‘The department will not stand idly by while Jewish students are attacked and discriminated against,’ McMahon tells Senate committee
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, sailed through her confirmation hearing Thursday, pledging to tackle anti-Semitism and end diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
In her opening remarks, McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive and Small Business Administration head during Trump’s first term, told the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that if confirmed, “the department will not stand idly by while Jewish students are attacked and discriminated against.”
“November proved that Americans overwhelmingly support the president’s vision, and I am ready to enact it,” McMahon said. “Education is the issue that determines our national success and prepares American workers to win the future.”
McMahon said universities that fail to protect Jewish Americans’ safety would face defunding. She also pledged to revoke foreign students’ visas if they praised Hamas and indicated she’d be open to forming an anti-Semitism commission “to evaluate the progress of universities on this issue.”
Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon at her confirmation hearing Thursday pledged to work to protect students from violent campus mobs, adding she will dig into the backlog of antisemitism complaints against universities if she is confirmed. pic.twitter.com/aRpaXRR0UR
— The College Fix (@CollegeFix) February 13, 2025
McMahon criticized DEI initiatives, arguing that they promote segregation within universities.
“It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion, and I think what we’re seeing is that it’s having an opposite effect. We are getting back to more segregating of our schools instead of having more inclusion in our schools,” she said. “When there are DEI programs that say black students need separate graduation ceremonies, or Hispanics need separate ceremonies, we are not achieving what we wanted to achieve with inclusion.”
Democrats pressed McMahon on Trump’s pledge to dismantle the Department of Education. McMahon said that any move to eliminate the department would require congressional approval and reassured senators that federal funding for schools and universities would remain unaffected.
McMahon faced several disruptions from protesters, but proceedings were otherwise relatively tame. Senators on both sides of the aisle appeared open to confirming her next week. The committee is scheduled to vote on her nomination on Feb. 20. If it succeeds, it will proceed to the Senate floor.
The former WWE chief detailed her solutions to improve basic reading and math comprehension, curb censorship, and reinstate American values in schools.
“Fund education freedom, not government-run systems. Listen to parents, not politicians. Build up careers, not college debt. Empower states, not special interests. Invest in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats,” McMahon said.
McMahon touched on a number of other hot-button issues, such as emphasizing the importance of school choice and career-focused education. She argued that biological boys should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
McMahon also defended Trump’s pledge to root out waste, fraud, and abuse across government, including at the Department of Education. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency announced Monday that the Department of Education had already slashed nearly $900 million, including over $100 million for DEI contracts.
Assessing “programs, how they can have the best oversight possible, how we can really take the bureaucracy out of education, and focus on teaching our children to read and to do math and to appreciate our history is certainly my goal,” McMahon said.
McMahon previously spent a year on the Connecticut board of education and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. She also served as chair of the America First Policy Institute.
Just two weeks into Trump’s term, the Department of Education opened investigations into “widespread antisemitic harassment” at Columbia University and four other schools in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks. The Trump administration also launched a task force “to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
