WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Senate voted Monday to confirm former wrestling executive as the nation鈥檚 education chief, a role that places her atop a department that President Donald Trump has vilified and vowed to dismantle.
McMahon will face of winding down the Education Department while also escalating efforts to achieve Trump鈥檚 agenda. Already the Republican president has signed sweeping orders to rid America鈥檚 schools of and accommodations for while also calling for expanded programs.
At the same time, Trump has promised to shut down the department and said he wants McMahon 鈥渢o put herself out of a job.鈥�
The Senate voted to confirm McMahon 51-45.
A billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, McMahon, 76, is for the role. She spent a year on Connecticut鈥檚 state board of education and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Heart University but otherwise has little traditional education leadership.
McMahon's supporters see her as who will reform a department that Republicans say has failed to improve American education. Opponents say she鈥檚 unqualified and fear her budget cuts will be felt by students nationwide.
鈥淎mericans believe in public education,鈥� Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the confirmation vote. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to see the Department of Education abolished. If the Trump administration follows through on cuts to education, schools will lose billions in funding.鈥�
At , McMahon distanced herself from Trump鈥檚 blistering rhetoric. She said the goal is to make the Education Department 鈥渙perate more efficiently,鈥� not to defund programs.
She acknowledged that only Congress has the power to close the department, and she pledged to preserve Title I money for low-income schools, Pell grants for low-income college students, and program. Yet she suggested some operations could move to other departments, saying Health and Human Services might be better suited to enforce .
Weeks before McMahon's confirmation hearing, the White House was considering an executive order that would direct the education secretary to cut the agency as much as legally possible while asking Congress to shut it down completely. Some of McMahon鈥檚 allies pressed the White House to hold the order until after her confirmation to avoid potential backlash.
Created by Congress in 1979, the Education Department鈥檚 is to disburse money to the nation鈥檚 schools and colleges. It sends billions of dollars a year to K-12 schools and oversees a $1.6 trillion federal portfolio.
Trump argues the department has been overtaken by liberals who press their ideology on America鈥檚 schools.
Schools and colleges have been to eliminate diversity programs or risk having their federal funding pulled. The Trump administration gave them a Feb. 28 deadline to comply. The Education Department addressed questions about its guidance in a document released Saturday, saying in part that changing program names that reference 鈥渄iversity鈥� or 鈥渆quity鈥� alone is not enough if they treat students differently by race.
During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to close the department and grant its authority to states. Schools and states already wield significantly greater authority over education than the federal government, which is barred from influencing curriculum. Federal money makes up roughly 14% of public school budgets.
Already, the Trump administration has started overhauling much of the department鈥檚 work.
Trump adviser Elon Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency has cut it dismissed as 鈥渨oke鈥� and wasteful. It gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation鈥檚 academic progress, and the administration has scores of employees.
Some of the cuts have halted work that鈥檚 ordered under federal law. At her hearing, McMahon said the agency will spend money that鈥檚 directed by Congress, and she played down DOGE鈥檚 cuts as merely an audit.
McMahon is a longtime Trump ally who left WWE in 2009 to launch a political career, running unsuccessfully twice for the U.S. Senate. She has given millions of dollars to Trump鈥檚 campaigns and served as leader of the Small Business Administration during his first term.
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Annie Ma, The Associated Press
