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Amid the outwardly alarming Trump nominations, one overlooked disaster-in-waiting is Linda McMahon, nominated to lead the Department of Education.
McMahon, a billionaire who founded and ran the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestling franchise, and her husband, Vince McMahon (they’re separated), are longtime Trump allies.
She has donated millions to his presidential campaigns, co-chaired his transition team, served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration, and was reportedly considered for the Position of Secretary of Commerce. However, she also has very few qualifications for her new role.
As former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon oversaw an enterprise that popularized the “takedown” for millions of wrestling fans. However, as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, Trump loyalists may take down the department that Trump has asked her to lead.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
From 2009 to 2010, she sat on the Connecticut Board of Education, a seat she earned, she said, because her pal, then-Connecticut governor Jodi Rell, wanted “somebody on the outside” on the board. She was a longtime member of the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Besides that, there’s not much about McMahon’s résumé that suggests she’d be competent running the agency that allocates federal assistance to state education departments. And that’s likely the point — Trump spent his campaign vowing to abolish the department, and putting someone in charge who isn’t qualified is a good way to accomplish that goal.
Indeed, as Trump posted on Truth Social when announcing McMahon as his choice: “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.” After all, you don’t need someone competent in charge of a department you plan to run into the ground.
BEATDOWN
The Department of Education, as we know it, was created by Congress in 1979 during President Jimmy Carter’s administration to ensure equitable access for American students.
States generally run their own education departments and school systems, and 90% of all funding for education comes from state and local governments, according to the Washington Post. However, the F, much of which concerns funding.
BLIND TAG
Republicans have been trying to gut the Department of Education since the Reagan era. Trump is no exception. Project 2025, a 900-page plan funded by the conservative Heritage Foundation that may function as a roadmap for Trump’s second administration, calls for dismantling the federal Department of Education and cutting federal funding for a litany of programs, including for students with disabilities and directing those funds to states to use for block grants — i.e., fixed funding — or private school choice programs.
BRAINBUSTER
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vowed to abolish the department as part of his alleged efforts to “drain the swamp,” claiming that the federal government uses tax dollars to “indoctrinate America’s youth” with “wokeness,” even though the federal Department of Education has little to no say over curriculum.
Trump may not fully realize his dream of abolishing the Department of Education, which would require 60 Senate votes, but he can downsize the department, which would have far-reaching effects.
BIONIC ELBOW
There is, of course, the impact it would have on low-income students and students with disabilities who rely on federal funding. But there is more at risk than just the loss of that money. Republicans angling to end the department have made it clear that they have no interest in the equitable access the Department of Education was created to achieve.
One of Trump’s departmental targets is guidance from the Biden administration offering Title IX protections to LGBTQ+ students, as well as a rule that interferes with state laws prohibiting transgender students from, among other things, having the ability to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
Without federal oversight and protection, states would likely be able to enforce their own discriminatory rules.
Meanwhile, local school boards are banning books, and laws in places like Florida are punishing teachers and administrators who try to teach “woke” subjects touching on race and sexuality.
Some red-state school administrations are becoming more blatant in their efforts to muddle the separation between church and state in public schools.
BODY SLAM
Consider the Oklahoma superintendent who mandated that public schools put Bibles in every classroom (initially, they were special Trump-branded Bibles, to boot), or the recent Texas State Board of Education approval allowing Bible-focused lessons in public schools, or Louisiana’s incoming law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.
Sending education “back to the states” isn’t just an effort to cut federal spending. It’s part of an effort by state education boards to dismantle public education as we know it by pushing “school choice” (e.g., charter or private schools), infusing the remaining public schools with “conservative values,” and crushing any semblance of equity. Linda McMahon will make it easy for them.
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder/CEO of the non-profit The Student Success Project. He can be reached by email at ritchie@studentsuccessproject.org and on Facebook as The Student Success Project.
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