Education Secretary Linda McMahon acknowledged Congress’s crucial role in the Trump administration’s effort to eliminate the Department of Education shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process on Thursday.
In order to fully abolish the Education Department, 60 senators would need to vote in favor of such a measure. Even if all 53 Senate Republicans voted in support, Trump would need to convince seven Democratic senators to join in.
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In her first interview following the executive order, McMahon conceded that the complete overhaul would not be constitutionally possible without congressional approval, and urged lawmakers to work with her to follow through on the president’s goal to eliminate the department entirely.
“My desire is, and what I’m going to be working to do, is to work in conjunction with Congress,” she said during a Fox News interview, adding that Trump was “correct in saying that we were going to do everything legally.”
Trump’s executive order directs McMahon “to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education” and allow individual states to oversee their own education systems instead of the federal government.
“That’s what he said to me from the very beginning. He would like for me to move as quickly as we can,” McMahon said. “But clearly he wanted to state and let Congress know that he intends to work with them. I want Congress to be a partner in this, and I believe they will be because both sides of the aisle know that what is happening to education in our country cannot be allowed to stand because we are failing our students.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon: “What my desire is.. is to work in conjunction with Congress. I think if we can show them that the best plan is to have states in control of education that is the best thing.”
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Political experts have questioned whether Congress could ever come to an agreement on eliminating the department.
“You need 60 votes in the Senate” unless the filibuster were to be abolished first, Frederick M. Hess, senior fellow and director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner. “You’re not going to get seven Democrats to vote to abolish the Department of Education no matter what.
”So that’s not going to happen,” Hess said.
More likely to happen, experts say, is a reconciliation bill strategy that could defund a number of programs and bureaucratic positions. This would only require 50 votes in the Senate, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote.
However, McMahon expressed hope Thursday that the Trump administration would be able to convince lawmakers that “the best plan is to have states in control of education, for their communities, for their students, for their teachers, for their parents.”
“That is the best thing, because the President believes, as do I, that the best education is closest to this, you know, closest to the student. And we can accomplish that by having it operate out of the state and not trying to manage it from Washington, D.C.,” she said.
The education secretary also signaled openness to a plan that would allow parents to directly access federal funding for education, rather than having states control where funding is allocated.
When asked whether she would support a plan sending funds “to the states as a pass-through, and then they must give the money to parents and let them pick the schools and the instruction of their choice,” McMahon responded that she believed “sending money directly to students” was an idea that should be “explored.”
“So let’s take a look at that. I think there is not, I don’t think there’s one thing that’s mutually exclusive. Let’s figure out what the best plan is. Talk with the governors,” she said.
Conservative groups in favor of privatizing education have cheered the Trump administration’s push to return power over academic systems to the states and parents.
“The numbers don’t lie — over the past 45 years, per pupil spending has skyrocketed while achievement has plummeted,” Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told the Washington Examiner. “The status quo has very clearly failed American children and done little more than line the pockets of bureaucrats and activists. It’s past time for a radical rethink of how education is administered in this country because we cannot keep propping up a failing system.”
PDE sued the Department of Education on Thursday and has welcomed Trump’s executive order as “a necessary and welcome development for those who have been calling for its dismantling for decades.”
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“These are the first steps towards reforming an American education system that should have always been a state and local proposition,” Sarah Parshall Perry, PDE’s vice president, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“The Department has been nothing but a ballooning $1 trillion experiment that has yielded less-than-average math and literacy scores, all while promoting political activism and ignoring academic achievement in the classroom,” she added. “We are looking forward to continuing our mission to empower parents and students in educational environments that are once again value-neutral, and devoid of radical ideologies–something that will no doubt restore America’s education ranking as among the best in the world.”
