Linda McMahon, the new secretary of Education, sent out the agency’s “final mission” message to staffers after her confirmation vote on Monday, previewing President Trump’s plans to roll up the department.
In her message, McMahon said she is ready to take on one of Trump’s “most momentous campaign promises to families” and “send education back to the states.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed desire to eliminate the federal Education Department, saying before McMahon’s party-line Senate confirmation that he had told her to put herself “out of a job.”
The message focused on the department’s “new era of accountability” and how the upcoming months of cutting bureaucracy from the agency will lead to big changes.
“This restoration will profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency operations here at the Department. In coming months, we will partner with Congress and other federal agencies to determine the best path forward to fulfill the expectations of the President and the American people. We will eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy so that our colleges, K-12 schools, students, and teachers can innovate and thrive,” McMahon said.
She laid out the three convictions staffers will need to have: parents should choose their children’s education; taxpayer-funded schools are for math and reading, “not divisive DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] programs and gender ideology;” and postsecondary education should be for creating well-paying jobs useful to the workforce.
“Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children. An effective transfer of educational oversight to the states will mean more autonomy for local communities. Teachers, too, will benefit from less micromanagement in the classroom — enabling them to get back to basics,” McMahon said.
The new Education secretary also mentioned Trump’s executive orders promoting school choice and ridding schools of critical race theory and DEI programs.
The message comes after dozens of staffers have already been put on administrative leave and millions of dollars in federal education contracts have been canceled as Trump and Elon Musk move to dramatically reshape and reduce the federal government.
While the future is uncertain for Education Department employees, McMahon said, “every staff member of this Department should be enthusiastic about any change that will benefit students.”
