Linda McMahon, U.S. Secretary of Schooling, throughout a Senate appropriations subcommittee listening to in Washington.
Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Photos
disguise caption
toggle caption
Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Photos
U.S. Secretary of Schooling Linda McMahon had a sophisticated job this week: To elucidate to lawmakers the Trump administration’s new fiscal 12 months 2026 funds proposal for a division McMahon and President Trump have each dedicated to shut.
In response to a brand new funds abstractthe administration needs to chop the Schooling Division’s funding by 15%, whereas largely preserving the 2 most vital federal funding streams to Okay-12 faculties: Title I, for faculties in low-income neighborhoods, and IDEA grants to states, which assist help college students with disabilities. It’s proposing cuts to different packages as a substitute, together with TRIOwhich assist low-income and first-generation faculty college students.
On Wednesday, McMahon testified earlier than the Home schooling committee and, on Tuesday, earlier than a Senate appropriations subcommittee. Listed here are a number of moments that stood out:
The definition of madness
In Tuesday’s Senate listening to, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, requested McMahon, “What is the definition of madness?”
“Doing the identical factor over and over and anticipating a distinct final result,” McMahon answered.
Mullin’s level, based mostly on declining check scores: Regardless of the U.S. Division of Schooling has been doing through the years, “It isn’t working. What we’re doing isn’t working.”
The notion that U.S. college students have been failing academically and that the Schooling Division is accountable has been Republicans’ main argument in help of gutting the division, and it got here up time and time once more on this week’s hearings with McMahon.
Critics of that argument have famous that the division doesn’t run the nation’s faculties. It could possibly’t inform districts or states what to show or how you can educate it.
The truth is, in Tuesday’s listening to, Sen. Katie Britt, Republican of Alabama, rightfully highlighted her state’s distinctive educational progress lately, one thing NPR has documented. One other state, Louisiana, has additionally improved remarkably.
Faculties could also be on the hook for pupil loans
In relation to pupil loans, McMahon mentioned faculties have to get “somewhat pores and skin within the recreation.” She recommended that the federal authorities shouldn’t be chargeable for all loans that go unpaid by college students.
“Loans usually are not forgiven or simply go away, they’re simply shouldered by others,” she mentioned.
A plan to pressure faculties and universities to repay a portion of the loans their college students don’t has been included in Home Republicans’ huge reconciliation invoice. Republicans additionally wish to make it clear when a given faculty program is not giving college students a superb return on their funding.
“If you wish to get a pupil mortgage … you have to go get a level in one thing the place truly you would possibly be capable to do one thing helpful whenever you’re carried out with it,” mentioned Rep. Randy Superb, a Florida Republican.
Such a shift would require vital adjustments to the coed mortgage system and federal oversight of schools.
In Tuesday’s Senate listening to, Democrats’ hardest questions for McMahon have been in regards to the division’s choice to cease paying out $1 billion in grants to high school districts to rent psychological well being professionals, together with counselors and social employees.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, instructed McMahon: “It is a actually merciless factor to do to these youngsters. Did you consider the affect?”
McMahon doubled-down on the division’s rationalization of the funding freeze, that a few of these packages have been tainted by what the administration considers poisonous DEI ideology.
She additionally mentioned that “the states and the native areas, I feel, are the very best place the place we have to focus for these explicit packages.”
The administration makes use of this trust-the-states strategy all through its funds: For the packages it doesn’t wish to cancel outright, the funds requires stripping away laws and sending the cash to states in chunks, through block grants, that may be spent on the discretion of state leaders.
For instance, the funds would fold federal funding for rural faculties, college students experiencing homelessness, literacy instruction and a number of different unrelated packages into one, generic bundle of cash that might go to states.
The destiny of Upward Sure and the opposite TRIO packages
The division’s fiscal 12 months 2026 funds would finish a cluster of federal packages recognized collectively as TRIOmeant to assist low-income and first-generation college students entry and achieve faculty. And McMahon heard bipartisan help for TRIO and pleas to save lots of the packages.
At one level throughout Tuesday’s listening to, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins identified that she was sporting a Maine TRIO pin on her lapel and that three of her employees members had gone via TRIO. Collins mentioned she had seen first-hand how the packages had modified the lives of many susceptible People for whom faculty may need in any other case been out of attain.
When requested by Collins why the administration thinks TRIO is not well worth the funding, McMahon answered that the division of schooling lacks the power to audit TRIO, to ensure the federal funding is getting used appropriately.
A number of senators voiced help for TRIO throughout the listening to and, at one level, New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen instructed McMahon, “if there’s a downside with accountability, let’s tackle that … however let’s not throw the newborn out with the bathwater.”
Who ought to pay for workforce packages?
The administration’s proposed consolidation of workforce-development packages was met with a spread of responses, from slight apprehension to open hostility, from lawmakers from each events.
Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, pressed the Secretary to place a quantity on the cuts throughout the funds: “When the mud settles can we perceive that there can be a couple of 33% lower throughout workforce growth?”
McMahon didn’t reply the query with a sure or no, however continued to focus on the necessity for workforce growth with out the federal authorities shouldering the price.
Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan, additionally a Democrat, made a plea for her dwelling state: “We’re competing on a world stage,” she mentioned of Michigan’s manufacturing equipment. “We’d like these engineering jobs, we want these apprenticeship packages.”
In a later alternate with a Republican consultant, Mark Messmer of Indiana, Secretary McMahon mentioned the administration was wanting into increasing public-private partnerships for profession and technical schooling.
She cited a program in West Virginia that could be a partnership between group faculties and the automotive producer Toyota. College students there prepare within the auto plant and take courses on the faculty to develop a built-in workforce funded by the employer, she mentioned.
