Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been clear about her want to close down the company she runs. She’s laid off half the employees and joked about padlocking the door.
She calls it “the ultimate mission.”
However the division is just not behaving like an company that’s merely winding down. At the same time as McMahon has shrunk the Division of Schooling, she’s operated in what she calls “a parallel universe” to radically shift how youngsters will study for years to come back. The division’s actions and insurance policies mirror a disdain for public faculties and a want to dismantle that system in favor of a variety of different choices — non-public, Christian and digital faculties or homeschooling.
Over simply eight months, division officers have opened a $500 million faucet for constitution faculties, an enormous outlay for an choice that usually attracts youngsters from conventional public faculties. They’ve repeatedly urged states to spend federal cash for poor and at-risk college students at non-public faculties and companies. And so they have threatened penalties for public faculties that supply packages to handle historic inequities for Black or Hispanic college students.
McMahon has described her company transferring “at lightning rocket pace,” and the division’s actions in only one week in September mirror that urgency.
The company publicly blasted 4 faculty districts it views as insubordinate for refusing to undertake anti-trans insurance policies and for not eliminating particular packages for Black college students. It created a pot of funding devoted to what it calls “patriotic schooling,” which has been criticized for downplaying among the nation’s most troubling episodes, together with slavery. And it shaped a coalition with Turning Level USA, Hillsdale School, PragerU and dozens of different conservative teams to disseminate patriotic programming.
Officers on the Schooling Division declined to remark or reply questions from ProPublica for this story.
At instances, McMahon has voiced assist for public faculties. However extra typically and extra emphatically she has portrayed public faculties as unsuccessful and unsafe — and has mentioned she is decided to offer mother and father different choices.
To hold out her imaginative and prescient, McMahon has introduced on at the least 20 political appointees from ultraconservative assume tanks and advocacy teams desperate to de-emphasize public faculties, which have educated college students for roughly 200 years.
Amongst them is high adviser Lindsey Burke, a longtime coverage director at The Heritage Basis and the lead creator of the schooling part in Challenge 2025’s controversial agenda for the Trump administration.
In analyzing dozens of hours of audio and video footage of private and non-private talking occasions for McMahon’s appointees, in addition to their writings, ProPublica discovered {that a} recurring theme is the need to allow extra households to go away public faculties. This consists of increasing packages that present fee — within the type of debit playing cards, which Burke has likened to an “Amazon present card” — to oldsters to cobble collectively custom-made academic plans for his or her youngsters. As a substitute of counting on public faculties, mother and father would use their allotted tax {dollars} on a variety of prices: non-public faculty tuition, on-line studying, tutors, transportation and music classes.
Greater than 8 in 10 elementary and secondary college students within the U.S. go to a conventional public faculty. However Burke expects that public faculties will see dramatic enrollment declines fueled by each demographic and coverage adjustments.
Addressing an interviewer in an April podcast, she famous: “We’re going to have plenty of empty faculty buildings.”
In a 2024 podcast, Noah Pollak, now a senior adviser within the Schooling Division, bemoaned what he sees as progressive management of faculties, which he mentioned has led to classes he finds unacceptable, similar to instructing fourth graders about systemic racism.
“And so the work that I do is making an attempt to give you artistic coverage concepts to cease that, to show again the tide, to determine ways in which conservatives can shield these establishments or construct new establishments,” mentioned Pollak, who has been an adviser to conservative teams.
As tax {dollars} are reallocated from public faculty districts and households abandon these faculties to study at house or in non-public settings, the brand new division officers see no need for oversight. As a substitute, they might let {the marketplace} decide what’s working utilizing instruments similar to Yelp-like opinions from mother and father. Burke has mentioned she is towards “any kind of regulation.”
President Donald Trump himself mentioned in July that the federal authorities wants solely to supply “slightly tiny little bit of supervision however little or no, nearly nothing,” over the nation’s schooling system besides to verify college students communicate English.
Advocates for public faculties think about them elementary to American democracy. Offering public faculties is a requirement in each state structure.
Households in small and rural communities are inclined to rely extra closely on public schooling. They’re much less possible than households in cities to have non-public and constitution faculties close by. And in contrast to non-public faculties, public faculty districts don’t cost tuition. Public faculties enroll native college students no matter tutorial or bodily capacity, race, gender or household earnings; non-public faculties can selectively admit college students.
Karma Fast-Panwala, a frontrunner on the Incapacity Rights Schooling and Protection Fund, which advocates for disabled college students, mentioned she desires to be optimistic. “However,” she added, “I’m very fearful that we’re headed in the direction of a much less inclusive, much less various and extra segregated public faculty setting.”
Allison Rose Socol, a coverage knowledgeable at EdTrust, a company specializing in civil rights in faculties, decried what she known as the “demo crew” in McMahon’s workplace. Socol described McMahon’s push to assist develop non-public faculty enrollment by way of taxpayer-funded vouchers and different means as a “nice American heist” that may funnel cash away from the general public system.
“It’s a strategic theft of the way forward for our nation, our youngsters and our democracy,” she mentioned.
Consideration on McMahon typically focuses on her former position as CEO of World Wrestling Leisure. It was no totally different on the day of her Senate affirmation listening to, when journalists and social media delighted in noting that seated behind her was her son-in-law, the retired wrestler often known as Triple H.
Little consideration was paid to the conservative schooling activists within the entrance row from Mothers for Liberty, which has protested faculty curricula and orchestrated e book bans nationwide; Defending Schooling (previously Dad and mom Defending Schooling), which has sued districts to combat what it calls liberal indoctrination; and the America First Coverage Institute, co-founded by McMahon after the primary Trump administration.
Now two individuals who as soon as served at Defending Schooling have been named to posts within the Schooling Division, and leaders from Mothers for Liberty have joined McMahon for roundtables and different official occasions. As well as, at the least 9 folks from the America First Coverage Institute have been employed within the division.
AFPI’s sweeping schooling priorities embrace advocating for varsity vouchers and embedding biblical ideas in faculties. It launched a coverage paper in 2023, titled “Biblical Foundations,” that units out the group’s goal to finish the separation of church and state and “plant Jesus in each house.”
The paper rejects the concept that society has a collective duty to teach all youngsters equally and argues that “the Bible makes it clear that it’s mother and father alone who shoulder the duty for his or her youngsters.” It frames public education as failing, with low check scores and “far-left social experiments, similar to gender fluidity.”
The primary AFPI chief pictured in that report is McMahon.
Credit score:
Win McNamee/Getty Pictures
AFPI and the opposite two nonprofit teams sprang up solely after the 2020 election. Collectively they drew in tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} by way of a well-coordinated right-wing community that had spent a long time advocating for varsity alternative and injecting Christianity into faculties.
Ultrawealthy supporters embrace right-wing billionaire Richard Uihlein, who, by way of a brilliant PAC, gave $336,000 to Mothers for Liberty’s tremendous PAC from October 2023 by way of July 2024.
Defending Schooling and AFPI acquired backing from among the identical distinguished conservative foundations and trusts, together with ones linked to libertarian-minded billionaire Charles Koch and to conservative authorized activist Leonard Leo, an architect of the hassle to strip liberal affect from the courts, politics and faculties.
Maurice T. Cunningham, a now-retired affiliate professor of political science on the College of Massachusetts, studied the origins and connections of oldsters’ rights teams, discovering in 2023 that the funders — a small set of billionaires and Christian nationalists — had comparable targets.
The teams need “to undermine lecturers unions, shield their rich donors from having to contribute their justifiable share in taxes to strengthen public faculties, and supply revenue alternatives by way of faculty privatization,” he concluded. The teams say they’re merely making an attempt to advocate for folks and for varsity alternative. They didn’t focus on their relationship with donors when contacted by ProPublica.
These teams and their supporters now have entry to the highest levers of presidency, both by way of official roles within the company or by way of the administration’s adoption of their views.
When the division created an “Finish DEI” portal to gather tips on variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives in faculties, it quoted Mothers for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice within the press launch. She inspired mother and father to “share the receipts of the betrayal that has occurred in our public faculties.” Mothers for Liberty referred to the portal because the “end result” of Justice’s work. (Federal judges dominated towards among the administration’s anti-DEI actions and the division took the controversial portal down in Could.)
Requested what share of kids she imagines ought to be in public faculties going ahead, Justice, who’s now with The Heritage Basis’s political advocacy arm, informed ProPublica: “I hope zero. I hope to get to zero.”
She and others say most public faculties don’t educate college students to learn, are dividing youngsters over race and are secretly serving to college students to vary genders — acquainted claims which were extensively challenged by educators.
When Trump signed an government order in March to dismantle the Schooling Division, Justice sat within the first row, as she had at McMahon’s affirmation listening to. The president praised her, together with numerous governors and lawmakers. “She’s been a tough employee,” he mentioned.
Defending Schooling’s Nicole Neily, who was additionally at McMahon’s affirmation, stood subsequent to McMahon when the secretary introduced an investigation into the Maine Division of Schooling for retaining information from mother and father about scholar gender id plans. Defending Schooling has filed civil rights complaints towards schools and college districts and has been profitable in having its causes taken up by the Trump administration.
In an e mail, Neily informed ProPublica she is pleased with the work that Defending Schooling has carried out to problem faculties which have supported DEI of their curricula and have allowed college students to cover their gender id from mother and father. She singled out trainer unions and “radical schooling activists” whereas blaming drops in scholar achievement on “the education-industrial advanced.”
“The earlier this stranglehold is damaged, the higher,” she wrote.
McMahon’s tenure additionally has been marked by an embrace of faith in faculties. She signaled that precedence when she appointed Meg Kilgannon to a high publish in her workplace.
Kilgannon had labored within the division as director of a religion initiative throughout the first Trump time period and as soon as was a part of the Household Analysis Council, an evangelical assume tank that opposes abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
She has inspired conservative Christians to change into concerned in what she’s described as “a non secular warfare” over youngsters and what they’re being taught in public faculties.
Reached by cellphone, Kilgannon informed ProPublica, “I’ve no remark,” and hung up.
Betsy DeVos, the Michigan billionaire who was schooling secretary in Trump’s first time period, cheered on July 4 this 12 months when Congress instituted America’s first federal voucher program. It got here within the type of a beneficiant tax credit score program to encourage voucher growth on the state stage. Households can begin accessing the help starting Jan. 1, 2027.
DeVos as soon as mentioned she wished “to advance God’s kingdom” by way of vouchers for non secular faculties and has funneled huge quantities of her household fortune into advocating for varsity alternative. She known as the passage of the federal measure “the turning level in ending the one-size-fits-all authorities faculty monopoly.”
An article in The Federalist, a conservative publication, boiled down the implications into one headline: “How Trump’s Large, Stunning Invoice Will Assist Youngsters Escape Failing Authorities Faculties.”
However faculty alternative isn’t the one software that Trump’s schooling leaders are utilizing to focus on public faculties. McMahon has gutted the Schooling Division’s civil rights division, the place legal professionals and different federal workers work to make sure all college students can entry public faculty, free from discrimination.
The administration rolled again protections for LGBTQ+ college students and college students of coloration, prioritized investigating discrimination towards white and Jewish college students, and launched aggressive investigations of states and districts that it says refused to cease accommodating transgender college students.
It has rescinded official steerage that mentioned faculties had to supply language assist and different providers for college kids who’re studying English, contradicting long-established federal regulation.
And Trump officers have repeatedly forged public faculties as harmful even because the company canceled about $1 billion in coaching grants for extra faculty psychological well being professionals — cash that had been approved by Congress to assist forestall faculty shootings. The administration now says it plans to renew paying out a fraction of that funding, which might be used for varsity psychologists.
Time and again, the division has used the specter of pulling federal funding to pressure compliance with new directives and fast shifts in coverage. The division, as an example, threatened to withhold cash from faculties that didn’t confirm they have been ending variety initiatives, which have been designed to handle inequitable therapy of Black, Native and Latino college students.
In August, the division introduced it was withholding thousands and thousands of {dollars} in grants from 5 northern Virginia faculty districts that had refused the division’s calls for to bar transgender college students from utilizing restrooms and locker rooms that aligned with their gender id. The districts argued that complying would imply defying Virginia regulation and a 2020 federal appeals courtroom ruling.
Nonetheless, the Schooling Division informed the districts that till they acquiesced to the company’s lavatory guidelines they must pay bills up entrance and request reimbursement. McMahon wrote to districts that “Lindsey Burke is out there to reply any questions.”
The Fairfax County Public Faculties sued and in a authorized submitting mentioned it confronted shedding $167 million this faculty 12 months, cash that it was counting on to supply meals to college students, assist packages for kids with disabilities, assist English-language learners and improve trainer coaching. The federal division has argued that it has discretion to withhold funding and admonished the district for taking the company to courtroom.
On this environment, public faculty advocates are notably involved about what’s going to occur to funding for Title I grants, which is the federal authorities’s largest program for faculties and is geared toward serving to college students from low-income households. In early September, Home Republicans proposed slashing greater than $5 billion from the $18.4 billion earmarked for Title I, placing in danger studying and math lecturers, tutors and classroom expertise.
On the identical time, underneath McMahon, the Schooling Division is making an attempt to redefine how states and districts can spend the cash.
In three steerage letters up to now this 12 months, the company inspired states to divert some Title I cash away from public faculty districts. One instructed paying for out of doors providers, similar to privatized tutoring. One other urged states to make use of Title I cash to learn low-achieving college students who stay inside the boundaries of a high-poverty public faculty however attend non-public faculties.
McMahon is ready to loosen much more guidelines on the cash. The federal {dollars} at the moment are distributed to districts utilizing a formulation. Challenge 2025 requires Title I to be delivered to states as block grants, or chunks of cash with few restrictions. McMahon has inspired states to ask her to waive guidelines on spending the cash.
Critics of this method worry that Title I cash might ultimately be utilized in ways in which undermine public faculties — on non-public faculty vouchers, for instance.
Public faculty advocates like William Phillis, a former official on the Ohio Division of Schooling, worry the change would devastate public faculties.
“I simply know any block grant or any funding that might be left as much as state officers on Title I cash can be misappropriated when it comes to the intent,” Phillis mentioned. “Block grants to Ohio would go to the non-public sector.”
A spokesperson for the Ohio Division of Schooling and Workforce didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Rainey Briggs, chief of operations for Des Moines Public Faculties in Iowa, mentioned he helps parental alternative however worries that public faculties will endure financially and won’t have the sources to remain updated.
And he fears that right-wing narratives round public faculties, the mistrust and lack of assist for extremely skilled district leaders — whether or not from some mother and father or politicians — could lead on completed educators to stroll away.
“Public schooling is irreplaceable,” he mentioned, citing its dedication to serve each little one no matter their background or circumstance.
These influencing Trump’s schooling agenda disagree.
“If America’s public faculties stop to exist tomorrow, America can be a greater place,” Justice informed ProPublica.
Illustrations by Pete Gamlen. Visible modifying by Cengiz Yar. Design and improvement by Anna Donlan. Mollie Simon contributed analysis, and Brandon Roberts contributed reporting.
