OPINION:
Linda McMahon will appear on Capitol Hill on Thursday asking senators to confirm her for what will hopefully be a short stint as education secretary. President Trump wants her to manage the winding down of a costly, failed experiment.
Since President Carter created it in 1979, conservatives have tried — and failed — to close the Education Department. Centralizing responsibility for schools in Washington has caused entire generations to fall behind academically.
Last month, the department released results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress that show reading scores among fourth and eighth graders slipped in 2024. This continued a downward trend present even before the COVID-19 lockdowns.
In public schools, 41% of fourth graders were assessed below the basic reading level. Parochial schools, on the other hand, outperformed union-run schools across every age range, with twice as many eighth grade students achieving advanced proficiency levels than their public school counterparts.
Superior results don’t even cost more. Without all the administrative bloat, private schools operate on a fraction of the per-pupil expense of public schools. As Mr. Trump withdraws Uncle Sam’s meddling, he’s ensuring states have more flexibility to solve problems on their own.
The executive order allows states to use federal grant funding to assist any family wishing to send a child to a private school, regardless of income. This directive applies even to the departments of Defense, Interior and Health and Human Services, each with its own educational assistance programs, which can now be used help parents cover the cost of K-12 tuition.
This change isn’t just about promoting private schools. In line with the administration’s new policy, the only article on the department’s Homeroom blog right now is titled “Homeschooling: The Lifeline We Didn’t Know We Needed.” In it, a mother describes the success she had in tailoring the learning experience for her children.
Other parents have sought refuge from the “Heather Has Two Mommies” propaganda plaguing modern education by turning to schools that offer a classical curriculum. Programs based on the great works of the past have exploded in popularity because the time-tested teaching methods are effective.
In December, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a $50 million scholarship program to help low-income parents afford one of these new options. “I know we all agree that no student should be denied the opportunity to pursue the education that meets their needs the most,” the Republican wrote on X.
At the beginning of the month, the Tennessee General Assembly sent the Education Freedom Act to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who raised the universal school choice issue to the top of his agenda.
Mr. Trump wants to return such decisions to the states because Washington-based institutions have been captured by the public school teachers unions. Big Labor has invested generously to maintain the status quo and prevent competition.
According to Open Secrets, the likes of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers showered Democratic congressional candidates and left-wing political action committees with $46 million in donations extracted from the dues teachers were forced to pay in 2024.
With so much money at stake, expect major court battles if the administration dares to send home any of the Education Department’s 4,177 employees or attempts to trim a penny from the bloated, $82 billion discretionary budget.
Ms. McMahon will have a lot to wrestle with — for a while, at least.
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