Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education will not come at the expense of essential federal programs, according to Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Lawmakers think otherwise.
McMahon faced intense scrutiny as she testified before the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee on the Trump administration’s FY27 budget request, which includes $75.7 billion in discretionary authority for the Education Department.
The proposal maintains Title I funding at roughly $18.4 billion while providing significant boosts to special education and charter school funding. Key components of the IDEA boost include:
- A $439 million increase for IDEA state grants while consolidating six smaller IDEA programs to reduce administrative burden on state agencies and districts.
- A $50 million increase for IDEA grants for infants and families.
- Proposed flexibility for states to streamline enrollment processes for expectant parents of children likely to have a disability.
The administration would also commit $500 milion to expand the number of charter schools, broadening the Education Department’s school choice expansion agenda.
Fragmenting the Department
Meanwhile, McMahon was grilled by the subcommittee regarding the Education Department’s recent fragmentation of programs to other federal agencies. To date, the department has established 10 interagency partnerships with the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, State, Treasury and Interior.
Breaking up the Department does little to streamline efficiency for schools in search of federal resources, argued Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
“This isn’t reducing bureaucracy, it’s creating another layer of it,” Baldwin said. “Where states previously primarily dealt with the Department of Education, they will now have to deal with multiple federal agencies.
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Declining test scores also don’t warrant eliminating the Education Department, Baldwin added. Rather, she argued that the agency has supported states’ efforts to curb learning losses through research and by adopting evidence-based approaches to improve student outcomes.
However, the current state of student achievement reflects decades of mismanagement from the federal government, according to McMahon. In her prepared remarks, she restated her mission from President Donald Trump to “sunset a 46-year-old, $3 trillion, failed education bureaucracy in Washington, DC.”
“Amid record-low test scores and record-high numbers of students buried in debt, Americans want results,” she added.
Eliminating college readiness programs
Members of the subcommittee also slammed McMahon for the department’s plans to zero out funding for TRIO programming, which helps disadvantaged students enroll and graduate from college. The cuts would save the Department roughly $1.191 billion.
When asked by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., about the department’s intent to dissolve TRIO, McMahon said the program is underperforming.
“It may be a high cost, but this Congress passed the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which provided a tax cut for an annual income over $1 million, and it’s now costing the taxpayers over $1 trillion,” rebutted Shaheen.
Returning power to the states
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., praised the secretary for the work she’s done to protect women’s sports, expand school choice and return authority to the states. When McMahon took the job, he argued, the department was “the poster child for excess federal government.”
“I also want to say from the record I don’t think we ought to mislead the American people,” Kennedy told McMahon. “This isn’t your budget. This budget was put together by the OMB and the White House. Every White House does it.”
McMahon reflected on the innovation being pioneered in schools during her “Returning Education to the States Tour,” adding that innovation has come from the states, not the federal government.
“What I hope to do is to put together a toolkit to leave behind and to share with these states, ‘This is what is working,'” she said.
For example, she referred to “Mississippi Miracle.” As of October, 2025, Mississippi now ranks 16th in the nation for education after ranking last in 2012. The state attributes its success to its focus on phonics, teacher training and literacy support for schools.
“The steps that they took and made, Louisiana adopted, Florida adopted, Tennessee and other states,” McMahon said. “We have seen through the state’s innovation—and continued funding, which will continue to come through government programs—they have made a difference, and that’s why states are the center of what’s going to be successful for them.”
Watch the full hearing here.
