By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-20 21:42:19 | Updated at 2024-11-21 15:05:37
17 hours ago
Jill Biden's teacher union slammed Donald Trump's decision to nominate Linda McMahon as education secretary, calling her 'Betsy DeVos 2.0.'
McMahon is expected to undo all of the Biden administration's initiatives when she takes over the education department, including narrowing its support of transgender athletes.
The former CEO of the WWE was a controversial choice on Trump's part. Her experience is on the executive end – in the first Trump administration she headed the Small Business Association – and she has little experience with the education system.
The National Education Association, which the first lady belongs to as a community college professor, slammed McMahon's appointment. It is the largest teachers union.
NEA President Becky Pringle said McMahon would a new version of DeVos.
'By selecting Linda McMahon, Donald Trump is showing that he could not care less about our students' futures,' Pringle said in a statement.
'Rather than working to strengthen public schools, expand learning opportunities for students, and support educators, McMahon only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools, where 90% of students - and 95% of students with disabilities – learn, and give them to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools.'
The East Wing didn't respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Jill Biden's teacher's union slammed Trump's pick as education secretary
Betsy DeVos led the education department in Trump's first term.
DeVos is a lifelong booster of private schools and opponent of the teachers' unions. She worked to reduce the Education Department's reach by pushing cuts to public school funding and narrowing the department's enforcement of federal education laws and civil rights.
The Biden administration immediately worked to undo the changes.
And Jill Biden, a teacher of 40 years, was one of DeVos' biggest critics.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, which her husband Joe Biden ultimately won, she vowed the Bidens would 'get rid of Betsy DeVos.'
'We're going to have a secretary of Education who has been in the classroom,' she told NBC News at the time. 'These are all things that I have personally seen and have been important to me as a teacher.'
She also slammed Trump and DeVos for their handling of schools during the COVID pandemic.
'We are in Donald Trump's America and there's just so much chaos. And I feel that, you know, educators don't know what to do. Students don't know what to do,' she told CNN during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Trump has pointed to the Education Department as one he is considering eliminating. Congress would have to vote to formally eliminate it. Even if that could not pass, Trump's administration could render it powerless.
McMahon's first steps as secretary will likely be undoing Biden administration policies.
Biden was pushing a new interpretation to Title IX, which would require state governments to allow transgender girls to play on girls' teams. Several Republican-led states were suing to stop the administration.
Title IX was originally passed to address women's rights at schools and colleges receiving federal money. It bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Republican-led states argued a change to interpretation would open the door to forcing schools to allow transgender athletes to compete on teams aligning with their gender identity.
The Trump administration would not support such an interpretation.
Linda McMahon's experience is on the executive level
Donald Trump speaks at a press conference with Linda McMahon during her time as head of Small Business Administration on March 29 2019 during the former's first term in office
The Biden administration originally planned to include a new policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes, but that was put on hold during the election year in what was widely seen as a political move.
Republicans successfully used Kamala Harris' support for transgender athletes to rally voters to their side.
And the change in leadership comes as much of Biden's student loan agenda is still tied up in legal challenges.
Biden has worked to wipe out billions in student loan debt for millions of borrowers. Many Republicans slammed his plan, saying it was unfair to taxpayers who did not take out expensive loans or receive fancy college degrees.
The courts have so far been skeptical of Biden's efforts to broadly cancel student debt without Congressional approval.
Under his Plan B, two-thirds of all borrowers would qualify for the more targeted approach to canceling debt after Biden's original effort was blocked by the Supreme Court.
But Plan B is being held up due to lawsuits and McMahon could simply choose to stop defending it.
McMahon is a close friend of the president-elect and is leading his transition effort.
She has no teaching background or professional experience steering education policy, other than an appointment a year on the Connecticut State Board of Education.
She ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut.
'We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,' Trump said in a statement announcing her appointment.
McMahon is a former professional wrestling executive. Along with her husband Vince McMahon, she helped build World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) into a powerhouse.
She resigned from WWE 15 years ago to focus on politics.
