Linda McMahon’s nomination for U.S. secretary of training superior Thursday with the approval of the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee, which voted 12-11 alongside occasion traces.
“We want a robust chief on the division who will get our training system again on monitor, and Ms. McMahon is the proper individual for the job,” mentioned HELP Chair Invoice Cassidy, R-La., earlier than the vote.
McMahon appeared earlier than the committee Feb. 13 for a 2 ½ hour affirmation listening to the place she spoke of her priorities for increasing faculty alternative and skills-based studying, offering extra decision-making energy to native faculties and oldsters, and defending college students from discrimination and harassment.
She additionally talked about her openness to creating sweeping modifications on the U.S. Division of Schooling, together with transferring applications like particular training oversight and civil rights investigations to different federal businesses.
“We’re failing our college students, our Division of Schooling, and what we’re doing at present is just not working, and we have to change it,” McMahon mentioned on the time. McMahon previously served as administrator of the Small Enterprise Administration for 2 years in President Donald Trump’s first administration. She was beforehand president and CEO of World Wrestling Leisure.
Trump and the non permanent Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, have already made main alterations to Schooling Division actions, together with by trying to freeze funding to states, canceling analysis contracts, halting range, fairness and inclusion funds and programming, and calling for the tip of “radical indoctrination” in Ok-12 faculties.
Trump has additionally mentioned his purpose is to shut the Schooling Division — a transfer that would wish congressional approval.
At Thursday’s HELP govt session, which lasted about quarter-hour, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., mentioned he was opposing McMahon’s nomination. “I discover areas of settlement [with McMahon], however I can not vote for someone who will willfully have interaction within the destruction of the very company she desires to steer. That’s disqualifying,” Kaine mentioned.
Rating member Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., additionally voted in opposition to McMahon’s nomination and criticized what he mentioned was a transfer towards an authoritarian society the place “all energy is resting within the arms of some within the White Home.”
“It would not actually matter who the Secretary will probably be, as a result of she or he won’t have the ability,” Sanders mentioned.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., earlier than voting in favor of the nomination, mentioned U.S. training has fallen in international rankings. “If we actually say we’re for the youngsters, then let’s strive one thing drastic,” Mullin mentioned. “Let’s really make a change, as a result of we’re doing nothing however going backwards, and our take a look at scores have not improved since 1979. They’ve simply continued to fall.”
A full Senate vote on McMahon’s affirmation is forthcoming.