The Senate on Monday voted along party lines to confirm Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, putting the former pro-wrestling executive in charge of an agency that the Trump administration wants to eliminate.
A wealthy Republican donor who served in the first Trump administration, Ms. McMahon has little experience in education. That lack of firsthand knowledge has been framed as an asset by a White House looking to abolish the department she now leads and as a glaring deficiency by her critics.
Ms. McMahon, 76, told lawmakers during her confirmation process that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with President Trump’s “mission” to eliminate the Education Department. During her hearing last month, she argued that most Americans did, too, and that she was ready to make it happen.
But there appears to be significant public opposition to getting rid of the Education Department.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans said last week they opposed eliminating the agency, according to the NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. In North Carolina, one of seven battleground states that Mr. Trump swept in November, a similar share, 63 percent, also said they opposed abolishing the agency, according to a Meredith College poll last month.
The Education Department has already been a top target of the aggressive government overhaul project overseen by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key Trump adviser. At least 60 employees have been suspended as part of the administration’s purge of diversity efforts, and Mr. Musk’s team has discussed the possibility of an executive order that would effectively shut down the department.
On Friday, employees in the Education Department were given a “one-time offer” of up to $25,000 if they agreed to retire or resign by the end of the day on Monday. The message, sent by Jacqueline Clay, the department’s chief human capital officer, said the offer was being made before the department underwent “a very significant reduction in force.”