‘Not one size fits all’: Trump ed secretary doubles down on dismantling DC education bureaucracy, getting money into the classroom

Mere days after the Education Department’s 45th birthday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is doubling down on dismantling the department and returning education to the states.

“Not one size fits all,” McMahon told The Lion, speaking Wednesday at a fireside chat at the Cato Institute on eliminating the Education Department. “I think we need to allow teachers to be more innovative and allow teachers to teach. A stat that I was given not too long ago is for every dollar that goes into the classroom, teachers spend about 47 cents of that dollar in regulatory compliance. Well, I’d rather there not be so many regulations and let teachers be focusing on the students in those classrooms.”

President Donald Trump earlier this year issued an executive order directing McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department and “return education authority to the States.” The directive means McMahon has an unusual task of putting herself out of a job and dismantling the very agency she leads.

Wednesday’s event was moderated by Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom Director Neal McCluskey, who asked McMahon what the Trump administration could do to dismantle the department on its own and what Congress would need to be involved in.

“It’s no small task,” McMahon said, noting she can start redirecting services through other agencies but that ultimately Congress will need to vote to close it, since the department was created by statute. She is working to be “transparent” with lawmakers and show them that sending education back to the states is the best outcome for students across the country.

McMahon cited scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress – dubbed the Nation’s Report Card – which she said showed “awful scores,” including that only 30% of 8th graders can read at or above proficient levels.

“We have had this department in place since 1980, we spent over $3 trillion, our scores keep going down,” McMahon said. “We’re clearly not doing something right. So let’s take another shot at it.”

As it seeks to close down the department, the Trump administration has faced fierce criticism from disability advocates who fear that less federal oversight could strip away accommodations and services from disabled students and lead to discrimination against them. 

McMahon addressed those concerns, suggesting that it is parents and teachers closest to children with disabilities who can best help them, rather than a “bureaucrat sitting in Washington, D.C.” Special needs funding will continue, she said, although “it may flow through a different agency.” 

Many of the Education Department’s functions already existed within other agencies before it was established, McMahon noted, and by redirecting those functions to other agencies, the government could be more efficient. For example, student loans could potentially reside in the Treasury Department, civil rights issues could come under the Justice Department, and some special needs programs could flow through Health and Human Services, she said.  

Earlier this year the department underwent a mass reduction in force, nearly halving its workforce. “You always just want to cut fat, and you’re going to try to avoid cutting muscle,” McMahon said of her approach to the layoffs. “Sometimes you cut into the muscle, and you cut a little too deep. We brought some people back – not a lot, but we did find that we cut a little bit deep.” 

When the department is finally closed, McMahon said Trump has told her he wants to stand on the steps, put a padlock on it, and “invite the press.” 

Part of dismantling the department entirely will be educating the public and members of Congress about what the Department of Education “does not do,” McMahon said. 

“We don’t buy books, we don’t hire teachers in states, we don’t do any of those things,” she noted, adding that it’s instead a “pass-through of funding” which could flow through other agencies instead. “We want to get that money directly to the states as quickly as possible. So let’s take the bureaucracy out of Washington that costs money, and have more money be able to get to the child.”