Here’s what higher ed can expect from its new education secretary

This week, the Trump Administration welcomed its new U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon. In a message to public schools and higher education institutions, she promises to overhaul the Department in a “last chance” effort to “restore the culture of liberty and excellence that made American education great.” Here’s how she plans to do it.

“True change does not happen overnight,” she said in a public statement at the time of her confirmation, which follows a steady stream of executive orders from President Donald Trump aimed at DEI, gender ideology, school choice and several other divisive issues.

“The Department of Education is not working as intended,” she wrote. She points to the fact that since the Department’s establishment in 1980, taxpayers have entrusted the agency with more than $1 trillion, “yet student outcomes have consistently languished.”

“Millions of young Americans are trapped in failing schools; subjected to radical anti-American ideology, or saddled with college debt for a degree that has not provided a meaningful return on their investment,” she wrote. “Teachers are leaving the profession in droves after just a few years—and citing red tape as one of their primary reasons.”

Over the next several months, McMahon promised to carry out President Trump’s directives. More specifically, she outlines the three convictions:

1. Parents are the primary decision-makers in their children’s education.
2. Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology.
3. Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs.

Shutting down the Education Department

McMahon might already be taking steps to strip away at the department following talks of an executive order that could come as early as this week, first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The drafted executive order recognizes that Trump is not authorized to dismantle the department as it would likely take 60 votes in the Senate. However, it directs the education secretary to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department” according to “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law,” the Journal reports.

Experts, including Thomas B. Fordham Institute Senior Research Fellow Dale Chu, argue that the total elimination of the Department is unlikely. However, he says the playbook we’re seeing unfold is a “neutering” of the agency.

“Abolishing the Department outright was always more of a campaign slogan than a serious governing blueprint,” he says. “That said, this administration seems to view federal law as more of a suggestion than something to be followed to the letter. If you can’t kill the Department outright, why not neuter it?”

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