WASHINGTON — Linda McMahon as soon as described herself as an outsider getting into the world of schooling, a enterprise chief with an “inquiring mind” who would problem the established order and demand extra for college kids.
That was 15 years in the past, when McMahon was starting a stint on the Connecticut Board of Training. However her backers describe her equally right now as she seeks to grow to be the nation’s subsequent schooling chief.
She has few of the {qualifications} typical of the job, but supporters see that as a energy. She has a scientific enterprise thoughts and few allegiances in an business that President Donald Trump guarantees to upend — beginning together with his vow to abolish the U.S. Training Division itself.
“Her most important qualification is her private-sector experience,” stated Ed Patru, a good friend and former spokesperson throughout her 2010 Senate marketing campaign. “The public’s perception of what constitutes a qualified candidate has changed dramatically. Americans are more distrustful of government.”
McMahon’s nomination to guide the division throws her right into a rancorous political battle.
The White Home is weighing an govt order directing the schooling secretary to chop the company as a lot as doable and urging Congress to shut it solely. Already, Trump’s appointees have put dozens of workers on paid go away and invited Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity to slash spending.
Democrats in Congress are launching a counteroffensive, warning Trump has no authority to dismantle the division or its core applications, which ship tens of billions of {dollars} a yr to colleges, universities and college students. At McMahon’s committee affirmation listening to Thursday, Democrats are teed as much as grill her on Trump’s plan and her willingness to hold it out.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., stated he advised McMahon closing the division could be a “disaster” for college kids nationwide. “Millions of kids rely on our public schools for their education,” he stated after a gathering with the nominee.
Trump already has issued a flurry of orders demanding new motion from the Training Division, together with plans to repurpose federal cash for varsity selection, aggressively examine antisemitism on faculty campuses and minimize federal cash for colleges that educate controversial classes on race and gender.
It might current a conundrum for McMahon, who could be ordered to execute an array of latest initiatives whereas additionally winding the division down.
McMahon and her husband, Vince, turned well-known for constructing the wrestling empire that will grow to be World Wrestling Leisure, a megabrand that made them stars and billionaires. Linda was CEO till she left in 2009 and made two unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate. She later turned a detailed ally to Trump, who put her on the helm of the Small Enterprise Administration throughout his first time period.
She has a thinner report on schooling than most earlier secretaries. She spent a yr on the Connecticut Board of Training in 2009 and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Coronary heart College in Fairfield, Conn.
On larger schooling, McMahon has voiced help for apprenticeships and different alternate options to conventional levels. On the Ok-12 degree, she has known as for expanded college selection and extra transparency in classroom curriculum.
There are questions on how carefully McMahon’s views on some points align with these of Trump, who has railed in opposition to range, fairness and inclusion efforts and believes America’s colleges have grow to be overtaken by “wokeness.” Previously McMahon has known as herself a fiscal conservative however a social reasonable.
McMahon not too long ago opposed proposal from former President Joe Biden’s administration that will have required range initiatives in apprenticeship applications. However talking on a St. Louis radio present final March, she stated some elements of DEI are “laudable” and “we ought to make sure we do have diversity.”
McMahon didn’t reply to interview requests for this story.
In her previous schooling roles, McMahon was seen as keen to be taught the ins and outs of the establishments she served.
Anthony Cernera appointed McMahon to Sacred Coronary heart’s board of trustees in 2004 when he was the varsity’s president. She studied for each assembly and carefully monitored college funds, he stated. “She knew what her job was, and she did it,” he stated.
In 2009, McMahon was appointed to Connecticut’s state schooling board after calling the governor amid considerations that Greenwich Public Colleges, the district her two kids had attended, had failed to fulfill some federal testing benchmarks.
At her affirmation listening to, McMahon stated she was astounded {that a} metropolis as rich as Greenwich was falling behind in schooling. She raised alarms about widening educational achievement gaps by race and sophistication.
“I don’t come before you today as an educator — I make no bones about that,” she advised lawmakers. “I don’t have any answers, but I have an open mind.”
After attending common conferences for a few yr, she resigned for her 2010 Senate bid. Operating as a self-financed Republican, McMahon was dogged by her historical past with professional wrestling, going through criticism for its violence, sexuality and allegations over steroid use amongst wrestlers.
New allegations surfaced final yr when a lawsuit accused the McMahons of permitting a longtime WWE announcer to sexually abuse younger “ring boys” from the Seventies to the Nineteen Nineties.
Laura Brevetti, a lawyer for Linda McMahon, stated the go well with is baseless and “filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations.”
After shedding her Senate race in 2010 and once more in 2012, McMahon stayed concerned in politics as a donor. A longtime good friend of Trump, she gave $7 million to his 2016 marketing campaign, plus one other $30 million over his subsequent two campaigns, in line with federal data.
Together with co-chairing Trump’s transition workforce, McMahon can also be a director of the president’s media firm, which owns his Reality Social platform. If confirmed, McMahon stated she’s going to go away the board and forfeit shares that had been to be awarded to her over the subsequent two years, in line with an ethics disclosure.
On the SBA, McMahon was credited with beefing up its capability to award loans after pure disasters. Upon her arrival, she challenged the company to be prepared for as many as three disasters in a single season — simply months earlier than the U.S. was slammed by three main hurricanes in 2017.
When she resigned in 2019, she drew bipartisan reward. Her nomination as schooling secretary, nevertheless, has drawn blended responses.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, a member of the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions committee, stated she has doubts about McMahon’s {qualifications}. The company wants somebody who will “stand up for students and teachers,” she stated.
McMahon faces opposition from the nation’s two main academics unions, together with civil rights advocacy teams. Republicans have typically supported her choice, saying she understands how schooling can gas the economic system.
Early this yr, McMahon visited Capitol Hill to fulfill with senators forward of her affirmation listening to. In social media posts describing the visits, McMahon stated she would “reform” the Training Division.
“I’m ready to make America’s education system great again,” she stated on X. “Let’s get this done together.”
