WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a budget hearing Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the Department of Education’s goal is to “shrink federal bureaucracy,” save taxpayers’ dollars, and make education great again.
The hearing was scheduled to review the department’s fiscal 2026 budget.
In remarks to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, McMahon said she represented the Department of Education’s “final mission.”
This mission is to “wind down the Department of Education responsibly, cut waste, and give education back to states, parents, and educators,” she said.
“With your partnership, the Fiscal Year 26 budget will take a significant step toward that goal,” McMahon said. “We seek to shrink federal bureaucracy, save taxpayer money, and empower states – who best know their local needs – to manage education in this country.”
McMahon said that the department has reviewed “programs and identified spending that does not fulfill the mandate of trust the American people have placed in President Donald Trump.
“We have reduced a department that was overstaffed by thousands of positions, cut old contracts that were enriching private parties at taxpayer expense, suspended grants for illegal DEI programs, and now are putting forward a budget request that reduces department funding by more than 15%,” McMahon said.
“At the same time, we’re working to make American education great again,” McMahon said.
“In our conversations with governors, teachers, and parents across the country, we hear calls for accountability and more local control,” McMahon said.
“That’s our goal: to give parents access to the quality education their kids deserve, to fix the broken higher education industry that has misled students into degrees that don’t pay off, and to create safe learning environments,” McMahon said.
McMahon also said the department is “holding institutions to account when they facilitate discriminatory or hostile environments on campus.”
“A level playing field with limitless opportunity is a vision all can share,” McMahon said.
“Our budget reflects this vision,” McMahon told the subcommittee. “Its cuts reflect a bureaucracy that is getting out of the way, and its continuations and increases represent smart spending that will help improve student achievement, not serve bureaucratic interests.
“Our goal is clear: make education better, fairer, and more accountable by ending federal overreach and empowering families, schools, and states who best know the needs of their students. I’m eager to partner with you to make this vision of the future a reality, and to ensure every child is part of it,” McMahon said.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies is chaired by Congressman Robert Aderholt.
Aderholt said at the budget hearing that McMahon “inherited an absolute mess” in the Department of Education, but that he is hopeful she “can correct the course.”
Aderholt thanked McMahon for the department’s “bold initiatives” as it carries out Trump’s “America First agenda.”
“We must consider new approaches to long-standing problems, both for the sake of our students and to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Aderholt said.
Neither Aderholt’s office nor the Department of Education responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.
