(Headline USA) If Linda McMahon is confirmed as Education secretary, President Donald Trump has said he wants her to “put herself out of a job.”
A plan being considered by the White House would direct the Education secretary to dismantle the department as much as legally possible while asking Congress to abolish it completely.
At her confirmation hearing Thursday, McMahon indicated she would seek “a better functioning Department of Education,” with more efficient programs that might be better implemented by different federal agencies.
Eliminating the department altogether would be a cumbersome task; McMahon said she believed that would require action from Congress. Already, the department has cut $900 million in contracts for its office that tracks progress of students in schools across America.
The agency’s main role is financial. Annually, it distributes billions in federal money to colleges and schools and manages the federal student loan portfolio—a function first assumed during the Obama adminsitration when the federal government took over the role of previously private student-loan financiers.
President Joe Biden’s controversial attempts to use loan “amnesty” to wipe debt from borrowers as a tool for political pandering brought additional scrutiny to the federal government’s role in micromanaging the public-education system.
However, disentangling it while assuring a soft landing for schools where learning loss already has become a serious issue will require deft maneuvering from McMahon, the billionaire wife of professional-wrestling magnate Vince McMahon.
During Trump’s first term, McMahon served as administrator of the Small Business Administration—a role that took on added importance during the coronavirus shutdowns, when Congress issued loans through the Paycheck Protection Program to ensure companies were able to continue paying their employees.
Apart from its involvement with student loans, financial aid and research grants at colleges and universities, federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets—roughly 14%.
Trump has vowed to cut off federal money for schools and colleges that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content” and to reward states and schools that end teacher tenure and support universal school choice programs.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
