Linda McMahon faces an unusual test on Thursday as she seeks Senate approval to lead an agency the president wants her to destroy.
If President Donald Trump has his way, his pick for education secretary would be the last in the role. The Republican president has promised to close the agency, saying it has been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.” A plan being considered by the White House would direct the education secretary to dismantle the department as much as legally possible while asking Congress to abolish it completely.
At a White House news conference last week, Trump said he wanted McMahon “to put herself out of a job.” Trump has yet to sign an order on the department's shutdown, and some of McMahon's advisers pressed to delay it until after her hearing. Yet it's expected to be the central subject of Thursday's hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Democrats have been gearing up to grill McMahon on her willingness to execute Trump's plan, which opponents say would undermine public education. Trump hasn't said whether he would preserve the core work of the agency, which sends billions of dollars a year to schools, manages a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and enforces civil rights in education.
In a letter to McMahon this week, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim said she'll be asked if she supports Trump's plan, and what action she will take to carry it out. It asks McMahon for commitments to preserve the department's student loan operations and civil rights office, among other programs highlighted by the Democrats.
McMahon is a longtime Trump ally who became a billionaire as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. She left the wrestling empire in 2009 to launch a political career, running unsuccessfully twice for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. McMahon has given millions to Trump's campaigns, and during his first term, he picked her to lead the Small Business Administration.
McMahon has a more limited education track record than most previous secretaries. She spent a year on the Connecticut Board of Education and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. McMahon has called for expanded school choice programs, along with a focus on apprenticeships and alternatives to traditional college degrees.
At a 2009 hearing to serve on Connecticut's education board, McMahon said she planned to become a teacher after college but instead found work at a law firm before building WWE with her husband, Vince.
Those urging senators to reject McMahon include the National Education Association — the nation's largest teachers union — and advocacy groups calling for stronger Title IX protections for victims of sexual assault.
Republicans praise her business acumen and say she's a good pick to change the course of American education. Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the health and education committee, met with McMahon in January and said she's “prepared to return power to parents and reform an Education Department that has lost the plot.”
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