Linda McMahon was partisanly defined as President Trump’s education secretary in a 51-45 Senate vote late Monday afternoon and was sworn in in the Education Department building.
Now everyone’s eyes are focused on the White House, with educators, policy experts and advocates waiting anxiously to see if Trump will sign a controversial but highly anticipated executive order to repeal the McMahon department has been confirmed.
The president and his allies have raised the idea of demolishing the 45-year-old institution since the campaign began in the second term, saying the department has become too big and interfered with the best things local and state authorities have.
But this idea is not completely new and is not easy to implement. This will require legislative support as the existence of the department is written into the regulations. Close this would require a majority vote in both houses of Congress.
“We can expect panic when the order is issued,” said Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the U.S. Board of Education. Internal Advanced ED.
However, observers are not clear about which mechanisms the Trump administration will use to shut down the department.
“It all depends on what the demolition department really means,” Guillory said. “I believe the executive order will be a bit broad, like we’ve seen it.” [in the case of the diversity, equity and inclusion orders]which will give the department the opportunity to perfect the details. ”
Still, Trump continues to promote the concept, which red countries across the country support. A few days after taking office in January, the chat about executive orders began to circle, and although details were not yet clear, several news sources in early February confirmed the plans.
Since the plan leaked, Trump himself has publicly confirmed his intention to remove the department, although he has not disclosed specific details on how to do so.
Guillory believes that just like Republicans have tried to get rid of the department in the past, they will lack the congressional vote they need to formally do so. But Trump can keep the department’s bones and move its core functions elsewhere, he said.
“Our mind, because we’ve seen this before, many of the functions of the department may be placed in other agencies, but we’ll be curious which functions will be terminated altogether,” he said. “This will raise the most concern of our members…will these things just hand it over to another agency, or are some of these things?”
Gillori said that certain functions are protected by the Higher Education Act of 1965. “For example, it is not necessarily possible to terminate the student aid program.” But he remains concerned that the transition from one department to another may not be seamless.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York made the Democrats’ stance on McMahon’s nomination clear shortly before the vote began.
“Before colleagues nominated Linda McMahon for the nomination of education minister, they should remember that the vote for Mrs. McMahon was a vote for Draconian to cut education … That’s why I’m proud that every Democrat can vote,” he said.
Other Democratic lawmakers warned in a floor comment Thursday that McMahon’s confirmation and changes at the major department level she supports could risk the department’s future.
Michigan Senator Gary Peters said the country needs the education secretary to “value and respect public education.”
“ Rather than working to protect the funds, she blatantly supports the efforts to demolish our education system,” he said.
For more context on Senator’s comments on McMahon, please check out Internal Advanced EDHer confirmation hearings live blog, or read five key points.
California Senator Alex Padilla noted that more than 100 departmental research contracts and cuts for countless partisan professional staff have been signed.
“They made it clear that this was just the beginning,” he said. “We could talk about Linda McMahon’s qualifications, or frankly lack of qualifications, but I wasn’t shocked because President Trump wasn’t looking for someone with a background or a commitment to public education in the United States. He was looking for someone to destroy it.”
Although no Republicans commented on Thursday, they voted unanimously to confirm that McMahon (Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican of West Virginia, and Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming, did not vote. Neither did the two Democrats). Majority Leader, South Dakota Senator John Thune, supported McMahon before final confirmation.
“Mrs. McMahon is an excellent businessman and civil servant,” he said. “I’m glad Mrs. McMahon plans to work in the way that is closest to the student’s ability, because they are in the best position to do what is right for that student… I look forward to working with Mrs. McMahon to limit bureaucracy, give state governments, empower state governments, let good teachers make good teachers do their best.”
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Guillory expects McMahon to receive certification policy, one of the first questions to be discussed.
He also expects the new secretary to prioritize rethinking and potentially modify the rules on financial value transparency and remuneration, a policy initiated by the Biden administration to better hold higher education institutions accountable for student outcomes. A lawsuit against the statute was filed in 2023, but a federal judgment has been ruled to allow the new administration’s education department to determine its policy position.
It is still unclear whether Trump will try to protect paid employment rules or repeal cases and abandon them, but channels of communication between the department and senior leaders encouraged Gilory.
“They listen directly to some of the problems our members have encountered in reporting and are very good at hearing their voices [financial transparency data] They are really trying to get feedback on how to make the situation better. ” he said.
McMahon’s other key topics may include extended details about Trump’s implementation of Chapter IX; his order of diversity, equity and inclusion; and applications for income-driven student loan programs have been frozen, Guillory said.
