In response to Senate Republicans confirming Linda McMahon to be Secretary of Education, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump wants to dismantle public schools and now he has an accomplice. Linda McMahon certainly didn’t get this job based on her qualifications, she got it because she’s a billionaire MAGA megadonor who will put her wealthy friends above America’s 50 million public school kids. Already, Trump has gone after early childhood education for preschoolers, health care for kids, and funding for students. How low can he stoop?”

NEW: Republicans confirmed billionaire and mega-donor Linda McMahon to abolish the Department of Education — a core promise of Trump’s wildly unpopular Project 2025 agenda. 

Senate Cloakroom: “Confirmed, 51-45: Confirmation of Executive Calendar #24 Linda McMahon to be Secretary of Education.” 

Reporter: “Why nominate Linda McMahon to be the Education Department Secretary if you’re gonna get rid of the Education Department?”

Trump: “Because I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to put herself out of a job, [the] Education Department … I want Linda to put herself out of a job.”

Reporter: “Do you want the Department of Education to be closed?” 

Trump: “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately.”

Wall Street Journal: “A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 61% of registered voters opposed getting rid of [the Department of Education]. Most Americans preferred to protect funding for education and other domestic priorities over cutting taxes, the same poll found.”

Project 2025, p. 319: “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”

Shutting the Department of Education down will have disastrous consequences for tens of millions of families, threatening billions of dollars that support K-12 schools, working families, and low-income schools while gutting student loan debt relief. 

LA Times: “The prospect of dismantling the Department of Education has led to questions and fears over potential chaos over how key responsibilities and billions in federal funding — including handling federal financial aid, grants for disadvantaged students and civil rights enforcement — would be affected.

“The department has authority over financial lifelines that so many campuses and students rely on. The department’s K-12 programs serve more than 50 million students attending 130,000 public and private schools; federal grant, loan, and work-study assistance benefits more than 13 million post-secondary students.”

Inside Higher Ed: “College and university stakeholders worry that abolishing the Education Department could be catastrophic for institutions and students. State higher education officials, university administrators, nonprofit advocacy groups and students depend on the Education Department to oversee federal student aid, manage the student loan portfolio, investigate civil rights complaints and allocate billions of dollars in institutional aid, among other operations.” 

Associated Press: “The action is meant to bring relief to the hardest-hit borrowers in a program that allowed private lenders to provide student loans that were backed by the federal government. The program ended in 2010 when the Education Department became the sole lender of federally subsidized student loans.” 

Project 2025, p. 350: “Title I is the largest portion of federal taxpayer spending under this federal education law, and the section provides additional taxpayer resources to schools or groups of schools in lower income areas. … Over a 10-year period, the federal spending should be phased out and states should assume decision-making control over how to provide a quality education to children from low-income families.” 

TIME: “This loss of almost $18 billion in federal funding would be devastating. Eliminating Title I would harm nearly three million children throughout the U.S. … [and] could result in the loss of 180,000 jobs for educators … 

“Title I also provides federal funding for high-poverty schools. These funds have been incredibly important to supplementing state and local funding across the country whether in white schools in Appalachia, rural districts in the South, or in multiracial schools in urban areas.”

Trump’s toxic cuts also disproportionately hit Trump voters the hardest. 

CNN: “Potential federal education cuts could hit GOP’s base hardest” 

“It’s the sort of place where President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ message resonated – but also where some of his proposed policies could hit hardest, especially his promise to eliminate the Department of Education and slash federal funds to public schools. …

“Even a slight reduction in those dollars could have devastating effects for students and their families.”