Education Secretary Linda McMahon detailed how the Trump administration aims to improve the nation’s education, specifically so that curriculum control can return to local communities.
The recently confirmed secretary made her argument in response to statements from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who said she was “really angry” about the Trump administration’s plans to revise the Department of Education, including “taking opportunity” away from children. In response, McMahon argued that President Donald Trump is not taking education away from children but rather taking “the bureaucracy out of education” to allow states to receive more money for education.
“Better education is closest to the kids, with parents, with local superintendents, with local school boards,” McMahon said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle. “I think we’ll see our scores go up with our students when we can educate them with parental input as well.”
McMahon pointed out that only 30% of the United States’s high school graduates can read “proficiently.” She believes the skill is “missing” among the nation’s youth, and addressing this needs to be a focus.
The education secretary then detailed the first steps she took in her new job: identifying “where the bloat is” in the department and finding out which programs are “excellent.” She explained that the Trump administration wants to give “more money” to the states, which is why the administration is focused on removing the bureaucracy and “red tape” from education.
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On Tuesday, education department employees were told to leave the department’s Washington, D.C., headquarters by 6 p.m. ahead of mass layoffs and a one-day building closure. Approximately 4,200 employees work at the department, with an official stating this is the beginning of cutting its workforce “roughly in half.”
The Trump administration is expected to dismantle the Department of Education, with the president expected to sign an executive order on the matter soon. McMahon assured last week that the administration will aid parents with children stuck in “failing schools.”