At confirmation hearings in February, Linda McMahon outlined a plan to streamline the Department of Education, which President Donald Trump has nominated her to lead.
Scripps News spoke with Jeanne Allen, the founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, about McMahon's hearing and the potential future of the Education Department.
McMahon is "A leader. She's calm under fire. She's been in a lot of different environments in which she has had to lead and be challenged, and above all she's passionate about education. She's got incredible experience s a businessperson," Allen said. "She shows herself to be someone incredibly willing to listen as well as to do the hard work without worrying about who's going to like her at the end of the day."
Despite "grandstanding" from Democrats and Independents, Allen said, the hearing showed that McMahon "is interested and engaged in trying to help ensure that federal policy, federal Department of Education funds go to the work that needs to be done to help educate kids."
RELATED STORY | Trump's administration is taking steps to dismantle the Department of Education
Allen said the Department of Education deserved reform that put the resources and the decision-making of the department in the hands of local communities.
"Like a lot of people I have worked there, and I have worked around it and outside of it for a pretty long time now. What I've seen is growing ineffectiveness, growing waste and growing oversight and regulation over how kids are educated, how teachers teach and how communities decide to run their schools," Allen said.
"Reducing the footprint by 100% would be a nice way to start, put the money back in the hands of parents and families. If we can't do that, at least make it more effective and make people understand the Department of Education is a bank, and that's about all it is. If you're going to have money flow to kids, it has to be spent locally. We have different conditions and different needs every day."
President Trump has indicated he wants to disband the cabinet-level agency — a move that McMahon acknowledged would require an act of Congress.
"We will certainly expend those dollars that Congress has passed," she told senators during her confirmation hearing.
