Trump picks Linda McMahon to head the Department of Education

President-elect Donald Trump announced Linda McMahon, his transition chair and former small business administrator, as his nominee to be the next education secretary.

“As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand Choice to every state in America and empower parents to make the best education decisions for their families.” wrote Trump on social media.

Trump’s top education priorities in his Agenda47 policy platform include restoring and strengthening parental rights and parental controls.

Conservatives, led by political figures like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and groups like Moms for Liberty, have embraced the mantle of parental rights, arguing — in part because of the window distance learning has opened into the classroom — that public school education has been hijacked by inappropriate curriculum on LGBTQ+ issues, race and discrimination, and more.

McMahon, 76, led the SBA from 2017-2019 during Trump’s first administration. The Trump loyalist is the first cabinet secretary from his previous administration to be tapped for a role in the incoming administration.

McMahon is also the wife of former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Vince McMahon. The two founded WWE together in 1980.

McMahon, a major GOP donor who has given tens of millions of dollars to support pro-Trump causes, chairs the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) board. She also served two years on the Connecticut Board of Education.

Trump’s selection of a confidant for this position and others creates inappropriate groupthink that could potentially lead to poor decision-making for American students, Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of the advocacy group The Education Trust, told ABC News.

“The danger of appointing loyalists is that you have a group of people who all think the same, and they all think the way the president-elect thinks,” Del Pilar said. “By appointing someone who will not resist, it brings him (Trump) closer to his ultimate goal, which is to eliminate the Department of Education.”

Trump can’t abolish the Department of Education on day one without congressional action, but his Agenda47 education platform makes clear he wants to do so “very early in the administration.”

“We will close it,” the president-elect said in an Agenda47 video message released last year, adding: “All those buildings, everywhere, and you have people who in many cases hate our children. We will send it all the way back to the states.”

While that’s possible in theory, education policy experts who spoke to ABC News suggest it would be an extremely chaotic — and unrealistic — task on Inauguration Day.

“The Department of Education was created through legislation,” Cato Institute Education analyst Neal McCluskey told ABC News. “Legislation comes through Congress. If you want to dismantle the Department of Education, you have to do it through legislation,” McCluskey added.

Education experts suggest closing the department could eat into public education funding and disproportionately affect high-need students across the country.

House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx argued that having such a department is not a constitutional requirement. She called McMahon a “fighter” who will work tirelessly in the service of students.

Meanwhile, National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle blasted the election.

“McMahon’s (sic) sole mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take taxpayer dollars away from public schools where 90% of students – and 95% of students with disabilities – learn and give them to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools.” Pringle said in a statement to ABC News. “The Senate must stand up for our students and reject Donald Trump’s unqualified nominee, Linda McMahon. Our students and our nation deserve so much better than Betsy DeVos 2.0.”

According to education experts, ending the Department of Education could also leave billions in funding, scholarships, grants and more hanging in the balance for the millions of K-12 and college students who attend U.S. schools

However, critics of the department claims that federal education spending has increased since its founding — costs 23 billion dollars to date in fiscal year 2025, about 4% of public spending so far – but measures of student success such as reading and maths results has fallen in recent years.