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Linda McMahon defended the dismantling of the Department of Education, but pledged to work with others to reshape federal oversight of education.
“President Trump has said he will move things in accordance with the law and in cooperation with Congress,” the secretary told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.
“We will work with Congress, we will partner with Congress,” said the secretary. “We will find out where the law’s -”
Bash then interjected, noting that the Trump administration would have to “change the law” to reorganize or end programs overseen by the Department of Education.
“Not necessarily,” responded McMahon. “We are going to look to see how we are governed [as an agency]. If we need to change the law, if we have to work with Congress, if Congress doesn’t agree, we’ll find out. We’ll find out.”
With Donald Trump finally issuing his hinted-at executive order to begin dismantling the department, lawmakers and schools around the country are waiting to hear how the administration plans to continue oversight of the nation’s education system as well as manage the congressionally-approved programs aiding students around the country — dealing with issues including disabilities, special needs, Pell grants and more.
But the order has caused confusion as many of the programs the department oversees are mandated by legislation passed by Congress, and cannot be done away with by the stroke of a pen. In her interview on Sunday, McMahon clarified that in the president’s vision, those programs would be transferred to other federal agencies — and that the White House would work with Congress, rather than seeking to go around the legislative branch.
But Bash pressed McMahon on whether that was possible — given that the Republicans do not control a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and the unlikely prospect of the president picking up any Democrats on board his plan to dismantle the agency.
One major responsibility that the Trump administration may transfer out of the hollowed-out Department of Education is the student loan program, which the White House hopes to transfer to the purview of the Small Business Administration.
McMahon stressed in the interview that “outward-facing” programs including student loans and funding to support children with disabilities would continue under other agencies where they could supposedly be managed more efficiently.
“Do they not operate efficiently now?” asked Bash.
“Not as well as they should be,” said McMahon. She’d added that Trump campaigned on getting rid of the department, but gave no evidence or examples of the inefficiencies she said were endemic to the agency she now oversees.
The secretary was also questioned by Bash regarding whether the transference of some Education Department responsibilities to the Department of Health and Human Services run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr would mean that Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic and adherent of false conspiracies about vaccinations and autism, would be involved in school vaccination programs.
“That's a little outside of looking at making sure we have funding for children with disabilities,” McMahon responded.
“So that’s a ‘no’?” asked Bash.
“That’s not necessarily a ‘no’,” said McMahon. She noted (correctly) that her agency was not currently “controlling vaccinations and that sort of thing in states”.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all 50 states and Washington, D.C., require, by law, students enrolled in public schools to have some vaccinations for diseases such as polio, chicken pox and others. But there are exceptions — some states allow exemptions for religious or political reasons, including Texas where an outbreak of measles has now reached more than 300 confirmed cases. There are no federal laws instituting such requirements across the entire country.
