Linda McMahon's confirmation hearing as Secretary of Education highlights the urgent need for education reform. With student performance in decline despite record spending, can Trump's sweeping changes fix America's failing schools?
, While the contentious battles to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence stole most of the headlines this week, the Senate also held the first confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon to become Secretary of Education. Though the hearing hardly produced the same fireworks that characterized Kennedy's or Gabbard's questioning, it nonetheless underscored the urgent need for reform of an American education system that is failing students. McMahon decried public education as a "system in decline" during the hearing, vowing to "reorient" the priorities of the Department of Education and "invest in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats." That alone represents a marked shift for an agency whose budget has exploded from $79 billion in 2000 to $268 billion in 2024 – even as student outcomes have steadily declined nationwide. Trump has already begun following through on his campaign promise to enact sweeping changes at the Department of Education, shuttering programs that were not established by federal law and placing dozens of staffers on leave. The administration has also called on Congress to draw up plans to close the department entirely. Democrats zeroed in on these actions during the hearing on Thursday, claiming that any budget cuts to the department would harm outcomes for students, particularly those in low-income districts. Protesters, some of whom claimed to be K-12 teachers (though it is unclear why they would be at a congressional hearing instead of teaching) also interrupted McMahon several times. But the objections to Trump's changes and McMahon's nomination ignore the severity of the crisis facing American students. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "The Nation's Report Card," the most recent edition of which was released late last…