DOE Secretary Linda McMahon already imposed mass layoffs. What’s next?

Donald Trump has been crystal clear about his plans to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, calling it a waste of taxpayer money and a bastion for Marxism, among other not-so-positive names. And while the person confirmed earlier this month to lead the DOE demolition has already laid off 1,300 workers, Linda McMahon doesn’t appear to be as gung-ho about purely eliminating the DOE as the President. However, she just might be in office long enough to make significant changes in higher ed.

Linda McMahon’s Confirmation: What It Means for the DOE

Linda McMahon earned a 51-45 Senate vote of confirmation Monday, March 3, to become the 13th Education Secretary, and she is under the directive to tear the department down. Wife of wrestling mogul Vince McMahon and former Small Business Administration head during Trump’s first term, McMahon served a year-long stint on the Connecticut State Education Board in 2009 and was on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University for nearly two decades.

She’s never worked full-time at a K-12 school or university, but she has been a staunch advocate in recent years of slashing federal education spending and scaling back the U.S. government’s oversight of education policy. McMahon has lived the federal-ed advocacy scene during the past four years as chair of a Trump-aligned think tank called the America First Policy Institute.

While her confirmation was a near-certainty since Trump appointed her last November, McMahon appears more likely to drastically influence and reform the Department of Education instead of taking it down completely, according to interviewed higher ed leaders and advocates. An advocate for debt-free college alternatives, McMahon has supported slashing federal education spending and scaling back the U.S. government’s policy oversight. But the national head of a grassroots advocacy group notes that McMahon has stopped short of promoting complete defunding and demolition of the DOE.

“Linda comes across as a very nuanced person who’s likely more interested in reorienting funds and making the federal government efficient with its education spending than in removing the department outright,” said Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at Parents Defending Education—a national nonprofit that aims to fight “indoctrination” at schools across the country.

A Shift in Federal Education Policy: Pell Grants, DEI and Spending Cuts

In her own words from a Feb. 14 hearing, McMahon stands for funding “education freedom, not government-run systems. Building careers, not college debt. Empowering states, not special interests. Investing in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats.” Per the new Education Secretary, that means in part expanding Pell Grants to high school graduates who pursue skill-based learning and alternatives to four-year colleges.

In the same hearing, McMahon promised she would “work with Congress to reorient the department toward helping educators, not controlling them.” Sanzi believes that means continuing to purge ideology-based programs and tying more federal funding to students instead of schools themselves.

“It’s about ensuring every federal tax dollar goes where it belongs,” Sanzi said. “And that our country can offer students the world’s best in higher education without a lifetime of crippling student debt.”

In a March 3 letter to DOE employees shortly after her confirmation, McMahon pledged the department will craft policy around three principal ideas: that parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education, that taxpayer-funded schooling should refocus on “meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology,” and that education after high school should provide an avenue to a well-paying career aligned with needs in the U.S. workforce.

“Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly,” she wrote. McMahon added that reconstructing the DOE will “profoundly” impact staff, budgets and agency operations.

Trump’s DOE Overhaul: The Role of Elon Musk and the DOGE

Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump and his administration—led in part by Elon Musk and the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency—have already started gutting the DOE through buyouts, website consolidating and terminated projects. The first six weeks of Trump’s second term saw the department’s DEI initiatives dissolved and already more than $1 billion in other cuts.

The department employed some 4,000 people and spent $268 billion during fiscal year 2024, but last month, DOGE identified 89 contracts for the Institute of Education Sciences to terminate, totaling approximately $881 million. Musk’s agency also cut $336 million more in contracts with regional education labs in February. The DOE had offered $25,000 buyouts to employees ahead of laying off 1,300 people Wednesday, March 12, but less than a couple hundred employees took the buyouts.

Nicholas Giordano, political science professor at Suffolk College in Selden, New York, and fellow at conservative outlet Campus Reform, called the cost-cutting measures “substantive” in an interview with Volt. Giordano believes the measures will help streamline higher ed spending “for everyone’s benefit.”

“The DOE is an agency that has long escaped accountability, and our monopolistic federal government-run education system has mostly failed the American people,” Giordano said. “What we are doing has not worked, and it’s wasted countless billions in taxpayer dollars.”

Emma Grasso Levine, senior manager at Know Your IX, part of the left-leaning Advocates for Youth nonprofit in Washington D.C., disagrees. Levine contends the DOE’s layoffs, crackdown on DEI and scaled-back Title IX protections under McMahon threaten the “safety” of racial minorities, LGBT students and sexual assault survivors alike.

Levine pointed to McMahon’s background, which allegedly includes turning a blind eye to an employee sexually abusing minors at World Wrestling Entertainment during the decades that she and her husband oversaw the company.

“It’s easy to make promises about protecting students, but actions speak louder than words,” Levine said. “Linda McMahon’s actions tell a grim story, and she shouldn’t be trusted to lead a department charged with protecting millions of students.”

Can the Department of Education Be Dismantled? The Political Reality

Could the Department of Education survive McMahon and the Trump administration? Interviewed education leaders say it is possible, but it depends largely on the Republican-controlled Congress. McMahon acknowledged as much during a hearing last month, telling Sen. Bernie Sanders she’d work with leaders in the House and Senate before taking the department down.

“(The DOE) is set up by the United States Congress, and we work with Congress,” she said. “(The department) clearly cannot be shut down without it.”

“We’d like to do this right,” she added, “and that certainly does require Congressional action.”

A simple majority of 218 votes would be enough in the House, but the Senate’s filibuster rule means that McMahon could need up to 60 of 100 votes to pass a DOE-demolition law. Sanzi believes getting the necessary votes, even from some Republicans, will be difficult. Instead, the Parents Defending Education head expects necessary education funding, including Pell Grants, to simply move to other agencies.

“We have federal guarantees around programs that can’t go away,” she explained. “These programs will still exist; they’ll just live in different departments, like the Treasury or Health and Human Services.”

Editor’s Note: Article updated 3.21.25.