WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats pressed Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon on her views for President Donald Trump’s education agenda including DEI, school choice and the president’s promise to downsize the Department of Education at her confirmation hearing Thursday.
“I’m not quite certain, and I’d like to look into it further and get back to you on that,” said McMahon, offering a similar answer to multiple questions from Democrats.
McMahon’s nomination comes at a time when President Trump is seeking to abolish the Department of Education. Though he will need approval from Congress to abolish the federal agency, downsizing efforts are already underway.
McMahon said she was on board with the president’s goals and she is “ready to enact” his vision if confirmed as secretary.
“Long before there was a Department of Education, we fulfilled the programs of our educational system… I am really all for the president’s mission which is to return education to the states. I believe as he does that the best education is closest to the child,” she said.
A point of emphasis was “taking the bureaucracy out of education.” However, she clarified that states and localities will continue to receive federal funding amidst downsizing efforts.
“It is not the president’s goal to defund the programs. It is only to have it operate more efficiently,” she said.
According to Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), this means “changing the way that the money gets to these students in schools,” not cutting funding for children and disabled children.
Though McMahon said she did not intend to cut funding for disabled children, she said the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) may be a better fit for a different federal agency.
“Might it be better served in a different agency, I’m not sure. It started at HEW (Health, Education and Welfare) and the concerns for disabilities and health issues with students may very well rest better within an agency that has more oversight of all of those,” she said.
McMahon said special education will continue to receive funding, but it could come from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “where it started.”
“So I just want to be clear you’re going to put special education in the hands of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said.
Despite Democrat senators questioning how exactly specific programs would be cut in the process of downsizing, McMahon gave evasive answers.
“It is my goal, if I am confirmed, to get in and access these kinds of programs because I’m not sure yet what the impact of all of those programs are,” she said.
With Trump’s recent executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), McMahon was also questioned on how schools will be able to determine whether they are running a DEI program and therefore at risk of cuts in federal funding.
“[DEI] is a program that’s tough. It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion and I think what we’re seeing is that it’s having an opposite effect,” McMahon said. “We are not achieving what we wanted to achieve with inclusion.”
McMahon struggled to answer Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) when he asked if public schools would be risking funding if they had clubs that students could belong to based on their racial or ethnic identity.
“Well I certainly today don’t want to address hypothetical situations. I would like, once I am confirmed, to get in and assess these programs,” she said.
Murphy responded that this answer was “chilling,” and McMahon said she would “like to fully know what the order is and what those clubs are doing.”
Murphy followed up asking if a class on African American history could also be a violation of this executive order on DEI.
“I’m not quite certain, and I’d like to look into it further,” McMahon said.
Protests disrupted the confirmation hearing four times, mostly by teachers.
“Can you imagine these people teaching our kids in classrooms across America and they come here and act like children with outbursts…?” Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) responded to Banks’s statement.
“The passionate educators who have come here today not on behalf of themselves, they’re here on behalf of our children,” she said. “They are exactly the kind of people who we want teaching our children.”
The committee is scheduled to vote on McMahon’s nomination on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.