reuters. McMahon is anticipated to be approved by the Republican-controlled United States Senate on a party-line vote later this month. McMahon oversaw the Small Business Administration throughout Trump’s first term. The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment was heavily involved in Trump’s re-election campaign and chaired the America First Action political action group. “McMahon also said her priorities as education secretary would be to expand school choice and skills-based learning, give local schools and parents more decision-making power, and to protect students from discrimination and harassment,” the publication K-12 Dive said.
During the hearing, she pledged to empower presidents to protect students from violent campus protests and to investigate the backlog of antisemitism complaints filed against universities. At her confirmation hearing Thursday, Secretary of Education candidate Linda McMahon promised to try to safeguard students from violent campus mobs and to investigate the backlog of antisemitism accusations against universities if confirmed.
Protesters disrupted the hearing at times, such as when McMahon promised to enforce Title IX by preventing biological males from accessing women’s private spaces.