Education Secretary Linda McMahon delivered a stark message on Friday about the future of her agency. Asked on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” whether the United States “needs this department,” Ms. McMahon answered: “No, we don’t.”
In the interview, her first since she was confirmed to her cabinet post this week, Ms. McMahon said that President Trump intended to sign an executive order aimed at closing her department, but she declined to give details on timing.
She also did not address how the administration might persuade lawmakers to go along. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress.
Such a move, in a closely divided Senate, would require support from Democrats, which appears unlikely after Ms. McMahon was confirmed along party lines. During the previous session of Congress, a proposal to eliminate the department failed in the Republican-controlled House when 60 Republicans voted against it.
Asked about her message to parents and students concerned about what might happen should the department be eliminated, Ms. McMahon said, “We will see scores go up.”
Republicans have pushed to close the agency by arguing that student test scores have not improved despite decades of funding from the federal government. Ms. McMahon has said she does not want to cut money for schools, but would rather deliver that funding to states with fewer restrictions.
Democrats have maintained that eliminating the department would make it easier for Republicans to cut funding for schools. And they have argued that the agency plays a crucial role in ensuring equitable access to quality education across the country.
Ms. McMahon said that she supported more school choice options, and that expanding scholarship programs and voucher systems were among the ways “to provide opportunities to children that are stuck in failing schools.”
She acknowledged anxiety among her department’s staff of about 4,200 people who, among other things, administer financial aid, manage student loans and enforce civil rights laws in schools. “Any time there’s talk about shutting a department down, the employees that are there are concerned about their jobs,” she said.
She said workers had been provided “offramps,” including an offer that expired this week of severance payments of up to $25,000 and early retirement packages for qualifying workers. She also pointed to 7.6 million job openings nationwide.
But she did not mention recent signs of a slowing U.S. economy, including 172,000 layoffs in February, the highest total for the month since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement firm.
“I think there will be a lot of places for them to go,” Ms. McMahon said about her department’s staff. “And we’d like to help them get there.”
Ms. McMahon said she had been meeting regularly with members of Mr. Trump’s team who are tasked with overseeing an aggressive overhaul of the federal government. That team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency and headed by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has already terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million at the agency.
“We meet with them almost daily,” Ms. McMahon said. “I’ve been very appreciative of some of the things they’ve shown us, some of the waste, and we’re reacting to that.”