Education Sec. McMahon Visits Cabell County

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was in Cabell County Thursday to hear from teachers, parents and students about what is working in schools. As part of her Returning Education to the States Tour, McMahon is compiling a toolkit of best practices to share with states across the nation.  

The secretary told media at the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers that the elimination of the Department of Education is the goal. She said in 46 years and after $3 trillion, students have not been helped by the establishment of the Department of Education.    

“I do believe that if states are more involved, governors, state superintendents, but key, I believe, to the success is parental involvement,” McMahon said. “Children are not wards of the government; they belong to their parents. But parents also have to be involved in their education. They need to know what the curriculum is. They need to know how their children, you know, are doing in school.” 

She went on to invoke talking points about gender education in schools without parental knowledge. 

“There have been other things like transgender teaching that has gone on, and students put on a path, you know, for that without parents’ knowledge, not only without their knowledge, but actual records hidden from parents, which is against the law,” she said. 

According to Education Week, the Department of Education under President Trump and in part McMahon has launched at least 11 investigations into school districts’ or states’ transgender student policies citing two 1970s-era privacy laws.  

McMahon said she wants to see federal funding transition to a block grant model, reducing administrative costs and regulations for state education.  

“Returning education to the states means that we would take more of the bureaucracy out of Washington, D.C.,” she said. “The Department of Education acts as a pass-through for money that is appropriated by Congress. That money will continue to be appropriated. It will continue to flow through the states, and will eliminate a lot of the administrative overhead. States then can have the opportunity to use those funds the way that they see fit.” 

McMahon ensured that continued funding would include special education monies in the form of IDEA funding, and praised the career and technical training she saw in West Virginia schools.