One more nominee has made it across the finish line for President Donald Trump: Late Monday afternoon, the Senate voted on Linda McMahon’s nomination for Secretary of Education and, in a 51-45 party-line vote, confirmed her.
McMahon served in the first Trump administration as the head of the Small Business Administration. Following Trump’s reelection in November, McMahon, along with Howard Lutnick (now Trump’s Commerce Secretary), served as co-chairs of his transition team.
Denise Carter has served as the acting secretary pending McMahon’s confirmation.
Trump has intimated he’d like to see the department done away with altogether, much to the horror of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. And the DOGE team has already been busy slashing close to $1 billion from the bloated department’s expenditures by terminating multiple DEI training grants and a number of other contracts.
During a confirmation hearing punctuated with protests, McMahon made it clear that she would be a champion for school choice.
McMahon seemed unfazed by the disruptions.
McMahon’s hearing touched on a slew of issues, including women’s sports, school choice, and other issues surrounding the fact that students’ performance in America continues to dwindle.
“The Department of Education was set up in 1980 and since that time, we have spent almost almost a trillion dollars and we have watched our performance scores continue to go down,” McMahon said. “I do believe that it is our responsibility to make sure that our children do have equal access to excellent education…I think that is best handled at the state level.”
“It’s not working,” McMahon said of the current state of the Department of Education. The Trump administration has floated the idea of eliminating the department altogether.
With her confirmation, McMahon becomes the 21st Senate-confirmed top official in Trump’s administration.
