Early in the election season, Donald Trump promised to shutter the U.S. Department of Education. Conservatives have heard that line before, but unlike the past, the President has double down in his first few weeks in office. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been frequently quoted as saying she wants to “put herself out of a job” and wind down her federal agency in what will be its “final mission” — to send control back to the states.
Make no mistake, even as we witness the forward motion of this campaign promise, eliminating the Department of Education, it’s no overnight task. We’re still in for epic battles over major cutbacks at the agency, but it appears that Secretary McMahon has set herself up for ultimate success. Several members of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) that McMahon recently chaired, “have grabbed top posts as the senior leadership team takes shape.” This should make McMahon’s job easier.
Jonathan Pidluzny, the new Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, served as AFPI’s Director of Higher Education Reform and was responsible for developing “federal and state policy initiatives to reinvigorate market competition in the higher education sector and improve protections for free expression and promote intellectual diversity in the academy.”
Pidluzny reports to new the chief of staff, Rachel Oglesby, who most recently served AFPI as chief state affairs officer. Another controversial figure is Candice Jackson, an AFPI alum who is reportedly “an architect of the 2020 Title IX rule,” which restored due process protections to the oft-modified law. Jackson served in the first Trump administration as deputy general counsel.
A fourth AFPI addition, Tom Wheeler, is a former Justice Department official, also from the Trump 45 team, “who was instrumental in reversing Obama-era guidance that said trans students should be allowed to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. He’s been named principal deputy general counsel.”
These are just a few of the folks that were quickly installed to the new department. By all appearances, Linda McMahon is well positioned to make the Federal Bureaucracy of Education disappear. Parents and kids are counting on her success.
