McMahon Testifies Before House Education Committee
On Thursday, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon appeared before the House Education and the Workforce Committee to discuss the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) priorities and policies. The hearing focused on recent actions taken by ED and the President’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal for the Department. Much of the discussion revolved around ED’s goal to “return education to the states,” with a partisan divide on the success and validity of that effort.
When asked to explain how the transfer of programs to other agencies is progressing, McMahon said ED is now successfully “co-administering grants and programs with other agencies.” Speaking against the dismantling of ED, Ranking Member Bobby Scott asserted that ED is “one of the country’s strongest civil rights institutions.”
Additional conversation focused on ED’s recent action to define “professional degree” programs eligible for higher federal lending limits. Excluded from that definition are professions such as teaching, social work, nursing, and more. Multiple Democrats raised concerns that the limited definition would force people seeking degrees in those professions to turn to private lenders. Secretary McMahon countered that it would encourage colleges and universities to lower the price of acquiring those degrees.
Representative Takano (D-CA) inquired about the impact of reducing Office for Civil Rights staff and its impact on investigations, more than half of which involve children with disabilities. Secretary McMahon noted that her Department inherited a 19,000 case backlog, and that, with Assistant Secretary Kim Richey heading OCR and formerly fired staff returning to work, they are now seeing tangible progress. She shared that over 4,000 cases have been settled in the past quarter, but did not specify the nature of those cases or how they were closed.
Representative DeSaulnier (D-CA) expressed concern about the consolidation of K-12 programs, including special education, and McMahon committed to supporting children with disabilities through her budget proposal. The proposal increases funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B grants to states' programs and IDEA Part C, but eliminates IDEA Part D and the IDEA preschool program.