McMahon said student loans, special education funding, and grants for low-income schools would be streamlined but not cut under her leadership.
At her confirmation hearing, just days after President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) embarked on deep cuts to the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, the president’s pick for secretary of education, was asked how a federal agency on the chopping block could continue to serve the majority of K–12 and university students across America.
McMahon appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in Washington on Feb. 13.
During Trump’s first administration, McMahon, 76, served as administrator of the Small Business Administration. She and her husband, Vince McMahon, founded World Wrestling Entertainment.
McMahon also previously served on the Connecticut State Board of Education and is currently on Sacred Heart University’s board of trustees. She also chaired the America First Policy Institute think tank and twice ran, unsuccessfully, for the Senate.
Last year, the Department of Education operated with a budget of about $268 billion. Trump and DOGE began spending cuts this week by canceling more than $900 million on contracts related to the department’s research functions and diversity, equity, and inclusion training.
Trump has said that McMahon is expected to lose her job as she helps him dismantle the department and return control of public education to the states.
McMahon told committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that “it is not the president’s goal to defund the programs … only to have it operate more efficiently.”
In five separate incidents during the hearing, audience members identified as teachers were removed for disruptive behavior that Cassidy called “amazingly bad.”
Here are key takeaways from the hearing.
- Cut Bureaucracy, Not Funding
- Universal School Choice
- Uncertainty on DEI Parameters
- Vocational Education
- Common Sense on College Campuses
