Education Secretary Linda McMahon stumbled over a key acronym as she sought to defend the agency’s decision to slash nearly half of its workforce on Tuesday.
In an interview on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, the newly sworn-in McMahon confirmed that the massive staff cuts at the Education Department taking effect next week will be the first phase of President Donald Trump’s bid to dismantle the agency.
“That was the President’s mandate. His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education,” McMahon said. “What we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat.”
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The Education Department announced that it was trimming its workforce from 4,133 to roughly 2,183. Staff who were laid off will be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21.
The agency said it would continue to deliver on all its statutory programs, including student loans, Pell Grants, competitive grantmaking, and funding for formula and special needs students.
“We wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people, the good people, to make sure that the outward-facing programs, the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met, and none of that is going to fall through the cracks,” McMahon said.
The education secretary proceeded to explain that Congress appropriates money through the agency’s expenditures and key programs such as Title I, which provides additional financial aid to school districts for children from low-income families, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which provides free public education to children with disabilities.
When asked by Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham what IDEA meant, however, McMahon was caught off guard.
“Well, do you know what? I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for, except that it’s the programs for disabled and needs [students],” McMahon said.
Ingraham assured the education secretary that she didn’t know all her acronyms either despite 30 years on the job.
“This is my fifth day on the job, and I’m really trying to learn them very quickly,” McMahon replied.
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, blasted the Trump administration over the Education Department staff cuts.
“Donald Trump holds the future of 50 million public school students across America in his hands, and today he told those kids and their parents he doesn’t give a damn about them,” he said in a statement.
“Defunding public education doesn’t put America first—it all but guarantees that we will be last for generations to come,” Martin added. “Trump and the billionaire megadonor he installed as Education Secretary are pickpocketing our public schools, which will lead to ballooning class sizes, fewer teachers and aides, and a lower quality of education for our kids.”
In response to a similar rebuke from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, McMahon said that the administration was “not taking away education.”
“The president never said that,” she said. “He’s taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states.”
Trump has long sought to abolish the Education Department, arguing that its power should instead be passed down to individual states.
Earlier on Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s plan to cut millions in funding for teacher training.
