Linda McMahon, represented here at her confirmation audience in the Senate in February, previously directed the Small Business Administration of the United States and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
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tilting legend
Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
On Monday, the Senate led by Les Républicains voted to confirm Linda McMahon as a new secretary of the American department of education.
McMahon, a former professional wrestling magnate which led the United States Small Business Administration during the first term of President Donald Trump, was confirmed by a vote from 51 to 45 years.
McMahon has a Limited context in educationAlthough she has sat on the board of directors of the Connecticut State for about a year.
In a Declaration announcing his appointmentSaid Trump, as an education secretary, McMahon “will empower the next generation of American students and workers, and will make number one America in the world education.”
In Its confirmation audienceWho has sometimes been heated and interrupted several times by the demonstrators by shouting protections for students, McMahon denounced a public education system “in decline” and is committed to “redirect” the American department of education and “invest in teachers and not the bureaucrats of Washington”.
The White House was clear that it intends to dismantle the department and that it will be McMahon’s work to supervise this effort. The administration has already made cuts to Department staffprograms and researchBut it cannot officially close the department, because it was created by a Congress act In 1979 and can only be closed by this same body.
A New NPR / PBS News / Marist survey notes that there is not much public support for the closing the agency: 63% of respondents in the survey opposed to get rid of the education service, against 37% in favor.
The Department of Education is Among the smallest of all federal agencies And one of its main roles is to administer federal financing for schools from kindergarten to 12th year, including through title I (for students of low -income communities) and the law on the education of disabled people (IDEA, for disabled students).
McMahon said on several occasions during her confirmation audience that she considers that the Department of Education and the Financing of Education are two different things. The first, she said, can be dismantled without affecting the second. “This is not the president’s goal of finance the programs. It was only to make it work more effectively.
During the hearing, Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat in New Hampshire, expressed exasperation to McMahon and Republicans who say that the department uses its application authority to punish schools that flout requests from the new administration – including their Guidance on Dei And Transgender athletes in sport – Although they also say that they want to strip the department of this authority of the law. She called it “elegant gas lighting”.
Republican senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, who has SMIS against school choice policiesAsked if McMahon’s main role as an education secretary would be “to support and strengthen our public schools”?
His answer: “I absolutely believe that our public schools are the foundation of our education. You know, they return to the very foundation of our country.”
Learn more about Linda McMahon here.
