School's Out!

Leaving Every Child Behind may be the new benchmark

School's out for summer!

Summer vacation has arrived for tens of millions of American students. They're trading in backpacks and classrooms for a lightning round of team sports, sleepover camps, swimming lessons, and other summer fun.

School administrators have their work cut out: reviewing finances, hiring, and updating policies. Teachers have a to-do list, too: picking up professional development credits or working a second job. You'll find custodians making major repairs, stacking desks in hallways and polishing classroom floors and hallways.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is cramming to complete her assignment: What I did on my summer vacation. Her topic of course, is defending Trump's defunding of the federal Dept. of Education as well as the 15.3% reduction from FY 2025 proposed in the fiscal year 2026 budget request.

Despite what she may have imagined, McMahon is finding it's not so easy working herself out of a Cabinet-level job. After about 2,000 positions were eliminated through a Reduction in Force action in March, a federal court judge ordered the reinstatement of more than 1,300 employees in May. In June another court blocked the federal Education Department from transferring Title 1 and special education roles to other departments.

McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO testified recently before both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees. She opened by stating her assignment is to identify and cut spending that's not fulfilling the mandate American people gave President Trump. At the same time she said she's working to make American education great again, give more local control, and end federal overreach.

However, her testimony showed she had failed to do her homework.

First up was a lesson in math. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked her to affirm that the U.S. spends $1.58 billion a year on a program called TRIO, created to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds. "That's over $1 trillion for 10 years on TRIO. Is my math right?" he asked. Nodding her head, she confirmed his numbers.

But Senator John Reed (D-R.I) next in line aced the math lesson. "I think you're talking about a trillion," he said. "I believe $1.5 billion times 10 = $15 billion. That's a little bit off from $1 trillion dollars." When McMahon responded that the number was closer to $1.2 billion, Reed recalculated it would be $12 billion – still not a trillion.

"OK," McMahon agreed.

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) had a vocabulary lesson for McMahon: "What is the definition of insanity?" he asked. After clarifying whether he had said insanity or obscenity, she nailed the definition: "Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results," she said.

But then he followed up with what he assumed would be a softball history question "Where were we ranked in reading and math in 1979?"

"We were very, very low on the totem pole," she replied.

"We were #1 in 1979," he corrected her. "Today in reading we're ranked 36 and mathematics we're ranked 28th." His point, reinforced by many other Republicans throughout the hearing was that what the U.S. federal Dept. of Education is doing is not working.

Congress Has Power of the Purse

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) was well prepared to give McMahon a lesson in accounting –AND accountability. Before she turned her attention to the FY 2026 budget, she was laser-focused on Dept of Education spending of FY 2025 appropriations. She unsuccessfully tried to get McMahon to school her on the $13 billion in the current budget described as "unallocated funds".

"This is flatly unprecedented and unacceptable" Baldwin said. "You said in your confirmation hearing you'd spend funding Congress had appropriated. McMahon flunked the moment by failing to respond to Baldwin's accusations of illegal impounding.

Failing grade in school policy.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) pursued this crash course in accountability. He disputed McMahon's earlier assertion that TRIO and its companion programs weren't accountable.

"It just seems like a cover story for saying we don't want to help blue-collar kids make it into college," he said. "I'm a blue-collar kid, and know how hard it was to make that leap into college. He cited chapter and verse of official reports: "Six million graduated TRIO," he said. "Upward Bound twice as likely to earn a bachelor's degree. Talent Search, 33% more likely to enroll in college. Veterans Upward Bound, 42% more likely."

"Let me just say, your argument that there's no studies, no accountability, is just actually wrong, and the fact that you're coming here not even having looked at your own department's studies of these programs in order to be informed about them is profoundly troubling," he said.

Republicans Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito and others echoed Merkley's support for TRIO and its related programs.

Accusations of Illegal Impounding

The administration's cancellation earlier this year of 200 multi-year grants in 40 states totaling $1 billion for hiring more mental health professionals passed by a bipartisan vote in response to the Uvalde school shootings was equally troubling. The grants included teacher training in mental health. Sen. Chris Murphy(D-CT) called the cited reason, violations of civil rights laws, inexplicable. "You're shutting down programs with really important adults these kids have been relying on," he said. "It's a really cruel thing to do to these kids."

Senators also expressed concern over the fiscal 2026 budget proposal to consolidate 18 grant programs relating to homelessness, literacy, and rural schools into a $2 billion formula block grant. McMahon argued that the states are better equipped to allocate funds than Washington bureaucrats. However, as Baldwin pointed out, the funding is reduced to 1/4 of the original amount.

Sen. Reed followed up his earlier multiplication lesson with one on subtraction. He argued that this would amount to a $6 billion cut. "Now in Washington, a block grant is a slow path to extinction," he said. "You're really out to eliminate these programs, not to make them more efficient."

He continued, "If this budget passes, every state is going to make a difficult decision: Do I save my public education system or my health care system? Many of them can't do both." McMahon corrected him, "It's still a cut, but it's a $4.5 billion cut."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) had prepared a pop quiz for McMahon. He assured her it would be easy, since he would tell her both answers in advance: 8% and 30%. "What percentage of high school students attend for-profit colleges or universities?" he asked. "8%," she replied. "What percent of the student loan debt do they hold?" he followed up. "30%," she responded.

Durbin's point was that McMahon was "hollowing" out the Dept. of Education personnel who could help these indebted students use the Borrower Defense Rule to prove they had been victims of deceptive, predatory loans. "These first generation students are exploited," he said. "They deserve and need our protection" When McMahon countered by asking why high school guidance counselors weren't doing a better job of advising students, he replied that she was cutting the numbers of school counselors at the same time.

Baldwin pointed out, "This administration claims to want to return education to states, but at the same time it's exerting more control than ever over decisions of schools and college campuses." In response to Sen. Murphy's criticism, McMahon replied that Title VI barring racial discrimination gave the government authority to demand more viewpoint diversity among college and university faculties.

Time ran out for most Senators, but many other critical questions were raised, including:

· Pell Grants: A proposed reduction of the maximum annual amount (from $7,400 to $5,700).

· Cuts of one-half to the staff of Office of Civil Rights at a time of rising antisemitism claims.

· A fiscal 2026 budget increase of $60 million for charter schools. In her comments, McMahon referred to her conversations with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who told her that increasing charter schools has improved public education and parental involvement.

Education at Steak – Stake

During the hearings, McMahon made numerous references to re-bidding grants. She promised to look into cancellation letters and get back to Senators on it.

I'm not sure how much we can expect from McMahon. In April, she spoke at an AI conference in San Diego. She extolled the wonders of A 1, repeatedly referring to AI as A 1. "So it wasn't all that long ago that we're going to have Internet in our schools," she exclaimed. "Now, okay, let's see A 1 and how can that be helpful?" The Internet lit up with memes. Apparently McMahon believed A 1 is the secret sauce of American education!

Education is a state responsibility. But there's value in federal oversight, as well as critical assessments measuring student growth and achievement.

The simplistic justification that declining reading and math scores require a federal dismantling overlooks other seismic shifts in this country since 1979. How are students today different? How are families different? What's the role of social media and cell phones in compromising educational efforts?

As recipients of Pell Grants, my siblings and I weren't the first in our family to attend college, but we were the first to graduate. College isn't the only avenue to success, but many capable rural and small-town high school graduates fail to continue their education due to financial barriers.

I also know mental health needs are more important than ever. Neighboring rural schools have critical needs for trusted, caring counselors and social workers. Kids from dysfunctional homes are cutting themselves, and high schoolers are moving out because their parents are struggling with drugs, or abuse. Worst of all, the death of a local high school senior who took his own life. We need more school counselors and social workers, not fewer.

My 8th grade homeroom teacher, Mrs. Zoe Kuhler, was known for one sentence that still describes to me what education is all about. She drilled it into us at key moments, saying, "It's time to get down to brass tacks!" We knew she was demanding our focus on the most important details/facts/issues at hand. Her expectations were clear: we must work hard so we could shine, just like a brass tack. (And, yes, students made fun of her.)

Her goal was for every child who passed through her classroom door to have the opportunity to rise above their circumstances, and pursue their dreams. To her, this was an American core value, and the reason she led us in reciting the Pledge to Allegiance every morning.

But Trump wants to weigh in by putting his thumb on the equal scales of opportunity. He can't wait for McMahon to complete her What I did on My Summer Vacation homework assignment. He has a cheat sheet. On June 4, his request of a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a lower court's injunction blocking his Executive Order to dismantle the U.S. Dept. of Education was rejected. On Friday, June 6, he made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. States, school districts and teachers' unions have until June 13 to respond.

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