Senate committee advances Trump’s ed secretary pick

President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon, cleared a Senate committee vote on Thursday in a crucial step for Republicans who hope McMahon will bring about major education reforms nationally.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted along party lines 12-11 for McMahon, sending her confirmation to the full Senate. If confirmed McMahon would be in the unique position of leading a federal department the president has said he wants to shut down “immediately.”

In a Senate committee hearing last week, McMahon said congressional action would be needed to eliminate the Department of Education (DOE). During the hearing, she told lawmakers she would fight for school choice and dismantle the federal “education bureaucracy.” 

The DOE has been “focused on everything but student learning,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, chairman of the HELP Committee, said on Thursday, ahead of the committee vote. 

“We need a strong leader at the department who will get our education system back on track, and Ms. McMahon is the right person for the job,” he said, noting her decades of experience as a businesswoman and her work as leader of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. “Throughout the nomination process, Ms. McMahon demonstrated a strong vision for the Department of Education.” 

Her vision for the department includes returning education to the states, ensuring “fairness for women and girls on the field and in the classroom,” and fighting antisemitism on college campuses, Cassidy said. 

Ahead of Thursday’s committee vote, some Senate Democrats indicated that their “no” votes were not against McMahon on a personal level, but rather her plans to carry out Trump’s education agenda. 

“I like her personally. I respect the work she has done in building a large and successful business,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, the ranking member of the committee. “But I think the main point that has to be made in this particular moment in history is it really doesn’t matter who the secretary of education is, the secretary of labor is, because those people will not be calling the shots.” 

“I find areas of agreement, but I can’t vote for somebody who will willfully engage in the destruction of the very agency she wants to lead,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said. “That is disqualifying.” 

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, asked Democrats how they could defend the DOE when American education rankings have been declining for years. 

“What we’re doing is a definition of insanity, which means we’re repeating the same thing, expecting different results,” he said. “We’re doing nothing but going backwards. And our test scores haven’t improved since 1979 – they’ve just continued to fall.”