Former professional wrestling exec and billionaire GOP donor Linda McMahon faced tough questioning—and scattered protests—on Thursday during her confirmation hearing to head an Education Department that President Donald Trump is keen on abolishing.
During two-and-a-half hours of questioning (and opining) by senators, McMahon attempted to thread the needle between Trump’s plans to gut the 45-year-old US Department of Education and federal laws and constitutional guardrails that stand in his (and Elon Musk’s) way. Even as she expressed support for key Trump policies—including private-school voucher programs and bans on trans girls and women from sports—McMahon’s scant experience in education was on display as she misstated, or failed to answer key questions about, federal education law.
McMahon, who was head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, is best known for her role at World Wrestling Entertainment, which she co-founded and ran with her now-estranged husband, Vince. Her experience in education is limited: She earned a teaching certificate in college and was a student teacher for a semester. She served for a year on the Connecticut Board of Education, resigning in 2010 after the Hartford Courant found that she’d claimed an education degree she never obtained. She has spent more than a decade as a trustee of a private Catholic university. She also ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 2010 and 2012.
As board chair of the ultra-conservative American First Policy Institute, McMahon now oversees a think tank that supports education-related policies including universal school-choice programs, parental review of all school curriculum, and removal of so-called “gender ideology” and “political activism” from coursework. If confirmed, she says she will boost support for technical schools and vocational programs and ban the teaching of critical race theory—all while emphasizing that education policy is best left to states and local school districts.
The Department of Education, which began operating in 1980, now ranks sixth among federal agencies in total spending, accounting for 4 percent of all federal spending in fiscal year 2024. As secretary, McMahon would oversee the distribution of tens of billions of dollars every year to a vast array of federal and state programs, including funding for early childhood education, kids with disabilities, low-income schools, and federal Pell Grants for college students. She would also be tasked with enforcing anti-discrimination laws and investigating schools and universities for alleged civil rights violations, including sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
Opinion
Human Rights
Gov-Politics
