Linda McMahon’s nomination for U.S. secretary of training superior Thursday with the approval of the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee, which voted 12-11 alongside celebration strains.
“We want a robust chief on the division who will get our training system again on observe, and Ms. McMahon is the best 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 colleges and oldsters, and defending college students from discrimination and harassment.Â
She additionally talked about her openness to creating sweeping modifications on the U.S. Division of Training, together with shifting applications like particular training oversight and civil rights investigations to different federal companies.
“We’re failing our college students, our Division of Training, and what we’re doing immediately isn’t 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 short-term Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, have already made main alterations to Training Division actions, together with by making an attempt to freeze funding to states, canceling analysis contracts, halting variety, fairness and inclusion funds and programming, and calling for the top of “radical indoctrination” in Ok-12 colleges.
Trump has additionally mentioned his aim is to shut the Training Division — a transfer that would want congressional approval.Â
At Thursday’s HELP government 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 any person who will willfully interact within the destruction of the very company she desires to guide. 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 does not actually matter who the Secretary can 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 world rankings. “If we actually say we’re for the children, then let’s attempt one thing drastic,” Mullin mentioned. “Let’s truly make a change, as a result of we’re doing nothing however going backwards, and our check scores have not improved since 1979. They’ve simply continued to fall.”
A full Senate vote on McMahon’s affirmation is forthcoming.