Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told Newsmax on Friday that President Donald Trump’s goal in drastically downsizing the Department of Education is to give all of America’s children “excellent education everywhere.”
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle as much of the Department of Education as can be done without an order from Congress, which established the agency in 1979. McMahon said there has been a lot of “fearmongering” from opponents who assert that funds and teachers will be taken away from students.
“It's just bunk. That's clearly not going to happen. The president was very clear about that yesterday. So as we move things away from the Department of Education, there are various options and opportunities [for students to obtain loans],” she said on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
McMahon, who served in the first Trump administration, said there have been states that have raised their levels of reading and math on their own.
“Louisiana just did it. The NAEP [test] scores showed that they were the most improved state. The miracle of Mississippi that we talked about also is a great literacy program, bringing them from almost last in the nation to now at about the national average,” she said, referring to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as “The Nation's Report Card.”
“So these are governors that are being innovative. These are governors that are taking these programs in their own hands, and they haven't needed the Department of Education to do it,” McMahon added.
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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