WWE co-founder Linda McMahon confirmed to lead Education Department that Trump wants closed immediately
WASHINGTON — This vote was no Stone Cold Stunner.World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon was confirmed along party lines by the US Senate on Monday to lead the Department of Education — which is already cutting funding and offering buyouts to its workforce as President Trump has made clear he wants the agency “closed immediately.”The 51-45 vote made McMahon the 20th member of Trump’s 22-person cabinet to be confirmed.Sens.
Shelley Moore Capito (D-W.Va.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) did not vote.McMahon, 76, grappled her way through committee vetting in a party-line vote on Feb.
20 and will now head up a department that spent around $268 billion last year with little to show for it.The US currently ranks 20th out of 41 nations in education, according to an analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, falling beneath Canada and many European countries.American students’ test scores have also plummeted since the closure of classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic — with reading proficiency for eighth graders notching its lowest level in the 32 years the government has compiled data.Republicans in Congress have pointed to the abysmal national test scores as proof that the Department of Education needs a major shake-up with McMahon at the helm.“Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of Education focused on everything but student success,” Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said in a statement following the vote.“We need a strong leader at the Department who will get our education system back on track.
Secretary McMahon is the right person for the job.”Trump, 78, has also made no bones about his plans for the Education Department, telling reporters last month he hoped his nominee would “put herself out of a job.”But McMahon herself has played coy about unilaterally dismantling the de...