THE FEDERALIST | Published February 14, 2025
Minimal education experience’ is a qualification for running an unconstitutional education agency that poses an existential threat to our republic.
President Trump’s education secretary nominee Linda McMahon began her confirmation hearings the morning of Feb. 13. One of the chief attacks against her is bemoaning “a thin resume on education,” as industry lobbying outfit Education Week puts it.
“McMahon’s background in education is limited. She served for about one year on Connecticut’s State Board of Education,” says government-funded mouthpiece NPR. The government-funded New York Times notes “critics” highlighting “a relative lack of experience in education.”
“Unlike President Joe Biden’s education secretary, McMahon has little experience working in schools,” USA Today bleats. Formerly government-funded Politico says she “has minimal education experience.”
The truth is, “minimal education experience” is a qualification for running an unconstitutional agency that poses an existential threat to our republic. Myriad data indicate the education industry is one of the nation’s lowest-performing, and its institutions some of the nation’s worst.
Institutions are run by people. The people responsible for the horrific performance of America’s education institutions are the least qualified to improve them. This is Management 101. And it is borne out by numerous longstanding data points. Here are just a few.
Untrained Parents Educate Better than Trained Teachers
Homeschool parents are better teachers than the average person with a teaching degree. Now, it shouldn’t make any sense that people with zero experience or preparation for a field significantly outperform people with experience and preparation. That is not true of just about any endeavor — except education.
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SOURCE: www.thefederalist.com
RELATED: How Gutting the U.S. Department of Education Would Hurt Students and Their Families
THE CENTURY FOUNDATION | Published February 14, 2025
Jump to K-12 education; higher education; overall risk for the nation.
The Trump administration is poised to issue executive orders that would dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, defunding many of its programs and shifting functions to other agencies. While outright abolishing the department would require an act of Congress, the administration is expected to try to get as close as possible through executive actions—even when those actions may be illegal. There are many unknowns in terms of how this might play out in the executive branch and through legal challenges in the courts, but all of the likely scenarios create harmful risks for students and families.
Millions of Americans rely on federal support from the Department of Education to open doors along their educational journeys—from the nearly 1 million infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities or developmental delays who have access to early intervention and special education services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); to the 26 million pre-K–12 students supported by federal Title I funding; to the 43 million people with federal student loans.
Here are eight of the many ways that students and families stand to lose if the Trump administration succeeds in gutting the Department of Education.
K–12 Education
1. Students with disabilities could lose critical resources and protections.
One of the Department of Education’s core responsibilities is to administer programs created by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, under which 7.5 million disabled students—roughly, 15 percent of the student population—have received individualized education services, including pre-employment transition services, special education support services, and much more. While the Trump administration cannot scrap IDEA or its funding without Congressional approval, it could attempt to move the administration of IDEA over to another government agency.
This kind of change would have a drastic and immediate impact on students with disabilities. There is no other federal agency with the expertise needed to oversee special education and ensure the rights of students to a free and appropriate public education. Disabled students, half of whom have learning or speech and language disabilities, rely every day on protections in federal law to get services that keep them safe and able to advance educationally.
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SOURCE: www.tcf.org
