As expected, the vote was along party lines.
The Senate on March 3 approved Linda McMahon to lead the U.S. Department of Education in a 51–45 vote, with two senators absent.
McMahon served as administrator of the Small Business Administration in the first Trump administration and chaired the America First Policy Institute think tank.
McMahon ran for Senate twice, unsuccessfully. She served on her state’s Board of Education and remains on the Sacred Heart University Board of Trustees.
She’s most known for her connection to World Wrestling Entertainment, which she founded with her husband, Vince McMahon.
During committee hearings leading up to the Feb. 28 vote in Washington, McMahon said she supports universal school change and would enforce Trump’s executive orders to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and ideological indoctrination from both K–12 and higher education.
She also pledged to combat anti-Semitism on university campuses.
The nominee was questioned just after the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress results were released.
The report noted continued declining scores in math and reading for grades 4 and 8.
Critics of the Department of Education are calling for drastic changes given the trillion-plus dollars spent on the Department of Education since its 1979 inception.
“For the poorest kids in our country who are disillusioned about the American dream, the answers they are looking for rarely come from Washington,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said during a Senate committee hearing last month.
“To turn this around, we need someone who has already succeeded in business and government.”
McMahon vowed to support career and technical education, including expanding Pell Grants to cover short-term certificate programs.
She also said she supports shrinking the agency and moving its programs and funding streams to other departments, though she agreed with legislators that eliminating the Department of Education requires an act of Congress.
Republicans applauded McMahon’s business experience and her intentions to shift more education policy and financial functions to states and local school districts.
