WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, R-Ala., said during recent confirmation hearings for the education secretary nominee that America’s current education system is failing children.
The nominee, Linda McMahon, could have a short stint as the country’s education chief. President Donald Trump said he wants McMahon to “put herself out of a job.” Trump has emphasized his campaign push to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
Britt introduced McMahon during the nomination hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee calling her a “change agent.”
“Our students deserve better,” Britt said. “Our parents deserve better. We have to do something different in order to achieve a different result.”
Britt described McMahon as someone “who can make a real difference at the department that sorely needs it.”
McMahon was the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment and served on the Connecticut State Board of Education and as a trustee of Sacred Heart University. She also led the U.S. Small Business Administration during the first Trump administration.
McMahon said she was ready to implement Trump’s “vision” for education. Trump has repeatedly said he wants education to be in the hands of states.
Tuberville, a member of the HELP Committee, said during the hearing that the education system is a “disaster.” He brought up his experience as a collegiate football coach and how he saw students struggle to read.
“Let’s teach our kids,” Tuberville said. “That’s the only chance they got to survive in this world, which is gonna be very, very competitive.”
Tuberville emphasized the need for more workforce education and McMahon agreed. A protester briefly interrupted her while she was responding to Tuberville.
“But I think we have to look at education and say, our vocational and skills-based training is not a default education,” McMahon said. “It can be something. It can be front and center so that students who are inclined to go in that direction actually should be encouraged to do that.”
Britt also highlighted the need for more job training options in her introduction of McMahon.
Tuberville said we need more teachers and less administrators.
McMahon is a proponent of expanding school choice, as are Tuberville and Britt. Both support the Educational Choice for Children Act which would expand school choice nationwide.
Britt and Tuberville also brought up their concerns about declining scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress nationwide. Though, Tuberville did mention ahead of the hearing how Alabama’s math scores improved last year.
Democrats focused their questioning on how willing McMahon would be to follow Trump’s lead on getting rid of the Education Department. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been working to shrink the federal government. It cut nearly $900 million from the Department of Education on Monday, including an agency that tracks students’ learning, The Associated Press reported.
“Trump’s crusade to abolish the Department of Education and ‘root out waste and fraud and corruption’, for cuts to public schools is an attack on every public school student, parent, teacher, paraprofessional, administrator and school worker in this country,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said.
McMahon did acknowledge that shutting down the department would require “congressional action.”
The HELP Committee will vote on McMahon’s nomination Thursday.