President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon, said in a hearing on Thursday she would continue funding Pell Grants and two other programs to help low-income schools and students with disabilities—a comment that comes as Trump continues to say he wants the department shut down as soon as possible.
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, arrives for a hearing of ... [+]
McMahon (the wife of billionaire WWE titan Vincent McMahon) told a congressional panel she will not seek to “defund or reduce” funding given to Title I programs, which provide funds to low-income schools, or to IDEA, which helps students with disabilities, and she would continue Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for college—reiterating, “It’s not the president’s goal to defund the programs, only to have it operate more efficiently,” Politico reported.
Answering questions from the Oval Office, Trump said he wanted the Department of Education “closed immediately,” adding “it’s a big con job” and saying he believed a number of states would do a better job handling their own education.
The Washington Post, citing two unnamed people, reported representatives from DOGE were using AI through Microsoft’s Azure service to go through data with “personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data”—though an Education Department spokesperson told the Post they are looking for efficiencies and there’s “nothing inappropriate or nefarious”—a report that comes after days of Democratic lawmakers expressing concern about DOGE’s access to sensitive information across departments.
When asked why he nominated Linda McMahon to run the Education Department if he wants the agency closed, Trump, speaking from the Oval Office, said he wants her “to put herself out of a job” and he wants “the states to run schools.”
An unnamed White House official confirmed to The Washington Post the administration is preparing an executive action sometime in February that will start the process of shrinking the Education Department—though the order reportedly acknowledges that Trump can’t eliminate the agency entirely without Congress.
At least 55 Department of Education employees were told via email they were being placed on a paid leave related to Trump’s order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the Associated Press reported, though the department’s union president told the AP most employees put on leave did not work on DEI initiatives.
Trump signed an executive order—“Ending Radical Indoctrination In K-12 Schooling”—that aimed to eliminate federal funding for schools that teach or promote “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”
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Trump named Denise Carter, who was serving as the interim leader of the federal student aid office, the acting department secretary. Carter is in the temporary role until Trump’s nominee for secretary, Linda McMahon, is confirmed—though no hearing date has been set for her confirmation.
McMahon—the wife of billionaire former WWE chair Vince McMahon—is Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, after she ran the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first term in office from 2017 to 2019 and she co-chaired his transition team this time around. A longtime Trump donor and the leader of the conservative America First Policy Institute, McMahon had an unsuccessful Senate bid in 2010 after she left WWE and lost another Senate bid in 2012. Politico reported last month the delay in confirmation was on McMahon’s end as the Office of Government Ethics was waiting on her paperwork, including financial disclosures and conflict of interest forms.
Education is primarily a state and local responsibility, but the federal Education Department—which was founded in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter—provides funds to local entities to help schools and districts operate. One of its best-known funding programs is Title I, which gives supplemental funding to high-poverty schools. The agency also oversees the federal student aid and loan programs for college students, handling well over $1 trillion in outstanding loans to more than 40 million borrowers, and it runs the FAFSA college financial aid application. Beyond that, the department collects statistics on enrollment, school crimes and staffing, enforces civil rights laws for schools and runs a number of other programs including the Office of Special Education Programs, which helps disabled students through age 21.
In fiscal year 2024 the Education Department was allocated $241.7 billion, representing 2% of the budget, according to USA Spending data.
Trump cannot legally shut down the department without congressional approval, and it’s not clear if he would have the support he needs. However, the Post reports Trump may sign an executive order to shrink the agency while pressuring Congress to eliminate it altogether. Trump has tried to wind down or significantly curtail other federal departments on his own, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Trump ally Elon Musk has pushed federal employees to take buyout offers.
In an interview with Time Magazine in December after he was elected, Trump said he wanted to “move the schools back to the states” and have “a virtual closure of Department of Education in Washington.” When pressed on what that meant, Trump said he understood “you're going to need some people just to make sure they're teaching English in the schools,” but he wants states to exert more control. At a September rally in Wisconsin, Trump was more direct on the matter, saying: “I’m dying to get back to do this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education … We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing,” CNN reported. Beyond closing the department, Trump has pushed for other changes, including funding cuts for schools that ostensibly teach “gender ideology and critical race theory.”
The Education Department runs the $1.6 trillion student loan program, and Trump hasn’t stated what he envisions for that program. Trump bashed former President Joe Biden’s attempts to forgive student loans while campaigning, calling his forgiveness plans “vile.” The Washington Post reported it’s likely that if Trump ends the Education Department, another government agency would take on oversight of the student loan program. Some conservative groups have also pushed to move student loans back to the private sector.
In his first term, Trump suggested merging the Education and Labor departments, but the proposal never went anywhere. The new suggested agency, “the Department of Education and the Workforce,” would have been “charged with meeting the needs of American students and workers from education and skill development to workplace protection to retirement security,” according to Education Week. Then-Secretary Betsy DeVos said the plan would help “reduce the federal footprint in education and to make the federal government more efficient and effective.”
4,200. That’s about how many people work for the Department of Education.
Trump Threatens Funding Cuts For K-12 Schools That Teach Gender Ideology And Critical Race Theory (Forbes)