Linda McMahon, the nominee for secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, faced a flurry of questions at her Thursday confirmation hearing about President Donald Trump's impending order seeking to dismantle the agency she has been tapped to lead.
McMahon, 76, repeatedly acknowledged that the Trump administration does not have the authority to unilaterally shutter a department created under federal statute and that doing so would require congressional approval. She also said defunding certain programs that give a boost to low-income students and families "is not the goal."
But she testified she will work alongside Congress "to reorient the department" and suggested that certain programs, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, could instead be housed in other agencies that do not oversee education matters, like the U.S. Health and Human Services department, which will be led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed on Thursday.
McMahon's hearing comes a few weeks into the Trump administration's accelerated push to dramatically downsize the federal government and its workforce, which has been spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk and his team with the new Department of Government Efficiency. Those efforts have been met with swift backlash and lawsuits, some from Connecticut, arguing that they are unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, teachers and schools are scrambling to figure out what recent executive orders will mean for them and if their federal funding could be in jeopardy if they are not in compliance.
While fielding questions about Trump's latest attempts to gut the agency, McMahon, the World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder who lives in Greenwich, also vowed to focus on more post-secondary pathways like apprenticeships, advocate for school choice, and prevent transgender student athletes from competing in women's sports. She also said in an exchange with a Republican senator that colleges and universities would "face defunding" if they do not address antisemitism on campuses.
"In many cases, our wounds are caused by the excessive consolidation of power in our federal education establishment. So what’s the remedy? Fund education freedom, not a government-run system. Listen to parents, not politicians. Empower states, not special interests," McMahon said in her opening statement before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
"If confirmed as secretary, I will work with Congress to reorient the department to helping educators, not controlling them," she continued.
Trump’s imminent executive order to dismantle the Education Department was the primary focus of the hearing as he seeks to make good on a long-running campaign promise. But Congress would need to pass legislation to make that happen.
During Jimmy Carter’s administration, Congress approved a law in 1979 that created the department, including offices focused on civil rights, elementary and secondary education, post-secondary education and special education.
When pressed by both Democrats and Republicans on the committee, McMahon conceded Trump cannot abolish the agency alone and will need Congress to get on board with any plan they have to shake up or gut the department.
"Certainly President Trump we will be working with Congress. We’d like to do this right," McMahon said during an exchange with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who serves as chairman of the HELP Committee. She added that they "will be presenting a plan our senators could get on board with" while adding that it "certainly does need congressional approval."
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said to reporters after the hearing that the Trump administration can still try to "functionally dismantle" the agency by firing most of the employees, similar to recent efforts to gut the United States Agency for International Development and only keep a small number of employees.
"Having watched them lie about folding USAID into [the State Department] when they really were closing USAID, why would you think it’d be any different with special education?" Murphy said after the hearing, referring to McMahon floating the idea that the federal law that guarantees free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities could go back under the Health Department. "This isn’t a lack of trust. It’s not like there’s a little bit of a lack of trust. They’re lying."
When asked whether funding will stay intact for Title I and Pell Grants, McMahon testified that money for those programs will continue and not be reduced.
"Title 1 will continued to be appropriated through Congress," McMahon said, adding that the administration is "not looking to reduce or defund those amounts."
"Defunding is not the goal here," she said to another question about Pell Grants, adding that she wants to expand those grants, which provide assistance to low-income students for college.
In recent years, because of one-time pandemic relief funds, federal grants paid for about eight to 10% (about $1.1 billion) of education funding costs in Connecticut.
The federal government’s contribution is normally around 4% of Connecticut’s K-12 education budget, which totals over $13 billion annually and is mainly funded by the state and local municipalities.
Federal funds to local districts are primarily distributed through title grants, which target districts that are historically under-resourced with the greatest concentrations of high-need students, including those who qualify for free and reduced lunch, which is known as Title I.
While McMahon vowed to keep up federal funding for such programs, Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said she worries that will change if there is a directive from Trump to cut such funding.
"Those are the things we want [McMahon] to say. And I think today, in this moment, she probably believes them. What’s concerning to me is that the rhetoric and dialogue in this administration changes so rapidly and so vehemently on a dime and she will be expected to do, follow and get into line." Dias said in an interview.
Dias and others from CEA were in Washington, D.C., and watched the hearing from the overflow room before attending the press conference with Murphy, former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a number of parents and educators who voiced concerns about McMahon.
"I think the one thing that’s been clear in this administration is that loyalty is above all other things including the law, and so the question will be whether or not Linda McMahon can stand by those principled statements under the pressure from the Oval Office," Dias said. "And time will tell on that, but I don’t know that I feel any better today than I did yesterday."
During the confirmation hearing, Murphy used his time to press McMahon on Trump's executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and programs. He said the order does not define DEI, noting that schools with federal funding are struggling to determine whether they are in violation with that order.
McMahon said DEI was "put in place ostensibly for more diversity, equity and inclusion" but argued "it’s having an opposite effect."
Murphy gave her a few examples as to whether schools would be in violation of the DEI executive order and therefore could be subject to losing their funding.
What if a school has programming to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day? "Not in my view that’s not the case," McMahon said.
Murphy then said his son takes a class in school studying African American history. Would that violate the DEI order?
"I’m not quite certain, and I’d like to look into it further."
"That’s pretty chilling," Murphy responded.
Both U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Murphy voted for McMahon's confirmation to lead the U.S. Small Business Administration during the first Trump administration in 2017. But this time, Murphy confirmed he will be voting no.
"They say we want the federal government to get out of the business of micromanaging teachers and administrators. Well, what did Linda McMahon say to me in our exchange in the committee — that they might get into the business of micromanaging the individual classes and clubs that can exist at our middle schools and high schools," Murphy said at a press conference. "That's micromanaging."
"I'm voting 'hell no' on Linda McMahon," he continued to applause. "And I'm going to do everything I can as this nomination moves through the committee and speeds to the Senate floor to expose what the real agenda is here."
McMahon was also questioned over Title IX enforcement to protect students on campuses from sexual harassment and assault. When asked if schools should investigate and take action if an incident happens off campus, McMahon agreed.
"I don’t believe there should be any acceptance of harassment," McMahon said.
But U.S. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said she was "so concerned about whether sexual assault survivors on campus can trust" McMahon given the child sex abuse lawsuit against her and her husband Vince McMahon. It alleges the former WWE executives knew about a former ring announcer's sexual abuse of "ring boys" and failed to act, though the McMahons have denied the allegations.
"You have my absolute commitment that I will uphold and protect those investigations those to make sure that those students are treated fairly on both sides," she testified.
McMahon has been a longtime ally of Trump, serving in his Cabinet during his first administration as head of the Small Business Administration in 2017. She departed that role in 2019 to chair pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action, raising tens of millions of dollars for his 2020 reelection bid.
She also served as chair of the board for the America First Policy Institute. She most recently served as the co-chair of Trump's transition team and had been rumored to be under consideration to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce before Trump nominated her for the Education Department.
But she has limited education experience. She briefly served on the Connecticut state Board of Education before pursuing two unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate against Blumenthal and Murphy. She also served on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University.
Following her nomination to lead the Education Department, Sacred Heart President John J. Petillo said he was "confident that Linda's leadership will bring enormous value to the education system, just as it has to Sacred Heart University."
If confirmed, she will take over the agency most recently led by another Connecticut native. Former Education Sec. Miguel Cardona is from Meriden and an alumnus of Central Connecticut State University and the University of Connecticut. Before taking the job in the Biden administration, Cardona served as commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Education.
Members of Educators for Excellence (E4E), a national advocacy group made up of over 30,000 educators across the country, were in attendance at McMahon’s hearing Thursday.
CEO Evan Stone on Thursday described the hearing as "perplexing" and "disingenuous."
"She has been outspoken, saying she knows her job is over the next two years to eliminate the department, and that's why Trump's bringing her into the role. So for her to act like she doesn't know that cuts are coming, doesn't know that Congress is planning to try to reduce core federal formula funds or to block grant them out to states, is disingenuous at best, and probably just dishonest," Stone said.
Stone also raised criticisms about McMahon’s knowledge of the role, including hesitation on what existing Trump executive orders mean for local schools.
"She said that it would take a congressional action to eliminate the Department of Education, but she didn't display any plan or perspective on how she would adjust what the department currently does to support students and teachers across the country," Stone said.
While some highlighted her thin education resume, Patrice McCarthy, the executive director for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said she was hopeful that McMahon’s experience from her tenure on the state Board of Education would "give her a foundation of knowledge about the important roles both the federal and state departments of education play in supporting our students."
Education stakeholders pointed to the fact that despite what’s happening on a federal level, that there's also an opportunity for state leadership, including Gov. Ned Lamont and local lawmakers, to step up and protect education in Connecticut.
"I think it's exciting that we've had back-to-back possible leaders at the federal level on education come from the state of Connecticut," said Steven Hernández, the executive director of ConnCAN, an education nonprofit and branch of the national group 50CAN.
"Connecticut, in a lot of ways, is a microcosm of the rest of the country," he added. But "what's most important is that we do not take this opportunity lightly, that we do not point fingers at the federal government and say that's the reason that we're failing, rather than how much we're investing as a state and what we've done in the past. How many administrations have we had in the past 10, 20, 30 years and we have yet to move the needle on the achievement gap?"
Lamont's proposed budget, released last week, garnered strong criticisms regarding education funding, after advocates across the state called for at least $545 million of investment in the public education system.
Lamont instead proposed a $54 million investment in special education, which would be allocated in the second year of the governor’s biennial budget. He also proposed maintaining the Education Cost Sharing program — the single-largest operating grant to K-12 school districts — on a previously authorized schedule of increases, growing by about $85 million next fiscal year.
McMahon’s hearing and the other Trump orders are "an opportunity now to look very deeply into what we're doing [in Connecticut] and to keep the conversation about educational access and opportunity going at a state level," Hernández said. "I'm not looking to the federal government for either encouragement or for holding us back — we have work to do here."
Five protesters who described themselves as parents and educators interrupted the hearing, prompting their immediate removal from the room. They were later arrested.
The Senate HELP Committee will consider and likely vote on McMahon's nomination next Thursday. If she advances out of the committee, the full Senate will then vote on whether to confirm her.
The Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
