It would be difficult to claim that anyone in Donald Trump’s government is qualified, but one of the more jarring names to hear floated around. Now the Education Secretary is going full steam ahead with her plan to decrease the amount of employees at the Department of Education, which would suggest that perhaps education isn’t her strong suit.
AP News reported that over 1,300 people who work for the DOE are about to be fired. Leases on the DOE buildings in Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, and New York have also been ended.
McMahon and Trump would be more than happy to get rid of the DOE. Although McMahon said when she was confirmed that Congress can decide that, she has been clear about wanting to get rid of more than a few jobs. Hey, if you can’t convince Congress to shut down an entire government department, why not just make it a shell of its former self with almost no employees left?
In this case, claiming that efficiency is the name of the game is just plain cruel. The Department of Education isn’t full of a bunch of functionaries who care only about earning a salary. It’s hard to overstate its importance when you look at what it’s responsible for. For one thing, social workers who help students in schools are paid by the DOE. The DOE also funds the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and helps students in colleges and universities with financial aid and student loans.
If I never heard the term “MAGA” again it would be too soon, but unfortunately, everyone in Trump’s government has the same vocabulary. So, while McMahon has taken a page of Elon Musk’s annoying book and is a big fan of talking about making the DOE more efficient, she’s also talking about Making Education Great Again. As she said in her official statement, it’s about “restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”
Sure. It’s great that there will be 2,183 employees instead of 4,133. It’s great that the laid off employees will stop doing their jobs as of Friday, March 21, 2025, when there is so much to do to help students. As McMahon also said, the layoffs prove the DOE’s “commitment to efficiency, ability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.” Yes. Firing the very people who are in charge of getting money where it needs to go will somehow magically do that.
Trump, Musk, and McMahon like to talk about efficiency and money, but McMahon makes her real thoughts clear in her “final mission” piece on the U.S. Department of Education website. Besides saying she wants to “send education back to the states,” a dubious plan since no one is sure who will send funding if the DOE doesn’t anymore, she mentions Trump’s executive order about “restoring patriotic education and civics” as a matter of curriculum. She also mentions that U.S. students are “subjected to radical anti-American ideology.” Okay. There it is! Oh, let’s not forget that one of her three stated missions as DOE head is to make sure kids don’t have to deal with “divisive DEI programs and gender ideology.”
So, education is fine and even “great,” as long as kids are being taught to love America (aka Trump) and no one talks about racism, discrimination, or sex ed. Every child has a right to an education, and no, I don’t mean teaching them about MAGA.
Published: Mar 12, 2025 11:45 am