WASHINGTON —The three-million-member National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, opposes Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Linda McMahon to head the Department of Education—an agency Trump and his legions want to kill anyway.
“Students deserve better than political favors,” NEA tweeted on December 17. “Linda McMahon is unqualified to lead the Department of Education and lacks the understanding needed to help public schools—where 90% of students learn—thrive.”
Union President Becky Pringle, a Philadelphia science teacher, tagged McMahon as “Betsy DeVos 2.0,’ referring to Trump’s controversial first-term Education Secretary, a GOP big giver who hates public schools, their teachers, their unions and their students, especially students of color.
McMahon, a fervent Trump supporter and yet another multi-millionaire in his Cabinet of Charlatans, headed the World Wrestling Entertainment, founded by her husband, Vince McMahon. Both are top Republican big givers. Trump named her to his first-term Cabinet as Small Business Administrator.
The Teachers (AFT), the nation’s other big teachers union, has taken a wait-and-see attitude towards Trump’s pick, while pointing out education policy will likely be formed in the White House, not the Secretary’s office.
Both AFT and NEA campaigned against DeVos, who won the post when the Senate split 50-50 on Trump’s nod for her and GOP Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie.
“Every student–no matter where they live, how much their family earns, or the color of their skin– deserves the opportunity, resources, and support they need to grow into their full brilliance. In every community across this country parents and educators are partners in this effort,” said Pringle.
“By selecting McMahon, Trump is showing he could not care less about our students’ futures. Rather than working to strengthen public schools, expand learning opportunities for students, and support educators, McMahon’s only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools, where 90% of students–and 95% of students with disabilities–learn, and give them to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools.”
“During his first term, Donald Trump appointed DeVos to undermine and ultimately privatize public schools through vouchers. Now, he and Linda McMahon are back at it with their extreme Project 2025 proposal to eliminate the Department of Education.”
The duo would “steal resources for our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, take away special education services for disabled students, and put student civil rights protections at risk.
“Parents and educators will stand together to support students and reject the harmful, outlandish, and insulting policies being pushed by the Trump administration…The Senate must stand up for our students and reject Donald Trump’s unqualified nominee. Our students and our nation deserve so much better than Betsy DeVos 2.0.”
The third union heavily involved in U.S. schools, the School Administrators, has yet to take a position on the McMahon nomination.
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