The Senate is set to cast their votes on Monday regarding the approval of Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, as the country’s new education chief. If confirmed, she will lead a department that President Donald Trump has been highly critical of and has even threatened to dismantle. McMahon’s role would involve the simultaneous tasks of reducing the department’s influence while advancing Trump’s education policies.
President Trump has already enacted significant orders to eliminate diversity programs within schools and reduce accommodations for transgender students. In addition, he advocates for expanding school choice options. Despite his overall goal to dismantle the Education Department, which he has described as ineffective, he hopes McMahon can execute these plans, ultimately putting her out of a job if the department closes.
Linda McMahon, who is 76 years old and a billionaire, previously served as the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. While she was on Connecticut’s state board of education for a year and has long been a trustee at Sacred Heart University, she lacks extensive experience in traditional educational leadership roles. However, her supporters argue that her experience as a skilled executive makes her well-suited to reform a department they believe has not benefitted American education. On the other hand, critics express concerns about her lack of qualifications and potential budget cuts impacting students across the country.
In her confirmation hearing, McMahon made efforts to distance herself from Trump’s harsh commentary and mentioned that her aim is to make the Education Department operate more efficiently, rather than stripping it of funding. She noted that only Congress has the authority to close the department, and she committed to maintaining Title I funds for schools serving low-income communities, Pell Grants for students in need, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Nonetheless, she proposed that certain responsibilities, such as enforcing disability rights laws, could be transferred to other departments like Health and Human Services.
Even before McMahon’s confirmation hearing, the Trump Administration had been contemplating an executive order directing the education secretary to reduce the department’s size as much as legally possible, and to request Congress to close it entirely. Some of McMahon’s supporters advised the administration to delay this order until after her confirmation to avoid possible negative consequences.
Since its inception by Congress in 1979, the primary duty of the Education Department has been to distribute financial aid to schools and colleges. It oversees the allocation of billions annually to K-12 institutions and manages a federal student loan portfolio totaling $1.6 trillion. Trump claims the department has become a platform for liberal ideologies in schools across the nation.
Furthermore, educational institutions are facing pressure to eliminate their diversity programs or risk losing federal funding, with a deadline set by the Trump administration. A document released by the Education Department over the weekend clarified that merely changing the names of programs to exclude terms like “diversity” or “equity” is not sufficient if there remains any differential treatment of students based on race.
During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to devolve education authority to states, as schools and states already possess significant control over educational affairs, with the federal government prohibited from dictating curricula. Federal funding only constitutes approximately 14% of public school budgets. The Trump Administration has already begun revamping much of the department’s functions.
Under the guidance of Trump adviser Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency has labeled dozens of contracts as “woke” or wasteful, leading to their termination, and has significantly reduced funding for the Institute of Education Sciences, which collects data on academic progress nationwide. Simultaneously, numerous employees have been fired or suspended, disrupting some operations legally mandated by federal regulation. At her hearing, McMahon assured that the agency would adhere to Congressional financial directives, minimizing the impact of DOGE’s actions as merely part of an auditing process.
McMahon, a long-time ally of Trump, transitioned from WWE in 2009 to pursue a political career. She has previously run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate on two occasions and has contributed millions to Trump’s campaign efforts. She also served as the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term in office.
