(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Friday that President Donald Trump “intends” to sign an executive order to dissolve the Department of Education — but it’s still unclear when.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to get ahead of the president,” she said on “Fox & Friends” Friday, adding “I think you’d have to check with the White House.”
Her comments come after the White House on Thursday pulled the expected signing of an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. The White House pulled to order’s signing because of concerns of blowback the order would receive — specifically if vital federal programs could no longer exist, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News.
Without giving any details, McMahon said she had spoken to Trump about the executive order and that he is “crystal clear” on the move. As ABC News reported earlier this week, a draft of the order calls on McMahon to facilitate a department closure by taking all necessary steps “permitted by law,” sources said.
In the interview, McMahon underscored that abolishing the agency is rooted in allowing families the right to a “quality education” through school choice.
She mentioned that kids should not be “stuck in failing schools,” and that their parents deserve the right to send them to better schools through various programs and voucher systems.
“He certainly intends to sign the order,” McMahon said. “His intent is to provide quality education through school choice to all students, and he wants to make sure that education is back at the state level where it belongs, that our local school boards, that governors and teachers and parents are really the ones that are involved mostly in their children’s education.”
Education is already a local-level issue. The department conducts federal investigations and research projects; it also oversees programs intended to protect students’ civil rights and those with disabilities.
McMahon stressed that the department does not create school curriculum and said the agency she has been tapped to lead is not needed.
“[The president] couldn’t be any more clear when he said he wants me to put myself out of a job,” she said. “I think there is definitely a role for education to make sure that as we move education back to the states, that we are providing the tools for the governors, for the teachers, that we can provide them with research to show best practices.”
However, such moves would require congressional approval; any proposed legislation would likely fail without 60 Senate votes.
Congress rarely came up in the interview with “Fox & Friends” anchor Ainsley Earhardt, who mentioned a department closure would take 60 Senate yes votes to shutter the agency Congress started in 1980. During McMahon’s confirmation hearing last month, she said she would need Congress to carry out the president’s campaign promise and vision.
“We’d like to do this right,” she said, adding that the department’s closure “certainly does require congressional action.”
McMahon allies such as Glenn Jacobs — the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, who is best known as the World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Kane — told ABC News that choosing McMahon is helping to bring “transformational change” to the federal government.
“If you put a Washington insider in there, you’re getting the same thing,” Jacobs said. “We’re in the situation where we have $36 trillion in debt and the government doesn’t work because we’ve just been going with the status quo for so long, there has to be some radical transformation.”
But McMahon’s critics are vowing to press forward to preserve the department. In a virtual address with education leaders on Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that dismantling the agency will harm millions of students in New York and across the country.
“What [the Trump administration is] doing is saying our kids don’t matter,” Hochul said. “What’s more important is that we slash, for the sake of slashing, and also be able to fund tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. So instead of supporting a math class, they’re supporting tax breaks for the buddies at Mar-a-Lago.”
With scores of education department employees already on edge — some on paid leave, taking retirement severance packages or scrambling to do their jobs as a department closure looms — McMahon said she’d like to help any fired federal workers find new employment.
“Any time there’s talk about shutting a department down, the employees that are there are concerned about their jobs, but there are good off ramps for them,” McMahon said. “In a country where we right now have over 8 million openings and jobs, I think there’ll be a lot of places for them to go. We’d like to help them get there.”
Meanwhile, the business executive and former WWE president said she welcomed input from the Department of Government Efficiency tasked with scrubbing the federal government for fraud, waste and abuse. She said she frequently meets with DOGE as they conduct an “audit” of the agency.
“When I was in the private sector, I think a lot of stuff is always turned up when you do a good, solid audit,” McMahon said. “I welcome the DOGE folks that are in — we meet with them almost daily. I’ve been very appreciative of the things that they have shown us, some of the waste, and we’re right where we’re reacting to that.”
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