By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Schooling Author
WASHINGTON (AP) — Linda McMahon as soon as described herself as an outsider entering into the world of schooling, a enterprise chief with an “inquiring thoughts” who would problem the established order and demand extra for college kids.
That was 15 years in the past, when McMahon was starting a stint on the Connecticut Board of Schooling. However her backers describe her equally right this moment as she seeks to grow to be the nation’s subsequent schooling chief.
She has few of the {qualifications} typical of the job, but supporters see that as a energy. She has a medical enterprise thoughts and few allegiances in an trade that President Donald Trump guarantees to upend — beginning together with his vow to abolish the U.S. Schooling Division itself.
“Her most essential qualification is her private-sector expertise,” mentioned Ed Patru, a buddy and former spokesperson throughout her 2010 Senate marketing campaign. “The general public’s notion of what constitutes a professional candidate has modified dramatically. Individuals are extra distrustful of presidency.”
McMahon’s nomination to steer the division throws her right into a rancorous political battle.
The White Home is weighing an government order directing the schooling secretary to reduce the company as a lot as doable and urging Congress to shut it solely. Already, Trump’s appointees have put dozens of workers on paid depart and invited Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity to slash spending.
Democrats in Congress are launching a counteroffensive, warning Trump has no authority to dismantle the division or its core applications, which ship tens of billions of {dollars} a yr to colleges, universities and college students. At McMahon’s committee affirmation listening to Thursday, Democrats are teed as much as grill her on Trump’s plan and her willingness to hold it out.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., mentioned he informed McMahon closing the division could be a “catastrophe” for college kids nationwide. “Hundreds of thousands of youngsters depend on our public faculties for his or her schooling,” he mentioned after a gathering with the nominee.
Trump already has issued a flurry of orders demanding new motion from the Schooling Division, together with plans to repurpose federal cash for varsity alternative, aggressively examine antisemitism on faculty campuses and reduce federal cash for faculties that educate controversial classes on race and gender.
It may current a conundrum for McMahon, who could be ordered to execute an array of recent initiatives whereas additionally winding the division down.
McMahon and her husband, Vince, grew to become well-known for constructing the wrestling empire that will grow to be World Wrestling Leisure, a megabrand that made them stars and billionaires. Linda was CEO till she left in 2009 and made two unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate. She later grew to become an in depth ally to Trump, who put her on the helm of the Small Enterprise Administration throughout his first time period.
She has a thinner report on schooling than most earlier secretaries. She spent a yr on the Connecticut Board of Schooling in 2009 and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Coronary heart College in Fairfield, Connecticut.
On larger schooling, McMahon has voiced help for apprenticeships and different alternate options to conventional levels. On the Okay-12 stage, she has referred to as for expanded faculty alternative and extra transparency in classroom curriculum.
There are questions on how carefully McMahon’s views on some points align with these of Trump, who has railed in opposition to range, fairness and inclusion efforts and believes America’s faculties have grow to be overtaken by “wokeness.” Prior to now McMahon has referred to as herself a fiscal conservative however a social reasonable.
McMahon not too long ago opposed proposal from former President Joe Biden’s administration that will have required range initiatives in apprenticeship applications. However talking on a St. Louis radio present final March, she mentioned some points of DEI are “laudable” and “we ought to verify we do have range.”
McMahon didn’t reply to interview requests for this story.
In her previous schooling roles, McMahon was seen as prepared to be taught the ins and outs of the establishments she served.
Anthony Cernera appointed McMahon to Sacred Coronary heart’s board of trustees in 2004 when he was the varsity’s president. She studied for each assembly and carefully monitored college funds, he mentioned. “She knew what her job was, and he or she did it,” he mentioned.
In 2009, McMahon was appointed to Connecticut’s state schooling board after calling the governor amid considerations that Greenwich Public Faculties, the district her two youngsters had attended, had failed to satisfy some federal testing benchmarks.
At her affirmation listening to, McMahon mentioned she was astounded {that a} metropolis as rich as Greenwich was falling behind in schooling. She raised alarms about widening tutorial achievement gaps by race and sophistication.
“I don’t come earlier than you right this moment as an educator — I make no bones about that,” she informed lawmakers. “I don’t have any solutions, however I’ve an open thoughts.”
After attending common conferences for a couple of yr, she resigned for her 2010 Senate bid. Working as a self-financed Republican, McMahon was dogged by her historical past with professional wrestling, dealing with criticism for its violence, sexuality and allegations over steroid use amongst wrestlers.
New allegations surfaced final yr when a lawsuit accused the McMahons of permitting a longtime WWE announcer to sexually abuse younger “ring boys” from the Seventies to the Nineties.
Laura Brevetti, a lawyer for Linda McMahon, mentioned the go well with is baseless and “stuffed with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations.”
After shedding her Senate race in 2010 and once more in 2012, McMahon stayed concerned in politics as a donor. A longtime buddy of Trump, she gave $7 million to his 2016 marketing campaign, plus one other $30 million over his subsequent two campaigns, in accordance with federal information.
Together with co-chairing Trump’s transition group, McMahon can also be a director of the president’s media firm, which owns his Fact Social platform. If confirmed, McMahon mentioned she’s going to depart the board and forfeit shares that had been to be awarded to her over the subsequent two years, in accordance with an ethics disclosure.
On the SBA, McMahon was credited with beefing up its capability to award loans after pure disasters. Upon her arrival, she challenged the company to be prepared for as many as three disasters in a single season — simply months earlier than the U.S. was slammed by three main hurricanes in 2017.
When she resigned in 2019, she drew bipartisan reward. Her nomination as schooling secretary, nevertheless, has drawn combined responses.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, a member of the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions committee, mentioned she has doubts about McMahon’s {qualifications}. The company wants somebody who will “get up for college kids and lecturers,” she mentioned.
McMahon faces opposition from the nation’s two main lecturers unions, together with civil rights advocacy teams. Republicans have usually supported her choice, saying she understands how schooling can gas the financial system.
Early this yr, McMahon visited Capitol Hill to satisfy with senators forward of her affirmation listening to. In social media posts describing the visits, McMahon mentioned she would “reform” the Schooling Division.
“I’m able to make America’s schooling system nice once more,” she mentioned on X. “Let’s get this executed collectively.”
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