In Linda McMahon’s telling, any effort to unravel the Department of Education would be done meticulously, with a careful study of the agency’s programs, and in concert with Congress. Her desire is to audit programs for efficiency and success, she said at her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Throughout the hearing, senators repeatedly reminded her that Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s cost-cutting teams had beaten her to some of this work. Efforts to shut down parts of the agency are already underway without her at the helm — and without Congress’ involvement, senators said.
The Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly begun slashing through parts of the Department of Education. It ended contracts within Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, which performs education research and evaluation of the Department of Education, cut grants and fired staff.
“Shouldn’t the Department of Education continue to collect data and evaluate outcomes, rather than halt these activities so that you can help states know what works well?” Republican Sen. Susan Collins asked McMahon, citing the loss of contracts that are used to assess and evaluate education initiatives in her home state of Maine
McMahon didn’t give a straight answer.
“It is my goal, if I am confirmed, to get in and assess these kinds of programs because I’m not sure yet what the impact of all of those programs are,” she said. “I know that there are many worthwhile programs that we should keep, but I have not — I’m not yet apprised of them. I want to study them. I’d like to get back and talk to you more and to work with you.”
Collins relented. But Democrats on the panel were more combative when McMahon asserted that Trump had no intention of cutting funds to public schooling.
“The president is not, he is not saying that we should cut funding to public education,” McMahon said — a claim she repeated during the hearing.
“Yes, he is,” Sen. Ed Markey replied in opposition to McMahon’s insistence. “Elon Musk yesterday announced he would immediately cut $900 million from the Department of Education. He stood right next to Trump and made that very clear.”
McMahon later said in response to another senator that she had not had discussions with Musk about the Department of Education.
She also clashed with Sen. Patty Murray on the question of Musk’s DOGE employees in the Department of Education potentially having access to sensitive student information.
“There is a real potential for that kind of information to be abused or for students privacy to be placed in jeopardy if the courts end up ruling against the students, and we know that DOGE could use that highly personal information to then target students and target their families, or cut off access to Pell Grants for students at college that someone perceives that opposes maybe President Trump policy. So I want to ask you, do you believe that DOGE employees should have access to private student [information]?” Murray said.
McMahon answered that it was her understanding that DOGE employees in the Department of Education were onboarded as department employees. Murray disagreed, saying that was not her understanding of their status.
As McMahon attempted to assure Democratic senators that it was important that states were properly funded to address teacher shortages, Sen. Tim Kaine interjected that grant funding was already being shut off in his home state of Virginia.
Still, McMahon was emphatic that the administration’s goal was not to take away resources.
“I am really all for the president’s mission, which is to return education to the States. I believe, as he does, that the best education is closest to the child,” McMahon said. “It is not the president’s goal to defund the programs, only to have it operate more efficiently.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the committee, asked McMahon point-blank: “If the agency is downsized, would the states and localities still receive the federal funding which they currently receive.”
“Yes,” McMahon said.
Senators made clear that’s already not the case.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.