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November 20, 2024 - 7:00pm
From fighting DEI to outright abolishing the Department of Education (ED), President-elect Donald Trump has made audacious promises to change education. And with the appointment of former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) executive Linda McMahon as Education Secretary, what can we expect from this outsider?
McMahon co-founded the WWE and led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. Although she has dabbled in education issues, expressing support for school choice and serving on the Connecticut Board of Education, McMahon will for the most part begin with a fresh set of eyes unbeholden to the interest of the education establishment. Her background suggests she will treat the ED as a business, focusing on reducing waste and inefficiencies.
McMahon faces a long road ahead to implement Trump’s desired reforms. While there are certain things the administration can pull off easily through executive action, reducing the ED’s budget and abolishing it entirely will require Congressional approval. This means that much will depend on the cooperation of the Republican-controlled House and Senate. With relatively narrow majorities in both houses of Congress, the Trump administration may face some difficulties accomplishing its more ambitious goals for the ED.
But the Trump administration can still score some big wins. For example, it could overturn the Biden administration’s executive orders on education, including policies on LGBT discrimination, which included a controversial decision to expand sex discrimination rules to include gender identity. Trump campaigned heavily against mandatory usage of “preferred pronouns” and allowing male-to-female transgender individuals in women’s sports.
Trump’s most radical proposal, though, is to abolish the department entirely. This proposal has created some confusion: many people mistake abolishing the Department of Education for the abolishment of the programmes the ED oversees, such as the Federal Student Aid (FSA) programme for higher education. But what cancelling the ED really means is reducing unnecessary administrative tasks, such as decisions about the allocation of education funds that states could handle, and reallocating programmes such as FSA to different agencies. For instance, the Treasury Department could administer student loans.
Although downsizing and reallocation don’t sound as dramatic as abolition, the damage would be large for teachers unions and other education lobbying groups. Instead of holding outsized influence over one department, education lobbying groups would have to jostle against other lobbying groups to vie for influence over multiple departments. Many education reformers would celebrate this loss of influence for teachers unions, which have promoted racial equity considerations in hiring and school administration, while eliminating tests that hold schools accountable, and rewarding seniority over merit in teacher pay.
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SubscribeLet’s hope Trump succeeds in defeating the education blob in the US – because that makes it more likely we’ll be able to do the same here. Too late for my kids, unfortunately – but at least we can save future generations from the depression-inducing nonsense.
She would do well to have a long conversation with Peter Boghossian to see what to do about higher education.
I hope she lands a body slam to the Department of Education and “Big Education” (teacher unions, over priced colleges, etc.) and makes colleges float their own student loans.
Making the colleges responsible for their student loans — especially if the loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy — would be a tremendous body blow to departments of Angry Studies.
In Ireland they have just put 8 pages of m*****bation instructions into a school textbook. As if anyone ever needed instructions! Another textbook contains one page mocking families who like traditional Irish music and Gaelic games. I think it would be far less harmful to have this lady in charge of education – the worst she can do is put more wrestling on to the school curriculum.
Are those eight pages justified as “getting in touch with yourself?”
Any administration that endorses the inclusion of that sort of filth in a school textbook is morally bankrupt – totally. A reflection of the cultural marxism that had engulfed us all in every respect of our existence. No wonder that Muslims despise our ‘western’ values!
The horror! She’s an ‘outsider’, she’s not an ‘expert’, she has experience of running a business.
No wonder the woke brigade are getting their knickers in a twist.
This is an example of how and where Trump needs to be careful not to take a good idea and run too far with it. A federal Department continues to be essential (even in a federal state) and could be useful in driving essential reforms in those states where reforms are needed.