WASHINGTON — This vote was no Stone Cold Stunner.
World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon was confirmed along party lines by the US Senate on Monday to lead the Department of Education — which is already cutting funding and offering buyouts to its workforce as President Trump has made clear he wants the agency “closed immediately.”
The 51-45 vote made McMahon the 20th member of Trump’s 22-person cabinet to be confirmed. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (D-W. Va.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) did not vote.
McMahon, 76, grappled her way through committee vetting in a party-line vote on Feb. 20 and will now head up a department that spent around $268 billion last year with little to show for it.
The US currently ranks 20th out of 41 nations in education, according to an analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, falling beneath Canada and many European countries.
American students’ test scores have also plummeted since the closure of classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic — with reading proficiency for eighth graders notching its lowest level in the 32 years the government has compiled data.
Republicans in Congress have pointed to the abysmal national test scores as proof that the Department of Education needs a major shake-up with McMahon at the helm.
“Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of Education focused on everything but student success,” Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said in a statement following the vote. “We need a strong leader at the Department who will get our education system back on track. Secretary McMahon is the right person for the job.”
Trump, 78, has also made no bones about his plans for the Education Department, telling reporters last month he hoped his nominee would “put herself out of a job.”
But McMahon herself has played coy about unilaterally dismantling the department.
She told members of the Senate HELP Committee in her confirmation hearing that the department’s elimination “certainly does require congressional action” but there are plans to get buy-in from Republican lawmakers.
“We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better-functioning Department of Education,” she said.
Key programs involving Title I funding for low-income institutions, as well as Pell Grants and Public Service Loan Forgiveness will remain in place, McMahon also promised.
Trump’s nominee also said she stood ready to abide by executive actions preventing transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams, cracking down on antisemitism on university campuses and abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
McMahon also went to the mat for the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) combing through departmental programs for potential spending cuts.
At least $1 billion worth of funding for grants, contracts and other expenses have been pinned down so far.
Congressional Democrats have characterized Trump’s plans for the Education Department as an effort to “destroy” public schools for the benefit of billionaires who can buy up the nation’s educational institutions.
When announcing his pick in November, Trump noted that McMahon, who headed up the Small Business Administration during his first term, had a “deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World.”
Only US Ambassador to the UN-designate Elise Stefanik, who is still serving as a GOP congresswoman from New York; and Labor Secretary pick Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon, are still awaiting confirmation.
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