WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is voting Monday on whether or not to substantiate former wrestling government Linda McMahon because the nation’s schooling chief, a task that will place her atop a division that President Donald Trump has vilified and vowed to dismantle.
McMahon would face the competing tasks of winding down the Schooling Division whereas additionally escalating efforts to attain Trump’s agenda. Already the Republican president has signed sweeping orders to rid America’s faculties of diversity programs and lodging for transgender students whereas additionally calling for expanded school choice packages.
On the identical time, Trump has promised to close down the division and mentioned he needs McMahon “to place herself out of a job.”
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A billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Leisure, McMahon, 76, is an unconventional pick for the function. She spent a 12 months on Connecticut’s state board of schooling and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Coronary heart College however in any other case has little conventional schooling management.
McMahon’s supporters see her as a skilled executive who will reform a division that Republicans say has failed to enhance American schooling. Opponents say she’s unqualified and concern her finances cuts will likely be felt by college students nationwide.
At her confirmation hearing, McMahon distanced herself from Trump’s blistering rhetoric. She mentioned the purpose is to make the Schooling Division “function extra effectively,” to not defund packages.
She acknowledged that solely Congress has the ability to shut the division, and she or he pledged to protect Title I cash for low-income faculties, Pell grants for low-income faculty college students, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. But she prompt some operations may transfer to different departments, saying Well being and Human Companies could be higher suited to implement disability rights laws.
Weeks earlier than McMahon’s affirmation listening to, the White Home was contemplating an government order that will direct the schooling secretary to chop the company as a lot as legally potential whereas asking Congress to close it down utterly. A few of McMahon’s allies pressed the White Home to carry the order till after her affirmation to keep away from potential backlash.
Created by Congress in 1979, the Schooling Division’s primary role is to disburse cash to the nation’s faculties and schools. It sends billions of {dollars} a 12 months to Ok-12 faculty and oversees a $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio.
Trump argues the division has been overtaken by liberals who press their ideology on America’s faculties. Throughout his marketing campaign, he vowed to shut it and grant its authority to states.
Colleges and states already wield considerably higher authority over schooling than the federal authorities, which is barred from influencing curriculum. Federal cash makes up roughly 14% of public faculty budgets.
Already, the Trump administration has began overhauling a lot of the division’s work.
Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity has minimize dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful. It gutted the Institute of Schooling Sciences, which gathers knowledge on the nation’s educational progress, and the administration has fired or suspended scores of workers.
A number of the cuts have halted work that’s ordered below federal regulation. At her listening to, McMahon mentioned the company will spend cash that’s directed by Congress, and she or he performed down DOGE’s cuts as merely an audit.
McMahon is a longtime Trump ally who left WWE in 2009 to launch a political profession, operating unsuccessfully twice for the U.S. Senate. She has given thousands and thousands of {dollars} to Trump’s campaigns and served as chief of the Small Enterprise Administration throughout his first time period.
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