Unlike Donald Trump’s other cabinet nominees, who were grilled in the Senate on their personal ideologies and professional qualifications, Linda McMahon will be subject to a fact-finding mission regarding the future of the Department of Education.
Ahead of Thursday’s confirmation hearing, Democratic senators tell NOTUS their primary focus is what will become of the department Trump has nominated her to lead and instructed her to end.
“The main question is, does she see her job as simply turning out the lights at the Department of Education?” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Donald Trump’s promised besiegement of the department has already begun. Earlier this week, the Department of Government Efficiency began slashing contracts within Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Employees of the department’s research arm tell NPR it’s being all but shut down.
Trump has confirmed that his administration is preparing to gut the department.
“When I talked to her one-on-one, I asked her, ‘Is what happened at USAID going to happen at the Department of Education?’ And she said it’s not going to be exactly that way. She said very extensive cuts in personnel, as well as transfers to other departments. And I just need to drill in on that,” Sen. Andy Kim told NOTUS. “The American people deserve to know if we’re going to have a secretary of education that actually wants to engage with that department or work to dismantle it.”
McMahon is a Trump loyalist. She is most known for her involvement with World Wrestling Entertainment as a wrestling performer and as the organization’s former CEO. Trump has described her as a longtime friend; she served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration during his first term.
She’s also connected to the president financially. Trump Media & Technology Group transferred thousands of dollars in stock to her last month for her work on the company’s board of directors. McMahon has said she would resign and divest upon confirmation. She was also co-chair of the Trump transition team.
“The Trump administration has announced plans consistent with Project 2025 to end the Department of Education. And my understanding is she might have even been charged with demolishing the agency she’s being asked to lead,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin told NOTUS. “So, I will be asking a number of questions about her views and whether she would stand up to the Trump administration given the very important role in public education that the Department of Education has.”
Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester, John Hickenlooper and Chris Murphy, Democrats on the HELP committee, also told NOTUS that the Department of Education is top of mind headed into the hearing.
Sen. Tim Kaine told reporters that while the department will dominate a lot of the attention, McMahon may also face questions about cuts to National Institutes of Health funds, due to the number of universities and university hospitals that count on the funding for research and treatment.
“I think the NIH cuts, research cuts will probably be a big one. She’s on the education side more than the health side, but you have those universities and research institutions. She’ll probably face a lot of questions about that,” Kaine said.
Sanders and Murphy also expressed concern about the U.S. education system being privatized. Many worry that school choice — or programs that allow public dollars to be used for kids to attend private schools — is a precursor to privatization, a threat to the public education system designed to be an equalizer.
Outside groups and House Democrats have mobilized around McMahon’s hearing, scheduling a protest Thursday to support public schools. Billed to attend are Rep. Bobby Scott alongside the leaders of the country’s two biggest teachers’ unions.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said at a news conference Wednesday that she wants to see McMahon address privacy issues after allegations that Elon Musk, without proper credentials, had access to millions of students’ data, potentially in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
“We hope Linda McMahon will discuss what she’ll do to secure the personal data of veterans who receive benefit payments, current and former federal employees whose confidential employment files reside in OPM’s system and teachers whose pathway to the classroom was reliant on student loans to pay for college tuition,” Weingarten said.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.